Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/261

 9'S. IX. MARCH 29, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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sporadically far down into the Middle Ages, and, geologically, with those where chalks and oolites give place to older rocks. In Roman times, when wolves and bears abounded in the larger forests, open villages could hardly have existed except in treeless districts like those of the chalk downs. In France also the various " Vies," save those in Auvergne, which are upon volcanic rocks of tertiary origin, appear generally to occur in districts of secondary formation.

The quotations given as to Clapham certainly point to the persistence of the Danish settlement tradition in reference to that spot.

I note, with reference to the Gothic language spoken in the Crimea, of which Busbecq gives a vocabulary, that he himself seems to have thought it resembled his native Flemish, whilst the speakers might have been either " Flander sive Brabantirius " (Ep. iv., Elzevir, Leyden, 1633). The numerals are certainly Low German. The article was (tho the). As the difference between High and Low German was perfectly well kuown in the sixteenth century, and is, indeed, discussed by Busbecq himself in this very connexion, this is at least curious.

Your readers may like to know, on the authority of an ex- vice -chairman of the London County Council, that the excava- tions for the County Council's new street through Wych Street, Holywell Street, and the neighbourhood of St. Clement Danes have now been carried down to the sand, but not a single archaeological relic of any importance has been found, although the County Council use every means to induce workmen employed by them to report such finds. The same things occurred in the excavations for the new public offices on the site of King Street, Westminster. Considering how constantly such objects are found in excavations in towns like Chester, Gloucester, and Colches- ter, this fact seems difficult to explain. Certainly from the plates (after contemporary paintings) of the ' Coronation Procession of Edward VI.,' now on view in the New Gallery. Regent Street, one would feel inclined to believe that much of the neigh bourhood of St. Clement Danes, to the north of the Strand, was unbuilt upon in A D. 1547 ; and, to judge from their representations of Cheapside as compared with the view of that street in the 'Entry of Queen Marie de Medicis ' in 1638, given in Chambers's ' Book of Days' (vol. ii.), those pictures seem to be fairly faithful to nature. Is anything really known as to the date of the first buildings on the Via de Aldwych ? I see Aldwick,


 * iear Bognor (Sussex), was lately up for sale.

Was Holywell Street built before the Refor- mation ? Are any derivatives from fons, fontani, aqux, found in Welsh or other Celtic place-names'?

Other Latin words found in the place- names of Southern Europe, but not in England or Germany, include forum (with us Chipping), silva, pom (of course I know Welsh pont), vadum, murus (as in Murviedro), and vallis. Mons is only found in post- Conquest names like Montacute. There is a curious exception for portm in Porchester, Portsmouth. It would be interesting to know the reason for this, as derivatives from all these names are found in Normandy ; some also in Belgium. Do any of them survive in our Celtic districts ? H.

To make a quotation from ' Waverley,' this subject would seem to "partake of what scholars call the periphrastic and ambagitory, and the vulgar the circumbendibus." In pursuing it we have got far away from the Strand, have reached the southern suburbs of London, and are now making a compass for the mouth of the Thames and the east coast. Proceeding first to Clapham, I may point out that thirty hides at "Cloppaham" were bequeathed by Alfred Aldorman to his wife Werburg and his daughter Alhdryth in the will which he executed some time between 871 and 889, more than a hundred and fifty years before the days of Osgod Clapa. He also stipulated that whatsoever man might enjoy the land at Clapham after his day should give two hundred pence every year to Chertsey in aid of the sustenance of the monks (Thorpe's * Diplomatarium,' pp. 480, 481).

I quite agree with H. in the explanation given by him for the comparative absence of compounds of "street" and "castle" in the nomenclature of Southern Europe. But with regard to local names ending in -ivich> I think the probability is that the termination is Anglo-Saxon. Ipswich was originally Gippes- wlc, and is probably derived from a personal name, while Harwich (Here-wic), Dunwich (Dune- wic), Greenwich (Grene-wlc), Woolwich (Wule-wlc), and Sandwich have Anglo-Saxon words as the first constituents of their names, and it is not unreasonable to infer that they received their appellations from Anglo-Saxons or Anglo -Jutes. Wick in Caithness stands in a different category, but Wick in Worcestershire appears as VVlc in the charters.* W. F. PRIDEAUX.

lum Britannise,' Middlesex, ed. 1723, p. 27, is cor-
 * The following quotation from Nordeu's ' Specu-