CASTEES AND CHESTEKS. 



EVERYBODY knows, of course, that up and down over the 

 face of England a whole crop of places may be found 

 with such terminations as Lancaster, Doncaster, Man- 

 chester, Leicester, Gloucester, or Exeter ; and everybody 

 also knows that these words are various corruptions or 

 alterations of the Latin castra, or perhaps we ought 

 rather to say of the singular form, castrum. So much 

 we have all been told from our childhood upward ; and 

 for the most part we have been quite ready to acquiesce 

 in the statement without any further troublesome inquiry 

 on our own account. But in reality the explanation 

 thus vouchsafed us does not help us much towards ex- 

 plaining the real origin and nature of these ancient 

 names. It is true enough as far as it goes, but it does 

 not go nearly far enough. It reminds one a little of 

 Charles Kingsley's accomplished pupil-teacher, with his 

 glib derivation of amphibious, ' from two Greek words, 

 amphi, the land, and bios, the water.' A detailed 

 history of the root ' Chester ' in its various British 

 usages may serve to show how far such a rough-and- 

 ready solution as the pupil-teacher's falls short of com- 

 plete accuracy and comprehensiveness. 



T 2 



