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    and nwieldlbulkhave the lo No. 43^ J^gvs...

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    GUILLAUME DE GUILEVIX.LE. The Ancient Po...

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    English Surnames. English Surnames, Ami ...

    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 unint eresting as they are to common readers , lie 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 amoag the dry and dusty prosemen—patient grubbers after Saxon and Scandinavian roots , whoni no bright vision evervisits : yet a few names of simple London traders bring to him pictures of life from two thousand years aco ,

    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 be buried in his trusty boat vith his -weapon by his side , or in a barrow made in the shape of a ship keel upwards , or more often buried in the salt seaweed . To Mr . Ferguson the name of Coutts has no vuJgar association witli sovereigns , or banknotes for enormous sums ostentatiously framed and glazed ; Toots no good-natured imbecility ; Whit-Dread no porter-brewing notoriety ; Addlehcad rio

    particular presumption of stupidity ; Alniack no saltatory smack ; Till and Ledger no connexion with ink-splashed and dingy coutnting-houses or sordid money-getting ; Pullulove no fondling foolishness . Hardly could Box and Cox be to him devoid of tlie sublime , or unallied with , the glories of King Alfred and the summer days of Saxon rule . Mr . Ferguson 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 , oc Paul ., or Luke served to distinguish one man from his felknvs , down to the days of Harold in England , wen and women are commonly said to have luid but one name . Mr . Lower , however , accepts this belief with slight doubts . In the grant of land from Thorold , Sheriff of Lincolnshire ., to the Abbey of Croyland , dated 1051 , he fmds some double names ; and Air . 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 , Lulle Hatte , AV ' erlaf Hatte , and otherwise . .. This ,

    document is conclusive iu favour of the assertion that a little before the Conquest additional names , so common afterwards with the Normans , had begun to l ) c taken in England . However this may be , it is certain thai Hatt is the oldest hereditary English name upon record . It corresponds with the old German name ITatto and others , signifying * ' war . * A \ ast number of these old Saxou names , in fact , express in someway violence or strife , a fact significant of the " good old times . " The Anglo-Saxons liked a nainc 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 lYlfM * will nnw crw »!» L- f \ f n / # i »* i vf r » i » l \ T Tii- \ iii « nal « ilf 1 ij " ii * r . K

    the 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 back to the earliest northern invaders of our coasts , whose names Merc always simple and generally expressed sonic idea . ! Mi \ Ferguson is of opinion , and the Post Office Directory corroborates bis 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 couscqucncc is that we have now more of old Saxon , or Teutonic , than of Anglo-Saxon names . In those ancient' seats from which the earlier settlers came the

    same names arc still current : — There ih a people , ( say 3 Mr . Ferguson , ) or rather a remnant of a people , wlio once owned a large portion of the German seaboard—now much "broken up and intermixed , but still in some insulated pliiccs , holding their nationality with littlo chungo— very near relatives of ouvs though few know moro of Ilium than the name . Of all the ancient dialects none has a more close connexion with the Anglo-Saxon than the old Friesic—of ill th « modern dialects perhaps none lins such strong points of reBemblunee . to tho Kn ^ liali as tho new l'Vicsic . On all tho wide continent of Eurojje they Jilone uso tho word ' woman' like ourselves .

    It is , iu fact , from these ' hardy Norsemen' that our most ancient liumcs lmvc couk-. The Norman's beast of old family is u mere dclubiou ; nay , even

    the Anglo-Saxon may be sneered at by plain Brown as an upstart . 2 Mr . Ferguson remarks that : —• Some winch we are not -wont to consider as of much account were names of honour long before the ITorman time . As a general 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 people , wlo still 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 lias been traced to a Saxon -word , signifying the keeper of a fortress ; but was more likely from the common Scandinavian name of ' Hawarfc / meaning a high guardian . The ancient English , names were derived from the mythology , from their hero-worship , from the names of animals , trees , plants , metals , and from terms of war , & c , and seem to have been given in many cases arbitrarily , like signs to houses in illiterate times , or the badges of heraldry ; b \ it many signified some moral quality , some office , or occupation , or some locality . The latter , generally

