The Britons named the brine spring at Nantwich “Hellath Wen,” or the White Pit, on account of the whiteness of the salt produced from its waters; while the spring at Northwich received the name of “Hellath Du,” or the Black Pit. The suffix “wich” may have been introduced into Cheshire direct from the Vikings of the North, or brought there by way of the south-eastern counties. In Camden’s _Britannia_ (published in Latin in 1607, and translated by Philemon Holland, 1610), we read that the word Wiccij “may seeme to have beene derived of those _salt pittes_ that the old Englishmen in their language named _Wiches_,” and William Smith, a Cheshire Man and author of a work which is known as King’s _Vale Royal_ (1656 edition), says: “The house in which the salt is boiled is called the Wychhouse; whence may be guessed what _wych_ signifies, and why all those towns where there are salt-springs or salt made are called by the name of _wych_, viz., _Namptwych_, _Northwych_, _Middlewych_, _Droitwych_.” But the Norse word _wig_ and the Anglo-Saxon _wic_ signified, in the original, a dwelling-place, and in the latter form of _wich_, it is seen in the names of Woolwich, Norwich, Harwich, Sandwich, etc. The Norse and Danish pirates who visited our coasts to pillage and procure salt, established _wigs_--afterwards wiches or hamlets--on the bays and inlets, and wherever they located themselves they proceeded to make bay-salt. The word _wich_, in course of time, became identified not with the village but with the salt manufacture that was carried on there, and when the Cheshire towns developed the industry they may easily have adopted the nomenclature that was already regarded as indicative of the manufacture.