Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/225

 10'" 8. III. MARCH 11, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

181

LONDON, SATURDAY, III ARCH 11, 1905.

CONTENTS. No. 63.

NOTES : London Street-names, 181 Treasure-trove, 182 Shakespeariana, 183 Zemstvo and Zemsky-Sobdr James Quin, the Actor Church Music, 185 " Pride" as a Verb The Author of 'Thealma and Clearchus ' Anvari, Per- sian Poet" Sax " ' Index of Archwological Papers,' 186.

ffee-house Bridgets Hill, 16i>.

REPLIES :-Coliseums Old and New, ISO-'- Pompelmous" Cosas de Kspaiia, 191 Duelling, 192 "The " as part of Title Martello Towers "As such " Woolmen in the Fifteenth Century Treaty of Utrecht Kev. Kandolph Marriott Small Parishes, 19-'J Franciscus de Platea " Algarva" Sir Walter Ka!eigh's ' Historic of the World,' 101 Sothern's Lo-don Kesidence Statutes of Merton 1 Moser's Vestiges 'Peg Wofli igtoii Portraits Biblio- g'aphy of Epitaphs Queen of Duncan II., 19o Edmond Hoyle Bibliographical Netes on Dickens nnl Thackeray Capt. G. Shelvocke Besant, 195 " Lead "=Language Sir Abraham Shipman Authors Wanted "Sarum" "Tourmaline" Lefroy Family, 197.

KOTKS ON BOOKS -.-Facsimile of Chaucer Pepys's Diary 'The Canterbury Pilgrimages' 'The Dickens Country ' ' Dictionary of Slang ' ' The Falstaff Le" ' ' Burlington Magazine ' Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

ff Letters '

LONDON STREET-NAMES.

IN The AntiyiMi 1 !/ for Januarj 7 there is a paper under this heading by the llev. W. J. Loftie, which not only contains some state- ments with which all London antiquaries must be in agreement, but also includes others which appear to be open to question, and which, considering the high authority of the writer, should not, I venture to think, be allowed to pass without discussion. Mr. Loftie justly says that

" when Stow records his own observations he is well-nigh infallible. When he tries to account for words in Anglo-Saxon, old English, or French, he nearly always fails."

I have always maintained that Stow is a better topographer than etymologist, but I would not. go so far as to assert that he is nearly always wrong. As an instance, Mr. Loftie says :

" He tells us about the Grass Market which was part of East Cheap ; he knows that Gracechurch is a corruption of Grass-church. But when he comes to the adjoining haymarket, he does not know the old English word 'foin,' from the French join, and has to invent a 'fen' to account for the name of Fenchurch."

Now, this is hardly fair to Stow, for he gives an al ternativ-e etymology for Fenchurch,

saying it took its name of a fenny or moorish ground, but adding that "others be of opinion that it took that name of Futmini, that is, hay sold there, as Grasse street took the name of grass, or herbs, there sold." But in his ignorance of the "old English word 'foin,'" in the sense of hay, Stow was exactly in the same case as Dr. Murray, for if the 'H.E.D.' be consulted it will be seen that there are only two principal significations of "foin" in English, one meaning an animal of the polecat or weasel kind, and the other, both substantively and verbally, a thrust with a pointed weapon. Dr. Murray entirely ignores "foin " with the meaning of hay, and it would be interesting to know Mr. Loftie's authority for his statement.* Until this is produced, I think we must be content with the theory that, the church of St. Gabriel having been constructed on marshy or muddy ground, the street took its name of Fenchurch from that circumstance, t

Next, in dealing with Fetter Lane, Mr. Loftie says that this is one of the names over which Stow, through ignorance, stumbles badly. Stow, it will be remembered, call* it Fewter Lane, and derives it from the " Fewters " (or idle people) lying there. Mr. Loftie, however, says its designation is owing to the fact that the men who made fetters lived there. If we turn to such an authority as the ' Calendar of Husting Wills,' we find that in 1312 it was spelt "Faiter esl an e" (i. 230); in 1315 it was spelt " Faytoreslane" (i. 252) ; in 1329 30 it was spelt in the same way, and also "Fayturlane" (i. 357) ; in 1345- it was spelt "Faytourlane" (i. 481); and in. 1357 "Faiturlane" (i. 698). Xow, if we again turn to the ' H.E.D.,' we find that "faitour " or " fay tor " means an " impostor or cheat, especially a vagrant who shams illness or pretends to tell fortunes," and that in com- position it may become "fetter," as in "feitergrasse ;: (1534), which in 1598 was spelt " fettergrass." But when we turn to the word " fetter," signifying chains or shackles, we find that in no period of its history was

was not situated in Fenchurch Street, but near the church of Allhallows the Great in Upper Thames Street, which was anciently known as Allhallows ad F'xnum, just as the church of St. Michael in Cheapside was called St. Michael ad Blculum, from its proximity to the cornmarket.
 * As a matter of fact, the old City haymarket

t There is, however, another possible derivation. In the earliest records Fenchurch is nearly always spelt Fanchurch, or occasionally Vanchurch. (' Calendar of Husting Wills,' i. 648). The church, either of St. Gabriel or St. Mary, may therefore have deri%-ed its name from a large winnowing fan or van in its neighbourhood.