The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-25 00:00:00

OCTOBER 25, 1856. cuted before the following March ; that a steam bakery was asked for on the Bth of November, and sent out at the end of May ; and that a requisition for three thousand tents on the 28th of November was not executed till after the succeeding April, on the plea that enough workmen could not be found in the country to prepare them more rapidly. Such being the promptitude evinced in aid of our perishing soldiers by " all the talents" of the Coalition, and all the martial energy of Lord Palmerston, let us see what were the local obstacles against remedying the horrors of that memorable winter. The matters with which Sir Richard Airey himself was more immediately concerned were as follows : the road from Balaklava—the camp equipments—the hutting—the shelter for the horses, and the issue of warm clothing, and other stores. The two first questions are speedily disposed of. No roads could be made without men, and no men could be got without dangerously weakening the force in presence of the enemy. Hired labourers were tried, but they perished of disease " by fifties," and the labour of burying them became an additional burden on our already over taxed resources. Of the camp equipments, the tents and marquees which were the subject of the Commissioners strictures had all been prepared by Sir R. Airey's predecessor, and were actually shipped before his own appointment. On the three remaining topics there is somewhat more to be said, and we must reserve the discussion of them for another occasion. (To be continued.) The Northinen in Cumberland and Westmoreland. By Robert Ferguson. London : Long mans. NomiNo, certainly, can more strikingly show the various 31ements of which England and the English are compounded than a con sideration of the original dialects from which the language of Shakespeare, Milton, and Burke has gradually been evolved. Saxon, Norman, and the Dane have each contributed amply to our tongue, and the Roman has also done his part since the circulation of the ancient classics. The vocabulary of the Eng lish language is now the most copious of any living mode of speech. We possess the Eng lish Bible (our great master•classic of the purest English), and our mighty dramatist has also given us works which go far to fix our standard at a certain point. But our lan guage, unlike the French, has not been cramped by itn academical dictionary ; it has been kept progressive by our popular authors employing happy words, invented by genius, and affirmed by public approbation. Provincial life, also, has aided to keep up the English tongue. The language of a Court, or a great capital city, if forced on a whole people, becomes languid and cramped ; but English society has never been based on a capital. The vigorous current of existence running through our provinces is one of the most remarkable facts of English social life, and is not sufficiently appreciated by foreigners ; and it has much to do with the peculiarities of English literature. Mr. Ferguson's pleasing little volume was suggested by Mr. Worsaae's " Danes and Nor wegians in England." He t►aces the lan guage of the Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland not only in proper names of places, and of lakes, rivers, and mountains, but also in various provincial words common to the border counties. In this latter part the author treads closely on " Border Literature," and his lucubrations may be compared with Jamieson's researches. The merit of Mr. Ferguson's essay consists in its curious ex amination of words, and its archaeological illustrations ; but in a critical sense he does not sufficiently estimate the vast changes which are made in a language by the use of particular inflections. As " Todd's Johnson," or any other large dictionary, shows, there are common roots to different tongues. In order, for example, to write English with classical purity, a vast stock of English words is not enough. The writer must also think in Eng lish. Cardinal Wiseman and Mr. Carlyle have both a copious stock of English words, and are perfectly acquainted with the classics of THE PRESS. England ; but neither of them is a thoroughly English writer, for, like most Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, Cardinal Wiseman thinks in Latin, and Mr. Carlyle is grotesque in German. Too many collectors of provincial dialects overlook the imperfect changes made by mere grammar. In comparing the Cumberland with the Norwegian proper names Mr. Ferguson has chiefly used the map of Professor Munch. The results of the comparison are curious. Thus, for example, he finds : ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT. NORWAY. Birkth‘N cite Birkethvet Mi eklethwaite