CASTERS AND CHESTERS. 293 



so Isca became on Devonian lips Exan ceaster, after the 

 West Saxon conquest. Thence it passed rapidly through 

 the stages of Exe ceaster and Exe cester till it finally 

 settled down into Exeter. At the same time, the river 

 itself became the Exe ; and the Exan-niutha of the 

 Chronicle dropped into Exmouth. We must never forget, 

 however, that Exeter, was a Welsh town up to the reign 

 of Athelstan, and that Cornish Welsh was still spoken in 

 parts of Devonshire till the days of Queen Elizabeth. 



Wroxeter is another immensely interesting fossil word. 

 It lies just at the foot of the Wrekin, and the hill which 

 takes that name in English must have been pronounced 

 by the old Celtic inhabitants much like Uricon : for of 

 course the awkward initial letter has only become silent 

 in these later lazy centuries. The Eomans turned it 

 into Uriconium ; but after their departure, it was 

 captured and burnt to the ground by a party of raiding 

 West Saxons, and its fall is graphically described in the 

 wild old Welsh elegy of Llywarch the Aged. The ruins 

 are still charred and blackened by the West Saxon fires. 

 The English colonists of the neighbourhood called 

 themselves the Wroken-saetas, or Settlers by the Wrekin 

 a word analogous to that of Wilssetas, or Settlers by 

 the Wyly ; Dorsaetas, or Settlers among the Durotriges ; 

 and Sumorsaetas, or Settlers among the Sumor-folk, 

 which survive in the modern counties of Wilts, Dorset, 

 and Somerset. Similar forms elsewhere are the Pecsaetas 

 of the Derbyshire Peak, the Elmedsaetas in the Forest of 

 Elmet, and the Cilternsastas in the Chiltern Hills. No 

 doubt the Wroken-saetas called the ruined Roman fort 

 by the analogous name of Wroken ceaster; and this 



