156 MR. CARE ON COMPOSITE NAMES OF PLACES, 



Saxon kinships, at tlie period when tbej first settled down as 

 industrious cultivators of the soil, from which they had driven its 

 British possessors. Such are the names of Immingham, Willing- 

 ham, Frodingham, in Lincolnshire j in Anglo-Saxon Immingaham, 

 Willingaham, Frodingaham ; the additional syllable, consisting of 

 the vowel a, being the sign of the genitive case plural. Now of 

 this vowel there is no trace in the names of towns with this ter- 

 mination over the greater of the kingdom, which are pronounced 

 with the g hard, as Nottingham. But in the Northumbrian 

 dialect and pronunciation, the a of the genitive plural, having 

 slid into the sound of the narrower vowel e, has coalesced with 

 the preceding g, and softened its power; so that we pronounce 

 Ovingeham, W/iittingeham, with the ge soft ; and assuredly so we 

 ought to write, in conformity at once with the example of early 

 documents, and with existing usage in speaking. In like manner 

 should be written Eglingehayn, Edlingeha7ii,Ellingeham,Eltringe- 

 ham, Bellingeham. The race of the Bellings must have become 

 numerous, from the extensive diffusion of their appellation in its 

 abridged form, as a surname in our northern county. 



In connection with the sober and inductive study of etymology 

 and orthography, the pages of the Fipe Roll, of Boldon Booh, and 

 of other muniments (whether national or appertaining to the 

 northern counties only,) are most instructive. Their early forms 

 of spelling, when not manifestly capricious, are entitled to our 

 best attention : they are often links connecting the present aspect 

 of our language with its earliest and least-alloyed forms ; and, 

 while they are thus historical and rich in old associations, they 

 sometimes come closer to the existing pronunciation, than the 

 inaccurate and ill-considered penmanship that has superseded 

 them for a time. In the above instances we may perceive that 

 the vowel of the old genitive plural has had hold enough upon 

 popular utterance to modify the power of the g in Ovingeham, 

 Whittingeham, when followed by a gentle aspirate ; whereas, 

 when another final syllable is substituted, as in Ovington, Whit" 

 tington, all trace of the vowel is lost. But this is no reason for 

 omitting to insert it in the former. On the contrary, the analogy 

 is incomplete, and the difference real. The vowel e may claim to 



