es may also become perverted. Thus -ham is sometimes confused
with -holm (Chapter XII), -ley, as I have just suggested, may in some
cases contain -ey, -ton occasionally interchanges with -don and
-stone, and -lord with the French -fort (Chapter XIV).

In this chapter will be found a summary of the various words applied
by our ancestors to the natural features of the land they lived on.
To avoid too lengthy a catalogue, I have classified them under the
three headings--

(1) Hill and Dale,

(2) Plain and Woodland,

(3) Water and Waterside,

reserving for the next chapter the names due to man's interference
with the scenery, e.g. roads, buildings, enclosures, etc.

They are mostly Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian, the Celtic name remaining
as the appellation of the individual hill, stream, etc. (Helvellyn,
Avon, etc.). The simple word has in almost all cases given a fairly
common surname, but compounds are of course numerous, the first
element being descriptive of the second, e.g. Bradley, broad lea,
Radley and Ridley, red lea, Brockley, brook lea or badger lea (Chapter
XXIII), Beverley, beaver lea, Cleverley, clover lea, Hawley, hedge
lea, Rawnsley, raven's lea, and so ad infinitum. In the oldest
records spot names are generally preceded by the preposition at,
whence such names as Attewell, Atwood, but other prepositions occur,
as in Bythesea, Underwood and the hybrid Suttees, on Tees. Cf. such
French names as Doutrepont, from beyond the bridge.

One curious phenomenon, of which I can offer no explanation, is that
while many spot names occur indifferently with or without -s, e.g.
Bridge, Bridges; Brook, Brooks; Platt, Plaits, in others we find a
regular preference either for the singular or plural form. [Footnote:
In some cases no doubt a plural, in others a kind of genitive due to
the influence of personal names, such as Wills, Perkins, etc.]
Compare the following couples:

Field Meadows

Lake Rivers

Pool Mears (metes)

Spying Wells

House Coates (P, 133)

Marsh Myers (mires)

[Footnote: Myers is very often a Jewish name, from the very common
Ger. Meyer, for which see Chapter IV.]

to which many more might be added. So we find regularly Nokes but
Nash (Chapter III), Beech but Willows. The general tendency is
certainly towards the -s forms in the case of monosyllables, e.g.
Banks, Foulds, Hayes, Stubbs, Thwaites, etc., but we naturally find
the singular in compounds, e.g. Wind