Names have all some meaning when first imposed; and when a place is named for thefirst time, by any people, they apply to it some term—in early times generally descriptiveof its natural peculiarities, or something else, on account of which it is remarkable, fromtheir own language. When we find therefore, that the old names of natural objects andlocalities in a country belong, for the most part, to a particular language, we may concludewith certainty that a people speaking that language formerly occupied the country. Ofthis the names they have so impressed are as sure a proof as if they had left a distinctrecord of their existence in words engraven on the rocks. Such old names of places oftenlong outlive both the people that bestowed them, and nearly all the material monumentsof their occupancy. The language, as a vehicle of oral communication, may gradually beforgotten and be heard no more where it was once in universal use, and the oldtopographical nomenclature may still remain unchanged.—Pictorial History of England.