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

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 Currique. 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.
•