Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/159

 ii s. XIL AUC, 21, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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TRAFALGAR BRIDGE (11 S. xii. 83). If the catalogue correctly describes the draw- ings of R. Dodd's intended East London Bridge or Bridge of Trafalgar, it would not help to solve the query MR. DOUTHWAITE revives. The suggested locality was further down stream. At an earlier date Dodd, in advocating the rebuilding of London Bridge, had suggested a high-level bridge to which a commemorative name would readily be applied. Its principal ornamentations were :

" On a pedestal, over the great centre arch, is placed the statue of Neptune ; the other accom- panying pedestals bearing those of British admirals and naval heroes, standing over the dement on which their services have been so very conspicuous and honourable to the Country ; and' for this purpose no place perhaps is more eligible, being the high road from Dover, and this the bridge over which most foreigners coming from thence will pass, is a situation well calculated to display those courageous characters, the brave defenders of our country." Vide Appendix to the Third Report on the Improvement of the Port of London (1800), cried by Sir Henry C. Englefield, Bart., in ' Observations on the Probable Consequences of the Demolition of London Bridge,' 1821.

After the Battle of Trafalgar, Dodd would give added interest to his commemorative bridge and its naval emblems by naming it Trafalgar Bridge, and this, I suggest, is the only foundation for the supposition that London Bridge was so named.

I have examined most of the pamphlets by W. Knight, George Allen, J. C. Robertson, and Joseph Gwilt, also MS. collections by Elmes and Newman relating to London Bridge, but I failed to discover any better foundation for the supposed change of name, and I venture to express the opinion that it is very improbable.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

POEM WANTED (US. xii. 86). The first word should be " Leuconoe." The lines are a version (whose ?) of Horace, ' Odes,' I. xi. The ode is one of those that Mr. C. L. Graves so dexterously applied to contemporary topics in ' The Hawarden Horace.' His " pleasing imitation," with the title ' Ad Astrologise Amatorem,' was addressed to Mr. Stead. EDWARD BENSLY.

FAMILY OF JOHN WALKER (US. xii. 101). One branch of the Walker family lived in Devonshire, and used the same arms as the Yorkshire branch. It is said a Miss Walker married a foreigner named Morque, and used her own name, and they lived in Devonshire. E. E. COPE.

0n

The Place-Names of Cumberland and Westmorland.

By W. J. Sedgefield, Litt.D. (Longmans & Co.,.

10-5. 6d)

A PRETTY extensive acquaintance with works upon place-names and there are few counties of England which have not now their own has con- vinced us more and more of the truth of the remark which Dr. Sedgefield makes in his Preface, that " the study of place-names is a very difficult and perplexing field of research." It requires special qualifications on the part of him who essays it.. Besides the accurate and scientific knowledge of Comparative Philology and Phonology, which is all-essential, it demands a minute experimental knowledge of the local peculiarities of the places,. and a familiar acquaintance with the MS. sources,. charters, and chronicles which show the historical. development of their names. Dr. Sedgefield is very sensible of the difficulties which beset his task, and claims only a limited amount of reliability for the results which he puts forward. Probably hardly a quarter would he ask us to accept as more than plausible guesses. His pages are

the writer, while conscious of the disappointing evasiveness of the study. Take the name Brun- stock. It may have meant originally the stath (farmstead), or the -skeith (field-path), or the stoke (stump), or the staca (stake), belonging to some person named Brun, or close to a bnm (cliff), or by a brun (burn). If the enquirer puts these seven suggestions through their possible permutations he gets a pleasing variety of solutions, and is hardly worse off when the writer frankly confesses 'I don't know," as he does under the two consecutive words, Lamplugh and Lanercost.

The names characteristic of these two counties,, as Dr. Sedgefield notes, are of the most prosaic description. They are either called after the early settlers who gave them their own names, or are described by some obvious local feature. The two. types are Johnby and Clifton. Some are interest- ing as having originated surnames, e.g., Briscoe near Carlisle, which is only another form of the Southern " Birch-shaw." Carlisle itself is a sur- vival of the ancient Caer-Lugualia or Caer-Luyu- vallum, " the fort of the wall of Lugos," a Celtic- deity. It requires the eye of a skilled etymologist to detect W estcuibertby condensed from "Gwas- Cuthbert-by, "the farmstead of the servant of St. Cuthbert "under the vulgar aspect of the modern Skitby ('S-Cudbrit-by).L

Dr. Sedgefield is well versed in his "sources/' but he betrays a want of acquaintance with the Promptorium Parvulorum by misquoting it as Promptidum Parvorum.

Chats on Old Silver. By Arthur Hayden. (Fisher

Unwin, 5s. net.)

MR. HAYDEX in this small volume of 400 pages has covered a wide field, and the result is a useful outline history of old silver. For experts there are many works of reference, and Mr. Hayden mentions Mr. 0. J. Jackson's ' English Gold- smiths and their Marks,' which contains over-