IN T[IE XOKTII PJDINO OF Y0];KSI1II{E. JJS? It had been suggested by Mr. Just, that possibly the Celtic word (mjcJ, " a covered way," might be recognised along the dike ; and on inquiry it was found that the present road out of Gilling towards Melsonb}^, is called Hergill. As there is no occurrence of the name Gill there, except for the part of the dike called Oliver's Gill, it is most likely that the name is corrupted from (irfjpl, and originally designated that part of the dike which runs near to the present road in the same direction.^ The name Carlton, which occurs close to the entrench- ments at Stanwick, and perhaps, at one time, wdthin them, is very probably derived from Caer, the British word for an encampment, and tun, or dun, a town, or fortress.^ If the occurrence of these names along the line of the dike be considered as indications, however slight, of British occu- pation, they would seem to confirm the conjecture of Dr. Whitaker, with regard to the remarkable entrenchments at Stanwick, of which a map is here given. He was of opinion thnt these earthworks formed the defence of a British village, and that they are of a date anterior to the Roman conquest. This theory has never been positively disproved, and it seems worth while to consider how far the nature of the ground, or the names of places at Stanwick, afford any evidence to justify it. The field called the Tofts, between the Church and the Hall, has much the character of a citadel, not only from its central position, but from the bastion-like form of the en- trenchment which bounds it on the south and west sides. The elevated part, where an ice-house now stands, and which may have been an ancient tumulus, has much the appearance of a salient mujle to this supposed bastion, with the angle cut of!" to giv^ the defenders a more complete front to the approach along the hollow way towards it from Forcett. This hollow way seems to have been the entrance from the westward, defended as it is by two traverses, which, as we have alread}^ remarked, are apparently connected with, if not actually a
- The word Hergill occurs at Kirkby - Compare the name Carlbury, at the
Ravensworth, near a quarry on the west Roman Camp at Pierse Bridge ; the of the church, which liears the appeiu-ance Saxons frequently adopted the British of being on a line of cntreiu-hinent, which word, and put their own meaning at the ran north and south, isolating the village. end of it. Cacr-huiij, each of the words It occurs also on the north-west of the which form this compouud meauuig a town of Richmond. camp ; Brae-hill, &:c. VOL. VI. Z Z
