Burnhope and Killhope, with Wellhope, are the three vales which contribute their streams to form the Wear at Wearhead. The initial components _burn_, _kil_ and _wel_, are all Anglo-Saxon, meaning water, and have been given according to the custom of the early settlers. From the head of the River Wear, the hopes, striking into the hills encircling the head of the dale, are those out of which come water. _Burn_hope is the hope of the burn, Anglo-Saxon _burne_, a stream; _Kill_hope is from Anglo-Saxon _keld_, a fountain; we have also Icelandic _keld_, Danish _kilde_, Norse _kill_, a fountain or brook; _Well_hope from Anglo-Saxon _wyl_, _wel_, a well or fountain--hence they are all the hopes of water. _Kil_ is the Scotch and Irish word denoting a church, and if the situation had been favourable, and had there been any evidence of a St. Godric having been located here, as at Wolsingham, we might have had the hope of the _kil_, kirk, or church, but in Camden we find _Kelhop_ and _Welhop_. Leland, at an earlier date, gives _Kelhope_ and _Welhop_, and Holinshed _Kellop_. Brocket says _keld_ is a word used in Yorkshire, Westmorland, and Cumberland, for a well or spring. Taylor gives _kell_ and _well_ as synonymous terms for a place from whence water flows. We read in Simeon of Durham of the Scots, in A.D. 1070, having marched through Cumberland and devastated Teesdale and the parts bordering; then they came to the place called in English, Hundredeskelde--that is, "the hundred springs." Barnard Castle water-supply comes from a place called Spring Keld. One of the Bishopric knights at the Battle of Lewis was Sir Henry Merley, of Herkeld, in Witton; and Besanskeldes is a Boldon Buke place-name. We thus have, at the western confines of the county of Durham, the hopes of water, and which pour forth their streams to form the main river of the historic county of Durham. Ireshope, Middlehope, and Westernhope, derive their initial components from their position. _Middle_hope occupies a central position in the forest. The first tributary burn to the Wear after its formation is, of course, the most western one, _Ire_shope, from Erse _iar_, the west. Snowhope, sheltered under the southern hills, retains patches of its winter covering long enough, no doubt, to have warranted its name--_Snawhope_, as it was formerly written, Anglo-Saxon _snaw_, Danish _snee_, German _schnee_, Belgic _sneeuw_--a name given to many mountains subject to being covered in winter, as Snafell in Iceland, Sneekoppe in Bohemia, Sneeuw Bergen at the Cape of Good Hope, Snee Hatten in Norway, Snafell in the Isle of Man, and Snowdon in Wales. In respect to Ireshope, there is the Anglo-Saxon _yrfe_, _erfe_, _irfe_, inheritance, from the root _ar_; Old English _ear_, _earth_, as the _Ar_yan races were the tillers of the ground. There is also a root _ar_ applied to rivers, as the _Ayr_, _Are_, and _Aire_: Welsh _araf_, gentle; Gaelic _ar_, slow; Celtic _arw_, violent--some of which might apply.