Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/404

 396

NOTES AND QUERIES.

i. MAY

one of the new ministry, was seized on his way to Fontainebleau, and dragged back to Paris by the mob, who hung Trim by the lantern. His son-in-law Berthier, later in the day, was hanged in the same way. This was the beginning of the awful mob law and of the fatal cry of a, la lanterne, which was so frequently heard in the streets of Paris. Your correspondent, I beg to add, will find an illustration of la lanterne and the house I have mentioned in 'The Student's France,' by William Smith, LL.D., London, Murray. HENRY GERALD HOPE. Clapham, S.W.

"BUILDER'S GUIDE' (8 th S. xii. 289, 395). I have been unable to find any book with this title by William Salmon in our National Library or the Bodleian, but I find one called 'The London and Country Builder's Vade Mecum,' 1745, and another called 'Palladio Londinensis,' only one edition of which (the fifth) is in the National Library. It is edited by E. Hoppus in 1755, so that Salmon was dead before that time. There was another William Salmon who lived some years before, a medical man, who must have been some- what celebrated, as he was translated into French in 1672 ; but Watt makes no distinc- tion, and puts the books on building, doctor- ing (or varnishing the human body), and varnishing walls, on water baptism and astrology, all under one name, and Allibone follows suit. The doctor probably died soon after the date of his last work (1714), as he had then been writing over forty years. The earliest date of the builders' work in the British Museum is 1745. RALPH THOMAS.

CHELTENHAM (9 th S. i. 200, 245). Probably Mr. Searle will take exception to the assump- tions which appear to be made in the article on the name of this place. For instance, it is there assumed that ches in Chesham is derived from "the river Chess." This is like deriving Romford from "the river Rom." Ches is gravel, as in Cheswick or Chis- wick ; and, in the absence of any reason to the contrary no local inquiry being alleged in the article Chesham may be just as reasonably derived from ches, gravel, as from the present river Chess. I state the derivation of Chiswick positively, having lived there and made an exhaustive local inquiry into the origin of the name. A neighbouring place, also on the river, is Chesilea, or Chiselea, Chelsea. It used to be stated that there is a river at Chiswick called the Ches, but such river, like "the Rom," is now found to be non-existent. The dissertation in the article should have been extended to the river

Chess and to the name and state of this river as it was in past ages. Runham is the name of a village in Norfolk : the river Bure, which (if my memory serves me well) runs in front of the church and present parsonage, was once supposed to give an unquestionable origin for the first part of the name. It was after- wards found, as a result of further local inquiry, that Rim in Runham has probably nothing to do with the river. Ham in Run- bam is understood to be holm, as in Durham. The writer on ' Cheltenham ' in 'N. & Q.' states that " ham or horn (gen. hammes) means ' an enclosure,' generally near water, and is usually preceded by the name of a river"; but he does not say, in giving this explana- tion, what has become of holm. This shows how easily mistakes arise where no local inquiry is set on foot as to the origin of the name of a place.

These observations apply to Fern, given (but by no means accepted) as the origin of Fernham (no local inquiry is alleged as having been made in this case) and they are appli- cable to most, if not all, of the other names of places mentioned in the article. The truth is, the result of local knowledge and inquiry is (or rather ought to be) an essential element in all disquisitions or statements on the names of places.

Generalizations and classifications are hazardous and uncertain in their results, and should be avoided as far as possible in ascer- taining the origin of names of places. They are easily drawn up, especially when founded on knowledge of language, and if put forward with an air of authority (which may not necessarily be intended as such) may be readily accepted by the unwary ; but none the less they form the source the prolific source of a thousand errors. In inquiring into the origin of the name of a place three factors at least must be taken into account : (1) The result of local inquiry carefully and exhaustively instituted on the spot. (2) The results of comparison with the names of places occurring elsewhere similar to the one in question ; careful local inquiry to be em- ployed as to any place used for comparison before arriving at a conclusion. (3) Language or languages, including all local dialects. I have not mentioned other factors in the inquiry which might, of course, easily have been enumerated. There are correspondents of ' N. & Q.' who assume (or appear to do so) that the third or last factor which is here given for the inquiry covers nearly the whole ground. In reality the field they occupy, covering say one-third of the ground, is itself a very wide one too wide for occupation