The etymology of the names of the stations is an interesting, but intricate subject. The new occupants of a country usually adopt the appellations bestowed by their predecessors upon its more prominent features. Thus, though in England the ancient Briton, Roman, Saxon, Norman, and modern English, have successively prevailed, many of our most familiar rivers, as the Thames, the Isis, and the Avon, have borne, as Whitaker shows, through each successive change, their present names. The appellations of cities are much more variable, but some even of these are indelible. Strange as a painted Briton of the first century would feel himself in the streets of modern London, its name would fall on his ear as an accustomed sound.
The Romans were a minority in Britain; and, in their intercourse with the natives, would be compelled to adopt the nomenclature of the people. We may, therefore, expect to find that the names of the stations are essentially British, though somewhat altered by the imperfect pronunciation of the strangers, and by a ceaseless effort to recast the words in the mould of their own tongue. The change most frequently introduced consists in the addition of Latin terminations. The names given by the aborigines of a country are usually descriptive of the object to which they are attached: they are epithets changed into proper names. Accordingly, we find that the names of the stations, so far as they have been deciphered by the assistance of those modern representatives of the ancient British tongue—the Gaelic and native Irish—are descriptive of the locality.
ETYMOLOGY OF SEGEDUNUM.
Segedunum is an unfortunate example to begin with. There was a Segedunum in Aquitania, the modern Rodez—a Segodunum in Northern Germany, the modern Siegen. The camp at Wallsend may have received its name from some resemblence to one of these. Still the question remains, What was the common origin of the term? Wallis thinks it is derived from the Latin seges, corn, and the Celtic dunum, a hill; but, excepting in extreme cases, an etymology dependent upon two languages can scarcely be admitted. A more consistent derivation is found in the Celtic sech, (the root of the French sec) dry, and dun, a hill. The final syllable is a Latin affix. The elevation of the spot, and its rapid slope to the river, would render it comparatively free from moisture.[[55]]
VILLAGE OF WALLSEND.
Whatever doubt may hang over the Roman name of this station, none attaches to the modern—Wallsend
... Ab illo
Dicitur, æternumque tenet per sæcula nomen.
The number of places along the course of the Wall which have derived their names from this great work, is very striking, and proves the importance that has been attached to it. Without examining a map, and simply drawing upon the resources of my own memory and note-book, the following examples occur: In Northumberland, we have Wallsend, Walker, Wall-knoll in Newcastle, Benwell, Wallbottle, Heddon-on-the-Wall, Welton, Wall-houses, Wall, Walwick, Shields-on-the-Wall, Wall-mill, Walltown, Thirlwall, and Wall-end; in Cumberland, we have Walton, Wallbours, Old-Wall, High Wallhead, Middle Wallhead, Low Wallhead, Wallby, and Wallfoot.
The present village of Wallsend is about half a mile distant from the station, a little to the north of the turnpike road. It is, however, of modern erection. Brand says that ‘an old woman, still living, remembers when the site of the present Wallsend was an empty field.’ The traditional account of its erection is, that a plague having desolated the original town, which stood upon the site of the camp, and was built out of its ruins, the terrified inhabitants forsook the spot, and sought shelter in the new locality.