220 PRE-SAXON CIVILIZATION IN DORSET. 



PLACE NAMES. 



The name Dorset itself gives rise to much discussion. 

 Dor is the Welsh Divr for water. 



Cornish Dour Gaelic and Irish Dur and Dobliar, water ; 

 set the settlers, the seat or place inhabited. Dorn saetan 

 settlers by the water, i.e., by the sea. Johnson gives another 

 origin, Dorn saeta, seat or settlement "among the thorns." 



The inhabitants, the Durotfiges, we have on the authority 

 of Ptolemy, A.D. 150, were given their name because they 

 were " dwellers by the water " but Professor Rhys gives 

 the meaning of the Celtic Duro as door, gate, or porch. 



Welsh Dor and Drws, a door Irish Dorus. This word 

 seems to survive in the word Durn which is used for the 

 uprights which hold the door in place. 



The character of the streams and rivers is disclosed by 

 their names and the villages through which they flow. The 

 Piddle or Trent, which gives its name to seven villages, 

 describes itself as Pydeau, a draw well or mire. Trent 

 (Trouent) a winding river. 



The river Allen or Trent comes from Aluin, foir and lovely. 

 Frome is either derived from the Welsh Ijraw, brisk or lively, 

 or from the British Var, a stream or river. In the one form 

 it gives a name to Chilfrome and Frome Vauchurch and as 

 the Var, we have Woodsford, a ford over the Varia. Winfrith 

 from the Welsh Given, ffryd is the white clear stream ; Terig 

 (British Terog) is the clear stream. 



Stour comes from the British steir, a river. 



Ladden, lade den is a stream in a vale. Charmouth from 

 Car, the head or mouth of a river, and Lyme even in those 

 times was a city of ships, Lhon borlh. Dewlish is taken 

 from the Dhu dark, and lish is a corruption of the Welsh glais, 

 a stream. Deverill is the dark stream. Durweston (Dwy 

 wys] is a place of deep water, while Iwerne (ywerri) is a swamp. 



The shore between Portland and the " Fleet " where the 

 bridge carries the traffic is called the Kamber, probably 

 from Camb, Celtic for crooked, curved, in reference to the 



