Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/249

 10 s. xi. MAR. 13, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

201

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1909.

CONTENTS. No. 272.

NOTES: " Marylebone " : Prepositions in Place-Names Westminster Changes, 201 ' En glands Parnassus," 204 Thackeray's Latin " Entre tu y yo," 206 Church a Warden Point: Old London Bridge " Violet " in Welsh 207.

QUERIES :" Saskatoon "Governor Walter Patterson- Hippocrates and the Black Baby, 207 MacNab Legend- Richmond Webb James Corbridge Laton Family o Yorks Peter Drelincourt, Dean of Armagh "Rabbits' for Luck St. Sunday Col. John Hew son Gaynesfon Monument at Carshalton, 208 Dickens and Valentine Lines Devonshire Miniaturists Ruskin on Interest Earl Ferrers L. Gordon, Teacher of the Deaf Doctrine of Signatures, 209 Shakespeare and Ensor Bisham Abbey Cartulary, 210.

REPLIES : Thackeray : Roundabout Paper ' On Ribbons, 210 Semaphore ^Signalling, 211 Burton's Line Cock burnspath Mohammedan and Christian Chronology Corunna : Bearer of the News Shakespeare in French Arms of Liverpool, 212 Rattlesnake Colonel Curious House, Greenwich C. J. Auriol, 213 Otway Bale Rev. H. Yonge Richard Bligh Dr. R. Gurney Murat's Widow Phillis Wheatley, 314 Dickens's "Knife-Box" Macanlay and W. J. Thorns, 215 " Artahshashte "The Tyburn, 216 Hartley Coleridge Walton Castle, Clevedon Samuel Hayes, 217 Bergerode T. Bee's Anthology The Baltimore and " Old Mortality " Patersons Drayton on Valentine's Day Scrap Hager Alkali Names terrible to Children, 218.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Dibchfleld's 'Memorials of Old London ' ' Burke's Peerage ' ' Tudor Facsimile Texts ' ' The National Review.'

Notices to Correspondents.

Jlofcs.

" MARYLEBONE " : PREPOSITIONS IN PLACE-NAMES.

How are we to explain the form of the ^well-known name Marylebone ? Le cannot "be the definite article, and bone the feminine adjective, because le is not the feminine form. We know, historically, that bone has-been substituted for bourne ; and accord- ingly the church of St. Mary-le-bone is explained, in the ' Curiosities of London,' "by J. Timbs, at p. 183, as meaning " St. Mary-at-the-Bourne," i.e., St. Mary's near the Brook ; and this is correct.

Once more, Stowe speaks of " the church of St. Michael ad Bladum, or at the corne (corruptly, at the querne), so called because in place thereof was sometime a corn- market." It is now St. Michael's, Cornhill. In the ' Liber Custumarum,' ed. Riley, pp. 229, 233, 274, it is called " eccles'ia Sancti Michaelis ad Bladum " ; but in his Index Mr. Riley calls it " Saint Michael le Quern." Fabyan, ed. Ellis, p. 296, calls It " St. Michaell at Querne." So that, if we give it a Latin name, we use the pre-

position ad ; if an English one, we say at or at the ; and, if a French one, we say le.

This is sufficient to show that the apparent le is merely a later form of the Old French preposition les, as used in Plessis-les-Tours, to which Sir Walter Scott introduces us in the third chapter of ' Quentin Durward.' It is the Norman lez (' Chanson de Roland '), where z, as usual, meant ts, from the Latin latus, " side " ; whence, as a preposition, the sense of " beside." There was a St. Mary's beside the Brook, and a St. Michael's beside the Corn-market.

The same le occurs in several place-names, as in Bolton-le-Sands, i.e., near the sands, Lane. ; Haughton-le-Skerne, i.e., near the river of that name, Durham ; and in the same county Hetton-le-Hole, Houghton-le- Spring, and Houghton-le-Side. In York- shire we meet with Newton-le- Willows ; and in Lincolnshire, Thornton-le-Moor, Thorn- ton-le-Fen, and Newton-le-Wolds. I also find, in Lancashire, Whittle-le- Woods. Note how the last element is always a visible object, as bourne, corn-market, sands, river, hollow, spring, &c. Essex has a Thorpe-le- Spken, where solcen was the name of a definite district. Chapel-le-Frith means Chapel be- side a coppice or small wood ; it is often turned into Chapel-en-le-Frith by those who do not know that le is a preposition, and does not need to be preceded by en.

We have a large number of native names formed in a similar manner with English prepositions, such as Burton-on-Trent, St. Margaret at Cliff, St. Michael-on-Wyre, Stanford-in-the-Vale, Stanton-under-Bardon, Stretton-on-the-Fosse, Sutton - in - Ashfield, &c. We even use Latin prepositions in the same way, as Weston-sub-Edge and Weston- super-Mare. The object is, of course, to distinguish between the various churches dedicated to St. Mary, or between the numerous Westons, and the like ; and the readiest way of doing this is to describe the sosition by the help of a preposition.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

WESTMINSTER CHANGES IN 1908 :

THIRTEENTH YEAR.

ST. JOHN'S PAKISH.

DEMOLITIONS and rebuildings are much n evidence ; alterations and repairs are o be met with on every side. Some of hem, at least, are for the public good and onvenience, while of some of them it must je said that the good and convenience are not so readily seen ; but all alike must be ecorded in this list of the year's changes.