70 THE OWNERS OF SHALLCROSS. 



Shalcrowe, Shercross, Shedcrosse, Showcross ; eighteenth century, 

 Shaircross, Shellcross, Sholcross, Shallcrop, Shallcraft, Shall- 

 crass ; and in the nineteenth century, Shellcross, Sarlcrosse, 

 Chalcross, Shaucross, Shullcross. Among many suggestions on 

 the difficult etymology we have now only space to note that 

 this patronymic is of Scandinavian derivation — there are traces 

 of Danish settlements between 855 and 1016 in the Peak; 

 and that the Anglo-Saxon scacal, or sccccal, or shaft, or shackle, 

 may explain the first half of the name, contracting to Shall and 

 Shaw. Before Mr. Andrew's find,* Professor Skeat had thought 

 (in 1896) the spellings scakel, schakil, and schakel, more likely to 

 be right. He adds : " The contraction from Shackle to Shall is 

 violent, but not without precedent : and I do not see what else 

 it is. The old spellings are too numerous and consistent to 

 be explained away. It is clear, in any case, that the ' Shaw ' in 

 Shawcross is a totally different word from the ' shaw ' in 

 Bradshaw. The latter is merely the common shaw, a wood, 

 A. S. sceaga ; which never could have been Shall at any time." 

 As to the terminal " cross," Norse kross and cros, the last form 

 being first used in that part of England which was occupied by 

 the Danes, it may be added that Shallcross is near the junction 

 of four ancient roads, spots frequently sanctified in early Chris- 

 tian days by the erection of wayside crosses. On the whole 

 name I express cordial concurrence with Mr. Andrew's article, 

 upon his interesting discovery of the original shaft of The 

 Shallcross, in the last Journal, pp. 201-4. We cannot spare 

 the regret that neither the evident beauty of its workmanship, 

 nor its utility as a landmark, nor its pre-Gothic antiquity, nor 

 its connection with an ancient and worthy family, spared this 

 relic of early Christianity, the sign of the victory that over- 

 cometh the world {in hoc signo vinces), from the merciless havoc 

 of the time. 



Sachalcros, as it is written under the first orthography, between 

 1103-8, was within the great Peak possessions of William 

 Peverel, I. To the Clugniac priory of Lenton, founded by him 



*Vol. xxvii., page 201, of this Journal. 



