io* s. ii. OCT. 22, not] NOTES AND QUERIES.
333
Brus, and died s.p. in 1305. From the after
descent of his estates it does not look as if he
left any lineal descendants, or his sister
Christiana either. According to Nicholson
(' Hist, of Cumberland,' ii. 449), Thomas's wife
had a daughter, Arminia, married to Thomas
de Seaton : but this match has a very sus-
picious Tudor-pedigree look about it.
A. S. ELLIS. Westminster.
WESTMINSTER SCHOOL BOARDING - HOUSES (10 th S. ii. 127, 275). I have heard that there was another noted boarding-house for West- minster School, kept by Mrs. Packharness at the beginning of the last century. In 1 Compton Audley ; or. Hands, not Hearts,' an old novel by Lord William Lennox, published in 1841, the supppsable date of which is 1815, occurs the following illustrative passage :
" Priddie, who had been at Westminster with him [i.e., Ravensworth], seconded the nomination, and reminded him ^of the time when at Mother Pack's, the Dean's- Yard dame (we speak it not pro- fanely, for a better creature never existed), they had mourned over the dead body of Julius Caesar, and had strutted and fretted their hours in Norval and Glenalvon." Vol. i. 255.
An old friend of mine, now no more, told me that in his time, about 1809, the school was filled with Byngs, Pagets, Russells, and Lennoxes. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
WITHAM (10 th S. ii. 289). It is the old story of being asked to make bricks without straw. I have frequently been asked to explain place-names, and my experience is that the querist invariably withholds as much infor- mation as he can I mean information of a useful kind.
Before being expected to work out the etymology, we want all the necessary pre- liminary information. It is necessary to know the pronunciation; whether it is With- ham or Wit-ham; whether it varies; whether all the places thus spelt are pronounced alike ; and whether the pronunciation is the same now as it always was. But, far more important than this, we must also be told the old spellings, as found in old records ; as a rule, no spelling later than 1200 is of much use. Until these are supplied, no wise man would attempt the task.
Some things we do know beforehand. These are (1) that most Celtic etymologies are absurd, and that, under pretence of adducing Celtic forms, writers say anything they please. Where does this precious auitK, with the sense of " separating," come from ? Is it meant as a ridiculous and impossible travesty of the Welsh gwahan, separation ]
We also know (2) that place-names are nob
derived from abstract substantives, such as
vrit, meaning " wisdom" ; nor (3) are words
like wlte, a fine, likely to be combined with
ham, a home. It stands to reason that fines
do not live in homes of their own. Of course
" Wita's home " is a likely answer, because
Wita is a known name ; and A.-S. Witan-han>
would give Wit-ham regularly.
WALTER W. SKEAT.
The name of the Lincolnshire river Withain in early records is Wuna, Wyna, Wyma ; the villages of North and South Witham were also called Wyna or Wyma; the river rises- in those parishes. Witham-on-the-Hill, near them, was always Witham, but it is in a different watershed ; how the river and its source-parishes came to acquire their neigh- bour's name is hard to imagine, except that that name suited better to local usage as our language evolved. Probably the deriva- tion of Witham-on-the-Hill had to do with " white." ALFRED WELBY.
26, Sloane Court, S.W.
This is the surname of an old Yorkshire family, pedigrees of some of whose branches are in Dugdale's 'Visitation,' Surtees Soc.; see also 9 th S. xii. 149. Persons of this name owned property in Drypool (now in the city of Kingston-upon-Hull), on part whereof was built a street called simply " Witham."
W. C. B.
The origin of this name has already been discussed in ' N. & Q.' See 8 th S. viii. 144, 178, 234, 314 ; ix. 173.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.
71, Brecknock Road.
[DR. FORSHAW refers to the account of Withan* in the Essex volume of the ' Beauties of England and Wales.']
CISIOJANUS (9 th S. xi. 149). MR. WARD* will find this hateful method fully explained in Grotefend's 'Zeitrechnung' and Kiihl's 4 Chronologic.' P. CANDOVER.
Basingstoke.
CARTER AND FLEETWOOD (10 th S. ii. 268). According to- 'Sepulchral Reminiscences/ by Dawson Turner (list of individuals buried in St. Nicholas' Church, Great Yarmouth), Nathaniel and Mary Carter died childless. Nathaniel died in 1722, aged eighty-seven. Turner says his wife was youngest daughter of General Ireton, but as Ireton's widow married General Charles Fleetwood in 1652, and Mary Fleetwood's age is given in the marriage allegation, 19 February, 1677/8, as "about twenty-three," this is obviously in- correct. 11. W. B.
