USE AND ORIGIN OF SURNAMES. 4] 
on, because, I think, the historians have sometimes 
modernized the manner of recording the names. 
The oldest records should therefore be consulted, 
which are accessible only to a few. One thing 
appears to me pretty evident—Not only was the 
introduction of surnames as now used gradual, 
but that form of designation commenced with the 
aristocracy ; it descended from the gentry; and 
it found its way at length to the common people, 
but at a late period, and, I believe, after the entire 
extinction of vassalage. 
In the Saxon times, the personages recorded 
were generally designated by only one name: 
thus, Alewyn, Dunstan, Stigand, Harold, &c. 
When distinction appeared necessary, some ob- 
vious circumstance was chosen for the purpose, 
as Dunstan the monk, Stigand archbishop of Can- 
terbury. Harold indeed had a surname, perhaps 
a nickname, given him from a personal quality— 
Harold Harefoot : similar to the Homeric distine- 
tion of Achilles—Moéapene 610s Axirdreve. 
After the conquest, and during most of the 
time the English Crown had dependencies in 
France, the French mode of using names became 
very prevalent, and continued so during several 
G 
