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    I^4^ ATrGpT l4,1858.] T J*LF LEADER. 809

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    GUILLAUME DE GUILEVILLE. The Ancient Poe...

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    English Surnames. English Surnames , And...

    Columns , and unwieldly bulk , have nothing repulsive in his eye , for these are associated with , its million of names , and in this million of names , dull and uninteresting as they are to common readers , he finds endless illustrations of his philological studies , and infinite suggestions of the remote past . The world has ever rated , and we suppose ever will rate , students and scholars such as he among the dry and dusty prosemen—patient grubbers after Saxon and Scandinavian roots , ¦ whom no bright vision , ever visits : yet a few names of simple London traders bring to him pictures of life from two thousand years aero .

    when the northern races on the seaboard were fierce pirates or bold sailors , who put forth upon the stormy seas to find a resting-place , and keep it with the sword ; when the old Viking loved the water so , that he would ^ have his grave overlooking- the sea , and he buried in his trusty boat with his weapon by his side , or in a barrow made in the shape of a snip keel upwards , or more often buried in the salt seaweed . To Mr . Ferguson the name of Coutts has no vulgar association -with sovereigns , or banknotes for enormous sums ostentatiously framed and g lazed ; Toots no good-natured imbecility ; Wliitbrcad no porter-brewinsr notoriety : Addle-head no bread no porter-brewing notoriety ; Addlehead no

    particular presumption of stupidity ; Almack no saltatory smack ; Till and Ledger no connexion with iuk-splashed and dingy counting-houses or sordid money-getting ; Tullalovc no fondling foolishness . Hardly could Box and Cox be to hinv devoid of the sublime , or unallied with the glories of King Alfred and the summer days of Saxon rule . Mr . Fex-guson is of opinion that a very large number of our English surnames may be indisputably traced to Teutonic or Scandinavian words . Surnames are generally held not to have been , in use before the Conquest . From the Scriptural times when plain Isaac , or Jacob , or Paul , or Xuke

    served to distinguish one man from his fellows , down to the days of Harold hv England , men and women are commonly said to have hud but one iiame . Mr . Lower , however , accepts this belief with slight doubts . In the grant of land from Thorold , Slierill of Lincolnshire , to the Abbey of Cropland , dated 1051 , he finds some double names ; and Mr . Turner , in his history of the Anglo-Saxons , quotes a document in which members of one family of the yeoman class are distinguished as Tate Hatte , llulle Hatte , Werlaf Hattc , and otherwise . Ibis document is conclusive in favour of the assertion that a

    little before the Conquest additional names , so common afterwards with the Normans , bad begun to be taken in England . However this may be , it is certain that Hatt is the oldest hereditary English name upon record . It corresponds with the old German name Hatto and others , signifying " war . " A . vast number of these old Saxon names , in fact , express in some way violence or strife , a fact significant of the " good old times . "

    The Anglo-Saxons liked a name compounded of two words which had frequently little connexion , showing that the art of naming had by their time entered its second phase , in which the original meaning of the name was lost or overlooked—as men will now speak of a quarterly journal , although tlio word refers to days . The Normans took to the additional complication of more than one name , and their aristocratic descendants now glory in a dozen . To come to the fountain of names we must

    go buck to the earliest northern invaders of our coasts , whose names were always simple and generally expressed some idea . Mr . Ferguson is of opinion , and the Posi OJficc Directory corroborates Ins view , that even in the Anglo-Saxon times the mass of the people did not use the compound names , but kept mainly to their old style , which they have retained to the present day . The consequence is that we have now moro of old Saxon , or Teutonic , than of Anglo-Saxon immes . In those ancient seats from ¦ which the earlier settlers came the same names arc still current : —

    Ihoro is a people , ( snys Mr . Ferguson , ) or ruthor a remnant of n people , who once owned n . large portion of the German seaboard—now much broken up mid intermixed , but atill in sonic iuHulntcd places , holding their nationality -with little ilinnyo—very nc « r relatives of ours thougli few know more of them tluiu the name . Of all the ancient dialects none has a more close connexion with tho Anglo-Saxon thnn the old Fiiusic—of "U _ the modern diitlccts pcrhnps 110110 has « ueh strong points of resemblance to tlio English as tlio new LYicsic un all the wide continent of Europe they alone tiac the Word ' woman' liko ourselves .

