Ane Skelton than kepyt the careage,
A Brankstewat that was his heretage.—V. 625. MS.
In Edit. 1594, and 1648;
All Brankistnahait haill, that was his heritage.
A Brankstewat seems an error for All Brankstewat. Both in MS. and in editions, the name has been evidently corrupted. I suspect that it ought to be Branthwaite. For the Skeltons were a family of considerable antiquity in Cumberland. John de Skelton was knight of the shire in the reign of Edward II. Armathwaite was the designation of their property. But Richard Skelton, sheriff of Cumberland, in the reign of Henry VI., lived at Branthwaite. Brankistnahait, and Brankistewat, have been originally Brankisthwaite. Thwaite forms the termination of many local names in the north of England. Grose explains it; “The shelving part of the side of a mountain.” Hutchinson’s account corresponds: “Down the river of Dudden stands the manor of Thwaites, between the river and the mountains, and the ancient seat of Joseph Thwaites of Ulnerigg, Esq., and the place being a stony mountainous country, is not everywhere altogether fit for tillage, meadow, and pasture. But in several parts and pieces, as they are marked by nature, differing in form and quality of soil, or otherwise, by the inhabitants inclosed from the barren wastes of the fells; such pieces of land are now, and were of old, called Thwaites in most places of the shire, sometimes with addition of their quality, as Brackenthwaite, of ferns; Swithwaite, of rushes; Stonythwaite, of stones; Brentwaite, of its steepness; Brunthwaite, of burnt with the sun, &c.” Hist. of Cumberland, I. 531, 532. 494.
I do not find any similar term in AS. conveying the idea of a stony place. The signification has perhaps been originally more general, as denoting any place separated from another, as are those “inclosed from wastes;” from thweot-an, exscindere, q. “a place cut off” from another.
A squier Guthré amang thaim ordand thai,
To warn Wallace in all the haist he may.
Out off Arbroth he passit to the se.—V. 647.
This is understood as referring to the ancestor of the Guthries of Guthrie; and it is a strong presumption of the justness of the idea, that Arbroath is the harbour most contiguous to the seat of this ancient family. He is afterwards in different passages designed “the gud Guthré,” a character which, from all that I have seen, appears to have descended to his posterity.