which sometimes seize the body corporate of society. Truly it is a strange story this that our surnames tell us. ‘What’s in a name?’ in the light of all this, seems indeed but a pleasantry, meant to denote how full, how teeming with the story of our lives is each—as so they are. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER II. LOCAL SURNAMES. In well-nigh every country where personal nomenclature has assumed a sure and settled basis, that is, where a second or surname has become an hereditary possession in the family, we shall find that that portion of it which is of local origin bears by far the largest proportion to the whole. We could well proceed, therefore, to this class apart from any other motive, but when we further reflect that it is this local class which in the first instance became hereditary, we at once perceive an additional claim upon our attention. I need scarcely say at the outset that, as with all countries so with England, prefixes of various kinds were at first freely used to declare more particularly whence the nominee was sprung. Thus, if he were come from some town or city he would be ‘William of York,’ or ‘John of Bolton,’ this enclitic being familiarly pronounced ‘à,’ as ‘William a York,’ or ‘John a Bolton.’ For instance, it is said in an old poem anent Robin Hood— It had been better of William a Trent To have been abed with sorrowe; where it simply means ‘William of Trent.’[105] This, of course, is met in France by ‘de,’ as it was also on English soil during early Norman times. If, on the other hand, the _situation_ only of the abode gave the personality of the nominee, the connecting link was varied according to the humour or caprice of the speaker, or the relative aspect of the site itself. Thus, if we take up the old Hundred Rolls we shall find such entries as ‘John Above-brook,’ or ‘Adelina Above-town,’ or ‘Thomas Behind-water,’ or ‘John Beneath-the-town.’ Or take a more extended instance, such as ‘Lane.’ We find it attached to the personal name in such fashions as the following:— Cecilia in the Lane. Emma a la Lane. John de la Lane. John de Lane. Mariota en le Lane. Philippa ate Lane. Thomas super Lane. ‘Brook,’ again, by the variety of the prefixes which I find employed, may well be cited as a further example. We have such entries as these:— Alice de la Broke. Andreas ate Broke. Peter ad le Broke. Matilda ad Broke. Reginald del Broke. Richard apud Broke. Sarra de Broke. Reginald bihunde Broke.