menial acquirements which could help them to earn their livelihood. To these last ones are principally limited those of poor circumstances as well as poor intellect. But the best lesson taught by the good sisters is the one that they preach by their example of piety, self-denial, humility, self-sacrifice, and all the Christian virtues. Here they have a real work to do, and therefore it is not surprising that one finds far less fanaticism and extravagance about them than amongst the same community of this country. A dispensary and a hospital have been lately attached to the sisters' establishment. Education for girls was hardly known here before they came to Aleppo. For seven years their schools seemed to suffice for the wants of the country, until two years ago a Presbyterian school was opened, which, though flourishing at first, had but an ephemeral life, as the Bishops of the different Churches thought it advisable to institute schools of their own. Thus each girl went back to her own flag, leaving a system of instruction which, socially at least, would have proved most valuable.

This circumstance has, however, served as a stimulus to a generally diffused system of education, which may gradually improve and bring along with other fruits those Christian virtues, which must be the special protection of all the flocks that hear the voice and follow the footsteps of our SAVIOUR. It is much to be regretted that the English Church has not a body of faithful women whom she might employ in this way in her colonies and her missions.

ON THE NAMES OF PLACES.

"Some one has observed how interesting would be a complete collection, or a collection approaching to completeness, in any language, of the names of persons which have afterwards become names of things, from nomina appellativa have become nomina realia."-DEAN TRENCH.

YEARS ago, when .children's games were as rare and limited in number as their books, there was one we remember which consisted of a large broadside covered with cabalistic figures and hieroglyphics, eyes and mouths, noses, lips, gates, fields, cocks, rats, hams, rivers, hedges, cliffs, rocks, hats, coats, tons, and divers others, which to an ingenious child were presumed to present an easy and attractive guide to geography. The sport, if carried out in the spirit of Camden or Mr. M. A. Lower, may readily be converted into philosophic earnest: there are very few persons who have not sufficient curiosity to wish to acquaint themselves with the origin of the name of the town, county, or village in which they

reside, especially when it happens to coincide with their own patronymic.

The origin of our local nomenclature may be readily traced to (1) the natural objects which presented themselves to the eye of the earliest occupier, (2) to his own name, nation and employment, or more recently, (3) that of the lord of the manor, or (4) to the dedication of the church in his immediate vicinity.

The word Llan (a church) is of frequent occurrence in the Principality, as in Llandudno, Llanberris, &c., embodying also the name of the patron saint, Tudno, Peres, &c. Christchurch and Marychurch, or Kirkham, and Kirkstall and Churchkirk, are English instances in point. Peterborough, Petersfield, S. Bee's, S. David's, S. Asaph's, S. Alban's, Bury S. Edmund's, S. Ive's, S. Neot's, S. Austell's, speak for themselves, but other names require a bracketed note of explanation, as for instance Tewkes-bury (S. Theocus), Malmes-bury (S. Maidulph's), Boston (S. Botolph's) Stepney (Stebbon, i.e., S. Stephen's, heath), Pad-stow (S. Petrock's), Paul's (S. Paulinus) Cray, El-stow (S. Helen's), Tooley (S. Olave's) Street, Landaff (S. David's), Lam-peter (S. Peter's), Llanthoney (S. Anthony's), Ippolytt's (S. Hippolytus'), Mitchel-mersh (S. Michael's). Occasionally the derivation is even still more obscure, as in Battersea (S. Peter's Islet), or Petersham (Patriceham); and few would recognize at first sight S. Cuthbert in Kirkcudbright, S. Kevin in Keynsham and Brychan. A peculiar propriety was observed also in the medieval dedications in connection with legendary lore, as S. Mary's was also given to a Cistercian abbey, S. Michael's or S. Catherine's to a church on a hill, S. Nicholas to the quarter occupied by fishermen, and S. Botolph's to the factory of Hanse merchants. The erection of the old timber or the newer stone building is commemorated in Woodchurch and Whitchurch; the ornament of the spire in Shaftesbury and Steeple-Ashton; and the wayside cross or central rood of the church is Crossthwaite and Rood-Ashton.

The addition or prefix of the word Bishop or Abbot recalls the time when prelates held noble estates, as in Bishop's-Wearmouth, Bishop's-thorpe, Bishop's-Auckland, and Bishop's-Castle; and in Abbot's-Langley, Abbot's-bury, and Abbas-Combe; just as the names of nun, monk, minster, friar, priest, prior, temple, indicate the period when orders conventual, military, and mendicant reclaimed the rough land and fens for cultivation, and built towns and churches in the waste places of England, as in Nunthorpe, Mongeham, Monkton, and Toller-monachorum: in Exminster, Westminster, Warminster, and Wimborne-minster; in FreyernBarnet; in Preston; Hurstborne-Priors; Canons-Ashby, and Normanton-Temple, and Monkton-Nun. The name of the Druid is barely perceptible in Redruth, or of the king in Coningsby, Kepsington, Kennington, although as distinct in Lyme-Regis or King's

Lynn and Kingston as that of the knight in Knighton, and of the noble in Earl's-Barton; the old occupations or grades of the inhabitants in Carlton, Charlton (churl's-town) Smethwicke, Hammersmith, Huntingdon, Smisby, Weaverthorpe, Saltersford.