    It is , in fuel , from these ' hurily Norsemen' tlutt our most ancient , nmncs have conic . The Norman ' s boast of old family is a mere delusion ; nnv , oven

    the Anglo-Saxon may be sneered at by plain Brown as an upstart . Mr . Ferguson remarks that : — Some which we are not wont to consider as of much account -were names of honour long before the Norman time . As a g-eneral rule , it is not among our noble families that we find our most ancient names . Various causes have contributed to produce this result . The system of compound names which , sprang up , more peculiarly Anglo-Saxon , was , according to my theory , somewhat of a matter of fashion , and did not pervade the mass of the peopk , who atill held mainly to those

    old and simple names which they brought with them . Hence , it is among them that we have probably had preserved through the Anglo-Saxon times those names which recal the common heroes of the Teutonic epos ; and not among-the nobler classes who invented , so to speak , a new system of nomenclature for themselves . Again , many noble families have taken their names from their estates , while the mass of the people had no such temptation to change . Still there are some of our noble families who can show names dating far beyond the Conquest .

    Howard is one of these which has been traced to a Saxon word , signifying tie keeper of a fortress ; but was more likely from the common Scandinavian name of 'Ha wart , ' meaning a high guardian . The ancient English names were derived from the mythology , from their hero-worship , from the names of amnials , trees , plants , metals , and from terms of war , & c , and seem to have been giveii in many cases arbitrarily , like signs to houses in illiterate times , or the badges of heraldry ; but many signified some moral quality , some office , or occupation ,- or some locality . The latter , generally

    supposed to have been a fruitful source of namesj is believed by Mr . Ferguson to have been comparatively unproductive— -places being as often named from men as men from places . Tor whatever reason , however , these names may have been given , investigation appears to show that there is little inaname . The commonplace 'Hincks' is a corruption of Hengist or Hingst , signifying a stalhon . So ' Hinksey , ' in Berkshire , is supposed to have been named after that misty hero . Huggins and Muggins are supposed to have been originally Huggins and Munnins , the two . traditionary ravens of Odin .

    Other comfortable theories are suggested for persons in the predicament of Charles Lamb ' s "Mr , H . " — holders of unfortunate names . Mr . Hog , which is synonymous with the name of the great French poet Hugo , means simply , in its Anglo-Saxon derivative , " prudent , thoughtful . " Bugg turns but to be a name of reverence rather than contempt , meaning simply a spirit or ghost . Addlehead is merel y Adellierd , from which comes the lady ' s name Adelaide . Wiggins , who figured so strongly in the facetious sporting stories of thirty years ago , means simply " warlike , " though with a diminutive termination which had not always a contemptuous meaning . Unromantic Steggals is simply a . form

    of a word signifying a deer . Even " Ass , " which at first sound seems clearl y connected with that patient animal so niucu figuratively patronised by wits and satirists , may be simply from " Assa , " the eagle . Our old plebeian friend Brown is , oddly enough , one of the most respectable fellows among us . " Talk of coming over with the Conqueror , ' says Mr . Ferguson , " the first Browns came over with Hengist and Horsathe second with Halfdene and Hastings . " Nor do the female names among the surnames necessarily indicate illegitimacy at some bygone period , as has been supposed—the strong distinction between men and women ' s names being ; comparatively of modern date . The names which flourish in Madame

    Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors are not by any means , as a rule , disagreeable in a philological ear . Mr . Manning is only a brave and valiant man , Mr . Tawell , a dove . Turpin , in his first root word , a namesake , like Thurtcll , of the god Thor . Pig is merely from Piga , a young girl . Some names have in their signification something like appropriateness with the character of their most celebrated owners . Coutts signifies famous . Otitrani , strong in counsel . Washington ( Wass ) , keen , bold . Watt , so closely linked with our iron roads , is the original of Watiiug , the mythical builder of all the Walling streets . But some are loss happy . Mr . Dully has certainly , in no other than im etymological sense , a connexion with a dove . This is what Mr . Ferguson hns to say of another famous

    name . Very famous in early English history was the Danish hero lliiveloch , of whom some traces are still to bo found in the locnl traditions of Lincolnshire . There is a street in ( j rlmsby called Iluvelok-fltreet ; and a atone , said to have been brought by tlio Daiich out of their own country , an < l known an " Huveloc ' s atone , " formed a

    landmark between Grimsby and the parish of Wellow . That the Danes would take the trouble of cringing a stone out of their own country is not very prohable ; but it is possible . The stone in question may have been a bauta or memorial stone ; and some Northman , from a motive of superstition or of pious friendship , might wish to consecrate the shores of his new home with the memorial of a revered ancestor . But the stone was called " Havelok ' s stone" and it might be more probably a memorial of Havelok himself . . . Havelok was not a common Danish , as it is not a common English , name . I have not met -with it in old 2 Torse documents ; but I should assume its Scandinavian form to be Hafleik , from Haf

