her, Fleischmann, [Footnote: Hellenized as
Sarkander. This was a favourite trick of German scholars at the
Renaissance period. Well-known examples are Melancthon (Schwarzerd),
Neander (Neumann).] Metzger, Schlechter; but our flesher has been
absorbed by Fletcher, a maker of arrows, Fr. fleche. Fletcher Gate at
Nottingham was formerly Flesher Gate. The undue extension of Taylor
has already been mentioned (Chapter IV). Another example is Barker,
which has swallowed up the Anglo-Fr. berquier, a shepherd, Fr. berger,
with the result that the Barkers outnumber the Tanners by three to one

"'What craftsman are you?' said our King,
'I pray you, tell me now.'
'I am a barker,' quoth the tanner;
'What craftsman art thou?'"

(Edward IV. and the Tanner of Tamworth.)

The name seems to have been applied also to the man who barked trees
for the tanner.

MISSING TRADESMEN

With Barker it seems natural to mention Mewer, of which I find one
representative in the London Directory. The medieval le muur had
charge of the mews in which the hawks were kept while moulting (Fr.
muer, Lat. mutare). Hence the phrase "mewed up." The word seems to
have been used for any kind of coop. Chaucer tells us of the
Franklin--

"Ful many a fat partrich hadde he in muw" (A, 349).

I suspect that some of the Muirs (Chapter XII) spring from this
important office. Similarly Clayer has been absorbed by the local
Clare, Kayer, the man who made keys, by Care, and Blower, whether of
horn or bellows, has paid tribute to the local Bloor, Blore.

Sewer, an attendant at table, aphetic for Old Fr. asseour, a setter,
is now a very rare name. As we know that sewer, a drain, became
shore, it is probable that the surname Shore sometimes represents this
official or servile title. And this same name Shore, though not
particularly common, and susceptible of a simple local origin, labours
under grave suspicion of having also enriched itself at the expense of
the medieval le suur, the shoemaker, Lat. sutor-em, whence Fr.
Lesueur. This would inevitably become Sewer and then Shore, as above.
Perhaps, in the final reckoning, Shaw is not altogether guiltless, for
I know of one family in which this has replaced earlier Shore.

The medieval le suur brings us to another problem, viz. the poor show
made by the craftsmen who clothed the upper and lower extremities of
our ancestors. The name Hatter, once frequent enough, is almost
extinct, and Capper is not