THE COUNTRY & ITS NAMES 



in the south, minster, makes avillage noteworthy; 

 we then get such names as Ashchurch, Whit- 

 church (or Whitechurch), Upchurch, Selkirk, 

 Ormskirk, Kirkoswald, Westminster, Warmin- 

 ster, Leominster, and Axminster. What an 

 expressive name for instance is Kirkby Lons- 

 dale! We learn at once that it is a 'by' or 

 ' settlement ' with a church in the dale or valley 

 of the river Lune. At Stamford Bridge there 

 must be a river which was once to be forded, 

 and later on had a bridge built over it. Some- 

 times we get bits of history attached to names ; 

 who owned them, built them, or what happened 

 there. As examples of names of this sort we 

 have King's Lynn, Newton Abbot, Bishop 

 Stortford, Abbotsford, Bury St. Edmunds, 

 Charing Cross, Battle Abbey. Another class 

 of names speaks of markets and fairs, another 

 of ports and harbours, a third of hills and dales. 

 A very great many tell us the names of the first 

 English settlers who established their ' tons/ 

 'bys,' 'hams' (homes), all over the country; 

 indeed, the largest proportion of names in Eng- 

 land seem to have been given by the English, 

 Danish, and Norse settlers, and the ones that 

 were in use before have very largely been 

 forgotten. 



The names of people are not now as in- 

 teresting as the names of places. We have 

 surnames which go on from father to son, and 

 do not change with our trade or home as they 



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