not be the better for consciously thinking of iambs, amphibrachs, paeons, and cadences. We cannot become like him by taking thought about them. But we shall listen and understand the better if we do so. It is a gain to put names and numbers to something of which we already vaguely feel the beauty or the discord. Beauty is form, and number is a constituent of form, and 'all things are determined by number'.1

OLIVER ELTON.

1 The interesting article by Mr. P. Fijn van Draat, of Utrecht, on Rhythm in English Prose: the Adjective, in Anglia (1912), pp. 1–58, came to my notice too late for further reference, but strikes into a different field and does not, I think, weaken any of the conclusions here submitted.

SOME UNCONSIDERED ELEMENTS IN

ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES1

RECENT study of the place-names of Northumberland and Durham, together with material drawn from other counties in order to illustrate these names which were the primary object of study, has brought to light some elements hitherto unnoticed in English place-nomenclature. The following are among the more interesting:

A-. This element, from ON. á, a river, is found in Akeld (Nthb.), and Aby (Lincs.). Akeld, of which the second element is of well-known Norse derivation, lies on the edge of the well-marked valley of the Glen, and the meaning 'marshy place by the river' well suits its position.

1 In order to economize space the number of ME. forms quoted has been strictly limited. Only where there is any difficulty or doubt has a larger selection been given from the very numerous forms collected in the course of the investigation. The following abbreviations are used:-Aasen (Norsk Ordbog); Ass. (Nthb. Assize Rolls, Surtees Soc.); Birch (Cartularium Saxonicum); Brkb. (Brinkburn Chartulary, Surtees Soc.); Ch. (Calendar of Charter Rolls); R. C. (Calendarium Rotulorum Cartarum); Ch. & R. (Charters and Rolls in British Museum); Cl. (Calendar of Close Rolls); D. B. (Domesday Book); E. D. D. (English Dialect Dictionary); F. A. (Feudal Aids); F. P.D. (Feodarium Prioratus Dunelmensis, Surtees Soc.); Finch. (Finchale Chartulary, Surtees Soc.); Fine (Calendar of Fine Rolls); Fritzner (Ordbog over det gamle Norske sprog); H. S. C. (History of St. Cuthbert-Simeon of Durham, Rolls Series); I. p. m. (Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem); Lindkvist (ME. Placenames of Scandinavian origin); Moorman (Place-names of the West Riding, Thoresby Soc.); Newm. (Newminster Chartulary, Surtees Soc.); N. E. D. (New English Dictionary); Pat. (Calendar of Patent Rolls); Pipe (Pipe Rolls); Plac. abbr. (Placitorum abbreviatio); Q.W. (Placita Quo Warranto); Rygh, N. G. (Norske Gaardnavne); Indl. (Indledning til N. G.); R. B. E. (Red Book of the Exchequer); R. P. D. (Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense); Ty. (Tynemouth Chartulary); Wyld (Place-names of Lancashire)..

(Early forms-Achelda, Akeld, Akild.) Aby (D. B. Abi) is a village four miles north-west of Alford on the banks of the river now known as the Great Eau. The term eau, as used of a watercourse in the fen-country, is probably due to substitution of Fr. eau for OE. ea or ON. á (E. D. D. s. v. ea), and Great Eau may represent an earlier OE. micel éa or ON. mikil á. Aby is thus the 'by or village by the (great) river'.

Anger-. This element is found in Angerby and Angerton (Lancs.), Angerton (Nthb.), Angersleigh (Som.), and Ingram (Nthb.). The mediaeval forms are of interest only in the two last-named, viz.: Aungerslye, Angerham. The element Anger- in the Lancashire place-names had been explained by Wyld (p. 51) as probably representing the Scandinavian name Arngeirr, while Björkmann (Zur altenglischen Namenkunde, p. 15) records one or two examples of the Latin form Angerus, which he takes to be a variant of Ansgarus, representing the ON. name Asgeirr. This derivation is quite possible, but it may be pointed out (1) that the explanation of some at least of the place-names in Anger- may have to be taken with that of the modern Ongar (Essex), of which early forms are Angre, Anger, Aunger, and which cannot well be a proper name; (2) that the Somersetshire name makes it very unlikely that this element is necessarily of Scandinavian origin. It may be suggested that the element Anger-, at least in some of these names, and certainly in the uncompounded Ongar, is cognate with OHG. angar, Mod. HG. anger, grass-land', especially as opposed to forest and to arable land, but also as opposed to swampy or heath-land (v. Fischer, Schwäbisches Wörterbuch, s.v.). It is freely used in modern compounds and place-names, e.g. Aengerle, Angermühle, Angerthor; and Förstemann (Altdeutsches Namenbuch, Part II, col. 83) gives several early examples of its use, e. g. Angrisgowe, Angaranheim. This element is also to be found in the name of the Angrivarii, a tribe whose

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home was on the Weser, and whose name survives in the

modern district of Engern.

