35 



successful cultivation of these herbs or vegetables. Those derived frota 

 trades on the other hand, such as Figulus, Fabricius, Pictor, Scribonius, 

 are but few in comparison. The same process of analysis might be 

 applied to the Saxon and Norman names derived from trade, but our 

 business now is more particularly with those in vogue among ourselves. 

 Foremost among these stands the world-wide name of Smith, a name 

 which has given rise to a host of witticisms, good, bad, and indifferent; 

 Smith the universal alias. When the head of the great house of 

 Carrington, a partisan of Richard the Third, forsook his paternal estate, 

 he became a John Smith ; and when the quondam King of the French, 

 Louis Philippe, ran away from his country and fled for his Hfe, he 

 became Mr. William Smith. An old antiquarian (Verstegan " Piestitu- 

 tion of Decayed Antiquities," 1574,) tells us, what appears obvious 

 enough, that Smith is the man that smitetli at the anvil — 



" Whence cometh Smyth al be he knight or squire, 

 But from the smith that smitelh at the fire." 



Many of the modern Smiths, however, repudiate this plebeian descent. 

 Some attempt to disguise it by spelling the name with a "y," and 

 appending an " e" at the end. Others assure us, with a certain degree 

 of truth, that the smith of ancient days was a very different person 

 from our smith ; that he was in fact an armourer, and as such required 

 both art and capital, and bore a greater resemblance to our jeweller, 

 than to the smith of the present day. Others even venture to derive 

 their name from Shem the son of Noah — thus, Shem, Shemit, Schmit, 

 Smith, a derivation which forcibly reminds us of that which deduces 

 " cucumber " from Jeremiah lUng. 



The Smiths are truly an extensive family. Though, curiously enough. 

 Blacksmith and Whitesmith do not (so far as I know) exist as sur- 

 names, we have Goldsmith, Shoesmith, Nasmyth, or nail smith. Brown- 

 smith, i.e. the man who made the far-famed brownbills of our warlike 

 ancestors, Arrowsmith, i.e. a brazier, from "ar," Saxon for brass, Si.K- 

 smith, originally Sock-smith, sock being the old English for a plough- 

 share. 



The Scotch for Smith is Gow, and the Gows and Gowans in Scotland 

 were once as numerous in proportion as the Smiths in England, 

 although they may not be so now, owing to a great immber of them 

 having translated their names into the English Smith, on their migra- 

 tion to other countries. 



The Gorman Scliniid and the French Lcfevre arc also common in 

 their respective countries. 



But passing on from the Smiths and their relations, we have many 



