296 CASTERS AND CHESTERS. 



true English pale, though always in districts which long 

 preserved the Welsh speech, at least among the lower 

 classes of the population. The earthwork overhanging 

 Bath bears to this day its ancient British title of Caer 

 Badon. An old history written in the monastery of 

 Malmesbury describes that town as Caer Bladon, and 

 speaks of a Caer Dur in the immediate neighbourhood. 

 There still remains a Caer Eiden on the line of the 

 Eoman wall in the Lothians. Near Aspatria, in Cum- 

 berland, stands a mouldering Boman camp known even 

 now as Caer Mote. In Carvoran, Northumberland, the 

 first syllable has undergone a slight contraction, but may 

 still be readily recognised. The Carr-dyke in Norfolk 

 seems to me to be referable to a similar origin. 



Most curious of all the English Caers, however, is 

 Carlisle. The Antonine Itinerary gives the town as 

 Luguvallium. Baeda, in his barbarised Latin fashion 

 calls it Lugubalia. ' The Saxons,' says Murray's Guide, 

 with charming na'ivcU, ' abbreviated the name into Luel, 

 and afterwards called it Caer Luel.' This astounding 

 hotchpotch forms an admirable example of the way in 

 which local etymology is still generally treated in highly 

 respectable publications. So far as we know, there 

 never was at any time a single Saxon in Cumberland ; 

 and why the Saxons, or any other tribe of Englishmen, 

 should have called a town by a purely Welsh name, it 

 would be difficult to decide. If they had given it 

 any name at all, that name would probably have been 

 Lul ceaster, which might have been modernised into 

 Lulcaster or Lulchester. The real facts are these. 

 Cumberland, as its name imports, was long a land of 



