ROMANO-BRITISH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



runs in the required direction ; it is practically the only one that does 

 so, and the sites along it are the only sites suitable for our purpose. The 

 difficulty however remains that the Itinerary mileage is wholly irrecon- 

 cilable with the distances between these sites. This difficulty has induced 

 Gale, Reynolds and some others to seek both road and stations elsewhere. 

 But their remedies are worse than the disease. In the present state of 

 our ignorance it seems preferable to suppose, at least provisionally, that 

 the Itinerary numerals are wrong.' Such a conclusion however cannot 

 be called certain, or even approximately certain, without some external 

 evidence to support it. 



(ii.) Such evidence it has been proposed to find in one of the old 

 English names for Castor. This name appears in two forms : Dorme- 

 ceastre mentioned by Henry of Huntingdon about 1 130 a.d., and Dor- 

 mundescastra mentioned two centuries later by John of Tynemouth. 

 Unfortunately neither of these forms can be connected philologically 

 with Durobrivae. The shorter of them is an abbreviation of the longer,* 

 and the longer is derived simply from the English masculine name 

 Deormund. They affiDrd no proof that Castor was called Durobrivae 

 in the Roman period.' If we believe that it was so called we must 

 rely solely on the consideration urged above — that the Itinerary route 

 by Durobrivae and Causennae to Lincoln seems, despite all difficulties, to 

 be the Roman road still traceable by Castor and Ancaster to Lincoln. 



Whatever doubts may obscure the name, none affects the place. 

 For nearly eight centuries it has been recognized as a Romano-British 

 site. The twelfth century antiquary, Henry of Huntingdon, leads the 

 way. Native and resident in this part of England, and possibly himself 

 acquainted with the spot, he alludes to the ruins on the south bank of 

 the Nene as those of a British city penitus destructa ; further, he invents 

 for it a name Cair-Dorm out of the contemporary English name Dorme- 

 ceastre, and he inserts it thus labelled in the list of British cities which 

 he adapts from Nennius. Medieval writers copied him freely ; Camden 

 added a few details and the name Durobrivae, but the site first became 

 well known in the early years of the eighteenth century. Then it was 

 visited by Horsley and others, and notably by Stukeley, who lived close 

 by, and these visitors recorded numerous finds made sporadically, both 

 during the construction of the great turnpike road in 1739 from Water 

 Newton to Wansford and at other times. Eighty years later, in 1820-7, 

 Mr. Edmund T. Artis, F.S.A., then house steward to Lord Fitzwilliam 

 at Milton, made extensive though unsystematic excavations, which he 



^ See p. 205. • Compare the two forms Godmanchester and Gumicastre. 



' Henry of Huntingdon, i. 3, referring to the remains on the south bank of the Nene ; John of 

 Tynemouth in MS. Bodl. 240 (fo. dzxd) copied by Capgrave, Legenda nova Anglice (London, I 5 16, fo. 

 ccxiii.), referring to Castor. Camden quotes a name Dornford, but I cannot trace it, nor could Morton 

 two centuries ago ; it is possible that Camden invented it. The idea, due to Camden, that Norman- 

 gate Field at Castor is a corruption of Dormangate is of course absurd ; it deserves notice only because 

 it illustrates the wilfulness of sixteenth century etymologizing. A British name for the site, Cair-Dorm, 

 is sometimes adduced, but it is an invention of the twelfth century. I am naturally indebted to Mr. 

 W. H. Stevenson for guidance in dealing with these names. 



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