100
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. JULY 29,
influence of personal names. Harrogate, or
" temple road, is a good example of one of the
" gate " origins ; and Hebburn, which is shown
- to have meant originally " deep or broad water,"
supplies an excellent opportunity for a vigorous .and lucid discussion. The high advantage ol minutely considering early forms is notably seen in what is" said of Eden, Esh, Fatfield, Greatham, Maidenstonhall, Sacriston, Sunderland, and many others. Indeed, a valuable inference to be drawn from almost every item in the volume is that a satisfactory explanation of modern English names is to be found only after a thorough and methodical study of their history.
Where it seems impossible to state an ultimate -definition, Mr. Jackson is content to leave the matter in media. With Blackwell, near Darling- ton, for example, he says it is difficult to decide whether the meaning is " Black's well " or
- ' black well," and he adds (with his preference
for the personal origin obviously indicated) : " Moorland was called black land, but I see no reason why a well should be so styled." But, in the remote days of open wells, all would have a dark appearance, and, while this particular example might have an owner with Black for surname, its supremacy in dim and perilous depths might conceivably be recorded in its special name. A similar ambiguity rests over the place-name Fulwell, which distinguishes a locality near Sunderland. So also is it with Horden, with regard to which one is disposed to favour the derivation from the personal name rather than support the only apparent alternative. Similarly, Malton, Ryton, and others are provocative of large discussion and speculation, but it is perhaps best to leave them as they are left by Mr. Jackson. Unthank, a name which occurs in other English counties and also in Scotland, seems very hard, if not impossible, to interpret, and what Mr. Jackson tentatively advances is probably as much as can definitely be said of its history. As a final word, it seems important to note that the second initial of Prof. Skeat is twice incorrectly given in the list of authorities.
THE July Quarterly Review is decidedly one of the best numbers of recent years. Every one of the sixteen articles composing it is worth close reading ; many are worth reading more than once. Of those connected with the war, that by Mr. J. M. de Beaufort called ' A Voyage of Discovery in Northern Germany ' is the most 'remarkable. Illustrated by two plans, it gives an account of the few most jealously guarded square miles on the face of the globe those which include Wilhelmshaven, Cuxhaven, the hither end of the Kiel Canal, and the forts connected with these. We are not allowed to know the exact methods by which the writer penetrated into these dangerous regions, but what he has to tell is of unique interest, and throws new light on many things relating to the war at sea. A few years ago some of our correspondents were interested in discovering the range of audibility of firing : they may be glad to know of the clever discussion of the question ' The Sound of Big Guns ' appearing here from the pen of Mr. Charles Davison. Two unsigned articles on the Irish Rebellion and on India under Lord Hardinge may well attract the careful attention of those responsible for the conduct of the delicate matters dealt with in them ; a third, also unsigned, on
' Soldiers and Sailors on the Land," gives some
very sound common-sense warnings concerning
the difficulties of small holdings, and some good
remarks as to their advantages from the point of
view of national character. Lord Cromer con-
tributes a paper called ' East and West ' ; it
does not apparently set out to prove anything
in particular, but it is one of the most delightful
concatenations of observations, good stories, and
amusing instances that we have ever seen on the
subject of the inscrutable East. The literary
articles are four in number. First comes Prof . Bury s
on the Trojan War a criticism and summary of
Mr. Walter Leaf's recent work on the subject
very good indeed. Then comes Prof. Postgate's
' The Last Days of Pompeius,' where the writer
delivers some well- justified animadversions upon
Mr. John Masefield's play about Pompey,and goes
on to treat of Lucan and to give us "many and
long passages of translation from Lucan's account
of Pharsalia and the murder of the great Roman.
We must confess that we found these verses dull ;
and we found ourselves hi some disagreement with
Prof. Postgate's remarks about the indifference of
character in tragedy : apart from these matters
we enjoyed the paper much. Next we have Mr.
Percy Lubbock on ' Henry James ' a good piece
of critical writing of the modern type, which
tends in some degree towards exaggeration, and
also to a certain extent assimilates itself to the
style and manner it is discussing. Last of the
four is Mr. John Bailey's judicious and unsparing
castigation of Mr. Harper's recent ' Life of Words-
worth.' We must not leave without mention
three other important papers : Mr. F. Lionel
Pratt's ' Four Years of the Chinese Republic ' ;
Mr. Edward Porritt's ' Congress and the War ' ;
and a study by " M." of the political philosophy
of Treitschke.
The Athen&um now appearing monthly, arrange-
ments have been made whereby advertisements of
posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to
publish weekly, may appear in the intervening
weeks in ' N. & Q.'
to <0msp0namts.
WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately,
nor can we advise correspondents as to the value
of old books and other objects or as to the means of
disposing of them.
H. B. (Geneva). Forwarded to MAJOR LESLIE. DR. BRIDGE, Forwarded to N. L. P. MR. ANEURIN WILLIAMS. The spelling" brooch " s obsolete for " broach," an old word for spire ; v. 'N.E.D.' A broach-spire, as the word is now used, is one carried up trom the four walls of the x>wer without a parapet, the arch which crosses
- he angles being covered externally by a slope.
Hie ET UBIQUE. " To burke" is derived from Burke, the name of a famous criminal executed in 1829. He murdered a large number of persons by smothering them in order to dispose of their bodies r or dissection. The first use of the word in the metaphorical sense of hushing up, suppressing, stifling, given in the ' N.E.D.,' is from Hood's ' Up the Rhine ' of 1840.
