88 
PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 
1919 
century some spot in the immediate neighbourhood of Hare 
Lane, Gloucester (probably an outwork) was still known as 
the Castle of Croydon, a name which, though regarded of 
Saxon origin in eastern counties, is by no means certainly so 
here, but may have been a Celtic survival. 
If not the earlier, the later, or Dobunic name of their chief 
town, Corinium (in Romanised form), or Corin, was probably 
due to the local river-name, which may be far more ancient ; 
for the river-names are usually the oldest of all the local- 
names, and change less easily than do field or town-names. 
Ciren seems nearer to Churn than does Corin for the reason 
that the local British, as the Life of Alfred by Asser shows us, 
in the tenth century called the place Caer-Ceri, and they had 
quite softened out the earlier 0 into an e. He says that the 
Saxons called it Chirrenceaster. 
The Romans had found the town called Duro-Comovium, 
but in the Seventh Century Itinerary of Britain (known 
as that of Ravennas) it is styled “ Corinium Dobunorum ” 
or Corinium of the Dobuni : so that the earlier name had 
been dropped. 
I must now explain in the main what the Roman did when 
he came here (for what was to prove the establishment of 
his rule and his abiding influence) from the year 43 until 577 a. d. , 
when the Saxons first made themselves masters here. 
It is obvious that the Roman reached the site before he 
reached and crossed the Severn ; but I may as well repeat here 
that the story so current in the county-books, taking for 
granted that the various rectangular and other camps along the 
Cotteswold formed a defensive chain of forts made by the Roman 
Generals Ostorius and Vespasian, is absolutely without founda- 
tion, except on the acceptance of a mis-transcribed passage 
of Tacitus. The Roman coins sometimes found in these are 
invariably late. 
There is nothing so truly indicative of the distinction between 
advanced civilisation and barbarism (however cultivated this 
may be) as the evidence of roads and camps — the straight fine 
and the rectangle. 
To the barbarian a camp has the local significance of settle- 
ment and defensive position : his road or track is the cattle- 
