more than ordinary interest. It is similar to many others, such as Billinga-tun (the town of the Billings) or Wæringawic (the wic of the Wærings). Wintringatun is thus a word made up of Wintringa, gen. plural (of the Wintrings), and tun, the town—i.e., the settlement of the sons or descendants of Wintr; and Wintr is the old Danish word for Wends. The modern name is Winterton, but the old form of the word shows that it was derived from people. The district in which it is situated was subjected to great Scandinavian influence, and the old Norræna dialects were spoken by all the Scandinavian races—Norse, Swedes, Danes, and Goths[1]—and this name Winthr for Wends may thus have come down to us from its use by Northern Goths, as well as by Norse, Swedes, or Danes. As already mentioned, it survives in the form of Winter in several English counties, notably Dorset and Wiltshire, where we know Gewissas or the confederate tribes settled; and among these were numerous Northern Goths or Jutes, or others of northern speech.
In Lincolnshire, also, the custom of inheritance by the youngest son survives at Long Bennington, Thoresby, Kirton-in-Lindsey, Keadby in the Isle of Axholm,[2] and other places close to Winterton—a relic, probably, of an old Wendish custom brought in by allies of this race among the Danes or Angles.
Lincolnshire people have always been regarded as more distinctive than other parts of England in regard to their Danish descent. All the people who in ancient time were called Danes did not, however, come from Denmark, nor even that greater Denmark which included part of Sweden. There were so-called Danes in the Danish hosts who did not come either from Scandinavia or Denmark and its islands, as the evidence already brought forward shows.
Bearing these facts in mind, it will not be surprising to
