Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/18

4. . There are, however, mixed with the Teutonic names of places all over England, others denoting natural features, which must be ascribed to an earlier period even than the Anglo-Saxon. In the work of reading the great palimpsest exhibited by the map of England the philologist claims to have the last word. He tells us of declensions and conjugations, of vowel changes and consonant shiftings, and much more that is valuable, assuming to give authoritative interpretations; but, as Ripley says, ‘Because a people early hit upon the knowledge of bronze, and learned how to tame horses and milk cows, it does not follow that they also invented the declensions of nouns or the conjugations of verbs.’

As regards the names of places that were called after the names of their occupants or the descendants of some early settler, those in which the Anglo-Saxon patronymic termination -ing—denoting son of, or descendants of—occurs are the most important. This patronymical word -ing has been shown by Kemble to have been used in place-names in several ways. In its simplest form at the end of a name it denotes the son or other descendant of the person who bore that name. Another use of it, as part of a plural termination, was to denote the persons who lived in a particular place or district, as Brytfordingas for the inhabitants of Brytford. It is also sometimes used in another form, as in Cystaninga mearc, the mark or boundary of the Cystanings or people of Keston in Kent, and in Besinga hearh, the temple of the Besingas, probably in Sussex.

The word ing in combination was also sometimes used as practically an equivalent of the genitive singular. Examples of this usage occur in such names as Æthelwulfing-land and Swithræding-den, now Surrenden in