T^O MR. CARR ON COMPOSITE NAMES OF PLACES, 



The signification in all these languages is simply, cot or cottage. 

 Such is the simple and venerable old word, which in these days 

 of superfine cloth and supereminent attainments we write coat, in 

 "Cullercoats,^'' " Carry coats^'' " Coldcoatsr It occurs in almost every 

 county of England, from Northumberland to Hampshire. In the 

 description of Hertfordshire and of Middlesex, in Domesday Book, 

 there are many instances, such as Heathcote, Kingscote; in Buck- 

 inghamshire, Ashcote, or Ascot, &c. The signification of Culler- 

 cotes is sufficiently evident, culfra being the ordinary Anglo-Saxon 

 expression for a pigeon, columba; so that Culfracote, in early 

 English Culvercote, or, rapidly uttered, CuUercote, was doubtless 

 a dovecote, which afforded no unwelcome tribute to the kitchen 

 of Tyupmouth Priory. 



Like the endings ton and ham, it is met with in connection 

 with patronymics or ancient family names, as Eihelingcote, in 

 Yorkshire, and Siwardingescotes, in Derbyshire, from Domesday 

 Booh. J/e6?Zico;e, also, is evidently a name of similar origin. And 

 I have no doubt that Carricotes was a settlement of the Cerrings 

 or Carrings, like Carrington and Charrington ; indeed I am bound 

 to maintain it stoutly, not only for etymological reasons, but 

 because my name would class me with their kindred. 



Stall: A.S. steall, (es, masc.) a stall, stable, homestead. In 

 composition it forms Tunstall, Whittonstall, Dunstallj the latter 

 being another form of the name of Dunston, in the parish of 

 Whickham, prevalent among the oldest inhabitants of the neigh- 

 bourhood. Such double forms of nomenclature are of no rare 

 occurrence in early documents, and are quite in the genius of 

 popular speech. Stell, in the sense of a walled enclosure or fold, 

 to afford shelter to moorland sheep during a snow-storm, is another 

 form of the same word. But the name of Stelling, in Tyneside, 

 though at first sight referable to this source, is, I have little doubt, 

 an Anglo-Saxon family-name, indicating a settlement of the Steal- 

 lings, like Stallington, in Staffordshire, and Stallingborough, in 

 Lincolnshire. It will be seen, on reference to Mr. Kemble's 

 inestimable work, ''The Saxons in England,'' how continually the 

 family-name by itself, and without any adjunct whatever, was used 

 to denote the spots where settlers took up their abode. 



