h is also its name in the Irish
annals. In the _English Chronicle_ it appears as Lege ceaster, Laege
ceaster, and Leg ceaster; but after the Norman Conquest it becomes
Ceaster alone. On midland lips the sound soon grew into the familiar
Chester. About the second case, that of Leicester, there is a slight
difficulty, for it assumes in the _Chronicle_ the form of Laegra
ceaster, with an apparently intrusive letter; and the later Welsh
writers seized upon the form to fit in with their own ancient legend of
King Lear. Nennius calls it Cair Lerion; and that unblushing romancer,
Geoffrey of Monmouth, makes it at once into Cair Leir, the city of
Leir. More probably the name is a mixture of Legionis and Ratae, Leg-rat
ceaster, the camp of the Legion at Ratae. This, again, grew into Legra
ceaster, Leg ceaster, and Lei ceaster, while the word, though written
Leicester, is now shortened by south midland voices to Lester. The
third Legionis Castra remained always Welsh, and so hardened on Cymric
lips into Kair Leon or Caerleon. Nennius applies the very similar name
of Cair Legeion to Exeter, still in his time a Damnonian or West Welsh
fortress.

Equally interesting have been the fortunes of the three towns of which
Winchester is the type. In the old Welsh tongue, Gwent means a
champaign country, or level alluvial plain. The Romans borrowed the
word as Venta, and applied it to the three local centres of Venta
Icenorum in Norfolk, Venta Belgarum in Hampshire, and Venta Silurum in
Monmouth. When the first West Saxon pirates, under their real or
mythical leader, Cerdic, swarmed up Southampton Water and occupied the
Gwent of the Belgae, they called their new conquest Wintan ceaster,
though the still closer form Waentan once occurs. Thence to Winte
ceaster and Winchester is no far cry. Gwent of the Iceni had a
different history. No doubt it also was known at first as Wintan
ceaster; but, as at Winchester, the shorter form Ceaster would
naturally be employed in local colloquial usage; and when the chief
centre of East Anglian population was removed a few miles north to
Norwich, the north wick--then a port on the navigable estuary of the
Yare--the older station sank into insignificance, and was only locally
remembered as Caistor. Lastly, Gwent of the Silurians has left its name
alone to Caer-Went in Monmouthshire, where hardly any relics now remain
of the Roman occupation.

Manchester belongs to exactly the same class as Winchester. Its