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not find toft compounded in proper names. I would suggest that 

 it is just because it is in such common use that we do not find it 

 in proper names. 



There is an implement used by farmers in Cumberland and the 

 Lake Country called z.fotring iron, for severing the awns from the 

 barley. The bottom part is in the form of a square, and is made 

 of parallel plates of sheet iron. It is used between the feet, hence 

 the process is called /^/Ww^, and they who use it are said to fotr 

 — evidently a most direct derivation from the Icelandic Norse 

 fotr — afoot; plural, /^^/r. 



It may be objected that the sound of this word, and of some 

 other words I have quoted, was likely to be more changed by the 

 wear^and tear of oral transmission from the times of the Norsemen. 

 As a proof, however, that old Northern words have in some cases 

 retained their sound and significance in English, I may instance 

 the following examples from the Moeso-Gothic Bible of Ulphilas, 

 translated in the 4th Century : — 



Ik im thata daur — for I am that door. 

 Naiih leitla hweila — for now a little while. 

 Hardu ist thata waurd — for hard is that word. 



A stag (from Old Norse stiga, to mount) is in the Lake District 

 a colt which is being first mounted or broken in. 



Lathe, is a barn, from Old Norse hlatha, Danish lade, a barn. 



The dairy furnishes us with kurn, from Norse kirfta, a churn ; 

 and site, from Norse sahl, a sieve. 



Reckling, the feeblest member of a litter of pigs or a brood of 

 chickens, is evidently from Norse recklingr, an outcast. 



Cowp, to exchange, is well known in this district, and Anderson 

 and other Cumberland poets speak of horse-cowpers. Kaupa in 

 Old Norse is to barter, or exchange. Copen are merchants in 

 Danish, and we have Copenhagen, or the merchants' haven. 



All who know anything about the stone fences of the Lake 

 country know what the cam or top ridge is. In O.N. kambr is a 

 ridge or fence on the moots formed by digging two ditches and 

 throwing up a ridge or fence between them.* We have also Catcam, 

 * A dyke so formed is yet called a Cam (ICEm) in North- West Yorkshire. [£d.] 



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