M yki eth vet Braithwaite Braathveit Seathwaite Sidthveit A pplethwaite Eplethvet Bran thwaite Brandsthveit Birthwaite Borthveit Ruthwaite or Rughthwaite Rugthveit Carrying on the Norse similarities, he says : Ray, reay, is from Old Norse rci, a corner. We have Resy, a station on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway—Dockray, from Doka, a Scandinavian proper name—Elleray, the late Professor Wilson's seat on Windermere, signifying " the corner among the alders" (Old Norse elli, an elder)—and many others. It occurs also in the Norwegian districts of Scotland, as in Reay, on the Pentland Frith. Having gone through the terms implying simply posses. lion or location, we now come to treat of the divisions or boundaries of property. These consisted sometimes of a river or brook —sometimes of a hill or rock—but most fre quently of a " gill," or small ravine. Hence the Rothe ( formerly Rowtha) and the Rampsbeck are probably derived respectively from Raud and Rempi, names of Northmen, of whose properties the river and the beck might be the boundaries. We have also Ravenbeck and Cruntheck ( now corrupted into Crummock ), from the proper names Rafn and Krumr, and many others. Gill, Old Norse gil, occurs so very frequently in connection with proper names as show that it must have been a very common mark of divi sion. We have Guth Gill, Becan's Gill, Buttergill, Coalgill, Garrigill, Gatesgill, Hawl Gill, Hally Gill, Horn's Gill, Hethersgill, Ormsgill, Rampsgill, Sickergill, Stargill, Thursgill, Thortil Gill. from the names Audi-. Bekan, Butar, Koli, Geiri, Geit, Hallr, Halli, Horn, Heidur, Ormr, Rempi, Sigar, Starri, Thor, and Thortil. And this is still more remarkable : The most common Scandinavian term for a village, or collection of houses, taking the district generally, is— By. Old Norse byr. Law, Danish by, Norwegian bii, and bii, from the verb btia, to dwell. This may be considered as one of the words which to a certain extent marks the Danish settlements as distinguished from the Norwegian. It is the term most common in Denmark, and in the more purely Danish districts of England. In the plain of Cum berland and Westmoreland it is of frequent occurrence, and as this part of the district had at an earlier period been overrun by the Northumbrian Danes, it might have been already colonised by them to a certain extent at the time when I have supposed the Norwegians to have come over from the Isle of Man. This term, however, is by no means uncommon in Norway, nor in some of the districts col°• nixed by the Northmen, as the Isle of Man, while the ab sence or rare occurrence of some of the other terms, more particularly Danish, especially in Cumberland, seems to militate against the theory of any considerable settlement of the Northumbrian Danes at the period above mentioned. This term is frequently found coupled with a Scandi navian proper name, as in Melmerhy, Gamblesby, Allenby, Lockerby, Hornsby, Harraby, Waitby, Thorn by; sometimes with that of a settler of late date, as Roberby, Rickerby or Richardby, and Botcherby. The principal term for a mountain, and also that most characteristic of the Scandinavian district. is Fell, in old Norse fell or flail, and in the living dialect of Norway fjeld. Mr. Ferguson shows the resemblance very closely : ENGLISH LAIR DISTRICT. NORWAY. Blea Fell] i Blee Fjeld Bl4a field Dun Fell Dun Fjeld Hest Fell Neaten Fjeld Mell Fell M€l Field Oxen Fell Oxen Fjeld Sale Fell Salen Fjeld Stela, Fell Stakald Roman Fell Romun Fjeld And so in several instances. But our readers, and some of our bibliopolists, may be amused at the following passage:— ft might be curious to speculate farther on the northern origin of names. We might ask whether the well-known Dick Turpin was not a genuine descendant of one of the Yorkshire vikings —whether Thurtell, the treacherous mur• tlerer of his friend, did not preserve the worst form of Scandinavian ferocity. But though a characteristic trait seems sometimes to start up like a family likeness after many generations, Saxon and l)ane have long been blended into one people, and in many and vi.