278 



Inaugural Address of the 



remaining any traditions or names which may have some bearing 

 on our enquiry. 



At Down Ampney, two miles from Cricklade, just on the 

 Hwician side of the boundary, there is a farm called the Oak Farm. 

 It is marked on the Ordnance Map as The Oak. Lord St. Germans 

 informs me that it bears that name in his papers as far as they go 

 back, but that is not very far ; it was Hungerford property in 

 earlier times. A great oak, from which it is supposed to have 

 taken its name, was cut down by the steward in the time of the 

 grandfather of the present owner, whom the destruction of the 

 ancient tree greatly annoyed. Mr. Martin Gibbs, who gave me 

 the first information I received about the Oak Farm, has found 

 the roots of the old tree in. the stack yard. Oaks refuse to grow 

 in the neighbourhood, so that a great oak must have been remark- 

 able there ; at Aust there are so many that " Augustine's Oak w 

 would not be a distinctive name. It is an interesting fact 

 that only two fields off the old oak of the Oak Farm there was 

 a spring of water famous for its property of healing diseases of the 

 eyes ; there may well be some connection between this traditional 

 efficacy and the story related by Bede that Augustine gave sight 

 to a blind man at the first conference, in proof of his mission and 

 power. The spring flows into a clear brook, running through a 

 wood ; the old people still point it out, and still use the water for 

 the eyes ; they call it the " lertle well," and the field the "lertle 

 well nook." My early familiarity with Yorkshire dialect suggests 

 that "lertle" means "little." But the derivation of the word 

 " little " comes through that pronunciation " lertle," as the York- 

 shire language shows, and as our philologists know. The proper 

 force of the word is mean, base, deceitful. It is a very curious 

 thing if a connection can be even suggested between the name 

 " the lertle well " and the meaning " the well of deceit." It was 

 a Saxon on whom Augustine performed the miracle : years ago 

 I suggested that the modern Welshman would demand that the 

 experiment be tried upon a Welshman. With a casual Saxon 

 claiming to be blind, a well claiming — perhaps quite truly — to 

 cure affections of the eyes, wondering Britons without the sense 



