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'Dolphin,' and the next name 'Ling,' is a well-known Norfolk

surname.

'Mackerell.' 'Molet' is the old name of the mullet. The surname is spelt Mollet now; but Wm. Molet, prior of Norwich, used only one 7. The mullet in heraldry represents the rowel of a spur. The arms of the Prior do not assist us on to the derivation of the name; for he bore on his shield three fish and three mullets.

'Pike,' 'Pickerel :' the former would often be from the weapon. 'Rudd,' in allusion to the colour, and a nearly allied fish, the 'Roach,' is blazoned on many different shields by the bearers of the surname.

By way of contrasts we have 'Sturgeon,' Salmon' (often a contraction of Solomon, which accounts for its comparative frequency), 'Spratt,' 'Spyrlynge' (the smelt), 'Skate,' 'Tunney,' and 'Tench.' Fisher Tench was some years since a resident in Norwich. "Tritton' or 'Triton,' this may be from the mollusk, from the bird, or the heathen demi-god.

Whale,'' Whiting,' and 'Wray.'

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I have a long list of Norfolk names which correspond with those of plants. Ash,' 'Aster,' 'Aspin,' 'Anniss,' perhaps from the herb, or the Christian name Agnes. Allnutt,' Mr. Lower says, is from aulnette, an old Norman diminutive of aulne, an alder.

'Bean,' 'Broom,' 'Birch,' 'Barley;' going back four centuries, we find 'Oldbarley' and 'Oldcorn,' the former a sheriff of Norwich. 'Bete,'' Bayes,' and 'Blanchflower.' In the sixteenth century 'de Beche' was a Norwich name. Bacon,' is given by Verstegan as a surname from the beech, which he says was anciently called Bacon; and adds, "whereas swynesflesh is now called by the name of bacon; it grew only at the first unto such as were fatted with bacon or Beech-mast." John 'Borage' lived at Barsham, A.D. 1636. 'Bramble' and 'Briars.' John Briars was rector of Diss, A.D. 1713; and William de la Bruere, of Gunton, is mentioned in the Crown Pleas Roll. 'Burdock,' 'Braken,' 'Butflower' (at Haverland, A.D. 1638).

'Cherry,' 'Chervil,' 'Crabtree,' 'Crowfoot' (because his foot was like that of a crow, and not from any resemblance to a ranunculus), 'Cornbyne' (convolvulus).

'Chesnut,''Cornell,' 'Clover,' 'Campion' a corruption of 'Champion.' 'Comyn' from cumin ; 'Cumine' is now a Lynn name. 'Cheney' from the French chêne. Coudray' from coudrier.

The name

'Colombine' has been well established in Norwich, commencing with Francois la Colombine, who was one of the Walloon congregation.

'Durnell,' 'Dod:' the latter, Verstegan writes, "is of that thing anciently so called, which groweth in the sides of waters among flagges, and is of boys called foxtaile."

'Elder,' senior not sambucus, 'Fennell,' 'Flowers,' 'Frazier,' 'Furze,' and 'Fayle,' or 'Failes,' Norman names from the ash.

The name 'Fagg' suggests two very different thoughts-the enjoyment of delicious ease, sub tegmine fagi, and the schoolboy slavery which disgraces some public schools; but as the tree and not the drudgery is the probable origin of the surname, it may claim a place in our list.

'Gale' is most likely from the wind. John Garlick' was rector of Wells, A.D. 1727. Gowan,' 'Greengrass,' 'Gage.'

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'Hawthorn,'' Hazell,' 'Heath, 'Holley.' Mr. Lower suggests that Hussey' may be borrowed from the Norman name Houssaie, from the holly; if so, perhaps 'Bussey' is from another Norman name, Bouisset, from the box-tree. Holmes' may be from the holme or evergreen oak, but more likely from holm, a small island. 'Ivy,' 'Juniper.'

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'Langweed.' 'Lillye' was a Lynn name in 1573. 'Lavender' from the trade; the lavender was a washerman. The word is still in use in the feminine laundress. William Launder was a weaver in Norwich, A.D. 1734. Lemon' is another form of 'Leman.'

'May,' 'Mallows,' 'Madders.' 'Moss,' perhaps from moss, a moor, but more often a contraction of Moses. 'Marjoram,' 'Medlar,' 'Musk,' and in the list of fines for Norfolk in the 'Antiquarian Miscellany' I find Morell; but in this case, as with the names 'Reed' and 'Sorrell' which follow, the colour is the origin of the name.

'Nettle,' 'Nutt,' 'Neap,' if not from nepos, is from nep, napte, Nepeta cataria, the catmint, from which, as Forby tells us, the saying, "White as nep or nip," in allusion to the white down which covers the plant.

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Oates, Onion, Oake, and Olive. John Olive was hanged for rioting at the same time as John Gulle. And Olley' and 'Nolley,' both Norfolk names, are from the Christian name 'Oliver.'

'Plant,' 'Pear,' 'Pomeroy,' 'Primrose,' and Porret (the leek), 'Parsley,' 'Pepper,' 'Pease.' A house in Norwich had formerly

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for its sign peas and beans. Plane,' 'Poppy,' often spelt Popy, which suggests a diminutive of Pope; in the 'Paston Letters' we read of Mr. R. Popy, "a cunning and crafty man." 'Popple,' an old name for the poplar, still in use in America. 'Plumtree' and

'Peartree.'

