May 14. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



489 



the time of the Conquest, but they were not in 

 general use till long after that. Many branches 

 of families used to substitute the names of their 

 estate or residence for their patronymic, which 

 often makes the tracing of genealogies a difBcult 

 matter. It was not till the middle of the four- 

 teenth century that surnames began to descend 

 from father to son ; and a reference to any old 

 document of the time will show how arbitrarily 

 such names were assumed. 



A surname, in short, may be called a matter of 

 convenience ; a Christian name, a matter of neces- 

 sity. The giving two Christian names at baptism 

 did not come generally into use till, owing to the 

 multiplication of the patronymic, a single Christian 

 name became insufficient to identify the individual. 

 Consequently an instance of a double Christian 

 name, previous to the commencement of the 

 eighteenth century, is a rarity. The fifth and 

 sixth earls of Northumberland bore the names of 

 Henry-Algernon Percy. The latter died in 1537. 



As to the period at which Christian names were 

 assumed as surnames, your correspondent Ericas 

 is referred to Lower's English Surnames. 



H. C. K. 



Rectory, Hereford. 



Your correspondent Erica will not, I think, find 

 an instance in this country of a person having more 

 than one Christian name before the last century. 

 Charles James Fox and William Wyndhara Gren- 

 ville are the two earliest instances I can find. It 

 is trivial but curious to observe, that in the lists 

 given at the beginning of the Oxford Calendar of 

 the heads of colleges and halls from their several 

 foundations, the first who appears with two 

 Christian names is the venerable president of 

 Magdalene College. Antony Ashley Cooper is 

 only a seeming exception ; his surname was Ash- 

 ley-Cooper, as is proved by his contributing the 

 letter a to the word cabal, the nickname of the 

 ministry of which he formed a part. We find the 

 custom common enough in Germany at the time 

 of the Reformation, and still earlier in Italy. I 

 apprehend that its origin is really in the tria 

 nomina of Roman freemen. It was introduced 

 into this country through our royal family, but I 

 am not aware of any prince who had the benefit 

 of it before Charles James. 



I apprehend the passage which Erica quotes 

 from Lord Coke has not the significance which 

 he attributes to it. A man can have but one 

 Christian or baptismal name, of however many 

 single names or words that baptismal name may 

 be composed. I have spoken in this letter of two 

 Christian names, in order to be more intelligible 

 at the expense of correctness. J. J. H. 



Temple. 



LamecKs War-song (Vol. vii., p. 432.). — There 

 have been many speculations about the origin and 



meaning of these lines. I agree with Ewald in 

 Die PoetiscJien Bilcher des Alien Bundes, vol. i., 

 who calls it a "sword-song;" and I imagine it 

 might have been preserved by tradition among the 

 Canaanitish nations, and so quoted by Moses as 

 familiar to the Israelites. I should translate it — 



" Adah and Zillah, hear ye my voice ! 

 Wives of Lemek, heed ye my saying ! 

 For man do I slay, for my wound ; 

 And child, for my bruise. 

 For seven-fold is Cain avenged, 

 And Lemek seventy-fold and seven." 



Bishop Hall, in his Explication of Hard TextSy 

 paraphrases it thus : 



" And Lamech said to his wives, * Adah and Zillah, 

 vf hat tell you me of any dangers and fears ? Hear my 

 voice, oh ye faint-hearted wives of Lamech, and hearken 

 unto my speech ; I pass not of the strength of my ad- 

 versary : for I know my own valour and power to re- 

 venge ; if any man give me but a wound or a stroke, 

 though he be never so young and lusty, I can and will 

 kill him dead.' " 



Your correspondent H. Walter says that " every 

 branch of Cain's family was destroyed by the 

 Deluge." Where is the authority to be found for 

 the tradition, quoted in an Introduction to the 

 Books of Moses, by James Morison, p. 26., that 

 Naameh, the daughter of Lamech the Cainite and 

 Zillah, married Ham, the son of Noah, and thus 

 survived the Flood ? W. Eraser. 



Tor-Mohun. 



Traitor's Ford (Vol. vii., p. 382.). — Nothing 

 is known of any legend in connexion with the 

 stirring events of the battle of Edgehill, or its 

 times, and the origin of the name is a matter of 

 speculation. One Trait had lands near this stream, 

 and it is thought by some that, from this circum- 

 stance, it is properly Trait's Ford, corrupted into 

 Traitor's Ford, — a locality well known to sports- 

 men as a favourite meet of the Warwickshire 

 hounds. A. B. R. 



Banbury. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



We understand the Committee appointed by the 

 Society of Antiquaries to consider the best mode of 

 restoring the Society to its former efficient state, have 

 agreed upon their Report, and also to the revised laws 

 to be recommended to the Fellows for adoption. Of 

 the nature of alterations suggested, we know nothing ; 

 for while, on the one hand, it is stated that the Report 

 recommends changes of a most sweeping character, on 

 the other it is rumoured that the changes to be pro- 

 posed are neither many nor important. The truth in 

 this, as in most cases, no doubt lies midway between 



