59 



Names are sometimes grouped in sets, and mutually related 

 to one common centre or head. Thus, the early population of 

 a country settle near the bank of a river ; and the name of 

 their town is identical with the name of the river^ or at least 

 combines the latter in its own. Other people establish them- 

 selves nearer the sea, but being still upon the river, the name 

 of their village ends in mouth. At the lowest point where it 

 can be passed without artificial aid, there is a collection of 

 houses the name of which ends mford. It is sometimes deep, 

 however, in conseqi^ence of rains and floods, so that a perma- 

 nent means of passage is necessary. The houses which 

 accumulate at its extremities, have for their name that of the 

 river with the termination bridge ; and lower down where it 

 is only possible to cross in a boat, are two villages distin- 

 guished by their size or the points of the compass, each of 

 which adds to the name of the river the word ferry. Thus, 

 any important river may have all or several of five or six 

 towns upon its banks; founded at different periods and of 

 very different degrees of importance, but all embodying its 

 name. In some of the counties of England, where there are 

 several rivers, there are from twenty to thirty such towns. 



Suppose, for illustration, that the river is called Ab (an 

 Indian name for water), and that the settlements are named 

 by Englishmen. We shall then have hh-ton Upper, Kb-tan 

 Lower, Ah-moutk, Kh-ford, kh-bridge, Kh-ferry Little, and 

 kh'ferry Great. 



It often happens that the circumstances which gave name 

 to a town become altered, and thus that the name seems to be 

 absurd. The village called little by way of contrast, may out- 

 grow the great one ; the bog, wood, cross, stone, cairn, wall, 

 or enclosure, may disappear ; the inn whose sign board gave 

 name to the village, may be pulled down ; the family of the 

 squire who once owned the territory may become extinct ; the 

 white church may become blackened by age or may he re- 

 placed by a red one ; the town which gave name to the parish. 