Men have always been desirous to secure for themselves a posthumous immortality by calling the lands after their own names, and it would occupy a whole number of this magazine to commemorate the instances of this natural instinct. The early colonists, Fleming, Saxon, Dane, and Norman have left their impress in Saxmundham, Flemingsby, Frankby, Scotby, Frisby, Romanby, Danbury, Normanby; while Marazion is confidently asserted to designate a Phoenician settlement. "Ing" generally betokens a Saxon "mark" or patronymic of a whole tribe, as in the familiar names of Paddington, Billingsgate, Wellington, Walsingham, Wallingford, Basing, Tooting, Barking, and Bocking. Of the same class, though less distinguishable, are Bolsover, Belton, and Lilleshall; Leominster (S. Leofwine's), Lowestoft (Lowens'), Tilbury (Tihels), Rendlesham (Redwald's), Wolverhampton (Wolfran's), Bermondsey (Beermund's), Bamborough (Bebba's), Leeds (Loide's), Brecon (Brechian), Brighton (Bishop Brithelm's, as S. Aldhelm's head, in Dorsetshire), Adel (Athelstan) Street, and probably Holborn, from Holbiörn, though it may mean hill bourn. The name of Cissa survives in Chichester, Cæsar in Keston, Hrofs is perpetuated in Rochester, Hacon in Hackney, Wodin in Wednesbury and Wansborough, Grim in Grimsby, and Wibba in Wimbledon. But whole counties and districts preserve the memories of early occupants, as Norfolk and Suffolk; Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex of Saxons; Cornwall of Cam-Weales; Devon of Damnonii; Cumberland of Cumbri; Dorset of the Durobrivæ; and Holderness (hollow Deira-ness). The same observation applies to towns: Ringwood still suggestive of the Regni, Cashiobury of Cassi, Ickham of Iceni, Hungerford (Angles'-ford,) Worcester (the town of the Wiccii), and Gainsborough (the burgh of the Ganii). Local position is also denoted in Northumberland, Westmoreland, Northampton, Southampton, the two new Newcastles on Trent and Tyne, and West-Chester and West-Derby, and extent in Romney and Romsey.

Foreign nations likewise have left their mark on our nomenclature; the Romans perpetuated their imperial rule in Guernsey and Jersey (Cæsarea), in their colonies of Lincoln and Colchester, their camps at Winchester, Chichester, Rochester, Gloucester, Chester, and Caistor, and their language in Maldon (Camalodunum), Appleby (Aballaba), Brougham (Borovacum), and Bray (Bibracte). Grongar is said to be a corruption of "the round camp." Norman occupation is betokened in the additions of le in Chester-le-Street, and Poulton-le-Fylde; of castle in CastleAcre, and Castle-Rising, and Castle-Cary; in Beachy (Beauchief)

Head; in Billericay (Banleuga, a precinct); in the numerous affixes, such as Hurst-Pierpoint, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Hurst-Monceaux, Newton-Saint-Loe, and Stoke-D'Abernon; and in the actual names of Montacute, Malpas, Beaulieu, Belvoir, and Mells (Monshault).

