English Place-Names
Tnz English Place-Name Society, founded a few years ago with Professors Mawer and Stenton as its editors, is doing most valuable and interesting work for English history and English philology. The Society began by publishing a general introduction to the survey of English place-names, which treats of their main sources and of their most frequent prefixes and suffixes. Since then, the editors have produced three excellent volumes on the place-names of Buckingham- shire, of Bedford and Hunts, and, in collaboration with Mr. F. T. S. Houghton, of Worcestershire, with its many specialized forms. Now comes a fifth volume on the North Riding, which is the work of Mr. A. H. Smith of Leeds University with the co-operation of the editors. There is, -of course, very much more to be done, but the Place-Name Survey is now well under way, and each volume as it appears seems more fascinating and more instructive than its predecessor.
The method followed is to take the county divisions— hundreds or, as in the North Riding, wapentakes—alpha- betically, and in each to deal with the parishes alphabetically ; in each parish the townships and in each township the place- names are similarly arranged. An excellent index facilitates reference. For each place-name are given all the early forms that can be traced and dated, whether from pre-Conquest deeds or later reins, cartularies and other sources. The editor then gives his interpretation of the name, with the probable etymology and any connexions that it may have with other names. With the history of the name before us, usually from the Conquest and often earlier, we- do not need to make the random guesses with which bygone antiquaries were satisfied. When the place-names of a county are thus systematically interpreted, we can form a definite idea of the people who gave these names to places. We can thus arrive at very interesting conclusions as to the early history of the county, the races who settled in it at different periods,- the probable fate of the British (Celtic) aborigines, and so on, and we can compare these results with the evidence that
written history and archaeology offered for the obscure centuries before Duke William came.
In the case of the North Riding, Mr. Smith has 'found it possible to confirm and elucidate from the place-names the story of the Scandinavian invasions that swamped the earlier Anglian settlements just as they in turn had wiped out the Britons of Elmet. A Danish army late in the ninth century occupied the southern part of the Riding, mainly in the fertile river valleys. In the tenth century another set of invaders arrived. Norwegians crossed the North Sea and settled along or near the coast at Scarborough, Whitby, and Pickering. Other Norwegians came over from Ireland and crossed the Pennine into Richmondshire and Teesdale. Some of these Norwegians had intermarried with the Irish, and they brought Irishmen with them, for a number of place-names contain definitely Irish elements, such as Patrick Brompton, Arrathorne and Oran, and personal names like Gilmychel, Ghilpatric and Colman. The archaeologist can point to crosses of this period, as at Middleham, which show Irish influence, so that the two sets of facts complement one another, and prove that Irish immigration into England began at a far earlier date than is commonly supposed.
Turning from the general to the partieular, we can commend the detailed list of place-nanies as an unfailing source of interest. The modern forms are more often than not deceptive .; their meaning, as revealed by the early forms, is seldom what we might expect. Scarborough, for instance, has nothing to do with " Scar." The sages refer to it as " Skarthaborg," and " Skarthi," meaning hare-lip, was the nickname of Thorgils, the Viking who founded the stronghold in 966-7. Hinderwell, the station for Runswick, appears in Domesday Book as Hildrewelle, showing that it was the well of St. Fhld or Hilda, whose nunnery at Whitby was famous. Rosedale had nothing to do with flowers, but was the valley of a Norse- man named Russi. Faceby, originally spelt Feizbi, was the farm of one Feit. Yearsley appears first as Euerslage and later as Yeveresleye, and stands for the forest-clearing (leah) of one Eofor, which in Anglo-Saxon_ meant wild boar. Rich- mond was the name given to his castle by the Norman Earl Alan, and acquired by the town that grew up round the fortress on a site which the natives knew as Hindrelac. Saltergate, the road over the moors from Pickering to Whitby, is thought to have got its name from the traffic in the alum mined in Cleveland. Such entries, taken at random, may serve to exemplify the interesting information which Mr. Smith has brought together. The enterprise of the English Place-Nanie Society deserves the fullest encouragement, and its volumes should be in every public library,
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