The place-names being a part of the language, in however changed or corrupted a form, once spoken in this district, it seemed desirable to include a selection of them, more especially as, in not a few cases, the spoken dialect and the place-names help to explain each other. I have in every instance endeavoured to obtain the oldest spellings of the words, but there are in existence court rolls, deeds, and other ancient and unpublished documents in the muniment rooms of noblemen and gentlemen possessing property in the neighbourhood, which, from the limited time at my disposal, I have not been able to peruse. Some day further research may add considerably to the knowledge obtainable on this subject, and older spellings or better information may refute some of the etymologies which have been attempted in this work. There is, however one valuable manuscript which I have read for the glossary, and from which I have extracted every place-name the meaning of which was not sufficiently obvious[1] or which possessed neither linguistic nor historical interest. There are, I am told, in existence several copies of a survey dated 1637, made by one John Harrison, surveyor, of the estates in and near Sheffield belonging to the Earl of Arundel. One of these belongs to the Duke of Norfolk, but I do not know in whose custody the other copies are. Another of these MSS. belongs to Mr. J. D. Leader, F.S.A., who kindly lent it to me in order that I might extract therefrom the numerous field-names and quotations which will be found in the glossary. Mr. Leader's MS. is a well-preserved document. It is written in several contemporary hand-writings; indeed, several copies would appear to have been written at one time and probably from dictation. As I have only seen Mr. Leader's copy I have not been able to compare the spellings which, it is probable, may differ somewhat in the various MSS. It is evident that there are a few clerical errors in Mr. Leader's copy. The MS. which I have perused is a folio measuring 8 inches by 12, bound in the original vellum or parchment wrapper. It contains 157 leaves of paper, and is fully written on with the exception of an
- ↑ One cannot always be sure that the meaning is obvious. Had I seen such a word as Barberfield when I read the MS. I should have passed it over in the belief that it implied a personal name, whereas it may have been used under the circumstances or with surroundings which would require barbar, a foreigner, as the etymology.
