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Meavy. They begin thus : 'direst on cleaca ' — ' first at cleaca ' or ' the cleaca.' 
Being struck with this phrase, I resolved, some weeks since, to visit the actual 
north-east corner of Meavy parish, where it meets Walkhampton and Sheeps- 
tor, in order, if possible, to ascertain what a ' cleaca ' really means. At the 
spot I found the object of my search, in the shape of a set of stepping-stones, 
about twelve in number, formed of rough unhewn granite boulders, the sur- 
faces of which are worn down in the middle by the footsteps of an unknown 
number of generations. This was undoubtedly the 'cleaca' of the boundary; 
but search for the word in English dictionaries proved altogether fruitless. 
At length a friend directed me to Armstrong's Celtic Dictionary, where ' clach' 
is explained as ' a stone, pebble, rock ; ' and 1 clachran ' as ' a pier, landing- 
place, stepping-stones in water or on watery ground;' and to O'Reilly's 
I risk- English Dictionary, where ' clachan ' is rendered ' a ford, stepping- 
stones.' So that the word appears to be a survival, through the Anglo-Saxon 
or Old-English period, from a former age. It may be added that lower down 
the stream, at Meavy Bridge, is another ' cleaca ' or set of stepping-stones. 
Where information is so scanty we are glad to welcome light 
from any quarter, however faint its rays may be ; and before we 
proceed to examine what after all must be our chief authority for 
the Saxon period in this part of Devon — Domesday — somewhat 
may be gleaned from the evidence afforded in place-names aud sur- 
viving customs, of the conditions of the earlier Saxon settlements. 
The names of all the rivers in this district, and of several of the 
smaller streams, are Keltic ; and the fact that they have been 
handed down proves lengthened intercourse between Kelt and 
Saxon, and continued intercourse from Keltic times. When we 
pass from names of rivers and prominent points 1 to words con- 
nected with settlement and occupation, we find a complete change. 
Of the names of local manors as preserved to us in Domesday — 
and bear in mind that manors were originally merely the home- 
steads or clearings of the individual or the family — nearly all are 
Saxon. Either, then, the population in Keltic times was very small, 
the country comparatively unsettled, or most of the Keltic sites must 
have been abandoned and their names and memory lost. The latter 
hypothesis cannot be accepted to the full extent required to explain 
the disappearance of so many traces of a numerous Keltic race. 
We conclude therefore with very little hesitation that it was not 
until Saxon times that this locality commenced to assume a 
definitely settled aspect, and that the majority of the tuns, hams, 
1 On the coast there are traces of Norse influence. Vide my " Hist. Con. 
Dev. Place-Names," Trans. Devon. Assoc. x. 276-308, and my "Notes on 
Local Etymologies," Trans. Plym. Inst. vii. 39-49. 
