denhurst (Sax.), Boylin, Bartlem, Gruffydd, Meredydd, Rhys, Ap Rhys (Price), Madoc, Ap Madoc (Dymock), Trevor, Goch, Eachus (? the Eachard or Achard of Domesday), Corns, an abbreviation of Cornelius, Ap Roger (Prodger), Down-ward (? Dwnward), Grono, Moill, Howell, Shone (John), Vaughan, Lloyd, Benyon (Ap Enyon), Pritchard (Ap Richard), Morgan, Morys, Bowen (Ap Owen), Skitt (Skett), an old Celtic name for a boat. Harcourt's Doctrine of Deluge, ii, p. 460.]

British names and customs still remaining :

"Driving cattle through fire to avert a murrain", remembered as being an old precaution. [Harcourt, ii, 84.] The name for heather is still grig (W. grug).

Philip Henry notices at Worthenbury, in 1661, "a service afore day", adding, "an old custom, the ground of it I know not. The Christians in times of persecution had their hymnos antelucanos. Tertull." The Welsh Plygain, derived from Pulli-cantus, is held on Christmas morning.

When the Hanmer wakes were maintained, the game of prisoners' base was played on the Arowry Heath, much in the manner described in the Archæologia Cambrensis, p. 330.

A considerable number of mear-stones are to be found, attracting the more notice because this is not a stone. country. Some of them bear marks of some sort which await explanation.

The Welsh custom of making a collection for a newly married couple, to be spent in their honour by and for the collectors themselves, still prevails; and to this is now added the English custom of making a present to the happy pair.

Sprigs of rosemary are thrown into the grave at the same time that the sacristan sprinkles earth upon the body. M. H. LEE.

"P.S.-In a former note on Maelor Saesneg (1876, p. 288), for Emrys Gwelidig read Wledig. "Am is never used for yn = in; Ebediv am Maelur Ebediv Amheulwr, like Amheredydd, etc., for Ab Meredydd, common. Maelwr is not Maelor. Ebediv (or Ebediw) ab Maelwr E. son of Maelwr."-D. S. E.

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ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ASCERTAINING THE SIGNIFICATION IN THE KELTIC LANGUAGE OF THE LATINISED NAMES OF THE ROMAN STATIONS AND TOWNS SITUATED IN GREAT BRITAIN.

(Read at the Carnarvon Meeting.)

Recent

Ir is with much pleasure I avail myself of the opportunity presented to me of bringing before the members of the Cambrian Archæological Association a subject of great importance, in which I trust many of those now assembled at Carnarvon will be interested. circumstances have drawn the attention of antiquaries in the North of England to the great desirability of further research into the Keltic origin of the names of the military stations and towns in Great Britain occupied by the Romans, and also into the origin of the names of the local deities, to whom altars were erected by the victorious Southerners. In prosecuting such researches, it is most natural that the aid of members of the Cambrian Archæological Association should be heartily desired; and their co-operation, if afforded, will be cordially welcomed.

It appears unquestionable that the Romans, when they conquered the greater portion of Britannia, adopted the already existing names of localities, simply Latinising the termination of each word, so as to be able to use it as a Latin word, in combination with other Latin words. I think the most cursory study of the names which occur demonstrates this-a conclusion which is confirmed in a remarkable way by the epigram of Martial, addressed to Lucius (Book 4, epigram 55), in which he compares the British names of places-with which, when he wrote, all Rome was doubtless ringing, through the victories of Agricola-with the Spanish names of places, more euphonious to him than the British, seeing that

he himself was a native of Iberia. I think no one can read that epigram without concluding that Londinium, Segontium, Camulodunum,-et hoc genus omne,were as uncouth to Roman ears in Martial's days as Seringapatam, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and the Punjaub were to ours a generation or two back. Now, if these names and the many others which have come down to us in the Notitia and the Itineraries were really Keltic, we ought to be able to interpret them now, and their interpretation might be expected to throw great light upon the character of the country and the inhabitants at that distant epoch; and also-which is exceedingly important in an antiquarian point of view-upon the situation of the stations themselves when that is doubtful. It is for these reasons, and particularly the latter, that I urge the bestowal of special attention upon this subject at the present time.

