40 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
fact of the Yale having given name to Yale-ham-tun, the " enclosed 
dwelling on the Yale," which we now call Yealmpton. The ham 
being lost in the contraction, the word has been read as " the tun 
of the Yealm." The same thing happened at Walkhampton, where 
a feeder of the Tavy is made to rejoice in the odd name of Walk- 
ham. The river is really the Walla, a common name for Dartmoor 
streams (perhaps from the Kornu walla, "lower," though Mr. C. 
Spence Bate, f.r.s., with more likelihood, takes it from the Kornu 
wheala, to "work" — i.e. in the tin streams), and its valley the 
WsillsL-cwm. The tun of the Walla-cwm became Walkhampton, and 
the river the Walkham. 
" Plymouth " is, historically speaking, a very modern name ; 
moreover, it is doubly corrupt. If there ever was a Keltic Ply- 
mouth even its name has passed away. There was once a Tamar- 
worth, which may or may not have been the little seed which has 
grown to such respectable dimensions. Worth does not appear in 
the old couplet — 
" In ford, in ham, in ley, and tun, 
The most of Saxon surnames run ;" 
but it, and its derivative worthy, occupy a peculiarly important 
position in our Devon place names. It is diversely interpreted a 
possession, farm, court, place, fort, and isle. The latter is probably 
the meaning here, and if so, the chances are that Tamarworth was 
the Saxon name of Drake's Island. We have worth still at Ince- 
worth, a reduplicant. Ince here, and in Ince Castle, is the Kornu 
enys, " an island," which the Saxons in the former case took for a 
proper name, and tacked on "worth" to it as a generic explicant. 
Sutton, by which name Plymouth undoubtedly was known for 
centuries, is pure Saxon — " South Town." Mr. Spence Bate's 
discovery of the Romano-British cemetery near Turnchapel proves 
the existence on the shores of the Sound of a large Keltic com- 
munity. I do not think it altogether improbable that its site is 
pointed out by a still-existing name in the parish of Plymstock — 
Wixenford, near Laira Bridge, which we may derive from gwicca 
hen, the " old village," with " ford " added in later times. 
There has been much controversy whether or no there is such a 
river as the Cad. I hold that the belief in the Cad has arisen 
purely from the corruption of Cadworthy Bridge into Cadover 
Bridge, then read naturally enough as a bridge over the Cad ; 
whereas Cad here is merely the Kornu coed, a " wood," and lias 
