Vestiges of the supremacy of Mercia in the South of England, during the eighth century / by Thomas Kerslake.

  • Kerslake, T. (Thomas), 1812-1891.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vestiges of the supremacy of Mercia in the South of England, during the eighth century / by Thomas Kerslake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    which still constitutes the largest and most prominent portion of this peninsula. So it was already called, even before the early time with which we shall find our own concern with it • for in a charter, dated a.d. 738,1 it is already mentioned as “regio qiue vocatur Hohg.” In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a d. 902, it is mentioned as “Holme.” In Domesday,2 the hundred which con- stitutes the peninsular portion, is called “HOV;” the isthmus portion having already, however, become a separate hundred, then called “ Essamele,” now “ Shamwell.” The towns in the district have their proper names added to “ Hoo,” as “ Hoo-St.-Mary,” and “ Hoo-St-Werburgh : ” and this last has the church above referred to. This is situated on the southern or Medway shore of the Hoo ; but on the cliff of the northern side of the elevated core of the peninsula, and over-looking the great reach of the contended that this name-form is a vestige of the Danes, and, on this North Devon coast, the Danes might quite as likely have left their mark, as the Mercians. But one of them, “Martinhoe,” is formed by the addition of “-lioe ” to the Christian dedication of the church : not likely, therefore, to have been named by a pagan colony. Another place, in East Devon not many miles from the Mercian Widworthy-St. Cuthbert already mentioned, (p. 125), called “ Pinhoe,” is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 1001, to have been burnt by the Danes in revenge of a Saxon defeat. Would this revenge have fallen upon their own countrymen ? Also, close to the South Devon dedication of St. Werburgh (p. 121), at Wembury, before mentioned, are two examples of this name-form. One, the well-known “ Hoe,” of Plymouth ; another, the village of “ Hooe,” in the promontory itself, where Wembury stands. Again, we have seen above that this very “regio,” in Kent, which now engages us, was so named “ Hogh ” so early as A.D. 738. Very early for the Danes. Add to this : contemporary with the first appearance of the Danes in Northumbria, at Lindisfarne, there was already a place called “ Billingahoh, ” now “ Billing/ior?»,” near Stockton. It is, therefore, evident that “-hoe” was here before the Danes, and can be no other than an Anglian peculiarity. It is, therefore, an additional evidence, and very strong confirmation, of what has been already said of the great Mercian descent upon Devon, that this Anglianism is found strewed in the very path of it. It will presently be seen that, besides Simeon of Durham, and other early chroniclers, both Somner and Camden took it for granted that “-lioe ” is only another form, or dialect of “-ham.” It is however not unlikely, that, as in many other cases, a second mark of names “ -haw ” or “ -liaugh,” said to be Danish, has been concurrent with and undistinguished from this. 1 Cod. Dip., No. lxxxv. 2 8b.