that of the later, so that it is not possible in some localities to distinguish the earlier from the later.
The evidence of Northern settlers, whether of earlier or later date, is remarkable. Near Bristol is a place called Yate, the Geate mentioned in several Saxon charters. Another old name, probably denoting the settlement of a Goth, is Mangotsfield; Hacananhamme, or Hacon’s ham, the old name[1] for Hanham, near Bristol, is clearly Scandinavian. In Gloucestershire, and close to it along the Wye, there were small areas called shires, corresponding to hundreds similar to the shires in the northern counties, and to the shires of ancient Norway. There are old records relating to Blakeborneshire and Pignocshire, near the Severn and the Wye. Huntishamshire was the name for a detached part of Monmouthshire, near Welsh Bicknor. In the south of the county, also, is an old hamlet called Kendalshire. The name Scir-mere occurs in a Saxon charter, and the modern name Shirehampton, nee Bristol, may be a survival of one of these old names.
The name Berkelai-erness, as already mentioned clearly corresponds to those of Holderness and Agremundreness, both of which received Northmen among their colonists. The termination -ærnes is common among the place-names of Scandinavia. The tidal bore in the Severn at the time Camden wrote still retained its Scandinavian name Hygre, derived from the Norse mythological name Oegre, the Neptune of Northern tribes. The Scandinavian name Brostorp is a Domesday name near Gloucester, south of which place are also Brookthorp and Calthorp.
The dialect of the vale of Berkeley differs both in words and pronunciation from that of the vale of Gloucester, higher up the river.[2] As already noted in relation to Somersetshire, the Scandian name Holm appears in
