be "Robert the waggoner," and not coachman ; and surely it is waste of print and space in such a book as this to give notes explanatory of the meaning of terms like "chasuble" and " corporal"; but as a whole the work is well done, interesting to those acquainted with the places, and possessing real value for the general antiquary. In some valuable remarks on the open fields of the district, the author regrets that "the enclosure map for Great Bowden and Harborough is missing." This is often the case with the carelessly kept and easily purloined records of a parish, but local historians should know that copies are almost invariably to be found with the Clerk of the Peace for the county, and that their inspection can be demanded. Pages 159-208 give

annotated accounts of the actual records or deeds of the parish, taken chronologically, beginning with a dateless grant of the end of the twelfth century, and ending, so far as this volume is concerned, with 1520. The rest of the volume consists of extracts from Leicester Wills, 1516-1539; a Market Harborough inventory of 1509 found at Lincoln; interesting proceedings taken in 1407 against the rector of Little Bowden as to the provision of a chaplain for Little Oxendon; a brief grant of the advowson of Little Bowden, 1456; and a copious index.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED.-Among books received, reviews or notices of which will subsequently appear, may be mentioned: Churchwardens' Accounts (4th vol. of Somerset Records), Blades' Books in Chains, Vestiges of Old Newcastle, and Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft; also various pamphlets_and magazines of interest.

Correspondence.

HOLY WELLS.

I am sure Mr. Hope wishes to be accurate in the legends associated with Holy Wells, and therefore I trust he will permit me to correct an error in his remarks on St. Gover's Well, Kensington Gardens. He writes: "St. Gover has been corrupted into Gorehence Kensington Gore" (Antiquary, vol. xxi., p. 267). In connection with Kensington, "Gore" is a much older name than "Gover"-a gore is a threecornered patch, a word in common use among tailors and dressmakers, and, as Mr. Loftie (History of Kensington, 1888) points out, "when it was first applied to the now celebrated Kensington Gore, it had not lost its meaning as a geographical or topographical or topographical term." It described a triangular space intercepted between the parish boundary and the high-road. In the reign of Henry I. one of the abbots of Westminster gave the Gore to the little priory of nuns at Kilburn. Faulkner, in his History of Kensington, prints a copy of the charter-in loco qui GARA appellatur—and adds that when an inquisition was taken in 1270 it was called "Kinggesgor."

""

then Chief Commissioner of Public Works, caused the steps and railings to be supplied, and it was by his order that the inscription "St. Gover's Well was placed upon the stone wall over the spout. The name "Llanover" is derived from a British saint named Gover, and in the grounds of Llanover House, Monmouthshire, are still to be seen the celebrated St. Gover's Wells. It is clear why the name was chosen.

Now, with regard to the well in the Gardens, it first received the name of St. Gover when, in 1856, Lord Llanover, better known as Sir Benjamin Hall,

Whilst writing about a Middlesex well, may I suggest that to the list should be added that of St. Loy's, or Eloy's Well, Tottenham, if for no other reason than the uncommonness of the name in England. It is frequently to be met with in Belgium. Bedwell, whose Brief History of Tottenham was printed in 1631, wrote: "St. Loy's Well, which nowe is nothing els but a deep pitte in the highway on the west side thereof, betweene his cell and the Crosse, almost midde way; it is always full of water, but neuer runneth ouer; the water thereof, as they say, doth farre excede all the waters nere vnto it; it was within the memory of man cast, to cleanse it, because it was almost fill'd vp with muddle; and in the bottome of it there was found a very fayre great stone, which had certaine characters or letters engrau'n vpon it, but it being by the negligence of the workmen broken and sorly defaced, and no man nere that regarded such things, it is vnknown what they were, or what they might signify."

St. Stephen's Club,

HARRY G. GRIFFINHOOFE. S. W.

