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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
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