s original,
denoting a man who favoured the fanatic sect, and an enemy to kings, and
so continued till this idea was a little softened, some years after the
Revolution, and during a part of her late Majesty's reign. After which
it was in disgrace until the Queen's death, since which time it hath
indeed flourished with a witness: But how long will it continue so, in
our variable scene, or what kind of mortal it may describe, is a
question which this courtly landlord is not able to answer; and
therefore he should have set a date on the title of his borough, to let
us know what kind of a creature a whig was in that year of our Lord. I
would readily assist nomenclators of this costive imagination, and
therefore I propose to others of the same size in thinking, that, when
they are at a loss about christening a country-seat, instead of
straining their invention, they would call it _Booby-borough_,
_Fool-brook_, _Puppy-ford_, _Coxcomb-hall_, _Mount-loggerhead_,
_Dunce-hill_; which are innocent appellations, proper to express the
talents of the owners. But I cannot reconcile myself to the prudence
of this lord of WHIG-_borough_, because I have not yet heard, among the
Presbyterian squires, how much soever their persons and principles are
in vogue, that any of them have distinguished their country abode by the
name of _Mount-regicide_, _Covenant-hall_, _Fanatic-hill_,
_Roundhead-bawn_, _Canting-brook_, or _Mont-rebel_, and the like; because
there may probably come a time when those kind of sounds may not be so
grateful to the ears of the kingdom. For I do not conceive it would be a
mark of discretion, upon supposing a gentleman, in allusion to his name,
or the merit of his ancestors, to call his house _Tyburn-hall_.

But the scheme I would propose for changing the denominations of land
into legible and audible syllables, is by employing some gentlemen in
the University; who, by the knowledge of the Latin tongue, and their
judgment in sounds, might imitate the Roman way, by translating those
hideous words into their English meanings, and altering the termination
where a bare translation will not form a good cadence to the ear, or be
easily delivered from the mouth. And, when both those means happen to
fail, then to name the parcels of land from the nature of the soil, or
some peculiar circumstance belonging to it; as, in England, _Farn-ham_,
_Oat-lands_, _Black-heath_, _Corn-bury_, _Rye-gate_, _Ash-burnham_,
_Barn-elms_, _Cole-or