a xo term, 
1809.] 
word Ouse, Ose, or Os water, was cegnted 
by them, in giving anew name t6 th 
Ure, EL Vek they translated Fam, 4 
the Tamer, by the word Ose, in Fisk 
ily, they rendered Durolenuh, Os- 
prin: e, or QOs-springe ; spring bait wa 
the place of this station, can no longer 
exist; nor would any have AeeR, had ave 
heretofore been acquainted with the old 
method of giving names. 
To return to Caleva, whose site is un- 
known: the distance. from London 
favours not Reading; for when the dis- 
tance of this town ‘and Speen is consi- 
dered, Reading will not lay claim té that 
honour. Coley, near this place, has been 
imagined to be Caleva; but Coley seems to 
be devimed, as small streams of this name, 
From Speen the Itinerary distance lies 
near, or at Culcof. Calev: a, may be de- 
rived from Ca/, an hill, as in Caledonia, 
mentioned jn a former letters; and AD 
water, varied Hv; and the place may be 
rendered, the water-hill settie:aent. 
Reading is certainly not a transiation 
of Caleva, nor is it derived, as imagined, 
from the Saxon language. It may be 
derived from Read, a stream, as men- 
tioned by former writers; or from rad, a 
“road, 
fille 
wesar represents the country as 
swith houses, and consequently the 
e all named. The word tng 
Baul rendered: wz is land, 
The plural of the compound word rad, 
or reud-inges, denotes that the lands lay 
on the borders of Streams, or of the 
roads; and the name appears as ancient, 
AS OChey old names given before the ar- 
rival of the Saxons. From the Roman 
Itineraries it appears, that the conquerors 
of this isle latinized our old names, but 
added few new oves. The Saxons fone 
the lands named, as did the Romans, and 
this people also generally adopted the 
old denominations, altering ee and 
there the terminations; and when they 
did alter the whole name, it was often 
by translating it in other old words, not 
of their own Janguage, placing the adjec- 
tives Before the substantives, which in 
the old name were placed alter. Thus 
_ Neason, : an old name of an hillin Devon, 
which gave denomination to a district 
around it, they translated Morchard. It 
appears indeed that names, as onginally 
given 10 the early part of the world, were 
continued nearly the same, for the same 
features of nature: and it is therefore by 
comparing old terms with one another, 
and these with the situations which they 
Yn, ar 3) 5 ; 
ARR ha es, ua , 
The uncertainty then of 
is generally pronounced 10. 
tived from two languages. 
Roman Stations, Kc. in Britain. 435 
represent, that we can find their original 
uses, and retrieve ‘their meanings. ‘To 
words of languages, which have. under- 
gone a vamety of changes, we cannot 
safely refer; and from languages which 
contain scarcely the words, or the routs 
of our old ternis, in their original MeAle 
Ings, it will prove ridiculous to hunt for 
eo is The people who. first gave 
names, formed thetn with judyment, cand 
from design ; few terms only, arising from 
Our sensations, or from our perceptions 
of the objects around.us, were, in the old 
languages of the world, the roots from 
eae: ‘all other words, distinguishing the 
features of nature, were gradually 
formed. Many of these last, though- 
derived from different sources, are now 
found similar in their orthography; and 
hence, and from our not comprehending 
that the roots of these words express 
their sense, dificuliies have arisen in 
rendering an terms. Ambiguities arise, 
not from common words of the oriamal 
language, for these were formed and 
varied, to i common ideas only ; 
but in ‘the | cnowledge of proper names 
necessarily formed for every district, and 
for every local. purpose; the number of 
which exceed our ordinary calearan. 
and whose roots only, in the common 
language, denote the names of places, 
and.uf natural things, we have certainly 
been deticient. 
We have too often run to languages, 
have undergone a variety of 
changes, to hunt for the etymologies of 
places. A late critic, writing on the 
word Liverpool, considered the natives 
who first. gave names to our features of 
nature, to. be savages, and at the same 
time supposed that this name was de- 
Burt this was 
admitting, that our first inhabitants, who 
named the lands, were learned savages. 
T will neither affirm, nor deny, the learn- 
ing of these people; but atier a minute 
examination, I cannot admit that they 
resorted to more than their own lan- 
guaye. 
A remarkable instance occurs, to point 
which 
‘Out the expediency of attending to the 
last-mentioned particulars. The town af 
Southwell, was, in Saxon times, named 
Tiovulfing oucester. « Henry of Flunting= 
don writes the name,’ says an author, 
“ Fingecesier; but gives the same account 
of Paolinus going from Lincoln, after 
the foundation of that church was laid, 
to baptize in the Trent. IT am not pledn, 
(this author continues,) but the baptismal 
ceremony periorined by ents, might 
be 
