Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/466

382 'Hatton Correspondence,' Camd. Soc., i. 203:—

1682. John Dryden, 'Religio Laici,' pref. (ed. Bell, ii. 42):—

1682. Prologue to 'The Loyal Brother' gives a description of the burning of the Pope on "queen Bess's night" (iii. 266, and 237).

'Hatton Correspondence,' ii. 102:—

The Free-Thinker, No. 68, 14 Nov., 1718 (ed. 4, 1742, ii. 60), in an account of "publick spectacles" which are "very proper," includes

W. C. B.

is somewhat late to offer observations on Mr. Gomme's 'Governance of London'; my excuse is that only now have I found opportunity of giving attention to a point that struck me on a first hurried reading of the book.

As has been said in The Athenœum, Mr. Gomme's "principal thesis is that long after the departure of the main body of the Romans from Britain, London remained essentially Roman in constitution." In support of this hypothesis of continuity Mr. Gomme refers to the London place-name St. Martin Pomeroy, finding an analogy in a name occurring in another Roman city of Britain, Dorchester, where is an open space called "The Pummery." "I identify," he says, "this popular name with the more dignified addendum to the saint-name in London, 'Pomroy. He derives both from the Roman pomœrium. "In the second name of the London parish, and the traditional name of the Dorchester playground, we have two identical relics of the ancient Roman system of laying out a city."—Pp. 84-5.

The hypothesis is fascinating; but Mr. Gomme will admit that a suggestion so interesting and important in relation to the topography of London should be tested before final acceptance. We have to ask whether these two names do not admit of a more probable explanation. Let us take first the case of "The Pummery" of Dorchester. The Latin word pomarium, apple-orchard, became in French pommeraie, which in English became "pomary." Dr. Murray's Dictionary gives examples of the use of "pomary" in 1380 and 1400. Now if, as we should do, we give the sound of u to the o in these two words, we get exactly the "pummery" of Dorchester. Is it not- probable that the name indicates that "The Pummery" was originally an orchard?

The origin of the suffix Pomroy or Pomeroy to the saint-name Martin is not so obvious. Pommeraie became, with variations, the name of many places in France: I take these from the French 'Annuaire de Commerce': Pomarède (twice), Pomarez, Pomayrols, Pomerol, Pomérols, Pommera, la Pommeraie (twice), la Pommeraye (twice), Pommeret, Pommereuil, Pommereaux, Pommerieux, Pommerit-Jaudy, Pommerit-Vicomte, Pommerol. Many of these places are in Normandy, for, as Bescherelle says, "En Normandie et en Bretagne les campagnes sont couvertes de pommeraies." From these place-names are derived surnames: I take these from the Paris Directory: Pommerat, Pommeray, Pommeré, Pommereau, Pommeret, Pommery, Pommerolle. In England we have the not uncommon name Pomeroy, its first bearer here being Ralph de Pomeroy (in Domesday Book Pomerei), to whom the Conqueror gave fifty-eight lordships in Devon: to this day two bear his name—Berry Pomeroy and Stockley Pomeroy..

Now it is well known that several London parishes and churches bore, as a suffix to the saint's name, the name of a founder or benefactor. Thus St. Laurence Poulteney was so called after Sir John Poulteney, Mayor of London in 1330, 1331, 1333, and 1336. In like manner St. Benet Rink, St. Benet