Port strictly means an enclosed place, for sale and purchase, a market: for “Portus est conclusus locus, quo importantur merces, et inde exportantur. Est et statio conclusa et munita.” (Thorpe, i. p. 158.)
Wíc is originally vicus, a vill or village. It is strictly used to denote the country-houses of communities, kings or bishops.
Ceaster seems universally derived from castrum, and denotes a place where there has been a Roman station. Now every one of these conditions may concur in one single place, and we accordingly find much looseness in the use of the terms: thus,
London is called Lundenwíc[[1037]], Hhoðh. § 16. Chron. 604: but Lundenburh or Lundenbyrig, Chron. 457, 872, 886, 896, 910, 994, 1009, 1013, 1016, 1052. And it was also a port, for we find its geréfa, a port-geréfa. Again York, sometimes Eoferwíc, sometimes Eoferwíc-ceaster (Chron. 971) is also said to be a burh, Chron. 1066. Dovor is called a burh, Chron. 1048; but a port, Chron. 1052. So again Hereford, in Chron. 1055, 1056, is called a port, but in Chron. 1055 also a burh. Nor do the Latin chroniclers help us out of the difficulty; on the contrary, they continually use the words oppidum, civitas, urbs and even arx to denote the same place.
The Saxon Chronicle mentions the undernamed cities:—
Ægeles byrig, now Aylesbury in Bucks. Chron. Sax. 571, 921.
Acemannes ceaster or Baðan byrig, often called also Æt baðum or Æt hátum baðum, the Aquae Solis of the Romans and now Bath in Somerset. This town in the year 577 was taken from the British. The Chronicle calls it Baðanceaster: see also Chron. 973.
Ambresbyrig, now Amesbury, Wilts. Chron. 995.
Andredesceaster. Anderida, sacked by Ælli. Chron. 495. Most probably near the site of the present Pevensey: see a very satisfactory paper by Mr. Hussey, Archæol. Journal, No. 15, Sept. 1847.
Baddanbyrig, now Badbury, Dorset. Chron. 901.