Note 98a — NOTES ON PARISHES ROUND HORNCASTLE. (continued 3)

The learned Dr. Oliver (“Religious Houses,” Appendix, p. 167, note 40) says, “wherever the word ‘Kir,’ or any of its derivatives, is found, it implies a former Druid temple.” This syllable forms the base of the Latin “Circulus,” and our own “Circle.” We find many interesting British names containing it; for instance, in the name of that favourite resort of tourists in North Wales, Capel Curig, we have the plural Kerig, implying the British (or Druid) sacred circle of stones, while we have also, prefixed, the translation of it by the Roman Conquerors of those Britons, “Capella,” or Chapel. As a parallel to this, we may mention, that in Wiltshire on “Temple” Downs, there are some stone Druidical remains, which are locally known by the name of “Old Chapel” (Oliver, Ibid., p. 175, note 66). Again in Kerig y Druidion, another place in North Wales, we have the sacred circle “Kerig,” directly connected with the Druids, in the suffix Druidion. There is also at Kirkby Green, near Sleaford, a spot called “Chapel Hill,” another at the neighbouring village Dorrington (“Darun” the Druid sacred oak), and also south of Coningsby, on the sacred Witham, all probably sites of Druid worship.