TOPOGRAPHICAL ETYMOLOGY. 75 
that I have now the honor to direct your attention ; more 
especially, as it relates t0 the West of England in general, 
and to the county of Somerset in particular. 
While treating of words, Ineed hardly observe, that if 
time has dealt so roughly with the material remains of the 
handywork of by-gone ages, and has changed to a great 
extent their outline and their form, we cannot expect the 
fleeting sounds of the human voice,—the utterances of 
human thought—to have altogether escaped its influence. 
We must, therefore, be prepared to allow some margin in 
our derivations; more especially as some of the names of 
places in this county, undoubtedly had their origin, and 
were in use here, many ages before the Roman invasion. 
Besides, it should be borne in mind, that all those names 
for which we claim a Celtie origin, have been handed down 
to the present age, through generations of men altogether 
ignorant of their original signification. Yet, notwith- 
standing that so powerful a cause of corruption and change 
has existed for so many centuries, we find most of the local 
names retaining, in an extraordinary degree, their original 
form and sound. 
I am very sensible of the difhiculties which necessarily 
attend an investigation of this nature ; in which, perhaps, 
more than in any other, the imagination is like to outstrip 
the judgment. At the same time, seeing that among the 
Celtie race the names of places were always designed to be 
descriptive, we evidently possess, in the general outline and 
prominent features of the country, at the same time a 
guide, and a check, in our philological enquiries : and the 
results of Topographical Etymology become more sure and 
certain than otherwise could have been expected. In 
confirmation of this view, it is especially interesting to 
observe, that even where great physical changes have 
