One very interesting way of making surnames was to take them from the trade or occupation of the founder of the family. Perhaps the commonest of English surnames is _Smith_. And the word for _Smith_ is the commonest surname in almost every country of Europe. In France we have _Favier_. The reason for this is easy to see. The smith, or man who made iron and other metals into plough-shares and swords, was one of the most important of all the workers in the early days when surnames were being made. There were many smiths, and John the Smith and Tom the Smith easily became John Smith and Tom Smith, and thus had a surname to pass on to their families. As time went on there came to be many different kinds of smiths. There was the smith who worked in gold, and was called a "goldsmith," from which we get the well-known surname _Goldsmith_, the name of a great English writer. Then there was the "nail smith," from which trade came the name _Nasmith_; the "sickle smith," from which came _Sixsmith_; the "shear smith," which gave us _Shearsmith_--and so on. In mediaeval England the manufacture of cloth from the wool of the great flocks of sheep which fed on the pasture lands of the monasteries and other great houses, was the chief industry of the nation. This trade of wool-weaving has given us many surnames, such as _Woolmer_, _Woolman_, _Carder_, _Kempster_, _Towser_, _Weaver_, _Webster_, etc. Some of these referred to the general work of wool-weaving and others to special branches. Any child can think in a moment of several names which have come in this way from trades. We have _Taylor_ for a beginning. But many surnames which are taken from the names of trades come from Old English words which are now seldom or never used. _Chapman_, a common name now, was the Old English word for a general dealer. _Spicer_ was the old name for grocer, and is now a fairly common surname. The well-known name of _Fletcher_ comes from the almost forgotten word _flechier_, "an arrowmaker." _Coltman_ came from the name of the man who had charge of the colts. _Runciman_ was the man who had charge of horses too, and comes from another Old English word, _rouncy_, "a horse." The _Parkers_ are descended from a park-keeper who used to be called by that name. The _Horners_ come from a maker of horns; the _Crockers_ and _Crokers_ from a "croker," or "crocker," a maker of pottery. _Hogarth_ comes from "hoggart," a hog-herd; _Calvert_ from "calf-herd;" and _Seward_ from "sow-herd." _Lambert_ sometimes came from "lamb-herd." But we cannot always be sure of the origin of even the commonest surnames. For instance, every person named _Smith_ is not descended from a smith, for the name also comes from the old word _smoth_, or "smooth," and this is the origin of _Smith_ in _Smithfield_.