282 CASTERS AND CHESTERS. 



like waves over the face of England, from north-east to 

 south-westward. In the extreme north and east, where 

 the English or Anglian blood is purest, or is mixed only 

 with Danes and Northmen to any large extent, such 

 forms as Lancaster, Doncaster, Caistor, and Casterton 

 abound. In the mixed midlands and the Saxon south, 

 the sound softens into Chesterfield, Chester, Winchester, 

 and Dorchester. In the inner midlands and the Severn 

 vale, where the proportion of Celtic blood becomes much 

 stronger, the termination grows still softer in Leicester, 

 Bicester, Cirencester, Gloucester, and Worcester, while 

 at the same time a marked tendency towards elision 

 occurs ; for these words are really pronounced as if written 

 Lester, Bister, Cisseter, Gloster, and Wooster. Finally, 

 on the -very borders of Wales, and of that Damnonian 

 country which was once known to our fathers as West 

 Wales, we get the very abbreviated forms Wroxeter, Utto- 

 xeter, and Exeter, of which the second is colloquially still 

 further shortened into Uxeter. Sometimes these tracts 

 approach very closely to one another, as on the banks of 

 the Nene, where the two halves of the Eoman Durobrivae 

 have become castor on one side of the river, and Ches- 

 terton on the other ; but the line can be marked dis- 

 tinctly on the map, with a slight outward bulge, with as 

 great regularity as the geological strata. It will be most 

 convenient here, therefore, to begin with the casters, 

 which have undergone the least amount of rubbing 

 down, and from them to pass on regularly to the succes- 

 sively weaker forms in Chester, cester, ceter, and eter. 



Nothing, indeed, can be more deceptive than the 

 common fashion of quoting a Boman name from the 



