12 ALVERARDUS THE SACRISTAN, AND HIS ERROR. 



with the laws of change which govern vocal souiuls will 

 have much doubt that the three words are identical. It 

 will be remembered that the latin names for the Beaver 

 were Castor and Fiber. 



The forms of spelling assumed by this word "Beverley" 

 in different periods are interesting and instructive. The 

 British form "Pedwarllech" begins with P; but P and B 

 are equivalent labials. Britain in Celtic was, according 

 to Camden, "Prydhain." The letters the Saxon used are 

 well represented by Bewer-lega or Bewerlaga, which have 

 been variously modernized by Lingard, Camden and others 

 as Beoferlic, Bevrolac, Beverlaga, Baverlie. Athelstan in 

 conferring the charter, used Beverlike ; William the Con- 

 queror, in a proclamation extending his royal protection 

 to the town, used Beuerlie and later the Domesday Book 

 used Bevreli and Bevereli, while the Tower of London 

 Kecords contain chronicles of various dates, some from the 

 old Beverley Minster itself, in which occur Beverlay, Anno 

 1387, Beverlaye, Baverlay, Bewerley, Bevlay, Beveley 

 and others. It should also be noted that the ending "ley" 

 is by no means rare in Yorkshire — witness Otley, Keigh- 

 ley , Barnesley, Bingley, Ripley, Briarley, Branley and the 

 rest — and that by no possibility could so many towns in that 

 section have derived their names from lakes or rivers ; and 

 further, that the spelling "ley," now uniform in England, 

 has not always been so, but the name may be found, not 

 many years back, spelled "Beverly" as it is now in New 

 England. It is therefore i)robable that the Yorkshire Bev- 

 erle}' got its name from no Beaver lake or dam, and that the 

 ^Hacxis sive locus castorum" was a conceit of Alverardus the 

 ancient sacristan of Beverley Minster who, finding the ^vord 

 "Beverlik" in his medieval records, and being hard pressed 

 for a Latin s3aionym, Avhen he, as he tells us, ''de AngJico 

 in Laiiimm transhdit" in an unguarded moment gave his 

 holy sanction to this ill-grounded guess. As well might 



