Connected with these fairs there was a ceremony of electing officials, and at these social gatherings of all the local celebrities a Mayor was elected who generally distinguished himself by being hospitable. Similar ceremonies still exist, where charters no longer survive, at such places as Poulton near Blackpool, and Norden near Rochdale.
Traces of the Norman are found in Dunham Massey and Darcy Lever and a few others, but along the whole of the east and north of the county the Saxon and Danish landholder seems to have held in peace the ancestral manor house in which he had dwelt before the Conquest, and the haughty insolence of the Norman was comparatively unknown. Speke, the oldest manor house in South Lancashire, near Liverpool, is derived from "Spika," Norse for mast, which was used for fattening swine. "Parr" is a wooded hill, and this word enters into many compound names. "Bold," near St. Helens, signifies a stone house, and is the surname of one of the oldest Lancashire families. The Norse "Brecka," a gentle declivity, is much in evidence in West Lancashire, as in Norbreck, Warbrick, Swarbrick, Torbrick, Killbrick in the Fylde district, and also Scarisbrick, in the vicinity of Ormskirk. This name used to be spelt Scaursbreck, and is a compound of "Scaur," a bird of the seagull type, and "breck" from the natural formation of the land. Birkdale, Ainsdale, Skelmersdale, Kirkdale, Ansdell, Kirby, Kirkby, Crosby, are all place-names of Danish origin which provide many surnames in the county. Where Danish names abound the dialect still partakes of a Danish character.
English Surnames.
A great majority are derived from trades and callings. Some may be traced from ancient words which have dropped out. "Chaucer"[D] and "Sutor" are now meaningless, but long ago both signified a shoemaker. A "pilcher" formerly made greatcoats; a "Reader," thatched buildings with reeds or straw; a "Latimer" was a writer in Latin for legal and such like purposes. An "Arkwright" was the maker of the great meal chests or "arks," which were formerly essential pieces of household furniture; "Tucker" was a fuller; "Lorimer" was a sadler; "Launder" or "Lavender," a washerman; "Tupper" made tubs; "Jenner" was a joiner; "Barker" a tanner; "Dexter," a charwoman; "Bannister" kept a bath; "Sanger" is a corruption of singer or minstrel; "Bowcher," a butcher; "Milner" a miller; "Forster," a forester; a "Chapman" was a merchant. The ancestors of the Colemans and Woodyers sold those commodities in former generations; "Wagners" were waggoners; and "Naylors" made nails. A "Kemp" was once a term for a soldier; a "Vavasour" held rank between a knight and a baron. Certain old-fashioned Christian names or quaint corruptions of them have given rise to patronymics which at first sight appear hard to interpret. Everyone is not aware that Austin is identical with Augustin; and the name Anstice is but the shortening of Anastasius. Ellis was originally derived from Elias. Hood in like manner is but a modern corruption of the ancient Odo, or Odin. Everett is not far removed from the once not uncommon Christian name Everard, while even Stiggins can be safely referred to the northern hero "Stigand." The termination "ing," signified son or "offspring." Thus Browning and Whiting in this way would mean the dark or fair children. A number of ancient words for rural objects have long ago become obsolete. "Cowdray" in olden days signified a grove of hazel; "Garnett," a granary. The suffix "Bec" in Ashbec and Holmbec is a survival of the Danish "by," a habitation. "Dean" signifies a hollow or dell, and the word "bottom" meant the same thing. Thus Higginbottom meant a dell where the "hicken" or mountain ash flourished. "Beckett" is a little brook, from the Norse "beck." "Boys" is a corruption of "bois," the French for wood. "Donne" means a down; "Holt," a grove, and "Hurst," a copse. "Brock" was the old term for a badger, hence Broxbourne; while "Gos" in Gosford signified a goose.
On Dialect in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
The district of England which during the Heptarchy was, and since has been known by the name of Northumbria, which consists of the territory lying to the north of the rivers Humber (whence the name North-humbria) and Mersey, which form the southern boundaries, and extending north as far as the rivers Tweed and Forth, is generally known to vary considerably in the speech of its inhabitants from the rest of England. Considering the great extent and importance of this district, comprising as it does more than one-fourth of the area and population of England, it seems surprising that the attention of philologists should not have been more drawn to the fact of this difference and its causes. From an essay on some of the leading characteristics of the dialects spoken in the six northern counties of England (ancient Northumbria) by the late Robert Backhouse Peacock, edited by the Rev. T. C. Atkinson, 1869, we learn that, when addressing themselves to the subject of dialect, investigators have essayed to examine it through the medium of its written rather than its spoken language. The characteristics to be found in the language now spoken have been preserved in a degree of purity which does not appertain to the English of the present day. It is therefore from the dialect rather than from any literary monuments that we must obtain the evidence necessary for ascertaining the extent to which this Northumbrian differs from English in its grammatical forms,—not to speak of its general vocabulary.
The most remarkable characteristic is the definite article, or the demonstrative pronoun—"t," which is an abbreviation of the old Norse neuter demonstrative pronoun "hit"—Swedish and Danish "et." That this abbreviation is not simply an elision of the letters "he" from the English article "the," which is of old Frisian origin, is apparent from the fact that all the versions of the second chapter, verse 1, for instance, of Solomon's Song, "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys," the uniform abbreviation for all parts of England is the elision of the final letter "e," making the into "th"; on the other hand, out of fourteen specimens of the same verse in Northumbria, eight give the "t" occurring three times in the verse, thus, "I's t' rooaz o' Sharon, an' t' lily o' t' valleys."
The districts where the Scandinavian article so abbreviated prevails are found in the versions to be the county of Durham, Central and South Cumberland, Westmorland; all Lancashire, except the South-eastern district, and all Yorkshire; an area which comprehends on the map about three-fourths of all Northumbria.
The next leading feature is the proposition—i, which is used for in. This is also a pure Scandinavianism, being not only old Norse, but used in Icelandic, Swedish and Danish of the present day. Two instances occur in the 14th verse of the same chapter, where for "O my dove, thou art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, etc.," we have idiomatic version: "O my cushat, 'at 's i' t' grikes o' t' crags, i' t' darkin' whols o' t' stairs."
Another word which occurs in six of the Northumbrian versions is also Scandinavian, viz., the relative pronoun at for that. From this illustration of a short verse and a half of Scripture, we have established the Norse character of the dialect as distinguished from common English, of five of the most ordinary words in the English language, namely, the representatives of the words the, in, that, art and am. These instances from the Etymology of the Dialects help to establish the following canon: That when a provincial word is common to more than one dialect district (that is, districts where in other respects the dialects differ from each other), it may, as a rule, be relied upon, that the word is not a corruption but a legitimate inheritance. Those referred to, we have seen, are the inheritance of a whole province, that province being formerly an entire kingdom.