Bicker-, Byker.

Bicker- is found as the first element in Bickerton (Yorks. and Nthb.), Bickerstaffe (Lancs.), and Bickerdike (Notts.), and is in independent use in Bicker (Lincs.). Bickerton (Yorks.) is explained by Moorman (p. 25) as a derivative of ON. bekkjar, gen. sg. of bekkr, a stream', hence the whole name means 'the enclosure by the water', the e of bekkjar being raised to i before the following k-sound. The element Bicker- in the Lancashire Bickerstaffe is similarly explained by Wyld (p. 67). In the case of Bickerton (Yorks.) there is only one example of a spelling with e, and that a late one, while for Bickerstaffe the forms are evenly divided between e and i (y). The same element is undoubtedly found in Beckering (Lincs.) and Beckermet (Cumb.), (Lindkvist, pp. 5–6) where in ME. we have only one form in each case containing the vowel i for e. Bickerton (Nthb.) is with one exception, and that a late one, written Bikerton or Bykerton in mediaeval documents. One might still explain it on the same theory as the Yorkshire Bickerton were it not for two facts, (1) that the use of ON. bekkr, a 'beck' or 'stream', is otherwise unparalleled in the county1 and (2) the first element looks as if it were the same word which we have in the uncompounded Byker (Nthb.), spelt in mediaeval documents as Byker, Bicre, Biker. The length of the vowel in the first syllable forbids our deriving Byker from ON. bekkir, pl. of bekkr, a derivation which suits Bicker (Lincs.), (v. Lindkvist, ib.), and it may be suggested that Byker is a compound of which the second element -ker is in common use in Northumberland place-names (e.g. Walker, Lucker), and denotes marshy ground overgrown with brushwood' (ON. kjarr), while the first element is the OE. prefix big-, 'neighbouring', which is very common as a first element in place-names, 1 Wansbeck is a corruption of earlier Wanespic.

cf. Bywood (Dev.), Bygrave (Herts.), Bywell (Nthb.), Bythorn (Hunts.), Byfleet (Surrey), Byfield (Northants.).

The long vowel of Byker would naturally be shortened in the compound Bykerton, and it would seem that this is the more likely explanation at least of the Northumberland Bickerton. Bickerdike (Notts.) may be explained in either way: mediaeval forms are Bigredic (D. B.), Bikeresdic, Bikerisdick. If the first element is ON. bekkjar, the genitival suffix has been doubled in some of the ME. forms. There is also a Bickerton in Malpas (Cheshire), for which no early forms have been found.

Bing-. The element Bing- is found in Bingley (Yorks.), Bingfield (Nthb.), and Bingham (Notts.). ME. forms are: Binghelai (D. B.); 1180 Bingefeld (Pipe), and Bingheham (D. B.). Bing- in Bingley is explained by Moorman (p. 27) as a contraction for Billing, on the somewhat slender ground that the Yorkshire Billingley is once found in the shortened form Bingelie (D. B.), or as a contracted form of Binningley or Benningley on the evidence of Bengworth (Worc.) < Benningwurth, with the common raising of e to i before a nasal combination. The absence of uncontracted forms alike in Bingley, Bingfield, and Bingham would seem to point to the probability of some other explanation. The words bing and binge are in wide use in the modern Scandinavian dialects. Aasen gives bing in the sense of (1) 'a large chest against the wall of a barn', (2) ‘a division of a cow-house', and binge, which he takes to be the same word, as meaning ‘a dung-heap'. Rietz (Svensk Lexikon s.v.) gives (1) bing, binge, in the sense of 'a large barn', (2) binge, ‘a great heap'. Kalkar (Det ældre Danske sprog s.v.) gives bing meaning 'chest' and binghus, store-house'. Vigfusson gives ON. bingr in the sense of 'heap'. Rygh (Indl., p. 43) records this word as a common element in Norse place-names, apparently with the wider sense of 'any space cut off'. Fritzner (s. v.) gives the meanings (1) 'a

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