Letters

Dear Editor, Mr Nicholas Fuentes' article on the Ravenna Cosmography (KAS Newsletter 24, Spring 1996) was most interesting. I am unhappy, though, with his tentative identification of Alauna town as Tonbridge. Wherever the river name Alauna came from he has proved from its position in the list of rivers that it was the Medway. Looking for a modern derivative of "Alauna", the river Len, tributary to the Medway, comes to mind. The Len enters the Medway at the tidal limit and opens up a hinterland of great economic importance, which includes the stone quarries at Boughton and the fuller's earth deposits at Bearsted, besides fine farming land of the Vale of Holmstead. My preferred candidate for the town Alauna would be Maidstone, at the junction of Medway and Len a site known to have been of importance in Roman times. Mr Alan Everitt in his book 'Continuity and Colonisation' thinks that the Len was originally (in Celtic times) called the Carey, and that the Medway is another Celtic name (pp.105,106.) If, however, Medway is Jutish in origin (Middle way ?) the Celtic name of Alauna could very well fit the Medway in 400 AD, and have been gradually transferred to the Carey in perhaps 600 AD, when the tidal river was renamed. The Alauna-silva would then be the same place as the Anderida-silva: the Weald viewed from the North rather than the South.

Yours sincerely, Anita Thompson, (Mrs).

Ed. note: Mr Fuentes reply to Mrs Thompson's letter will be published in the next Newsletter.