, - *V7„ -'-' 
 
 B E 7^1 fi33 
 
RK ELEY 
 
 5RARY 
 
 VERSITY OF 
 ^LIFORNIA 
 
LOCAL ETYMOLOGY; 
 
 OR 
 
 NAMES OF PLACES IN THE BRITISH ISLES, 
 
 AND IN OTHER PARTS OF TEE WORLD, 
 
 EXPLAINED & ILLUSTRATED 
 
 WITH 
 
 )iOTICES OF SURNAMES AND OBSOLETE WORDS 
 
 BY W. A. WILLIAMSON, M.C.P. 
 
 3Lontinn : 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
 
 CARLISLE: JAMES STEEL. 
 
 1849. 
 
CARLISLE : 
 
 Printed by James Steel, Jovirnal Ofiicc, 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 The prevailing taste for mattera of antiquity in the pre- 
 sent day is, perhaps, the principal reason for the author's 
 taking up this subject. The fragmental evidence of past 
 times which the names of places afford, is the first step 
 in the inquiry ; and since, in all probability, as much is now 
 known of the ancient languages of Europe as ever will be 
 known, the subject can never be in a better state for investi- 
 tion. But etymological speculation has ever been accounted 
 vague and unsatisfactory, and so in some degi'ee it is ; never- 
 theless there are certain general principles belonging to it, 
 which are as capable of being conducted to rational conclu- 
 sions as those of any other subject. The author is, there- 
 fore, fully aware of the devious and uncertain nature of the 
 ground he treads, and though he often takes his own road, 
 he always first ascertains the direction in which it leads ; 
 that is, he avails himself of the best guides where necessary, 
 and when these fail he follows analogy, which is better 
 
 498 
 
4 
 
 than weak precedent. And further, to avoid mistake and 
 misapprehension, no name is given in any language of which 
 the anthor is not himself, in some degree, a judge. The 
 ancient Celtic language with its dialects ; the Teutonic with 
 its branches ; Hebrew and those languages called classical, 
 are the ground-work of the design; but of such out- 
 landish names as Andes^ metal mountains ; Mississippi, 
 mother of waters ; Hydrdbad, Hyder's town, the author 
 knows nothing but what others say who profess to under- 
 stand the tongues in which they appear. 
 
 All names are printed in the English letter, for the greater 
 facility of pronunciation ; and particular attention has been 
 given to render the word so represented equivalent both in 
 sound and sense. Such a work in literature seems plainly 
 wanting to fill up the chasm that exists between operose 
 works on etymology and the wants of the common reader ; 
 — a handy depository of those antiquated, and recondite 
 matters which occasionally fall in every one's way in con- 
 versational intercourse. The author makes free use of all 
 comments and glosses that come in his way, to relieve and 
 illustrate his topics ; and that too without fearing to forego 
 the small measure of originality that is usually awarded to 
 works of this kind. For every one who makes a book 
 brings something of his own to the labour of others, and hav- 
 ing moulded the mass to the model in his own mind, he may 
 
5 
 
 fairly lay claim to authorship, though it be indifferently 
 performed. 
 
 A principal object in a work of this kind is scholastic 
 precision, and this object has been present throughout ; yet, 
 after all, errors and oversights may, and probably do, exist 
 in so multitudinous a mass of verbal analysis as is here 
 brought together ; but the author hopes that all such will be 
 indulgently scanned in a popular exposition of an abstruse 
 subject. 
 
 Carlisle, June 1, 1849. 
 
LOCAL ETYMOLOGY. 
 
 Local Etymology is speaking antiquity. For the names 
 of places were once words of common parlance, like those 
 now in use ; but becoming obsolete, through the people 
 using them becoming extinct, or antiquated, from the change 
 which time brings on things in common, they have lost 
 their place in the vocabulary of living words, and are now 
 mere terms, found only in the names of the places which 
 they designate. There, however, they are permanently writ- 
 ten — legible records of other peoples, speaking other lan- 
 guages, and inhabiting those places before the present 
 races ; and in every part of Europe there is thus a local 
 nomenclature, composed of tiie fragments of the languages 
 of its early inhabitants. Those early inhabitants can not 
 now easily be made out ; but a consideration of the ancient 
 names of places would lead us to the people called Celts^ celh\ 
 chille, coille, woodmen, of whom the Irish or Celts proper, 
 the Welsh or Cymraeg, and the Highlanders or Gael, are thet 
 descendants — and who seem to be the first of mankind that 
 came into Europe. Of the Grecian Cadmus, we take little 
 notice ; that story has all the air of a fable, and so it reads 
 
8 
 
 by interpretation. The name Cadmus is the oriental Ka- 
 dem^ the east, with a dassical termination ; Holek Kadmah^ 
 towards the east, is the expression, Genesis ii., and 14 : 
 and the Cadmonites mentioned in chapter xv., were so 
 called because they dwelt in the eastern part of the country, 
 near mount Hermon. All the incidents of the story are 
 fabulous. Cadmus brings an alphabet from the east, which 
 signifies the elements of learning and civilization coming 
 originally from that part of the world, as all mankind are 
 now agreed, and he comes from a province of Palestine, 
 the birth-place of the human race, and he proceeds west- 
 wards, the direction of civilization, which completes the 
 allegory. The fable was beautifully imagined, serving 
 the two-fold purpose of making the Greeks the inventors 
 of letters and arts and the aborigines of their own country, 
 a thing they were particularly emulous of, and therefore 
 called themselves Autochthones^ autos-chthon, children of 
 the earth, and thence the name of their most famous state 
 Attica. To make out their claim to this antiquity, they 
 disguised in fable almost every thing they found before 
 them of history and philosophy ; many of their apologues, 
 like that of Pandora, are mere metamorphoses of ancient 
 records. These facts, together with those rising immediately 
 out of our subject, show that there were people and languages 
 in Europe before the Greeks had a literature, or even a na- 
 tional name. By reference to the source of all history, we 
 find people very early stirring and moving off in colonies ; 
 the story of Cadmus refers to a circumstance of this kind, 
 not to a person, and is therefore of general application in 
 the history and progress of society. The people driven from 
 Palestine, (Philistine,) by the Jews, migrated to various 
 parts of the world, as best suited them \ and a colony set- 
 
ting out from that country, and keeping by the shores of 
 the Mediterranean— all migrating people keep by the sea — 
 would finally arrive at the land's end of Africa ; and thence, 
 passing the Straits of Gibraltar, come into Spain, Gaul, 
 and Britain. Indeed, such a route is on record. Proco- 
 pius and other historians mention certain monumental in- 
 scriptions found in that part of Africa, the ancient Mauri- 
 tania, now Algiers, purporting to be commemorative of the 
 arrival there of certain fugitives driven from their native 
 country in the wars of Moses and Joshua. This was the 
 probable ingress of the first inhabitants of Europe, the Celts ; 
 they might, therefore, be as properly styled Cadmus? 
 Kadem, as the Grecian, for they are eastern in customs and 
 national character. 
 
 Theu' priests too, the Druids, especially famous among 
 the Britons, were eastern both in name and religious rites. 
 The common appellative druid^ is of drushim, interpreters, 
 inquu'ers, of drusli^ translated " consulter," Dent. xvm. 
 11 ; and la-drush, " to seek," 2 Chron. xv. 12. So also 
 the oriental name Darius, asking, arises, as we are assured 
 by Herodotus, from the first Persian monarch of that name 
 inquiring concerning the neighing of a horse which was to 
 d'ecide the election to the throne. The Druids, thus a 
 colony of the ancient magi, brought with them all that 
 ritual of fire, stones, oak groves, and serpents, so common 
 in the east, in early ages, and so frequently mentioned in 
 the Bible. Many of their customs still remain in these 
 islands, as that of lighting bonfires on the hills at certain 
 seasons ; of passing cattle through flame to preserve them 
 from elf-shot and sporadics, now called need-fire, or neat-fire, 
 from nyten, cattle, and thus put in remembrance by Scott: — 
 
 " The ardent page with hurried hand, 
 Awak'd the need-Jire's slumh'ring hrand." 
 
10 
 
 It was, therefore, subversive of all evidence of language, 
 and of tradition, to derive tlie name druid fi'om the Greek 
 drus^ an oals, because those ancient priests had that tree in 
 veneration ; and it was credulous to believe them Greeks, 
 from what Cassar is presumed to say of them, namely, that 
 they used Greeds Uteris^ Greek letters, since that expres- 
 sion is plainly a simple corruption or wilful interpolation of 
 crasis Uteris^ gi'oss or thick letters in the manner of the 
 eastern alphabets. In thus tracing the origin of the Druids, 
 we are at the same time noting the advent of the Celts to 
 Europe ; they are coeval, and are first mentioned together. 
 Much, therefore, of the early learning and civilization 
 ascribed to other nations belongs to the Celts. This is par- 
 ticularly noticed by Phurnutus, an old Greek, {Nat. Deo- 
 rum., cap. 17,) m the passage beginning " Tou de pollasy 
 " Of the many and various fables Avhicli the ancient Greeks 
 had about the Gods, some were derived from the magi, 
 some from the Egyptians, and some fi'om the Kelta^ Celts." 
 Hence, also, much of that language which we have been 
 accustomed to call classical has its origin in Celtic, as will 
 appear occasionally in the sequel. 
 
 But it is in the names of places that this old language 
 becomes most interesting ; for though many races succeeded 
 the aborigines, changing names and things to suit their own 
 views of conquest or possession, yet many of the ancient 
 names retain almost their original form. This is particu- 
 larly the case with those ancient and undisturbed features 
 of nature, mountains and rivers, and we shall here note a 
 few of each as the beginning of the inquiry. Alps., Celtic, 
 alp., a height, an eminence. Appoimes, ar-pen, ar being 
 an intensive particle enforcing the meaning, and pen, a 
 head. Plinlimmon, blacn-llyma, high bare, the bare height, 
 a mouDtain of Wales. Talhin., talcen, a brow; Ilelvellyn, 
 
11 
 
 haul-felyn, sun-burnt, tlie sun-burnt hill ; Cowran^ cwm, 
 a spire, a pile ; Skiddmv, siad-dau, two tops, remarkable 
 for two peaks ; — mountains of Cumberland. 
 
 The Celtic language was very copious in expressing 
 the names of hills, according to their sizes, and forms ; as 
 dun^pen, cruach, mullach^ sliabh, tullach^ ard^ tora. This 
 last makes our old word torra^ once common, but now 
 grown quite obsolete. It forms the names of many hills 
 and mountains : Torpenliovi\ tora-pen-how, a group of 
 mountains in Cumberland. Tortliorwald^ tor-Thor-wald, 
 Thor's hill in the wald, Dumfries-shire. Tara, tora, a cele- 
 brated hill of Ireland ; Maghtury^ magh-tora, hill plain ; 
 and Im'store, inis-tora, hill island, in the same country. 
 
 This name gives origin to the celebrated political saw, 
 tojy^ which arose in Ireland, thus. On the ruin of Charles 
 the Fu'st's cause in that country, his followers, taking to the 
 mountains for safety, a practice still common in that country 
 with fugitives, were jibed in their native tongue, by their 
 political enemies with being tora, mountain-men, runaways ; 
 wherefore we find in Golius — " to?y, silvestris, montana^ 
 avis, homo, et utrumque ullus hand ibi est."* "Sut this was 
 only a new application of an old word that had existed in 
 Ireland ages before, for certain robbers that kept the moun- 
 tains, the subject of many a tale and way-side adventure ; 
 and at the time in w^hich the word took its political turn, 
 1650, we find them mentioned as common annoyances to 
 the public. In the articles of the capitulation of Kilkenny, 
 signed by Cromwell, the third article, stipulating for the 
 evacuation of the town by the royal party, proceeds thus — 
 " that the said governor, with all the officers and soldiers 
 
 * The passage means that whatever inhahits mountains and woods 
 is a Tory. 
 
12 
 
 under his command, in the said city and castle, shall march 
 out of the town, two miles distant, with their arms, and 
 with their drums beating, colours flying, and matches 
 lighted ; and there and then deliver up their said arms to 
 such as shall be appointed to receive them, except an hun- 
 dred muskets, and an hundred pikes allowed them for their 
 defence against the tones." 
 
 In like manner most rivers retain their ancient Celtic 
 names. Tyber^ tobair, a well, the famed river at Rome. 
 Tweedy taosac, chief, the principal river in Scotland, the 
 Roman Tuesis. Read^ rhead, a current, a river of Northum- 
 berland. Sivale^ swla, dirty, muddy, a river of Yorkshire. 
 Trent^ trent, force, violence, so named from the fall of the 
 current in this very crooked river. Severn^ sefyd-llyn, 
 stagnant-pool, which in some places, as about Shrewsbury, 
 is one of the most sluggish rivers in England. Liffy^ llif, a 
 flood, a river at Dublin. Shannon^ sean-nant, old brook, 
 so called from being said to be the first river that broke out 
 in Ireland after the creation. Gelt^ gallt, a rock, a little 
 rocky river of Cumberland, in which are " the written rocks 
 of Gelt." Caldew, called by the common people Cauda^ 
 chwydd-aw, swelling-water, a river of the same county, 
 falling into the Eden, and remarkable for rising swiftly after 
 rain. Fyars, Gaelic /war, rapid, a little river celebrated in 
 characteristic terms by Burns : — 
 
 " Amang the heathy hUls, and rugged woods, 
 The roaring Fyars pours his mossy floods." 
 
 In Welsh, the term taf signifies a spread, expanse, as 
 of water ; and thence Tafe^ a river of Wales on which 
 is Landaff^ Llan-taf. The Welsh term wrjre signifies the 
 same thing ; and thence Wyre^ a river of Lancashire ; and 
 Wear, a river of Durham. The term tain means still the 
 
13 
 
 same ; and thence Teign and Tijne^ the name of several 
 rivers of Britain. 
 
 In examining the ancient local names of Europe, we 
 find them in each of the three Celtic dialects, — Welsh, 
 Gaelic, and Irish ; and each of these setting np claims of 
 precedence. In general, the claims to high antiquity set up 
 by the Welsh, are well made out, by then* ancient customs, 
 and by the numerous primitive words in their tongue. 
 Among the latter we notice the word bara^ Hebrew, Jar, 
 bread, bread-corn, the origin of our old term in cookery, 
 bara-picklets^ cakes made of fine flour. This gi-ain is well 
 known as &ere, big, or old-fashioned barley ; the poet shews 
 its season : — 
 
 " Its wearin now on to the tail of May, 
 And just atween the 'beer-seed and the hay." — Ferguson. 
 
 This grain is first mentioned by this name in Dooms- 
 day Book, where an agricultural village or community is 
 called a Berwica, bere-wic, corn-town ; which term is still 
 acknowledged in English by berton, a farm as distinguished 
 from a manor, and by barton^ a farm -yard — the "barton 
 cock :" as places take the names of the things they produce, 
 so several places in England are called Berwick^ Berton^ 
 and Barton. 
 
 A Welshman, moreover, calls himself Cymraeg^ Cim- 
 ber, Gomerite ; maintains that he is the ancient Briton ; 
 and points to the ancient local names in confirmation, and 
 to that of Cumberland in particular, as the patronjnnic of 
 his race. 
 
 " Among her mighty wilds and mountains, freed from fear, 
 And from the British race residing long time here, 
 Which in their genuine tongue themselves did Kimbri name, 
 Of Kimbri-land, the name of Cumberland, first came." 
 
 Drayton's Polyolbion. 
 
14 
 
 It appears, however, that there are many ancient local 
 names in this country that cannot be traced to the Welsh 
 tongue. For instance, the word uisce, uiske, water, and 
 from which we have our common term whisky^ is not in the 
 Welsh tongue, but peculiar to Gaelic and Irish, yet making 
 the names of many places in all parts of Britain. Thus 
 Usk^ uisc^, a river of Wales, on which is the town of that 
 name ; Esky a river of Yorkshire, one of Cumberland, and 
 one of Scotland ; and the English rivers Exe^ Ouse^ and Isis. 
 Kow, had this word uisce ever been in the Welsh tongue, it 
 could not easily be lost ; and its absence there, yet making 
 the names of so many places in the island, raises a doubt, 
 after all, as to who were the " Ancient Britons." 
 
 To the Celts in Europe, succeeded many other nations, 
 as the Teutones^ thuath-duine, northmen ; the Germans^ 
 wehrmanner, warriors ; and the Saxons^ sassens, settlers, 
 all giving names to place, in their own way, and their own 
 language ; and thus the subject of local etymology presents 
 a motley mass of verbal miscellany. Local names, how- 
 ever, always arise from one common principle, namely, 
 some quality or circumstance of the place ; and with this 
 guide, we proceed with a general view of the subject. 
 
 Local names arise from the nature and disposition of 
 ground. A plain level space the Saxons called asmoethe, 
 smooth, whence the names of many places in England, in 
 the form smeth and smith ; as Smetham^ smooth-ham, the 
 name of two villages of Yorkshire ; Smithwick, smoethe-wic, 
 Cheshire ; and Smithfidd^ smooth field, tiie celebrated 
 cattle market in London. 
 
 A naked and barren piece of ground was called a hare^ 
 from which arose our old term bare, a bowling-green. So 
 Barham^ bare-ham, Essex ; Barley^ bare-leag, leag^ a field, 
 
15 
 
 a town of Herts ; Barrock^ bare-rock, Cumberland. In 
 Id names this word becomes beria^ berry ^ and even bury ; 
 for Matthew Paris shows that *S'^. Edmundsbury^ SntFolk, is 
 so named from the beria^ bare, or open plain around it. 
 
 Local names arise from the general appearance or aspect 
 of the place. The old word shene^ shining, signifies a place 
 of beauty and freshness. Whence Shenton^ shene-tun, a vil- 
 lage of Salop ; Shenhampton^ shene-ham-tun, a village of 
 Gloucester ; Senhouse, shene-house, a surname. Skene, 
 the old name of Richmond-on-Thames, so called from its 
 verdant beautv, and the most charming of rural poets ap- 
 proves the title : — 
 
 " ' or ascend, 
 
 While radiant summer opens all its pride, 
 Thy hill, delightful Skene." 
 
 Local names arise from climate. So Buenos Ayres, 
 good au- ; Wether al., a high standing village of Cumberland, 
 is weather-hill, exposed ; and so also Wetherly, Lincoln, and 
 Wetherby, Yorkshire. The word weather, originally weder, 
 signifies storm, and therefore Waterford, a part of Ireland, 
 is weder-fiord, storm bay, so named by the Danes. So too, 
 Scotia^ Scotland, from the Greek Skotos, dark, gloomy, dark- 
 ness and gloom being the characteristics of its mountain 
 regions in all time. Etymologists have, indeed, sought a 
 higher origin of this name — in Scytfaa, and in Pharoah's 
 daughter Scota^ but all with no satisfactory issue. The 
 Scots, as a colony of the Scythians, have been brought from 
 Ireland — a circumstance which the Roman poet Claudian 
 commemorates : — 
 
 cum Scotus Hihernem 
 
 Movit, et infesto, spumavit remige thetis." 
 
 " When /Scots came thund'ring from the Irish shore, 
 And ocean trembled, struck with hostile oar." 
 
16 
 
 It would, however, take a prodigious deal of reading 
 and reasoning to confirm any of these conjectm-es. Mac- 
 pherson, the sturdiest of the Scottish antiquaries, altogether 
 denies the Scythic-Irlsh descent ; and there are several other 
 reasons against those theories. The ancient native name of 
 the country is Caledonia^ coille-dun, wood-hill country. 
 The ancient British name is Alban^ that is upland; whence 
 Bradalbane^ braidd-alban, extremity of Alban, the boundary 
 cf the ancient Aibanii. Lastly, the country took the name 
 of Scotia only in the beginning of the third century, a time 
 when countries were likely to change their ancient names 
 for classical ones ; that is, after the Greek and Roman navi- 
 gators, geographers, and historians had written and specu- 
 lated on the several countries of Europe. 
 
 Places take names from natural productions. Thus, 
 Octon^ Oak-town. Stepneij^ Stibenhede, Stephens'-heath. 
 Salcy Forest^ Northamptonshire, is Sallow Forest, where 
 the willows grow. Ashbij-de-la-Zouch, French, seche, dry, 
 the dry ash, is a town of Leicestershire. Perth, Celtic- 
 Welsh, perth, a bush, the country of bushes. Drone, Celtic 
 draen, a thorn, ancient village of Scotland. Elmley, elm- 
 leag, elm-field, Salop. The Latin of elm being ulmus, and 
 the Greek, ptelea, we have Pteleum, an ancient city of 
 Greece described as so called, a copia idmorum, — from the 
 abundance of elms. Kilkeel, Celtic-Irish, Chille-ceal, 
 flower wood, a town of Ii-eland. The place of the first 
 vineyard in Britain is still called Vine. A particular kind of 
 smooth stone called by the Saxons haen, from which is our 
 word hone, a razor-stone, gives name to all the Hanlcys and 
 Henleys in England. Ampthill, Bedfordshire, is the Saxon 
 ampt, ant, emmet, an ant-hill. The old name for a rabbit, 
 coney, gives name to Conishy, Cunningham, and the several 
 
17 
 
 Tkwaite, Bumthwaite, biirn-thwaite ; Moorthivaite, moor- 
 tliwaite, and otlicr places in Cumberland. Tkivaite, a town 
 of Sussex ; and Tluiydtes^ a surname. 
 
 Land let out in grazing was called gis-ground^ the 
 custom agistment^ and tlie person letting it gist-taker ; all of 
 theFrencli gite^ and the older form giste^ a bed, a lair, where 
 cattle lay out during the season. Hence the names of 
 many places : Gistham^ glste-ham, Suffolk ; Gisborn^ Gis- 
 borough, towns of Yorkshire ; Nether- Gitting^ Temple- 
 Gating^ Gloucester. 
 
 Land burnt, and dried, was called sart^ seared, of the 
 Saxon verb searan, to burn : " seared as with a hot iron/' 
 says Paul ; " The sere and yellow leaf," says Shakespeare. 
 Places in a dry and parched situation, or expopcd to the 
 sun, were expressed by the same word. AVhence many 
 local names : Sart, a village of Ilerefordshu'e ; Sarum, 
 sere-ham, Wilts, on a dry hill ; Salisbury^ formerly Searis- 
 byrig, the new town in a valley. 
 
 Land lying lee or in grass, Saxon, griss, gives name to 
 several places. The old word gratton, is a contraction of 
 gi'ass-town, and thence Gratton, griss-tiin, a village of 
 Northamptonshire; and Gretna, the same, a village of 
 Dumfriesshire ; and the surname Grattan. GrrxecJmrch, 
 London, is grass-church, being the site of an ancient grass- 
 market. 
 
 Land laid up in fallow, Saxon faleive, pale red, from 
 the colour, gives name to many places : Falloicfield, Nor- 
 thumberland ; Tup-Fallow, Somerset. With the country 
 people, the word h faugh, as in Ferguson's Pastorals : — 
 
 "You saw yersel how weel my mailin thrave, 
 Ay better /augr/i'd, and snodit than the lave." 
 
 So Faugh, a village of Cumberland, cast of Carlisle. 
 
18 
 
 Any part of land laid up in reserve was called a hain- 
 ing^ a saving ; hain being an old form of the verb have, as 
 said of the gudedame's cheese : — 
 
 " The damfe brings forth in complimental mood, 
 To grace the lad, her weel-/iam'd feebbuck fell." 
 
 So the names of several places. Haining^ an ancient 
 hamlet of Cumberland ; Foxleyliennmg^ in the west of the 
 same county; and '^ Haimri's valiant Will," Eoxburgh- 
 shire. 
 
 Places take name from particular kinds of land mea- 
 sures. A wang was a large indefinite tract of ground, or 
 open field ; a wliang^ a lump, a slash of any thing. Hence 
 Wingjield, wang-field ; Wetwang, Herts ; and the numerous 
 places in Germany called Wange?i. A hide was as much 
 as a yoke of oxen could cultivate in a year, — what could 
 be taken out of their hide. Hence the several places in 
 England called Hide and Hi/de. The carncate was also a 
 plough-land, of the French charrue^ a plough ; a term which 
 we often find mentioned in old writings, and thence the 
 several places called Caraie^ and Currig : and Currick^ a 
 hamlet in the vicinity of Carlisle. 
 
 A stang^ originally meaning a pole, signifies also a land 
 measure, and is thus defined in Sir Henry Piers' Descrip- 
 tion of Westraeath: — "They usually divide a field into 
 acres, half acres, and stangs, that is, roods." Hence seve- 
 ral local names : Garstang, garth stang, a town of Lanca- 
 shire ; Mellerstang.1 the miller's stang, a village of Wes-- 
 moreland. 
 
 Tlie tath was another agrarian measure, containing 
 sixty acres, as noted in Sir John Davis' Survey of L-eland. 
 — " That every bally betagh, which signifies in the Irish 
 tongue a town-land, contains sixteen tatlis^ and Qxavy tath 
 
19 
 
 sixty acres English, or thereabouts." So the local names 
 Tatliam^ tath-ham ; Tefhury* 
 
 Local names arise from the divisions and boundaries. 
 Thus, Shire^ of scyre^ to divide, separate, is the common 
 termination of counties — Downsliire^ Devonshire; Shire- 
 stones separating Cumberland from Lancashire. This word 
 had the figurative sense of separating liquors by decant- 
 ing ; " shire the whey from the curds.*" It also takes the 
 form sheer^ and the sense clear, pure, entire. 
 
 " Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling.'" 
 
 So many local names : Sheerness, sheer-ness, clear point 
 in the Medway ; Shej-horn^ clear burn, a town of Dorset- 
 shire, having a brook running through it. The word shore^ 
 separation of land and water, is still the same ; Windsor^ 
 winding shore, on the Thames. The word becomes com- 
 pounded in the term Sheriffs shu'e-reeve, governor of a 
 shu'e ; reeve being a corruption of grave^ a count, a warden. 
 In Scotland, greve is a hind, a husbandman, and the sur- 
 name Grieve. In the old divisions of the shire into lathes 
 and rapes, trithing^ three-thing, was the third part ; whence, 
 by an easy corruption, the Ridings of Yorkshu'e. 
 
 In Saxon, Sceadan, and the Tentonu Scheiden, also sig- 
 nify to divide, separate, shed. Hence Sheading, the common 
 name of the counties in the Isle of Man, whereof there are 
 six ; and also Shedand, shed-land, those northern islands 
 being supposed'to be shed or separated from the mainland 
 of Scotland. 
 
 * Whey is the serum or watery part of milk ; ickig is icentit, wended 
 or turned huttermilk, run to whey and curd ; and, figuratively, it is the 
 nick-name of a party. It arose in Scotland thus. The Covenanters living 
 commonly in the fields, and feeding much on milk, they, as well as other 
 political recusants^ were called hy the court-party, in contempt, Whigs. 
 
 b2 
 
20 
 
 The bonndary or separation of lands was called a mear^ 
 whence the old terms mearn^ a march, and mear-stone, a 
 boundary stone. And here again we have recourse to Sir 
 Henry Piers' Description of Westmcath for illustration : — 
 " It is usual with them here to have ten or twelve ploughs 
 going in one small field ; nevertheless, every one hath tillage 
 distinct, though all appear fenced in by one mear or boun- 
 dary." Hence the names Marehurn^ mear-burn, a little 
 river separating the counties of Dumfries and Roxburgh ; 
 and Mereburn^ another separating Cumberland and Nor- 
 thumberland at Alstonmoor. 
 
 Local names arise from predial and manorial customs. 
 The term blench^ denotes a land tenure in which the rent 
 was paid in blanc^ or white mone}^, from a French coin of 
 that name ; and thence the land itself came to be so de- 
 signated. Hence many places : Blanchland^ bleuch-land, 
 a town of Northumberland ; BJandford^ Dorsetshire, called 
 in Doomsday-Book, Blencford, where are several other 
 places of the same name. 
 
 Like to this was mai/le, another French coin, which 
 name is familiar to us in black mail, blanc-maille, white 
 money formerly levied by the free-booters. From being 
 the coin in which rent was paid, a farm was called a 
 mailin ; and so Burns : — 
 
 " O nae worth the siller that is sae prevailin, 
 And nae worth the love that is fixt on a mailin." 
 
 So also the new version of the Jacobite melodies during 
 the regency of the Prince of Wales : — 
 
 "There was an auld farmer ca'd Geordie, 
 
 A wee bittock south o' the Tweed, 
 O' throe bits o' farms he was lairdie, 
 
 Three snug little mailins indeed. 
 
21 
 
 At last, the poor body gaed silly, 
 
 Or rather gaed wrang i' the head. 
 And they set his auld son — a queer hillie, 
 
 To manage the mailins instead." 
 
 So Mailing^ mailiii, East and "West, (to^Yns of Kent,) and 
 other places. 
 
