Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/69

 io-s.i.jAx.16,190*.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

factory. His contention is that the place- name Tideswell should be regarded as Tides ivell, owing to the suffix representing the O.N. voll-r, an enclosure of some kind. To this he adds, " The present pronunciation of Tideswell is owing to a false etymology which has been circulated in guide-books." The latter are not always trustworthy, it is true, but in this instance they appear to be correct. When investigating the origin of a place-name it is advisable to trace it as far back as possible ; and in the one under con- sideration, if the Domesday Book be con- sulted, we find "Tidesuuelle" recorded as a berewick of Hope, and almost identical in spelling with its present-date appellation.

Etymology shows that Tideswell is a plain A.-S. place-name. The prefix Tidis rendered by Bosworth ('A.-S. Diet.') as "time," and by Skeat ('Etymol. Diet.') is explained as "season, time, hour, flux or reflux of the sea." The suffix well forms a portion of many of the names of places in Derbyshire, and it is very probable that the term denoted some spring or brook, which may or may not be visible at the present day. Your corre- spondent affirms, "This word has nothing to do with a brook or spring of water, and it occurs in many places where there is neither brook nor spring," and cites Bradwell (" Bradewelle " in Domesday Book) as an illustrative example. In this he is unfor- tunate, as, according to Glover ('Hist, of Derbyshire,' ii. 137), " a salt spring exists a quarter of a mile from the village." Then Bakewell, the "Badequelle" of Domesday Book, and specially mentioned in the 'A.-S. Chronicle,' has possessed a medicinal (chaly- beate) spring from time immemorial (ibid., ii. 66-7). Again, Tideswell as shown by its etymology was formerly celebrated for possessing what was termed " an ebbing and flowing well," and this for centuries was considered to be one of the wonders of the Peak district.

It is somewhat hazardous to affirm thai the names of any individuals are preservec or indicated in that of their prehistoric burying-place. In Bateman's 'Ten Years Diggings' (1861) there is a long list o: barrows in the counties of Derby anc Stafford, "distinguished by the word 'low subjoined to the name, or otherwise indicatec by the etymology of the prefix" (pp. 289-97) It is doubtful whether this list contains a single example of the name of a prehistori individual. Any possible one would naturallj be looked for among barrows belonging to the late A.-S. period, such as those explorec by Mr. Bateman at Benty Grange, nea

Moneyash, and on Lapwing Hill by Cress- jrook (ibid., 28, 68). But of this class the numbers are few in the Peak District, the majority belonging to the Stone Age. Neither Tideslow nor Coplow was examined jy Mr. Baternan, and if there be any possi- Dility of the latter barrow being destroyed
 * or providing road material, I would suggest

that the attention of the Derbyshire Archseo- ogical Society be drawn to the matter, with the view of the low being systematically xplored.

The local pronunciation "Tidsa" appears to be a common example of a word being shortened, especially when it terminates in a hard consonant, so frequently heard all over England, particularly in rural districts. A few weeks ago I heard an old woman in a Peak village exclaim, "I canna (conna or Conner) do V meaning " I cannot do it."

T. N". BRUSHFIELD, M.D.

Salterton, Devon.

Is not low in Tideslow the same as law, lawe, the well-known word for a hill or mound, having nothing to do with a burial 1

" PAPERS" (9 th S. xii. 387 ; 10 th S. i. 18). The military phrase " to send in one's papers " was quite common in the army when I joined my regiment as an ensign in 1855 ; but I have no recollection of having met with it in any book of the eighteenth century. In the beginning of that century a colonel who wished to resign his commission addressed a memorial to that effect to the Commander-in- Chief. An example of this is to be found in Chrichton's ' Life of Col. Blackader,' pp. 429, 433, where the words of Blackader's petition to the Duke of Maryborough, asking to be allowed "to retire out of the army," are given, and the following entry in his diary, on 23 March, 1712, as to the issue of negotia- tions with Lord Forrester for the purchase of the colonelcy : " We have now finished our bargain about my post, according to our previous appointment, and having made my demission, I now look upon myself as out of the army."

In the beginning of the nineteenth century an officer desirous of "selling out" wrote to his immediate commanding officer, and the application was accompanied by declarations setting forth particulars of service, guarantees as to money transactions involved, &c., and these documents came to be commonly called " papers," " the necessary papers." A similar course was pursued in the case of an ex- change from one regiment to another. For example, Lieut. Tomkinson, of the 16th Light