Preliminary Remarks. 



157 



language is still spoken analogous to that of the British tribes. 



It will be obvious that we may expect to find traces of the language 

 of our Celtic forefathers in those Names of Places in which it must 

 not only be difficult, but almost impossible, to effect changes. As a 

 rule, a conquering people adopt from the conquered those names 

 which designate the natural features of a country, such, for instance, 

 as its rivers, its mountains, its valleys, and its ancient tracts of wood- 

 land. Hence in such words there is an inherent vitality ; they come 

 down to us from earliest times, though modified often both in mean- 

 ing and pronunciation. The towns or villages, for the most part, 

 bear names imported by the Teutonic settlers in after times, but the 

 river that flows by them, or the hill that rises above them, still retain 

 their original Celtic appellation. Avon is a purely Celtic name 

 signifying a stream, but Malmesbury, situated on it, has supplanted 

 the old compound Coer-dur-burg. The river Thames is in name 

 Celtic still, though Ccer-ludd has been changed into London. 



At the same time great care must be used in discriminating be- 

 tween words that are Celtic in their origin, and those which, though 

 they may be similar in form, are really from a Teutonic source. 

 As an example, we may name the word Ask in such compounds as 

 Ash-down, Ash-ton, Ash-ley and the like. As the name of a river, 

 JEsce occurs in ancient charters, 1 and, as we shall hereafter see, it is de- 

 rived from a similar source as the Axe, the Exe, or the Usk, and sig_ 

 nines simply " water ; " such compounds therefore as Ash-ton or 

 Ash-ley may just as likely be the " village " or the " leigh " by the 

 water. As the name of a tree, Msc occurs in Anglo-Saxon, and 

 there can be little doubt that Ash-down means, as the scribe in an 

 ancient charter interprets it, " mons fraxinus " or the " hill covered 

 with ask trees/ 3 



In compound names, where there may be a doubt whether they are 

 derived from a Celtic or Teutonic source, there is one rule which is often 

 a tolerably safe guide. The Welsh commonly follows the Latin in its 

 custom of placing the generic term first and that which qualifies or 

 explains its meaning last, whereas in Anglo-Saxon and .English this 



^od. Dipl. 63, 816. 



