42 USE AND ORIGIN OF SURNAMES. 
reigns; but after that, surnames in the form now 
used, though for a considerable time far from 
being so general as at present, came gradually into 
vogue. The French mode of designation was by 
connecting the christian name of a person with 
some locality by the particle de. This mode was 
generally disused in the reign of Henry VII. 
if not before. I believe, indeed, it was always 
confined to the rank of Gentlemen—the gentry— 
and deemed fashionable. The surnames thus 
formed were never considered properly English 
and vernacular. The names of John of Gaunt, 
Geoffry of Monmouth, William of Malmesbury 
may seem to prove the contrary. But those were 
not properly surnames, currently used in the life- 
time of those persons, but subsequently adopted 
to designate them ; or perhaps a translation of the 
names usually applied to them in Latin—the lan- 
guage most commonly used by our early writers : 
thus, Gulielmus Malmesburiensis—William of 
Malmesbury. The English particle of is at pre- 
sent used only with some titles of nobility, as 
Duke of Devonshire; and the particle de is 
affected, as being redolent of ancientness. 
Before the period above specified, since which 
the common people have become distinguished in 
