It was a saying of one of our chief archæologists, that “anciently every local name had its meaning”; and we may extract more than conjectural history from the name, Kirkby-on-Bain. The first syllable carries us back into a distant past, earlier than the date of most of our written records. As a rule, when the word “Kirk” forms part of a place-name, it implies, not only the former existence of a church in the locality (the name in Domesday is “Chirchebi,”) but also of a still earlier, and probably Druid, temple. The syllable “Kir,” or “Ker,” {98a} with its plural Kerrog, Kerig, or Curig (hence “Church”) means a sacred circle, which was the form of the ancient British, or Druid, place of worship, such as are still to be seen, on a large scale, in the megalithic remains of Stonehenge near Salisbury, and at Avebury near Marlborough, in Wiltshire; and, on a smaller scale, in many a lonely spot among the hills in Wales and Scotland, and on the continent, as far Palestine. These remarks apply to many places in our own neighbourhood, as Kirkstead, Kirkby Green, beyond the once sacred stream of the Druids, the Witham, or Rhe, East Kirkby beyond Revesby, &c. We have 5 Kirkbys, and 2 Kirtons (Kirk-ton), in the county. Thus we get a British origin for this parish; while the name of the river, on which it is situate, is also British; the word “Ban,” meaning “bright,” or “clear,” is found not only in the river Bain, but in several other streams. {98b} The second syllable of the name Kirkby yields further information. While the two contiguous parishes of Kirk-stead and Kirk-by have the first syllable in common, in their suffix, they differ, since “stead,” connected with our word “steady,” is Saxon, meaning a settled domicile; and “by,” is an old Danish word, (still surviving in Scotland as “byre”) meaning the same. {99a} The Britons, therefore, have left their mark in the first half of both these names, but from the second halves we gather that the Saxons made their permanent residence in Kirkstead, whereas in Kirkby, although they doubtless there also succeeded the Britons, they were, in turn, supplanted by the Danes, who made this place their “byre,” or “by,” with three “by-roads,” or village roads, branching from it.