It will be sufficient for our purpose, to allude to the terminations current on the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire coasts which are of distinctively Danish origin, by a town, thorpe; a village, thwaite; a forest, clearing; oe or eye, an island with a forest; toft, a messuage, a croft; holme, low marshy land; beck, a stream; and ness, a prominent headland like a human nose, as truly appears in Turnbury-head. Ness also appears on the Suffolk, Kentish, and Devonshire coasts, and in the latter instance bluntly enough, as Bob's or Hope's nose. The Saxon element however largely preponderates, as in Surrey (South rie, the south bank); in Shropshire and Shrewsbury from the scrub, or shrub; in Berkshire and Berkeley from a bare oak. The oak, in Acton, Ockley, and Woodstock (even in the offensive name of Snooks, which is really Sevenoaks), the apple (Apuldurcombe), the pear (Pershore), the beech, (Betchley and Buckingham) the ash, the maple, the elder, the thorn, the willow, the sacey (salicetum), the lime (Lyndhurst and Lymington), among trees enter largely into composition, as do also the saffron, the nettle, the fern (Faringdon), the orperie, and others less frequently, or indeed in single cases. We have also Honey-Church, Orchard (wyrt or shrub-yard) croft and garth (enclosures), the bridge (sometimes even in decay, as at Pontefract, or barely recognisable in BristolBrigstow), the with or ford (sometimes no deeper than a staff, as at Stafford), the market or chepe (in Chippenham, Sydenham, and Copmanthorpe), frith denoting a forest, bed, a dyke (as in Bedford), bolt (a hall, in Bolton), botle or booth (a residence probably of wood only, in Harbottle and Bothal), whilst botham, as in the name of Ramsbottom, is a harmless synonym for a valley or enclosure for cattle. Ald (Aldborough), Elt (Eltham), and El (Elbotle), designate antiquity. Ley, a pasture; Leasowes, "many pastures," and Lewisham: beam, a hill, Bampton; laund, a lawn, or open pasture; lade, a road, Crick-lade; and crecca, chalk; in the same word; ham, a home, is naturally a very common affix, and is reduplicated in Oakhampton, Hampstead, and Hampton-Wick. Dur or ouse, water, appears in Dover, the Adur, the Adder, Cheddar, Stour, and Dorking, in Osney, Osborne, Uxbridge, and Wisbeach; the river-mouth in Tynemouth, Yarmouth, and Plymouth; while rivers have contributed largely to the formation of names, as in Leicester (from Leir, now the Soar), York (from the Eure), Jorevalle, Reivalle, Sheffield, and in names which form perhaps the largest class in a gazetteer. Islip means the water-leap. Putney (putten-wells), Bath and Wells, Springfield, Sittingbourne (a holding near a bourne, or small river), Poole, Liverpool, Meldreth, Brandreth (from reth, a well

or small stream), and Evesham, are all places deriving, like hundreds of others, their appellations from the presence of water. Cold-harbour, which has caused an insoluble discussion, is said to denote the site of some small hut of shepherds in exposed places; while an agreeable climate, a cold or a pleasant situation, are duly commemorated in Somerset, Winterton, Chilton, Cholderton, Chilcombe, Merrifield, Sunbury, Halstead (place of health), Lamplugh (wet dale), Lichfield (wet field, or field of the dead), Liverpool (the sluggish pool), Kirby-Overblow, Cold-Ashton, Norton, and Everton.

Animals have their share in local names, as in Oxford, Hertford, Hartlepool, Derby, Ramsbury, Lambeth, Shepton, Ramsey, Martindale, Molescroft, Swinesfield, Swindon, Maresfield, Hounslow, Dogdyke, Cowbridge, Sheppey, Hamsey (hamsige, hare's lea), Hoxton (hog's-town, the "Hog's back" is simply the hock, or high back, or chine), Ottery S. Mary, Borrodale. Swansea derives its name from the sea swine or porpoises. The old names for the fox, the kid, and pig, reappear in Totness, Todmorden, Tichfield, Ticehurst, Pickford, Picton, Pickwick, and Pickering, although a noted publisher in London prefers to give for his trade-mark a pike empaled on a ring, and Piccadilly derives its name from the Spanish turnover collar, the piccadilla. Fulham (fowls' ham), Eaglecliff, Arncliff, Earnford, Swallowfield, Crowhurst, Ravensthorpe, Swanage, Hawkesbury, Andewell, and Andover (from ande, a duck), are of the same description. Hen, however, implies "old," in Henley and Hentland (old church); whilst Leighton Buzzard, having no connection with the extinct bird now only commemorated in the solitary wayside inn on Salisbury Plain, recals the name of the noble family of Beaudesert.

Minerals are represented in man (stone), Islington (hill of iron), Manchester, Folkstone, Staines, Steynings, Goldthorpe, Silverhow, Stanhope, Stanley, Stanford; and the nature or colour of the soil in Westmoreland, Marlborough, Marlow, Charlton, Cray and Croydon (from craie, chalk), Blackheath, Sandford, and Redcliff. Quarr Abbey derives its name from its quarries, but stone, in Ulverstone and Osbaldiston, denotes a stone castle. Salt-Hill owes its title to the old custom of collecting salt or levying contributions on passers by at Eton Montem.

Here, an army, betokens the usual line of military march or occupation in Hereford, and Harwich. Berewick is the detached member of a manor. Hatch, a forest gate, occurs on the borders of the old chases in Essex and Middlesex; as at Kelvedon, Colney, and Abury Hatch. "With" has the same meaning, as in Witham. Heath distinguishes Hatfield, and the broom plant Brompton, Bromwich, and perhaps according to the old spelling and modern nickname in Birmingham. Haw, a low meadow, is found in Northaw; hithe, a landing-place, in Maidenhead, (Maidenhithe,) Lam