52 



plauation of the particular term is given, its application is 

 perhaps ten or twelve times as extensive as the learner sup- 

 posed. Tims, there may be half a dozen places which are 

 called simply Newport, the distinction between them being the 

 name of the county in which each is situated, or the river 

 which flows past it, or the name of its founder. In the 

 parishes, townships, and villages of England, there are 16 

 simple words which occur 445 times, or at an average of 28 

 times each. 



These arc, Easton 13, Weston 32, Norton 36, Sutton 39, 

 Middleton 20, Astoii 24, Barton 21, Bucklaud 20, Burton 

 29, Newton 45, Preston 23, Stoke 60, Thorpe 23, Upton 25, 

 Woolton 20, Winterborne 20.-^ 



A similar remark applies to terminations, several of which 

 occur hundreds of times. From a minute examination of a 

 portion of an English Gazetteer, a calculation was made re- 

 specting the frequency with which some of the commonest 

 terminations occur. From this it appears that there are 24 

 which occur at an average of about 250 times each. They are 

 the following : — 



Bridge 48, Burn 48, Bury 420, By 273, Caster 48, Dale 48, 

 Field 156, Fleet 48, Ford 324, Hall 60, Ham 672, Hill 60, 

 Hurst 60, Kirk 48, Leigh 612, Minster 48, Stoke 48, Stead 

 68, Thorpe 180, Ton 2,784, Well 84, Wick 204, Worth 192. 



The distribution of languages over the face of the earth, 

 affords us a guide at once, to the countries in which similarity 

 of names may be expected. Without entering upon the gen- 

 eral question of " 2,000 languages and 5,000 dialects," it is 

 sufficient to say that there are ten or twelve languages of the 

 Old Continent, the influence of which is felt in every part of 

 the world. The people who speak them or who have spoken 

 them, have left permanent records of themselves at almost 

 every point : so that it is almost as easy to trace their pro- 

 gress as to follow in the footsteps of an intelligent traveller. 



* Population Returns for 1841. 



