equally incorrect. The settlements in the neighbourhood must have occupied
the margin of the marshes in close proximity to one another, and most of
them from the suffix "ton" would appear to have been the "tuns" or
fortified villages named after the family who founded them. Thus we find
between Pickering and Scarborough at the present time a string of eleven
villages bearing the names Thornton, Wilton, Allerston, Ebberston,
Snainton, Brompton, Ruston, Hutton (Buscel of Norman origin), Sawdon,
Ayton and Irton. In the west and south there are Middleton, Cropton,
Wrelton, Sinnington, Appleton, Nawton, Salton, Marton, Edston or Edstone,
Habton, (Kirby) Misperton, Ryton, Rillington, and many others. Other
Anglo-Saxon settlements indicating someone's ham or home would appear to
have been made at Levisham, Yedingham and Lastingham. Riseborough seems to
suggest the existence of some Anglo-Saxon fortress on that very suitable
elevation in the Vale of Pickering. Barugh, a little to the south, can
scarcely be anything else than a corruption of "buhr" or "burg," for the
Anglian invaders, if they found the small Roman camp that appears to have
been established on that slight eminence in the vale would have probably
found it a most convenient site for one of their own fortifications. Names
ending with "thorpe," such as Kingthorpe, near Pickering, also indicate an
Anglo-Saxon origin. Traces of the "by" or "byr," a single dwelling or
single farm of the Danes, are to be found thickly dotted over this part of
England, but in the immediate neighbourhood of Pickering there are only
Blansby, Dalby, Farmanby, Aislaby, Roxby, and Normanby. To the east near
Scarborough there are Osgodby, Killerby, Willerby, Flotmanby, and
Hunmanby, so that it would appear that the strong community of Anglo-Saxon
villages along the margin of the vale kept the Danish settlers at a
distance.

[Illustration: The Tower of Middleton Church near Pickering.