36
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ws.ii. JULY 9,190*.
phase of illumination to another, is asserted to be
productive of a change of weather ; as if the gradual
passage from first quarter to second quarter, or
from that to the third, could of itself upset an
existing condition of the atmosphere ; or as if the
conjunction of the moon with the sun could invert
the order of the winds, generate clouds, and pour
down rains. A moment's reasoning ought to show
that the supposed cause and the observed effect
have no necessary connection. In our climate the
weather may be said to change at least every three
days, and the moon changes to retain the popular
term every seven days ; so that the probability
of a coincidence of these changes is very great
indeed: when it occurs the moon is sure to be
credited with causing it. But a theory of this kind
is of no use unless it can be shown to apply in every
case ; and moreover the change must always be in
the same direction: to suppose that the moon can
turn a tine day to a wet one, and a wet day to a fine
morrow indiscriminately, is to make our satellite
blow hot and cold with the same mouth, and so to
reduce the supposition to an absurdity. If any
marked connection existed between the state of
the air and the aspect of the moon, it must inevit-
ably have forced itself unsought upon the attention
of meteorologists. In the weekly return of Births,
Deaths, and Marriages issued by the Registrar-
General a table is given, showing all the meteoro-
logical elements at Greenwich for every day of
the year, and a column is set apart for noting the
changes and positions of the moon. These reports
extend backwards nearly a quarter of a century.
Here, then, is a repertory of data that ought to
reveal at a glance any such connection, and would
certainly have done so had it existed. But no
constant relation between the moon columns and
those containing the instrument readings has ever
been traced." P. 181.
J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL. TlDESWELL AND TlDESLOW (9 th S. xii. 341,
517; 10 th S. i. 52, 91, 190, 228, 278, 292, 316, 371, 471). At the last reference ME. REICHEL says that " the Domesday name Duvelle would naturally be abbreviated into Duvel." The town of Duffield is mentioned in Domes- day not as Duvelle, but, as I said, Duuelle, which is quite another thing. Here the geminated u represents u, and the modern form of Duuelle would be Dowell, just as the modern form of A.-S. cu is cow. In the 'Rotuli Hundredorum' Duffield appears as Doubrug'. According to MR. REICHEL'S theory it should be Dufbrug'. He does not seem to know that A.-S. v is equivalent to/.
To su PPort his theory of abbreviation MR. REICHEL says that Culmton and Plynton have become Collompton and Plympton.' With regard to Culmton the exact opposite is the fact, for Collompton, from the man's name Columba, has become Culmton.
Further, I do not understand why it
f W , e said that " the old English use o
held is to describe the open field in whict
the members of the community had their
several plots, not the close which th
ndividual held." The first element in
undreds of place-names ending in -feld is
a personal name, as, for instance, Ravenes-
- eld, Bottesfeld, Toppesfeld, Badmundesfeld,
joksfeld, Hundesfeld, which I take from the Rotuli Hundredorum.' Here we have the
men's names Rsefn, Botti, and so forth.
S. O. ADDY.
In illustration of the influence of rail- vay usage in changing the pronunciation of place-names, to which SIR HERBERT MAX- WELL refers at 10 th S. i. 371, the following case of incipient change may be worthy of record. The station on the North British Railway at the south end of the Forth Bridge
s Dalmeny, named after the adjoining pro- perty of Lord Rosebery, and there is a village of the name. The usual pronunciation "amiliar, no doubt, to many in the courtesy
itle of the heir to the Earldom of Rosebery is Dalmeny. The station porters, how- ever, now announce the arrival of the train at Dalmeny. For how long there has been ihis change I cannot say, but the railway las only been opened for some fourteen years, and we may have here the beginning of a
hange which some years hence may be the established order. I. B. B.
I am glad MR. RONALD DIXON has put SIR HERBERT MAXWELL right concerning his statement that Bridlington is " sounded '* Burlington. As a one-time resident of Bridlington Quay, I can assure him that Burlington is simply an alternate name for Bridlington, thus corroborating all MR. DIXON'S statements.
Should SIR HERBERT MAXWELL desire further proof, I may inform him that Brid- lington was formerly written Brellington (vide * National Gazetteer '), and that in all gazetteers in my library there is the heading
- Bridlington or Burlington.' On p. 411 of
the ' Beauties of England and Wales,' under the article on 'Bridlington,' is an asterisk directing attention to a foot-note which runs as follows: "Olim Brellington, and now for the most part called Burlington." In Baines's ' Yorkshire ' (1823), 'Bridlington or Burlington ' is also the heading to the article dealing with Bridlington.
CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.
Bradford.
With regard to the pronunciation of Car- lisle, Sir Walter Scott's ' Bridal of Triermain ' contains the lines :
She has fair Strathclyde, and Reged wide, And Carlisle tower and town,
where the accent is evidently placed on the first syllable. C. L. S.