'Rice,' 'Reed,''Rush,' 'Rose,' and 'Rye.' This last, Lower says, is from rye, a shore, or it may be from the town. Ramsey is given in the 'Promptorum Parvulorum' as the English name of Allium ursinum. I believe the word is now Ramson, neither of which is likely to have originated the surname. 'Rosier' (rose bush),

and 'Drosier' may be a contraction of de rosier.

'Sorrell,' 'Savin,' from the savyne tree, are old as well as modern surnames here. Thos. Savyn was vicar of Wiggenhall, A.D. 1439. 'Sallows.' We find the name of 'de Salicibus' at Clippesby in the reign of Henry II. 'Samphire,' 'Savory,' 'Skerrett,' 'Sedges.' 'Suckling,' 'Sage,' and 'Spruce,' the two latter, perhaps, descriptive of character and appearance. 'Sweeting' is the name of an apple, and 'Pearmain' may be a corruption of permain. Most likely one is a term of endearment, and the other put for perriman, a vendor of perry.

It is surely more pleasant to connect the name 'Stocks' with the plant, rather than that useful instrument which was formerly a picturesque object on the village green; but probably it is from the stock of a tree, and is identical with the Norman name Zouch; we have the same word in the Norfolk names 'Bostock' and 'Holstock.' The name 'Stubbs' has a similar meaning; thus we read in the 'Faerie Queene' :

"And all about old stockes and stubs of trees

"Whereon nor fruit nor leaf was ever seen.

"Thorn,' 'Thistle,' 'Teasell.'

'Vine.' Henry 'Vilet' was mayor of Lynn, A.D. 1590; his grandson was Thomas 'Violet' of Pinkney. Winn,' ' Willows,' 'Weeds,' 'Woodbine,' 'Woodruff' (a perverted form of wood-reeve), 'Wildgrass,' 'Worts,' the personal name which is commemorated in Wortwell, and Zouche.

I have pointed out the uncertain derivation of some of the foregoing names, but giving the beasts the benefit of the doubt, we have in this list 315 surnames, of which 195 are from the animal and 120 from the vegetable kingdom, some of which are frequently

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met with, but none are very common; only one-'Martin'-occurs in the list of the fifty most common names given by the RegistrarGeneral. Within the last few days I have seen a new version of the Clergy List,' in which odd names have been grouped together, from which it would appear that next to 'Martin' the most common name among the birds is 'Drake,' which occurs eighteen times in the Clergy List.' There are ten Nightingales, nine Ravens, seven Woodcocks, and seven Swans. In what the compiler calls the Clerical Menagerie,' thirty Foxes, eighteen Bulls, fifteen Bullocks, fifteen Lambs, and fourteen Harts; while the most common fish is the Salmon. The above figures may give us some idea of the comparative frequency of these surnames, many of which are names of contempt, and must have been imposed and not assumed by the persons themselves; while many are from creatures with so little individuality, that it is difficult to see how they could have imposed their names on any one.

Camden says: "The tyrant time which hath swallowed many names, bath also in use of speech changed more-contracting, mollifying, and curtailing them," and this we shall find to be especially true of surnames from living objects. Many which are often met with in poll-books of the last century are not to be found in modern directories. Such names are seldom or never coined now, and while some die out, others are so changed that they scarcely suggest the animal or plant from which they are borrowed.

VII.

ON THE OCCURRENCE OF BALENA BISCAYENSIS, THE ATLANTIC RIGHT-WHALE,

ON THE EAST COAST OF SCOTLAND.

BY THOMAS SOUTHWELL, F.Z.S.

Read 22nd February, 1881.

By far the most interesting fact which has come to my knowledge of late, with regard to British Mammalia, is the undoubted occurrence in the year 1806 of an old female of the above species, accompanied by its young one, at Peterhead. I am indebted for the particulars of this event to Captain David Gray, the experienced commander of the whaler Eclipse.'

Several instances (none very recent) of the supposed occurrence of Greenland Right-whales in British waters are to be found recorded; these records, however, are neither very precise nor authentic. Our knowledge of the habits and distribution of this species was much less accurate at that time than at present, and, as a better acquaintance with the subject revealed the extreme improbability of the Greenland Right-whale (B. mysticetus)—the only northern species of Right-whale then known-ever straying to our latitude, the opinion gained ground that some other species of Whalebone Whale had been mistaken for the true Balana. In 1861, Professors Eschricht and Reinhardt, of Copenhagen, published their elaborate researches on the subject,* and clearly established the existence of two distinct northern species of Right-whale, one of which "belonged to the waters of the temperate Northern Atlantic as exclusively as the Greenland Whale belonged to the icy Polar Sea," thus throwing a flood of light on the hitherto obscure species, formerly abounding as far south as the Bay of Biscay; and it is now generally believed that those individuals

"Om Nordhvalen," which appeared in the 'Transactions of the Royal Danish Society of Sciences;' a translation, edited by Professor Flower, was published by the Ray Society in 1866.

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