Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/441

 10 s. XL MAY 8, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

361

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY S, 1909.

CONTENTS. No. 280.

NOTES :" Bourne " in Place-Names, 361 Lord Beacons- field's First Schoolmaster, 362 Dr. Johnson's Ancestors, 363 Parry Family and the 'D.N.B.' Sir Lewis Pollard, 365 Denton Family, Folkestone Shakespeare Second Folio in Switzerland Marquis de Morante's Book-plate " The Debatable " "I shall journey through this world but once," 366 "Facts are stubborn things" English Poem in Welsh Metre" Watchet," 367.

QUERIES : Spanish Stories in Irish " Tottenham in his boots" Gainsborough's Signed Pictures, 368 Henry Ireton of Gray's Inn John Ireton, Lord Mayor Louis Merlin, Roman Catholic Priest "Botemen": "Land- bote," 369 Carlyle and Freemasons " Old Roger," the Pirate Flag "Jolly Roger" Inn Treyssac de Vergy ' Ecclesia Militans,' 370 Punch and Judy Lambert Osbaldeston Mrs. Turnbull MSS. of Bishop of Ely, 371.

REPLIES: Edouard: Silhouette Portraits, 371 Lamb's Capt. Starkey, 372 Recusants' Marriages, 373 Sweep " Flees " Away Mechanical Road Carriages Seventh Light Dragoons, 374 The Rhine a French Boundary MacNab Legend Ernisius, 375 Ships' Periodicals

Chinese Pronunciation Seven Kings, 376 St. Sidwell

Spencer Cowper, Justice of the Common Pleas Fecamp Abbey, 377 Richard Steward Women and Pipes" Blow the cobwebs away ""La pierre qui rage," 378.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-Sir S. W. Griffith's Translation of the Inferno Reviews and Magazines.

OBITUARY : Rev. W. F. H. King.

Notices to Correspondents.

"BOURNE" IN PLACE-NAMES.

THIS article on " Bourne " has been sug- gested by various remarks on the word Tyburn ; and I regret that doubt has been thrown upon its sense, which is certainly that of " well-spring " or " stream from a well." It is simply the same word as the G. Brunnen, a, spring, Low G. born (Bremen ' Worterbuch'), Dutch bron and born, Mid. Du. borne, Icel. brunnr, Dan. brond, Swed. and Norw. brunn one of the commonest of Teutonic words, and certainly in use in place-names. Schmeller, in his Bavarian dictionary, not only cites Heilbron (medi- cinal spring), but refers to the E. name Wim- "borne as an example. I can find no reason for supposing that the -born in Pader-born has any other origin than this ; nor the least indication that bourne ever meant anything but a " spring " or " stream " in any Teutonic language at any time what- ever. Bourn, a boundary, is no older than 1523, and there is no evidence to connect it with place-names. ^>I wholly demur to COL. PRIDE AUX'S re-

mark (ante, p. 132) that names in " bourne " " generally denominate, not brooks or streams, but villages." It is putting the cart before the horse, because the villages were named ^ from the streams, and not conversely otherwise we should have no such places as Hinchingbrook, Tillbrook, or Westbrook, in Hunts, nor Rushbrooke in Suffolk, &c. In Cumberland there is not only a Whitburn, but a Whitbeck ; and surely "beck" does not mean "a village," though it denotes the position of one.

And it was only ante, p. 201, that I explained how Marylebone means " St. Mary beside the bourne " ; certainly not St. Mary beside the village. One has but to go to Catford or Lewisham to see the Ravens- bourne, which is, to my personal knowledge, a brook only, and never was a village-name at all. Besides this, we have the well-known provincial names nail-bourn and winter-bourn to denote an intermittent stream. The former has not (so far as I know) given rise to a place-name ; but as for Winterbornes, Winterbourns, and Winterbournes, there are eight in Dorset, seven in Wilts, two in Gloucestershire, and one in Berks.

I do not for a moment admit that " bourne," as a stream-name, is rare " in the South of England " ; for it is notoriously common, and always indicates, or once in- dicated, a stream, or a well, or a spring ; and never had any other meaning. To put this beyond dispute, I beg leave to give some instances.

In Sussex'weThave Albourne, Easebourne, Eastbourne, Southbourne, and Westbourne. In Hants, Bournemouth (i.e., mouth of a stream,not the mouth of a village), Otter- bourne, Rockbourn, Selbourne, Sherborne, King's Somborne, Tichborne. In Dorset, Cranborne, Milborne (mill-stream, not mill- village), Sherborne, Wimborne. In the Isle of Wight, Calbourne. In Kent, Northbourne, Shipborne, Littlebourn, Sittingbourne. In Wilts, Aldbourn, Collingbourn, Rodbourne. In Somerset, Colbone (if the bone is the same as in Marylebone ; cf. the Colburn in York- shire, mentioned in the Inquisitiones post Mortem), Milborne. In Gloucestershire, Colesborne, Sherborne.

But the name is equally common to the north of the Thames ; for we find in Essex, Lambourn and Stambourne. In Cambs we have Bassingbourn, Melbourn. In Bucks, Bourne End, Swanbourne, Wooburn. In Berks, Lambourn, Shalbourn. In Herts, Broxbourne,Redbourn (cf. Redbrooke.Glouc. ). In Suffolk, Newbourn, Sudbourne. In Derby, Ashborne, Bradbourne, Kilbourne, Melbourne,