436
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAY 29, im
many others have been, by the fear that I
should have difficulty in finding a publisher.
I have never seen such a bibliography as
that mentioned by MR. BOBBINS. It is a
pity that some modern bookmakers, who
dish up so many trashy monographs, cannot
bs turned on to this useful kind of work.
HORACE BLEACKLEY.
COCKBURNSPATH (10 S. x. 430 ; xi. 72, 212, 335). The study of place-names will never rise above the level of a puzzle-game, their elucidation will be indefinitely deferred, if gentlemen persist in the method employed by DR. JOHN MILNE at the last reference. Compound names composed of two languages are exceedingly rare. It is true that pleonastic names are common enough, such as Loch Watten in Caithness, Barr Hill and Knock Hill in many Scottish counties ; but these are not true compounds. To press Gaelic into service for interpreting Hogshillock would raise a smile on the countenance of any Scots shepherd. " Hog " is the technical name for a sheep in the second year. No progress can be made with place-names without careful collation of the oldest written forms (which are nearly always phonetic), and noting the stress syllable, which normally denotes the qualitative, i HERBERT MAXWELL.
The etymology suggested et the last reference is inconsistent with the word- history of this place-name, as a comparison of its early forms will demonstrate. In 1390 the written form is Colorandispeth ; in 1438 its castle is referred to as " the tour of Colbrandspeth " ; in 1442 the name occurs as Colbrandspetht. These early forms show that the name meant " the path (or peth) of Colbrand," and there is evidence that the spoken sound was Cobrandspeth. This appears from the next instance, wnere also the medial "bran," by metathesis, has become " burn." and in 1461 the form occurs as Coburnispeth. And because the patro- nymic, spoken as Coburn, is spelt Cockburn, so, to the Northern eye, the printed form Cockburnspath represents the sound Coburnspeth. Thus far the spoken word has suffered no greater change than its transposed r, altering Colbrandspeth (Cobrandspeth) into Cockburnspath (Coburn- speth), its present form.
But this, like many other country places, had a popular alias, originating in a rapid utterance of the word. In the letter given by MR. LINDSAY HILSON (ante, p. 72) this is shown by Oliver Cromwell's dispatch
dated 1650, to have assumed the echoic
form " Copperspeth " (the spelling given in
Brand's ' History of Newcastle,' ii. 479,
" from the original letter," endorsed
" Copperspith "). This letter, by the way,
indicates the strategic importance of the
place. The echoism of the seventeenth
century was further developed when Copper-
spith passed into Coppersmith as a mere-
pleasantry. The latter title is still heard
as a play upon the word, whilst the shortened
form Copeth may be taken as a protest
against the perversion.
The important constituent of the name is its last syllable, path or peth, a term of com- mon occurrence in Northern England and on the Borders. In this case the early forms show that it is known as the Peth of Colbrand, owing its distinctive title to a personal name as Colbrand's Peth. At the head of the river Coquet in Northumberland is Gam- mellspath, or Kemmellspath, in 1249 written Campaspeth, formed, like Colbrandspeth from a proper name. MR. JOHN T. KEMP (ante, p. 73) cites the place-names Brance- peth, Morpeth, and Peth o' Condie. In this category may be included Urpeth, Cappels- peth, Stoneypeth, and Hollinspeth in the county of Durham. There are besides many instances in which " The Peth " occurs without qualifying prefix, as in " The Peth IT in Allendale and elsewhere. In the ' N.E.D.' under ' Path 2,' the use of the term is fully explained in its special significations, and Cockburnspath itself is incidentally referred to. ' Path, 2a,' is there defined as :
" In Old Northumbrian used to render L. vallis, . . . .hence, north, dial., A hollow or deep cutting in a road. Locally pronounced, and often written, peth."
A quotation, dated 1548, Patten, ' Exped. Scott.,' B. ij., reads :
" We marched on viii. mile til we came to a place called y e Peaths [i.e. Cockburnspath]. It is a valey....a xx. skore [yards] brode from banketo banke aboue," &c.
Path is also defined (2b) as the " common name of a steep ascent in a road, and hence occurring in many names of places and of steep streets or lanes in towns, in Scotland, North- umberland, Durham, &c."
R. OLIVER HESLOP. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
OLD SERJEANTS' INN (10 S. xi. 344). The paper on ' The Serjeants and their Inns ' read in the old Hall by Mr. (now Sir) Edward W. Brabrook, F.S.A., on 5 May, 1877 (Transactions London and Middlesex Archceol. Soc., v. 234), affords one of the best summaries of the history of this foundation.
