100 MR. CARR ON COMPOSITE NAMES OF PLACES, 



among the moorlands. Those on the higher moors are among the 

 wildest spots in the country, and their designations show them to 

 have been the last resort and refuge of the wolf and wild cat, as 

 they still are of the fox, the raven, and the falcon. We find 

 accordingly Wolfscleugh, Catcleugh, Hartlawcleugh, Ravenscleugh, 

 Corbiecleugh. In the peak of Derbyshire the word assumes the 

 form of clough, and is of common occurrence. 



Haugh : Anglo-Saxon haga, agellus, py^cedium; Old-Norse hagi, 

 pascua, pascuus. In our northern English this well-known word 

 is significant of the alluvial grass lands which skirt so many of 

 our streams, and are often among the richest pastures of the 

 country. It occurs in various composite names, as Fairhaugh, 

 Humshaugh, Hindhaugh, &c., and is highly characteristic of the 

 north country, having but little extension southwards. 



Dale : Anglo-Saxon dal, is now characteristic of our northern 

 nomenclature, though in Chaucer's time it was applied to certain 

 river vales in the south of England. Like other names of places, 

 these with this termination have often become surnames of persons, 

 whose ancestors had proceeded from the places so denominated. 

 Thus John of Weardale became John Weardale or Weardel, and 

 and so Teasdale, Tyndal, and some others. It would be rash, 

 however, to infer that Wardle is always to be deduced from 

 Weardale, since it may have come from a very different origin, 

 namely Ward-hill. 



Gill : from the Old-Norse gil, with the same signification as our 

 familiar word. It is of most frequent occurrence in names of 

 places situated in portions of the country which supply many 

 traces of a large infusion of Norse or Danish Elements into the 

 popular idiom. Thus Thorsgill is not more evidently a name 

 imposed by Danes than Baldersgarth and others of like charac- 

 ter. Names composed with gill are prevalent in the South 

 Western part of Northumberland, and in Cumberland, Westmore- 

 land, Durham, and the North Riding. 



Comb, or Coum ; Anglo-Saxon comb, but this probably from 

 the British or Welsh word cum. This latter is rendered by Pugh 

 in his learned dictionary of the Welsh, as "A deep valley where 

 the sides come together in a concave form." Bosworth in his 



