112 NOMENCLATURE. 



was not the name of a house, but of a family. Territorial names 

 were at first preceded by cle. The lord of a manor named himself 

 as of his manor ; but this cle was gradually dropped, and the terri- 

 torial name became a surname. Others however, besides lords of 

 manors and owners of estates, had their names from localities. 

 The tenant of a farm, the occupier of a house, the labourer in his 

 cottage, took their names from their residences. A person living 

 near some well-known object would be called after it, to distinguish 

 him from some other person of the same Christian name; thus we 

 might have George by the Church, Thomas at the River, John on the 

 Hill, William in the Street ; and so the words Church, Paver, Hill, 

 Street, would become, and are, surnames. So also strangers, coming 

 from another village or place, would be called after the place 

 whence they came. Thus, several years ago, I found in a county 

 infirmary, that the patients, as a rule, called each other not by 

 their respective surnames, but by the name of the tOAvn or place 

 whence each came. 



Most names of places were originally common names used as 

 appellatives. When there was little communication "with other 

 parts of the country, and their own valley was almost the whole 

 world to its inhabitants, it would be enough to speak cf the river 

 (avon), the hill (hre), the summit (pen), the well (fenton), the 

 Church (eglos), the town or dwelling (tre), the house (hod), the 

 xa^l (melin), the field (pare), &c. But this state of things could 

 not last long. Where there was ever so little communication with 

 other places, or where there were two wells, mills, &c., it would 

 be necessary to add something to distinguish one from the other ; 

 hence would come such common names, found broadcast over the 

 county, some of them repeated again and again in various parishes, 

 (with or without some dialectic difference in the old language), as 

 Higher-town (Trewartha), Lower-town (Treivollas), the Dwelling 

 by the Tree (Treivithen), The House on the Downs (Choon), The 

 Mill by the Wood (BlelUngoose), Little-field (Parc-hean), Great-field 

 (Parc-veor), The Field with a Well (Pare Venton), and so on. The 

 number of names thus formed is more than any one would suppose. 

 I have on my Lists, collected from histories, maps, surveys, old 

 deeds, registers, &c., some 2400 names beginning with Tre and its 

 variations, Trem, Tret, Tres, Trev ; 500 Avith Pen; 400 with Bos 

 and its variations ; 350 with Bod, Bos, Bo, &c. ; 300 with Lan, 



