One of the sections of Mr. Seebohm’s work is devoted to what he terms “the connection between the Saxon ‘ham,’ the German ‘heim,’ and the Frankish ‘villa.’” This, indeed, it may fairly be said, is one of the important points in his case, and one to which he has devoted special research and attention. Now, I am not here dealing with the equation of ‘ham’ and ‘villa.’ If I were, I should urge, perhaps, that, as with the ‘Witan’ of the English and the ‘Great Council’ of the Normans, it does not follow that an equation of words involves their absolute identity of meaning. I confine myself to the suffix ‘-ham.’ “Its early geographical distribution,” Mr. Seebohm has suggested, “may have an important significance.” With this, it will be seen, I entirely agree. But, if the distribution is important, let us make sure of our facts; let us} as I urge throughout this volume, test and try our evidence before we advance to our conclusion. When Mr. Seebohm informs us that “the ‘hams’ of England were most numerous in the south-eastern counties, finding their densest centre in Essex,” the statement must startle any one who has the least acquaintance with Essex, where the termination ‘-ham’ is comparatively rare in place-names. On turning to Mr. Seebohm’s map, one is still further surprised to learn that its “local names ending in ‘ham’” attain in Domesday the enormous proportion of 39 per cent. The clue to the mystery is found in a note that “in Essex the _h_ is often dropped, and the suffix becomes _am_.” For the whole calculation is based on a freak of my old friend, the Domesday scribe. The one to whom we are indebted for the text of the Essex survey displayed his misplaced scholarship in Latinizing the English names so thoroughly, that not only did Oakley, the first on the list, become ‘Accleia,’ but even in the accusative, “Acclei_am_ tenet Robertus.” Thus we need travel no further than the first name on the index to learn how Mr. Seebohm’s error was caused. Elmstead, Bonhunt, Bentley, Coggeshall, Danbury, Dunmow, Alresford, and many other such names, have all by this simple process been converted into ‘hams.’ I hasten to add that my object in correcting this error is not to criticise so brilliant an investigator and so able a scholar as Mr. Seebohm, but to illustrate the practical impossibility of accomplishing any scientific work in this department of research until the place-names of England have been classified and traced to their origin. I am eager to see this urgent work undertaken county by county, on much the same lines as those adopted by the Government in France. It seems to me to be eminently a subject for discussion at the Annual Congress of Archæological Societies.