 The term shack^ which we meet with in old writings, 
 denotes the shake or fall of the fruit, and in gathering of 
 the crop, prepanitory to winter pasturage. Shake-time^ 
 was from the end of harvest till seed-time, at which in- 
 terval, the lord had right of hog-run, and cattle-stray on 
 the tenants' land, and which custom was called going 
 a-shack ; and which Ave recognise in the names of many 
 placs. Shackthorpe, shack-thorpo, a village of Norfolk ; 
 Shacksion^ Essex ; and Skakerleij^ Lancashire. 
 
 In some parts of Ireland, they have an agricultural 
 custom called co?>, siguifying equality, partnership, thus 
 explained in Sir Henry Piers' Description of Westmeath : 
 " When the squabble about dividing is over, they as often 
 fall by the ears again about joining to the plough ; for 
 sometimes two or three, or more, will join together to 
 plough. This they call coir^ which may import an equal 
 man, such another as myself; and, with a little variation, 
 may mean justice, equality, or partnership." Erom this 
 ancient Celtic custom we have the names of several olaces 
 in Ireland. Courtown^ con- town ; Tiancw\ tagh-gan-coir, 
 house without coir, an ancient castle of Kilkenny. 
 
 Local names arise from field sports. That of hunting 
 gave many. Hunsdeii^ hund-dune, hound-hill, a town of 
 Herts, one famous for the spcrt ; Hounsloiu., hound-lawe ; 
 and Huntingdonshire the Saxons called hunter's-dune-scire, 
 for the famous veuatic sport which it afforded. 
 
 The practice of archery gave several local names, 
 
22 
 
 in the form butt, of the French but, a mark. So Newing- 
 ton-Butts, Buttevant, but-avant, front-butts, a town in the 
 south of Ireland, settled by the xVorman English. Biits, 
 butts, the common name of several places formerly used as 
 shooting -butts. 
 
 The term wake is expressive of many kinds of field 
 sports, once common in England, and not yet extinct, as it 
 appears : — 
 
 " And still the joyous throng come forth, 
 At fairs and country wakes ; 
 For sure there's no such sport as this 
 In an the ' Land of Cakes.' " 
 
 Manchester Races. 
 
 So the local names Wakefield, field of the wakes, a town of 
 Yorkshire ; and Wakeman, the ancient title of the Mayor 
 of Eipon, president of the games. The origin of the word 
 is wlakian, to play, to sport ; which in the north of England 
 becomes corrupted to lake, to play at any sort of game. 
 This, then, explains the name of a place in Cumberland, 
 east of Carlisle, called Cocklakes, a bare bad piece of ground 
 where cock-lakes were held, when cock-fighting was an 
 approved amusement. 
 
 Places take na,mes from modes and materials of build- 
 ing. The Saxons built much with wood, and had several 
 names for it, according to its size, and the purposes to 
 which it was applied. Wood of the largest size was called 
 beam, and bam : Beminster, beam-minster, Bedfordshire ; 
 Bempton, Essex; Lampton, Oxford and Cumberland. 
 Wood of a large size was also called Stock, stocca, the 
 stem of a tree : Stockton, stock-town ; Slockhohn, stock- 
 holm ; Stock- Chapel, Norfolk, was one of the first erected 
 in England by the Saxons, and so named from the mate- 
 rials with which it w^s built, Tlio same word becomes 
 
23 
 
 stoke: Stoke, the name of several places in England— 
 Stokesleij ; Greystoke, grice-stoke ; Basingstoke. Any kind 
 of wooden building was called timbering, from timber; 
 wherefore Timperon, the timbering, an ancient village in 
 the west of Cumberland. 
 
 Local names arise from practices of merchandise. A 
 place appointed for the sale of wares the Saxons called a 
 chepe, of cypan, and that of kauffen to buy, — whence the 
 words chap, a customer ; chapman, a pedlar ; chaffer, to 
 haggle about price ; horse-couper, a dealer in horses. So 
 the local names Cheapside, East-cheap, ancient market- 
 places in London ; Chepstow, Monmouthshire ; Cheadle, 
 cheap-dale, Staffordshire, long famous for its trade in coal 
 and iron. Chippenham, Chipping- Wycombe, Chipping- 
 Ongar, and Kippen, a town of Scotland ; Copenhagen, 
 cypan-hagen, market-haven ; Nordkopping, north-market ; 
 Suderkopping, south-market ; and other places in Denmark. 
 An old form of the word is coft, bought, as in the song of 
 Gala Water : — 
 
 " It ne'er was "wealth, it ne'er was wealth, 
 That coft contentment, peace, or pleasure." 
 
 Hence Koftheim and Kauffburen, towns of Germany. 
 
 The Teutonic name of a market was stapel, whence 
 Staples-Inn, London, an ancient market-place ; Stapleton, 
 stapel-tun, the common name of several places ; Barnstaple, 
 bar-stapel, a port of Devonshire ; and Ainstable, aick-stapel, 
 the market at the oaks, a village in Cumberland. 
 
 The practice of weighing goods thus exposed to sale 
 in public market was called tronage, of trona, a beam for 
 the purpose ; whence Trongate, the name of a street in 
 many old towns. 
 
 The German word zoll, a tax, a tribute, d,~toll, gives 
 
name to many places in Germany. Ze//, zoll, a duchy ; 
 Zollverein, custom toll ; Bischofs-zell^ the bishop's tri- 
 butary district ; HohenzoUern, the high- toll, a town of 
 Swabia, on a hill. 
 
 Local names arise from the usages of ivar AVe com- 
 monly distinguish the place of warfare in English by the 
 word afield. 
 
 " Wept o'er his wounds, or deeds of sorrow done, 
 Shoulder'd liia crutch, and show'd how fields were won." 
 
 The Saxons denoted such a place by loiga, war; win, a 
 battle ; sige, victory ; and hence many places : Wigton^ 
 wlga-town; Winjield] Welwijn^ Herts, where the Saxons 
 beat the Danes in 1012 ; Seghill^ sigehill, Northumberland. 
 The Greeks denoted the same kind of place by mache^ 
 battle, and nike^ victory : Macedonia, maclie-doron, gift of 
 battle ; Nke^ nike, an ancient city of Asia ; IS'icemedia^ 
 council of victory ; Tlicssalojiica : and the personal name 
 Nicholas, niice-laus, victory of the people. 'Ihe Romans 
 marked the scene of warfare by beUimi^ war : Belgrade^ 
 bello grade, a frontier tov/n of Europe, the scene of many 
 sieges. The Normans did the same by battaih^ a battle : 
 Batde, a town of Sussex, where was fought the battle of 
 the conquest. 
 
 Names of places arise from the ordinances o^ religion. 
 Abingdon^ abbey-town; Preston, priest-town; Nuneaton.. 
 nun-ea-tun ; Kirhbanipton, kirk- beam-tun ; Ormskirk. 
 Names in monk and nunstcr, denote a monastic estab- 
 lishment, from the Greek monosy one, a recluse,, a solitary: 
 Monhtoiiy monk-tun ; Misterton, minster-tun ; Wesimin^ 
 star; Noir-Hfoutie?-, black monastery, France. The old 
 term rnynclien, a nun, gives name to several phices where 
 were nunneries : Minchington^ a village of Middlesex ; 
 
25 
 
 Minching- Barrow, Somerset ; Mincliing- Hampton^ Glou- 
 cester. The Minorles, formerly a cloister of Miuims ; and 
 Charter- House, an ancient convent of Carthusians. 
 
 The term cell, here signifying a cloister, a chapel, 
 gives name to numerous places in the form kil: Kilharn, 
 cell-ham, Yorlishire ; Kilraore, big -cell; Kilsyth, Kil- 
 sythe, great cell ; Kilcrin, cell-criu, little cell, towns of 
 Ireland ; Kilbarchan, cell-bara-cin, cell at the hill-top, an 
 ancient village in the v\^est of Scotland, having an old 
 church on a hill ; Icolmkill, St. Columba's cell. 
 
 The observances of the aoss, Lat. crus, gave names 
 to many places where ancient crosses stood : Crosby, cross- 
 bye ; Charing-Cross, caring- cross, London, in memory of 
 Queen Eleanor ; Cruxhaven, a port of Germany ; Crutched 
 Friars, croise-freres, crossed-brothers, an ancient mon- 
 astery of the Holy Cross, London. The Saxon name for a 
 crosSi was rode; whence rood-loft, where the cross was 
 kept in ancient times ; Rodeley, a village of Gloucester- 
 shire ; and Holyrood House. 
 
 Places having tetnple in the composition of their names, 
 denote property of the ancient Knights Templars : Temple- 
 ton, temple-town, Templemore ; Temple Gitting, Gloucester, 
 and many others. 
 
 A hospital was an almshouse of the Church, not a 
 
 curative establishment, as the term now implies. Hence 
 
 Hospital, a village of Kent ; Ing-Hospital, Essex ; Spital- 
 
 fields, and the numerous places in Britain called " The 
 
 Spitair 
 
 The several places called Batten Row, routine-rue, are 
 of Norman descent. They were the round-about ways in 
 which the corpse was carried to church, to avoid in com- 
 mon belief the establishment of a foot-path. 
 
26 
 
 Paternoster Row^ in the vicinity of many old churches, 
 was where the funereal procession began paternoster^ Lord's 
 Prayer ; and lich-gate^ of Z/cA, a dead body, was where the 
 funereal procession entered the precincts of the church ; 
 whence Lichfield^ field of the dead. 
 
 The term liohj, Saxon halig^ denotes places of religious 
 observance. Holywell^ Flintshire; Hallows^ All-Hallows^ 
 all Saints ; Heligland^ Holy Island, in the German Ocean. 
 Halidon^ (halig-dun) holy-hill, Northumberland, so called, 
 because there Oswald, the Saxon, beat Cadwala, the Bri- 
 ton. Halifax^ (halig-feax) holy haii-, so called from tra- 
 ditions of the murder of a mm there ; which circumstance, 
 together with the strictness of its civic customs against 
 vagrants, gave rise to the Beggars' Litany — "From Hell, 
 Hull, and Halifax^ Good Lord deliver us." 
 
 The Latin sanctus^ and French saint^ holy, expressed 
 the same thing, — whence Saintes, a town of France ; Sa7ita 
 Cruz^ holy cross ; Santa-Fe, saint-faith ; St. Ives ; and 
 Sinclair^ Saint Clara ; Seymour^ Saint Maur, ancient sur- 
 names. 
 
 The Saxon deity Thor^ is immortalised in the names 
 of many places : Thorshy^ Thor's-bye, a village of Cumber- 
 land ; Torthorwald^ tor-thor-wald, Thors' hill in the wood ; 
 and In Thursday^ the fifth of the week. Woden^ another 
 Saxon deity, has given name to many places. Wodensbury^ 
 a town of Kent ; Wedensbury, a town of Suffolk ; Wansdike^ 
 Wodensdike, the ancient march between the Mercians and 
 west Saxons. 
 
 Another ancient deity was Man, mentioned by Tacitus, 
 Mor., Germ. 2. — " Celebrant, carminibus antiquis, Teus- 
 tonem deum terra editum, et filium Mannum, originem 
 gentis conditoresque." In ancient songs they celebrate 
 
27 
 
 Teusto, a God sprang from the earth, and his son Man^ 
 the origin and founders of their nation. This deity, the 
 Celts called Manan, as we see in an ancient poem, first 
 published in 1778 : — 
 
 " Manan beg va Mac-y-Leirr." — 
 Little Manan, the son of the sea. 
 
 The legend is in the Manx dialect ; and that people 
 feigned the deity to have been their king, and so derive the 
 name of their island Man. But this was going out of the 
 way for what lay close by. In all the dialects of Celtic, 
 the word man signifies little, small; and the name of the 
 island is therefore, plainly, il/aw, the little in comparison 
 of the larger ones Britain and Ireland, near it. The an- 
 cient name was Maninis, man-iuis, little island, which the 
 Romans euphonised to Mona. 
 
 The worship of the oriental deity Baal has passed almost 
 over the world. It was early introduced to Britain, and 
 is still celebrated there in the haltien, Baal-tiene, tiene fire, 
 bonfires : — 
 
 " But o'er the hills on festal day 
 
 How blaz'd Lord Ronald's baltane tree; 
 
 While youths and maids in light strathspey, 
 
 So nimbly dane'd with Highland glee." — GLEyFiKLAS. 
 
 Hence the names of many places. Balbec, valley of 
 Baal, an ancient city of the east ; Baltia, an island giving 
 name to the Baltic-sea. Baltimore., baal-tagh-na-raor, big 
 house of Baal; Baltinglass, baal-tein-glas, pure fire of 
 Baal, ancient towns of Ireland ; and the letters b and f 
 being commutable, Innisfail, iunis-Baal, the island of Baal, 
 the ancient name of Ireland. 
 
 In conclusion of this topic, we observe that places often 
 take name from some local or tutelar deity : Jericho, Heb, 
 
28 
 
 jarech^ the moon, the city where the moon was worshipped ; 
 HeliopoUs^ helios-polis, city of the sun, where were nume- 
 rous temples to that luminary ; Areopagus^ Ares-pagos, 
 Mars' hill at Athens, where was a temple to that god ; 
 Bacharach^ Bacchi-ara, altar of Bacchus, a town of Ger- 
 many, on the Rhine ; Canonhy^ Ceuia-bye, a village of 
 Cumberland, where a statue of the Eoman tutelary goddess 
 Setlocenia was found. Bonn^ Ara-Ubionum, altar of the 
 Ubii, an ancient people of Germany 
 
 Names of places receive illustrations from their armo- 
 rial bearings. Thus, Naas^ a town of Kildare, Ireland, has 
 snakes in its arms ; and nahaus, being Celtic for snake, 
 there can be little ditBculty here about the name of the 
 town, though no snakes are said to be in Ireland. Hcrt- 
 Jord has for arms a stag in the AAater ; the town is on the 
 river Lea, and since tlie name and circumstances thus 
 correspond, there is no reason wliy the town's name shoidd 
 not be Hartford, The armorial bearing of the duchy of 
 Loraine is an aJerion which is the anagram of the name. 
 Bat armorial bearings are often so capricious, that little 
 dependence can be placed on this kind of reading. The 
 ancient arms of France, for instance, were frogs, which 
 seem to have little analogy to the meaning of the name, 
 franc, free. The name of Montrose^ in Scotland, has been 
 entirel}^ falsified by its arms. The seal of the town is im- 
 pressed with roses^ as \i mount-rase ; whereas, the name is 
 notoriously the Gaelic moan-ross, marshy promontory, the 
 town being situated on a promontory, among marshes, at 
 the mouth of the Esk, on the German Ocean, 
 
 The changes in the arms of Glasgow are whimsical, 
 and seem to have very little reference to the name ot the 
 town — a tree, a bird, a bell, and a fish, which ludicrous 
 
29 
 
 association is made still more so by the legend anent 
 them. 
 
 " Here's the tree that never grew, 
 Here's the bird that never flew, 
 Here's the bell tliat never rang, 
 Here's the fish that never swam." 
 
 The fish indeed indicates the presence of water which 
 is itself the name, glas-gu-y^ blue water, the town being on 
 an expansive bend of the Clyde ; but as there is no 
 fishery in that place, the fish in the ocean is merely por- 
 tentive of the importation of that commodity by the facility 
 of the river, as set forth in the legends of the port : — 
 
 " Meal and beef come in at Leith, 
 And herring at the Bromiclaw ; 
 Sae cheer your heart my bonny lass, 
 There's gear to win you never saw." 
 
 The name Liverpool is remarkable in these armorial 
 readings. Here one of the charges in the amis of the to'svn 
 is a leaf of the sea-weed Ihavan. This plant was held in 
 great esteem by the ancient Britons, as it still is by their 
 descendants the Welsh, who gather it on the coast of 
 Pembrokeshire, and other parts of Wales, making it into a 
 kind of edible conserve, well known in English by the name 
 laver-bread^ and black-butter. This seems plainly to be 
 the name ; for though the plant Ihavan was, perhaps, never 
 found growing thereabouts, it was most likely an article of 
 commerce with the ancient Britons, who imported it from 
 the neighbouring coasts of Wales into Lhavanpwll. Indeed, 
 such a fact is indicated by the leaf in question being borne 
 in a marine bu'd's mouth. The Saxons made short work 
 with this name, calling the town Litherpool^ loiter -pool, 
 from the sluggishness of the bay of the Mersey. 
 
 Places take name from the appellations of races of 
 
30 
 
 people. Thus, the Goths^ Sax. god^ Tent gut^ good— ^ 
 originally meaning brave, valiant warriors — give name to 
 Gotha and Gothland. The Lombards^ Lat., longi-barbi, 
 long beards, gave name to Lombardy and Lombard-street. 
 The Picts., Lat. />^c^^, painted, wooded, gave name to Poic- 
 tiers, in France. The Saxons^ Sapsens, settlers, gave name 
 to Saxony ; Saxmundham, mount-ham, a town of Sussex ; 
 Essex, east Saxons ; Sussex, south Saxons ; Middlesex, 
 middle Saxons. The word folk, people, commonalty, gives 
 name to Folkstone, folks-town, Kent ; Suffolk, south-folk : 
 Norfolk, north-folk : — 
 
 "Highlan'/oZfc, and Lallan'/oJA;, 
 
 \}nco folk, and ken'd/oZA;; 
 Folk aboon folk, i' the yard, 
 
 But j\a,e folk like our am folk." 
 
 Local names are often obscured by the change of let- 
 ters, and contraction of words. Thus : Brill, bur-hill, a town 
 of Bucks. Mesopotamia, Greek, mesos-potamos, mid rivers, 
 a country between the Tigris and Euphrates. Wolken- 
 burg, ivelkin, the firmament, castle of the clouds, Germany. 
 Paisley, Celtic, beisle, a ford, a shallow, a town of Ren- 
 frewshire, on the river Cart. Phoenicia, Gr., phcenix, a palm 
 tree. Moffat, Welsh, morfa, a marsh. Carmel, Heb., 
 Carm-al, vineyard of God. Slapton, Sa,:iL., slap, a gap, a 
 village of Devonshire. Gorhamburg, Sax., gor, dirt, from 
 which the term jorden. Yemen, Heb., jamin, the south, 
 a southern province of Arabia. Gotteshulf, God's help, a 
 bay of the Rhine. Pipping, Welsh, epynt, a slope. Stivicle, 
 stiff clay, Huntingdonshire. Mont BlaJic, Fr., blanc, 
 white, being always covered with snow. Uz, Heb., oetz, 
 a tree, the country of trees. Cheviots, A\'"clsh, cefyn, a 
 ridge, hills on the marches of England and Scotland. Peel, 
 
«>1 
 
 ol 
 
 Welsh, pell^ a border, a limit, the common name of the 
 ancient border castles. Cheshunt^ the chesnuts, a town of 
 Hereford. Shipston, sheep-town, an ancient sheep mar- 
 ket of Worcestershire, according to Camden. Stromberg, 
 Strom, a stream, a town of Germany. Feivston, Fr.,/ew, 
 fire, and fun, Yorkshu^e, an ancient Driiidical altar, or fire 
 temple : — 
 
 " The Cm-few (cover-fire) tolls the knell of parting day." 
 
 Morea, Gr., morea, a naulberry, the mulberry trees. 
 Limavady, Celtic, llyin, bare, and fiodh, a grove, the bare 
 gi'ove, a town in the north of Ireland. SMptoicn, ship- 
 town, Dorsetshire, so called from a large barrow there in 
 the form of a ship. Lebanon, Heb., laban, white, a moun- 
 tain of Palestine always covered with snow. Ida, Gr. 
 idea, sight, prospect, a mountain of Greece. Crackenthorpe,, 
 Sax. ci'yc, a stake, plui'al crycen, and tliorpe, a village of 
 Westmoreland. Fishamble- street, fish-shambles, Dublin. 
 Olympus, Gr. olos-lampros, all-clear, a mountain of Greece, 
 the fabled throne of Jupiter, without clouds, mist or snow. 
 Sllloth, Welsh, silod, fry, spawn, a bay of the Solway, off 
 Cumberland. PeJopjonnesus, Gr. nesos, an island, island of 
 Pelops, a peninsular of Greece. Peteril, petriana-riU, a 
 small river of Cumberland so named from the Roman 
 stone-work, Petriaua, near its source. Malmsburg, Welsh 
 mam, a dam, and burg, a mount, on a hiU nearly sur- 
 rounded by the river Avon, over which are six bridges. 
 Drogheda, Irish, drocliadh, ? bridge, and dae, a house, a 
 town of Ireland on the river Boyne. Hatfield, Fr. haut, 
 high, ^iL^ field, the name of several high-standing towns of 
 England. Orrnound, Ir. oir-muhan, east province, the 
 eastern part of Munster. Paxton, path-town, a village of 
 
32 
 
 Himtiiigdonsliire ; and the name wliicli appears in the 
 original of the yong Robin Adair : — 
 
 "Welcome to Paxton, Robin Adair." 
 
 Desmond, Ir., deas.^ south, and wMlian^ a province, the 
 southern part of Munster. Levard, Lat., levans^ rising, the 
 rising sun, the eastern part of the Mediterranean Christen- 
 bury, Welsli, corswaun^ a heath, and bury^ a mountainous 
 tract of Cumberland. Tdbunj, tilt-boat burj^, Essex, vvhere 
 the tilt-boats put in from Gravesend. Cork, Ir., Corcah, a 
 marsh, a port of Ireland. Caterick, Gr., kataraktes, a 
 waterfiill, a town of Yorkshire, on the river Swales. So 
 named by Ptolomey. Corunna, Lat., columna, a column 
 so named from a light-house there in form of a pillar, a 
 port of Spain. Sharon, Ileb., Sharon, a plain ; " the rose 
 of Sharon." Corvo, Lat., corvus, a crow, one of the Azore 
 islands, so named from the number of crows found there. 
 Brussels, Tent., bruschds, a marsh. Anstria, Lat., auster, 
 south, a southern circle of Germauy. Sarneifiidd, Welsh, 
 sarn, a causey. Cologne, Lat., colonia, a Roman colony. 
 Bereland, beeves, oxen, a province of Holland. Dreux, 
 druid, a town of France, the chief residence of the Druids 
 in Gaul. Teith, Celtic, teath, warm, a river of Stirling- 
 shire. Beverley, beaver, leag, formerly noted for beavers, 
 a town of Yorkshire. Arlosh, ^^'elsh, hirllaes, long, a 
 village of Cumberland, called also by the equivalent name 
 iow^-Newton. Tarbert, Gaelic, tar-beirt, over-boat, a 
 tract of Argyleshire, so called from the boats there being 
 drawn over land from Knapdale to Kintyre. Mayboi-oiigh, 
 Teut., mag., a companion, associate, and hirg, tlie town of 
 associates, a village of Cumberland. Charybdis, Heb., char- 
 abdan, hole of destruction, a tremendous gulf of whirlpools 
 
S3 
 
 On the coast of Italy. Congleton^ Welsh, congl^ a corner, 
 a town of Cheshire. Holland^ hollow-land, so called from 
 its low situation ; and for the same reason Holland^ Lin- 
 colnshire. Montserrat^ Lat., mons^ a mountain, and serra^ 
 a saw, jagged and dented like the teeth of a saw, a moun- 
 tain of Spain. Trelawny^ Welsh, tre-llwyn^ grove town, a 
 village of Wales. Easterllngs^ easterns, ancient people in- 
 habiting the east of Europe, coiners and money-changers, 
 from which our term sterling. Philadelphia^ Gr., philos- 
 adelphos, love of brother, brotherly love, an ancient city 
 of Asia. Cohlentz, Lat. confiuentia, confluence, a town of 
 Germany, at the confluence of the Ehine and Moselle. 
 Euphrates^ Heb., hua-phrat^ he fruitful, ^/^raf, fruitful — 
 Gen. xiix., 22 ; the names of rivers are masculine. Cush- 
 indin^ Iw chasan, a path, and dun, a hill, in the north of 
 Ireland. Lisle, Fr. I'isle, the isle, so called from being 
 situated in the marshes of the river Deale, a town of 
 France. Knaresborough, Teut. knar, a knot, a crag, a 
 town of Yorkshire, on a craggy rock. Moira, Celtic, 7nor, 
 the sea, a town of Ulster, overlooking Lough Xeagh, here 
 taken for the sea. Farley, Lat., far-leag, far-field, a vil- 
 lage of Devon. Deptford, deep-ford, a port of Kent. 
 Cinque-ports, Fr., cinque, five, five ports of England, so 
 called. Cimenshore, Sax., cimen, kimmer, a guest a bav 
 of Sussex. Gotham, gowt-ham, of gowt, a sewer, a gutter 
 a village of Notts. Bolton, bole-tun, of bole, the hollow 
 stock of a tree; " the weather-beaten bole." WharncUff, 
 steep rock, Yorkshii'e. Sorceries, Fr., saule, a -willow 
 saussaie, a willow-plat, a low-iyiug piece of gTound in the 
 vicinity of Carlisle, an ancient willow-bed. Offgersheim 
 Sax., ogre-ham, oga^ a fright, a terror, ogre, a frighten er 
 ''^ a wild ogre," here taken for a pirate, a port of Germanv. 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 Billingsgate^ Sax., bellan, to roar, bellow, bawl, so named 
 from the ribald noise of the fishwomeu there : — 
 
 "And shameful BilUngsgnte her tropes adorn." — Pope. 
 
 Di'oitwi'ch, Fr., droii, right, la^r, and tvijch, a salt ham,, 
 a town of Worcestershire, famous for salt springs. JVitton- 
 Cum-Twam-Brcok, white tOTzn with tv/nm-brool:, a village 
 of Cheshire, on the rivers Dean and Weaver. Hanse-towns, 
 Tent., hiinse, alliance, certain ancient associated towi^s of 
 Germany. Spene, Lat., spina^ a thorn ; Sjmice, thorns, the 
 Eoman name of Reading. Peniel^ lleb., pheni-al, face of 
 God, — Gen. xxsii. 30. Antwerp, at wharfe, a port of 
 Holland. Shropslii/e, Sax., scrt/be, a thrub, a scrub, and 
 £.cyre ; and Shrewslury, scrvbis-b} rig. Malpas, Fr., mal, 
 bad, and j)^s, step or pnss, a toA\ .1 of Cheshire. BelfasU 
 Celtic, beul-fa-sidj mouth at the winc'^'iig, a dangerous port 
 in the north of Ireland : the cl:annel winds and varies re-- 
 markably. Ethiopia, Gr., aitJios-ops, burnt countenance, 
 sun-burnt, from the heat of the cliriialc; from which 0\id 
 accounts for the colour of the blrxks : — 
 
 "Sanguine hinc credunt in corpore summa vocato, 
 Aethiopium po])ulas nigrum tiaxisse eoloreni." 
 
 Men say the Ethiopian then r-rew swart, 
 Their Lloo!:'- exhal'd to the outward part. 
 
 JJlpha, AVelsh, gwylfa, a watch-tower, an anc^'ent 
 tillage at the western extremity of Cumberland. Bedford, 
 Sax. bedkian, to fortify, on the river Ivel. FJiodes, Gr. 
 rothos, noise of waters, an island in the Mecliterraneai . 
 Rutland, red-land. Kingset-hill, Kiug-sight-hi"', a hill ' 1 
 the west of Cumberland, from which Edward I. \ iewed 
 the battle in his Scotch expedition, llalton, Iiall-toAvn ; 
 but Ilaulton, Cheshii'e, is liaut-town, high-town, being on 
 
35 
 
 a high hill. Dalswinton^ dale-swine-town. Braintree^ in 
 Doomsday-book, Earns, the rainy, atOAvnof Essex. Settle, 
 the settlement, a town of Yorkshire. Weisselmunde, Teut. 
 invnd, a mouth, and Vistula, a town of Germany at the 
 mouth of the Vistula. Ginns, contraction of engines, a 
 place in tliewestofCuinberland. Wrexham, Sax. wretlicls, 
 a wreath, a town of Denbighshire. Merioneth, Welsh, 
 maereonaeth, a dairy-farm, a county of Wales. Oporto, 
 Lat. partus, a port, with the Portugese article o, tlie, the 
 port ; whence also port wine. Porte, Lat. porta, the court of 
 Constantinople, so called from the ceremonial of audiences 
 and visitations being made at the gate of the palace in the 
 eastern manner. Dalkeith, Celtic, cethin, ketliiu, bro's^Ti, 
 dusky, and dale. Dalkey, Heb. dalkeh, burning, an island 
 near Dublin, in which are the remains of an ancient altar : 
 " They have cast fire (burning dalkeh) into thy sanctuary." 
 Psalms, xxiv. 7. 
 
