APRIL . 83 



safe to assume that the names meant respectively 'the 

 enclosure among the ferns ' and ' the enclosure on the 

 Celt.' On the other hand, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 

 gives Snotingahdm and Bocingaham as the current forms 

 of Nottingham and Buckingham, there can be little doubt 

 that the homes of the families of Snoting and Buccing 

 were indicated. 



This suffix -ing is a very significant one in Anglo-Saxon. 

 It generally denotes ' the family of,' as Buckingham means 

 the home of the family of Bucca ; at least that is more 

 probable than the etymology offered by Camden — bdcen^ 

 h(hn, the beechen home, from the number of beeches 

 there in his day. When it is remembered that the 

 evidence is very imperfect in support of the beech being 

 indigenous to Britain, his explanation, though consistent 

 with phonetic laws, appears very dubious. Often the 

 patronymic -ing appears without the further suffix -ham 

 or -ton, as in Reading, the home of the family of Readda, 

 and Godalming, that of the family of Godhelm ; just as 

 one would be perfectly understood now in talking of 

 Smith's or Brown's, instead of Smith's farm or Brown's 

 shop. 



Canon Taylor suggested that the suffix -ing, besides its 

 patronymic sense, sometimes bears a topographic one, 

 and instances Leamington, meaning the M-n — town — of 

 the dwellers on the river Leam, just as the Vikings were 

 the people of the great vile. He did not mention upon what 

 evidence he was going, and the analogy of Cheltenham — 

 the place on the Celt — seems preferable. Notice, how- 

 ever, must be made of a class of village names in which 

 the syllable -ing occurs which we should go very far 

 astray in considering to be patronymic. Two very familiar 



