TOPOGRAPHY OF CORNWALL. 349 



Eltabo and Elconio at once suggest as their first component, 

 the Kornu hayle or //,e/= river. H is a letter the Raveunat never 

 uses, and his e would sound a. Assuming a to]30graphical order, 

 we naturally look for Eltabo in connection with the stream 

 commonlj^ known as the Helford. No possible process of 

 accommodation will enable us to accept Helston as Eltabo. 

 Tuban, however, is a Kornu word meaning " dam " or " bank "; 

 and it is a very remarkable fact that not only is there a site in 

 H( Iston called the Tubbans, but that there is in St. Keverne the 

 manor of Treraboe, or Traboe. The Ravennat's name therefore 

 still exists. It will be remembered that Condurra, at the mouth 

 of the Helford, has yielded some of the most important traces of 

 Roman intercourse in Cornwall . 



Elconio requires very little comment. If Ptolemy's Cenion 

 is Kenwyn, Elconio is simply the ancient equivalent of the 

 modern "Kenwyn River," and the place signified undoubtedly 

 Truro. And this view is strengthened by the fact that at this 

 j)oint the Ravennat leaves the coast for a while and takes uj) a 

 line of internal communication. 



That there were ancient British roads in (Cornwall is un- 

 doubted ; but I have never been able to trace any evidence of 

 Roman roadmakiug. I believe, moreover, that the trunk line of 

 communication has been lost sight of by our antiquaries, who 

 have been misled, largely by the forgery bearing the name of 

 Richard of Cirencester, into placing it on the south coast, instead 

 of tracing it along the high land which forms the backbone of 

 the two counties. The Fosse Way is said by the early chrouiclers 

 to have begun in Caithness and ended in Totnes ; and this 

 Totnes we find, from the manner in which it is spoken of in the 

 sixth century chronicle of Nennius, was not the town of that 

 name, but used in a sense equivalent to the Land's End. The 

 confusion of Totnes, the town, with this older Totnes, has led to 

 the loss of the real route of the Fosse Way, which there is very 

 good evidence to show crossed Dartmoor by what is still called 

 the great central trackway, and entered Cornwall by a ford on 

 the Tamar somewhere ia the vicinity of Kingston Down. 



Now the next name on the Ravennat's list is on the line of 

 this ancieui road. Nemetotacio is manifestly corrupt, even 

 beyond the Ravennat's wont ; though we do find him venturing 