 Kent, Welsh, cynt, prime, first, geogTaphically the 
 first county of England. Ury, Celtic uire, clay, the clayey, 
 one of the western isles. Sporades, Gr. sporadikos, spread- 
 ing, a group of scattered islands in the Mediterranean. 
 Orton, over-town, the name of many villages. Quarrelton, 
 quany-town, from quarl, a flat square stone, a village of 
 Kenfrewshire. Cashel, Irish, carig, a rock, and siol, a 
 family or race, race of the rock. Flimhy, Lat. fojma, a 
 fugitive, and hay, on tlie coast of Cumberland. Laithes, 
 fi'om laithe, a tithe-barn, a village of the same county. 
 Wantage, Lat. wana, small, little, '' tlie waning moon," a 
 v'llage of Berks. Feather stone, federal-stone, from the 
 Jjsd.Jadus, a cove^^.pnt, and stone, the stone table at whicli 
 the a^ioient courts-baron were held in the opcni rJr, and at 
 which federations, covenants, were made. Hcja, Welsh, 
 
36 
 
 hyd-gae^ a deer park, an ancient park in the west of Cum'" 
 berland. Coivsnouth, south-knowes, Roxburgbstiire. 
 
 Stafford, staff-ford, passed on stilts, a town on the river 
 Sow. Elstree^ ill-street, a town of Hants, so calledfrom being 
 on a bad part of the ancient Roman wa}^, Watking-street. 
 Benledy^ Celtic pen^ a head, a hill, and lledy^ inclining, 
 sloping, a mountain of Scotland. Ammonia, Gr. ammos, 
 sand, a country of Africa. Glenfruin, Gaelic, fruin, 
 lamentation, the glen so called from the massacre of the 
 Colquhouns by the Macgregors, in 1602. Corby, Welsh, 
 cars, a fen, and bye, a village of Cumberland, on a bank of 
 the river Eden : — 
 
 " But Corby walks atone for all." 
 
 Thuileries,'Fi\, tuilerie, a tile-kiln, a palace of Paris, oil 
 the site of an old tile-kiln. Utoxeter, Sax,, ut, out, and 
 ceastre, a town on the borders of Staffordshire. Duleek, 
 Ir., doimli-lecli, stone house, a town of Louth, Ireland. 
 Hethencote, heathen-cote, so called by the Saxons from 
 being inhabited by the Danes, a town of Northamptonshire. 
 Gair, Gaelic, geur, sharp, a loch of Argyleshire, running to 
 a sharp point, opposite to Greenock. Aalburg, Sax., aal, 
 an eel, and burg, a port of Denmark. Heath, Celtic, modh, 
 a meeting, the central county of Ireland, so called fi'om 
 the meeting of the states anciently there. V/illowby, willow- 
 bye, a village of Warwickshire. Eden, Heb., oeden, plea- 
 santness, — "a garden eastward in Eden.^'' Gen. ii., 8. 
 Stilton, style town, Ilimtingdonshire. Fulham, Sax., fulge, 
 a fowl, a town of Middlesex. Mede, Welsh, medd, the 
 centre, a river of the Isle of Wight, dividing it into two 
 parts, thence called East and AVest Medina. Lanark^ 
 Celtic, llanerch, the lawn, a county of Scotland, so called 
 
Oi 
 
 as distinguislied from the higlilauds behind it. Goole, Sax., 
 gowellian, a ditch, a trench, a port on the Humber. Sodom, 
 Heb., sedim, the fields. Viayland wood, wailing wood, 
 Norfolk, so called as tradition says, from being the scene of 
 the " Babes in the Wood." Glenwhelt, Welsh, glen-gwyllt, 
 wild glen, Northumberland. Booeiia, Gr., hous, an ox, a 
 country of Greece. Modbury, mud-bury, a village of 
 Devon. Menai, AVelsh, menm\ a tumbril, in allusion to the 
 motion of the waters in this strait. Marah, bitterness, — 
 " They would not drink of the waters of Marah, for they 
 were bitter." — Exod. xv., 23. Nasehy, navels' -by, North- 
 amptonshire, so called because the reputed centre of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Eleusis, Gr., eleusis, advent, in allusion to the advent 
 or coming of Ceres, a city of Greece, where the rites of that 
 goddess were performed. Cliumhigh, Fr., chemin, a way, 
 and Sax. leag, a field, a town of Devonshire. Coivcaddens, 
 Welsh, gicydden, a shrub, a high shrubby subm'b of Glas- 
 gow. Greenock, Gaelic, grian, the sun, and aig, a bay, a 
 port of Scotland. Glenjeoch, Gaelic, feigh, a deer, deer 
 glen. Tuam, Celtic-Irish, tiiam, a village, township, an 
 ancient city of Galway. Marcleve, marl-clay, a village of 
 Warwickshire. Holhorn, hill burn, from a little river 
 there which ran into the Fleet. Driffield, drive-field, a 
 town of Yorkshu'e, so named from the ancient custom of 
 giving permission to drive cattle through th e manor. Slough, 
 Sax., slough, a mire, a tovni of Bucks. Anatolia, Gr., 
 anatole, rising, the rising sun, a country of the East. 
 Genoa, Lat., genv, the knee, so called because on a bend of 
 the Adriatic. Altona, al-to-neah, all too nigh, that is to 
 the rival port of Hambm'gh. Malta^ Gr., melita, honeyed, 
 Tneli, honey, from the numbers of bees there. Latium, Lat. 
 
38 
 
 latus^ hid, a province of Italy, foblecl to be the place where 
 Saturn Liy Iiid from Jiipiter, Bospliorus, Gr., bous-poros^ 
 ox-passage, the Straits of Constantinople. Ankeridge, 
 anchorite-agc, Cambridge, aii ancient chapel or hermitage. 
 Leith, Celtic-Welsh, Uetf/a, a port, a harbour, to harbom*, — 
 a port of Scotland. Aetna, Heb., athmci^ a furnace, a 
 burning mountain of Italy. Malloiv, Ir., mallo, the level 
 plain, a town of Cork. Glack, Ir., glac, a little valley, a 
 small village in Ulster. 
 
 Meuse, Lat., mcese^ whirlpool, a river of Holland. 
 Placentia, Lat. placenUa, pleasantness, a town in Italy. 
 Alexander, Gr. alexeter, help, and andios, manly, a cit}'' of 
 Egypt, and a personal name. Babel, Hcb. babel, confu- 
 sion. Laodicea, Gr. laos, people, and dike, justice, justice to 
 the people, a city of Asia. Pontefmct, Lat. pons-fractum, 
 broken bridge, a town of Yorkshire, sometimes called Pom- 
 fret. Teddington, tidiug-town, so named because the tide of 
 the Thames flows up to it. Eeggio, formerly PJiegium, of 
 the Gr. regma, a rupture, a fracture, a town of Italy, thus 
 named from that part of the coast being ruptured, or se- 
 vered from Sicily by the violence of the sea, as related by 
 Pliny, lib. ili., cap. 8. Byblus, Gr. bublos, a city of Egypt, 
 from the reed papyrus found growing there ; this reed being 
 used for writing on, and in the making of books, we have the 
 word Bible, the book, by way of distinction. Spa, spaw, 
 the common name of many watering places, from spaw, ii 
 mineral spring of the Teutonic speiven, to spout forth, 
 bubble up, vomit, whence spate, a cuiTent, or flush in a 
 river. So Burns : — 
 
 " Tliere, lanely, by the ingle cheek, 
 I sat, and ee'd the spewln' reek." 
 
 Sliap, Tout., schape, a shape, form, ground-plan, an 
 
39 
 
 ancient village of Westmoreland. Nile^ Gr. neaia-ilus, 
 flowing mnd, so named from the slab and earthy matter 
 periodicallv b/ought down in the inundations of the river ; 
 which name agrees with the description of it by Dionysins, 
 »^'b. iv., and with its ancient name Sikor, muddy, Joshua 
 xiii, 3. Crofton, croft-town, croft, a little close or pasture 
 near the house, a village of Cumberland. Santon, sand- 
 town, a village of Durham. 
 
 Utrecht, Lat. ultra-jectum, cast beyond, a town of 
 Holland, beyond the Rhine. Nealhouse, near house, the 
 common na-^ie of many hamlets, where the letter r is 
 changed to /, as in sea phrase — a ship or boat is said to 
 be needed, ueared when laid close to the shore. Lycaonic.^ 
 Gr. lukaon, a wolf, the country of wolves. Coriton, corion, 
 coriiinder, a village of Devo.ishire. Ilook-norton, hogs'- 
 nortou, says Camden, because inhabited by boors, a village 
 of Osfordsliire. Armathwaite, hermit thwaite. Halt- 
 wJiistle, anciC'itly Het!iwestle,yfQ,st\\-h%i\.t\\, a townof North- 
 nrabcrland; "vrestUn winds."' Grawpoond, Fr. grand- 
 pout, great bridge, from a brid£-8 built here over the river 
 Fale, after the conquest. Magdehurg, Teut., mogd, a maid, 
 and hurg, a town of Germany. 
 
 Dam'tscus, Heb. dam-sedtJi, field of blood. Hydrun- 
 tum, Gr. vdor, a -nl'^'ated hulor, water, a port of Italy, now 
 called Otranto. Linden, Ger. linden, a lime-tree, the name 
 of several pLices in Gciruiany. Preshury, priest-bm-g 
 Prairies, F.\ praide, a meadow, large plains of America. 
 Hith:, Sax. hyti^e, a small harbour, a port of Kent. Scliwartz- 
 burg, Tent. scJicfi-tz, black, and hurg, a town of Germany. 
 Wark, Sax. zf;/;/-c, awovk, a structure, a village of Northum- 
 berland. Syracuse, Celtic, sruthac and strath, low marshy 
 ground ; " limne Kaletai suraco," a marsh called a syraco, 
 
40 
 
 says Steplianiis, speaking of this ancient town. Sluys, Tent. 
 sluyse^ a sluice, a town of Holland, noted for its fine sluices. 
 Belfont, Fr. belle, beautiful, and^w^. Finsteraarliorn, Ger. 
 finster-aar-horn, dark eagle peak ; the term horn, in local 
 names, signifying apeak, or promontory. Moota-man, moat, 
 and Celtic maen, vaen, faen, a stone, a mountain in the west 
 of Cumberland, having a maen or stone pillar on it. Fynon- 
 vayer, Celtic-Welsh, ffynnon-ffawr, running or flowing 
 well, a town of Eadnorshire. Calton, Teut. halt, cold, 
 and town, the common name of many places. Berkshire, 
 hare-oak, so called from the ancient oak in Windsor forest, 
 under which the folk-motes were held. Wight, Celtic- 
 welsh gwyth, a channel, the island so called from the chan- 
 nel which separates it from the mainland of Hampshire. 
 Hebrides, Vesperides, in imitation of the ancient Hesperides, 
 or western islands. Asia, Gr. asie, muddy, so named from 
 a little tract on the Archipelago. Orkneys, Teut, ork, 
 a whirlpool ; ork-n-ea, whirlpool water, from two noted 
 whirlpools near the Isle of Swinna ; but because of the 
 darkness and dreariness of these islands they were called 
 Orcades, orcus-eidos from orcus, the infernal regions: — 
 '* atque is in orcu, oculis sublatis," in hell (orcus) — he lifted 
 up his eyes. — Luke xvi. 23. 
 
 Africa, Lat. aprica, open to the sun, named from a 
 small country on the Mediterranean. Wynnsty, Welsh, ty, 
 a house, Wynn's house, Denbighshire. Shields, Sax. 
 sceald, a shell, a cover, a field-house ; scyld, a defence, a 
 ahealing : — 
 
 "Then so merrily he'll sing, 
 As the storm scatters o'er 'em, 
 In the dear shealing ring, 
 With the light tilting jorum." 
 
 Braes of Bdlquiddcr, 
 
41 
 
 Adderbourn, adder-burn, so named from its snake-like 
 windings, a river of Wilts. Barbican, Sax. burg-kenning, 
 a watcb-tower, a suburb of London. Ferrintosh, Gailic, 
 fearran-taosac, land of the chief. Europe, Gr. eu-r~ 
 ops, fair countenance, from the complexion of the in- 
 habitants, named from a little district on the Hel- 
 lespont. Guild Hall, Saxon gildan, to pay, a com- 
 pany or fraternity Avhere every one pays his share ; whence 
 guilder, a Dutch coin ; geld, money ; gold, a monetary 
 metal ; Dane-gelt, a tax levied by the Danes ; and the 
 cant term kelter. Maiden-way, Welsh, midian, an area' 
 an enclosure, those ancient ways being trenched and en- 
 closed on the sides. Scales, Scaleby, from coiTupt Latin. 
 Scalinga, a quarry. Koninsburg/i, Tent. Koning, a king, 
 and burg, a town of Prussia. Sowerby, sour, and bye, a 
 village of Cumberland. Euxine, Gr. ev-xenikos, hospitable, 
 an ancient name of the Black Sea. Pall Mall, of the Latin 
 pellere-malleo, to strike with a hammer or mallet pell-mell, 
 a place in London where this ancient game w^as played. 
 Barra, Gaelic, bara, a top, " bhara nan geug," on the tops 
 of trees, one of the Yf estern Isles. Dungivan, Fr. dun- 
 gabhan, smith hill. 
 
 Pdwims, of the Veromandui, an ancient people of Gaul. 
 Unthank, unthanld'ul, expressive of barren, ungenial soil, 
 the common name of many places in England. Hague, 
 Fr. haije. Sax. hceg, a hedge. Lowca, Welsh, llacca, mud, 
 a place in the west of Cumberland. Clerkenwell, clerks' 
 well, with the Saxon plural en, the place where the parish 
 clerks of London used to assemble yearly to play some sa- 
 cred piece. Eisenbacli, Ger. eison-beck, iron beck, from the 
 nature of its water. Ossory, Celtic, msce-air, on the 
 water, a district of Ireland. Dundas, Celtic, dun-das, 
 
42 
 
 heap hill, a surname. Wigan^ Sax. wceg^ a way; " wignns" 
 ways, highways, Luke xiv., 23. Brentwood, Teut. brennen^ 
 to burn, burnt wood, a town of Essex. Glen.Uvet, Geltic, 
 ^lean^ a .den, and lijiad^ flowing, in allusion to the Avater 
 there. Plumhland^ Phunpkm^ from plumb ^ plamp, a plunge, 
 or pool : — 
 
 " Ow're the dike, and in tlie plumb, 
 Jennj- dang the ^veavcl•." 
 
 " Down a hill, or from a bridge, 
 
 Headlong cast, to break their ridge ; 
 Or, to some river take 'em, 
 Plump, and see if that would wake 'em-" 
 
 — Jonson. 
 
 Susiana, Heb. shnshanaJt, a lih', land of lilies ; Shosh- 
 annim, the lilies — Fsalui xlr., title ; Susan, a lily, a wo- 
 man's name. 
 
 Gorl, Ir. gori, a field, a town of Galway. Wampool, 
 of ivamble, to tumble, toss about, a l-uic riv^er of Cumber- 
 land. Piersebridge, priest-bridge. Bcurcw, Sax. bearwe, 
 a grove, the common name of ni>.iiy p.laces in England. 
 Glanoventa, Wekh, glCin, pure fj id given., wliite, applied to 
 water. GoUingen, Got lis, and Germ, gtnd, g.gend, a district, 
 a country, country of tlie Goths. Mlnnyhivc, S;.;X. menlngeny 
 and provincial menny, a famll}', communily, and heve, 
 heafod, a head. Aar, Gdm., ar, water, the name of 
 several rivers of Germany. Thiunham, Teut., thurn, a 
 tower, and ham, a dwelling-place, a village of Lancashire, 
 and a sui'name. Cringle-Dike, crijiJdc, and cranhle, a turn, 
 a bend. Meander, Gr., nieion-andros, wanting men, that 
 is, the assistance of men to straighten its numerous wind- 
 ings, a river of Greece : — 
 
 " Meander, who is said so intricate to be, 
 Hath not so many turns, and crankling nooks as she." 
 
 — Dr avion. 
 
43 
 
 Merse, Sax., merse, a marsh, a district of Berwlck- 
 shii-e. Ware, Sax., woer, a fen, Germ, war^ a mound, a 
 wea7; or dam, a to'^vn of Herts, on the river Lea. Louvre, 
 Fr. Voeuvre, the work, a palace at Paris, so named by way 
 of eminence : whence also 7nanceuvre, handwork, dexterity ; 
 chef (foeuvre, cliief work ; avcj'a, in Doomsday Book a 
 ploughman's day's work ; aiver, a work-horse, wherefore 
 Burns : — 
 
 " An' aft a ragged cowte's been known 
 To mak a noble alver." 
 
 Durran-hUl, Welsh, duryn, a peak, a snout, a hill in 
 the vicinity of Carlisle ; it now has a hamlet on it. 
 
 Eden, Welsh, aw-lain, spreadhig water, aw, water, and 
 tain, spreading, or expansive, a river of Cumhedand, the 
 Ptoman Ituna. 
 
 " Let Uter Pendragon do what he can, 
 The river Eden still runs as it ran." 
 
 — Old Legend. 
 
 Avernus, Gr. a-ornis, Lat. avibus, from birds, a lake of 
 Italy sending forth noxious vapours, so thpt birds flying 
 over it are struck dead, and fall into it, and hence Lucre- 
 tius : — 
 
 " Principio quod Avernus vocantur id ab re, 
 Impositum est, quia sunt avibus contraria cunctis, &c." 
 
 It is called Avcrmis from destroying bhxls. — Lib. vii. 
 
 Carleton, carle-tiin, town of carles, Welsh, cerlyn, a 
 clown, a churl, a rustic, a town of Norfolk, a village of 
 Cumberland, and other places ; and hence also Carlin- 
 Sunday, feast of carles, in which they ate pease, the pro- 
 duce of their farm : — 
 
 "Id, mid, miseray (miserere), 
 Carlin, palm, and pace (pasch) egg day." 
 
Home, Gr. rome, strength, tlie renowned capital of 
 Italy, whose name thus gives aptness to the metonomy, 
 " Eternal City ;" and was, as Solinus shews, first called 
 Valentia, which is the same thing — strength — in Latin. 
 Both as a local name and a surname it should be pro- 
 nounced with o long, rome, to rhyme with home, as in the 
 song, " Gaelic Heroes" : — 
 
 " In the garb of old Gaul, and the fire of old Rome, 
 The heath-cover'd mountains of Scotia our home." 
 
 York, Welsh Caer-Effroc, city of Efiroc ; but the let- 
 ters/and b being commutable, the Romans called the town 
 simply Eboracum, Eifroc : — • 
 
 "There are more Toms in York than one." 
 
 Cockney, cockering, a nescock, a tenderling, from 
 cocker, to pamper, indulge, a term applied to the citizens 
 of London, on account of their sedentary and efieminate 
 lives : — 
 
 " CocJcer thy child, and thou wilt spoil him." — Ecclus. xxx., 9. 
 
 Sometimes the term is applied to London itself: — 
 
 " Was I in my Castle of Bungay, 
 Fast by the river Waveney, 
 I would not care for the King of Cockney." 
 
 Earl of Norfolk — Temp. lien. II. 
 
 Bodehill, bo wet-hill, from bowet, a provincial term for 
 a lanthorn, a hill on the coast of Cumberland, on which 
 there was a beacon or lighthouse, Amsterdam, Amstel-dam, 
 a town of Holland, on the river Amstel. llocher, Fr. roche, 
 rocher, a rock, a rocky point on the coast of Durham. Pison, 
 llcb. pMson, multitude ; GiJion, eastern; Hiddckel, svnftness, 
 rivers mentioned Gen, ii. IL 14. Lambeth, lamb-hythe. Sax. 
 hythe, a small harbour, a village on the Thames. Greta, 
 Welsh, grivythiad, murmuring, a winding river in the north 
 
45 
 
 of England. Pyrenees, Celtic pyr-amiho, naked spii-e, jo^r^ 
 spire, annho^ naked, the range of mountains so called. 
 Drigg^ Sax. drigge^ dry, a village of Cumberland. Hippo- 
 crene^ Gr. Hippos-krene^ horse fountain, a poetical fountain 
 o antiquity :-^ 
 
 " But ne'er did I so much as sip, 
 
 Or wet with Hippocrene, a lip." 
 
 — Persius. 
 
 Ure^ Celtic, wr, pure, bright, a river of Yorkshire ; 
 Orr^ and Ayr, rivers of Scotland. Walton^ wall-town, 
 Cumberland, on the Roman wall. Ajalon, Heb. he-gia- 
 alon, the valley of oaks. Josh. x. 12. Niger , Lat, niger^ 
 black, a river of Africa. Havre, Celtic, haf/i, a haven, a 
 port of France. Eoi/stan, a roi-tun, Fr. rot, a king, and tun, 
 a toA^Ti of Herts, so named in honour of King Stephen who 
 erected a cross there. Stratfon, street-town, a town of 
 Cornwall, and other places ou those ancient high -ways 
 called Streets. Endor, Heb. oin-dor, perpetual fountain, 
 where lived baolith aid), mistress of the ewer, the woman 
 with a familiar spirit — 1 Sam. xxviii. 7. Nawortli, nar- 
 ward, north ward, a famous baronial castle of Cumberland : — 
 
 "From Warkworth, or Nawwth, or merry Carlisle." 
 
 Quebec, Fr. que-bec " What a point !" said the French 
 captain, sailing up the river St. Lawrence. Anabrough, 
 hanging-brow, a very steep hill of Cumberland. Skj/, Celtic 
 Skgb, a gap, a fissure, one of the western islands remark- 
 able for openings, and arras of the sea running into it ; and 
 also Skibbereen, skyb-bohreen, by-way-gap, a town of Cork 
 where the road leads through a gap or pass in a mountain 
 to the sea. Hayton, hay-town, a village of Cumberland : — 
 
 " All flesh is grass, so do the Scriptures say. 
 And grass when cut and dry, is turn'd to hay." 
 
46 
 Sharon^ Heb. sharon^ a plain : — 
 
 " — the rose of Sharon, and lily of the valley." — Cant. ii. i, 
 
 Simdswcdl, solid- well, a pOit of Sweden ; sound, an 
 arm or bay of the sea fatliomed hy the plumb-line. — Acts, 
 xxviii., 28. Stijbarrow., Teut., Stey-bergl:, steep mountain, 
 stey, a ladder, a mountain of Cumberland : — 
 
 "In cart or car, thovi never reestit, 
 The st^ycst brae, thou wad hae face't it." 
 
 — Mere Maggie. 
 
 Bclogjia, Ital., hologna, fat, a countiy of Italy, so 
 called from its fei'tillty. Blachadder., black-water, Whit- 
 adder., white-water, two rivers ia tlie south of Scotland. 
 Albion., Lat., album., white, an ancient name of Biitaiu, so 
 named from its white, or chalky cliffs on the English coast, — 
 
 The Albion, the pride of the sea. — Sea Song, 
 
 Local Names are often expressed by a term common 
 to many places, as in the following alphabetical arrange- 
 ment : — 
 
 Abbey, a religious house, from the Hebrew «6, aba., a 
 father ; priests were called abbots., as being the fathers of 
 their flochs, and the houses over which they presided, 
 abbeys. 
 
 Abbey., a town of Cumberland, -svhere is an ancient 
 abbey. Abiw/don, abbey-town, a town of Berks, famous 
 for an old church. Abbotsburg., abbot-burgh, Dorsetshire. 
 Abbots Bromley.1 Sax. brom leag., broom-fidd, Staffordshire. 
 Cerne Abbas., Cenric, the Saxon's abbey, Dorset. 
 
 Aben, Heb. abcn, a stone ; hence ebony., a hard kind 
 of wood. 
 
 Abana^ the stony, a river of Damascus. 
 
 " Are not ^&ana and Pharphar rivers of Damascus? . . May 
 I not wash in them, and be clean.?"— 2 Kings, v, 12. 
 
47 
 
 Aven, aben, a town mentioned Amos i., 5. Ebenezer^ 
 aben-ezei\ stone of help, and a personal name : — 
 
 "And Samuel took a stone, and set it up between Mizpeh and 
 Shem, and called the name of it Ebenczer, saying, hitlierto the Lord hath 
 helped us." — 1 Sam., vii., 12. 
 
 Aber, Wekh, ahe?-, Gaelic, and Irish inbher, a brool:, 
 the month of a river, its confineuce "with the sea. 
 
 Aheravon^ aber-aibn, river month, a to"s\n of Glamor- 
 ganshire, on Swansea bay. Aherdeen^ at the mouth of the 
 Dee and Don. Aherford^ aber-ford, Yorksiiire, on the 
 river Cock. Abc/jvaw^ Anglesey, at the mouth of the 
 Fraw, ffrau, flush or torrent. Ahrfoylc^ aber-ffall, full, 
 swift, flowing, a flush. Arbroath^ aber-broth, at ilie ro.outh 
 of the Brothic, brolh^ stir, bubblUig, tumultuous. Bzr- 
 wick., anciently aber-wic, at the mouth of the Tweed. 
 LocJiaber^ loch-aber : — 
 
 " Wi' stanes frae the 'Nevis and 'Gary, 
 We'll hatter him [Bonaparte] aff frae oiir shore; 
 
 Or put him asleep in a cary, 
 To the tune of ' Lochalcr-7io-ifore.' " 
 
 Inver, inbhcr, a village on Loch Lomond. Inverary, 
 inbher-readh, smooth, inbher, on Loch Fyne. Invcrkeithing^ 
 Celtic cethin, dark, dusky, the dark inbher. Inver-Domh- 
 noin^ deep inbher, a river of Ireland. Lochinvar, loch- 
 i'lbher. 
 
 At.t), Sax., eald^ Tent., alt.^ old. 
 
 Aldgate, aid-gate, London. Alihorpe^ ald-thorpe, old 
 village, Northamptonshire. Altoif, alt-doip, old village, the 
 name of several places in Germany. Sometimes the word 
 is corrupted into aud; Audleij^ ald-leag, old field, a sur- 
 name. 
 
 Aqua, Lat., aqua^ water; hence aqueous^ watery 
 
48 
 
 wgueduct, a water-passage ; aquavitce, water of life, a sort 
 of cordial ; with Burns, whisky : — 
 
 " Scotland an' me's in great affliction, 
 E'er sin' they laid that curst restriction 
 
 — On Aquavitce.' ' 
 
 Aqmtaine, aqua -tan, Celtic, tow, a country, a maritime 
 country of France, now called Guiefine. Aquce- Soils ^ 
 the waters of the sun, the Roman name of Bath. Some- 
 times this word is aix. Aix, an ancient city of France, 
 famous for its hot springs, and therefore called by the 
 Eomans Aquce-SexticB^ waters of Sextus, the governor. 
 Aix-la-Chapelle^ a famous watering-place of Germany, 
 called by the Romans Aquisgranh\ waters of Granius ; the 
 French gave it the present name from a chapel built there 
 to the Virgin. 
 
 Ac, Sax. «c, Tent, cik, an oak : hence acorn, ac- corn, 
 fruit of the oak. 
 
 " Ac, or oak, signified among the Saxons, like robur among the 
 Latins, not only an oak hut strength, and may be well enough derived 
 flora, alke (Gr.)» strength." — Junius. 
 
 Acton, ac-tun, oak-town, a village of Middlesex. Aik- 
 ton, eik-tun, a village of Cumberland. AucJdand, ac-land, 
 Durham. Axholm, acdiolm, Lincolnshire. Octon, oak- 
 town, and many other places. 
 
 Ar, Heb. liar, a mountain. 
 
 Ar, har, the mountain, a town Palestine. Araret, har- 
 aretz, mountain of the earth, on which the ark rested 
 Armenia, harim, the mountains, a country of the East^ 
 Ar?nageddon, mountains of Megiddo, — Rev. xvi., 16. 
 Aaron, a mountaineer, a man's name. Hermon, in the 
 Psalms, //ermo?^^w^, in the plural, because it contained many 
 mountains. Pi-hiharath, pi-ha-haroth, mouth of the moun- 
 tains, a pass near the Red Sea. — Exod. xiv., 9. 
 
49 
 
 Aed, Gaelic and Irish, ard^ high ; a bill. 
 
 '* The savages were driven out of their great Ards, into a little nook 
 of land near the river of Strangford, where they now possess a little terri- 
 tory." — Sir John Daiies' Survey of Ireland. 
 
 Ards, a hilly district of Down, and mentioned in the 
 preceding citation. Ardee, ard-dae, high-house, a town of 
 Louth. Ardhraccan, breac, a spot, spotted hill of Meath. 
 Ardglass, the blue green hill, and other places of Ireland. 
 Ardmore, ard-mohr, big hill, Dumbartonshire, on the Clyde. 
 Ardnamurchan, ard-na-mohr-cuan, hUl of the great ocean, 
 Argyleshire. Granard, grian-ard, sun-hUl. SUeve-Donard, 
 shabh-dun-ard, which three words mean much the same 
 thing, the highest hill in the north of Ireland. 
 
