94 



DISCOVERY 



which is the farthest point south at which this tree has 

 ever been reported. The other and more hardy tree 

 is a type of Phylica. 



The island is the result of a series of fissure flows of a 

 basaltic and trachytic nature. These flows have been 

 intruded by the stock just mentioned above, and many 

 fissures were opened by it ; these have subsequently 

 been filled by dykes. The rock forming these dykes 

 is very hard, with the result that they are now a very 

 prominent feature and stand up in some cases about 

 50 ft. above the surrounding country, due to differential 

 weathering. 



It is probable that the east coast represents a fault 

 plane, but as the erosion has been great, direct evidence 

 is wanting. Apart from this fault, no folding nor 

 faulting was observed. 



The expedition then proceeded to Cape Town, where 

 it received orders to return home. 



Looking back over the many miles traversed, where 

 might v forces are working unseen by human eye, 

 memory discloses numberless open doors inviting the 

 adventurous spirit to enter, and it is with sincere regret 

 that we had to pass them by, being well aware that 

 Nature has laid bare the story of her history to the 

 careful investigator, but from the casual observer she 

 withholds her deeper secrets. 



Some Types of English 

 Place-names 



By Allen Mawer, M.A. 



Professor of English Language and Philulngg in the University of Liu^r- 

 pool ; Director of the Snnieij of English Place-names 



Pl.\ce-n.\mes denoting human habitations, as distinct 

 from those which are applied to natural features, may 

 roughly be divided into two main types. There are 

 those which are descriptive of the site of the place itself 

 and those which primarily take their name from their 

 founder, owner, or tenant, even though the suffix 

 may be more or less vaguely descriptive. 



The latter are as a rule a good deal more interesting 

 than the former, for the personal name is seldom more 

 than a name to us. It is only very rarely that we 

 can with any measure of certainty identify the person 

 with any weU-known historical character. There are 

 few cases like Bamburgh, which we know to have 

 been called after Baebba, the queen of Aethelfrith of 

 Bernicia, or Portsmouth, which, if the legend be true, 

 preserves the name of Port, one of the leaders of the 

 Saxon invasion of Hampshire. 



Place-names Based on River-names 



Of the former type the earliest are undoubtedly those 

 which are based on river-names. In grants of land in 

 Sa.xon times we find, again and again, that the land was 

 given, not as it would now be, at such and such a place, 

 but by such and such a river — Stour, Avon, or whatever 

 it may be. This practice has left a deep impression 

 on our place-names. Sometimes, as in Watchet, 

 Promt', and Darenth, the river-name has in course of 

 time come to be tied down to one place on its banks. 

 ]\Iore common, at least in certain parts of the country, 

 is the practice of applying the river -name to a whole 

 series of settlements on its banks, and then distinguish- 

 ing them from one another in later times by prefixing 

 or suffixmg some second element. Hence we get 

 such series as North Cray, Foots Cray, St. Paul's Cray, 

 St. Mary's Cray in Kent, the Wiltshire Winterhournes, 

 the Gloucestershire Coins, the Devonshire Clysts. 

 Dorsetshire is the great home of names of this type ; 

 in the North of England they are notably absent, but 

 in Essex we have perhaps the most curious example 

 of this method of naming settlements on a river. The 

 names Ingatestonc, Ingrave, Frierning, Margaretting, 

 Mountnessing in their common element, namely ing, 

 reveal all that remains of an old river-name which lies 

 behind the present-day Wid. 



Most common of all, however, are those cases in 

 which some ton or xt'orth or uick, or whatever else it 

 may be, has taken its distinctive name from the river on 

 which it stands — Cirencester from the Churn, Frampton 

 from the Fromc, Davenport from the Dane. Names of 

 this type are of more recent origin than those just 

 discussed, as is happily illustrated in Bledington in 

 Gloucestershire, on the Bladen (now called the Coin). 

 In the earliest reference to it it is called Bi Bladene. 

 Very curious are some of the transformations which 

 some of the river-names have undergone, obscuring 

 tlie whole history of the names involved. An early 

 river-name Alum in Somersetshire gave rise to an 

 Alhampton and that in its turn has given rise to a 

 river Alham. Who would suspect that Dewlish in 

 Dorset takes its name from the original form of the name 

 of the river on which it stands, now called the Devil's 

 Brook, or that the same river-name has given rise to 

 the Devil's Water in Northumberland and forms the 

 first element in the name of Dilston on its banks ? 

 The old river-name Gijle (pronounced Yivle) is found in 

 Ilchester (earlier Giveheaster), Yeovil and Yeovilton. 

 These all stand on a river now called Yeo rather than 

 Yeovil, as it ought to be called. Some ingenious person 

 could not apparently be content with a town called 

 Yeovil without making it into the vill on the Yeo. The 

 same river-name lies behind Northill, Southill, and 

 Yielden in Bedfordshire. 



