"JEWS IN CORNWALL"; AND "MARAZION." 337 



Not knowing what the actual reading of the oldest MSS. is, 

 we cannot speak positively. But grant, as we must, that some of 

 the forms terminated in n, let us see if they will help us to find an 

 older name of the place, and to account for the uncertainty as to 

 the orthography and signification of more recent names. 



Take two of the oldest forms : Marchadyon, (A.D. 1257), and 

 Marhesiou or MarJcesion, (1261). The former is found in a charter 

 in which Earl Eichard grants to the Prior of S. Michael's Mount, 

 that three markets, which formerly had been held in Marghashigan, 

 on ground not belonging to him (alieno solo), should in future be 

 held on his own ground (solo suo proprio) in Marchadyon. Pro- 

 fessor Max Mtiller is of opinion that Marghashigan and Marchadyon 

 are difi'erent names for the same place, and in confirmation he 

 refers to the latter found in Bishop Bronescombe's Eegister (1261), 

 quoted in Bishop Stapledon's (1313), where he says, "the place is 

 called Markesion de parvo mercato," and holds that de "parvo mercato 

 is a translation or explanation of Markesion. Here I think he 

 is wrong. To shew this, take the whole passage. It occurs in a 

 list of exceptions to the endowment of S. Hilary. Dr. Oliver 

 gives this in his Monasticon (p. 29) thus : "the mortuaries ex de- 

 cessu parochianorum de Markesion de parvo mercato de Trewarnene 

 et Brevamick." Here the use of de, "from," would lead us to 

 conclude that the parvus mercatus was as distinct from Markesion 

 (or Markesion) '^ as Trewarnene and Brevamick. And it would 

 seem to me that as we know that in the times of Lei and, Carew, 

 and Camden, there was a " Thursday market," the particular place 

 where this was held, on the Prior's own ground, juxta grangiam 

 suam, was called Marchadyon or Markesion ; while the place where 



* In his Additional Supplement (p. 4) Dr. Oliver corrects (?) this reading : 

 " mortuariis de Marhesiou, de iiarvo Mercato, Brevannek, Penmedel, Trewar- 

 bene," &c. This shows the uncertainty there is in the spelling of names of 

 places not known to the scribe, and illustrates what I said before about the 

 confusion between n and u; and as we showed before that Leland's " Thurs- 

 daie market " required Marasdcytlmjou, so here if we had to take the Latin 

 de parvo mercato as a translation of the preceding name in the vernacular, 

 the diminutive termination would require that name to be not Marhesiou, 

 but Markesion, corresponding with the Earl's Marchadyon. Max Miiller says 

 " the change of d into s had taken place between 1257 and 1307." In saying 

 this he seems to have overlooked the fact that we have in the Earl's charter 

 Marghashigan, as well as Marchadyon, and also Markesion or Marhesiou in 

 the Bishop's Eegister, 1261. 



