The object of the following pages is to supply teachers with the chief _root_ or _key_-words which are necessary for the explanation of local names in England, and such kindred forms as are to be met with in those countries occupied by nations belonging to the same family, and usually termed Teutonic. It is a well-known fact that many of the names of places in England are also common to Germany. Verstegan, in his scarce work, printed in 1605, very plainly alludes to it. “Thus the Saxons,” he says, “who at first came unto the aid of the Britons, became about two hundred years after, to be the possessors and sharers of the best part of the Isle of Britain among themselves. And, as their language was altogether different from that of the Britons, so left they very few cities, towns, villages, passages, rivers, woods, fields, hills, or dales that they gave not new names unto, such as in their own language were intelligible, and either given by reason of the situation or nature of the place, or after some place in some sort like unto it in Germany, from whence they came—as the name of Oxford or Oxenford, on the river Thames, after the town of the same name in Germany, situated on the Oder; our Hereford, near unto Wales, after Hervford, in Westphalia. And so, in like manner, may be said of Stafford, Swinford, Bradford, Norden, Newark, Bentham, Oxenbridge, Buchurst, Scorethorpe, Holt, Mansfield, Swinefield, Daventry, Hampstead, Radcliff, Rosendale, and a great number of places in our country, that yet retain the names of places in Germany and the Netherlands (albeit the ancient orthography may in some of them be a little varied), as here to be reckoned up would be tedious.” We have chosen English names as the basis of comparison because they are more familiar, and, indeed, of more importance than any others. Emerson, speaking of them, says—“The names are excellent; an atmosphere of legendary melody spreads over the land. Older than all epics and histories, which clothe a nation, this under-shirt sits close to the body. What history, too, and what stores of primitive and savage observation, it unfolds!” The names of places in England, and among the Teutonic tribes generally, are composed of two parts. The first member is a _descriptive_ word referring to some particular historical circumstance, to personages, to animals, vegetables, or minerals; or it may be merely an adjective. The second member designates, by some _general_ and appropriate term, either the natural features of the country, settlement, or neighbourhood to be described—as hill, mountain, river, &c.—or some artificial constructions, as town, borough, field, &c. The first member is generally prefixed to distinguish places having similar positions—_e.g._, Staple-ford, Notting-ham, New-ark, &c. Sometimes the names of places are represented by a single word—_e.g._, Slough, Ford, Holt, Down, Berg, Furt, &c.