AT a meeting of the Royal Anthropological Institute held on June 27, Prof. A. Mawer, of the University of Liverpool, read a paper on “A Survey of English Place-names.” He said that from the earliest times the value of place-names as a possible source of historical knowledge has been recognised. Much early history has frankly been invented from them, and historians have speculated freely as to their meaning. More recently, scholars like Kemble have seen the possibilities latent in place-names; but until Prof. Skeat first put place-name study on its only secure basis, namely, the study of the early forms of the names, most of the work in this direction was only idle speculation. Conducted on scientific lines, place-name study could do much to throw fresh light on the dark places in the history of our country and its civilisation, where we had no documentary evidence or only such as has long been worn threadbare. Place-names and archaeology are the only unworked sources of evidence still remaining open to us, and these studies should be conducted in close touch with one another. With the aid of place-names, not only should we have fresh light on long-standing problems, but we should also be furnished with excellent illustrations of many phases of our history and culture.