ABSTRACT
One of the most crucial problems of early English history is that of the extent to which the British population survived the impact of the Anglo-Saxon settlement. The failure of genuine Brittonic formations to impress themselves on English place-nomenclature and the monotonous repetition of topographical elements in the so-called British place-names carry a strong warning against overestimating the extent to which the Britons and the English were in contact with each other when such names arose. In a later age the tautological Pendle received a secondary explanatory hill, with the result that Pendle Hill means the hill hill hill! for they imply that the neighbouring Anglo-Saxons had heard but did not know the meaning of these common Celtic words. The etymology of the name Dumyat is not in dispute, but about eight years ago two students of the Picts attempted to assess its historical implications.
