Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/29

 9< h S. I. JAN. 8, '98. J

NOTES AND QUERIES.

21

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARYS, 1898.

CONTENTS.-No. 2.

NOTES : Todmorden, 21 Judicial Longevity, 22 Pope and Thomson, 23 Syntax of " Neither," 24 Capt. Kuox and Ceylon "Table de Communion" Lady Elizabeth Foster H. E. Morland, 25 Byre " On the carpet" " M.P." The Seventh Day, 26.

QUERIES : " Cranshach " " Parliamentary Language " Missing Bible-Thomas White, 27" Honorificabilitudini- tatibus" " Hide "Augustine Skottowe-Tom Mathews, the Clown " Trunched " Continental Notes and Queries ' The Alabama Clough Bookbinding and Damp Samuel Maverick, 28 Enigma ' The Song in the Market-place ' Plant-Names Donne's ' Poems ' Authors Wanted, 29.

HEPLIES : St. John's Wood, 29 Ernest Jones W. Went- worth Margaret, Countess of Richmond Jervis Mallett Family, 31' The Eing and the Book 'Sir C. Sedley, 32 Gentleman Porter Popinjay Peckham Rye, 33' Quar- terly Eeview ' " Dunter " Bibliography, 34 Arabic Star Names Eev. J. Hicks, 35 Boman England Butter Charm ' Mediaeval Oxford ' Supporters, 36 Watchmen Trees and the Soul Mediaeval Lynch Laws in Modern Use, 37 " Best, but do not loiter " Con- struction with a Partitive, 38.

NOTES ON BOOKS -.Sweet's First Steps in Anglo-Saxon ' Boyle's ' Handbook to Thornton Abbey 'Magazines of the Month, &c.

Notices to Correspondents.

TODMORDEN.

SOME little while ago Todmorden was in- vested with the honour and responsibilities of a borough mayor, aldermen, councillors, and town clerk now presiding over and transacting the municipal business of the town. It is, perhaps, opportune at the pre- sent time to trace the derivation and meaning of the word Todmorden, which local writers have quibbled over without arriving at a correct solution.

There are few towns in the north of Eng- land with more picturesque surroundings, situated as it is well-nigh at the summit of the border hills of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The borough of Todmorden stands mainly in the valleys of Walsden, Calder, and Burnley, the last locally so known, whilst on every hand lofty precipitous heights, in some places too steep for the pedestrian to climb, environ the chief portions of the town. Beyond these overhanging heights vast tracts of mountain moorland stretch far away to the distant horizon. The scenery on those lonely hills, and in the cloughs and well- wooded glens, is romantic and wildly beautiful.

There is an erroneous impression in some quarters that Todmorden is Tod-mere-den,

under the supposition that in primeval ages there was a lake where the present town has been built. Climb one of the heights, and let the eye wander over the adjacent country; at a glance it will be perceived that it is a land of lofty rounded hill and deep valley, narrowing in some spots to a mere gorge. Go back in imagination to prehistoric ages, to the days long previous to reservoir ana drainage, and in the mind's eye survey the then desolate region after weeks of heavy rainfall, or after the melting of a winter's accumulated snow. Gathered on those wide- sweeping stretches of moorland mighty volumes of water rush down three valleys, Walsden, Dulesgate, and Burnley, not to mention numberless cloughs and ravines, and, near the spot where stands the present town hall, the three floods mingle, and are borne onward with torrent speed and strength down the broader Calder dale. Any banks of lake that in drier season had begun to be formed would be swept away by the irre- sistible weight of waters like a common fence wall. This state of things would continue for months, and the building up and sta- bility of a lake would have been an impos- sibility. To this day the oft-recurring floods are a frequent source of danger to life and property. Not many years ago mills and cottages were wrecked and children drowned. It was a summer thunderstorm, and had the flood occurred an hour earlier, when the men and women were at work in the factories, the loss of life would have been appalling. It is also well to bear in mind that on the banks of the supposed mere there are no traces of this water in the nomenclature of hamlets and fields.

Todmorden is simply the Tod-mqor-dene, or Fox-moor-valley. Tod is the archaic word for fox ; the middle syllable mor is a contraction of moor ; and dene is the Saxon valley. Cen- turies ago, and, I believe, up to comparatively recent times, foxes were abundant in this neighbourhood, making this heather-skirted valley their haunt. In almost any direction the moors may be seen clothing the hillsides, as they did in days of yore; it is yet em- phatically a moorland district, the heather still creeping down in a few places close to the roads of the borough. JJene, or valley, is very common in this part of England, and enters largely into the nomenclature of the locality. It is sometimes incorrectly written dean, as in North Dean and Walshaw Dean ; and, again, it is frequently contracted to den, as in Luddenden, Alcomden, Hebden, and many other valleys.

Todmorden has little ancient history, having