I have been much struck recently with the extreme appropriateness of many of the names of the Roman stations in the North of England. Taking the list per lineam valli, we have Cilurnum standing on a narrow grassy strath on the bank of the North Tyne, shut in by rising ground beyond—a situation which, if I mistake not, the Cymry would call "Cyl hyrn", even at the present day. We have also Amboglanna, a station standing on ground defended on three sides by ravines, "Am bo glannau." We have Aballaba-a name which some writers, knowing little of Welsh, have called Moorish, but which seems plainly to be "Y bala bach". We have Condercum, "Con derch," high peak, and many more.

I am desirous of making this paper very short, and therefore pass over many interesting facts, confirmatory of the views advanced in it, in order that I may point out a case in which, if the exact meanings of the names could be discovered, the information so obtained would be of great service. I allude to the course of the tenth Iter of Antonine. That Iter forms a portion, as far as can be judged, of the great road described by Leland

(Collectanea, vol. ii, page 396) as running from St. David's, in Pembrokeshire, to the mouth of the Tyne, between Durham and Northumberland. It begins with Glanoventa in the north-east, and proceeds in a south or south-westerly direction, by Galava, Alon, Galacum, Bremetonacæ, and Coccium, to Mancunium, Condas, and Mediolanum. No course hitherto generally accepted for this iter appears to be correct. Horsley makes Glanoventa Lanchester in the county of Durham, Galava, Old Town in Northumberland, Alon, Whitley Castle in the same county, Galacum, Kirby Thore in Westmoreland, etc. I do not propose to describe what I think was really its course on the present occasion, but Glanoventa appears to me plainly to be "Glan o vant", the brink of the height, identical with Glannibanta, "Glan y bant", and to be looked for, therefore, in the neighbourhood of precipitous ground; and Galacum appears to be "Gal ach", clear water, and therefore to be looked for near clear and probably running water. Galava and Alon seem less obvious. The former may perhaps be "Gal afan", lofty plain, and the latter "Eilon", a hart. In the county of Durham there is an ancient parish, Hart, which would be a Saxon analogue of Eilon. Bremetonacæ may mean "hill of foxes". We have now Todd Hills, which means the same, and Coccium seems plainly to be synonymous with "Redland”. I do not mention Hart and Todd Hills as being near to, or in any way connected with, Alon and Bremetonacæ, but only as specimens of apparently similar names in later languages.

I referred to the names of local British deities worshipped by the Romans. An extremely interesting discovery of one, hitherto unknown to antiquarians, was made a short while since by one of our most eminent and successful antiquaries, Mr. John Clayton, of The Chesters, Northumberland. This gentleman has no fewer than four complete Roman military stations on his own demesne. In one of them, Procolitia of old, Carrawburgh now, some time ago, a well, enclosed in a

temple, was discovered. In the well were about 20,000 Roman coins and 20 altars; the great majority of the latter dedicated to a goddess new to classical dictionaries, by name Coventina. Antiquaries have been busy suggesting derivations for this harmoniously sounding name. One has suggested "Gover", the head of a stream, another "Convena", a tribe of Gaul. But it seems more probable that Coventina, if a British goddess, was the Keltic Mnemosyne, and that her name indicates that she was the goddess of remembrance, from "Cof", memory, "Cofen", memorial. In tracing derivations, the natural action of the human mind must be taken into account. To call a goddess "Springhead", or by the name of a tribe of men, seems unreasonable; to call her Mnemosyne, or by a name of similar signification, seems natural, and, if her temple were erected on a spot famous in contemporary story, appropriate and just.

But the names of all the supposed British deities to whom altars have been dedicated by the Romans are not so easy to interpret. Cocidius may be "the red one", red with slaughter, corresponding to Mars, when the slaughter is of enemies in battle, to Silvanus when of victims of the chase; Belatucader may be "the mighty radiator", the sun, the Baal of the East; Mogon may be "the mighty one"; Antenociticus "the omnipresent". Vitires and Setlocenia are possibly imaginary, the words supposed to signify deities of those names being susceptible of other explanation.

Aware of the necessity of being brief upon such an occasion as the present, I now draw my paper to a close. I will only add that I shall be exceedingly rejoiced if the introduction of the subject to the notice of the Cambrian Archæological Association at its Annual Meeting should result in drawing the attention of its members to a most interesting subject of research, in which I am persuaded they could render more valuable aid than the members of any similar association in the world, and which is becoming yearly of greater importance for the further elucidation of the topographical history of Roman Britain.

R. E. HOOPPELL.