ments :- "John over the water;" "William at Bishopgate;" "John of the sheephouse;" "John at the castle-gate ;""John in the lane;" Peter at the Bell;"." Thomas in the Willows," "Stephen de Portico;" "William of London-bridge;" "Watt at the well;" "Jack at the stile." Of, in such cases, was very common, as "William of Normandy." The correspondent French term de, and the correspondent German term von, are in constant use among the French and the Germans, with whom they are a faint intimation of gentle or noble blood.

Out of these circumlocutions what we commonly mean by family names were readily formed. Thus, "John in the lane,' by a very usual process of abbreviation, became John Lane; and "Peter at the Bell," Peter Bell. Here you have one very abundant source of prevalent English names. Sometimes the names of persons are names of countries, as, England, Ireland, Bourgoyne, France, Holland, Man; sometimes they are adjectives derived from the names of countries, as, Scott, Welsh, Dean. Our several counties give us names of persons in Cheshire, Kent, Somerset, Hertford. We derive such names, also, from cities, towns, villages, rivers, and other parts, as, London, Warwick, Leicester, Hartfield, Balcomb, Hurst, Coombs, Croft, Thorpe, Hill, Down, Derwentwater, Trent, Calder, Beck and Beckett, Banks, Barrow, Gill, Grave, Halliwell. Trees, also, and their productions, have supplied us with names. Sometimes ton (town, residence) is united with such names, and with names of places, as, Ashton, Milton, &c. A play on the name Berry is found in the following epitaph':

Hark! how! who's buried here?
John Berry, is't the younger?

No, it is the Elder-Berry.

An Elder-Berry buried surely must

Rather spring up and live than turn to dust:

So may our Berry whom stern death has slain,
Be only buried to rise up again.

Professional names gave rise to a great multitude of family names, I can enumerate only a few: King, Prince, Duke, Lord, Pope, Bishop, Prior, Parsons, Priest, Monk, Stewart, Constable, Hunter, Falconer, Palmer (a pilgrim), Cook, Smith, Tailor. Originally, most of these names were descriptive, a kind of surname to distinguish individuals. Thus, in old documents, we read of "Colgrin my reeve," Bailiff (whence Bailey) or Steward; "Harding, the Smith;" "Lefstan, the Carpenter;" "Elstan, the Fisherman ;" "Osmund, the Miller."

Signs are now very unusual in connexion with ordinary trades. The public-house keeper and the pawnbroker are almost the only business-men who retain signs. Even the barber's pole has all but vanished. In days of yore signs were very common, and, for the most part, they were symbolical, that is, they-on the ground of some resemblance-set forth the kind of business which each chapman conducted. Signs, as being distinctive, offered a means

of denoting individuals. This fact is exemplified in the following lines, which were printed in 1612 :

First, there is maister Peter at the Bell,

A linnen-draper and a wealthy man ;

I retain the antique spelling :

Then maister Thomas that doth stockings sell;
And George, the grocer, at the Frying-pan;

And maister Timothie, the woollen draper.
And maister Salamon, the leather-scraper
And maister Frankie, ye goldsmith at the Rose;
And maister Phillip with the fiery nose.
And maister Miles, the mercer, at the Harrow;
And maister Nicke, the silkman, at the Plow;
And maister Giles, the salter, at the Sparrow;
And maister Dicke, the vintner, at the Cow;
And Harry Haberdasher at the Horne;
And Oliver, the dyer, at the Thorne ;

And Bernard, barber-surgeon, at the Fiddle;
And Moses, merchant-tailor, at the Needle.

When these verses were written, the correspondence between the sign and the thing signified must have generally vanished, for there is little congruity between a plow and a silkman, a cow and a vintner, or a fiddle and a barber-surgeon; though the needle would serve as well as a goose" as an emblem for a merchant-tailor.

66

What are called Christian names were in England, at a very early period, the sole name borne by individuals. The Christian name is the name given at christening, that is, baptism. The name given at the solemnity was the name of some saint. The saint, whose name was thus taken, was thereby recognised as the patron saint of the individual. Here is the feeling that introduced into our language so many scriptural names. Very natural was it that, in a eligious ceremony, a religious name should be given to the infant received by water into the fostering arms of the church. Accordingly, we have Anthony, Bartholomew, Boniface, Barnard, Cuthbert, Dunstan, Daniel, Godfrey, George, Gerard, Hilary, Leonard, Martin, &c.

