Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/119

 10* s. i. JAN. so, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Lincolnshire, may have been, and probably was, so called from appertaining to some eccle- siastical endowment ; on the other hand, il may have been the private property of a priest, or of some layman who had Priest for a sur- name. Smitnfield, at Loughton, in Essex (8 th S. i. 84), may signify land appropriated tinder the old manorial system to the village blacksmith, or it may have arisen in recent days from having been held by some one who bore that common patronymic. Bellfield, a name I have met with, but failed to make a note of, was probably land appropriated to the maintenance of the church's bell-gear and payment of the ringers, or perhaps a place where the church bells had been cast, or it may at one time have belonged to a man called Bell. Without research among old documents, which have often been lost or are unattainable, it is impossible to come to any definite conclusion. At West Haddon, as in most other places, the names are of various dates ; some apparently very old, others dating from the nineteenth century.

California. Probably one of a class of names given in recent days, adopted from foreign places which at the time of the name- giving were attracting popular attention. There is a cottage in the parish of Messing- ham called St. Helena ; I was told by my father it was built during the time that Napoleon I. was a captive in the Atlantic island so named. Some houses in the Frod- ingham iron district go by the name of America ; and I have seen a house near Doncaster, in what parish I do not know, called New Zealand. There is a New Zealand field in the parish of Aldenham, Herts (8 th S. i. 83).

Castles, Great. Possibly an encampment or entrenchments have existed here. Castle is not uncommonly employed in speaking of an entrenchment or earthwork where no castle, in the popular sense of the word, has ever stood.

Cockle Close. Probably so called from a handsome plant, bearing reddish - purple flowers, which grows among corn. See 'H.E.D.'

Copy Moor. This may have been land held by copyhold tenure. In Lincolnshire and neighbouring counties copyhold pro- perty is frequently spoken of as Copy or Copy-lands.

Huckaback. The word means a coarse linen fabric used for sheets and towels. The earliest example given in the ' H.E.D.' is of the year 1690. Huckaback napkins were in use at St. John's Coll., Cambridge, in 1698 (Rogers's 'Hist. Agriculture and Prices,'

vol. vi. p. 548). It may be that the place took its name from ponds or a stream in which the flax was steeped before being woven into huckaback.

Hell Hole. In place-names Hell does not necessarily refer to the place of punishment, though in some cases, which I believe are but few, it may do so. It often means a deep hollow or a darksome place. There was a Helle Bothe at Spalding ('Mon. Angl.,' iii. 230). There are a Hell Hill and a Hell Wood in Yorkshire, and a Hell Hole in Notting- hamshire, but I cannot identify the parishes to which they belong. There were a Hell Mill in Gloucestershire (Smith's 'Hundred of Berkeley,' 307) and a Hell Mouth at Cam- bridge (Gerarde's 'Herbal,' ed. 1636, 1390). It may be worth noting that there is a barrow named Hell's Hill in Wexio, where Odin is said to have been buried (Marryat's ' Year in Sweden,' ii. 376). Other places with hell for an affix have been mentioned to me by friends who were not a little indignant at the names having been changed by imbecile persons who were without reverence for the free speech of their forefathers.

Hunger Wells. To speculate regarding the meaning or origin of Hunger in place-names would be rash. Several solutions occur to me, none of which is wildly improbable, but all very far from convincing. The word is widely 'distributed. Hunger Downs occurs at Loughton in Essex (8 th S. i. 84), Hunger Hill at or near Nottingham ('Records of Nottingham,' vol. iv. p. 114), and Hunger- lands at Aldenham, Herts (7 th S. xii. 383).

Lord's Piece. Probably lands belonging to the lord of the manor.

Lunches. Query, is not this a form of Linch or Lynch? " Hlinc, ridge, slope, hill" (Skeat, 'A.-S. Diet.'). In Lincolnshire inch means a balk in a field dividing one man's land from another. It is perhaps obsolete now, but was not so in 1787, for _n the 'Survey of the Manor of Kirton-in- Landsey ' of that date it is stated that " the ands in the field are called dales, and the Cinches or green strips on each side are called marfurs or meerfurrows."

Old Leys. Ley or Lay, unenclosed grass _and, which at some time or other had oeen ploughed, but had been laid down to grass. There is a farm at Hibaldstow, Lincolnshire, yet spoken of as the Old Leys.

Poor Man's Close. Probably land dedi- cated in some way or other to the relief of the poor. Perhaps settled by deed of gift or will before the passing of the Act known as the Poor Law of Elizabeth.

Toot Hill An eminence (7 th S. i. 56, 97, 154).