some of the paving stones showing through the grass of the
pasture field. The name of this piece of land gives the clue
to its history. It is called Sandford; a corruption of Sarn
Ford, from _sarnu_ (pronounced "sarney") _to pave;_ and _fford,_
a road. These are Celtic Cornish and Welsh words; and it
should be noted that the names of the Roman roads in the Island
as well as those of the mountains and rivers, are nearly all
Celtic, and not Latin or Saxon.*

[Footnote]
* The Whitcombe Roman Villa, four miles east of Upton, stands in
a field called Sandals. In Lyson's description of it, written
in 1819 it stands as _Sarn_dells. The paved road ran through
the dell.
[End of Footnote]

We made a short delay in the morning, at Gloucester, to give
Senator Hoar time to go on board the boat "Great Western"
which had just arrived in our docks from Gloucester, Massachusetts,
to visit the mother city, after a perilous voyage across the
Atlantic by Captain Blackburn single-handed. Senator Hoar
having welcomed the captain in his capacity of an old Englishman
and a New Englander "rolled into one," we set out for Lydney,
skirting the bank of one arm of the Severn which here forms
an island. It was on this Isle of Alney that Canute and Edmund
Ironside fought the single-handed battle that resulted in
their dividing England between them.* We pass on to the Island
at Westgate Bridge; and a quarter of a mile further leave
it by Over Bridge; one of Telford's beautiful works. Just
below it the Great Western Railway crosses the river by an
iron bridge, the western piers of which rest upon Roman foundations.

[Footnote]
* Sharon Turner's "Anglo Saxons," Vol. III., Chap. XV.
[End of Footnote]

One remarkable thing which I believe I forgot to mention to
George Hoar as we crossed the Island, is, that the meadows
on both sides of the causeway belong to the "Freemen" of the
city; and that, go back as far as we may in history, we cannot
find any account of the original foundation of this body.
But we have this clue to it--that Gloucester was made into
a Colony in the reign of Nerva, just before the end of the
first century; and in each Roman colony lands were allotted
to the soldiers of the legions who had become freemen by reason
of having served for twenty-five years. These lands were
always on the side of the city nearest the enemy; and the
lands we are crossing are on the western side of Glevum, nearest
the _Silures,_ or Sout