    supposed to have been a fruitful source of names , is believed by Mr . Ferguson to have beeu comparatively unproductive- —places being as often , named , from men as men from places . For whatever reason , however , these names may have been given , investigation appears to show that there is little in . a . name . The commonplace ' Hiucks is a corruption of Hewgist or Ilingst , signifying a stallion . So ' Hinksey , ' in Berkshire , is supposed to liave been named after that misty hero . Huggins and Muggins are supposed to have been originally Hugghis 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 out to be a name of reverence rather than contempt meaning simply a spirit or ghost . Addlehead is merel y Adelherd , 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 \ vith a diminutive termination ¦ which , had not always a contemptuous

    meaning . Uuromantic Steggals is simply a form of a-word signifying a deer . Even " Ass , " which , at first sound see ins clearly connected with that patient animal so much 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 / 5 says Mr . Ferguson , " the first Browns came over with Hcngist and Horsathe second with Half dene and Hastings . " Nor do the female names among the surnames necessarily indicate illegitimacy at somo bygone period , as lias been supposed—the strong distinction between men nnd women ' s names "beinp comparatively of modern date . The names which flourish in Madame Tussand ' s Chamber of Horrors arc not by any

    means , as a rule , disagreeable m a philological car . Mr . Manning is only a brave and valiant man , Mr . Tawcll , a dove . Turpin , in his first root word , a namesake , like Thurtell , of tho 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 . Out . ram , strong in counsel . " Washington ( Wass ) , keen , hold . Watt , so closel y linked with our iron roads , is tho original of Watling , tho mythical builder of nil tlic Wailing streets . But some are less happy . Mr . 33 ufl ' y has certainly , in no other than an etymological sense , a connexion with a dove . This is what Mr . I ' crguson has to say of another famous

    name . Very famous in early English history wns tho Danish hero lluvclocli , of whom sonic traces are at ill to be found in time locul traditions of Lincolnshire . There is a street in 0 rinisby cnlled llavclok-Btrcot ; nnd a fitone , said to hnvo been brought by the Dimes out of their own country , and known as " llavuloc ' s stone , '' formed a

    landmark between Grimsby and the parish of Wellow . That the Danes would take the trouble of bringing a stone out of their own country is not very probable ; 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 atone -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 Norse documents ; , but I should assume Us Scandinavian form to be Hafleik , from Haf the sea , and leika , Anglo-Saxon , to snort .

    No more curious facts are contained in Mr . Ferguson ' s book than those which 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 nickuam . es are not abbreviations , but 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-fliat" 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 ( he says ) which are to be found nowhere els «; they exhibit the links which , connect old forms and new . An eminent modern scholar , Dr . Donaldson , has 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—th & y are a reflex of abygonfc age—a commentary on the life of our forefathers . Dead and withered they He 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 , tead 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 churl and serf—the first who cauie with Hengist , the last who died-with . Harold . Among them the Vikings—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 bear —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 his theories . Surely Daniel may be a Hebrew and . not a Scandinavian name ; may not Portico lie an Italian name ? 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 Billingsgagat , as Mr . Ferguson suggests F ¦ ¦

    And Nwieldlbulkhave The Lo No. 43^ J^Gvs...

    No . 43 ^ J ^ gvst 14 , 1858 . ] ME LJADEK . 809

    Guillaume De Guilevix.Le. The Ancient Po...

    GUILLAUME DE GUILEVIX . LE . The Ancient Poem of Guillaume de Guileville , entitled * ' La Pelerinage de rifomme , " compared with the "Pilgrim ' s Progress" of John Bungan . Edited from Notes collected by tho late Mr . Nathaniel Hill , of tho Royal Society of Literature . With an Appendix , Portrait of Bunyan , Woodcuts and Facsimiles . U . M . Pickering . A book , full of interest for literary archaeologistsone of those curiosities which show much ingenuity in tracking the steps of a popular writer , ana 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 originals from which he may have borrowed perished long before the introduction of the printing-press , or what a liost of commonplaces a Greek critic would have to wade through to establish ( ho title of Homer himself to tho Iliad or tho Odyssey . We arc not content with Solomon ' s assurance that there is nothing new under tho sun , but wo must make assurance double sure by proving that Sliakspcarc was indebted to hooks ho never could have read for ninny of his finest passages , that Milton was even a greater plagiarist , and that Danlo was no bolter 1 ban lie should be . Who cares , in the abstract , to follow the most ingenious of Uieso tracking critics through the contents of his Shandy

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 14, 1858, page 809, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_14081858/page/17/