Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/330

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL APRIL 3, im


WOODNESBOROTJGH, NEAR SANDWICH. -

Grimm derives the name of this parish from Woden. I have traced the variants of the name from the present time back to the form in Domesday Book Wanesberge, which approximates to the modern local variant Winsboro'. Can any one give me informa- tion as to the form of the name in Saxon times, i.e., before Domesday Book ?

PERCY MAYLAM. Canterbury.


FABLES,' 1821. I have just be- come possessed of a charming edition of the above, printed at the Chiswick Press by C. Whittingham, 1821. It is illustrated by " upwards of one hundred and fifty emble- matical devices" very spirited woodcuts indeed, but without the artist's name appended. I should be glad to know if the artist is known. The preface is by Dr. Croxall, and presumably the translation is his. WM. NORMAN.

6, St. James's Place, Plum stead.


Heplua.

" MARYLEBONE " : PREPOSITIONS IN PLACE-NAMES.

(10 S. xi. 201.)

ALTHOUGH the name of Marylebone fits in with the rule laid down by PROF. SKEAT, it is curious that in the earliest recorded spellings of the word the preposition le is absent. I cannot find the name before the end of the fifteenth century. In the Act 19 Hen. VII. cap. 30, which settled the devolution of the estates of William, Mar- quess Berkeley and Earl of Nottingham, amongst the vast possessions of the deceased nobleman is included the fourth part of the moiety of " the Maner of Ty borne otherwise called Maryborne w fc the appurtenaunce in the Counte of Midd.," and this spelling persists in the Feet of Fines that deal with the manor. Leland, as I showed a few months ago (10 S x. 342), wrote " Mari- bone-broke." This was the prevalent form in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote

Some Dukes at Maryboiie bowl Time away ; and in the large collections relating to Mary- bone Gardens in my possession I have found no variation from this form. I should like to know the date at which Marylebone and St. Marylebone superseded the old name. Perhaps MR. H. A. HARBEN can give some information on this point.


The name of Stratford-le-Bow follows PROF. SKEAT'S rule, as it exactly represents Chaucer's form of Stratford-atte-Bow, the bow being the bridge which was built, on not perhaps strictly historical testimony, by Queen Matilda over the river Lea. On the other hand, the church of St. Mary- le-Bow represents S. Maria de Arcubus, in which case the arches are not beside the church, but form a part of the structure.

I am not sure that the word les, whether preposition or article, is a frequent con- stituent of French place-names. We may compare Plessis-les-Tours with Mars-la-Tour and Joinville-le-Pont. The prepositions sur and en are of course often found in French names, as well as d and aux ; but such a name as Bar-le-Duc can hardly refer to a natural object. The les in such names as Vernet-les-Bains is quite modern. Before the rule can be formulated with absolute certainty, perhaps further investigation is required. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

With regard to PROF. SKEAT'S explana- tion of the le in Marylebone and other place- names, will he kindly give your readers some further explanation as to how and when the old French preposition lez or le came to be introduced into these place-names ? I have not been able to find the form typified by the name Newton-le-Willows in any document older than the sixteenth century. I have searched the Record Com- mission Calendar of Inquisitiones Post Mortem which extends down to 1485, and contains some 80,000 place-names under the headings Newton, Walton, Easton, Weston, Norton, Sutton, Gayton, and Thorp, and find very few affixes except those derived from names of tenants ; in every case, however, in which the prefix lez or le occurs, it is preceded by a preposition, in, super, or juxta : thus Walton super le Wold, Sutton in le Mersh, Neuton super les Mores, Thorp in le Clottes. I find also Witton by the Water, Sutton in la Dale, and Neuton in the Wilghes.

The forms of Chapel en le Frith given in Jeayes's ' Derbyshire Charters ' are Capella del Frith, Capella de ly Frythe, Chapel en le Fryth, Chapell en la Frith, and le Chapelle en le Frithe. Chapel le Frith does not occur.

As for Houghton le Spring, although the form Houghton in le Spring is found, it probably derived its affix from the family of le Spring, who lived at Houghton le Side the sixteenth-century owners having con- fused the early history of the two places.