TIDESWELL AND TIDESLOW. 67 



According to Professor Skeat, "place-names are best pre- 

 served when they are left to the keeping of the illiterate, who 

 speak naturally, and are not ambitious to be always inventing 

 new theories" (10th j., 317). But there is always a tendency 

 for the inhabitants of a locality, especially of a rural one, to 

 abbreviate both the spelling as well as the pronunciation of 

 place-names; thus, Waverton (Cheshire) and Wavertree (Lan- 

 cashire) are customarily and respectively termed Warton and 

 Wartree; and nearer home, Idridgehay was always known as 

 Ithesa; so, in like manner, Tideswell becomes shortened to 

 Tidsa. 



As far as has yet been ascertained, our earliest knowledge 

 of the low under notice being known by any especial name 

 is noted in a map of the county, contained in Pilkington's Derby- 

 shire, in 1782 (reproduced from one published by P. Burdett in 

 1767), in which it is termed "Tidslow top." By what authority 

 the name has been changed to " Tideslow " in recent maps 

 is unknown, but may probably have been the work of map- 

 makers, who have many sins of this kind to answer for. From the 

 original name "Tideswell low," or the local "Tidsa low," it 

 was easy for a map-maker to abbreviate it to " Tidslow," the 

 form given in Burdett's map. The change was not warranted 

 by any evidence, but apparently was made for it to agree with 

 " Tideswell." 



Professor Skeat asserts: "It is surely obvious that Tides- 

 welle can only mean ' Tidi's well'; and Tides-low— Anglo- 

 Saxon, Tides-Maw— -can only mean 'Tidi's burial-mound'" 

 (10th j., 91). Now, even if the former be correct, it by no 

 means follows that the latter is equally so, especially as the 

 age of the low is thus limited by him : " The mound may be 

 as old as the eighth century, or even earlier" (10th j., 91). 

 When the matter comes to be fully investigated, grave doubts 

 must again be necessarily cast on the Professor's interpretation. 



On purely philological grounds he gives a lucid explanation 

 of his view of the meaning of both place-names. Mr. Addy, 

 on the contrary, does not attempt this, but simply asserts: 



