USE AND ORIGIN OF SURNAMES. 31 
England also, this was in old time a thing of 
usual practice.”* 
The third class, to which I next proceed, com- 
prehends the surnames which end in /ey—occur- 
ring not unfrequently in the following varieties 
of orthography, /ergh, lea, lay, lee and ly. The 
word dey, derived from the Saxon /eag, means a 
tenement or portion of land used chiefly for pas- 
ture, and not for tillage: that being the condition 
of a much greater proportion of the land formerly 
than at present. The word /ey however is still 
in use; for the expression, ‘a ley for cattle,’ is 
often to be observed. 
Surnames ending in the syllable /ey accord in 
this with the last mentioned class, that they are 
adopted from the name ofa locality ; but this class 
of surnames is so numerous, and so obviously 
exemplifies, and confirms the principle asserted 
of deriving surnames from the names of places, 
that it is thought worthy of a separate comment. 
As all farms at present, so formerly the various 
* This was written about the beginning of the seventeenth 
century ; whence the reader may infer what is to be under- 
stood by the expression in old time. 
