Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

enough without the prefix, may be set beside our 'Plastows,' relics of the 'Atte Pleistowe' or 'de la Pleystowe' of the period we are considering. The play-stowe' (that is, 'playground') seems to have been the general term in olden days for the open piece of greensward near the centre of the village where the may-pole stood, and where all the sports at holiday times and wake tides were carried on.1 Our 'Meads ' or 'Meddes ' hail from the ' meadow,' or' mead.' 'Ate Med ' is the early form.2

A 'croft' was an enclosed field for pasture. Be-sides 'Croft' it has given us 'Meadowcroft,' 'Rye-croft,' ' Bancroft ' (that is, bean-croft), ' Berecroft' (that is, barley-croft), and 'Haycraft' (that is, hedged-croft). It seems, however, to have been freely used, also, in the sense of garth or yard, the enclosure in which, or by which, the house stood. Thus, in the 'Townley Mysteries,' Satan is represented as calling to the depraved and vile, and saying

Come to my crofte alle ye.

With the humour of the period, which was ever largelyintermingled in even the most sacred themes, one of the characters, acting as a demon, replies

Souls come so thyk now late unto hell
As ever

Our porter at hell-gate

Is holden so strait,

Up early and downe late,
He rests never.

1 'Agnes atte Punfald' (A.) reminds us of our 'Penfold,' or 'Pinfold,' i.e. the pound.

2 'Ralph ate Med' (A.). 'Philip atte Medde' (M). In the Hundred Rolls we find 'William le Medward' corresponding to 'Hayward.' ( Vide p. 198.)

LOCAL SURNAMES.

There is little distinction to be drawn between ' garth' and ' yard' in the North of England, and in reality there ought to be none. Such names, however, as 'Nicholas de Apelyerd,' or 'Robert del Apelgarth,' or 'Richard atte Orcheyerd,' the descendants of whom are still in our midst, bespeak a former familiarity of usage which we cannot find now. We have just mentioned 'Haycraft.' This reminds us of our 'Hayes.' Chaucer, in his ' Troilus,' says

But right so as these holtes and these hayes,

That han in winter dead been and dry,

Revesten them in grene when that May is

When every lusty beast listeth to pley.

A ' hay' was nothing but a 'hedge.' In the Hundred Rolls we find such names occurring as 'Margery de la Haye' or 'Roger de la Hagh,' or in a compounded form 'Richard de la Woodhaye,' or 'Robert de Brodheye.' Of the simple root the forms most common now are 'Hay,' 'Hayes,' 'Haighs,' 'Haigs; and 'Hawes.' The composite forms are endless. 'Roundhay' explains itself. 'Lyndsay' I find spelt at this period as 'Lyndshay,' so that it is not the islet whereon the lind or linden grows, but the hedge of these shrubs. Besides these we have 'Haywood' or 'Heywood,' 'Hayland' and 'Hayley.' From the form 'hawe,' mentioned above, we have our 'Hawleys,' 'Haworths,' and 'Hawtons,'or 'Haughtons,' and probably the longest name in the directory, that of 'Featherstonehaugh.' We still talk of the haw-thorn and haw-haw. Chaucer uses the term for a farm-yard or garth

And eke there was a polkat in his hawe

That, as he sayd, his capons had yslawe,