-ted spheres the descendants of the Northmen have obtained renown. Arnold and Tait have successively developed the intelli• gence of the youth of England—Alderson and Rolfe main tained the dignity of the British bench—Brodie has taken off his limbs with a difference to humanity—Urling is famed for lace—and Gunter presides peaceably over wedding breakfasts. The descendants of Northern Skalds seem to 1025 have found a congenial occupstim in bookselling, for among our most eminent publishers, five, viz., Cadell, Colborn, Ball, Orme, and Tait, bear names of Scandinavian origin. It is certainly the first time that we ever heard of Turpin and Thurtell being in literary company. What follows is worth noting; the author turns his attention to Ireland, and says : Might we even go on to ask—but here we tread on tender ground—whether O'Connell was more than half an Irishman? Konall seems to have been a common name among the Norsemen; there are six of that name men tioned in the Landucintabok or list of the original settlers in Ic. land. One of these certainly was from Ireland, but he appears to have been most probably one of the North men who hail settled there, as both his wife and son have Scandinavian names. All the others seem, from the names of their parents, to have beea pure Norsemen. Moreover, the name itself appears in form to be Scandi navian, and to have a clear etymon in Old Norse—konr, a noble or illustrious person, a kttig ; and allr, all—" all•king," an appropriate name enough for the " king of all Ireland." The name Connell is by no means an uncommon one in the north of England, where it might most naturally be supposed to be derived from the Danes or Northmen. The respective prefixes " 0 " and " Mc," in Ireland and Scot land, might indicate a cross between the natives and the northern settlers. 1 do not, however, know of any instance of the Scandinavian form of Counelson. There is no reason why O'Connell should not have been Danish by descent. The O'Con nails were not Milesian, and the race was chiefly to be found on the south-western sea coast of Ireland. The name " Blake " is common to Galway ; but Mr. Ferguson men tions that the names of Blake and Rodney are to be found in the Biala and Hrodny of the Scandinavian vikings. Some of the proper names in Kent are to be found also in the border counties ; and in a little volume on the history of Liskeard, published last year, a long list of Cornish names showed a remark able resemblance with those of English colo nists in the south of Ireland, thereby authen ticating the principle that proper names may be accepted as proving ethnological descent. Nearly fifty pages of this essay are taken up with lists of the Cumberland and Westmore land words of Scandinavian origin. Some of those local words are singularly expressive. " Brandly " is a Cumberland word that means " fiercely." Mr. Ferguson, following Jamieson + derives it from the Norse " brana, audacter ruere." We observe that Johnson has the verb "to brandle," meaning "to shake," and de rives it from the French brandiller. Mr. Fer guson writes:— BRAID. To resemble—generally applied to persons, and used to denote similarity of disposition. Jamieson traces it to N. bregdo. " denoting the resemblance of child ren in disposition to their progenitors." lhre gives Bregdur barni tit aettar--" children take after their parents." Or, as we should say, in language nearer the original, " Bairns braid o' their fore•elders." Johnson says that "to braid" is Saxon, and quotes Milton as his authority for using it in the sense of "to weave together." Mr. Fergu son pla3s with his subject in the following manner : Buss. To dress, to make ready; also to kiss. I take this word to be the same as the Sco. " busk," to dress, to adorn, of which Jamieson has rather unaccountably over looked what seems to me the most natural etymon—N. btiska, to brush. We use the expression" brush up" in a similar sense—that of making tidy or smart. And " busk," " buss," seems to be generally applied to dressing up for a particular occasion. " Buss,' to kiss, may perhaps be from the same origin. For though " brushing " seems a low sense of " kissing," yet in the hirsute days of old it might be sufficiently expressive. But there is the Latin basium, and the German busse, for " a kiss " The local word •‘ ealeever," i.e., to make a riot, is expressive. Mr. Fergu son has : GARRICK. An awkward person. N. pira, to make game of. An odd derivation for the name of the great actor. The great actor, be it remembered, was th© grandson of a Huguenot Cu rrique. The follow ing is eccentric : - HOWDY. A midwife. This unfortunate word has been made the subject of etvmological vagaries, among which that quoted by Mr. Halliwell from " Jesus hodbt natns est de virgine " is certainly entitled to the pre-eminence which he claims for it. Not very many degrees better is that from " How do ye ? " a presumed salutation from the nurse to the sick woman, and which Brockett, with less than his usual liniment, defends from the sarcasm of Brande. Mr. Braude, however, has not been very successfnl in sug gesting a better ; his derivation is from the " how," a membrane on the head, with which some children are born, and which is esteemed Jamieson's derivation the correct one. T which the noun is *teemed highly lucky among the vulgar. in from N. iod, childbirth. is no doubt 'he Sco. has the verb to " hoed," from Drmed. •