PLACE-NAMES 149 



and as well-known locally as that of any London street 

 included in the Directory. More than this, these 

 names are often the survivals of a state of things 

 existing a thousand years ago. They are frequently 

 rendered obscure by the corruption and evolution of 

 languages, and by the physical changes that have come 

 over the face of the country during so long a period ; 

 but with research, and linguistic scholarship, and a 

 knowledge both of local history and the ancient 

 history of the country in general, much that seems at 

 first obscure, or even utterly inexplicable, may be 

 finally resolved into meaning. The study of these 

 place-names has all the attraction of original 

 exploration, and leads on inexhaustibly. But while 

 the tracking of apparently meaningless names to their 

 origin has all the fascination of sport, it gives rise to 

 many hazardous conjectures and lame conclusions, and 

 names that do not yield their secrets to patient inquiry 

 are too often thrust into some ill-fitting category from 

 which they are rescued, to the shame and deiision of 

 those who placed them there. In fine, " cock-sureness " 

 is nowhere more out of place than in these inquiries, 

 and in nothing else is the mental effort of " jumping 

 to conclusions " met with such ludicrous accidents. 

 It has, for instance, long been a commonplace in these 

 inquiries to refer the names of towns, villages, or 

 hamlets ending in " ing " to the settlements of Saxon 

 patriarchal tribes ; and the Hallings, Coolings, 

 Bobbings, Detlings, and Wellings are set down as 

 having been originally the homes of Teutonic clans 

 taking their names from chieftains named Halla, 

 Coela, Bobba, and so forth. 



But while this rule may generally hold good, it must 

 not be applied automatically, and the " learning " that 

 has given this origin to the names of Sittingbourne, 

 Newington, and Ospringe must be regarded as a 

 grotesque exercise of imagination, creating previously 

 unheard-of clans, the Soedingas, the Newingas, and the 

 Osprings, who are not only new to archaeology, but 



