Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/483

 10 s. XIL NOV. 13, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

399

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NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Words and Places. By the Rev. Isaac Taylor.

Edited, with Corrections and Additions, by A.

Smythe Palmer, D.D. (Routledge & Sons.) THERE has been a tendency in recent years unduly, if not unjustly, to depreciate the value of the late Canon Taylors book on ' Words and Places,' which was originally published forty-five years ago. Since 1864 the spirit of scientific inquiry has extended over an area which was little contemplated when Canon Taylor undertook his pioneer work. This has led investigators to accept with some im- patience the crudities and inaccuracies of a book to which students of language are nevertheless under important obligations.

Canon Taylor deserves the credit of seeing that local nomenclature should be treated as one organic whole. From Lambarde onwards he had many predecessors who endeavoured, according to their lights, to trace the history of those local names with which they were more especially concerned ; but to Canon Taylor must be decreed the merit of proclaiming the ethnological import of names, and of showing, as he expresses it, that the chief value of the science of geographical etymology consisted in the aid which it was able to give in the deter- mination of obscure ethnological questions. Of the soundness of this view there can be no question, and as an illustration of the correctness of his theory he points out how, in the case of North America, it w r ould be possible, with the aid of the map alone, to put together the outlines of the early history of the continent, showing the retrocession and extinctions of the Indian tribes, the positions in which the colonies of the several European nations were planted, and the manner in which the gradually increasing supremacy of the Anglo- American stock enabled it to incorporate, and overlay with English names, the colonies of other nations, such as the Spanish settlements in Florida, California, and Texas, the Dutch colony in New York, and the French settlements on the St. Law- rence and the Mississippi. In ' Words and Places,' therefore, we find the first organized attempt to study history in local names ; and if the progress of science was not sufficiently advanced fifty years ago to enable the investigator to avoid error in matters of detail, the fact should not be allowed to prejudice the claims of an avant-courier of discovery in an almost un worked field.

Conceding so much to the demands of justice, we yet feel that in what professes to be an up-to-date edition of the book the historical method of investigation should have been strictly adhered to, and that the more salient errors of the original work should have been ruthlessly deleted. It is, we feel assured, not from ignorance, but from tenderness to the memory of a lovable character that this course has not been followed. In many cases false etymologies are allowed to remain unreproved ; in others they are merely qualified by a note of interrogation. Instances of the former may be found on nearly every page, but we will content ourselves with quoting three or four. On p. 231 the numerous Tot Hills or Toot Hills, which merely mean "look-out" hills, are referred to the Celtic deity Taith, and are said to have been possible seats of Celtic worship. This may have been the

case, but there is nothing in the name to denote it. Chelsea probably the Cealchythe of the 'A.-S. Chronicle,' and certainly the Chelched of Domes- day is twice derived from chesel-ey, or shingle island. Winchelsea, the A.-S. Winceles-ed, is derived from a hybrid gwent-chesel-ey. Wroxeter, the ancient Uriconium, is said to contain the Celtic rhos, a moor. TheLeadenhallin the City of London is said to have been originally the Leather Hall,

As an instance of the qualifying note of interro- gation, the following extract may serve :

"CamboraVum, the ancient name of Cambridge [?],. gives us the Celtic root rhyd, a ford, which we find also in Rhed\c\n&, the British name of Oxford, and in Hertford (Rhyd-ford) [?], where probably we have two synonymous elements."

As the editor includes Prof. Skeat's books on the Place-Names of Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire in his list of authorities, we cannot understand why such a statement as this should have been allowed to pass with merely a note of interrogation. It is so misleading that no good purpose could possibly be served by its retention.

The real value of the book is so great that it is a pity it should in any respect be marred by blemishes which it was easily within the capacity of the editor to remove, if, as we suppose, it was intended for the student rather than for the general reader. The Appendixes, for which we believe the editor is- chiefly responsible, are extremely useful, if read with necessary caution. In the last one, on the etymology of the name Liverpool, use has been made of Prof. Skeat's article at 10 S. xi. 261. We regret to add that there is no date upon the title- page of the book or aiiy where else, so far as we can- discover. In any work treating of what may be called a progressive science, in which the date of every forward step is of importance, such au omission is inexcusable.

Charles James Fox. By Henry Offley Wakeman.

Third Edition. (Gibb'ings & Co.) THIS book was first published in 1890, and is one of "The Statesmen Series," then edited by Mr. Lloyd Sanders. That scholar has protested in The Athe- n(um against the issue of the series without altera- tion of its verdicts, some of which have been modified by subsequent research. We think that students,, for whom these books are presumably intended, should at least be informed of the latest work avail- able. Such information, or the way to procure it, a competent editor could easily have provided in notes or a brief bibliography.

In the case of ' Palmerston,' by Mr. Lloyd Sanders himself, the lack of correction by the light of the considerable subsequent literature of the subject is serious. The fact that the series has been taken, over from a defunct firm of publishers might have been frankly stated.

Somerset, by Francis A. Knight, assisted by Loui& M. (Knight) Dutton, and Westmorland, by J. E, Marr, are two further instalments of the "Cam- bridge County Geographies, "a series which is excel- lent, alike in its liberal conception of the subject, the style in which it is written, and its illustra- tions. Dr. Marr is one of the leading authorities on the geology of the Lakes, and his comments on the subject, 'therefore, deserve special attention. A pleading feature of the "Geographies" is the ' Roll of Honour 'of famous men which each county can boast of.