Harrow before the Conquest. 53 



authority on etymology, Mr. Noel Humphreys (! !) the derivation of 

 Harrow was discussed. The lecturer himself gave the simple deri- 

 vation Arrow, so that the H was added by Cockneyism (! ! !)" 

 Such a derivation as this needs no comment, although we must 

 confess that we should not have expected such a remarkable dis- 

 covery even from a writer like Mr. Noel Humphreys. At the same 

 time, since there has been a controversy on the matter, we thought 

 it as well to go into the subject more fully, and for the same reason 

 we venture upon the less excusable step of trying to hazard a con- 

 jecture as to how llerga itself was derived. Now, in the first 

 place, it must be remembered that we have no authority for there 

 having been any Roman or British town here ; and in the second 

 place, the word Herga apjiears from its assimilation to other words 

 in that language, to be of Anglo-Saxon origin. The first hypo- 

 thesis then that we must consider is as to whether it could have 

 been derived from the name of an individual. This seems impro- 

 bable, since in that case it would have in all probability had some 

 suffix, such as Ham attached to it, as we find in Hergeardesham, 

 Hereward's town (Harrietsham), &c., &c. But there are two deri- 

 vations which have been suggested from Saxon words. 



First, from Hearge, Herge, Herige — a church. Now, had their 

 been any traces of British or Roman habitation here, this derivation 

 would not have been altogether unlikely, but unluckily for its 

 claims, we have no such traces, and are we to suppose that a 

 church would have been built here by the Saxons before a town 

 had sprung up to require it, and had already acquired a name ? or 

 have we any reason for supposing that there was a church here 

 before Archbishop Lanfranc built the present one } This sugges- 

 tion then we dismiss as untenable. 



The other one that has been suggested is from Herge, Herige — 

 a host, which is founded simply on the similarity of the name, and 

 is scarcely less than puerile. 



For our own part, we are inclined to think if any derivation is 

 to be assigned to Herga, that this name was more probably 

 founded on the adjective Heag high, which has another form 

 HEAR, and thus suggests an intermediate form Hearg, which, if it 

 existed, would be at once the simplest and the most explicable of 

 derivations which at best are but visionary. 



And now let us turn to the first mention of this Herga or Har- 

 row in Saxon manuscripts, from which we gather that Harrow 

 belonged to the See of Canterbury at a very early date. The first 

 manuscript that I have been enabled to see in which the name 

 appears is in a deed executed A.D. 825, of which I give the sub- 

 stance. 



In the year 825, a council was held under the presidency of 



