Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1882 — The English Villages. [ARTICLE]

The English Villages.

A comparison of the villages in England will at once disclose the existence of certain elements in their names w hich are shared by immense numbers of them. A dozen or so of these are familiar to every one in the shape of word-endings, although not always capable of being rightly interpreted. There is a list somewhere in Camden of many of these terminations, which is worthy the notion of others besides archaeologists. Borne few of these are intelligible enough, such as the “fords” where rivers were passable or ferries existed; the “ports,” the “bridges,” and the “hams,” which in effect may be regarded as only the Saxon equivalent for “villages.” Others are much more likely to be misunderstood, such as “ton,” which, although generally taken to be a corruption of “town,” is really more antique, meaning originally, as it is said, a hedge or ditch, and so a fortified place. Often, however, it is said to be equivalent to “dun,” a mount which appears occasionally in France also, as in Chateaudun. The “hursts” are woods; the “graves” are groves or caves; the “dens” are villages, the “holmes” places surrounded with water, the “stoke” is a tree trunk, and is applied to places where timber was sold; the “burg” or “borough” is net, as many persons suppose, a town, nor yet a place where the earth has been excavated, but a mound or castle; a “bourne” or "burn” is not a boundary or limit, but a river. Then there are’ prefixes which are often misunderstood. The “aid,” which so often reappears in different counties, is nothing more than “old,” and “all’ is often a corruption of it, though sometimes, like "hal” or “hall,” it records the former existence of a “hall” of some kind. In some cases the prefix must be interpreted before it is possible to understand why it should\ have been so commonly used. Thus villages in England, and “Chari,” or “Charle,” of 23 more. Each of these words represents the old British name for a city. “Cliff” is the first syllable in 35 villages or towns; “Church" in 32; and “Kir”' or “Kirk,” which is the same thing, in more than 70. “Lang,” meaning long, is the first syllable in about 90 villages, and so is “King,” which would • very quickly be adopted by any place in which a royal person had resided.