72 TIDESWELL AND TIDESLOW. 



Whether Tideswell signifies Tides-well (the well of the Tide 

 or Tides) or the well of Tid, is a moot point; yet I see no 

 reason to abandon the old tradition until all possible fallacies 

 have been first eliminated. But whatever may be the correct 

 explanation, there is no basis of fact upon which to rest the 

 belief that Tideslow was the burial place of Tid. Such a 

 belief involves a singular anachronism in the attempt made to 

 explain the interment in a Neolithic tumulus by assigning it to 

 one of the Anglo-Saxon race. 



I have no pet theories to nurse or to perpetuate; all I care 

 about is to elicit the truth, whether the view I have temperately 

 expressed be the correct one or not. In these circumstances 

 a writer seems to be entitled to common civility, even from 

 his opponents, and ought not to be made the subject of 

 uncourteous remarks at the hands of those whose position in 

 the world of letters and experience in controversy, should teach 

 them to act towards honest enquirers in a more liberal spirit. 



Editorial Note. — The last paragraph in Dr. Brushfield's 

 paper calls for a little explanation. In the argument which 

 ran its course through the pages of Notes and Queries 

 the tone of Dr. Brushfield was most courteous and mellow 

 throughout, but that of Professor Skeat raises the serious 

 question as to how far the logic of abuse is to be permitted 

 to pass without criticism. The following is an example of his 

 style of academic debate : — 



" In cases where place-names have been wilfully perverted, 

 it has generally been done by force of a popular etymology that 

 tries to give a new meaning to a word. The worst instances of 

 this character are not those due to unlearned people, but to the 

 shameless and unpardonable meddlesomeness of those who 

 ought to know better, and who imagine they know what is 

 correct, when they are all the while in the blindest ignorance. 

 Place-names are best preserved when they are left in the keeping 

 of the illiterate, who speak naturally and are not ambitious to 

 be always inventing theories." — Notes and Queries, April i6tk, 

 1904. 



