Jax. 17. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



61 



in tlie Reports of Commissioners of Inquiry into Charities, 

 and in Carlisle's Endowed Charities ,- but no account 

 of his family has been given by his namesake, William 

 Burton, in his History of Leicestershire, or by Nichols 

 in his History. "[ 



Hoo. — What is the meaning of this woi-d ? In 

 Bedfordshire there are two houses and estates 

 called by this name, Luton Hoo and Pertenhall 

 Hoo ; and in Norfollc, Suffolk, and Kent are 

 villages so called. Arun. 



[Luton Hoo, in Bedfordshire, was the manor of the 

 family of Hoo, or De Hoo, who are said by Sir Henry 

 Chauncy to have been settled there before the Norman 

 Conquest. Hasted, in his Kent, says, " Hoo comes 

 from the Saxon hou, a hill." Ihre derives the word 

 from hoeg, high. Spelman, vo. Hoga, observes that ho, 

 hoiv, signifies mons, collis. Jamieson says " How is 

 certainly no other than Isl. haug, Suio- Gothic hoeg, 

 the name given to sepulchral mounds." See also 

 Lemon's English Etymology, s. v. Hough, how.^ 



MODERN NAMES OF PLACES. 

 (Vol. iv., p. 470.) 



Your correspondent L. H. J. T. has noticed the 

 corruption of Greek topographical names, arising 

 from the use of the definite article, which the ear 

 of a traveller not skilled in the language supposes 

 to be a part of the name, and so makes Stutines 

 or Satines from Athens, Stives from Thebes, &c. 



It may be interesting to some readei's of " Notes 

 AND Queries " to know that exactly the same 

 thing has happened in Ireland, and that the recog- 

 nised Anglicised forms of several proper names, 

 now stereotyped, arc a combination of the definite 

 article an^ of the Gaelic or Irish language, with 

 the name of the place. 



For instance, Nenagh in the co. Tipperary is 

 properly Aonach [pron, ecnagh'\, but generally 

 spoken of by the people with the definite article 

 an Aonach, the Aonach, i.e. fair, place of a fair or 

 assembly ; and hence by the English made Nenagh. 



So also the river Ainge [pron. nearly as Annyl 

 is usually called an Ainge, the Ainge ; and there- 

 fore is now Nanny, the Nanny, or Nanny water, in 

 the CO. Meath. 



In like manner, the island Aondruim in Loch 

 Cuan, on which stood once a celebrated monastery, 

 is in Irish always called an Aondruim, the Aon- 

 druim, and is now Nandrum or Nantrim Island. 



The town o? Newry is another instance. It has 

 its name from an ancient yew tree [in Irish lub- 

 hair, pron. nearly as the word your^ which stood 

 near it, and was said to have been planted by 

 St. Patrick. Hence the town is always called 

 fm luhhair, the yew tree ; which, by incorporating 

 the article, has been Anglicised Neivry. 



The river Nore in Ossory, is properly an Eoir, 

 the Eoir [pron. Orel. 



So also the Navan fort near Armagh, is an 

 Eamhain, the Eamhain [pron. nearly as Avan'\. 



I might fill a page witli otlier instances, but I 

 shall only mention another similar corruption in 

 proper names, where after dropping the Mac the 

 c is retained, in cases where the patronymic begins 

 with a vowel. Thus the descendants of the Danish 

 family of Ottar became Mac Ottar, and are now 

 Cotter. So Mac Etigan became Gattigan ; Mac 

 Eeoghegan, Geoghegan ; the c being further trans- 

 muted into g. And hundreds of similar instances 

 could be given. 



It may also be observed that the English very 

 generally caught the genitive, or oblique case, of 

 the Irish proper names, and from it formed the 

 name which is now in use amongst the English 

 speaking population. Thus they heard the Irish 

 speak of the isles Araun, i.e. the isles of Aruy 

 for Araun is the genitive ; and hence they are now 

 the Aran Isles. So also the ford Trim or Druim, 

 in Irish Ath-Druim (the ford of the long low hill, 

 vadum Dorsi), where Druim [pron. nearly Trim\ 

 is the genitive of Dram or Drum, a long low hill, 

 a back. 



The names given to Ireland by medieval writers, 

 after the ancient name of Scotia had been trans- 

 ferred to Alban (which, by the way, is itself a 

 genitive, from Alba), afford instances of the same 

 thing. 



One of the native names of Ireland is Eri, or 

 Eire, genitive Erinn, From this the Greeks and 

 Romans formed the name lerne, from the old word 

 /, an island — I-Erinn, the island of Eri, And so 

 we now have also the <;enitive Erin, as a poetical 

 name of the island.; The Danes, however, retained 

 the absolute form, and called it Eri-landt, Ireland. 



So also from the old word Ibh, or Hibh, a tribe, 

 or country, we have Hibh-Erinn, the tribe, or 

 people of Eri, and hence evidently Hibernia and 

 Ivernia. T. D. 



PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. — PAROCHIAL LIBKART 

 AT MAIDSTONE. 



(Vol. iv., p. 92.) 



As some of your readers may be aware, there is 

 an old and somewhat valuable library in the vestry 

 of All Saints Church, Maidstone, which was partly 

 purchased by the parishioners of the executors of 

 Dr. Bray (who bequeathed his books to any parish 

 which would advance fifty pounds as a consider- 

 ation for the value of them), and was afterwards 

 increased by the munificence of several benefactors. 



Up to the year 1810, when the present cata- 

 logue was made, it would appear that but little, or 

 at any rate very Insufficient, care was taken of 

 these books ; for Mr. Finch, who re-arran<ied the 

 library and wrote the catalogue, carefully cor- 

 recting the inaccuracies in the former one, de- 