 Athel, Sax., (sthel, noble ; in Saxon courtesy atheling 
 was the prince ; arf/ewawwas a gentleman ; a(//escaZe, athel- 
 skalka, the King's servant. 
 
 Athelney, athel n-ey, noble isle, in the river Parret, 
 Somersetshu'e, so called fi-om Alfred's retiring there with 
 his nobles. Atlielhampton, athel-ham-tun, Dorsetshire, 
 an ancient domain of the Saxon Kings. Addle, a3thel, 
 Attlehorough^ towns of Yorkshu'e. Allingion, Dorsetshu'e, 
 and other places ; and the personal names Adelaide 
 and Alicia. Sometimes tlie name is ethel ; Ethelbury, 
 aithel-bury. Ethelwolf, noble-helper, the name of one of 
 the Saxon Kings. 
 
 Anglia, an ancient name of England, from the people 
 called Angles. 
 
 ^' Anglia, mons, fons, pons, 
 Ecclesiae, fceminas, lana." 
 England, mountains, fountains, bridges. 
 Churches, women, wool. — Old Legend. 
 
 Angel, a town of Denmark, whence those people came. 
 Anglesey, Angles- ey, isle of the Angles, where they landed in 
 
50 
 
 Britain. Engiesjield, a town of Berks, where they defeatecl 
 the Danes. Ingleton^ Inglewood^ and the surname Inglis. 
 
 AucH, Gaelic and Irish, achadh, a field. 
 
 Auchendralne^ achadh-na-draen, field of the thorn. 
 Auchtermuchty^ achadh-muc-tagh, field of the pig house. 
 Auchnaloimj^ achadh-na-luachar, field of the rush, rushy- 
 field, Auchnasok^ soivl^ a barn, field of the barn, and many 
 other places of Scotland. Augh'im, achad na-reini, step 
 field. Aughnacloy, achadh-naclogh, field of the stone. 
 Augher, uirei clay, clay field. Achonry^ achadh-na-ri, field 
 of the King. Aiighaboe, achadh-ua-bo, the cow field. 
 Monaghan, moan-achadh -an, the moss field, and many other 
 places of Ireland, 
 
 ALLAJsr, Welsh allmi, outside, apart, out-by ; in local 
 names any place removed from the common dwelling-place. 
 
 Allan^ the common name of many places in Wales. 
 Allandahy allan-dol, Northumberland. Allonhy^ allan-bye, 
 a village of Cumberland. Strathallan^ Scotland. Tully- 
 allan^ tullach-allan, tuUach, a little hill, a village in the 
 north of Ireland. 
 
 Atha, Gaelic and Irish, atha, a ford. 
 
 Athy^ atha, a town of Kildare, on the river Barrow. 
 Athlone, atha-Loony, Loony's lord, a town of Ireland, on 
 the Shannon, Loch Aice, loch-atha, ford loch. Bellie, 
 beul-atha, mouth of the ford, at the mouth of the river 
 Spey, Banfishire. 
 
 Avon, Welsh afon, Gaelic and Irish, amhan, ahhan, a 
 river. 
 
 Avon^ the name of several rivers of Britain, on one of 
 which stands Stratford- on- Avon. Avona, the ancient name 
 of Ilampton-on-Thames. Aven, a river of Lanarkshire. 
 Oundle, afon-dale, a town of Northamptonshire on the river 
 
61 
 
 Neu. Ravenglass, afon-glas, blue river, a river in the west 
 of Cumberland. Devon, defn-afon, deep river, Banff- 
 shire : — 
 
 " Let Bourbon exult in her gay gilded lily, 
 
 And England, fair England, display her proud rose ; 
 But a fairer than either adorns the lone valley, 
 Where sweet winding Devon meandering flows.' 
 
 — Burns. 
 
 This name becomes contracted to Boyne, abhan, a river of 
 Ireland. Navan, na-abhan, on the river, a town of Meath, 
 on the Boyne. Donovan, dun-na-abhan, hill on the river, 
 an Irish snrname. Strathbane, strath-abhan, a town of 
 Ulster on the river Foyle. Hwnber, Rom. Abi, Celtic, ab- 
 han, the river. 
 
 Bag, Fr. bac, a boat ; in local names denoting a 
 erry or place of boating. 
 
 Bacary, bac, Somersetshire, on the river Parret. Bac- 
 ford^ bac-ford, Cheshire, on the Dee. Backup-Booth^ 
 Lancashire, on the Irwell. Barton-bac, puiz^ Derbyshire, 
 on the Dove. 
 
 Bad, Teut. bady Welsh badd, a bath. 
 
 Baden^ to bathe, a town of Germany, noted for its 
 baths. 
 
 Bath^ badd, a famous watering-place of Somersetshire, 
 whose ancient name was Caer-Baddy bathing-city, 
 Carlsbad, Charles's Bath. Wilibad, willi-bad, many baths, 
 and other places of Germany. 
 
 Bally, Gaelic baile, Irish, ballagh, a highway, a town ; 
 hence fagh a ballagh, clear the town ; bailie^ a civic officer, 
 in Scotland, a mayor : — 
 
 " Gie to me my bigginet, my bishop-satin gown, 
 For I maun tell the Bailie's wife that Colin's come to toun." 
 
52 
 
 Sometimes the name is balloch, as in the Highland Widow's 
 Lament : — 
 
 " I'll sing thee asleep in the lallochs untrodden, 
 In coronachs sad for the slain at Culloden." 
 
 Bdlhjmore, balloch-mohr, big town ; Ballyhegs, ballagh- 
 begh, little town. Ballyo, ballagh-co, grave town. Bally - 
 jwreen, ballagh-bohreen, by-way town. Ballytore, ballagh 
 torr, bush town. Ballinafad, ballagh-na-fad, town of the 
 level. Ballynasloe, sloe, a pit. Ballinamuck, ballagh-na- 
 muc, town of the pig. Ballmgarry, gar, near, near town, 
 and all the hallys and balUns in Ireland. Balloch, a town of 
 Scotland. 
 
 Bar, Fr. barre, a let, a hindrance ; in local names, a 
 bank or rock in a harbour ; the harbour iiself. 
 
 Barton^ bar-town, a port of Lincolnshu-e. Barmouth, 
 a port of Wales. Bar-sur-la- Seine, bar of the Seine, a port 
 of France. Barnstaple^ bar-stapel, market bar, a port of 
 Devonshire. 
 
 Bas, Gi'.'basileus, a king; hence basilica, a palace, a 
 royal residence ; basilicon, a precious ointment, a sovereign 
 remedy ; basilisk, a serpent of so poisonous potency that it 
 kills by looking. 
 
 Basle, basilica, an ancient city of Switzerland, some- 
 times written Bale. Basil, basilikos, royal, a personal 
 name. 
 
 Beer, Heb. bar, a well : — 
 
 "And from thence they went to Beer, that is the well." 
 
 — Numb., xxi., 16. 
 
 Beersheba, shebo, an oath, well of an oath. Beer-la- 
 hai-roi, well of life, and other places mentioned in the Bible. 
 Bahr-Ynssaf, Joseph's Well,]^a canal of Egypt. 
 
53 
 
 Beau, French, fair, fine, gay : hence heau, a fop, a 
 dandy : — 
 
 "Just at that time of life, v,'hen raan begins to rule, 
 The fop laid down, takes up the graver fool ; 
 He started up a fop, and, fond of show, 
 Look'd like another Hercules turn'd beau." 
 
 — Churchill. 
 
 In local names, the term denotes places of beauty and 
 freshness. Beauclia?np, beau-champ, fair field, a village of 
 Devonshire, and a surname. Beaumoiit, fair-mount, a vil- 
 lage of Cumberland, and other places. Beaumaris, beau- 
 marais, fair marsh, a town of Anglesey. BeauUeu, beau- 
 lieu, fair place, a village of Hampshire, and a town of 
 France. Beaudley, beau-leag, fair field, a town of Worces- 
 tershire. Beaufront, fair front, Northumberland. The 
 feminine of the Avord is belle ; and hence belle, a young 
 lady : — 
 
 " O say, what stranger cause, yet unexplor'd. 
 Could make a gentle helle reject a lord?" — Pope. 
 
 Belleville, belle-ville, fair town, France. Belleisle, fak 
 isle. Bellew, belle-eau, fair water, a village of Lincoln- 
 shire. Bellasis, belle -assise, fair seat. Belvide}'e, fair pros- 
 pect, a palace at Rome. Bellevue, belle-vue, fair view. 
 Mabel., ma belle, my beauty, a woman's name. 
 
 Beth, Heb. bith., a house. Bethel^ bith-al, house of 
 God, Gen. xxviii., 19. Bethany., bith-oni, house of afilic- 
 tion. BetJishemesh., bith-shemesh, house of the sun, the 
 classical Heiiopolis. Bethmeon, bith-mon, image house, 
 Jerm. xiviii., 23. Bethesda, bith-hesda, house of mercy. 
 John v., 4. BefhleJiem, bith-lehem, house of bread, froc 
 which Bedlam, a house for mad people : — 
 
 " I heard a maid in Bedlam, who mournfully did sing." 
 
 Song. — Prim'. 
 
Beck, Germ. bacJi, a small river, a stream. '^ Dort 
 fliessen taiisend baclte von klaren wasser." Germ. Telem. 
 There flow a thousand streams of pure water. 
 
 BecJit the common name of any small river. Beckfe- 
 licoiiy Welsh, ffilicas^ outcasts, floats, float -beck, a little 
 river in the west of Cumberland. Beccles^ beck-lees, a 
 town of Sufiblk, on the river Waveuey. Candebec, French, 
 chandej warm, a small river of Normandy. StaubacJi, 
 stour-bach, dust-beck, a small river of Switzerland, so 
 named from the spray which it casts. Steinbach, stone 
 beck. Kupfer BacMin^ copper beck, and other rivers of 
 Germany ; and the letters b and j^ being commutable, Ans- 
 pach^ Erpacli^ Sempach, in the same country. 
 
 Bent, a kind of coarse grass, agrostis: and hence 
 benting-time, the time that pigeons feed on bents till pease 
 are ripe ; and also the summer-stray of the cattle of 
 Geordie's Byer : — 
 
 " Tliey mind hov/ they used to be bilkit 
 As loosely they ran through the hent ; 
 But now they resolve to be milkit 
 Nae langer without their consent." 
 
 Bentley, bent-leag, bent field, a village of Devonshire 
 and a surname. Bentham, a village of Yorkshire, and a sur- 
 name. Beutheim. bent-ham, a town of Germany. 
 
 Booth, Sax., bytlh Teut., bade, a tent, a temporary 
 house : and hence tollbooth, a town house ; botl, an old form 
 of the word : — 
 
 " And Pliaroa eode (went) into his botl." — Sax. Bible. 
 
 Boothbj/, booth -bye, a village of Cumberland. Booth, 
 botl, village of the s.*ime county. Harbottk, here- botl, 
 army booth, a village of Northumberland. Wolfenbuttlcy 
 wolf-botl, a town of Germany. Bitda, bude, a tOAvn of 
 
55 
 
 HungaAiy. Luckenhooths, locking-booths, a public building 
 in Edinburgh, of which we have some account in Ferguson's 
 Plain Stanes and Causey : — 
 
 *• Wad it not melt a heart o' stane 
 Beneath the Luckeiibooths to grane. — 
 A lumbersome and stinkin biggin 
 That rides the sairest on my riggin." 
 
 Blen, Celtic — Welsh, blaen^ high, highland. 
 
 Blaen — Llwyny^ blaen-Uwjn, high-grove, a village of 
 Brecknockshire. Blaenavon, blaen-Avon, high Avon, 
 Montgomeryshke. Blencairji, blaen-caru, high cairn ; 
 Blencow, blaen-cw, high cavity ; Blencogo, blaen-c^vgyn, 
 high knoll, Cumberland. Blenkinsopp, blaen-cin-hope, 
 high head hill, ISTorthumberland. Blantyre, blaen-tir, high 
 land, a town of Lanarkshire. Castlehhny^ castle-blaeu, a 
 high standing town of Monaghan, Ireland, which was 
 blaen long before it was a castle. Bumhlane^ dun-blaen, 
 high hill, beyond Stratliblane. The letters h and p being 
 commutable, this name becomes in one instance pliii ; Plin- 
 limmon^ blaen-llyman, high bare, the bare height, a moun- 
 tain of Wales. 
 
 Bran, Gaelic, and Msh hraon^ a mountain shower. 
 
 "Thainig earrach caoin fo hltrrton," — Ossiaii. 
 
 mild spring bedewed with gentle showers. 
 
 Braan^ braon, a little mountain river of Perthshire, 
 falling into the Tay. Branny, braon, a hill in the north of 
 Ireland, above Dunganuon, so called from being often 
 covered with mist, and giving early signs of rain ; where- 
 fore the prognostic of the country people thereabouts, " it 
 rains on Branny." Bran, braon, the name of Fingal's dog 
 in Ossian, so called because he rushed like a mountain tor- 
 rent. 
 
 " Even Bran has left the gate." 
 
66 
 
 Bos, Fr. hois^ a wood : hence bosTiy^ woody ; boscage^ 
 woodland ; bosquets^ clumps of foliage ; boquet^ a nosegay ; 
 haut-hoy^ haut-bois, high wood, a musical instrument. 
 
 " Cheerful paintings in feasting and banqueting-rooms ; graver 
 stories in galleries ; landscape and boscage, and such wild works in terraces 
 and summer-houses." — Wooton. 
 
 Bois-le-duc, wood of the duke, duke's-wood, a town 
 of the Netherlands. Boscabel, bascage-belle, beautiful 
 woodland, a village of Shropshire, in the neighbourhood 
 of the royal oak. Bosenham, bois-en-ham, a town of 
 Sussex. Boycott bois-cot, a village of Yorkshire. War- 
 hoys^ ward-bois, a village of Huntingdonshire. Sacro- 
 hosco, the Latinised name Holywood. 
 
 Boris, Irish, boy\ boris^ a pine tree, a pine grove : and 
 the letters b and f being commutable, Jir the common of 
 pine. 
 
 Borisokane^ boris-o-cin, o, direction, district, and cin^ 
 head, head district of pines, a town of Tipperarj'-. Boriso- 
 leigh^ district of the pine field. Boris-in-Ossory^ braigh- 
 uisce, pines on the water, and other places in Ireland. 
 Borysthenes^ boris-tan, country of pines, a river of the 
 ancient Scythia, so called because bordered with pine 
 forests ; it is now called the Dnieper. 
 
 Brad, Sax. bracly Teut. brait^ broad. 
 
 Bradford^ brad-ford, a town of Yorkshire, on the river 
 Are, and the name of other places in England. Bradley^ 
 brad-leag, broad field, and a surname : — 
 
 "Before we came in, we heard a great shouting, 
 
 And all that were in look'd madly, 
 For some were on hull-back, some dancing a morris, 
 
 And some singing Arthiir-a-Bradley," ■ 
 
 — Ballad. — Robin Hood 
 
 Breitenbach^ brcit-bach, broad beck ; Ehrenbreitstehi, 
 bright stone of honour, and other places of Germany. 
 
67 
 
 Bkigg, Sax. brigy Teut. brucke^ a bridge. 
 
 " At Trompington, not far fro Cante "brigge. 
 There goth a brook, and over that lyrigge ; 
 Upon the -which brook there stont a mill, 
 And this is very sothe, I you telle." 
 
 — Chaucer. 
 
 Brig., a town of Lincolnshire. Brixton^ brig-town, the 
 name of several places in England. Brixen^ a town on the 
 river E jsach ; Bruckhausen., bridge houses ; Tweybruchen., 
 two bridges, called in French, by the equivalent name, 
 Deuts-Ponts, and other places in Germany. Trowbridge., 
 truebridge, Wilts. 
 
 Brom, Sax. brom^ Teut. broem., the broom. 
 
 " Our Jenny sings saftly the Cowden hroom knowes, 
 And Rosy lilts sweetly the milking the ewes."— i2amsay. 
 
 Broome, brom, a village of Bedfordshire. Bromley^ 
 brom-leag, broom field, Kent. Brompton., brom-tun, a 
 village of Middlesex. Brampton., a town of Cumberland, 
 and about thirty other places in England. Broomielaic^ 
 brom-laAve, the port of Glasgow. [See Law.] Birming- 
 ham., anciently Bromyliam. 
 
 Broc, Sax. broc, Teut. brolia., a brook. 
 
 Brooke., broc, a village of Rutlandshire. Brocden^ 
 brook-den, the common name of several places. Broch- 
 hampton., broc-ham-tun, on the Severn. Bolingbroke. 
 babbling-brook, an ancient town of Lincolnshire, on a 
 " brook that babbles by ;" and the surname of Hen. JX.., 
 being his birth-place ; and hence Shakespeare : — 
 
 "To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, 
 And plant this thorn, this canker, Bollnghroke." 
 
 Burn, Sax. bmii, Germ, born, Teut. brunn., a small 
 river, a bourn. 
 
68 
 
 " A cauler hum, o' siller shene, 
 Ran cannily out-owre the green." — Cauler Water. 
 
 or make me ever mourn, 
 
 My little boat can safely pass this perilous 'bourn." 
 
 — Spenser. 
 
 Burnley^ burn-leag, burn-field, a town of Lancashire. 
 Bierhurn., byer-burn, a little river of Cumberland, near 
 Longtown. Borne^ a river of Staffordshire. Paderborn., 
 a town of Germany, on the river Pader. Bourn^ a town 
 of Lincolnshire, on a small river ; Melbourne^ mill -burn ; 
 Selbourne^ great burn ; Washbourne. Bmnsivick, bruun- 
 wic, a town of Germany, on the river Ocker. Neidei'briinn^ 
 uether-burn, and other places. 
 
 BuKG, Sax. burg^ Tent, bergh^ German berg^ a mount, 
 a mountain, a tower, a fortified eminence ; and figuratively, 
 a precinct, a township, a franchise-town, all from the Teut. 
 berghen^ to defend, enclose : in Gen. xxxvii. 24, borah is a 
 pit. - 
 
 " Abhange des herge" — on the declivity of a mountain. 
 
 — German Telem. 
 
 Bergen., berg, the mountains, a province of Norway; 
 Spitzber-gen., peak mountains. Bamberg^ beam-berg, wood- 
 mount. Ergeberge, erz-ge-berg, the metal mountain ; 
 Frauenberg., woman — height. Koningsberg^ kings' mount, 
 and other places in Germany. Scdbergh^ side-bergh, a 
 village of Yorkshire among hills ; Sebergham^ side-bergh- 
 ham, a village of Cumberland, beside a hill ; Edinburgh, 
 aodan-bergh, liill face, Gaelic, aodan, a face, this town 
 stands in front of the mountain Arthur's Seat. Starenberg^ 
 star-mountain, Teut. star en., a star : — 
 
 " Mirk and rainy is the night, 
 Tliere's no a star'n in a' the carry." 
 
 — Sleepin Maggie. 
 
59 
 
 In the figurative sense of this name, we have burgh^ a 
 tOTvnship ; biiry^ a dwelling-place ; bury^ to inter ; burrow, 
 the earthing of animals ; barroic, a sepulchral mound ; 
 borough, a franchise-town ; and neighbour, nigh-borough. 
 
 " Ye Irish lords, ye knights and squires 
 AVha represent our turghs and shires." 
 
 — Bums. 
 " And, if a borough choose him not, undone." 
 
 — Pope 
 
 " halles, chambers, kitchens and boures, 
 
 Citees, horotoes, castelles, and hie toures." 
 
 — Chaucer. 
 
 Burgh, burg, a village of Cumberland ; Burg, a town 
 of Lancashu-e ; Borough, a village of Gloucester ; Brough, 
 a town of Westmoreland ; Bruff, a village of Limerick. 
 Burg, a town of Holland ; Strasburg, street-burg, Germany. 
 Burgos, a town of Spain. And Burke, de burgos, a sur- 
 name. 
 
 BucHAN, Celtic-'Welsh, becli, and bechan, Gaelic and 
 Msh, begli, little, small : and hence backgammon, bech- 
 ymladdfa, little battle, a game at tables ; philibeg, filead- 
 begh, little cloth, a kilt. 
 
 Buchan, bechan, the little, a little county of Scotland, 
 and a surname : — 
 
 " He's grown sae wee] acquaint we' Buchan, 
 
 And ither chaps." 
 
 — Bums. 
 
 Beggs, begh, the little, an L'ish surname. Killybegs, 
 chille-begh, little word, a town of Ireland. The letters b 
 and/, being commutable, the Welsh root becomes fechan; 
 Lanfechan, llan-bechan, little place, a village of Montgo- 
 meryshire. Pontednafechan, little bridge, a town of Breck- 
 nockshire. Ecclefechan, achles-bechan, little shelter, an 
 ancient village in the south of Scotland. 
 
60 
 
 By, Sax. bye^ a dwelling, a snng abode, from the verb 
 hian^ to dwell. 
 
 " I liae a bye, wi' a gude kail j'aird, 
 Lass an you loe me, tak me now ; 
 My daddie is dead, and I am the laird, 
 And I canna come ilka day to woo." 
 
 Old Song. 
 
 ^y-> bye, the commoii name of a town in Denmark. 
 5e%, sel-bye, great bye, a town of Yorkshire. Derby, 
 Derwent-bye, a town on that river. Ktitleby^ the kettle - 
 makers'-bye, an ancient village of Lincolnshire. Wiganby, 
 wigan-bye, Sax. wceg, a way; " wigans,^'' ways> highways, 
 Luke XIV., 23, — a village of Cumberland. Etterby, outer- 
 bye ; Upperby, upper-bye, on a hill ; Netherby, nether-bye, 
 nether, lower, "the nether millstone;" Rickerby, Eickard's- 
 bye ; Botcherby, the Butcher's-bye ; Tarraby, terrace-bye, 
 all in the vicinity of Carlisle. The last named village is so 
 called from being on the site of the Roman wall, and near 
 the place where stood a fort or battlement, terrace. 
 
 Calt, Sax. Ceald, Teut. Kalt, cold : in local names 
 denoting a cold exposed situation ; chill is the same word. 
 
 Calton, Kalt-tun, cold-town, the name of several places 
 in Britain. Calehill, kalt-hill, Kent. Coldered, cold-ridge, 
 a village of Herts, on a hill. Cultram, colder-holm, Cum- 
 berland, formerly Coltrame. Chiltern, chill-dern, cold, 
 wild, or waste, hills of Bedfordshire ; " the Chiltern 
 Hundreds." 
 
 Cam, Celtic, cam, bent, crooked ; and hence carnin, a 
 crooked stick for playing at knur and spell — a cabshaw. In 
 local names, the term commonly denotes the bends and 
 windings of rivers. 
 
 Cam, cam, a river of England, on which is Cam- 
 bridge. Camel, a river of Wales. Cambeck, cam -beck. 
 
61 
 
 crooked-beck, a small river of Cumberland. Camlachy^ 
 cam-laeh, crooked place, a village in the vicinity of Glas- 
 gow. Campbell^ cam-benl, crooked mouth, a surname. 
 
 Camp, Lat. compits, Fr. champ^ a field, a plain : and 
 hence camp^ a military position ; clmmpaigne^ an open 
 countiy. 
 
 Campania^ campus, a province of Italy. Champagne^ 
 champ, a province of France. Champ cf Elyses^ Elysian 
 Fields, a promenade at Paris- An old foim of the word 
 is kemp^ denoting a soldier, a camper : — 
 
 " They had not ridden scant a myle, 
 
 A myle out of the town, 
 But in did come the Kj'ng of Spayne 
 
 ^.Vith Kempes many a one." 
 
 — Ballad — King Estmere. 
 
 Kemp, a soldier, a camp-man, a surname. 
 
 Car, Welsh, caer, a city. Caerleon, caerlegion, where 
 Cesar's second legion lay. Carmarthen, the city of Marius 
 the Roman commander. Cardiff, caer-Tafe, on that 
 river, and other places, in Wales, Carlisle, caer-lios, Irish 
 lios, Welsh, Uuest, a fort, a camp, the fort city, capital of 
 Cumberland. — See Lis. 
 
 " They watch, against Southern force and guile, 
 Lest Scroope, or Howard, or Percy's powers 
 Threaten Branksome"s lordly towers 
 
 From Warkwortb, or Naworth, or merry Carlisle." 
 
 —Scott. 
 
 Cairn, Welsh earn, a heap, a stone heap. 
 
 " And tho' wi' crazy eild I'm sair forfain, 
 I'll be a brig when ye're a shapeless cairn." — Burns. 
 
 This kind of erection being commonly made on hills, 
 the term often denotes the hill itself. Cairngorm, carn- 
 gorm, blue cairn, a mountain of Scotland. Carntoul, carn- 
 tol, hole caini, and many other places in the same country. 
 
62 
 
 Cardunnocky carn-dun-cnoc, earn hill top, a mountain of 
 Cumberland, on which there is a great cairn. 
 
 Carre, Sax. carre^ Welsh corsdir^ Irish curragh^ Heb. 
 cacar^ a plain, a marshy flat, a cattle-stray. 
 
 "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain {cacar) of Jor- 
 dan that it was well watered every v/here." — Gen. xiii., 10. 
 
 Carchemosh^ cacar-chemosh, a large plain on the 
 Euphrates. Carr., the common name of many marshy 
 flats in Britain. Carham^ a plain on the Tweed. Cargo^ 
 carre-gwy, water carre, a flat on the river Eden, Cumber- 
 land. Cardew^ carre-du, Welsh </i5, black, a marshy and 
 mossy flat, near Carlisle. Carsi/kes, Welsh sijch, a drain, 
 a ditch, another east of the same town. Corse, corsdir, a 
 fine plain of Gloucester ; Carse, another on the Tay. Cur- 
 ragh, a large plain in the Isle of Man ; and Curragh, tbe 
 celebrated race-course of Kildare; and the letters c and g 
 being commutable, Goreij, a fine plain of Wexford ; and 
 Gowry, another on the Tay. 
 
 Carrick, Irish carig, Welsh craig, a rock : hence 
 crag, craggy. 
 
 " But thank the gods for what they've sent, 
 O' health eneugh, and blithe content ; . 
 And pith that helps us to stravaig, 
 Owre ilka cleugh and ilka craig." — Ferguson. 
 
 Craig of Ailsa, a huge rock in the Clyde. Craigton, 
 craig-tun, and the surnames Creighton and Cricliton. 
 Croglin, craig-llyn, a village of Cumberland, in the fells. 
 
 Carrick, carig, a district of Ayrshire ; " Carrick 
 shore ;" and a surname. Carrick-on-Shannon, Carrick-on- 
 Suir, Carrickmore, Carrickfengus, Carrick- macross, and 
 other places in Ireland. Craven, craig-pen, a rocky and 
 hilly tract of Yorkshire. Castkcarrock, Cumberland, 
 which was a carig, before it was a castle. The letters c 
 
63 
 
 and k being commiitable, this name becomes Kerry^ a 
 rocky county on the coast of Ireland. 
 
 Causey, Fr., chaussee, a foot-path, roadway, a street. 
 
 " St. Andrew's town may look right saucy, 
 Nae grass will grow upon her Causey," 
 
 ^-Ferguson, 
 
 Causey^ a village of Sussex. Causey -House, a hamlet 
 of Cumberland, by the public road side. Brixton- Causey^ 
 and many other places. The Causey has its name from 
 chaux limestone, and was originally made by throwing the 
 metal loosely on, and letting it settle by use and its own 
 gravity, which is now called macadamising^ but which, in- 
 stead of being a new art, is the oldest in road-making. 
 
 Chare, Gaelic, and Ii-ish car^ a turn : hence chare^ a 
 job of work; charwoman^ chare-woman, one who doeig 
 turns, and goes errands about an inn ; and the old phrasGj 
 " chare the cow" — turn her. 
 
 Carmen^ car-man, turn-place, the enclosure, an ancient 
 town of Wicklow, Ireland. Chare^ car, the common name 
 of those narrow lanes turning off the main streets in some 
 old towns, as Broad- Chare^ Manor- Chare^ Pudding- Char e^ 
 NeAvcastle. 
 
 Chester, Lat. castrum, a camp : hence castrametation^ 
 the art of arranging camps. This name originally denoted 
 a Roman military station, as we see in Burton's Itinerary ; 
 but the English Saxons gave it the form ceastre, and the 
 sense of town, as in their Gospel : — 
 
 " Bethany, the ceastre (town) of Mary.' John, xi. 1. 
 
 Castro, castrum, a town of Italy. Castres, a town of 
 France. Chester, ceastre, capital of Cheshii^e, ceastre -scyre. 
 Manchester, maen-ceastre, stone-town, anciently described 
 as having quarries. Bicester^ by-ceastre, Oxfordshire. 
 
