Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/335

 9* s. viii. OCT. 19, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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company, for many of his arguments as to the Danish origin of St. Clement Danes were based on the dedication of a church in Norway. Moreover, the original name for the Northern tongue was Dansk. It only became Norrenska tunga in the thirteenth century.

4. I should imagine that ME. HARRISON would hardly claim -wich = vik as a Saxon termination/ Outside of Scandinavian lands the only instances I can find of its use are in place-names on the coast line of Riigen, a Sclavonian settlement from which many sea-rovers came, where it is wick, and in Oesel, an Esthonian island, formerly Danish, as wife, unless Wijk-bii-Duurstedeon theLek, in Utrecht (Holland), be an exception. Wijk aan Zee and Rijswijk, near the Hague, should be vicus, as Hague = Ad Hagam Comitis.

5. Surely geographical position should lead us to suppose that names like Harwich, Dun- wich, have the equivalent of Reijkavik, Haver- viig, Laurvig, and not of Droitwich, Vicovaro, and that there must be some good causes both in history and geography for the fact that such a termination is so general on the Kentish shore on the lower Thames Valley below London Bridge and so rare above it, whilst in other parts of England it is in all its forms most frequent in those districts which are known to have been the chosen haunts of the Northern Sea rovers of the ninth century, and in the upper Thames Valley itself is found as wick, just in that district between Cricklade and Lechlade which was within reach of the great Danish winter camp at Chippenham. Hence I do not think it is "amusing" to call wick=vik a specifically Danish termination, although I admit Scan- dinavian might be a more appropriate term.

6. I would submit that the existence of the settlement of Charing with a well-known Jutish tribal name (there are two Charings in Kent, near Ashford) renders it impro- bable that the Via de Aldewych (cf. Aid- wick, near Bognor Sussex)=Wych Street, of which COL. PRIDEAUX speaks, can derive its name from a Danish settlement, if we take wych=vieu8 in this case, meaning " Old Village." If it=vik, I fully admit that he has a very strong argument against my theory that Danes = Dacicus; but I would submit that the only conceivable -vik would be the estuary of the Fleet, which is some way from Wycn Street, and that it is curious, as I have already pointed out, that after the massacre on St. Brice's Day, 1002, any Danish colony should have been planted above London Bridge when there were so many sites available below it. Hence, I venture to think, Wych Street is an inconclusive argument. H.

"ROOI-BATJE"=RED COAT (9 th S. viii. 282). May I shelter myself under the admission that I hurriedly wrote 11. 6 and 7 of above note instead of "The Dutch word of which balje is a diminutive is cognate with the A.-8.pad "&c.? H. P. L.

"HALSH" (9 th S. viii. 81, 255). Will the writer who signs Q. V. kindly note that I am the authority on the point as to whether or not my researches have been thorough in the superlative or any other degree, and that I should be consulted before a statement of the nature of that contained in his contribu- tion is made? As a matter of fact I dis- covered "halch" in the ' H.E.D.' before "halse," which I cited. The latter I gave because I was at that point dealing with etymology. Had I been confining myself to orthography I should have mentioned "halsh" itself, which is given in the dic- tionary. My points were, and are, that "halsh" should be given as a main word, that both substantival and verb forms should be noticed under that main word, and that the word in that form is not provincial and dialectal, but technical and general. This I stated at the first reference. It is not necessary to exhibit anything in the nature of fetish-worship in order to show one's appreciation of the ' H.E.D.'

ARTHUR MAYALL.

With the precise philological value of MR. MAYALL'S communication I am not greatly concerned. I am obliged to him as I have been several times before for a very in- teresting contribution to filature-lore.

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

Tower House, New Hampton.

SOUTH AFRICAN NAMES (9 th S. iv. 436, 519 ; v. 49, 113). I recently discussed some South African names, chiefly those of Portuguese origin, such as Delagoa Bay ; and also those derived from personal names, such as Durban, Pretoria, and Potchefstroom. Respecting those derived from Dutch words something may be added, inasmuch as Dutch seems not to be so generally known as French or German. Thus Paardeberg, which has sprung into notoriety as the site of the most impor- tant British success during the present war, means simply the horse hill, the Dutch word paarde, a horse, being the same as the German Pferd and the English palfrey. The same word explains many names, such as Paardekop and Paardekraal. Other animal names often found in local topography are seen in Hartebeestfontein, Rhenoster River, Olifant River Eland slaagte and Elands-