Far-wig, Shave-all, and Wig-sell: rather barberous. Groundwater, Maid-man, Bind-loose, No-yes, Boy-man, Fair-foul: rather paradoxical.

Some-dry, Dry-wood, Burn-up, and Doubt-fire!
Lin-skill, Has-luck, Roll-fuss.

Hay-lord, Man-maker, Hay-digger.

Cope-stake, Nettle-ship, Row-clippen, Bout-flower.

Kog-nose, So-thin! Pull-her!

Flash-man, Bob-king, London-such!

Red-year, Sam-ways, Half-hide, Hare-bread.

Pea-body, Bean-bulk, Cheese-wright, and Honey-loom. Full-away, Thick-broom, Leather-barrow.

Dip-stale, Dip-rose, and Dip-lock.

Bird-whistle, Spar-shot and Buck-thought.

Tram-pleasure: a railway traveller?

Small-piece, Pickfat, Make-rich, Weed-all, Met-calf, Good-year, Look-up, Quick-fall, Lilly-low, and Cut

mutton!

*This is local, perhaps; Farwig, near Bromley, co. Kent.

濃

CHAPTER III.

OF PROVINCIALISMS IN SURNAMES.

OME counties and districts have peculiar surnames, which are rarely found beyond their limits. These are often of the local class, and the tenacity with which they cleave to the soil which

gave them birth is truly remarkable. The Rev. G. Oliver remarks* that Ellerker, Legard, and Wilberforce, are peculiar to the county of York; Carruthers and Burnside to the northern counties; Poynder and Thwaite to Lancashire; Tryce to Worcestershire; and Poyzer to Derbyshire.

Who does

Cornwall from its peninsular form has, more than any other county, retained this peculiarity. not remember the ancient proverb

"By Tre, Pol, and Pen,

De shall know the Cornish-men.”

Camden (or, more probably, his friend "R. Carew of Anthony, Esquire") has amplified the proverb to

"By Tre, Ros, Pol, Lan, Cacr, and Pen,
You may know the most Cornish-men."

In no other county of England are there so many local surnames as in Cornwall; and as the names of

* Gent. Mag., April 1830.

places are almost exclusively derived from British roots, the family nomenclature differs materially from that of the rest of England. I may remark that Tre signifies a town; Ros, a heath; Pol, a pool; Lan, a church; Caer, a castle; and Pen, a head.

In Kent and Sussex, HURST, signifying "wood," is a component syllable in many hundreds of names of places, from many of which surnames have been borrowed, as Ticehurst, Crowhurst, Bathurst, Hawkhurst, Akehurst, Penkhurst, Wilmshurst, Ashhurst, &c. FIELD and DEN are likewise very numerous in those counties, as Chatfield, Burfield, Hartfield, Lindfield, Streatfeild; Cowden, Piddlesden, Horsmonden, Haffenden, Oxenden. In Devonshire, COMBE appears to be a favourite termination, as Luscombe, Widicombe.

The frequency of two family names in a northern county led to this proverbial saying:

“ In Cheshire there are Lees as plenty as fleas,
And as many Davenports as dogs' tails!"

A Cheshire correspondent informs me that the Leighs are the persons intended; the Lees, a distinct family, having never been numerous in the county. He adds, that the more modern version of the proverb is—

"As many Leighs as fleas, Massies as asses, and
Davenports as dogs' tails."

As some surnames seem to flourish only in their native soil, and refuse to thrive when transplanted to another province, so, to pursue the vegetable analogy, other names, when they have taken root in a new field, undergo some modification of their character. In other words, their orthography and pronunciation are altered,

in compliance with the rules which govern the dialect of the district whither they are carried. For example, the family of the Longs settled in Scotland have become Langs and Laings, and the Longmans, Langmans. If Mr. Fidler migrated to Somersetshire, his descendants would become Vidlers; while Mr. Croft's settlement in Yorkshire would convert him and his into Crafts. I speak, of course, of early times, before orthography assumed a settled shape. So also the Tompsetts and Tompkinses of the south would be Tampsets and Tampkinses in Yorkshire and the north. The rather elegant name of Beck, a native of the north, would, on the other hand, find itself in the broad dialect of Sussex, Back; and this would at length pluralize into Backs, and finally almost lose its identity in Bax. By the same process, the name of the author of Tristram Shandy would, in the same county, first broaden into Starne, and finally pluralize into Starnes.

The changes which many names undergo in their vowel sounds may be chiefly attributed to the broadening or narrowing tendencies of our provincial dialects. Who can doubt the original identity of Burt and Birt, Gilbert and Gilburd, Gillett and Gillott, Trescott and Truscott, Horsecraft and Horsecroft, Puttick and Puttock, Diplock and Duplock, Murrell and Morel? Some seem to have run almost the entire gamut of the vowels, as Hassell, Hessell, Hissell, Hussell, besides other changes as Essell, Hersell, Hursell, &c.

Kemble, which might appear to be a narrowed Cockney pronunciation of Campbell, is, however, a local name adopted from a parish in Wiltshire.

The clumsy termination -um, so common in the United States, is a corruption of our genuine AngloSaxon Ham,' and Barnum, Putnam, and Chetum are

merely modifications of Barnham, Puttenham, and Chetham.

"We have often remarked," says an intelligent writer, "that every different district of country, or large town, possesses names which you scarcely ever see anywhere else, some of these names being evidently derived from circumstances connected with the special locality. For example, the surname Boatbuilder may be seen on signboards on the banks of the Thames, but we venture to say it is unheard of in any rural district. Names would thus seem to grow out of the very soil, and to possess an exact geographical distribution like the different species of plants and vegetables."* The present railway age, however, is doing much in the way of amalgamation, in this as well as in many other and higher respects.

* "A Word on Surnames," in Chambers' Edinburgh Journal.