it seems to me to confirm the view I am here advancing. It is obvious that if such a canon of research as that _ham_ (not _ton_) was a mark of early settlement could be even provisionally accepted, it would greatly, and at once, advance our knowledge of the settlement of England. Although this is nothing more than a ‘pioneer’ paper, I may say that, after at least glancing at the maps of other counties, I can see nothing to oppose, but everything to confirm, the view that the settlers in the _hams_ ascended the rivers (much as they seem, on a larger scale, to have done in Germany); and a study of the coast of England from the Tweed to the British Channel leads me to believe that, as a maritime people, their settlements began upon the coast. I now pass to my second point--the insufficient attention which has hitherto been paid to our minor place-names. Kemble, for instance, working, as he did, on a large scale, was dependent, so far as names still existing are concerned, on the nomenclature of present parishes. And such a test, we shall find, is most fallacious. Canon Taylor, it is true, has endeavoured to supplement this deficiency,[19] but the classification of existing names, whether those of modern parishes or not, has not yet, so far as I can find, been even attempted. Hitherto I have mainly spoken of Sussex, because it is in that county that place-names can be best studied; the Essex evidence is chiefly of value for the contrast it presents. The principal contrast, and one to which I invite particular attention, is this: confining ourselves to the names I am concerned with--the _ings_, _hams_, and _tons_--we find that in Essex several parishes have only a single place-name between them, while in Sussex, on the contrary, a single parish may contain several of these place-names, each of them, surely, at one time representing a distinct local unit. This contrast comes out strongly in the maps I have prepared of the two counties, in which the parishes are disregarded, and each place-name separately entered. I do not pretend that the survey is exhaustive, especially in the case of Sussex, as I only attempt to show those which are found on an ordinary county map, together with those, now obsolete, which can safely be supplied from Domesday. But, so far as the contrast I am dealing with is concerned, it is at least not exaggerated. As the actual names are not shown, I will now adduce a few examples. In Sussex, Burpham is composed of three tythings--Burpham, Wepham, Pippering; Climping comprises Atherington and Ilesham; Offham is included in South Stoke; Rackham in Amberley; Cootham in Storrington; Ashton, Wellingham, and Norlington in Ringmer; Buddington in Steyning; and Bidlington in Bramber.