and Dunum' the Tyne.' The ear and eye will themselves avouch, at least, the plausibility of such suggestion. The character of the two rivers-the one admitting vessels of large draught, the other only comparatively small craft,* gives it also further probability. For it is heedfully to be noted, that 'Dunum' denotes a 'deep' river, being derived from Celtic dhoin,' deep; and such more or less predicable of all the rivers whose name it is, or of which it forms a component part; as for instance, the 'Don,' in Yorkshire, in Aber-deen-shire, in Russia; the Tyne,' in Haddingtonshire; the two Russian Dunas,' or 'Dwinas,' the one flowing into the Gulf of Riga, the other into that of Archangel: Dan-ube; Rhone, or Rho-danus, i.e., 'very deep'; Eri-danus, the poetical name of the Po, which also signifies very deep'; and, to conclude with a name which genius has borne further, and rendered more classical than Eridanus itself -Ye banks and braes o' bonnie 'Doon.' But what gives the greatest appearance of correctness to this attempt at emendatory criticism is this striking fact, that in Ptol. emy we find an aboriginal tribe inhabiting the territory betwixt the Tweed' and the Tyne,' called 'Otadeni,' which, if we have any skill in etymologic analysis, just means the people betwixt Tuesis' (Berwick) and Dunum.' In still further corroboration, it may be mentioned that another tribe farther into the interior, and occupying the country betwixt the upper part of the 'Tyne' and the 'Jed,' are denominated Gadeni.' The

* This must be understood as applying to the Wear in bygone times. The case is quite altered now: the harbour being so greatly improved that in a few years it bids fair to eclipse Newcastle and the Tyne.

reason of the name is obvious. The modern Jedburgh occupies the site, and is the modern representative and lineal descendant of the Roman capital of this district, which was called 'Coria,' or 'Curia Gadenorum.' Not a few districts of kingdoms, with their inhabitants, have derived their names from being situate betwixt rivers or æstuaries; thus, the Latin' Interamna,'' inter,' between, and amnes,' the rivers, a town in Umbria, and now abbreviated in the modern 'Termi;''Mesopotamia,' i.e., betwixt the rivers, viz., the Euphrates and Tigris; ‘Edderachillis,' a district in Sutherlandshire, signifying 'betwixt the two kyles,' or branches of the sea; 'Entre Douro e Minho,' in Portugal, are exactly parallel with the terms under discussion. So important an auxilliary and arbiter often is etymology in ascertaining and settling doubtful and disputed localities !*

What tends to confirm the supposition that Vedra was the Roman name of the Wear is the fact that during some recent explorations at Chester-le-Street, the site of an undoubted Roman station, amongst sundry other fragments of Roman handiwork, several altars were discovered," upon one of which may be traced' DEABUS,' and on the base of the same, letters which to my eye ( says the Rev. Walker Featherstonhaugh, incumbent of Edmundbyers in this county) read 'VADRE'; if this be the case, we have the name of the river associated with the local deities whose favour the Romans were much in the habit of propitiating." And in the map of Britain attributed to Richard of Cirencester, the rivers " Tueda, Alauna, Tina,

"Hogg's Weekly Instructor."

+ "Archæologia Æliana," iv., 292.

D

Vedra, and Tisa," are laid down in regular consecutive order from north to south, corresponding exactly with the modern Tweed, Aln, Tyne, Wear, and Tees.

Having hazarded a few conjectures respecting the probable Roman origin of Sunderland, it becomes necessary (as it has been usual in topographical works of this nature) to offer a few remarks on the derivation of its name, respecting which various surmises have been made. And though such disquisitions seldom lead to any decisive result, yet we have been inclined to follow the general practice, more in compliance with custom, than with the presumption that we have been able to elicit any original information, or established any satisfactory conclusion.

"The aboriginal inhabitants of Britain," says the Rev. Anthony Hedley, in his Essay towards ascertaining the Etymology of the Names of Places in the County of Northumberland,'* "possessed a very descriptive language, and many of the names which they imposed upon mountains, rivers, and the other great features of nature, yet remain, having triumphed over the numberless revolutions of all kinds to which our country has been since exposed. Their simple, but finely discriminating terms, generally painting, as it were, some local circumstance, put to utter shame the whimsical, absurd, and altogether barbarous local nomenclature of modern colonisers and navigators; and their superior good taste and ingenuity in this respect argue a much higher degree of civilization and refinement than is usually ascribed to them.

"After the Britons came four successive hordes of conquerors-the Romans, the Saxons, the Danes, and the

"Archæologia Eliana," i., 243.

Normans, with each their own language, and each exercising the privilege of conquerors by giving new names, or by adding to, translating into their own speech, and otherwise changing the old ones.

The Romans seem, for the most part, to have been content with the names which they found in use, merely Latinising the terminations of a few of them, for if we may take Baxter for our guide, almost all the names of Roman cities in Britain may be traced to British roots."

The Saxons had the most lasting, general, and deeprooted possession of the island. They very commonly settled in Roman towns, and especially chose them, cn account of their materials, for the sites of their churches and monastical institutions. York, Monkchester (Newcastle), Hexham, Jarrow, and Chester-le-Street, are well known instances of ecclesiastical edifices having been erected upon the ashes of Roman foundations: and doubtless too when Benedict brought over workmen from Gaul to build his celebrated monastery at Wearmouth, which was constructed of stone after the Roman manner, he found abundance of materials in the long deserted Roman station "Ad Ostium Vedra." As their language, says Verstegan,* "was altogether different from that of the Britons, so left they very few cities, towns, villages, passages, rivers, woods, fields, hills, or dales, that they gave not new names unto, such as in their own language were intelligible, and either given by reason of the situa

* "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities, concerning the most noble and renowned English Nation," p. 106, London,

tion, or nature of the place, or after some place in some sort like unto it in Germany, from whence they came."

The Danes, who long ruled over the north of England as absolute conquerors, have left us many memorials of their invasion in the topography of the country: their "fell" more especially enters into the composition of many names in the northern counties, and has been very generally imposed on the moorland districts. The termination "by" in the names of places is also attributed to them.

From the invasion of the Danes to the coming of the Normans, in 1066, there elapsed a period of 274 years. It was the policy of the Conqueror to change the language and the institutions of the kingdom; but the men of the north were long in submitting to the yoke of the Norman bastard: they revolted several times, which so exasperated him that he gathered together a mighty army, swearing, by the splendour of God !-his usual oath -that he would not leave a soul alive!! As soon as he entered Yorkshire, he began to put his horrid threat into execution; and yet, notwithstanding all this barbarity, it is astonishing how extensively and obstinately the ancient names of places have been retained: Sunderland being one of those towns whose name has remained unchanged during the long period of 1,200 years.

"In searching for the etymons of local names," continues Mr. Hedley in his Essay just quoted, "Two things are necessary to be observed:-1. We should always, if possible, personally visit the spot in question, that we may have an opportunity of observing its natural features. The older the name is, the more likely is it to be expressive of some local circumstance, for it may almost