The Christian name alone is found in times anterior to the Nor

man conquest. Thus in old legal documents we have, together with the sign of the cross (made originally as a sanction, and afterwards as a substitute, kings, princes, and nobles being then unable to write even their own name), e. g., + Ego Edredus confirmavi, Ego Edmundus corroboravi, I Edmund have thus confirmed (my act).

'These Christian names passed into family names. For instance, Edward gave rise to Mr. Edward; more commonly, Mr. Edwards, that is, Edwardson. The transformation is sometimes attended by the abridgment or the addition of a syllable, so as to give rise to diminutives, as Batty, a diminutive of Bateson. Thus, we say, little John, or Johnny. From little John comes the name Mr. Littlejohn. Ot and Kin, perhaps also Cock (or Cox), are syllables which have a diminutive force. Here follow instances of family names derived from Christian names :

WILLIAM BELWARD, Lord of Malpas, in Cheshire, had two sons.

There lies before me an ancient Talliage Roll, a curious document, as exemplifying the origin and nature of local surnames. It is a list of the persons who in 1336 were in the town of Leicester* taxed one-tenth of their assessed substance. A few illustrative specimens may be here produced of surnames from

The process of abbreviation is illustrated in the same names in different stages of formation. Thus we find Nicholas the frereman and William Frereman (the friar's man or servant). Hence it is

Thompson's History of Leicester, p. 451.

easy to see how " Alicia the mercer and John her son would be shortened into Alicia Mercer and Johnson. Roger Pestell (or Pestle) is clearly Roger Atte (at the sign of the) Pestle (and Mortar); Walter Miles is Walter the soldier. John o'the Waynhouse, is John of the weighbridge, abridged into John Weighbridge. The spelling is by no means correct, and in bad spelling both in spoken and written language is another source of proper names. "Stephen Bellzeter"--what is the derivation? Write Bellzeter correctly, and you have Stephen the bell-setter, or the bell-hanger, which when curtailed would be Stephen Bellsetter. So the "Hawis Boumaker" of the list is obviously Alice Bowmaker. Our ancestors indulged themselves in variety of spelling. Accordingly we have Alicia the fysshere;" "Adam Ffyssh" and "William the Fisher;" also "Geofrey Fish." "Robert the clerk," that is Robert the clergyman, came to be Robert Clerk. So "Richard Norman "" was originally Richard the Norman. As in the above list one man is called a Cat, and another a Stoat, so in the roll we have a Bird, a Leveret, a Martin, and even a Boot. Some of the trades are singular. Of course we have cooks, coopers, sawers (sawyers) saddlers, porters, smiths, tailors; but what are we to make of "Michael the Walker," "Power the Walker," "John the Bouwer," "Simon the Curreour," ""Simon the Quarreour," "Geoffrey the Lorimer," "John Kyng Sherman," "Henry the peyntour." Some of these difficulties are removed by an orthographical resource. Thus do we obtain Henry the painter; Simon the quarrier (or quarryman); also Simon the currier, and John the bower (bowmaker); By referring to the German we convert "William the Walker from a personage distinguished for celerity of foot into plain Wiliam the fuller, and "Geoffrey the Lorimer is by the aid of the French made to assume his proper shape as Geoffrey the whitesmith.

Leicester in the fourteenth century wears a very material aspect. Its inhabitants seem to have been pretty much employed in providing for the body. Among them there was not a single artist or a single schoolmaster, in our sense of the term. There were two

chaplains and two clerks, whose position cannot have been very enviable, unless it depended on something better than this world's goods; for the four parsons among them possessed not so much property as "Master John the Cook," with one exception the only personage of consequence enough to receive the worshipful title of master. The cooks appear indeed to have been in great request, for while there were in the town three drapers, four tailors, two taverners (tavern keepers) two barbers, and eight mercers, there were not fewer than seven public cooks. And in possessions the cooks could venture a comparison even with the gentry; among tradesmen they were clearly the most respectable, for while the average amount of property held by the mercers was eighteen shillings, and the average of the clergyman was twelve shillings, the cooks possessed on an average each thirty-three shillings.

"Nick names" may serve to throw light on the formation of names generally. Nick (from the German necken, to banter, to