2 



its rolls and charters, for which it is claimed that one of its 

 * 4 chief points of interest and value lies in the evolution of 

 modern place-names from the early forms found in the oldest 

 documents." Here, then, we have the first step that has been 

 taken in this country towards such an undertaking as I hope 

 to see carried out. 



There are two grounds on which the present time is 

 peculiarly suitable for putting it in hand. The first is the 

 great increase, of late, in the available material, owing to the 

 publication of records by Government, by societies, and even 

 by individuals; the other is the change that, in this generation, 

 is -passing over the face of the country. I am confirmed by 

 the Deputy Keeper of the Records in the belief that the new 

 edition of the Ordnance Survey omits ancient place-names 

 that were still to be found in its predecessor. Railways alone 

 have done much in shifting the balance of population, in 

 reducing the importance of old villages, and causing new ones 

 to spring up ; and agricultural depression is affecting the map 

 as surely as the conversion of arable into pasture in the 

 agricultural revolution of the 16th Century ; the great towns, 

 again, are rapidly absorbing and effacing villages of which the 

 names may be found even in Domesday Book. As an expert 

 on this subject observed to me last week, antiquaries two 

 generations hence may be seeking the origin of a district's 

 name, which was really given by a speculative builder who 

 called it after one of his daughters. Some changes in 

 nomenclature are due to a subtler cause ; the too ingenious 

 antiquary has much, I fear, to answer for. In Worcestershire, 

 Ab (or Hab) Lench kept the name it possessed in Domesday 

 down to the other day, but has now become Abbot's Lench, 

 having never, to my knowledge, had anything to do with an 

 Abbot. In Northamptonshire, the " Holewelle " of Domesday 

 remained undisturbed till, promoted to an ecclesiastical district, 

 it became Holy Well. In Essex, our Society, last year, visited 

 Stow Maries, which is known to have derived its name from 

 the family of Ma rice or Morice, and discovered it beginning 



