10 s. xi. JAN. 23, 1909.J NOTES AND QUERIES.
MB. PLATT says, the French pronunciation
is the correct one, then why should we not
say Gand instead of Ghent ? In Belgium
the Flemish names of these two towns are
those most generally used, but in this country
we have become accustomed to using the
method easier to us. A. LIONEL ISAACS.
The French word has of course only one pronunciation " Briizh " ; in the Flemish Brugge both the vowels have the sound of u in " but," while the g is guttural, as in our " ugh " or " lough." It is far better to say " broo-geez " than affect a French pronunciation if one does not know it ; but the true English name of the city is Brug, identical, in fact, with the old name of Brfdgnorth, and that is by far the best
we have near Birmingham the place Bicken-
hill ; and Bicknell is a not very uncommon
surname in the district. There is a bonehill
near Tamworth, from which (or from some
may be derived.
W. F. CABTEB.
PIMLICO : EYEBBIQHT (10 S. x. 401, 547,
514). I cannot accept responsibility for
statements made by other correspondents
of ' N. & Q.' At the same time, I may be
permitted to point out that the writer
referred to by me did not state that there
was " now " an island in the West Indies
called Pimlico. The date of his note (6 S.
ix. 148) was 1884 ; but if an island of that
name was then in existence, I see no reason
why there should not have been " such an
to adopt, just as Gaunt is the English name island before 1650 Unfortunately, he
01 the town called in r lemish Gent and in
French Gand. The common Ghent like
Scheldt for Schelde, Ley den for Leiden,
and many others is merely a misspelling.
E. A. PHIPSON.
SUBNAMES ENDING IN -NELL (10 S. xi. 8). I do not understand the name Dartnell.
not specify the map in which it appears
as a " mere dot of a thing." I should be
glad if some one interested in London topo-
graphy, and possessed of the necessary
leisure, could settle the matter by consulting
the old maps and Admiralty charts in the
British Museum. Nor did I state that the
it an open question " whether the bird
derived ite name from the island, or the
island from the bird," though personally I
incline to the former view. No doubt Ben
- -* A*w MU*A*7&0VCUU UlJLf XiC*XXJ.^> JL^OrJL U11OJX. I i , .. , jt t 1 T 1 ti.
But as to Bonell, it is tolerably certain that ***** Sf^f JJJLSS? ^J^^ Vv^ v!SS
the true suffix is not -nell, as supposed,
but simply -ell ; for, as Bardsley remarks,
Bonell, Bonnell, and Bonhill are all known
Staffordshire variants of the place-name ,-,.
Bonehill. And further, as Mr. Duignan J?^ ',, 11 such a P erso p
says in his 'Place-Names of Staffordshire,' 4 BuU Tu W ff *
the old speUing of Bonehill was BoUen-hulle. ! mentionedby DB. RIMBAULT wasataverner
This Middle -English form represents an of Hoxton but he may nevertheless have
i <-i o^T.-tTQ^ -IT. 4-V.o \KTftai- TviHioc! in Viia ottTlior rtttTTH
Anglo-Saxon Bollan - hylle, ^.e. Bolla s
V-.-T11 T>_n *_ j_i_ * * ( T- 11
to
hill." Bollan is the genitive case of Bolla,
a.n A.-S. name of which there are several
examples. The A.-S. hylle is represented
in M.E. by hulle, hille, and helle, afterwards
shortened to htdl, hill, and hell. The use
of u, i, and e was due to the difficulty of
representing the sound of the A.-S. y, which
had the sound of the modern French u in
WALTEB W. SKEAT.
served in the West Indies in his earlier days.
Pimlico was certainly not an English
word, and it is not found before the
time when the shipmates of Drake and
Ralegh began to return homewards from
their voyages in the Spanish Main. MB.
MATTHEWS further says that if I had
consulted the ' N.E.D.' under " pemblicp,"
I should have seen whence the West Indian
bird derived its name. As a matter of fact,
I did consult the 'N.E.D.,' as might have
The query, as worded, must be futile, been inferred from the last sentence of my for the -nell of the second example quoted, note. I am the proud possessor of that
Bonell, is part of two words, " bone " and
"hill" (Bardsley). The diminutive -ell
is of course common, and is seen in Cock-er-
ell ; probably also in Penn-ell and Parn-eU,
from Lat. Petronilla. Usually, however,
-n-ett denotes "hill," "hall," "hale," as
shown by Bardsley, s.w. Bicknell, Bagnell,
Darnell, Fernell, &c. H. P. L.
In surnames or it should rather be in place-names the termination -nell, in most, if not all, cases, represents " enhill." Thus
invaluable work as far as it has been pub-
lished, though for obvious reasons I cannot
include it amongst my luggage on Swiss
and Italian railways. I am unable to accept
the quotation from the anonymous and
undated ' Hist. Bermudaes ' as a final settle-
ment of the question. The story of the
" Alebanters of London " sending over a
bird whose note put the sailors in mind of
a place beloved by them, and which they
therefore " tearmed pimplico," seems to me
rather a far-fetched yarn. If it was sent
