nal swordplayer--

"Qe nul teigne escole de eskermerye ne de bokeler deins la citee."

(Liber Albus.)

SURNOMINAL SNOBBISHNESS

A particularly idiotic form of snobbishness has sometimes led people
to advance strange theories as to the origin of their names. Thus
Turner has been explained as from la tour noire. Dr. Brewer, in his
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, [Footnote: Thirteenth edition, revised
and corrected.] apparently desirous of dissociating himself from malt
liquor, observes that--

"Very few ancient names are the names of trades. . . A few examples
of a more scientific derivation will suffice for a hint:--

Brewer. This name, which exists in France as Bruhiere and Brugere, is
not derived from the Saxon briwan (to brew), but the French bruyere
(heath), and is about tantamount to the German Plantagenet (broom
plant). Miller is the old Norse melia, our mill and maul, and means a
mauler or fighter.

Ringer is the Anglo-Saxon hring-gar (the mailed warrior). Tanner,
German Thanger, Old German Dane-gaud, is the Dane-Goth...

This list might easily be extended."

There is of course no reason why such a list should not be
indefinitely extended, but the above excerpt is probably quite long
enough to make the reader feel dizzy. The fact is that there is no
getting away from a surname of this class, and the bearer must try to
look on the brighter side of the tragedy. Brewer is occasionally an
accommodated form of the French name Bruyere or Labruyere, but is
usually derived from an occupation which is the high-road to the House
of Lords. The ancestor of any modern Barber may, like Salvation Yeo's
father, have "exercised the mystery of a barber-surgeon," which is
getting near the learned professions. A Pottinger (Chapter XV) looked
after the soups, Fr. potage, but the name also represents Pothecary
(apothecary), which had in early Scottish the aphetic forms Poticar,
potigar--

"'Pardon me,' said he, 'I am but a poor pottingar. Nevertheless, I
have been bred in Paris and learnt my humanities and my cursus
medendi'"

(Fair Maid of Perth, ch. vii.).

CHAPTER XIX. HODGE AND HIS FRIENDS

"Jacque, il me faut troubler ton Somme;
Dans le village, un gros huissier
Rode et court, suivi du messier.
C'est pour l'impot, las! mon pauvre homme.
Leve-toi, Jacque, leve-toi:
Voici venir I'huissier du roi."

BERANGER.

General terms for what we now usually call a farmer are preserved in
the