Jamieson’s “Scottish Dictionary.” “The Saxons in England,” by Professor Kemble. Worsaae’s “Danes and Norwegians in England.” “The Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland,” by R. Ferguson. Wright’s “Provincial Dictionary.” THE ETYMOLOGY OF LOCAL NAMES. _Names of places_ in a great measure belong to the oldest and most primitive evidences of language, and they are of the highest importance in the history of nations and dialects.—_H. Leo._ It cannot be doubted that _local names_, and those devoted to distinguish the natural features of a country, possess an inherent vitality which even the urgency of conquest is unable to remove.—_Kemble._ The geography and history of a nation must be sought in the language of the _name-givers_ of that country, or in a translation of the language of the name-givers of that country.—_Pococke._ Geographical nomenclature is a branch of geography generally left to chance or caprice; and it will not be easy to find any department so left, which has been more abused. Wherever names exist, and where these names may have existed for a number of ages, it appears something like sacrilege to disturb or change them; such names, besides the sacredness of antiquity, are often significant, and contain in themselves information as to the migrations of the human race, and the former connexion which existed between tribes now far separated. Names are seldom vulgar or ridiculous, and they furnish a copious fund of distributive terms, to obviate the confusion which arises to geographical nomenclature in the repetition for the hundredth time of rivers—Thames, Trent, and Tyne, &c.; and it fortunately happens that in no country, however barbarous or thinly peopled, are the great features of nature, as rivers and mountains, without names; and the name of a river or mountain may be appropriately applied also to the district in which it occurs.—_Capt. Vetch._