Gents Mag 1755 p.273

---

	introduction
	list, 3rd qtr 18th century
	previous page next page
	Gentleman's Magazine 1755 p.273 old names, as they did in most other places; and that by this means the old British names were transmitted to the Saxons, who retained them likewise, affixing only the appleatives of castle, way, and hold, as respectively necessary. But the question still recurs, what is the meaning of the word Maiden, in these names? There is some difficulty in this, as we may learn from Dr Gale, where he writes, 'Sub opidum vidimus magnam aream profunde vallatam, quam incolae vocant Maiden Bowr. Quid fuit majoribus nostris Britannis Maiden, non ausus sum asserere, sed in Bowr latere videtur Burgus. Plurima tamen sunt nobis loca, quae nomen Maiden sibi prefixum gerunt, omnia a vias militares sita. Sunt ex istis Maiden Castle juxta Durnovariam (Dorchester) aliud Maiden Castle juxta Lavatra {Bowes), at via illa ipsa quae a Gallaco (Whelp Castle) as vallum ducit, dicitur Maiden Way.' Dr Gale's Comment. on the Itinerary, p.61. Geoffrey of Monmouth also tells us, that Ebranius build (sic) the city of Abelud, towards Albania, and the town of mount Agned, call'd at this time the Castle of maidens, or the mountain of sorrow. Lib. ii. c. 7. But to risque a conjecture upon a point so obscure, perhaps it may come from the British word mad, pulcher, or beautiful; hence may come the Anglo Saxon words [maid] and [maiden], virgo, which in that case answer exactly to our present expressions, a fair one, and in the plural, the fair, a sense undoubtly very well accommodated to all the three places, both to the road, and to the two fortifications. The river Medway was called by the Saxons [Med-wage], or [Med-weage], and Mr Baxter, in his Glossary, p.162, says 'Britannis ita dicitur tanquam Mad űog űisc vel pulcher fluctus aquae,' where mad evidently signifies pulcher, though I think this very learned man is greatly mistaken in deducing the latter part of the name from űog űisc, for it comes from the British word űy, which signifies water. This the Saxons pronounced more gutterally [wage] or [weage], from whence was formed the Latin vaga; and the English, since the conquest, have softened the g again, and are come to call it way, just as they have several rivers in England, as in Wye, Weybridge, Weymouth, &c. and this I think a much more natural etymology,as to the latter part of the compound, than that offered by Mr Baxter; and that űy signifies water, appears from a thousand derivations in that author, but see particularly Ed. Lhuyd's Adversaria there, p.265. But to return to what we were upon, Dr Gale, speaking of Vagniacae, which he, with others, very preposterously fixes at Maidstone, writes thus, p.75: 'Ad Maidston (olim, ut dixi, Medweagston) duo confluunt amnes, quorum unus appellatur Medway, ab ultima hujus vocabuli parte, sume videtur nomen Vagniacae. Sed quid sit med me prorsus latet. Fluvius certe nobilis qui hic praetervolat in Pentingeri tabulis, aut opidum as ejus ripas situm, vocatur Madus, idemque vocabulum sese offert in aliis multis apud nos exterosque, ubi semper denotare amnem videtur, nimirum in Med loco, (com. Lancaster) Medoaco (inter Venetos) Meduana (le Mayn qui urbem Andegavensem alluit) &c. But this pasage abounds with mistakes, [so] to say nothing further here of his placing Vagniacae at Maidston, which I think I can demonstrate was at Swanscomb, 'tis not likely that Vagniacae should be so called from the latter part of the name of the river Medway. The town was called Madus, and the river was denominated from it, Medwey; that is, the river of the town of Med or Madus; and consequently if Vagniacae was to have been named from this station, it would have been denominated not from the last, but the first syllable of the word Medwey, that is from Madus. The word Med, he thinks, may signify a river, but this surely is equally improbable; for pray observe what an absurd sense this would produce, the river water, for that, according to him, would be the import of the name, he having before allowed, that the latter part of the composition signifies a river; these are his words, 'Britannis Wye et Wey, latinis Vaga, nomen multorum apud nos fluviorum.' To have done with Dr Gale, Medway is the river of the town Madus, and Madus I imagine, was so called from mad, beautiful, as taking its name from the agreeableness of its situation. Mr Baxter, in the place above cited, for I must, with your leave, bestow one word upon him, is so far right, as upon the supposition of Vagniacae being Maidstone, to deduce that name from the former rather than the latter part of the compound Medwey; but then it is not likely that Vagniacae in the Itinerary should be a corruption of Maduiacis, as he supposes, but what is worse, Vagniacae is not Maidstone, insomuch
	that
	next page
	gazetteer links
	-- Maiden Way
	-- Maiden Way

Lakes Guides menu.

---