s comparatively modern origin. _Castra_ and _Ceasters_ were now
out of date, and castles had taken their place. Still, we stick even
here to the old root: for of course castle is only the diminutive
_castellum_--a scion of the same Roman stock, which, like so many other
members of aristocratic families, 'came over with William the
Conqueror.' The word _castel_ is never used, I believe, in any English
document before the Conquest; but in the very year of William's
invasion, the _Chronicle_ tells us, 'Willelm earl came from Normandy
into Pevensey, and wrought a castel at Hastings port.' So, while in
France itself the word has declined through _chastel_ into _chateau_,
we in England have kept it in comparative purity as castle.

York is another town which had a narrow escape of becoming Yorchester.
Its Roman name was Eburacum, which the English queerly rendered as
Eoforwic, by a very interesting piece of folks-etymology. _Eofor_ is
old English for a boar, and _wic_ for a town; so our rude ancestors
metamorphosed the Latinised Celtic name into this familiar and
significant form, much as our own sailors turn the Bellerophon into the
Billy Ruffun, and the Anse des Cousins into the Nancy Cozens. In the
same way, I have known an illiterate Englishman speak of
Aix-la-Chapelle as Hexley Chapel. To the name, thus distorted, our
forefathers of course added the generic word for a Roman town, and so
made the cumbrous title of Eoforwic-ceaster, which is the almost
universal form in the earlier parts of the _English Chronicle_. This
was too much of a mouthful even for the hardy Anglo-Saxon, so we soon
find a disposition to shorten it into Ceaster on the one hand, or
Eoforwic on the other. Should the final name be Chester or York?--that
was the question. Usage declared in favour of the more distinctive
title. The town became Eoforwic alone, and thence gradually declined
through Evorwic, Euorwic, Eurewic, and Yorick into the modern York. It
is curious to note that some of these intermediate forms very closely
approach the original Eburac, which must have been the root of the
Roman name. Was the change partly due to the preservation of the older
sound on the lips of Celtic serfs? It is not impossible, for marks of
British blood are strong in Yorkshire; and Nennius confirms the idea by
calling the town Kair Ebrauc.

Among the other _Ceasters_ which have never developed into full-blown
Chesters, I may mention Bath, given as Akemannes ceast