aster. But in the case of small towns or
unimportant Roman stations, which would seldom need to be mentioned
outside their own immediate neighbourhood, the simple form is quite
common, as at Caistor in Norfolk, Castor in Hunts, and elsewhere. At
times, too, we get an added English termination, as at Casterton,
Chesterton, and Chesterholme; or a slight distinguishing mark, as at
Great Chesters, Little Chester, Bridge Casterton, and Chester-le-Street.
All these have now quite lost their old distinctive names, though they
have acquired new ones to distinguish them from _the_ Chester, or from
one another. For example, Chester-le-Street was Conderco in Roman
times, and Cunega ceaster in the early English period. Both names are
derived from the little river Cone, which flows through the village.

Before we pass on to the consideration of those _castra_ which, like
Manchester and Lancaster, have preserved to the present day their
original Roman or Celtic prefixes in more or less altered shapes, we
must glance briefly at a general principle running through the
modernised forms now in use. The reader, with his usual acuteness, will
have noticed that the word Ceaster reappears under many separate
disguises in the names of different modern towns. Sometimes it is
_caster_, sometimes _chester_, sometimes _cester_, and sometimes even
it gets worn down to a mere fugitive relic, as _ceter_ or _eter_. But
these different corruptions do not occur irregularly up and down the
country, one here and one there; they follow a distinct law and are due
to certain definite underlying facts of race or language. Each set of
names lies in a regular stratum; and the different strata succeed one
another like waves over the face of England, from north-east to
south-westward. In the extreme north and east, where the English or
Anglian blood is purest, or is mixed only with Danes and Northmen to
any large extent, such forms as Lancaster, Doncaster, Caistor, and
Casterton abound. In the mixed midlands and the Saxon south, the sound
softens into Chesterfield, Chester, Winchester, and Dorchester. In the
inner midlands and the Severn vale, where the proportion of Celtic
blood becomes much stronger, the termination grows still softer in
Leicester, Bicester, Cirencester, Gloucester, and Worcester, while at
the same time a marked tendency towards elision occurs; for these words
are really pronounced as if written Lester, Bister, Cisseter, Gloster,
and Wooster.