1811 ,.] 
to support a traveller, but by the 
strai^iitest course, which brings tl)e dis¬ 
tance in the journey periiaps near this 
very town. It has been stated how¬ 
ever by Mr. Coates, tiiat there are no 
traces of a Roman road or vicinal way 
leading to Reading, nor have any coins 
he says, or other remains of the Ro- 
iTians, been ever discovered the^re.” To 
this it may be answered tiiat the re¬ 
mains found at St. Leonard’s Hill, near 
Windsor, at Bishop’s Waltham, and at 
Laureiice Waltham, sliew that some 
road must of old have led through or 
by these places; and such road being 
nearer perhaps from London to Read¬ 
ing than any other, where remains are 
to be traced, would naturally have been 
continued to Reading. We know that 
very old roads are now, frot>i time, in 
more sound bottoms than this line can 
boast, buried feet under ground. It is 
suflicient therefore in some cases if we 
find Roman remains; lor roads must 
have attended them. 
Tlie great features of nature have 
generally given names to lands; but we 
have an instance iii Rutland where the 
great north road, which runs through 
the midst, gave name to the whole coun¬ 
ty. In like manner the great road to 
Bath gave name to the ilundred of 
Reading, and to Reading itself. This 
is another evidence in favour of Read¬ 
ing. Should this be denied from our 
not knowing that this might not have 
been a new road when the name was 
given, I should then examine itsjiarne; 
and here I find that rad or rod, is a 
road in the Gaelic, the language of our 
first inhablti-ats; and in, often pronoun¬ 
ced ing, in the same language will 
Fiisan land. The Saxons, had they first 
constructed this road, would have given 
it a Saxon name, as being a new road 
01 their own; but this was an old road 
vvnen they divided the coutitry into 
ctiunties and hundreds; and this divi¬ 
sion of Berkshire took this denomina¬ 
tion from its liaving. been anciently, and 
then, a well known name. To this 
we may add that this town had a castle 
in .Saxon times, and we may reasonably 
suppose that it had one in the time of 
the Romans. On the whole then, 
though we have now no g'-eat reioains 
here, we have a towm with a Celtic 
name given it from the road on which 
it lies. Its distances as a station agree 
with, the numbers of all the stations 
connected with it, except Speen; and 
Mere too I must remark, that Mr, Rey¬ 
15 
nolds on the IStli Iter of Antoninus, 
says, that 17 miles is required between 
these two* towns to fill up the total 
number; and it is very extraordinary, 
he states, that this should prove the 
very distance from Speen to Reading, 
Hence then I considered that Caleva 
in this Iter may be considered as settled 
at or near Reading. 
I have shewn that the Atrebatii meant 
the Water Boi’derHill Men, which is the 
name these people took from the prin¬ 
cipal features of their country. Their 
descent then from the Atrebates of the 
Netherlands is a fiction; and their peo¬ 
pling this district an historic blunder. 
We have indeed in this way peopled 
a great part of the world, and we have 
given its history in a series of blunders, 
trom ignorance of the names for the 
features of nature. It is with concern 
that I am forced so often to allude to 
v.'iitings where wmrds are not compared 
to things. But when I see men con¬ 
stantly adopting old conceits, and com¬ 
mitting fresh mistakes on their autho¬ 
rity, 1 tiiink it high time to make ai» 
effort to arrest the credulity and rash¬ 
ness, w'hich have for centuries misled, 
.and still rear their head to guide uss 
wTongly. We liave indeed all errors 
enough arising from wrong judgments. 
Let us then take care not to multiply 
improper explanations, from having no 
established grounds, no raiiotmi prin¬ 
ciples, drawn from the nature of things 
to proceed by. 
1 would wish not to take one step 
without being myself convinced, and I 
hope to convince others from tliis con¬ 
duct; and now I will trace the Bibroci, 
who, accoj'ding to Richard, were not a 
small nation; but here too must my 
reader not expect me to import this 
people in a body from the continent. 
Though I write on vulgar errors, I wish 
not to propagate tiiein. 
The Bibroci have been derived from 
the Bibroci of France, or from some 
trees of box-wood, supposed to have 
grown in this district; and from a bare 
oak in Windsor forest. 
The word Eboracum comes from the 
river JJre or Euor. The Romans wiote 
often b for 7i, and hence Ebor, York 
was called by the Britons, Caer EftVoc; 
by the Saxons, Evor-Wick; by Nen¬ 
nius CaeV Ebrauc. The ending ac 
in Eborac, is oc. in EfFroc, and auc in 
Ebrauc. It is vk in the Ure of France, 
on which the Eburo-vic-es were seated, 
and wkk in Evorwick. From what 
in RichanVs Itinerary, 
IS 