64 
 
 Doncaster^ and all the cJiesters, cesters^ and casters in 
 England. 
 
 Churn, Celtic-Welsh, chvyrn^ rapid, a term applied to 
 the motion of rivers, and so it is in English : — 
 
 " The roptci Severn sounds." 
 
 Cliurn^ chuyrn, the rapid, a river of Gloucestershire. 
 Cirncester chiirn-ceastre, a town on that river. Cerne, 
 Nether-Cerney and other places on the same. Kilchurn, 
 cealla-chwyrn, an ancient castle and hermitage in Loch- 
 Awe. 
 
 Clachan, Gaelic, clach^ Ii'ish clogli, a stone ; and the 
 plural being dachan, the word comes to signify a village as 
 being a collection of stones, wherefore Burns : — 
 
 "The clachan yill had made me canty." — 
 " Ye ken Jock Hornbook o' the clachan" 
 
 Clackmannan^ clach -mawnen, stone moss, a town and 
 county of Scotland, doughy clogh, a rocky point on the 
 Clyde, where there is a lighthouse. Clogher^ clogh-uire, 
 clay stone, a town of Ireland. Aughnaclog, stone field, a 
 town of the same country. C/o^Aeew, cloghau, the stones, 
 Tipperary : — 
 
 " 'Twas at the fair of nate Clogheen, 
 Where Sergeant Snap met Paddy Carey." 
 
 Clwdd, Celtic clwdd, a ditch, a trench. 
 Clady^ clwdd, a river in the north of Ireland : — 
 
 " 'Twas on the banks of Clady a fair maid did complain." 
 
 Cluyd^ a river of Denbighshke, North Wales, " the vale of 
 Ciuydy Clyde^ clwdd, a river of Scotland falling into the 
 sea at Greenock : — 
 
 " Let flowing Clyde, fair Scotland's pride, 
 Be print'e of every river, 
 And Grecuoek town rise in renown. 
 For ever and for ever." — The Volunteers. 
 
65 
 
 Cliff, Sax. clif^ Lat. clivus^ a steep, the pitch or as- 
 cent of a hill. 
 
 Clifton^ clif'tun, a village of Westmoreland, and other 
 places. HaltcUff^ wood-cliff, Cumberland. Conisdiff^ 
 coney-cliif, Yorkshire. RadcJiff^ red-cliff, and a surname. 
 Cleveland, cliff-land, a district of Yorkshire : — 
 
 " Cleveland in the clay 
 
 Bring two shoes in and carry cne away." 
 
 This name cliff becomes modified into dint, to denote a 
 rocky precipice. Clinilnll, cliff-hill, Roxburghshire ; Cli?ii- 
 heugh, a rocky waterfall in the same county. Clinthead, a 
 rocky precipice on the river Eden, at Corby, Cumberland. 
 
 Clon, Irish duan, a lawn, a line dale. 
 
 Cloyne, clvian, an ancient town of Cork. Clonakilty, 
 cluan-na-chille, wocd, lawn ; Clowdalkin, cluan-dail-cin, lawn 
 at the dale head, and many other places of Ireland. Cloniarf 
 cluan-tarbh, bull lawn, a fine plain on Dublin bay, so 
 called from two rocks in the bay, called tarhh, bulls, be- 
 cause they make a noise like the roaring of those animals, 
 when the tide comes in. It was in this fine plain that 
 Brian Boromhe, king of Munster, beat and expelled the 
 Danes, before the conquest. 
 
 "There Brian the Brave with the flower of his nation, 
 Had appointed to meet with the Danes ; 
 Better die in their country's devotion, 
 Than live but one moment in chains." 
 
 — Song, Buttle of Clontarf. 
 
 Cot, Sax. cote, a cottage : in Doomsday-Book crAe, 
 is a sheep-fold. Coteswold, cote- wold, a hilly plain of 
 Gloucestershire, noted for sheep. Cotdiill, cote-hill, an 
 ancient upland village of Cumberland. Cootkill, cote-hill, 
 a town in the north of Ireland. Foxcote, Worcestershire. 
 Most places in cote are upon hills, though the word has no 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 sticli meaning as hitl; but this would denote that those 
 places were first sheep-houses, sheep always making up- 
 wards. 
 
 Cop, Germ, kopf^ a head ; in Doomsday-Book cop is a 
 hill : hence copple-stone^ a stone tumbled from rocks or 
 precipices, and rounded by being driven about in the plain. 
 Copeland^ cope-land, the upper and hilly part of Cum- 
 berland. Cobham, cop-ham a village of Surrey. Warcop^ 
 Westmoreland. 
 Croagh, Gaelic and Irish cruacli., a hill. 
 
 " Air sliabh nan cmach,— on tlie tops of Mils." — Ossian. 
 
 Croagh- Patrick J Patrick's-hill, a mountain of Con- 
 naught, Curcrechan^ car-cruach-an, the hill top, a village 
 of Louth. Bencrauclmn^ pen-cruach-an, the hill head, a 
 mountain of Scotland. 
 
 Crum, Celtic crum^ crooked : hence crumple^ a wrinkle, 
 a fold : — 
 
 " This is the cow with the crumpl'd horn." 
 
 — House that Jack Built. 
 
 In local names, this word commonly denotes the beudings 
 of rivers. Crumlin, crum-linn, a town of Ulster, on a very 
 crooked stream. Crumdale^ crwm-dail ; Cromarty^ crwm- 
 ta-tagh, and other places in Scotland. Ancrum^ an-crwm, 
 the bend, a town of Roxburghshii'e, on a bend of the river 
 Ale with the Tweed : — 
 
 " And only Ancvums groves can vie with thine." 
 
 Cum, Welsh cwm^ a vale, a valley. 
 
 Cwm-neath^ cwm-nead, open vale, a town of Glamor- 
 ganshire. Cummersdale^ cwm-hurst-dale, a fine vale in 
 the vicinity of Carlisle. Cumwhitton^ cwm-white-town ; 
 Cumivhirito'd, whin-town, where is abundance of whins still ; 
 €umrcnton, run-town, runa, a stream, small river ; Cum- 
 
G7 
 
 nidick, Welsh, rhudded, a path ; also Cumrew^ cwni-rhew, 
 slippery vale ; Cumcatch^ cwm-ciiach, cuach^ a cup or 
 round hollow. This vale near Brampton, in Cumberland, 
 h remarkably characteristic ; Cumdivick^ cwm-diffethwch, 
 Avild vale, all in Cumberland, and have been rhymed in 
 song by the native poet, Anderson : — 
 
 " Cumwhitton, Cumwhinton, Cumrenton, 
 Cumruddick, Cumrew, and Cumcatch, 
 And many moi'e cums in the county, 
 But none with CumdivicJc can match." 
 
 The Saxons made this name into comb^ and hence 
 many places in England. Combe, c^m, a village of Kent. 
 Winchcombe, wincel-comb, corner valley. Illfracombe, ill- 
 ford-comb, a port of Devonshire. Compton, comb-tun, a 
 '■illage of Warwickshire. 
 
 Dal, Teut. thai, a dale. 
 
 Dale, the dale, a village of Derbyshire. Dalrymple, 
 rumple dale, ridgy dale, and a surname. Deal, dale, a 
 town of Kent. Arundel^ dale of the Arun. Kendal, dale 
 of the Kent. Grinsdale, green dale, a village of Cumber- 
 land. Rhinthal, Rhine-dale, and other places in Germany. 
 
 Den, Sax. den, a hollow, a ravine ; in Doomsday- 
 Book, dena-terra is a hollow between hills. 
 
 Denton, den-tun, the name of several places in Cum- 
 berland. Biddenden, by the den, a place in Kent. Dib- 
 den, deep-den, and a surname. Dryden, dry den, and a 
 surname. Sometimes the word is dean, in which form it 
 often means a heath or common terminating in a delL 
 Dean, several places. Cottman-Dean, cottagers' heath.. 
 Middlesex. The diminutive of the name is dingle : — 
 
 " Where the primrose in its pride, 
 By the hollow dingle side." 
 
 — Kelmn Grove, 
 
 Dingley, a village of Northamptonshire. 
 
68 
 
 Derry, Welsh derii\ L'isli dare^ an oak. 
 Berry ^ the oak, a town and county of Ireland. JDerry- 
 downdale^ dair-dun-dale : — 
 
 " In Dcmjrloumdalc, when I wanted a mate, 
 I went with my daddy a courting to Kate." 
 
 Aiigliaderry^ oak field. Bcdlinderry^ oak town. Adair. 
 an-dair, the oak, a town of Munster. Kildare^ chille-dair, 
 oak wood. Aherdare, aber-dau', a town of Wales ; and all 
 other dares and derrys. 
 
 Dern, Sax. dern, wild, uncultivated. 
 
 DerntJiorpe, dern-thorpe, a village of Notts, Dern- 
 Iwlm^ wild holm, the name of several places. Darrdey, 
 dern-leag, wild field, and a surname. Chiltern^ chill-dern, 
 the cold wild. 
 
 Devit, a sod, a turf, from the Saxon del/an^ to dig, 
 to delve. 
 
 " The house is Glaud's — there you may see him lean. 
 An' to his divot-seat invite liis frien'." 
 
 — Gentle Shepherd. 
 
 " When Adam delv'd and Eve span, 
 Who was then the gentleman ?" 
 
 — Rev. John Ball. 
 
 Devit- Hall, a hamlet in the south of Scotland, so 
 named from the devils or sods with which it "was made. 
 Delft, a town of Holland, so called from the delvings or pits 
 there made for obtaining the clay for making the pottery 
 ware thence called delft. 
 
 Dru, Fr. dru, a thicket, a planting : in Doomsday- 
 Book, a grove ; in local names the word sometimes means 
 a shelter, or to-di-aw. 
 
 Drew, dru, a town of Cornwall. Stanton- Dreiv, stone- 
 town -dru, Somersetshire. Wardrew, water-dru, an ancient 
 hamlet of Northumberland, on the woody banks of the 
 
69 
 
 river Irthing. Drayton^ dru-tun, the name of several places 
 in England. 
 
 Drum, Gaelic and Irish driura^ Welsh, trum^ a back, 
 and figuratively, a hill. 
 
 Drum^ drium, a town of Monaghau. Drumhoe^ driuin 
 bo, cow-hill. Dromore, drium-mohr, big-hill, Dimdrum, 
 and many other places in Ireland. Drummond^ drium- 
 moan, moss-hill; Drumlanrigg. Drummellcr^ and other 
 places of Scotland, Brumhurgh^ drium-bergh, a hill of 
 Cumberland; here both words of the compound mean the 
 same, a thing very common in local names ; the circum- 
 stance marks the ingress of different races of men. The 
 letters d and t being commutable, we have from this root 
 Trim^ a town of Meath ; Antrim^ an-drium, the hill, a town 
 of Ulster. Meitrum^ meityn-trum, point hill, a town of 
 Wales. 
 
 Du, Welsh du^ Gaelic and Irish, dhu^ duhli^ black : in 
 local names, it denotes waters and marshes. 
 
 Duhlin^ dnbh-linn, black pool, a port of Ireland ; its 
 ancient name is Dulin. Dubhsrongeal^ black and white 
 nose, one of Ossian's heroes. Douglas^ dhu-glas, blue 
 black, water colour, a river of Lancashire ; a port of the 
 isle of Man ; and a surname, '' the Black Douglases." Dww, 
 du-llyn, black-pool, a river of Yorkshire ; Don, a river of 
 Scotland ; and Burns' " bonny Doon^ " the same. 
 Avon-Dhu^ black river, the native name of the Forth. Car- 
 dew^ carre-du, black marsh, a marshy mossy tract of Cum- 
 berland. Duff, dubh, the black, a Celtic surname ; and 
 Macduff^, son of Duff: — 
 
 Macb. "How say'st thou, that Macdvjf denies." — Shakspeare. 
 
 Dun, Celtic, dun, a hill, a fortified eminence ; hence 
 dujigeon, ths upper keep of a castle. 
 
70 
 
 Dunmoit\ diin-inow, Saxon, mote, a heap, a stack, a 
 hill of Essex : — 
 
 ■learn skilfullie how 
 
 Each grain for to laie by itself on a maw." — Tusser. 
 
 Bunbm^ dun-bara, top hilL Dunkdcl, duncaldin, hazel hill. 
 Dundee^ hill on the Dee, and many other places of Scotland. 
 Bmidraiv, dim-traws cross-hill : traws, cross, awry, the ori- 
 gin of the Scotticism thraw ; — 
 
 " We darna speak our minds of a', 
 But Geordie says we're traitors a', 
 And says he'll gie our necks a t/traw, 
 Gin' ere we speak o' Charlie." — Song. 
 
 Dimdal/i, don-domh-lech, hill of the stone honse., 
 Dimmore, dun-mohr, big hill, Louth, and other places of 
 Ireland : — 
 
 " Viewing the battle from the hill of Dunmore, and seeing the Irish 
 furiously repulse the enemy, his Majesty exclaimed, in great emotion, 'O- 
 spare my English subjects.' "—Kir.g James, at the Battle of the Boyne. 
 
 Sometimes this name is down, don, din ; fend the letters 
 n and m being commntable, it becomes dum. Down, dun, 
 a hilly county of Ireland. Donegal, dun-na-gall, hill of the 
 strangers. Snowdqn, snow-hill. Cusldndint chasan-dun, 
 path-hill, Ulster. Dumblane, dun-blaen, high hill. Dum- 
 barton, dun-braigh-tonn, hill on the waves, a hill on the 
 Clyde. Dumfries, dum-phrish, bush hill ; pitrish being the 
 Gaelic plural of preas, a bush ; and many other places, — 
 
 " Till high Bxinedln the blazes saw 
 From Soltra and Ihimpender law." 
 
 Dor, Welsh, divr, dwfr, water : in local names com- 
 monly referring to water districts, rivers, and coasts. 
 
 Dornoch, dur-cnoc, water hill, a port of Scotland, and 
 a point on the coast of Cumberland. Dorset, dwr, a mari^ 
 
71 
 
 time county of England, were dwelt the ancient Duro- 
 triges^ dur-trigo, dwelling on water. Denuent^ dur-gwen, 
 white water, the name of several rivers of Britain. Durdar, 
 d-wT-dwr, very wet, a marshy tract of Cumberland, near 
 Carlisle, where now are races : — 
 
 " When young, just like the de'il she ran, 
 The car-gear at Durdar, she wan." — Auld Man's Mare. 
 
 Dove7\ dwfr, the water, a port of Kent. Dee, dwfi'-du, 
 black water, the names of several rivers of Britain ; the 
 ancient name of the Welsh river so called is Bifferdwy^ 
 dwfr-du. 
 
 Ea, Sax. ea, water : hence ewage., water customs ; ewer^ 
 a water vessel ; ewry., ofl&ce of water bearer. 
 
 Eaton, ea-tun, water town, on the Thames and other 
 places. Eamont, ea-mount, mountain water, a river of 
 Cumberland coming oiF the fells. Elland, ea-land, among 
 the holmes. Eddystone, ed, backwards, and m, eddy, a 
 vortex, a whirlpool, the celebrated lighthouse of Plymouth, 
 so called from the gurgling and whirling of the water there 
 among the rocks. Eicell, a town of Surrey, on a river 
 running to the Thames. WinclieUea, wincel-ea, corner of 
 the water, a port of Sussex. Mersey, merse-ea, a river of 
 Lancashire. Bungay, bou-g-ea, Suffolk, on the river Wa- 
 veney. Wormgay, ea, iSTorfolk, on the river IsTar. Fo)-- 
 therengayy for ding-ea, iN'orthamptonshire, on the river Nen. 
 
 Eden, Heb. oeden, pleasantness, delight, the name of 
 several places of more than ordinary beauty, in imitation 
 of that one mentioned in Scripture, "a garden eastward 
 in Edeny Gen. ii., 8. 
 
 Aden, oeden, a country of Arabia, and other places. 
 
 " It is ohservahle that Aden in the Eastern dialects, is precisely 
 the same word with Eden, which we apply to the garden of Paradise." 
 
 — Sir W. Jones. 
 
72 
 
 Ern, Sax. em, a place, a cottage. 
 
 ErnsJiaw, oern-shaw ; Ernbi/, cern-bye, villages of 
 Yorkshire. Crewkerne^ cruce-corn, fountain cottage, a town 
 of Somersetshire. Sometimes this name takes an initial h 
 and becomes heme : and hence hemesium, an old term for 
 all sorts of household furniture. Heme, oern, a town of 
 Kent, and other places. 
 
 Eve, Sax. efse^ an edge, a brink : and hence eaves, 
 the edges of a roof; ectves- dropper, a listener; in local 
 names the word denotes the edges or banks of rivers. 
 
 Evesham, efse-ham, a town of Worcestershire, on the 
 aiver Avon. Evedon, efse-tun, Lincolnshire, on the river 
 Witham. Evart, efse-ward, Northumberland, on the Till. 
 Efford, Devonshire, on the river Flym. 
 
 Fare, Sax. fare, a journey, from faran, to go, to 
 travel; hence, /ar, distant, farewell, fieldsfare, warefare ; 
 forfaim, weary worn with the way : — 
 
 " Andtho' wi' crazy eild I'am sair /or/aim. " 
 
 — Auld Brig. 
 
 So sxlso faratidman, a traveller, a pedlar ; farran, tra- 
 velled, and in a secondary sense, knowing, mighty wise : — 
 
 "Auld Watty o' Kebbuckston Braes, 
 Wi' lear, and readin' o' beuks auld-farran ; 
 What think ye, the body cam owre th' day, 
 And said he was gane to be married to Mirren." 
 
 — Tannaliill. 
 
 So also ^rZ/e, far-like, any new or wonderful sight' 
 " to s])y fur lies,'' ^ to gape and stare at novelties: — 
 
 "Or teU what new ta?vation corain', 
 
 And ferlie at the folks o' Lon'on." 
 
 — Burns. 
 
 Fareham, fareham, a town of Hampshire. Faringdon, 
 faring-town. Middlesex. Farlam, far-leag-ham, a viHnge 
 
73 
 
 of Cumberland. Farley^ far-leag, far field, several places 
 and a surname. 
 
 Fell, Tent, fels^ a rock, and figuratively, a hill or 
 mountain. 
 
 '" When corn-riggs wav'd yellow, and sweet heather bells 
 Bloom'd bonny on muirland and sweet rising /<;iJs." 
 
 Fell^ the common name of several mountain ranges in 
 Britain. Rkinfels, Hhine-fels ; Weissenfels, white rocks, and 
 other places in Germany. 
 
 Fen, Sax. /en. a bog, a marsh ; fenny. 
 
 Fenton^ fen-town, a A'illage of Cumberland, east of 
 Carlisle. Fenchurch, London, so called from a/en formerly 
 there ; and Fmsbunj, fen-bury, so called for the same rea- 
 son. Finkle, fen- quelle, fen- well, a suburb of Carlisle, 
 See Kell. 
 
 FoRD^ Sax. forda^ a passage through a river. 
 
 Ford^ a village of Kent on the river Arun. Frodsham, 
 ford-ham, Cheshire, on the Weaver. Frodlecrook. ford-hill- 
 crook, Cumberland, on the Eden. Tiverton^ twi-ford-tun, 
 two ford town, Devonshire, on the rivers Exe and Leman. 
 Crawford, cross-ford, a surname, first given in the Scot- 
 tish vvars, to a leader who crossed a river bv fording it. 
 Hereford^ Sax. here, an army on the river Wye, where the 
 Saxon army lay before the conquest. 
 
 Frank, Fr. franc^ free ; hence /'aw^, free ; franklin^ a 
 freeman : franchise., the elective power ; in local names the 
 word denotes some privilege or immunity. 
 
 Frankland, frank-land ; Frankley. Franhltam., and other 
 places in England. Frankfort a town of Germany. France., 
 franc, the countrv of the French. 
 
 " In all thyr wrytynges, [the Frenshe] when they come to any mater 
 that soundyth any thyng to theyr honour, it is wrytten in the longest and 
 
74 
 
 most shewynge manoure to theyr honoure and worshyp. But if it sound 
 any tliynge to their dislionoure, tlien shall it be abreuyated or hyd, tha. 
 the trouthe shall not be known."— Fa&i/an. p, 333. 
 
 Gau, Germ, gau^ a district, a country. 
 
 Aargau, district of the river Aar. Thurgau^ district 
 of the Thiir. Brisgaw^ and other places. The Danish 
 gend has the same meaning,— district, country : Goitingen^ 
 Goth-gend, and all the gens in Germany. 
 
 Gaky, Welsh garw, Irish garhli^ a flush, a torrent. 
 
 Gary, a river of Scotland :^ 
 
 " Down by Loch Tummel, and banks of the Gary:' 
 
 Garonne, garb-abhan, the torrent river, in France, the 
 Roman Garumna. And the letters g and tj being commute 
 able, Yarroiv, in the south of Scotland : — 
 
 " Arcadian swains might tyne their lays, 
 On Ettrick banks or Yarrow braes." 
 
 — Ferguson. 
 
 Glen, Welsh glpin, Gaelic and Irish gleann, a dell, a 
 ravine. 
 
 Gl?j7in, a town of Tipperary. Gkncoe, gleann-cw, 
 hollow glen. Glenhice, leac, a flag, flag glen. Glencrake, 
 glen-crag, craig, on Eden. Glengary, glean-gara, near 
 glen. Glenshee, ceo, mist, the misty glen. Glen-Stewart, 
 and other places in Scotland. Glenwhelt, glynn-gwyllt, 
 wild glen, Northumberland. Glenfruin, glen of lamenta- 
 tion : — 
 
 " Far owre Glen/ruin, where I first gaed wooin'. 
 Saw a lassie viewin' sheep upon a hill." 
 
 Gow, Welsh gwy, Celtic go, water, the sea. 
 
 Gowy, gwy, a river of Wales. RJiiaidergowy, rhiaider - 
 gwy, the water-fall a town of Radnorshire, on the river 
 W^ye. Glasgow, glas-gwy, blue-water, a town on the 
 
75 
 
 Clyde, Cargo^ carre-go, a village of Cumberland on a flat 
 of the river Eden. Sligo^ siol-go, family or race of the 
 water, a maritime county of Ireland : — 
 
 " Said I to my Slielah one night, 
 To England suppose you and I go; 
 And tliat very same daj' by moonlight, 
 We set sail from the county of Sligo." 
 
 The letters g and w bemg commntable, this name be- 
 comes Vfi/e, the name of several rivers of Britain, the prin- 
 cipal of which rises in Wales, and is called in the native 
 tongue " yr afon Gwg,^^ the river Wi/€, Solicai/, sal-gwy, 
 low -water, a fi'ith of Cumberland, so named as being low 
 down or towards the north. 
 
 Gate, Sax. gate, a framework for closing a passage ; 
 the passage itself. 
 
 " Jog on yere gaAe, ye blether in' skate, 
 My name is Maggy Lauder." 
 
 Gation, gate-tun, a village of Surrey. Margate, Lat, 
 mare, sea, sea-vray. Sometimes the name is yate : — 
 
 "Walls he let make al about, 
 And yotes up and down ; 
 And after Lud that was his name, 
 He cluped it Lud's town." 
 
 — Drayton. 
 
 Yate, a village of Gloucestershire, and a surname, 
 Yateshury, yate-bury, a town of Wilts. Yatton, yate-town. 
 Hereford. 
 
 Gill, Celtic gill, water, whence gill, jill, a liquid mea- 
 sure ; in local names the word denotes a brook or rivulet 
 in a valley, and often the valley itself. 
 
 Gill, the common name of many such places, and a 
 surname. Doubergill, doubh- an-gill, black water, a little 
 river of Netherdale, Yorkshire, flowing through mossy 
 
76 
 
 ground. Gilling^ gill-ing, in the same county, Hoiogill^ 
 howe-gill, Cumberland. 
 
 Gib, Heb. giboali, a hill : heiice gibbous^ round, bunchy. 
 
 " Tlie gibbous moon round as my shield." 
 
 Giha^ Gibeah^ Gibeon^ mountains of Judea. 
 
 " Stand tliou sun on Cr/&eon."— Josh, x., 12. 
 
 Gibraltar^ hill of Tarick, the Moor who fortified it ; 
 and the letters g and j being commutable, Jibbel-Aurez, 
 golden-mount, Africa. 
 
 GoRM, Gaelic, gonn, blue. 
 
 " A chlaidheamh glan gnrm 'n a lamh. "—O.sian. 
 "With shining Hue sword in hand." 
 
 Cairngorm, carn-gorm, blue cairn, a mountain of Scot- 
 land. Ardgorm, ard-gorm, blue hill. Tullacligorm, tui- 
 lach-gorm, the blue iullach, or little hill, and other places. 
 
 GoRBAL, Celtic, corbwyll, a puddle, a dub. 
 
 Gorbals, a dirty suburb of Glasgow by the river side. 
 Garpal, corbwyll, a little river celebrated by Burns : — 
 
 " Where haunted Garpal draws its feeble source." 
 
 Gran, Gaelic and Irish grian, the sun. 
 
 " An comhid grlaii, — the shining sun." — Ossian. 
 
 Graiiard, grian-ard, sun hill, a town of Ireland. 
 Greenock, grian-aig, sun bay, a port of Scotland. Ledera- 
 grain, leidyr-an-grian, sun stealer, a high mountain below 
 Dumbarton. 
 
 Grange, Fr. grange, a barn, a granary ; a farm. 
 
 *'- — -there, at tlie moated 
 
 Grange, resides this dejected Mariana." 
 
 -^Mcos. orMeasurc. 
 
 Grange, a village of Lincolnshire. Grangemouth, a 
 town of Scotland. Ilorton Grange ; Mansel Grange / 
 
77 
 
 Cheesehurgli Grange^ Northumberland. Grainger, barn- 
 mau, thresher, a surname. 
 
 Geave, Sax. grcef^ Tcut. grah^ a trench, a hole, a 
 channel ; sometimes it is graft. 
 
 "Divers of the enemj^ retreated to the Mill Mount, a place verj^ 
 diificult of access, and exceedingly high, and having a good graft." 
 
 — Cromwell's Letters ; Siege of Drogheda. 
 
 Grave., groefj a town of the Netherlands. Gravesend., 
 gravesend, the end of the gj'oef, or channel, the first port 
 on the Thames. Grafton., groef-tun, the name of several 
 places. Graby, an ancient village of Lincolnshire. 
 
 Hall, Germ, hall., Gr. als, salt ; in local names, the word 
 denotes salt mines or springs : and hence ales^ salt, a pickle. 
 
 Hall, a town of the TjtoL remarkable for salt-works. 
 Halk, a town of Saxony ; Hallein, a town of Austria ; 
 Reichenkall, rich-in-hall, a town of Bavaria, and others in 
 Germany notable for the production of salt. Halys, a 
 river of Asia. Aha, als, a river of Germany. 
 
 Ham, Sax. ham, Teut. heim, a dwelling-place, a settled 
 habitation : and hence home, and hamlet. 
 
 Ham, hdim, a village of Kent; Hampstead, ham-stede ; 
 Buckingham., bece-ham, beech ham, Tlmrnham., thurn-ham, 
 thurn., a tower, a village of Lancashire ; Broughum., bo- 
 rough-ham, and a hundred ether places in England. Heim., 
 heim ; Weinheim, wine ham ; Hochheim, hock-heim, high- 
 ham, Aoc^-wine, and other places in Germany. This name 
 is corrupted to sham, in Petersham, Peter-ham, and the 
 like : the form kham, is comb, Alkham, Kent, is anciently 
 Aviitten Alcomb ; hempten, is hame-ta'en, certain fau's in 
 the north of England, at which the cattle are taken home 
 to be sold at the end of the season : — 
 
 " Our Dick has been at the head Hempten." 
 
78 
 
 HowK, liohe, to make a note, from tlie Sax. hoc^ dirt, 
 a pit ; hoccus salts, in Doomsday-Book, a salt pit. 
 
 " Wi' social note he snuff'd and snowkit, 
 Whyles mice and moudie worts they howkit." 
 
 . — Burns' Twa Dogs. 
 
 Hockley, hoc-leag, a village of Middlesex. Hockley-in~ 
 Hole, a village of Bedfordshire. Hawk, a remarkable 
 cavity in a rock, at Caldbeck, Cumberland. 
 
 HowF, Sax. Jiofe, a hut, a mean dwelling : hence 
 hovel; grove, gro-hofe, growing cover; a place of public 
 resort. 
 
 " The company had not long left the Hoivff, as Elane's public house 
 was called, when the kettle-drums and trumpets sounded." 
 
 — Old Mortality. 
 
 Hof, hofe, the market-house at Vienna. Hofe, the 
 name of two ancient villages in Westmoreland. Shcephove, 
 a hamlet of Kent. Hoffen, the pleural ; StuMhoffen, Paf- 
 fenhoffen, and other places of Germany. 
 
