26 A STUDY ON THE IXVASIOX OF THE 



the Roman Queen of Gweyrydd shall have a Roman population 

 roun d her, or that her husband should give the land for it. 

 Geoffrey says that Vespasian landed on the shore or beach of 

 Totness, and I am kindly told by a gentleman of Totness ? 

 Edward Wyndeatt, Esq., that Totness shore does not necessarily 

 refer to the town of Totness. Totness shore included the whole 

 district, stretching from Barryhead to the Boll, and it seem s 

 probable that as Prawle point, once thought the most southern 

 point of England, lies in these boundaries, that the origina 

 Totness is to be found in this headland, and thus the whole 

 coast was named from it. In the course of time the name was. 

 confined to its chief town. This is very likely, but Totnes, 

 English, could not have been the old British name of the town, 

 for Totnes must have been a ness, a headland, as Sheerness, and 

 tot is the short form of the S omerset toot, Dorset tout, a spy or 

 watch or outlook hill, and, therefore, could not have been given 

 at first to the ground of Totnes town, but must have been taken 

 from a true Totness or outlook headland. The Brut does net 

 say that Yespasian marched to Caerpenhwylcoit, but that on 

 landing he immediately beset it, as if it was close at hand. The 

 copies of the Brut differ in the name of the hill where the Romans 

 first fought with the Britons. In one it is " Pensaulcoit," and in 

 another "Penhwylcoit," and neither "sawl " nor "hwyl" can 

 be the true word, as neither of them is of any good meaning for 

 the spot. Geoffrey calls it Caerpenhuelgoit (now Exeter). He 

 is right as to goit for coit in the compound word, but wrong as 

 to Totness, which was not Exeter, " Caeresc." I believe 

 that hill, the Pen to have been the true Totness or watch or 

 outlook promontory down on the seashore, and that its true 

 name was " Penwylcoit," " wyl," the soft form of "gwyl," 

 meaning a watch, and grammatically it is the soft form which 

 ought to come in its place in the compound word "penwyl" 

 after " pen," and so penwylcoit would mean the "watch hill 

 wood," and "penwyl" would have the meaning of the Saxon 

 " Totness," " Toutness," the watch hill or promontory, and I 

 believe it was the Totness (Toutness), and that a later copier had 