    , the sea , and leika , Anglo-Saxon , to sport . No more curious facts are contained in Mr . Ferguson ' s book than those winch relate to our nicknames . Peg has not much resemblance to Margaret , nor Patty to Elizabeth , nor Polly to Mary . The reason is simple . In most cases our nicknames are not abbreviations , bat totally distinct names with different meanings . How Peggy came to belong exclusively to Margaret and Patty to Elizabeth does not appear . As in the case of the erudite witness , whose true name being Jones informed the judge that he was commonly called " old Skin-a-flint" for shortness , the association of brevity and nicknames

    appears to be an error . Mr . Ferguson deems the study of names of high importance : — - They contain words ( be says } which are to be found nowhere else ; they exhibit the links -which connect old forms and new . N Ant eminent modern scholar , Dr . I > onaldson , haa remarked that , " though generally very much corrupted in authority and pronunciation , those names often preserve forms of words which have been lost in the vernacular language of the country , and so constitute a sort of living glossary . " Nor is their value less as a record of past modes of thought . There is not one of them but had a meaning once—they are a reflex of a bygone age—a commentary on the life of our forefathers . Dead and withered they lie here [ in the Directory ] page after page and column after column , like the corpses in a vast necropolis . At first you can .

    only here and there , by the likeness to the living , read the features of -the newly dead ; but beyond , all is dark Look again—look steadily—look till the blinding outer light has died from your eyes—and you will see further in . Here are our Saxon fathers—heathen and Christian , king and priest , and cliurl and serf—the first who came with Hengist , the last who died with Harold . Among them the bikings—terrible strangers—now so mixed you can scarcely pick them out . By-and-by you can distinguish families and groups—you can tell the women and the children . There were some you thought at first were women , but they-were men . Look again ; there is a darker corner still . Here lie old Frankish kingsheroes of Teutonic myths—Goths that overthrew the empire . These are our ancestors whose names we fcear —the great and the little among us . Come out now , and talk more humbly of your Norman blood .

    Mr . Ferguson , as his previous writings show , is an enthusiast for the Northmen . Perhaps this may occasionally give a slight colouring to Ins theories . Surely Daniel may be a Hebrew and not a Scandinavian name ; way not Portico be ah . Italian name P And was not Billingsgate , that famous well of English defiled , most likel y simply Billings' gate or the ( water ) gate of one Billings , like Dowgate and Irongate , and not liillingsgagat , as Mr . Ferguson suggests ?

    I^4^ Atrgpt L4,1858.] T J*Lf Leader. 809

    I ^ 4 ^ ATrGpT l 4 , 1858 . ] T J * LF LEADER . 809

    Guillaume De Guileville. The Ancient Poe...

    GUILLAUME DE GUILEVILLE . The Ancient Poem of Cuillaume de Guihville , entitled " Ls Pdlerinage de I'Hotnme" compared with the "Pilgrim ' s . Progress" of John Biinyan . Edited from Notes collected by the late Mr . Nathaniel Hill , of the Royal Society of Literature . \ Vith an Appendix , Portrait of Bunyan , Woodcuts and Facsimiles . 13 . M . Pickering . A book , full of interest for literary archaeologistsone of those cuviosities which show much ingenuity in tracking the steps of a popular writer , and bringing to light the original weeds which , transplanted into the richer soil of his genius , have blossomed into rare and beautiful flowers . It is fortunate for Homer ' s reputation that he lived so long ago . that

    all the ori g inals from which he may have borrowed perished long before the introduction of the printing-press , or what a host of commonplaces a Greek critic would have to wade through to establish tlio title of Homer himself to the Iliad or the OJvssuy . Wo arc not content with Solomon ' s assurance that there is nothing new under the sun , but wo must make assuranco double sure by proving that Sluikspcaic vns indebted to books he never could have read for many of his finest passages , that Milton -was even n greater plagiarist , and that Dante was no better than ho should lx > . Who cures , m the abstract , to follow Mic most ingenious of these tracking critics Uiiougli the contents of hia Mainly

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1858, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14081858/page/17/