_Folkestone_ (Vol. vi., p. 507.).--Various etymologies have been given with
a view of arriving at the right one for this town. I have to inform you
that the places of that part of Kent where Folkeston, so properly spelt on
the seal of the ancient priory, is situated, receive their etymologies from
local or geological distinctions. Folkeston forms no exception to the
general rule. The soil consists of a most beautiful yellow sand, such as
the {167} Romans distinguished by the word _Fulvus_. This the Saxons
contracted into Fulk, which word has become a family prenomen, as in
Fulke-Greville, Fulk-Brooke; in other terms, the yellow Greville or yellow
Brook; and Folkeston is nothing more than the yellow town, so called from
the nature of the soil on which it is built.