Miscellaneous Words. 



175 



the arrival of the Saxons, seems certain, for the name by 

 which it is generally mentioned by the Welsh Triads is Caer 

 Caradoc, i.e., the Town of Caradoc, a British chieftain, who, 

 after the death of Ambrosius, appears to have been one of the 

 most powerful in South Britain. 



Bedwin. Commonly spelt " Bedewind 33 in charters, and in Domes- 

 day " Bedvinde/'j The derivation usually given from bedd- 

 gwln (= white grave) is unmeaning, the more so as there is 

 no large barrow, such as may have led to such a name, to be 

 seen. There is no proof moreover that Beadan-Zieqfod, 1 

 where a battle was fought in 675, between the Kings of 

 Wessex and Mercia, and which has been explained as meaning 

 "head of the graves," was the same as Bedwin. There is 

 a village in Cornwall called Bod- wen (or Bod- win), which 

 Pryce explains as meaning either the house by the " aspen- 

 trees 93 or " in the marsh/'' or " white-house." Pugh in his 

 Welsh Dictionary, gives Bedwen as meaning a " birch-tree/' 

 and Bedweni as signifying a " birch-grove/'' Bedwin was 

 on the very borders of Berkshire, which, from its old spelling, 

 Berroc-scire, (as Asser gives it) may well, as he says, derive 

 its name " a Berroc silva, ubi buxus abuntissima naseitur." 

 (See Mon. Hist. Brit., p. 468.) 



Bodenham. | The former portion of each of these names is pro- 



Bos-comb. ) bably one or other of the forms of the Cornish word 

 for a " hous? 93 or (( dwelling/'' and which Pryce gives as Bo, 

 Bos, Bod, Bodn, and Bosca. The former name would thus be 

 a reduplicative word, —the latter would mean the " house 93 or 

 "dwelling in the combe." The real root is in the Sanscrit 

 b'/wo, a place of abode. In Cornish we have Bodinick (= 

 house by the river), Bokelly (—dwelling in the grove), &c 

 It seems equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon stow or wic. Com- 

 pare the English a-bode, and the Eastern Hydera-bad. 



17. Bokerly. The name of a large dyke in South Wilts. It may 

 perhaps be connected with the Welsh word Burch which signi- 

 fies a rampart or wall. Or it is possibly to be derived from 

 1 See Chron. Sax., A 0 . 675. 



