Bii J. Picion, Esq., F.S.A. 17 



calculated rather to throw ridicule on the study, than to lead to any 

 satisfactory conclusions. Chronology, race, and language have been 

 set at nought, and the most astounding guesses have been indulged 

 in to bring together from any source, names and words between 

 which there appeared any likeness, however superficial. Thus the 

 common Anglo-Saxon name of Brimham has been derived from 

 Hebrew Beth-Bimmon ; and the Saxon Barrow or Buri/ from Hebrew 

 Barruo, pit of lamentation. It is only of very recent years that the 

 subject has been taken up with any regard to the principles of 

 systematic or scientific inquiry. 



Camden published his " Remaines concerning Britaine*' in 1614. 

 Verstegan's "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence" was issued in 

 1628. Both of these contain information of a very judicious 

 character on English names. During the interval of more than 

 two centuries, almost to the present day, little or nothing was added 

 to our information, but more recently attention has been called to 

 the subject by the publication of such works as " Taylor's Names 

 and Places" (1864) ; Edmunds's "Traces of History in the Names 

 of Places" (1869) ; Fergusson's "Teutonic Name System" (1864); 

 Joyce's "Origin and History of Irish Names of Places" (1869) j 

 besides the works of Mr. Lower and Miss Young on Christian and 

 Surnames indirectly bearing on the same subject. These works are 

 of a general kind, and do not attempt to illustrate any particular 

 district. There are also difficulties, to which I will presently allude, 

 connected with the inquiry, which are hardly, if at all, noticed by 

 the writers in question. 



The names of places scattered over the surface of our country may 

 be compared to the geological stratification of the same surface, one 

 layer overlying another until we arrive at the primitive formation ; 

 and the prevalence of one or other of these gives its character to the 

 name system in the one case as to the physical aspect in the other. 

 Thus in Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Lincolnshire, a large pro- 

 portion of the place-names are derived from a Danish source; in 

 Durham and Cumberland a Scandinavian element is found, but most 

 probably of Norwegian origin. In Cornwall the main element is 

 formed by the Celtic of the old Cornish stock. In Wales and 



VOL. XX.— NO. LVIII. ^ 