Referring to Mr. Hope's very interesting series of "Holy Wells," I perceive that in this month's issue of the Antiquary he gives in the county of Nottingham only St. Anne's Well. There is near Newark a well known as St. Catherine's, which was formerly very celebrated. It is situate near the earthwork called the Queen's Sconce, and the legend is, shortly, that a certain Sir Guy Saucimer, having in a fit of jealousy slain his rival, Sir Everard Bevercotes, a spring of water flowed from the spot where the murdered knight's head fell, in which Sir Guy was subsequently healed from the leprosy which befell him as a punishment for his crime. A chapel was built over the well, and dedicated to St. Catherine. This has since disappeared.

This well was formerly in the possession of my great-grandfather, who bought the site, on account of the extraordinary purity of the water, and established a linen manufactory there. The well still yields a copious supply of the purest water, and my father remembers that when he was a boy people from the town would send for the water on account of its quality.

W. J. SCALES.

Belvoir House, Hornsey Lane, N.

CAISTOR AND PRETORIUM.
(No. 129, p. 88.)

CAISTOR may have been a Roman station, but not an itinerary station, and the distance stated shows that it cannot be the ancient Pretorium.

It is plain by the Ordnance Survey that the dis

EDINBURGH.

(Vol. xxii., p. 136.)

The word-forms of Edinburgh in the Holyrood chartulary are of exceptional, approaching to paramount, importance. It is there, if anywhere, that one would expect to find authenticity. Dealing with the documents it records, Mr. Miller had said: "Out of eight charters in King David's time, from 1124 to 1153, Edwinesburg and Edenesburg occur five times, and Edeneburg three times." Hence the remark (which I quite admit was insufficiently qualified) in my critique, that in the oldest charters the name is spelt oftener with the s than without it. These s spellings in David's day do not stand alone, nor are they confined to the Holyrood chartulary, in which they crop up frequently in the reigns of Malcolm IV. and of William the Lion. Although there is a distinct and growing tendency to disappearance, the survival of the form in even a round dozen of charters of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries constitutes a problem of which the place-name student should show himself conscious. S's are like other things, they don't generally come by chance.

I reserved my opinion on the etymology of Edinburgh, except that I believed Mr. Miller's argument was not conclusive, and did not effectually disprove the derivation it assailed. The subject is of historical interest, and Mr. Miller is welcome to the following suggestion should he again be dealing with it at any future time. The s and the Edwin may perhaps be explained as a bit of popular etymology like the g that transformed the northern parish of Kynedore, Kinedar, or Kinnedward, into King Edward-a truly marvellous place-name for Scotland! That Edwinsburgh is an effort of ignorant, would-be learned popular etymology is not an unreasonable view, although there is a heavy case against it. The authority of the Holy. rood chartulary and of its corroborations is certainly not to be set aside with a light heart. There are dozens of places in England and Scotland whose names have the genitival s sometimes, and sometimes dispense with it. These are almost invariably from personal names. Examples from the thirteenth century are Roberdestone, now Roberton; Oswaldeskirk, now Oswaldkirk; Ayleford, now Aylesford; Tatinton, now Tattingston; Rugeleslegh, now Rugeley; Dickles wurthe, now Dickleborough. Towns named

from rivers usually have not the possessive s, though occasionally it appears. Thus Eden as a streamname gives both Edenshead and Edentown, and I rather think Edenstown, too. The ways of rivers are a trifle peculiar. My last remark is, that if it be assumed that Edwinsburgh was the primitive wordin other words, if we accept the evidence from Holyrood as sound-then there is no phonetic or grammatical difficulty in the view that Edenburgh, Edinburgh, and Edensburgh, would result. The dropping of zer in such cases happens every day. Maxwell, for example, always sounds "Maxel." An older instance of one of these dropped w's may kill two birds with one stone. Seven centuries ago a place in Roxburghshire bore the name of Lessedewyn, or Lessedwynmeaning, I believe, the lis, or fortified camp of Edwin. Antiquaries have assigned it to King Edwin. That matters little, however, for kings' names make the same phonetic progress as those of other folk. After passing through various forms, of which Lesudwin is one type, the spelling is now settled as Lesudden. Instances in that precise shape go back to the thirteenth century. In the adjoining county of Berwick is a dry built round tower known as Edinshall. It also (see Antiquary, 1882, vol. v., p. 173) has been assigned to King Edwin, and its generally accepted etymology is Edwin's hall.

REVIEWER.