Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

have been preserved. When Dr. Manners Sutton' succeeded Dr. Moore in the Archiepiscopal chair of Canterbury, the following lines were written:

What say you ? — the archbishop's dead?

A loss, indeed ! Oh, on his head
May Heaven its blessings pour !

But if with such a heart and mind,

In Manners we his equal find,
Why should we wish for More?

When Sir Thomas More was Chancellor, it is said, his great attention to his duties caused all litigation to come to an end in the Court of Chancery. The following epigram bearing upon this fact was written:

When More some years had Chancellor been,
No more suits did remain;

The same shall never more be seen
Till More be there again.

Our 'Heaths' explain themselves, but our 'Heths,' though the same, and from the first found as

1 Talking of 'Manners,' however, we may add one on the celebrated Marquis of Granby:

'What conquest now will Britain boast,
Or where display her banners?

Alas! in Granby she has lost
True courage and good Manners.'

Puns of this nature may be met with frequently in books of the last century. Some complimentary verses to Dr. Gill, on account of a sup-posed victory in a public controversy, in 1727, in support of immersion at baptism, have a play of this kind at one part:

Stennet,' at first, his furious foe did meet,

Cleanly compelled him to a swift retreat;

Next powerful 'Gale,' by mighty blast made fall

The Church's Dagon, the gigantic ' Wall.'
(Gill's Works, edit. 1839.)

LOCAL SURNAMES.

'atte Heth,' are not so transparent. Some might be tempted to set them down in a more Israelitish category as descendants of the 'children of Heth,' but such is not the case. Somewhat similar to 'Cope,' mentioned above, was 'Knop' or 'Knap' — a summit.' Any protuberance, whatever it might be, was with ourold writers a 'knop.' 2 Rose-buds and buttons alike, with Chaucer, are 'knops':

Among the knops I chose one

So fair, that of the remnant none

Ne praise I halfe so wel as it.

North in his Plutarch says, 'And both these rivers turning in one, carrying a swift streame, doe make theknappe of the said hill very strong of its situation to lodge a camp upon.' To our hilltops, then, it is we owe our 'Knaps,' 'Knappers,' 'Knapmans,' 'Knopps,'

Knopes,' 'Knabwells,' and 'Knaptons.' Our 'Howes' represent the smaller hills, while still less prominent would be the abodes of our early 'Lawes,'3 and Lowes,' or 'de la Lawe' and 'de la Lowe,' as they are found in the Hundred Rolls. Our 'Shores' need no explanation, but our 'Overs' are less known. An old poem, quoted by Mr. Halliwell, says:

1 Our now vulgar term 'nob' is a relic of this: 'To hit a man on the nob' is, in the north, to strike on the head. In the same districts a 'nob' is a rich man, one of family and influence.

2 Our Authorised Version has it, in Exodus xxv. 33 'Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and flower in one branch.'Here a bud is evidently intended. I need scarcely say that ' knob' is but the modern form of this word.

3 Besides 'David atte Lawe' (M.), we have the more personal 'John Laweman' (A.), or 'Ranulf Laweman' (A.). I doubt not these are also local, but one cannot help thinking of Chaucer's 'Sergeant. of the Law; ware and wise.'