The "dover" in the
town-name is probably the pre-Celtic root which meets the traveller
when he arrives at Dover and greets him again in unsuspected places
from the "dor" in Dorchester and the Falls of Lodore to the "der" in
Derwent and smoky Darwen. All have the same meaning--_water_; and
"an," strangely enough, is a later and Celtic word for the same
element, the equally ubiquitous "afon." So that Andover should be a
place of many waters, which it is not. A small stream--the
Anton--flows almost unnoticed through the town, though its name seems
to have been given occasionally to the whole of the longer Test that
it meets a few miles to the south.
Written records of Andover before Wessex became a kingdom do not
exist. But scraps of tessellated pavement in the vicinity show that it
was a locality well known to the Romans, and the Port Way, that great
thoroughfare of the Empire, passed within half a mile of the modern
railway junction. In 994, Olaus, King of Norway, is said to have been
baptized here, his sponsor being Ethelred the Unready. The town
received its charter from King John and took part in the disagreement
between Stephen and Matilda, when it had the misfortune to be burnt.
Pages:
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457