Local nomenclature; A lecture on the names of places, chiefly in the west of England, etymologically and historically considered - Softcover
Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1857 Excerpt: ... course was designated in the Latin tongue. The Britons eagerly adopted many of the Roman names, and that of Crux, a cross,--the nominative of Cruce--was among the number.1 And the Saxons, on their arrival, adopted, as we have seen, great numbers of the British local names, with such modifications and alterations of them as were natural to the speakers of a different language. It is a very striking fact,--a fact not mentioned by Mr. Wright or by any of the other describers of the Frampton pavement,--that within a mile of the spot at which that pavement was found, there is, at the present moment, a farm called Cruxton--the Latin word with a Saxon termination;--a word which marks the site, if my notion be correct, of one of the Roman way-side crosses to which I have just referred! Crewkerne I believe to be of similar origin. In Domesday that town is surveyed under the name of Cruche, and in other ancient documents it is called Cruke. 1 The Welsh word for a cross is croes or crog. Sir Francis Palgrave, speaking of the habits of the Eomanised Britons, says:--The Britons, or at least those tribes which inhabited the vicinity of the Soman colonies, soon adopted and emulated the customs of their masters, for evil as well as good. They learnt to speak the Latin language, adopted Latin names, clad themselves in rich raiment, and vied with the Romans in every luxury of corrupted Rome. 'History of the Anglo-Saxons,'--page 9. Earn is Anglo-Saxon for a cottage, or, as Collinson defines it, for a hermitage or a place of retirement. The Saxons, we can well believe, when themselves converted to Christianity, regarded the old Roman cross with especial veneration. Or if it had been destroyed by the fury of Teutonic paganism, or by the effects of time, they doubtless reared an...
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
