78
NOTES AND QUE1UES. 112 s. vi. MARCH, 19-20.
The interpretation here offered is typical
of those proposed by the erudite for the
enlightenment of the unlearned. In the present instance the general reader, while marvelling at the picturesque group of the roebuck at the foaming fount, is relieved to learn that the author of the foregoing note would be content with a less fanciful
.derivation of the first syllable. K. S.
Under the head " Urchinwood " in ' Place- Names of Somerset ' ( J. S. Hill), p. 320, we are told that Urchfont contains the personal name " ' Eorcon ' pronounced Erchon, soft not hard." Identifying this with " urchin," Mr. Hill proceeds :
" Urchin no doubt means a hedgehog, which, however, is not a Saxon word, but a French- Latin word. The Latin is ericius (the initial vowel is long), the old French irecon (with soft c), and in the Norman dialect herichon and herisson. The name would thus be late and mean the hedgehog wood, and then, naturally, we desire to know why. So very many hedgehogs ? Eorcon as Saxon means a gem or pearl."
Hence as the meaning of urchfont, we may choose between " a stream the resort of hedgehogs," or ' a stream taking its name from a Saxon whose name meant gem or pearl." As " font " bears a Norman appear- ance, the first meaning is the most probable, .or as a third variation we might imagine a ..Norman with the nickname Hedgehog.
F. J. ODELL. Totnes.
Urchfont, Wilts, 4 miles south-west from .Patney station. There is a spring in the parish that never runs dry, and the deriva- tion of its name, Archefount, or, as in Domesday " Jerchesfont," has its probable source in the same. H. P. HART.
The Vicarage, Ixworth, Bury St. Edmunds.
DANVERS FAMILY (12 S. v. 320). The
- most exhaustive book on this family is
' Memorials of the Danvers Family,' by F. N. Macnamara, M.D., London, Hardy & 'Page, 1895. It is very good reading too. JOHN R. MAGRATH.
REV. JAMES HEWS BRANSBURY (12 S. vi. 37). Unitarian minister ; was born at Ipswich, 1783. Son of John Bransbury (d. 1837). Minister at Moreton Hampstead, Devon, 1802-5; at Dudley (where he also kept a preparatory school), 1805-28. He married Sarah, dau. of J. Isaac, a Baptist minister at Moreton Hampstead. She died Oct. 28, 1841.
He was a very eccentric character and while at Dudley developed kleptomania,
and committed forgery. He was, however*
allowed to leave Dudley and re;ire to Wales
where he edited a paper and wrote books. He
died quite suddenly at Bron'r Hendref, near
Carnarvon, Nov. 4, 1847. The ' D.N.B. 1
contains an account of Mr. Bransbury, with
a list of his publications.
H. G. HARBISON.
Aysgarth, Sevenoaks.
STEPHEN HOPKINS : DAVY MICHELL THOMAS COTESMOBE (12 S. v. 292). The livings held by Hopkins were apparently East and West Wrotham (now Wretham) in Norfolk, not Wrotham, in Kent. See Cooper's ' Athena* Cantabrigienses,' v. i, 212, and the list of the rectors of those parishes in Blomefield's ' History of Norfolk.' Cooper does not mention his taking the degree of B.D. EDWARD BENSLY.
SIB EDWARD PAGET (12 S. v. 126). Facing page 268 of vol. ii. of 'The Paget Papers ' (Heinemann, 1886), there is a reproduced portrait, evidently from an oil painting, of General Sir Edward Paget, but the letterpress does not disclose the whereabouts of the original.
ARCHIBALD SPARKE.
" GRAM " IN PLACE-NAMES (12 S. v. 266). The places named being all hamlets, I think the suffix represents a contraction of the O.Fr. grange, a barn or granary, also a farm, and the place where formerly rents and tithes were received ; see Johnston's ' Place- names of England and Wales,' s.v. Abbots- grange and Grangemouth. In Bartholo- mew's ' Survey Gazetteer of the British Isles ' I find Kilgram Grange in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and Kill (i.e., Cell) of the Grange in co. Dublin. Angram may stand for Atten-Grange, Leagram for La Grange, and Legrams for Les Granges.
Pegram is purely a patronymic, except in the United States, where it occurs as a place-name. It comes from Lat. peregrinus, O.Fr. pelegrin, a pilgrim, the I having dis- appeared and the common change of n into m taking place.
Needless to say, the terminal in Agram and Wagram is radically different, the former deriving from Slavonic Zagreb, and the latter from O.H.G. Wagreine.
N. W. HILL.
35 Woburn Place, W.C.I.
DUMB ANIMALS : AN EIGHTEENTH - CENTURY FRIEND (12 S. v. 290). -The second of the lines " To the Critic" is of course adapted from Gray's "Or draw his frailties from their dread abode."
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.
