But while this rule may generally hold good, it must not be applied automatically, and the "learning" that has given this origin to the names of Sittingbourne, Newington, and Ospringe must be regarded as a grotesque exercise of imagination, creating previously unheard-of clans, the Soedingas, the Newingas, and the Osprings, who are not only new to archaeology, but probably have never existed. Of course, in the utter absence of all evidence, save that of the places themselves so named, no statement can be _proved_ correct; but these mystic Soedingas may almost certainly be dismissed to the realm of fairy-tales, and if there ever was a tribe of Newingas, they _took_ their name _from_ the village which they built and where they lived, instead of _giving_ it _to_ the place. Where others have come to grief, it would be rash to seek new derivations; but it seems evident that Ospringe derives its name from the stream flowing through the village, and that the name of Sittingbourne is nothing other than "seething burn," or "the bubbling brook," a poetic name which the place no longer merits. Place-names of Roman origin may be sought in the several _Vigos_ that exist, some now the names of fields, marshes, roadsides, and commons where there is not a house to be seen, but which were originally the sites of Roman villages, the name of "Vigo"--the Latin _vicus_--having been traditionally handed down to the present day many centuries after the last traces of those settlements have disappeared. Many fields, too, here and in different parts of the country, are named "Whitehall." How did they get that name? The answer is sought in the Roman word "_aula_," the residence of a magistrate or a chief man in authority. When the Saxons came, they found these grand _aulas_, built of stone, dotted about the country, some ruined, others tolerably perfect; and they must have made a strong impression upon these barbaric Pagans, used at that early period of their history only to wooden dwellings of the rudest construction. They would have demanded the names of these places from the Romano-British, who would tell them they were _aulas_; and they would have called them "hwit aulas," from the stone of which they were built. It was thus that the many villages called "Whitchurch" got their name, from the stone (or "white") churches that were so remarkable as compared with the dark-hued temples and churches of wood to which the Saxons were accustomed.