76 NAMES OF PLACES 



name perhaps written in half a dozen different forms on 

 the same parchment — all attempts to represent the same 

 sound. It is only quite lately that we have come to 

 attach importance to orthography, and to regard un- 

 certain spelling as one of the chief bars to obtaining a 

 commission in the Army or an appointment in the Civil 

 Service. And it is curious to note how soon letters 

 assumed sway beyond what it was ever intended they 

 should have. No sooner is a name written down than 

 it is liable to have a false meaning read into it. One of 

 the earhest examples of this in Britain is offered by the 

 name York, which the Roman subjects of Severus rendered 

 Eboracum, a latinised form of the Celtic Eburach, which 

 was the name of several places in Western Europe. Now, 

 whatever Eburach — Eboracum — meant originally, it never 

 can have borne the sense which the Anglo-Saxon chroni- 

 cler suggested when he wrote it Eofer-wic, the wild boar's 

 town. He forgot, or wilfully ignored, the fact that the 

 settlement on the Ure had received the name of Eburach 

 many centuries before a syllable of Saxon was spoken on 

 the banks of that river. Eofer, the wild boar, has lent 

 its name to many places, such as Yearsley in Yorkshire — 

 written Everslage in Domesday — Eversley in Hants, and 

 Everleigh in Wilts, all meaning ' the boar's field ' ; but it 

 was a pure shot, and a shocking bad one to boot, to 

 construe Eboracum as 'wild boar's town.' The blunder 

 has permanently affected the aspect of the name, for 

 although it would have been difficult to trace the evolu- 

 tion of York out of Eboracum, it is easily connected with 

 Jorvik, which was the Norseman's rendering of the Saxon 

 Eofer-wfc. The latinised Celtic form is still preserved in 

 the archbishop's signature — Ebor. 



