"English Place-Names" 1949 STOKES, H.G.
$45
STOKES, H.G.
[120] pp.
B.T. Batsford Ltd.
1949
Second Edition
8 5/8" x 5 3/4"
In this book, the author explains the principles according to which English Place-Names have been formed, so that the reader may be able to discover their meanings for himself.
It goes without saying that place names were never arbitrarily chosen, but that they were, rather, a colloquial description of the place itself, passed on by word of mouth and touched up from time to time until their form had become generally accepted.
Anything approaching a complete survey of English Place-Names would fill many volumes. Mr. Stokes' method has been to make a broad selection of names which illustrate the subject generally and also to give some picture of the place and the people as they were long ago.
In the course of the book, the reader will be rewarded by such delightful oddities in the way of Place-Names as Cricket Malherbe, Uggley, Nipsells Rayments, Sacristan Heugh, Pity Me, Sixpenny Handley, Smug Oak, Mappowder with Plush, and very many more. Apart from such incidental entertainment, the book, in fact, casts a new sidelight on the English scene as it was when its towns and villages, rivers and hills, were first given their names. The illustrations are from more than 50 photographs of the originals of some of the Place-Names mentioned in the text