various towns, villages, and districts of our beloved isle, still the real "beauties," the true value of a country, consists in its inhabitants. Mind, in a general sense, never falls to ruinthere is no such thing as intellectual antiquity: those works which are the effects of human wisdom are daily mouldering from our touch; and it is our duty and our interest to snatch them from oblivion and forgetfulness; that we may perserve 'some visible record of those whose wisdom, piety, and benevolence first gave them existence. Men shall live when their labours are destroyed; and to tell who and what they were, is one of the most useful and pleasing duties of the historian; nor would the labours of the topographer and the antiquary have any interest, if the biography of past ages were neglected, and the niches in history left to lose their living subjects, as do the proud and stately mansions those effigies which perish as we gaze on them, and every day exhibit new proofs of the inferiority of matter to mind.

END OF SOMERSETSHIRE.

d

STAFFORDSHIRE.

THIS
HIS county belonged to the ancient Cornavii of the Bri-
tons, the division of Flavia Cæsariensis of the Romans, and
the kingdom of Mercia during the Saxon heptarchy. Bede*
calls the inhabitants Angli Mediterranei, the Midland English.
The Saxon name was Statfordscyre, from the shire town, Staf-
ford, which name somet have derived from the river Sow, which
flows about three miles east of it. Somner|| says, somewhat
fancifully, a vado forte Baculo transmeabili. Whatever may
have been the original name of the river, it is pretty obvious, that
the name of the town, and from thence that of the county, has
emerged; as the terminational word, ford, demonstrates; but it
is highly probable that the Sow had, at one time, the letter t, in
its orthography; and if so, there will be very little difficulty in
discovering a rational etymology for Stafford and Staffordshire.
Camden says, it was called Betheney, at one time.

The two Roman military ways, Watling Street, and Icknield Street, pass through this county. Watling Street enters it out of Warwickshire, near Tamworth, and running westward, passeth into Shropshire, at no great distance from Brewood. Icknield Street enters the county, from Warwickshire, at the village of Hansworth, near Birmingham, runs a little beyond Shenstone, at which place it crosses Watling Street, and thence proceeding in a direction north-east and by north, enters the county of Derbyshire,

• Ecclesiastical History, IV. p. 3.

† Salmon's New Survey, II. 515.

# "From Tillington, Sow, washing the walls of Stafford, passeth between the town and castle of Stafford town." Erdeswicke's Survey of Stafford. shire, p. 57. Edition of 1723, by Sir Simon Degge, Knt.

Derbyshire, over the Dove at Monk's Bridge.* There is a great confusion in both the maps, and the descriptions respecting this road. It is said to have derived its name from a conjecture that this part of the county belonged to the Iceni. "The Ikening Street," says the learned, or the whimsical, Mr. Whitaker, "confessedly signifies the way which led to the Iceni of the eastern coast." The Roman stations in this county that are known, are Pennocrucium, near Stretton; and Etoctum, at Wall, near Lichfield. But Salmons gives to this county four Roman stations, which, he says, are Mediolanum, at Knightley; Uriconium, at Wrottesley; Uxacona, at Wall-Lichfield; and Etocetum, at Barbeacon. The first of these stations, Camden, in a very positive strain, places in Montgomeryshire; and Bishop Horseley fixes it on a slip of land, inclosed by the Tern, and another river. Uriconium, we have no doubt, is the Wroxetor

* Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire, p. 400.

† Erdeswicke does not appear to mention it; or rather, he mistakes it for Watling Street. In describing the course of the "Breewood Water," he says, it "washeth the banks of Stretton, so called, because it stands on the way called Watling Street, as if you said Street Town." p. 68. It is on Icknield Street that Stretton stands: the etymology may still be the same.

+ History of Manchester, Vol. I. p. 103, second ed. 8vo. The topographer or the antiquary, who consults this very odd book, will have need to keep a strict eye to the windings and turnings of the author, or he will be led into very great mistakes; as many, perhaps most, of Mr. Whitaker's conclusions and reasonings are founded on some previous supposition. "In all probability,"-" most likely," -" we may suppose,"-" the Britons must have constructed, &c."-" I apprehend," and other hypothetical phrases of this kind, are favourite modes of expression in this author's works; and it is from such premises that he reasons and decides, in the most ingenious and positive manner, through several pagès, till he seems to have persuaded himself, and almost his reader, that he is proceeding on indubitable and acknowledged facts. A society of antiquaries, composed of such men as Mr. Whitaker, would produce far more curious, and even extensive volumes, than those which at present compose the Archælogia; we will not say more useful or valuable. The History of Manchester, nevertheless, contains much information that may, with safety, be relied on.

Survey II. p. 517.