62 On some Place-Names near Malmesbury, 



most unwilling to take a refusal, I thought I might as well try my 

 hand at a few of these " field-operations/'' 



Malmesbury, I need hardly tell you, has a history of its own, and 

 a very interesting one it is. It has cherished traditions which 

 stretch back to a time before Malmesbury itself was either an en- 

 campment, or a monastery, or a town. The old names borne by this 

 place, — Caer-dwr (=the castle by the water) and Caer-bladon (=the 

 castle on the Bladon), the last word being the original name of 

 the stream which flows by Malmesbury, and is still known in 

 some portions as " Bradon," — tell of extreme antiquity. We may 

 believe or not, as we choose, the traditions of the house of nuns hard 

 by, under the direction of Dinoth, abbot of Bangor, in North 

 Wales, which, as early as the sixth century, is said to have been 

 dissolved, for the incontinence of its inmates, by a dignitary who 

 is called the Archbishop of the Saxons. Still such tradition, dim 

 though it be, and unsupported by reliable evidence as regards its 

 details, attests the fact of early Christianity in these parts, and per- 

 haps also of a native Episcopate in Britain. At all events, we may 

 fairly expect to find in local names some " footprints, - " so to speak, 

 attesting, by their Celtic characteristics, the memory of these early 

 possessors of the country. 



A glance at the map moreover shews us, how the Romans also 

 have left abiding traces behind them of their occupation of the 

 country. Two of their great roads are in this immediate neighbour- 

 hood. One of them the " Acman- Street " (or " Bath-way e ") is on 

 the west; another, the " Ermine- Street," is on the east, and these two 

 meet one another at Cirencester. We may therefore fairly expect to 

 find some memorials of the Romans here. But they are not many ; 

 for the Romans never became in any sense one with native popula- 

 tions, and they held the country to a great extent as a garrisoned force. 

 Certainly there is no evidence that they ever, to any considerable 

 extent, affected the position or the language of the Celtic races ; — 

 any more in truth, than our occupation of India has there affected 

 the native races, or their languages. 



We must bear in mind also, that the great and decisive battle 

 which gave the west Saxons possession of this part of the country, 



