By J. Picton, Esq., F.S.A. 



21 



says " Fennis mira f eritas, f aeda paupertas ; non arma, non equi, 

 non penates ; victui herba, vestitui pelles, cubile humus ; sola in 

 sagittis spes, quas inopia ferri, ossibus asperant." 



" Nothing 1 can equal the ferocity of the Fenni, nor is there any 

 thing so disgusting as their filth and poverty. Without arms, 

 without horses, and without a fixed place of abode, they lead a 

 vagrant life ; their food the common herbage, the skins of beasts 

 their only clothing; and the bare earth their resting-place. For 

 their chief support they depend on their arrows ; to which for want 

 of iron, they prefix a pointed bone." 



This is an exact description of all savages of the stone age, whose 

 relics are continually fouud under tumuli of the earliest construc- 

 tion. 



Now what I maintain is this : that taking all analogy and history 

 for our guide, it is scarcely possible that there should not be some 

 remains of the language of this primitive people embedded in the 

 nomenclature of the country. This is a question which has attracted 

 some notice, and future investigation may throw some light upon 

 it. 



The names of the prominent features of a country, the hills, 

 valleys and rivers are usually the most ancient. We find most of 

 them in Wiltshire may be referred to a Cymric origin. There are 

 no high hills demanding to be specially noticed in the nomenclature. 

 Ingpen, near the junction of the three counties of Wiltshire, Hamp- 

 shire and Berkshire, 1011 feet high, is the most prominent. Its 

 name in Cymric — the head of the narrow valley " — is sufficiently 

 explanatory. Hack Pen Hill may also be traced to a Celtic source. 

 Combe, Cym, Gwm (a hollow), is the suffix to many place-names, 

 Hall-combe, Hippens-combe, Stitch-combe, &c. Some of the rivers 

 bear Cymric names: the Churn (swift), the two Avons (flowing 

 water), the Frome (fuming), the Wiley, probably from Qwy (water). 

 Some are Anglo-Saxon, such as the Bourne, Og-bourne Aid-bourne, 

 Flagham Brook, Swill Brook. There are others of which the origin 

 is at present insoluble, as Key, Cole, Kennet, or Cheuete, Nadder, 

 Stour. There are some names unmistakeably Celtic, such as Pen, 

 Penridge, Penglewood, Calne (anciently Cauna), Cym. Cawn (reeds); 



