Sept. 7. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



237 



clean paper, and spots were produced similar to 

 those of mildew. 



The acid does not naturally exist in paper, and 

 its presence can only be accounted for by sup- 

 posing that the paper has been bleached by the 

 fumes of sulphur. This produces sulphurous acid, 

 which, by the influence of atmospheric air and 

 moisture, is slowly converted into sulphuric, 

 and then produces the mildew. As this may be 

 shown to be an absolute charring of the fibres of 

 which the paper is composed, it is to be feared that 

 it cannot be cured. After the process has once 

 commenced, it can only be checked by the utmost 

 attention to dryness, moisture being indispensable 

 to its extension, and vice versa. 



I do not know wiit-ther these facts are generally 

 known, but they would seem to be very important 

 to paper-makers. T. I. 



Pilgrims' Road to Cariterburt/ (Vol.ii., p. 199.). — 

 Your cori'espondent Philo-Chaccbr, 1 presume, 

 desires to know the old route to Canterbury. I 

 sh<mld imagine that at tlie time of Chaucer a great 

 part of the country was uncultivated and unin- 

 closed, and a horse-track in parts of the route was 

 probaV)ly the nearest approximation to a road. At 

 the ])resent day, crossing the London road at 

 Wrotham, and skirting the base of the chalk hills, 

 there is a narrow lane which I have heard called 

 " the Pilgrims' road," and this, I suppose, is in fact 

 the old Canterbury road ; though how near to 

 London or Canterbury it has a distinct existence, 

 and to what extent it mav have been absorbed in 

 other roads, I am not able to say. The title of 

 "Pilgrims' road" I take to be a piece of modern 

 antiquarianism. In the immediate vicinity of this 

 portion there are some dniidical remains : some at 

 Addington, and a ]iortion of a small circle tole- 

 rably distin.'l in a field and lane between, I think, 

 Troltesdiffe and Ryarsh. In the absence of better 

 information, you may perhaps make use of this. 



S. H. 



Ahhe Slricldand (Vol. ii , p. 198.), of whom 

 I. W. II. asks for information, is mentioned by Cox, 

 in his Memoirs of Sir Robert Wtdpole, t. i. p. 442., 

 and t. iii. p. 174. D. Rock.. 



Etymology of Tofnes. — The Query of J. M. B. 

 (Vol. i., p. 470.) not having been as y(!t answereil, 

 I venture to olFer a few suggestions on the sub- 

 ject; and, mindful of your exhortation to brevity, 

 compress my remarks into the smallest possible 

 compass, thou'jh the cletads of research which 

 might l)e indulged in, would call for a dissertation 

 rather than a Note. 



'J'hat Totne.s is a place of extreme antiquity 

 as a Hritish town cannot l)e doubteil; first, from 

 the sit(! and characler of its venerai)le hill foi-tress; 

 Bocondly, from the fiict that the chief of the four 

 great liritish and Roman roads, the Fosse-way, 



commenced there — "The ferthe of thisse is most 

 of alle that tilleth from Toteneis . . . From the 

 south-west to north-est into Englonde's end ; " 

 and, thirdly, from the mention of it, and the anti- 

 quity assigned to it by our earliest annals and 

 chronicles. Without entering into the question of 

 the full authenticity of Brute and the Saxon Chro- 

 nicle, or the implicit ailoption of the legendary 

 tales of Havillan and Geolfry of Monmouth, the 

 concurring testimony of those records, with the 

 voice of tradition, the stone of the landing, and 

 the fact that the town is seate<l at the headof an 

 estuary the most accessible, the most sheltered, and 

 the best suited of any on the south-western coast 

 for the invasion of such a class of vessels as were 

 those of the early navigators, abundantly warrant 

 the admission that it was the landing-place of 

 some mighty leader at a very early period of our 

 history. 



And now to the point of the etymology of 

 Totenais, as it stands in Domesday Book. We 

 may, I think, safely dismiss the derivation sug- 

 gested by Westcote, on the authority of Leland, 

 and every thing like it, derived from the French, 

 as well as the unknown tongue which he adopts in 

 " Dodonesse." That we are warranted in seeking 

 to the Anglo-Saxon for etymology in this instance 

 is shown by the fact, that the names of places in 

 Devon are very generally derived from that lan- 

 guage; e. g. taking a few only in the neighbour- 

 hood of U'otnes — Berry, Buckyatt, Dar'tington, 

 Halwell, Harberton, Hamstead, Hempstin, Stan- 

 combe. 



First, of the termination ais or eis. The names 

 of many places of inferior consequence in Devon 

 end in hays, from the Aug.- Saxon heag, a hedge or 

 inclosure ; but this rarely, if ever, designates a 

 town or a place beyond a farmstead, and seems to 

 have been of later application as to a new location or 

 subinfeudation ; for it is never found in Domesday 

 Book. In that ancient record the word uisse is 

 often found alone, and often as a prefix and as a 

 terminal; e. g., Aisbertone, Niresse, Aisseford, 

 Aisselie, &c. This is the Ang.-Saxon ^sc, an 

 ash ; and it is uniforndy so remlered in English : 

 but it also means a ship or boat, as built of ash. 

 Toten, the major of the name, is, I have no doubt, the 

 genitive of Tokta, " dux, herzog," a leader or com- 

 mander. Thus we have Tohtaitcesc, the vessel of 

 the leader, or the connnander's ship, — commemo- 

 rating the fact that the boat of souie great invader 

 was brought to land at this place. S. S. S. 



JEdi-iciLs qui Signa fundehat (Vol. ii., p. 199.), 

 niust surely have been a bell-founder : sigmim 

 is a very common word, in mediaeval writin-'s, for 

 a " bell." D. Rock. 



Fiz-gig (Vol.ii., p. 120.). — I had expected 

 that your Querist C. B. would have received an 