 Holm, Sax. holme, flat land by a river side, a river 
 island. An island of the largest size, the Saxons called a 
 land; one of the second degree, an he; one of the smallest 
 size, was a holme; and as they had a singular propensity for 
 single combat by river sides, a meeting of this kind was 
 called a holm-gang. We now commonly apply the term 
 holm, to a verdent fertile plain by a river. 
 
 " A flowrieftoifm between twa verdant braes, 
 Where lasses gang to wash and spread their claes." 
 
 — Gent. Shep. 
 
 Holm, a village of Durham, on the Tees. Holme, an 
 island in Windermere. Durham, dun-holm ; the Bishop 
 writes himself " Dunelm.''^ Holm-pier -point, Fr. pierre- 
 pont, stone bridge, Nottingham. Holm Cultram, holm- 
 
79 
 
 colder-holm, formerly Coltrame. Holme Wrangle^ holm- 
 run-gill, the brooky holm, Cumberland. Stockhohn^ stoca- 
 holme. Holm House^ Holm Hill^ Holm Ends^ Holme 
 Eden; and Langholm. Branksome^ brink-holme, on the 
 Teviot :— 
 
 "Mount, mount for Branksome, every man." 
 
 Holt, Sax. Jiold, a woody fastness, a thicket, a little 
 wood. 
 
 Holt, a town of E'orfolk. Holdsiuorthy, holt-weorth, 
 the wood farm, a town of Devonshire. Holcroft, holt-croft, 
 and a surname ; Clierryholt, Buckholt. Holzafell, wood 
 rock, Germany. Sometimes the word is halt. Haltdiff, 
 Cumberland ; Halt Hill, Cheshu'e ; Anhalt, wood island, 
 Denmark. 
 
 Hope, Sax. heafod, Tent, haupt^ a head : hence heve^ 
 a head ; in ancient polity Tendheve was the head of ten 
 families ; haffit^ the side face : — 
 
 " Hislyart A«j^<s wearin' thin and bare. " — Burns. 
 
 Hefferlaw, heafod-hleaw, head hill, l!^orthumberland. 
 Heversham, heve ham, Westmoreland, on a hill. Heverby^ 
 heafod-bye, a village of Cumberland, on a hill. Hapsburg, 
 haupt-bergh, on a high hill, Switzerland. In the form 
 hope we have many local names, as in William the First's 
 grant of Ettrick Forest to Rawdon Hastings : — 
 
 " To PawljTi Rawdon, moor, hope, and fell, 
 For him and his therein to dwell," &c. 
 
 Hope, haupt, a village of Derbyshire, in the Peak. 
 Hope, one of the oldest Saxon surnames. Hopeton, 
 haupt-tun : — 
 
 " Three, are shining stars that light us in the dark, 
 Four, are pretty girls that live near Hop ton Park." 
 
 — The Poetical Cocker. 
 
80 
 
 Stanhope^ stau-baupt ; Blenkinsopp^ blaea-cin-hope. 
 Bilhope^ bilig-haitpt, hilig a blaeberry : — 
 
 " Bilhope braes for harts and raes, 
 And Carat haugh for swine ; 
 And Tarras for the good bull trout, 
 Gif he be ta'en in time." 
 
 How, Teut. Iioch^ liigh ; a hill ; Spencer has it hogh^ a 
 hilL 
 
 " Gae farer up the barn to Hobble's Hoio, 
 Where a' the sweets o' spring and summer grow." 
 
 — Gent. Shep. 
 
 How, a village of Cumberland, below a hill. Howden, 
 how- den, a town of Yorkshire, giving birth and name to 
 Roger de Hoveden, the historian. Hoivth, how-wath, hill 
 in the wath or wade, a hill in Dublin bay, so called by the 
 Saxons ; its ancient British name was Ben-Hadar, hill of 
 birds. Torpenhow. Sometimes this name is hoo^ hoe, 
 hogue. Hoo, the name of several places in Kent, Essex, 
 and Sussex ; Prudhoe^ proud-hill, Northumberland, — 
 which it is. La Hogue, a headland of Normandy. Howe, 
 a surname. The famous admiral of this name was often 
 toasted in equivoque by the English Jacobins during the 
 French Revolution : — 
 
 "May the French never know how {Howe) to be victorious at sea." 
 
 Helm, Welsh helm, Teut. hilma, a helmet, a head- 
 piece, a defence, a protection ; in local names a cattle-shed, 
 and hence the old word hillingstone, a slate ; hillier, a slater, 
 or tyler. 
 
 Helmsley, helm-leag, shed field, a town of Yorkshire. 
 Helmington and Helmsley, towns of Sulfolk. Brighthelm- 
 ston, bright-helm-tun, now Bru)hton. Hillier, hillier, a 
 surname. 
 
81 
 
 HuEST, Sax, hyrst, a wood, a grove ; a country seat 
 surroimded by trees. 
 
 Hurst, hyrst, a village of Buckiiigliamshire, and the 
 name of many other places. Herst, a village of Sussex. 
 Hyrst^ a village of Axhoim, Lincolnshire. Hurston, hyrst - 
 tun ; Buckhurst, Penshurst, Sandhurst^ Stonyhurst. Cum- 
 mersdale^ cwm-hyrst-daie, a fine vale of Cumberland. 
 
 Hus, Teut. haus, a house : and hence husband and 
 huswife. 
 
 " The name of a hnsband — that is to say, 
 Of house and of wife the hand and the stay." 
 
 — Tusser. 
 " Good shepherd, good tillman, good jack and gill. 
 Make husband and huswife their coffers to fill." 
 
 — Turner. 
 
 Has, haus, and Huys, the name of several towns of 
 Germany ; aud the plural of the word being hausen, we 
 have several others of the same country. Schaffhausen., 
 schiff-hausen, ship-houses, a town on the Ehine ; Nord- 
 hausen^ north houses : Muhlkausen, the mill-houses. Hous- 
 ton, haus- tun, an ancient village of Renfrewshire, west of 
 Paisley. In Doomsday-Book, the name is haws : Hawick, 
 haws-wic, a town in the south of Scotland. 
 
 Iar, Gaelic and Irish, iar, west, western. 
 
 Ireland, iar-land, west land, the most western of the 
 
 European islands. Irvine, iar-afon, west river, Ayrshire. 
 
 Argyle, iar-Gael, Avestern Gael, a county of the west High- 
 
 l :id-. Erin, iar-inis, western-island, the ancient name of 
 
 -land, which the Romans made into Hihernia. 
 
 Ing, Sax. ing, a low springy meadow. 
 
 " The Are has such a winding course through the ings between this 
 C^argrave) and Skipton, and sports so in meanders from its source, as if 
 : vera indetermined whether to run to the sea, or backagain to its source- 
 ■ :.ndcn. 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 Inge^ ing, a village of Warwickshire, on the Avon. 
 Ingham^ ing-ham, a village of N^orfolk, and a surname, 
 Darking^ dark-iug, Surrey, where the river Mole enters the 
 ground. Reading, reed-ing, among meadows, on the 
 Thames. Wisings, waste-ings, on the Cairn ; and New- 
 biggin-Ing- Croft^ Cumberland. 
 
 ICENi, an ancient people of England, giving name to 
 many places in their territory. 
 
 Ickenild-street^ a famous ancient high-way, extending 
 through several counties. Ickbarrow^ Norfolk. Ichham^ 
 Iceni-ham, Sussex. IcMingham^ Suffolk. Ickford^ Herts. 
 Jckworth^ IckUton^ and other places. 
 
 Innis, Gaelic and Irish, inis^ Welsh ynys^ an island. 
 
 Innislocliran^ inis-lechran, island of stones, in the 
 Shannon ; Innesowen^ inis-Owen, Owen's island, a penin- 
 sula of Donegal ; and Inmsfail, Inls-Bheal, island of Baal, 
 an ancient name of Ireland. Manims, man-inis, little 
 island, the ancient name of the Isle of Man, the Koman 
 Mona. Sometimes the name is enis, inch. Enis, a town 
 of Clare, on the river Fergus. EnisMllen^ inis-chille, wood 
 island, a town on an island in Loch Erne. Inch^ the name 
 of several places in Scotland : Inch-torr, bush-island ; Inch- 
 Cailleach^ old-woman island, nun-island, in Lochlomond. 
 
 JoR, Heb. jar, and nahar^ a river. 
 
 /orc?a?i, jar-dan, river of judgment. Aram-Naharim^ 
 Aram of the rivers. Psalm Ix. title, the ancient name of 
 Mesopotamia^ which is the same in Greek, a country be- 
 tween the Tigris and Euphrates. 
 
 Kell, Teut. quelle^ often keld^ a well. 
 
 Keldham^ quelle-ham ; Acke/d, ac-keld, villages of 
 Yorkshire. Salkeld, sailow-keld, where the sallows grow. 
 Threlkeld, thirl-keld, the thirled or bored well, not the ua- 
 
83 
 
 tural foimtaln, villages of Cumberland and surnames. 
 Springkell., spring quelle, the spring well, Dumfriesshire. 
 Finkle^ ien-quelle, the fen well, a springy suburb of Car- 
 lisle, now Finkle-strcei, near the head of which formerly 
 stood an ancient well, surrounded b}" trees. 
 
 KiL, Irish cJiille^ Gaelic coif'Ie^ a wood. 
 
 Kellt/^ chille, a district of Scotland, a surname, and an 
 ancient earldom : " The glee'd Earl o' Kelly.'''' Kildare., 
 chille-dair, oak wood ; Killarney., chille-larne, woody pool ; 
 Kilkenny, chille-cin-ua, that is, uisce., high wood on the 
 water — the town stands on an eminence on the river Kore 
 — and other places in Ireland. Coda., coille, a tract of 
 A}Tshire. Caledonia., coille-dun, wood hills, the ancient 
 name of Scotland. Sldllelagh, chilie-leagh, wood field, a 
 town of Wicklow. This name is precisely the same with 
 shillelagh., wood of the field, an Irish cudgel : — 
 
 " St. Patrick so gaily, 
 Did thwack his shillelagh, 
 When he hanish'd the snakes and the toads." 
 
 Kin, Irish and Gaelic ciyi., a head ; in local names, a 
 hill, or promontory. 
 
 Cinalfirmaic, cin-an-fir-mac, the head man's son, a 
 district of Clare. Canmorcy cin-mohr, big-head, a sur- 
 name of one of the Scottish Kings, — "Malcolm Canmore.^'' 
 Kintore., cin-tora, head hill ; Kintyre., cin-tii', head-land, a 
 promontory of Argyleshire. Kinsale, cin-sala, a point on 
 the river Bandon, Cork. Kinross., cin-ross, head promon- 
 tory, on a peninsula, a town of Scotland. Kincardine, cin- 
 car-dun, which three words have nearly the same meaning. 
 Torkin., Thor's-cin, a hill of Cumberland, near Carlisle : — 
 
 " We're a' rare fellows round Torkin" 
 
84 
 
 Knoll, Teut. knoll^ a little hill : hence jobbernowl^ a 
 roundhead, a blockhead. 
 
 Knoll, a village of Gloucestershire. Knolton, kuolle-^ 
 tun, Dorsetshire. Knoide, a town of Warwickshire. 
 Brentknoll, burnt-knoll, Somersetshire. Sometimes the 
 word is knowe: — 
 
 " Her bonny image in her yowe, 
 Cam bleating to her owre the knowe." 
 
 — Poor Mailie. 
 
 Knuive, a hamlet of Cumberland ; Cowdenknowes. 
 Knock, Celtic cnoc^ a low hill. 
 
 " Fagaid na breacain ar na cnocain, 
 Spe ge 'mbe na tallain bi aige na tartan." 
 
 " Leave the plaids on the hills, whoe'er 
 Gains heights, let him take the tartan." 
 
 — Alaster Mc.Donald, at the Battle of Cnocnandos. 
 
 Knock, cnoc, an ancient village of Westmoreland. 
 Knockupworth^ cnoc-up-weorth, a village of Cumberland. 
 Knocknaree^ cnoc-na-re, hill of the moon ; Knockmoeldown^ 
 cnoc-moel-dun, and other places of Ireland. Brecknock^ 
 bre-cnoc, Wales. 
 
 Kyle, Celtic caol, caolas^ a bay, firth, arm of the sea. 
 In the following illustrations, the word is in an oblique case, 
 Avhich alters its form : — 
 
 " Cha'n fhaiceur air chaol na seoil comhnaid." 
 
 — Ossian. 
 
 " No smooth sail is seen on the frith.'' 
 
 Calais, caolas, a town of France, on the Straits of 
 Dover. Colerane, caol-rinn, frith-point, a town on a point 
 of Glendaloiigh bay. Kelso, caolas, a town on the Tweed. 
 Ki/le^ caol, the narrow channel separating the isle of Sky 
 froiii Inverness-shire ; and the Kyles of Bute. Edderachil- 
 lis, eadar-au-caolas, between the kyles, an arm of the sea, 
 
85 
 
 on the coast of Sutherlandsliire. Sometimes the name is 
 cald or cauld: Invercauld^ iubher-caolas. Kirkcaldy^ kii'k- 
 caolas, a port of Fife, on the frith of Tay. 
 
 Lade, Sax. lade^ a channel ; in Scotland, a mill-race ; 
 from IcBdan^ to empty, pour out. Ladon^ lade, a river of 
 Hereford. Ladenburg^ a town of Germany, on the river 
 Keclar. Ladbrooh^ "Warwickshire, on the river Itchin. 
 Lechlade^ on the river Lech. Framlade^ on the Frome. 
 Liddel^ lade-dale, a river of Scotland. Loden^ a river of 
 Hants. Lodoi\ a river of "Westmoreland, now Lowther, 
 and a surname. 
 
 Law, Sax. hleaw, rising ground, a hill : — 
 
 " You miglit as well bid Arthur's Seat 
 To Berwick Laic make bold retreat." — Ferguson. 
 
 Law, the comman name of many hills and mountains 
 in Britain : Harelaw^ Todlaw^ Greenlaw. Broomielaw^ 
 broom-hleaw, this is the port of Glasgow, though its name 
 is broom hill., and all around is quite level. It obtains this 
 name, however, from a Utile broom hill which formerly 
 stood on the south side of the river where Hutchinsontown 
 now is ; which fact came out a few years ago in a case 
 before one of the city courts, and was so reported at the 
 time. Sometimes this name is low., loo: Marlow, marl-hill; 
 Zooe, hleaw, two towns of Cornwall. 
 
 Ley, Sax. leag, Celtic leagb, a field, a plain ; a 
 flowery dale ; a lee. 
 
 "Then I would chase thee owre the lee. 
 And round about the thorny tree, 
 And pu' the wild flowers a' for thee, &c." 
 
 — Tanndhill. 
 
 Lee., a fine village of Kent ; Kirkconnell-Lee. Lea^ 
 kag, a village of Cheshire. Leazes, the vulgarised plural 
 
86 
 
 of lees^ open plains in the vicinity of ISTewcastle. Leigh^ 
 a town of Lancashire. KilleleagJi^ wood-field, and many 
 other places in Ireland. Ley^ a village of Devonshire : 
 Thornley, thorn-leag ; Burnley^ burn-leag. Marley^ marl- 
 leag, and all other ieys, and lys. 
 
 Leuc, Gr. leukos, white ; and hence leuca in Dooms- 
 day Book — a league, so called because that measure was 
 originally marked out by white stones. 
 
 Lewcadia, leukos-eidos, white appearance, an island 
 in the Mediterranean, so named from its white rocks, from 
 one of which was *' The Lover's Leap." Leneopetra, white 
 rock, a promontory of Italy. 
 
 Linn, Gaelic and Irish linn, Welsh llyn, a pool, a 
 waterfall. 
 
 " Between twa birks out o'er a little lin. 
 The water fa's and makes a singin din. ' — Gent. Shep. 
 
 Lynn, a river of Perthshire. Lune, a river of Lanca- 
 shire. Linn Regis, king's linn, I^orfolk. Lincoln, llyn- 
 colonia ; the ancient name of this town was Lindum, llyn- 
 dum, hill linn ; it stands on an eminence on the river 
 Witham : the Romans added to the ancient name colonia, 
 colony, and so its present form. Linstock, llyn-stoca, Sax. 
 stoca, the stem or stock of a tree, a village on the river 
 Eden, Cumberland. London, llyn-dinas, pool town, on 
 the estuary of the Thames. Dublin, dubh-linn, black pool. 
 Croglin, craig-llyn, a village of Cumberland. Severn, sefyd- 
 llyn, stagnant pool, which about Shrewsbury is one of the 
 most stagnant rivers in England. 
 
 Lis, Irish lios, Welsh lluest, a fort, a camp. 
 
 Liss, an ancient village of Hampshire. Lismorc, lios- 
 mohr, big fort, a tov/n of Ireland, and an island of Argyle- 
 shire. Lislmrn, lios-bohrccn, the by-way fort, and many 
 
87 
 
 other places in Ireland. Carlisle^ cacr-lios, fort city, a fron- 
 tier town, the capital of Cumberland. The^ISTormans fancied 
 that the second part of this name was Visle^ the isle, in their 
 language, because the town is nearly suiTOunded by water. 
 
 Lan, "Welsh llan, a church, a place. 
 
 Landaff^ llan-Tafe, a place on the Tafe. Landwy, 
 llan-dw, black place. Lllcm-Gwyddel^ Irishman's place, 
 the ancient name of Holyhead, from the number of Irish 
 resorting thither; and the name of scores of other places 
 in AVales. 
 
 Lake, Lat. lacus^ Gr. lakkos^ Celtic llwch^ a lake. 
 
 Lake^ a village of Dorsetshire, on a pool. Lacede- 
 monia, lakkos-daimon, daimon, a spirit, so called from some 
 supernatural quality ascribed to the waters of a lake there. 
 Leyden^ lacus-dunum, a city of Holland, on the ancient 
 bed of the Rhine. Lyons^ lacus-dunum, a city of France, 
 at the confluence of the Rhine and Saone. Lagos^ lacus, a 
 port of Spain. Lough-Neagh^ neach^ divine ; Lough-Erne, 
 iar^ west ; Lough-Derg^ dirac, clear, splendent, lakes of 
 Ireland. Lochmahen^ loch-magh-abhan, loch of the river 
 field ; Loch-Ryan^ Irish, rinn^ a point, this loch runs up to 
 a point in Gallowayshire ; Loch- Long ^ llong^ a ship ; Loch- 
 Con^ cin, a head ; Loch-Awe. atha^ a ford ; Loch-Fyne^ fair 
 loch; Loch-Gair^ g^ur^ sharp, this loch runs up a sharp 
 point in the Clyde, opposite Greenock. LocMomond^ lom^ 
 bare, in reference to the mountain from which it receives 
 its name. Lochnagar^ loch- na-glai\ loch of the mud, the 
 muddy loch. Lochinvar\, loch-inbher: — 
 
 " ' They'll have fleet steeds that follow,' quoth j'oung Lochinvar." 
 
 Locker, Gael, hiacher, a rush. 
 
 Lochermoss^ luacher-moss, rush moss. Locherfield, 
 luacher-field, a village near Paisley. Auchnalowryy achadh- 
 
88 
 
 na-luacher, the rnsh-field. Lockerhj, luaclier-bye, an 
 ancient village of Dumfriesshire. 
 
 Luss, Gaelic and Irish Ms, Welsh llysau, Sax. leswes, 
 herbage, pasturage. 
 
 Luss^ a fertile spot on Lochlomond. Lewis^ luis, one of 
 the Western Islands, noted for farms and fertility. Lewes, 
 a town of Sussex. Lusitana, luis-tan, pasture country, a 
 part of ancient Portugal, so remarkable for the richness of 
 its pasturage that the mares there were said to be impreg- 
 nated by the wind : — 
 
 " In Lusltanis juxta flumen Tagum, vento equas foetus concipiere, 
 multi auctores prodidere."— Jwsim, lib. 44, c. 3.— Many relate that the 
 Lusltanian mares breed by the wind. 
 
 Lym, Celtic leim, a port, from lemne, a body of water. 
 
 Li/me, leim, a port of Dorsetshire. Li/mington, leim- 
 tun, an ancient port of Hampshire. Limerick, leim-riogh, 
 royal port, Ireland. Lema?i, a lake of Germany, the cele- 
 brated " lacus Lemamis^'' of Caesar. 
 
 Magh, Gaelic and Irish magh, Welsh maes, a field. 
 
 3Iase, maes, a fine plain and race course near Belfast. 
 Maes-y-Cynferth, maes-yr-cynfrith, the variegated field, a 
 town of Wales. Machennore, magh-an-mohr, the big 
 field, Gallowayshire. Magherafelt, magh-an-failte, the 
 field of welcome ; Macroom, magh-crom, field of poppies ; 
 Armagh, ard-magh, high field ; Omagh, o-magh, far field ; 
 Finmagh, fair field, and others of Ireland. Sometimes the 
 word is moy, may. May, magh ; Fermoy, fir-magh, man- 
 field ; Mayo, magh-go, water or sea field, a maritime 
 coimty ofConnaught. Maughanby, magh-an>bye, a vil- 
 lage of Cumberland. 
 
 Max, Gaelic and Irish moan, Welsh maim, mawnen, 
 a moss, a turbary. Manooth, moan-ath, white thorn 
 
89 
 
 moss; Manimore^ moan molir, big moss ; Killyman^ cliille- 
 moar, wood moss ; BaUymoney, town moss ; Monaghan^ 
 moan-achadh, moss field, and other places of Ireland. 
 Inchmoan^ moss island, in Lochloraond. Montrose^ moan- 
 ross, moss promontory ; Monteith^ moan-teath, warm 
 moss. Ckichnannan, clack-mawnen, stone moss ; and 
 other places in Scotland. 
 
 Mans, Lat. mansio, Fr. maison^ a honse, a dwelling- 
 place : hence manor ; manse^ a parsonage ; and mesura, in 
 Doomsday-Book decayed buildings. 
 
 Mansfield, mansion-field, a town of Notts, formerly a 
 royal demesne. Mansel-Lacy, Mansel- Grange ; and the 
 several places in England called " The Mainsy Maison- 
 de-Dieu, house of God, a hospital at Paris. 
 
 Mil. Lat. mala, Sax. mylcn. Tent, midile, Celtic 
 muilln^ a mill : hence multure, payment in kind which the 
 miller takes for grinding ; emolument, originally, the profits 
 of a mill ; miln, an old form of the word. 
 
 Milton, mill-tun, the name of many ])laces. Milntliorpe, 
 miln-thcrpe, an ancient village of Westmoreland. Muld- 
 heim, mill ham, a town of Germany. MulUngar, muilin- 
 gara, near mill, a town of Ireland, 
 
 Mont, Lat. mom, a mountain. 
 
 Mons, mons, a town of France, Montague, mons- 
 acutus, sharp mount, Somerset, and a surname. Egremontt 
 Fr. aigre, sharp pointed, a town of Cumberland. Piedmont, 
 pied-mons, foot mount, a town of Italy at the foot of the 
 Alps. Mount- Coffee-House : — 
 
 "Lord Mount-Coffee-House, the Irish peer. 
 Who kill'd himself Avith love and whiskey last year." 
 
 Mar, Lat. mare. Germ, meer, Celtic mor, the sea : hence 
 marine, meerschaum ; meersauce^ an old word for brine. 
 
90 
 
 Margate^ sea-way, a port of Kent. Ilorven, mor-pen, 
 sea hill, Argylesliire, ovarlooking the sea. Mor-y-canoldb\, 
 the canal sea, the Welsh name of the Mediterranean. 
 Morcambe^ mor-yr-cam, the crooked sea, a bay of Lanca- 
 shire. Armorica^ air — raor, on the sea, an ancient mari- 
 time country of France. Meere^ meer the sea, a large lake 
 of Holland, and the several waters in England called 
 Meres. 
 
 MiCKLE, Lat. micel^ much, large ; hence muckle, muchel^ 
 meikle. 
 
 For a' that, and a' that, 
 And twice as meikle 's a' that. 
 
 — Burns. 
 
 Mickleton^ micel-tun, a viUage of Gloucestershire. 
 Michelham^ Sussex. Micklet/uvaite, micel-thwaite, a village 
 of Cumberland. Mickle, and Mitcliel, surnames. Mussel- 
 burgh, micel-byrig, mickle borough, the oldest in Scotland, 
 and therefore the oracle anent it : — 
 
 " Musselburgh was a burgh 
 When Edinburgh was nane ; 
 Musselburgh will be a burgh 
 When Edinburgh is gane." 
 
 Mouth, Sax. mutJi^ Tent, mund^ Scotch muns^ a mouth; 
 in local names, the word signifies the opening or outlet of 
 a river. 
 
 " England abounds in hams and mouths." 
 
 — Easy Lessons in Geograp' y. 
 
 Plymouth, at the mouth of the river Plyra ; Yarmouth., 
 of the Yarc ; Tgnemoutli., of the Tyne ; Exmouth., Ale- 
 mouth.^ Dartmouth., Portsmouth., Teignmoutk., Charmouth, 
 Falmouth., Eyemouth., Barmouth, Sldmouth, Grangemouth., 
 Bishopwearmouth., Monmouth., Weymouth., and Cockermouth. 
 Munden, a town of Germany, on the river Fulda ; Geimmd., 
 
91 
 
 on the river Neckar ; Weisselmunde^ at the mouth of the 
 Vistula. 
 
 Mull, Gaelic and Ii*ish midlach^ Welsh moe/, a round 
 hill. 
 
 " Air mullach, &c.," on the hill, 
 
 — Ossian. 
 
 Mull^ a round bunchy island of Scotland ; Mull of 
 Kintyre, a headland of Argyleshire. Mullachmore, mul- 
 lach-mohr, big hill, in the north of Ireland. Sometimes 
 the word is mel, meal, mil: Melrose, moel-ross, peninsalar 
 promontory, on the Tweed ; Mealholme, Eskmeal, Milium, 
 hills and promontories on the coast of Cumberland. 
 
 Naisit, Welsh, nant, a brook, a small river. 
 
 Nantglyn, nant-glinn, brook glen, a village of Denbigh- 
 shire. Nent, a river of Cumberland. Nen, nant, a river of 
 Northamptonshire, jinnan, an-nant, the brook, a river of 
 Scotland. Tranent, tra-nant, over brook, an ancient town 
 of that country. 
 
 Ness, Lat. nasus, Sax. nese, Tent, nase^ the nose ; and, 
 figuratively, a head-land or promontory. 
 
 Naze, a head-land of Xorway. Bowness, bow nese, a 
 point on the coast of Cumberland. Langness, Isle of Man ; 
 Furness, Stromness, Bungenness, dun-gan-nase, hill without 
 point, on the coast of Kent. Nesbit, nese-bit, any small 
 point of land running into a river, the sea, or into neigh- 
 bom-ing grounds ; there are several places in England so 
 called ; it is also a surname. 
 
 Oe, Sax. oe, an island of the second degree. 
 
 " The husband biggit on his be, 
 And nae one wrought him wrang; 
 His dochter wore crown in Englande, 
 And happy liv'd, and lang." 
 
 — Ballad ; Eljln Gray, 
 
92 
 
 Oeland^ oe-land an island of the Baltic. Anglesey^ 
 Angles-oe, isle of the Angles. Walney^ wall-n-oe, au island 
 off Lancashire, so called because it protects the coast like a 
 a wall from the violence of the sea. 
 
 Orm, Fr. orme^ an elm. 
 
 Orinside, orme-side, a village of Westmoreland. Onns^ 
 kirk, a town of Lancashire. Ormiston^ orme-tun, and a 
 surname. 
 
 Pen, Welsh pen, a head ; in local names, figuratively, 
 a hill : hence penine, mountaineous. 
 
 Penmanmawr, pen-maen-mawr, hill of the great stone, 
 and others of Wales. Pennygant, pen-y-gwyn, the white 
 head, a mountain of Yorkshire. Penrith, pen-rhudd, red 
 hill, red sand-stone, a town of Cumberland. Painsivick, pen- 
 wic, a very high-standing town of Gloucestershire. Apcnines, 
 a range of mountains in Italy. The letters n and m being 
 commutable, the name hpem: Pembroke, pen-broch, froth 
 hill, a county of Wales jutting into the sea like a break- 
 water. The letters p and b being commutable, the name 
 becomes ben : Bengloe, pen-glowy, bright hill ; Bengary, 
 pen-gara, near hill ; Benlomond, pen-lom, Gaelic lorn, 
 Welsh Ihjman, bare, bare hill, and others of JScotland. 
 Benburb, borb, lofty, a hill of Ireland. The letters p, h, 
 and V being commutable, this name undergoes a farther 
 change to ven : Craven, craig-pcn, a mountainous district 
 of Yorkshire ; Morven, mor-pen, sea hill, a mountain of 
 Argyleshire overlooking the sea, celebrated by Ossian. 
 
