APRIL 73 



the Gauls of France and Belgium speaking the same 

 mother- tongue as the people they came to conquer. 

 Hence, although Latin was undoubtedly the official lan- 

 guage, as French was in England under the Norman and 

 Plantagenet kings, it never became the vernacular, and, 

 in consequence, Latin place-names are as rare as French 

 in this country. The Latin castrum appears, after the 

 departure of the Romans, in the Anglo-Saxon form of 

 ceaster or Chester, representing the same difference in the 

 Teutonic dialects as is preserved in the forms ' kirk ' and 

 ' church ' ; but the prefix in such names as Winchester, 

 Manchester, Gloucester, generally are contractions of the 

 original Celtic name. Thus the Roman name for Win- 

 chester was Venta Belgarum venta being their rendering 

 of the Celtic gvent, downs or open country ; for it was at 

 Winchester that the great forest of Andred ended and the 

 Hampshire downs began. 



In fact, the Romans found how much easier it is to 

 conquer a country than to alter the names of the rivers, 

 hills, and towns thereof, and the solitary instance on 

 record of their attempting to impose an official name 

 ended in complete failure. London is a Celtic name, 

 meaning, perhaps, the dun, fort, on the lynn, pool (we 

 still hear talk about the Pool of London). This name 

 the Roman governors were content at first to latinise into 

 Londinium, but when it had grown to importance as a 

 seaport and military base they deemed it worthy of some- 

 thing more high-sounding. A decree went forth, accord- 

 ingly, that the town was to be called Augusta, and that, 

 or Londinium Augusta, was for a while its official name. 

 But the ancient name, conferred nobody knows how long 

 ago by nobody cares what barbarous tribe, reasserted 



