Sunday
Oct172010
A Taste of Home
Sunday, October 17, 2010 at 11:33PM
Would you believe it? In the past week or so, despite being 5,000 miles from home, I have driven through London, Cambridge, and Bristol. Oh, I also made a quick pass through Denmark, Belgium and Holland.
Funnily enough, London was actually a little smaller than Cambridge, and Cambridge had a huge population totalling 1,200 people. Now correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that the population of Cambridge, according to the 2001 census, was over 108,000. Well that would be true of the original Cambridge, a centuries old settlement in the UK, home to one of the best universities in the world.
Cambridge, Wisconsin however, is much smaller. Not really much to say about it, though it was pleasant enough to drive through, with nothing untoward happening there.
There must be hundreds and hundreds of towns and cities across the UK with names commonly associated with England: Manchester, New Hampshire; Birmingham, Alabama; New York, New York. If the language doesn't do it for you, then this commonality of names surely indicates the close ties of the two countries. With colonists coming over from England, why would they bother inventing new names, when they can just use those they brought from home, and undoubtedly felt strong attachments to.
The number of English town names in Wisconsin does surprise me a little, for I was under the impression that it's inhabitants largely emigrated here from Scandinavian countries, Germany, and a few from Italy. As far as I am aware, Madison is named after one of the Founding Fathers and subsequent President, James Madison.
And if they are not European sounding names, then they surely originate from the original inhabitants of this area... Native Americans. It's hard to see towns such as Waukesha, Kaukauna, Wausau and Manitowoc as possessing anything other than Indian names.
Funnily enough, London was actually a little smaller than Cambridge, and Cambridge had a huge population totalling 1,200 people. Now correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that the population of Cambridge, according to the 2001 census, was over 108,000. Well that would be true of the original Cambridge, a centuries old settlement in the UK, home to one of the best universities in the world.
Cambridge, Wisconsin however, is much smaller. Not really much to say about it, though it was pleasant enough to drive through, with nothing untoward happening there.
There must be hundreds and hundreds of towns and cities across the UK with names commonly associated with England: Manchester, New Hampshire; Birmingham, Alabama; New York, New York. If the language doesn't do it for you, then this commonality of names surely indicates the close ties of the two countries. With colonists coming over from England, why would they bother inventing new names, when they can just use those they brought from home, and undoubtedly felt strong attachments to.
The number of English town names in Wisconsin does surprise me a little, for I was under the impression that it's inhabitants largely emigrated here from Scandinavian countries, Germany, and a few from Italy. As far as I am aware, Madison is named after one of the Founding Fathers and subsequent President, James Madison.
And if they are not European sounding names, then they surely originate from the original inhabitants of this area... Native Americans. It's hard to see towns such as Waukesha, Kaukauna, Wausau and Manitowoc as possessing anything other than Indian names.
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