Sir,
I am so strongly in sympathy with the view that the co-operation of topographers is essential if place-name
studies are to be put upon a sure basis that to prevent
misunderstanding I had better, perhaps, define my own attitude toward the matter, which is also that of those who are
responsible for the Survey of English Place-names. It is that no explanation of a place-name based upon a study of its
old forms should be offered if it is inconsistent with the known topographical facts. If, however, the co-operation is
to be a full and just one, it is equally important to recognise the converse of that proposition, viz. that no
explanation of a name based upon topographical considerations alone can be accepted if it is inconsistent with the early
forms of the name. I ventured to criticise Mr. Watkins’s views only so far as they seemed not to fulfil this
second condition of place-name interpretation.
Yours, etc.,
Allen Mawer.
Director,
Survey of English Place-names,
The University, Liverpool.
November 6, 1922.
[This letter from Professor Mawer is a reply to a letter by Mr. Alfred Watkins which appeared in the last number of Discovery.—Ed.]
Source info: Found in library.