ttempt to shirk it would
be useless in the long run. I know from sad experience that if I omit
it every inhabitant of Worcestershire who reads this article will hunt
me out somehow, and run me to earth at last, with a letter demanding a
full and explicit explanation of this silent insult to his native
county. So I must try to put the best possible face upon a troublesome
matter. The earliest existing form of the name, after the English
Conquest, seems to be that given in a Latin Charter of the eighth
century as _Weogorna civitas_. (Here it is difficult to disentangle the
English from its Latin dress.) A little later it appears in a
vernacular shape (also in a charter) as Wigran ceaster. In the later
part of the _English Chronicle_ it becomes Wigera ceaster, and Wigra
ceaster; but by the twelfth century it has grown into Wigor ceaster,
from which the change to Wire ceaster and Worcester (fully pronounced)
is not violent. This is all plain sailing enough. But what is the
meaning of Wigorna ceaster or Wigran ceaster? And what Roman or English
name does it represent? The old English settlers of the neighbourhood
formed a little independent principality of Hwiccas (afterwards subdued
by the Mercians), and some have accordingly suggested that the original
word may have been Hwiccwara ceaster, the Chester of the Hwicca men,
which would be analogous to Cant-wara burh (Canterbury), the Bury of
the Kent men, or to Wiht-gara burh (Carisbrooke), the Bury of the Wight
men. Others, again, connect it with the Braunogenium of the Ravenna
geographer, and the Cair Guoranegon or Guiragon of Nennius, which
latter is probably itself a corrupted version of the English name.
Altogether, it must be allowed that Worcester presents a genuine
difficulty, and that the facts about its early forms are themselves
decidedly confused, if not contradictory. The only other notable
_Ceasters_, are Alcester, once Alneceaster, in Worcestershire, the
Roman Alauna; Gloucester or Glevum, already sufficiently explained; and
Mancester in Staffordshire, supposed to occupy the site of
Manduessedum.

Among the most corrupted forms of all, Exeter may rank first. Its Latin
equivalent was Isca Damnoniorum, Usk of the Devonians; Isca being the
Latinised form of that prevalent Celtic river name which crops up again
in the Usk, Esk, Exe, and Axe, besides forming the first element of
Uxbridge and Oxford; while the tribal qualification was added to
distinguish it from its