 Petra, Gr. petra, a rock, Fr. pierre, a stone : hence 
 petrifactive, stony ; petrefaction, stoniness. 
 
 Patra, the stoney, a country of Arabia. Lencopetra, 
 white rock, a promontory of Italy. Holm-pier -poinU holm- 
 
93 
 
 stone-bridge, Nottingham. Peter^ a man's name : — 
 
 " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church, &c."^' 
 Matt, xvi, 18. 
 
 PoLis, Gr. polis^ a city : and Iience police^ polity^ poU^ 
 tics ; and metropolis^ mother city, 
 
 PolitOt polis, the city, an ancient town of Italy. Ad- 
 rianople, Adrian's city. Constantinople. Constantine's city. 
 Heliopolis^ elios-polis, city of the sun. Naples^ neo-polis^ 
 new city. 
 
 Pool, Welsh, pivll^ a dub, a port, an offing. 
 
 " When he gave the command va.pool or at sea." 
 
 — The Post Captain. 
 
 Poole^ pull, a port of Dorset. Pulhely^ pwll-heiedd, 
 salt-pool, aport of Carnarvonshire. Hartlepool^ hart-leag- 
 pool, a port of Durham. The diminutive of the name is 
 pow, signifying any small pool or brook. Poivtross, pwll- 
 traws, cross-pool, a brook separating Cumberland and 
 Northumberland, at Giisland. Pow-Magham, pwll-magh- 
 an, the field pool, a little river of Cumberland, near Car- 
 lisle, "the majestic Pow-Maghany 
 
 PoxTus, Gr. pontos^ the sea. 
 
 Pontic^ an ancient name of the Black Sea. 
 
 " And limp and stiter through their lays 
 Anacreontic, 
 While each a sea of wine displays 
 
 As big's the Pontic." 
 
 — Ferguson. 
 
 Propontis, front sea, now Marmora. Hellespont, sea of 
 Helle. 
 
 Put, Lat. puteus, a \vall. 
 
 Puttenham, puteus-ham, a town of Herts, noted for its 
 springs. Putney., Surrey. Pufeoli, an ancient town of 
 Italy, famous for its fountains, now called Puzzioh\ 
 
94 
 
 QuER, Lat. quercus^ an oak. 
 
 Querci^ quercus, a province of France. Querquetulans, 
 the oaken, an ancient gate in Rome. De Courcy^ de quercus, 
 a surname ; Sacro-Quercu, the Latinised surname Holyoak. 
 
 Rae, Celtic rae, a sheep-walk. 
 
 Raeliill^ rae-hill ; Haelmr?!, rae-burn, and other places 
 in Scotland. Casthrae, castle- rae ; Kilrae^ a high-standing 
 town of Deny, and other places in Ireland. Wreayy the 
 rae, an ancient upland village of Cumberland. 
 
 Hath, Irish rath^ a mount, a fortified eminence ; in 
 Spenser, a rath is a hill. 
 
 RatJi?nuUin, rath-muilin, mill rath ; IlatJicormic, Cor- 
 mac's rath ; Raplioe, rath-bo cow rath ; Mountrath, rath 
 mount, and other places in Ireland. Rathangan^ rath-an- 
 gan, the outside rath : — 
 
 " Sweet Rathangan nigh to Kildare." 
 
 Rig, Sax. hrig^ a back, and figuratively, a hill, or rising 
 ground : and hence ridge. 
 
 Rigfon, hrig-tun ; Askrigg, ash-rig, and other places. 
 Ridge, a village of Hertfordshire, on a hill. Coleridge, 
 cold-ridge, Devonshire ; Buckridge; Whitridge, white- 
 ridge. 
 
 Ric, Sax. nc, Tent, reich, rich, bounteous, plentiful, 
 and figuratively, power, dominion ; an old form of the 
 Lord's Prayer is " Cymeth ric thin," — thy kingdom come. 
 In local names, the word signifies natural beauties and 
 mineral wealth. 
 
 Richmond, rich-mount, Surrey, the poet's " delightful 
 Shene." Reichenstein, reich-stein, rich stone, a town of 
 Germany, having in its vicinity silver ore. Richenbach, 
 rich-bach, a river of Switzerland bringing down gold dust. 
 
95 
 
 Richenhall^ hall salt, a town of Bavaria, having rich salt 
 springs. Richard^ ric-aerd, rich nature ; Frederic, frede- 
 ric, rich place ; Cedric, coere-d-ric, careful of richeS) per- 
 sonal names. 
 
 EiDLE, Welsh rhydle, a ford, a channel, and so the 
 same of several waters, and places on them. 
 
 Rhydal^ rhydle, a river of Cardiganshke ; Rhydacylafod^ 
 rhydle-cylaforedd, ford of conciliation, a town of Carnarvon- 
 shire, and other places in AVales. Rydal-irater, a lake of 
 Westmoreland joined to Windermere by two channels. 
 Ridley, Northumberland, on the Tyne. Gle7iriddle, gleann- 
 rhydle. Riddell, an ancient surname. 
 
 Rhos, Welsh rlios, a heath ; and hence rosland, heath- 
 land. 
 
 RhoSi the heath, a town of Cardiganshire, Wales. 
 Rosley, rhos-leag, a hill of Cumberland. Roscommon, 
 rhos-common, Ireland. Penmanross, pen-maen-rhos, stone 
 heath hill, a mountain of Wales. 
 
 Ripe, Lat. ripa, a bank, a coast, bank of the sea or 
 river : and hence the old term ripier, one who carries fish 
 from the sea coast into the country for sale. 
 
 " A little above Marke, on the farther ripe of Nidde." 
 
 — Leland. 
 
 Ripon, ripe, a town of Yorkshire, on the river Ure : 
 Ripley, ripe-leag, in the same county, on the river Nith. 
 Ripa-Transone, beyond coast, a port of Italy. Repton, 
 riper-tun, Derby, on the Trent. Repham, Norfolk, on 
 the Eyne- Rye, ripe, a port of Sussex. Rivers, de-repariis, 
 the banks ; Dealtry, de-alta-ripa, high banks, ancient sur- 
 names. 
 
 Eoss, Celtic ross, a peninsula, a point cutting into 
 water. 
 
96 
 
 Hoss, a peninsula in the Lake of Killarney ; and ano- 
 ther in Lochlomond. FiOss, a town of Hereford, on the 
 river Wye, where dwelt John Kyrle, the man of Ross : — 
 
 " All our praises, wliy should lords engross ? 
 Rise, honest Muse, and sing the man of Ross." 
 
 — Pope. 
 
 Ross-shire, on a point running into the sea. Rosneath. 
 ross-neath, a peninsula of the Cljalc opposite to Greenock. 
 Ardoss, ard-ross ; Kinross, cin-ross ; Ctdross, cuil-ross, 
 cuil, a corner, and many other places ; Melrose, moel-ross, 
 on the Tweed ; Fortrose, fort- I'oss ; Montrose, moan-ross, 
 on a point on the German ocean. 
 
 Rune, a watercourse, a channel, from the Teut. 
 rhennen, to run, flow : and hence runnel, a brook ; runa, an 
 old name for water- spout, in Scotland, a rone. 
 
 Rhine, ren, a large river of Germany. Rhone, the 
 rapidest river in France, the Roman Rhodanus Runnymede, 
 running-meadows, Surrey, memorable for the conference of 
 King John and the Barons, 
 
 Ry, Lat. rivus, Sax. rea, a river. 
 
 Rea, rea, a river of Worceslershire, falling, into the 
 Tame; and another of the same name, Wilts. Raugh, 
 rea, a small river of Cumberland, giving name to the yW- 
 ISLge of Raughton ; Ri/ton, i*ea-tnn, Durham, on the Tyne. 
 Sutry, suth-rea, south of the river Thames. Newry, new- 
 river, a town of Ireland, on a canal. 
 
 ScEUGH, Welsh ceuffos, pron. keuffos, a ditch, a 
 slough, a gutter. Burns \\2iS it sheugh : — 
 
 " Trowth, Caesar, whyles they're fashed eneugli, 
 A cottar howkin in a shcuah." — 
 
 Sceugh ; Scalesceugh, scaling a.sceugh Middlesceugh, 
 Miresceugh, miresceugli ; fimco, birk-scengh ; Nosco, north- 
 
97 
 
 sceugb, aud other places in Cumberland. Burscouyh^ bur- 
 sceugh, Lancashire. Hazelskugh^ Yorkshu'e. Ascuc^ aik- 
 scengh, a surname, vernacular to the west of Cumberland. 
 
 ScuL, Celtic, sceile^ a splintered or jagged rock. 
 
 Scul^ a rock off Cape Clear, Ireland. Scilhj^ a group 
 of rocky islands on the coast of Cornwall. Skeily^ sceile, 
 one of the Hebridian islands. Scylla^ sceile, a dangerous 
 rock on the coast of Italy, and a subject of Homer : — 
 
 " Here Scylla bellows from her dire abodes. 
 Tremendous pest ! abhorr'd by men and gods ; 
 Hideous her voice, and \rith ber terrors roar, 
 Like ■whelps of lions in the midnight hour." 
 
 Sel, Sax. seZ, good, great : hence selcouth., sel-couth, 
 strange, wouderful. 
 
 " Seligenstadt, the abode o{ bliss, a small village on the bank of the river, 
 [Maine], had its name from having witnessed the loves of Eginhard and 
 Emma." — Russell's Germ. Travels, vol. 1. p. 37. 
 
 5e/%, sel-bye, Yorkshire, where was a famous abbey. 
 Selhury^ sel barrow, Wilts, where is the largest baiTOW in 
 England. Selwood, an ancient forest of Devon, fifteen 
 miles long. Selkirk^ a town of Scotland. Silchester, sel- 
 ceastre, an ancient city of Hampshire. 
 
 SoE, Sax. seo, sight, from the verb see ; in local names 
 the word signifies prospect. 
 
 Seeberge, see-berg, view mount, an observatory of Ger- 
 many. Bletsoe^ bletsian-seo, blessed sight. Selsoe, sel- 
 seo, good sight, villages of Bedfordshire. Tysoe^ twy-seo, 
 two sights, a village on Edgehill, Warwickshh-e, having 
 extensive prospects in two directions. 
 
 Shaw, Teut. schaive, a foliage, a thicket ; in Scotland, 
 any green top is a shaw. 
 
 " By -whimpling burn and leafy shaw." — Burns, 
 
 G 
 
98 
 
 Shaws^ a village of Berks, and a hamlet of Cumber- 
 land. Ernshaw, Yorkshire ; Pollockshaics^ Renfrewshire ; 
 Gateshaw^ Cumberland ; Tweedshaws ; and Shaw, a sur- 
 name. Turnsliaw. Sometimes the name is skug^ as in the 
 ballad of Elfin Gray : — 
 
 " Here hews he down baith skugg and shaw, 
 And wirks us skaith and scorn." 
 
 Scugger Houses^ skugg, a hamlet of Cumberland. 
 
 Sled, Sax. sled^ a valley. Slade, sled, a village of 
 Devon. Sledmore, sled-mere, Yorkshire. Long Sleddale, 
 Wet Sleddalc^ vallies of "Westmoreland. Portslade^ Sus- 
 sex. Chapmanslade, pedlar's valley, Wilts. 
 
 Sted, Sax. stede^ Teut« stads, a place, settlement, 
 Germ, stadt^ a town : hence state ; Stadtholder^ a public 
 official. 
 
 " Er Kam von der stadt" — he came from the town. 
 
 — Germ, phrase. 
 
 Stedham^ sted-ham, a town of Essex ; TFors^ec?, worth - 
 stede ; Hampstead^ ham-stede, and many other places in 
 England. 
 
 Stade., a town of Hanover. Stadthagen, stadt-hagen, 
 town houses : Cronstadt., crown-town ; Darmstadt., tharm- 
 stadt, where the hides were sold. 
 
 Stow, Sax. stow., a place. 
 
 " But new-light herds gat sic a cowe, 
 Folks thought them ruin'd stick and stowe." 
 
 —Burns. 
 
 Stow, the name of many places in England, and a sur- 
 name. Stowick^ stow-wic, Gloucestershire ; Godsioiv, 
 good-stow ; Padstow, pad, path-stow ; Walthamstow., wald- 
 ham-stow. Stoward^ stow-ward, warden of the Stow, a 
 
99 
 
 surname first given in Scotland, in the reign of Malcolm 
 IV ; now Steivard^ and the royal name Stuart. 
 
 Strath, Celtic, strath^ flat land by a river side, from 
 sf^th, a stream. 
 
 " Or, if, in lonely glen or strath, 
 The desert-dweller met his path." 
 
 —Scott. 
 
 Strathdee., stratli on the Dee ; Strathspey., on the Spey ; 
 Strathclyde., on that river ; Strathbane., strath-abhan, Ire- 
 land, on the river Foyle. Straven, strath-Aven, on the 
 Aven ; Stirling, Stratk-tri-linn, strath of three linns or 
 pools ; this town stands at the confluence of the rivers Al- 
 lan, Teith and Forth. Sometimes this Avord is st?ick. 
 Strickland., strath-Ian a fine strath on the river Eden, be- 
 low Aglionby, Cumberland. 
 
 SuTH, Sax. sut/i, Tent, sud, south. 
 
 Sutherland, suth land. Sutton, suth-tun, south town 
 a village of Kent, and a surname. Sudbury, sud-bergh, a 
 town of Sufi"olk. Suderkopping, south- market, a town 
 of Sweden. Sodbury, Yorkshire ; Sodereys, an ancient di- 
 vision of the western isles in which was the prelatical vil- 
 lage of Sodor. Sometimes the name is suf, sus, sur ; Suf- 
 folk, south folk ; Sussex, south Saxons ; Surry, suth-rea, a 
 county south of the Thames. Sometimes the name is 
 sun : — 
 
 " Sol varp sunnan," — the sun warps south. — Edda. 
 
 So the numerous places in England called Sunderland. 
 
 Stan, Sax. stan, Teut. stein, a stone. 
 
 Stanley, stan-leag, stone field, Laucashiie, and a sur- 
 name. Stanmore, stone-moor. Stangei; stan-garth, Cum- 
 berland, and a surname. Stanwix, stan-wic, a village of 
 Cumberland, on the Roman wall. Staines, stan, a town of 
 
loo 
 
 Middlesex so called from being the place of the London 
 stone. Stamford^ stan.ford, on the river Welland. Stein-- 
 kirk, stone-kirk ; Steinback^ stone-beck ; Holstein, and many 
 other places in Germany. 
 
 Syl, Lat. sylva^ a wood ; hence sylvan^ woody ; savage, 
 a wild man. 
 
 St/iha?n, sylva ham, villages of Kent, Berks, and Suf- 
 folk ; Selva, a large forest of South America. Transylvania, 
 transylva, beyond woods, a province of Germany. Pensyl- 
 vania, Penn's wood. 
 
 Syke, Welsh sych, dry, a drain, a sink ; a brook that 
 flows in winter and dries up in summer. 
 
 Syke, SykeJiead, Sykeside, Blacksyke, Sandy Syke, Gos- 
 ling-Syke, Gold-Syke ; Sykefoot, a hamlet of Cumberland, on 
 Eden, " the finest Syke in England." 
 
 Tan, Celtic tan, a country, a district. 
 
 Thanet, tan-ith, grain country, this island so named 
 from its fertility. KUmanfon^ chille man-tan, little wood 
 country, a district of Ireland. The Konians made this 
 name into iania ; Lusilania, luis-tau, herbage country ; 
 Mauritania^ Gr. maiiros, dark, the country of the Blacks. 
 Britain is a name that has given rise to much etymological 
 speculation. It has been assigned to the Phosnician hrith- 
 anak, land of tin. An old French chronicle gives it to 
 Brutus, a Trojan fugitive : — '' Brute, petit-fils d'Enee, con- 
 quiste I'Albion, et lenomme Breteyn^'' : Brutus, the grand- 
 son of Eneas, conquered Albion, and named it Britain. 
 Drayton follows up this notion : — 
 
 " Who this land in such estate maintain'd, 
 As his great belsirCjiJi-Mie fi-oni Albion's peers it won." 
 
 Let us see, however, what the original inhabitants would 
 call their own countr}^ in their own language ; this is, be- 
 
101 
 
 yoiid all, the best authority in siich cases. The name, 
 then, is plainly the Celtic Welsh bri^ strong, great, and 
 tan^ country ; the great country, in reference to the nu- 
 merous small islands around it, v/hich are about four hun- 
 di'ed. 
 
 Tarn, Danish, a moorland lake. 
 
 " They gleam'd on many a dusty tarr,, 
 Haunted by the lonely earn." — Scott. 
 
 Tarn, the common name of many mountain lakes. 
 Team, tarn, a river of Salop, and one of Sussex. Tarn- 
 mire, TarnwaclUng, Bleatarn, and other places. 
 
 Thorp, Sax. thorpe, Tent, dorp, a village. 
 
 " Thropes, bernes, shepens and deiries, 
 This maketh that there been no fairies." 
 
 — Chaucer. 
 
 Thorpe, a village of Durham, and an ancient surname ; 
 Althorpe, old thorpe, a village of Northamptonshire ; Bisliop- 
 tliorpe ; T/trope, thorpe, a village of Dorsetshire ; Thrap- 
 ston, Northumberland. Dorp; Mariendorp, Marien-dorp ; 
 Altorf, alt-dorp, old thorpe, Burdorf, and other places in 
 Germany. 
 
 Thuath, Gaelic and Wsh, thiiath, north, iliuathal, 
 northern ; whence Ossian's " gall o thuath,''' strangers 
 from the north. 
 
 Thomond, thuath-muhan, north province, a district of 
 Ireland. ThuU, thuathal the most northern island wiVa 
 the ancients — ^'ultima TlmUy 0' Toole, o thuathal, an 
 Irish surname. 
 
 TiLLocH, Celtic, tidlach, a round hill. 
 
 Tullamore, tullach-mohr, big hill, a town of Ireland. 
 TuUochgorum, tullach-gorm, blue hill ; Tilloch, the tullach ; 
 
102 
 
 Kit kintilloch^ in the mountains of Lanarkshire, aiid other 
 places in Scotland. 
 
 TiR, Celtic, tir, liat. tora, Fr. terre, land, earth : 
 hence terrene, earthly ; territory ; terrier, a sporting dog 
 that takes the earth after his game. 
 
 Tirowen, tir-Evan, Evan's land, a village of Denbigh- 
 shire, North Wales, Tirconnell, tir-cin-eile; Tyrone, tir 
 Owen, Owen's land, and other places in Ireland. Tyrec ; 
 Blantyre, blaen-tir ; Kintyre, cin-tir, and other places in 
 Scotland — 
 
 " An tir namleann, nan gleann, nam breacan." 
 The land of liilJs, of glens, and of plciids." 
 
 Mediterranean, mediiis-terra, a sea enclosed by lauds — 
 continents; i'Yw2sfe?Te,finis-terre, land's end, a cape of Spain. 
 
 Toft, Fr. touffe, a top, a clump of foliage ; " touffe de 
 bois," a grove ; in local names, a dwelling surromided by 
 trees. 
 
 Toft, a village of Lincolnshire, and other places, Lowest 
 toft, law -touffe, a town on a lofty eminence overlooking 
 the German ocean. Tufton, touffe-tun, a village of Bucks ; 
 and the letters t and d being commutable, Dufton, West- 
 moreland. 
 
 TuBBER, Celtic tobir, a well, spring. Tubbermore, 
 tobir-mohr, big well ; Baliintubber, ballagh-na-tobir, town 
 well ; Bir, tobir, the well, a town of King's county, and 
 other places in Ireland. Tobermoray, tobir-mora, sea well, 
 a village of the island of Mull, remarkable for springs. 
 Tyber, tobir, the famed river at Home ; Tauber, tobir, a 
 small river of Germany; and the letters b and p being 
 commutable, Tipperary, tobir-aire, well of the chief. 
 
 Tun, Sax. tun, a town ; by which the Saxons meaned 
 any place in the neighbourhood, whether there were houses 
 
103 
 
 in it or not, and hence the old word gratton^ grfes-tun, 
 grass town ; wherefore the back-slider, in Luke xiv. 18, 
 excuses himself by saying, "Ic bohte anne tun,''— I have 
 bought a piece of ground. The root of the word is tijnan, 
 to hedge about, enclose ; and hence tijnt, closed ; tinetum^ 
 wattles or brushwood for mending hedges ; tineman, the 
 warden of a forest ; tun grave, tun-graffe, the bailiff of a 
 manor ; and tinwald^ tynan-weald, the meeting of the states 
 of the Isle of ]SIan. 
 
 Tunstall, run-stapel ; Hutton, hut-town, and a sur- 
 name ; Swindon, swine-tun, and many others. Sometimes 
 the word is ihinn : Lothians, low tovfns, a district of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 " Loudon's bonny woods and braes, 
 I maun leave them a' lassie." 
 
 — Tanp.ahlU. 
 
 Ull, Celtic Welsh ui, moisture, humidity of the earth 
 formed into pools and reservoirs : and hence the Latin 
 tdi'go, moisture ; and our uliginous, watery ; and also our 
 old word eyle, a spring, a fountain : — 
 
 " There is an eyle-horn here, which though no head or spring appears, 
 sends forth a great spring of water." — Lukomhe's Descrip. Alkham, Kent. 
 
 Ull, the ancient name of the Eamont, Cumberland ; His- 
 water, a lake of the same county. Ullsby, ul-bye, Lincoln- 
 shire, on the Humber. Uleester, Derbyshire, on the river 
 Dove. Hull, ul, a river of Yorkshire. Eig, eyle, a marshy 
 and springy district of Cambridge, on the river Ouse : — 
 
 "Merry sang the monks of Ely, 
 
 When Canute the king was sailing by." 
 
 — King Canute. 
 
 Venta, Lat. ventio, a coming, a way, an approach : 
 and hence avenue, a lane, a passage. 
 
10-1 
 
 Vennel, the common name of those narrow lanes turn- 
 ing off the main street, in Glasgow. Venta-Silurum, the 
 approach of the Welsh, Sllnres., the Roman name of Mon- 
 mouth ; Ve7ita, Belgarum^ Winchester — 
 
 " Where Venta's Norman castle still uprears its rafter'd hall." 
 
 — Drayton. 
 
 Wald, Teut. wald^ a wood, a forest : and hence weald, 
 woodland, icold, land cleared of wood — 
 
 " Uber der wald fahren,"— pass over the wood.—Germa.n phrase, 
 
 Walden, wald-den, town of Essex ; Waltham, wald- 
 ham ; White- Waltham^ Berks ; Coteswold, Wimensw Id, 
 Easingivold, and other places in England. Waldenburg, 
 wood-mount ; Walfswald, Under- Walden, under-wood, and 
 other places of Germany. Waldegrave, wald-graffe, a wood- 
 warden. Walter, wald-here, wood-master. 
 
 Was, in local names, a contraction of loater : and hence 
 war stead, a watercourse. 
 
 Warton, Lancashire, on the Ribble. Warton, water- 
 town, Nottingham, on the Snith. Wanvkk, water-wic, on 
 the Avon, and Cumberland, on the Eden. Wardreiv, 
 water-dru, Northumberland, on the Irthing. Warheck 
 waterbeck. 
 
 ATTLE, Sax. watlas, a long rod, a sapling. 
 
 " But sax Scotch miles, thou try't their mettle, 
 And gar't them whazle ; 
 Nae whip nor spur, hut just a xcatile 
 O' saugh or liazle." 
 
 — Burns. 
 
 Watlas, the wattles, a village of Yorkshire, near 
 Masham. Watlesjield, a village of Norfolk. Waillng-street, 
 the famous Roman high- way, so called by the Saxons, 
 from being fenced on the sides with Wattles. 
 
105 
 
 Wath, a passage, thror.gh, or river, a wade^ from the 
 Sax.^TFat/an, to wade. 
 
 Wath, a village of Yorkshire, on the river Dun. Wa~ 
 tJiorpe, iSTotts, on the Xen. Watford, Herts, on the Colne, 
 Broadwath, Cumberland, on the Cairn. Bic/gleswade^'BQd.- 
 fordshu'e, on the Ivel. Longwathhy, Cumberland, on the 
 Eden. Hoivth, how-wath, a hill in Dublin bay, the ancient 
 Ben Hader, bird hill. 
 
 Wence, an old word for the meeting of cross-ways, 
 from the Sax. wincel, a corner. 
 
 Wince, wincel, the name of two villages of Norfolk. 
 Wincham, wincel-ham, a village of Cheshire. Winchcomhe^ 
 Gloucestershire. Winchelsea, wincel-ea, comer of the 
 water, a port of Sussex, in a bay. 
 
 Wic, Sax. icic, a dwelling-place, a refuge, fvom luiciany 
 to dwell : and hence bailiewick, a township ; wike, a farm ; 
 in the form wich, it signifies a port. 
 
 Wick, the name of several places. Pickwick, a village 
 of Wilts. Sleswick, Germany, on the river Sley. Stanwix, 
 Cumberland, on the stan, or wall. Harwich, here-wich. 
 Norwich, uorth-wich ; Greenwich. 
 
 WiEL, Sax. icoel, a pool, "a whirlpool : and hence ivell. 
 
 " Whyles o'er the lin the burnie plays, 
 Whyles through the glen it vrimpl't ; 
 Whyles round the rocky scar it plays ; 
 Whyles in a wiel it dimpl't. ' 
 
 — Burn's Halloween. 
 
 Wiel, woel, a town of Germany, on the river Worm ; 
 Wielhurg, woel-bergh, on the river Lahn . Rothwiel, rother- 
 woel, rotlier, a rower, on the river ilSTeckar. Hofwyl, pool- 
 house, a village of Switzerland. Wells, wcel, a town of 
 Somersetshire ; Holyivell. 
 
106 
 
 Worth, Sax. weorth, a farm, a farm yard. 
 
 Worth, a village of Dorsetshire, and many other places. 
 Worcester, weorth-cestre ; Wentwortli. Sometimes the 
 name is vjert, ivirt, umrt: Wertheim, worth-ham ; Wirteyn- 
 hurg, worth-ham- bergh ; V/urtzhurcj, and other places in 
 Germany. 
 
 Xyst, Gr. xustos, a level, a plain. 
 
 Xystus, the plain or place in which the Grecian ath- 
 let3e practised. Xystus, at Rome, was a public promenade 
 of green allies ; a knot garden. 
 
 Yar, Sax. gyras, a feu. 
 
 Yare, gyras, a rivei of Norfolk, so named from the 
 nature of the ground through which it runs. Yarm, gyras- 
 ham, Yorkshire, on the river Tees. And the letters g, y, 
 and J being commutable, Jarrow, gyi'as.^ a low-lying village 
 of Durham. 
 
 Zea, Tent, zea, the sea : and hence sea. 
 
 Zealand, zea-land, an island of Holland. Zuiderzee, 
 zuider-zea, south sea, a bay of the German Ocean. Some- 
 times the name is see ; Zellersee, lower sea, the lower lake 
 of Constance ; Weissensee, white sea, and other places in 
 Germany. Seaton, sea-town, a port of Devonshire ; Bat- 
 tersea, bateau-sea, Fr. bateau, a boat, a village of Surrey, 
 on the Thames. 
 
SURNAMES 
 
 Local Names give rise to surnames^ many of the 
 latter being merely the name of the place where the bearer 
 or his ancestors resided : Holmes, the holme ; Dale, the 
 dale ; Thorpe, the thorp or village ; Fosset, fosset, a trench, 
 a valley ; Plantagenet, plauta-genet, broom plant, the sur- 
 name of a race of English kings. When the name ot the 
 person and the phice were thus thcsame, the possessor was, 
 in ancient conrtesy, said to be of that ilk, ealc, same, like, 
 a notable and honom-ablc distinction : Kinloch of Kinloch ; 
 Hampden of Hampden, Bucks ; Brougham of Brougham- 
 hall ; and Peggy in the, Gentle Shepherd: — 
 
 " Then, change yere plaiden coat for silk, 
 And he a lady of that Uk, 
 Now, Peggy, since the King's come." 
 
 The old English surnames in Doomsday-Book, are all 
 connected with place by the particle de, of, whence sur- 
 name, sieur-name, lord name : Walterus de Verdun ; 
 Godfi-edus de Mannevilla, magna villa, great village, now 
 Mandeville, and Mandell. This form of naming afterwards 
 became contracted into one word : de Insula, Fr. I'isle, the 
 island Lisle; de Burgos, the burg, now Burhe; <^e Alta- 
 llipa, high banks, Dealtry ; de Wald-dale, now De Whelp- 
 dale; c/e Yallibus, now Wallis. John 0' Gaunt, John of 
 Ghent. The oldest surnames on record are of the same 
 
108 
 
 kind: Basha7i-Havorth-Jair^ villages of Jair, Deut. iii, 14. 
 So, too, tho Koman generals Avere named after the coun- 
 tries of their possession : Africanus, Germanicus^ Britan- 
 nicus. 
 
