By Neml Story MasMi/ne, M.A., F.B.S. 



99 



rising from a ford or shallow, the place, namely, on the river at 

 which it was crossed by the Roman Koad. 



The sister name of Lechlade would probably mean the reedy 

 ford or shallow, laeha, lad, from lacha, a reed, also a Groidelic word. 



Anglo-Saxon derivations for the place-name Cricklade have been 

 suggested, and one has the support of Mr. Toller. They depend 

 on the word geldd, a road, resembling the terminal part of the 

 name as given in the Saxon Chronicles. Mr. Toller (in the new 

 edition of Bosworth's Dictionary) gives the forms Creccagelad, 

 and Creca-lad, deriving the gelad in the manner mentioned. On 

 the first syllable he gives no discussion, whether as being derived 

 from crecoa, a creek or bay, or from ereci&e, Greek (erica the 

 substantive) . Of course the final syllable of Lechlade would have 

 to be similarly derived : which alone renders the suggestion at least 

 very improbable. But in fact the scribes of the Chronicles, who 

 are the authorities quoted for the form gelad, can hardly date earlier 

 than the twelfth century. Thus the form Creccagelade occurs in the 

 Parker MS. (in a paragraph representing the events of the year 905) 9 

 and in the (D) MS. in the parallel passage the name is Creoccgelade, 

 For the events of the year 1016, in a paragraph in the Laudian 

 MS., the town appears as Croecilade, and in the corresponding 

 passage of the (C) MS. it is Cregelade. 



It would seem not improbable that the name became 

 " Engliscised " in progress of time by giving it at the hands of .the 

 scribes a termination that included the ge with what looked as a 

 meaning in the vernacular ; the g being transferred from the first 

 to the second syllable. Had the ge been an essential part of the 

 name in common parlance it would hardly have dropped out of the 

 word as handed on in the mouths of the people, as has been the 

 case in all the three names, Cricklade, Chicklade, and Lechlade. 



vol. xxx. — no. xc. 



G 



