PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 137 



By this agreement, which was renewed half a century 

 later, the Danish district was divided from the English 

 Kingdom by a line passing along the Thames, the Lea, 

 and the Ouse, and then following the course of Watling 

 Street to Chester. It is commonly believed that south 

 of this line Danish names do not exist. It is true that 

 tried by the most important of the characteristic Danish 

 test-words, the suffix " by," the place-names fail to reveal 

 a Danish origin. But take another useful test-word, 

 " thorpe," " throp," or " trop," a Danish suffix which 

 means a village, and we find a number of Danish settle- 

 ments south of the line indicated, and several in and con- 

 tiguous to the Coin Valley. Adjoining the town of 

 Lechlade is Bouthrop (or Eastleach Martin), and follow- 

 ing up the valley of the Coin we have Southrop, Hatherop, 

 Williamstrip (the suffix " trip " probably a corruption of 

 "trop") and Cockrup, and adjoining the Foss Way at 

 Foss Bridge is Pindrup. Dr Taylor holds that from the 

 Danish word " baec," a brook, we have several place- 

 names,* so that possibly Bibury, which in the Domesday 

 Book is called " Bechberie," may also be a name of 

 Danish origin. Coin St. Dennis is a name said to be 

 derived from the fact that in Norman times its church 

 belonged to the Abbey of St. Deny's, near Paris. But it 

 is noteworthy that the natives of the village and of the 

 neighbourhood invariably call it Coin Deans, and the 

 rector of the parish (Rev Lewis B. Bubb), to whom I am 

 indebted for some interesting information on the subject, 

 tells me that in a document relating to church lands, 

 dated 1683, the parish is twice described as " Coin St. 

 Deny's alias Coin Deans," and that on the church plate 

 the name is spelt in three different ways — Coin St. 

 Dennis, Coin St. Denys, and Coin Deans. Everyone 



* "Words and Places," p. 124. 