 Most nations derive surnames from the father-name, 
 by the word son : Johnson, son of John. The Hebrews by 
 hen^ son : Ben-David^ son of David, Joshua, son of !N'un. 
 The Greeks understood uios : Peleiedio, son of Peleus, the 
 designation of Achilles in the first of the Diad. The Nor- 
 mans did the same by prefixing^fe, fils, a son : Fttz-AWsm^ 
 Fitz -Kerhert, Fitz-James : — 
 
 " Of yore the name of Snowdoun claims. 
 And Normans call me James Fitz-James." — Scott. 
 
 The Welsh do the same by the word ap : Morgan ap 
 Jones, ]\Iorgan son of Jones, now the surname ApjoJin. 
 The Highlanders, the same by mac, son : Macintosh^ mac- 
 an-taosac, son of the chief; Mc.Gibhon^ mac-gabhan, son 
 of the smith ; Mc. Venno7i, mac-bean-og, son of the younger 
 wife, the name of an Irish family formerly settled in the 
 West of Cumberland ; Almacks, a metamorphosis of Mc. 
 Call, the Scotchman who first set up this establishment. 
 The Irish denote the third degree of descent by og, young, 
 a grandchild, contracted to o'; O'Brien, descendant of 
 Brien : the particle the prefixed denotes the head of the 
 family ; the O'Connor Don. This term og comes into 
 English in the form oije, as designating the Gudedame's 
 descendant in the Farmer's Ingle : — 
 
 " Weel pleas'd her head was up and saw 
 Her ain spun cleedin on a darling oye." — Ferguson. 
 
 So names, and surnames everywhere, always expres- 
 sing some personal quality, circumstance, or profession. 
 Wherefore, says Quintilian, "A learned grammarian will 
 
109 
 
 investigate the origiii of names, as Burrhus^ ruddy ; Galba, 
 white ; Pansa, broadfoot ; Scaurus, clubfoot ; Agrippa, 
 lame." So also, Pcetus^ squint-eyed ; Naamah^ beautiful ; 
 Arthur^ bearish, strong. Blacky black ; WMte^ white ; 
 Reid^ red ; Ruddick^ red Dick ; Long^ Short, Stout ; Bas- 
 f>et, Fr. basset, low- set, fat, now Bass. Fergus, Gaelic, 
 Jear-gaisgeacli, brave man ; — 
 
 " When Fergus, the first of our kings, I suppose, 
 At the head <5f his army had conquer'd his foes, 
 He'd a hag of oat-meal on his hack to make hrose. 
 Then hie for the hrose of old Scotland." 
 
 Scaife^ scaff, wild, peregi'ine. Slater^ slaughter. Luke^ 
 Lat. luciiis, bright, shining, and that from lux., light, the 
 feminine of which name is Lucy. Alatthetv, Heb. mathau, 
 a reward. Andrew^ Gr. andreois, manly. The word grimj 
 fierce, tarnf^ warlike, gives origin to the redoubtable sur- 
 name Grimm, Grceme, Graham ; and to Isgrim, is grim, the 
 wolf in the fable : — 
 
 " But here he's safe ; and for the Grceme, 
 Heaven's hlessing on his gallant name." 
 
 Scott : Lady of the Lake, Cant. iv. 
 
 Anthoni/., Gr. anthos, a flower. Duncan^ Celtic, dun- 
 cin, high head, figuratively denoting skill, wisdom, or 
 com'age, and therefore appropriate to the great man of that 
 name, who beat the Dutch at Camperdown : — 
 
 " Then Duncan came next, and served them just so, 
 
 Pull away, pull away so jolly; 
 He made big Mynheer strike his flag to a foe, 
 
 Against whom all resistance was folly." 
 
 — Chax>ter of Admirals. 
 
 Duke., Lat. dux., a leader. Howard, high-warden : — 
 
 " all the blood of all the Hoivards." 
 
 Marshall, Mar's-skalka, Sax. skalka, a military ser- 
 vant : — 
 
 "Meinnamma skalka,"—My servant. Matt. viii. i). 
 
no 
 
 Butler^ Fr. houteiller^ the bottler. Cooke^ Lat. coqiius., 
 the cook. Lardner^ larderer, the clerk of the kitchen, 
 Latimer^ latiner, the interpreter. Spenser^ the dispenser 
 of his lord's bounty ; wherefore an apartment in Scotch 
 houses is called the <ipense^ and so Burns : — 
 
 " Our bardie, lanely keeps the spense, 
 Sin' Mailie's dead." 
 
 Sewell, see-well, the huntsman. In ancient hunting a 
 cloth called a sewel was hung up at certain cross-roads and 
 turnings to prevent the game from running that way ; and 
 the person appointed to manage it, thus took the name Of 
 his business, see-well. Fletcher^ Fr. fieclie, an arrow, the 
 person who carried the quiver. Archer^ arch., a bow, a 
 bowman. 
 
 Leach, Sax. Zece', a cure, a curer, from lecnian., to heal, 
 the village doctor. Girdwood^ gird wood, the grave-digger : — 
 
 " Wliere Geordie Girdwood many a lee-lang day, 
 Howkit for gentles' banes the humblest clay.' 
 
 — Ferguson's Ghaists. 
 
 Brookman, bruc-man, the pedlar, from the Sax. bru- 
 can, to use, one who uses the goods of another, by selling 
 them on commission, a broker. The native name Smith is 
 identified by Verstegan : — 
 
 "Whence cometh Smyth, albe he knight or squire, 
 But from the smith that smiteth at the fire.', 
 
 George. Gr. ge- ergon, earth worker, a tiller, a hus- 
 bandman. Mary., Maria., Heb. marah., bitter. Solomon., 
 Heb. Shalmon, peaceable. Francis, Fr. franc, free, the 
 feminine of which is i^>awce5, and i^awwy. Athanasius, Gr. 
 a-thanatos, without death, immortal. The second part of 
 this word gives name to the plant tansij, death, deadly, so 
 
Ill 
 
 named from some peculiar qualities ascribed to it by the 
 ancients : tansy-cakes were once common in English holiday 
 sports ; and hence Tansy, now a village festival of tea- 
 drinking and dancing. Charles^ carle, a rnstic, a country- 
 man, German Carl^ and feminine Charlotte. Katherine, 
 Gr. Kaiharos, purer Shakespeare sports with this name as 
 if illustrating its etvmon : — 
 
 " And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the chaste, 
 But Kate, the prettiest Kate in chiistendom, 
 Kate of Kate- Hall, my super-dainty Kate ; 
 For dainties are all cates." 
 
 Cicero^ Lat. cicer, a check-pea, a vetch, so named 
 from the semblance of one that grew on his nose. Fabius, 
 faba, a bean, the bean man. Agricola^ ager-colere, field 
 tiller, husbandman. Plato, Gi\ platos, broad, that is broad- 
 shouldered, his original name being Aiistodes^ chief glory. 
 Sophia^ Gr. sophia^ wisdom. Mabel, Fr. ma belle, my 
 beauty. Adam^ Heb. hadamali^ the ground : — 
 
 " And the Lord God formed a man of the dust of the ground, ijiada.- 
 mah.y — Gen. ii., 7. 
 
 William, Teut. guild-helm^ gilt-helmet, which the 
 French keep nearer the original by having it Guillaume, 
 Scipio., Lat. scipio^ a walking-stick. Martin.^ Lat. martins 
 martial, of which the feminine is Jia;tAa, Matty ^ and Patty. 
 James^ Lat. Jacobus, from which Jacobin, all from the 
 Heb. Jakob, a supplanter. Timothy, Gr. time-theos, ho 
 nourer of God. Margaret, Lat. margarita, a pearl, is of 
 classical notoriety : — 
 
 "DumgaUus qucerit escam in sterquilinio, margaritam reperit." 
 — While a cock scraped for food, he found a, pearl. Phmdrus. 
 
 CJiristopher, Gr. Christos-pheron, bearing Christ. Alan, 
 Sax. ellen, strong, courageous, the feminine of which is Ellen. 
 Nathan, Heb. nathan, a gift. Peter, Gr. peira, a rock. 
 
112 
 
 Deborah^ Heb. a bee. Tliomas^ Heb. tham^ double ; in 
 Greek, Didymous^ diio-noiis, double-minded, doubting, 
 John XX, 21. Felix^ Lat./e//.r, liappj, the feminine of which 
 is Felicia, Alexander^ Gr. alexeter-aner^ helper of men ; 
 from which Sanders^ and Sandei son. John^ Heb.Jah-hanaJ}, 
 lord gracious, the feminine of which is Jane^ Joan, and Janet; 
 and from the second part of the name we have A7in, Anna, 
 Hannah, Nanny, and Nancy. Philip., Gr. philos-ippos, 
 lover of horses, a horseman. Eve, cheveh, life; "for she 
 was the mother of all living." Grace, Lat. gratia, grace ; 
 Prudence, Lat. prudentia, prudence, wisdom : — 
 
 " When Grace and Prudence kept the house 
 An angel kept the door." 
 
 Sardayiapalus, Heb. Shar~dan-pala, lofty judge prince, 
 the last king of Asjria ; shar, a prince, the feminine of 
 which is Sarah. Socrates, Gr. soos-krafos, safe power. 
 Edward, Sax. eadig-ward, happy warden. Arabella, Lat. 
 ara-bella, beautiful altar : — 
 
 " O, shepherds, tell me wliere has Arabella stray'd." 
 
 Lambert, Sax. lamb beorht, fair lamb. Barsabus, 
 Heb. bar-shabath, son of rest. Patrick, Lat. patricius, a 
 patrician, and that from ^a^er, father; the only notable 
 man of which name, according to tradition, was son of 
 Fitzpatrick, and born at Downpatrick, on Patricks day in 
 the morning. Cornelius, Lat. cornu, a horn, and Gr. elios., 
 the sun, horn of the sun, the feminine of which is Cornelia. 
 Gertrude, Tout, gar-trude, all truth. Rosamund, Lat. 
 rosa, a rose, and Teut. mund, mouth, rosy-mouth, the fair 
 mistress of Henry 11. , and her punning epitaph is suitable 
 to her beauty : — 
 
 " Hie jaceb in tumba Rosamundi." — 
 " Here lies entorab'd the Rose of the world. 
 
113 
 
 Cdleb^ Heb. caleh, a dog, oue of Joshua's companions 
 in discovering tlie land of Canaan. Rachel, a sheep ; Re- 
 heccah^ at. JazV/a^r, Sax.yea^, haii', faii'-hah\ ThirlwalU 
 thirl-wall, hole waU, probably from the ancient castle of 
 this name in Northumberland ; the word thirl signifying a 
 hole, from thuie^ to bore, to grind, and so Ferguson's 
 Farmer's Ingle : — 
 
 " Frae him the lads their mornin counsel tak, 
 What stacks to thrash, what rigs to till ; 
 How hig a birn maun lie on Bassie's back, 
 For meal and muter to the thirlin mill." 
 
 Bede^ Sax. beade^ a prayer ; *' say your heads.'''' Agnes^ 
 Gr. agnes, chaste. Effie^ Gr. eu-pheme^ good fame, reputa- 
 tion, Euphemia. Hamilton^ haw-mill-tov,n : — 
 
 •' Haw is a very late fruit. 
 Mill is a veiy great engine. 
 Ton is a form of town. 
 And so this very long surname." 
 
 — Old Rhyme. 
 
 Gough^ Welsh gof^ a smith. Sontag^ Sax. son-tag, 
 Sunday. Hiigh^ Teut. hoch^ high, eminent. Dorothy., 
 Gr. dorothea.) gift of God. Letty^ Lat. Icetitia^ joy, glad- 
 ness. Adelaide, Sax. cethel, noble, and aid : — 
 
 " Fair Adelaide hied when the battle was o'er.'' 
 
 Simon., Heb. simnon, hearing. Abigail., abi-gil, a father's 
 joy. Barbara, Lat. barbara, strange, a stranger ; Beatrice,- 
 beatus, blessed, happy. Emily, Emma, Amelia, Lat. cemylia, 
 of Gr. aimule, eloquent, affable, polite : — 
 
 " The streamlet that flow'd round her cot, 
 All the charms of my Emily knew ; 
 How oft has its course been forgot 
 As it stopp'd, her dear image to view. 
 Believe me, the fond silver tide 
 Knew from whence it derived the fair prize, 
 For silently swelling with pride, 
 It reflected her back to^the skies." 
 
 — Old English Song. 
 H ' 
 
114 
 
 Henry, Sax. ham-ric^ rich at home. AbraJiayn, Heb/ 
 ctb-rim-om, father of a high people ; Joseph, increase ;• 
 David, beloved ; Stephen, Gr. Stephanos, a crown. Mon- 
 teith, Celtic, moan-teath, warm moss, which name arises 
 from a place so called in Scotland. Isaac, Heb. tzachaJi, 
 laughter; see the origin of this name, Gen. xvii. 17, and 
 XVIII. 12. Susan, Heb. a lily : — 
 
 "All in the Downs the fleet \V3S moor'd, 
 And streamers waving in the wind, 
 When black-ey'd Susan came on board, 
 O, where shall I my true-love find." 
 
 — Susan Vanbruggan and Sir William Alderney, 
 
 on hoard ihe Hector, in the Doions. 
 
 Hildehrand, Tent, held, a noble, and brande, bm'nished, 
 shining, " brand new," a shining or splendid noble. Jessy, 
 Heh.jeshi, a graft, a branch. Strephon, the name of many 
 a swain, in pastoral poetry. It is Greek, signifying fickle, 
 inconstant ; and Swift's swain, so called, is true to the 
 original : — 
 
 " With every lady of the land 
 Young Strephon kept a pother; 
 Sometimes he languish'd for one hand, 
 And sometimes for another." 
 
 Laidley, Fr. laid, ugly, and lihe; the " laidley worm." 
 Doeg, Heb. doeg, careful. King Saul's herdsman. Glendin- 
 ing, Wclsli, glyn-dinas, glen-town. Elizabeth, Heb. al- 
 shehcth, God's oath; Isabella is Eliza-bella, handsome. 
 Elizabeth : — 
 
 " Manifold matters of recreation, policie, love adventures, &c., 
 ahundantlie administered ; and all in the golden reign of blessed Queen 
 Elizabeth, the sweet floure of amiable virginitie." — Stoiv's Chronicle, 
 
115 
 Victoria^ Lat. victoria, victoiy : — 
 
 " Happy and crlcrious, 
 Always victorious, 
 Long to reign over us, 
 
 God save the Queen.'* 
 
 Names and Surnames are classed alphabetically, in 
 the following arrangement. 
 
 Al, Sax. «/, all. 
 
 Alfred^ al-frede, all peace. Algernon., al-gerne, ^erwe, 
 learned, studious. Albert., al beorht, all bright, shining : — 
 
 To sway the strife that seldom might hefal ; 
 And Albert was their judge in patriarchal hall. 
 
 — Gertrude of Wyoming. 
 
 Bald, Sax. bald., bald. 
 
 Baldwin^ bald-win, bold winner. Archibald., arch-bald, 
 eminently bold. Theobald^ theos-bald, bold in God. 
 
 Cles, Gr. kleos., glory. 
 
 CliOi kleos, one of the Muses — that of history. Aris- 
 toclesy aristos kleos, chief glory, the original name of Plato. 
 Pericles, peri-kleos, engaged in glory, a famous Athenian. 
 
 Dee, Sax. deor., clear. 
 
 Deoring, deor-lng Beorwolf., deor-ulph, dear help. 
 Durward, deor-ward, a beloved ward. 
 
 El, Heb. a/, Arab allah^ God. 
 
 "£K, i;?t, lama sabacthani ?" — My God, my God, why hast thou 
 orsaken me? — Matt, xsv'i., 4G. 
 
 Eleazer., al-ozer, help of God. Elilm, ali-hua, he my 
 God. Michael, mi-ca-al, who like God. Nathaniel, na- 
 than-al, gift of God. Samuel, shamu-al, hearing God. 
 Gabriel, gabr-al, strength of God. Immanuel^ omah-nu-al, 
 
116 
 
 God with us. Israel^ he-shar-al, the prince of God. Ah- 
 dallaJi, obed-allah, servant of God ; " Ahdallah the Moor." 
 Daniel^ dan-al, judgment of God : — 
 
 " A Daniel come to judgment — yea, a Daniel." 
 
 Feed, Sax.jfret/e, peace. 
 
 Frederic, frede-ric, rich peace. Wilfrid^ willi-frede, 
 peace of many. Geoffrey., gaw-frede, joyful peace. 
 
 God, Sax. god., good, God. 
 
 Godard.^ god-aerd, good nature, Godwin., good win- 
 ner, conqueror. Godfrey., God's peace. Goderich, rich in 
 God. 
 
 Genes, Gr. genos, race, offspring : and hence genera- 
 tion, and Genesis. 
 
 Protogenes., protos-genos, the first race. Iphigenia, 
 iphia-genea, brave offspring, the fair daughter of Agamem- 
 non. Diogenes, divine offspring, an ancient cynic — 
 
 " Diogenes, the surly and proud, 
 Who snarl' d at the Macedon j'outh, 
 Delighted in wine that was good, 
 Because in good wine there was truth," 
 
 — Chapter of Philosophers. 
 
 Her, Sax. here, an army : and hence the old word 
 heregeld, a tax for supporting the army ; herefare, war- 
 fare ; liery, to rob or forage, as any army. 
 
 Herbert, here-beorht, brightness or glory of the army. 
 Herman, chiefof the army. Harvey, here-wic, residence or 
 quarters of the army. 
 
 Iah, Heb. iah jali. Lord : and henco hallelujah^ halali.. 
 luk-jah, praise to thee. Lord — 
 
 "Then shall thy saints 
 Unfeigned hallelujahs sing; 
 Hymns of high praise." 
 
 — Milto^n. 
 
117 
 
 Jonathan^ jali-nathan, gift of the Lord. Obediali, 
 obed iah, servant of the Lord. TobiaJi, tob-iah, goodness 
 of the Lord. Atlmliah, othel-iah, hour or time of the Lord. 
 Dinahs dan-iah, judgment of God. Elijah^ al-jah, God 
 the Lord. Uriahs aur-iah, light of the Lord. Hilkiah^ 
 hilk-iah, portion of the Lord. Zachajiah, zacron-iah, 
 memorial of the Lord. Zedekiah, tzedik-iah, righteousness 
 of the Lord. Aholiah, ahol-iah, tabernacle of the Lord. 
 Isaiah, ash-iah, fire oftiie Lord: — 
 
 •* And touch'd Isaiah's hallow'd lips with fire." 
 
 Ken, Sax. ken, knowledge, skill, from cennan, to 
 know. 
 
 Kenwolf, keu-nlph, wise help. Kenelm, ken-helm, 
 skilful defender. Kenric, ken-ric, wise ruler. 
 
 Leof, Sax, leaf, love. Leofgar, ieof-gar, all love. 
 Leofnoth, leof -not. Leopold, leof-hold, constant in love. 
 
 Mache, Gr, mache, battle. Machaon, seeking battle. 
 Andromache, audreios-mache, manly in battle, the wife of 
 Hector. Telemachus, telos-mache, victory in battle, the 
 famous son of Ulysses. 
 
 Nic, Gr. nike, victory. 
 
 Nicomedes, nike-medos, victorious council ; Nicephorus, 
 bearing victory. Nicolaus, nike-laos, victorious people ; 
 from which our names Nicholas, Nicholson, Colly, Collins 
 and Colin: — 
 
 " When Colin with the morning ray, arose and sang his rural lay." 
 
 — Rnslin Castle. 
 
 Ord, Tent. Ord, origin. 
 
 Ord, ord, an ancient surname. Ordbert, ord-beort, bright, 
 •original. Ordmer, ord-mcere, famous origin. 
 
118 
 
 Ptol, Gr. ptolemos^ war ; and lience polemics^ contro- 
 versial writings. 
 
 Ptolemy^ ptolemos, the common title of the kings of 
 Egypt. A?'cheptol€mos chief in war ; Theopolemos, divine 
 warrior, two of Homer's heroes. 
 
 Red, Sax, rede, counsel. 
 
 " And may you better reck the rede than ever did the adviser." 
 
 — Burns. 
 
 Redmund, rede-mund, coimcil of peace. Radwald, 
 rede-wald, powerful in council, Robert, rede-beorht, bright 
 clear council. 
 
 Sib, Sax, sihhe, kindred : and hence siVd, related ; 
 and gossip, god-sib, relations in God, a godfather or god- 
 mother. 
 
 Siha, a kinswoman. Sibbald, sib-bald, bold kinsman. 
 Sibson, a patronymical surname. 
 
 Thoes, Gr. thoos, swift. 
 
 Alcathoes, alke thoes, strong swiftness. Perithoes, 
 very swift ; Panthoes, all swift, and other classic heroes. 
 
 Ulph, Sax. uJph, help. 
 
 UIpMla, ulph, a famous ancient bishop. Ethehvolfy 
 sethel-ulph, a Saxon king. Adolplms, eadig-ulph, happy 
 helper, a surname. 
 
 Valenti n e , Lat . valen timis, and th at from valens, strong, 
 healthy ; and the letters v and b being interchangeable, the 
 surname Ballantyne. The first is the name of a famous 
 ancient bishop, on whose anniversary the ancient church 
 chose patron saints for the ensuing year ; which custom 
 gave rise to the notion of choices, valentines, on that day : — 
 
 " Now all nature seem'd in love, 
 And birds had drawn their valentines." 
 
 — Wotton.. 
 
119 
 
 "Wald, Sax. icealdan, to rule, govern. Waldwin, 
 ruling conqueror. Oswald^ hus-wald, house ruler, a king 
 of Northumberland : the smith welds his iron ; the minister 
 wields the power of the state ; but '-' Fleisch and blood 
 moun not welde (inherit) the kingdom of God," says Wick- 
 liff's Translation. 
 
 ZiMMER, Germ, zimmer^ timber. 
 
 Zimmerman^ zimmer-mann, timber man," wood cutter, 
 the famous physician of George m., and author of 
 ^' Solitude." 
 
120 
 
 OBSOLETE WORDS. 
 
 N^AMES and terms often becom obsolete ; or change 
 their sense, form, or pronunciation ; thereby giving to these 
 inquiries historical interest. Thus, the word villain, origi- 
 nally meaned a household servant, one attached to the villa^ 
 or mansion ; and, therefore, akin to the honest villager^ and 
 to the nobles Domville, Sackville, Tankerville^ and others. 
 This makes a strange contrast with bishop Porteus's ac- 
 count of the character : — 
 
 " One murder makes a villain ; millions a hero." 
 
 Imp^ Welsh imp^ signified originally the scion or sprout 
 of a tree, as in Chaucer : — 
 
 " Of feeble trees, their comen wretched impes." 
 
 Figuratively, the word signifies a youth ; wherefore, one 
 of the earls of Warwick, who died a minor, is styled in 
 the obituary, " the noble imp.'''' The word is now always 
 taken in an evil sense, and so Hooker : — 
 
 " Such we deny not to be the imps and limbs of Satan." 
 
 The word Imave has undergone i"hc strangest metamor- 
 phosis of all. It is originally the Saxon ciiapa, and 
 
121 
 
 Teutonic knahe^ a male-child ; a seiTant boy ; and the 
 squh-e who attended his lord in the wars, was 2ijild-cnapa. 
 We often meet with the term in old WTitings used in the 
 original sense. In an old translation of Scripture, Kom. 
 i. 1, is rendered " Paul a knave (servant) of Christ ;" and 
 in English history we meet with " Willielmi. C. De Derby, 
 knavey The knave on cards, is servant of the king and 
 queen ; and the last living representative of this once 
 famous official, is the cross -stick on which a thatcher rests 
 his stipples cf straw — his knave.. The character had been 
 falling for ages, and Andrew Marvell ruined it : — 
 
 " Four knights and a knave who were burgesses made, 
 For selling their conscience were liberally paid." 
 
 The word hell has quite changed its meaning. It 
 meaned, at first, a grave, a receptacle, from the Sas on helle^ 
 and that from helan^ to cover up, enclose ; and the original 
 senses of the word correspond. In the Apostles' Creed, it 
 is taken for temporal death ; the whale that swallowed 
 Jonah, — "the belly of /^e//," — Jonah ii. 2. In the game of 
 prison-base, the term denotes the place into which the 
 captive is led ; and it means the place into which a tailor 
 throws his shapings : — 
 
 "In CoventGarden did a taj'lor dwell, 
 Who might deserve a place in his own hell." 
 
 — King's Cookery. 
 
 The fine old word rack., a cloud, an ^rial vapour, has be- 
 come obsolete. '* The winds in the upper regions," says 
 Bacon, " which move the clouds above, and which we call 
 the rack, are not perceived below, and pass without noise." 
 This word is the more remarkable, as it has often been con- 
 founded with its homophone wrack or wreck., a fragments 
 
122 
 
 and thereby, that fine passage in the '^ Tempest," perverted 
 from the original : — 
 
 "And like the baseless fabric of a vision, 
 Leave not a rack behind." 
 
 The word won^ from the Saxon wunan, to live, dwell, 
 has entirely disappeared from common speech. It is much 
 nsed in the old writers ; andiii the song, "Tibby Fowler :" — 
 
 " Tibby Fowler that wons in yon glen." — 
 
 The term hrant^ smooth, sloping, is preserved in "John 
 Anderson," in the form hrent : — 
 
 "John Anderson my jo, John, 
 
 When we were first acquent; 
 Your locks were like the raven, 
 
 Your bonnie brow was hrent." 
 
 The term fellow^ feal-league, faith bound, is at once 
 a term of respect and of reproach, as fellow of a college ; 
 and a Christian " yoke-fellow.'' That is now pretty well 
 changed, and we often hear of a fellow., the very opposite 
 of the former character, and so Pope : — 
 
 " Worth makes the man, and want of it W^fdlow: 
 The rest is all but leather and prunello." 
 
 The word academe.^ from academy ., and that from Cad- 
 mus., has been disused since Shakespeare's time, when both 
 it and academy were accented on the first syllable : — 
 
 " From women's eyes this doctrine I derive : 
 They are the grounds, the books, the academes, 
 From whence doth spring the tiue Promethian fire." 
 
 — Love's Labour Lost. 
 
 The word airt is now nearly lost. It is from the Ger- 
 man ort., place, direction, and was once common in Eng- 
 lish ; but it is now seldom used, and then almost exclu- 
 
123 
 
 sively as the place of the wind, or the dh-ection from which 
 it blows, as preserved in Burns : — 
 
 " Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, 
 I dearly like the west ; 
 For there the bonny lassie lives, 
 The lass that I like best." 
 
 The term yad, a stiif-legged country horse, has strayed 
 far from its place. It is from Jade, a worn-out, sorry 
 horse ; iu Scotland jacf, is a common term of reproach for a 
 woman, wherefore Burns : — 
 
 "The ladies, arm-in-arm, in clusters, 
 As great and gracious a' as sisters; 
 But hear their absent thoughts o' ither. 
 They're a' run dells and jacies' thegither." 
 
 Muirland Willie's yad, however, looks as sprightly as 
 a cavalry charger : — 
 
 " On his gray yad as he did ride, 
 Wi' dirk and pistol by his side. 
 He prick'd her on wi' mickle pride, 
 
 Wi' mickle mirth and glee." 
 
 The word corpse, is remarkable both for change of 
 meaning and of pronunciation, Originally the Latin 
 corpus, a body, it, has become corpse, and corse, a dead 
 body, a carcass. In the form corps, it means a mili- 
 tary body, a band of soldiers, and pronounced core; though 
 it is plain from the " Eecruiting Sergeant's'^ use of the 
 word, that it was heretofore pronounced plain corps. He is. 
 
 beating up in the vicinity of a church-yard, and avails 
 himself of a tombstone, as a platform from which to ad« 
 
 dress his audience : — 
 
 " From a large flat tomb-stone, he harangu'd it, — 
 Since all volunteering absorps, 
 Let us meet in this case, to consider 
 The best way of raising a corps." 
 
124 
 
 Many words having the dipthong ea, were formerly 
 pronounced with the open sound, as in the word great, in- 
 stead of with the close sound, as in the word read. The 
 word tea is a remarkable instance of this ; it was once pro- 
 nounced toy, and accordingly, Pope — a nice observer of the 
 laws of orthoepy — makes it rhyme with obey: — 
 
 " And thovi, great Anna, whom three realms obey, 
 Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea." 
 
 — Epistle to Queen Anne. 
 
 JAMES STEKL, PRINTER, jrOUR>fAL OFFICE, CARLISLE. 
 
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