On the Personification of Death. 490 tality. Of these, none are of ancient date, and not one sufficiently interesting to be particularly noticed. The extreme length of St. Michael's Church is about 116 feet, and its greatest breadth about 55 feet. I. C. B. Mr. URBAN, Leicester, Dec. 5. Tis really astonishing that nearly I all the attempts which have been hitherto made to personify Death, should have proceeded on the assumption, that the "potent Conqueror" is a skeleton-one of his own victims! An old acquaintance of mine, (Mr. Bisset of Leamington) once told me, that when a boy, and residing in his native country (Scotland), he was asked by a relation what he thought of Death?-and that his answer was, that if Death were what he was represented to be in his book of pictures, young as he then was, if he had his Golf club," and was attacked by a score of such fellows, he would batter their sculls to atoms, and break every bone of their ribs! This anecdote most forcibly struck me, and has led me to my present communication. The finest ideas on record as to Death, are those contained in the admirable Burial Service of our National Church-a service principally extracted from that fountain of light and truth, the Holy Bible. Now what are these ideas? Why, that Death, so far from being a "Skeleton," is the "last enemy to be destroyed,"-one who shall put all things under his feet,"- one who at the last day, through the Divine Atonement, shall, to the righteous, lose his "sting," and claim no "victory." Can any representation therefore be correct which depicts this Hero as a chop-fallen and fleshless spectre-which depicts him as a shadow, who, the Bible tell us, is to reign until flesh' shall be no more?" 66 Death rides throughout the world dispensing happiness and misery, but he rides not as a skeleton, but as an illustrious conqueror;-his steed, though "pale," is fiery, and recognizes no distinctions-with one foot on Royalty, another on Shakspeare, a third on Pitt, and a fourth on Byron, he "wings his way," while his rider flourishes a sword above his head entrusted to him by Omnipotence, and reads to all who now tarry in this earthly passage, a lesson of humility [Dec. and of truth, which is too often disregarded, but which conscience and reflection will sometimes enforce: "Mors ultima linea rerum est," was the sentiment of the ancient Bard, and the idea was perfectly correct, and who could be more capable of forming it than one who indulged every sensual appetite in this world, and who would therefore be the more cautious and reserved in his allusions to a state, the anticipation of which to him could afford no pleasure? I am quite aware that my ideas on the subject are liable to criticism; that however I invite, for although a lover of antiquity, I never can allow that predilection to induce the advocacy of a practice, which, (as I view it) outrages common sense, and (what is of far more consequence) insults the Deity. J. STOCKDALE HARDY. AS I have too much regard for you to suffer you to figure before the present generation and posterity as one of the long-eared tribe, without a serious effort on my part to prevent it, I impose on myself the very disagreeable penance of writing a long letter, in the hope it may prove a means of deterring you from the unphilosophical and Quixotic attempt to change the name of the parish over which you have had the honour to be appointed spiritual pastor. Why, the hot summer, which, partly through your instrumentality, has caused me so much bodily inconvenience, must surely have totally eraporated your modicum of common sense; and the heat which has cracked the pannels of your doors and cupboards, must certainly have cracked your poor brain also. To hear a man, -a full-grown man,-a man who can read and write-a man who has mixed with cultivated society-a man who can talk very rationally about many matters, a Scotchman, a clergy man 1925.] History of the Church and Priory of Swine. man-in the nineteenth century,– speak seriously of changing the name of a parish! Ridiculous! I will venture to say, that the majority of persons who ever occupied their heads with thinking five minutes in their lives, would consider me as maliciously libelling you, if I were to tell them you had any such intention. Have you considered what it is you propose to effect? Did you ever hear of a private individual changing a name recognized in legal documents, and which had prevailed for near a thousand years? The most incorrigible visionary never indulged a dream more wild. You may just as rationally expect to tame the raging ocean, or silence the howling storm. There are but few instances on record of even monarchs having accomplished such a metamorphosis, and that by the aid of some new incident of local interest, a population willing and anxious to co-operate, and Acts of Parliament and other expensive formalities. And this name, towards which you have conceived so foolish au antipathy, and which you would so wantonly annihilate, is not only venerable from its antiquity, but exceedingly honourable in its import, as I shall bye and bye take the trouble to convince you. How shameful would success be, were it even possible for you to insure it! I look upon the appellations given to districts and objects by our remote forefathers (and what educated Englishman does not?) as something saered. They uniformly excite my reverence. They at once inform the head and affect the heart. They are so many monuments of the illustrious personages and transactions of the olden time. We should treat them as we would some venerated tomb in a sacred edifice. We may be permitted occasionally to wipe away the dust, to bring our optics as near as possible, and to decipher the inscription as well as our portion of skill and learning will permit. But every thing beyond this is sacrilege, and I should scarcely regret if the penalty were excommunication. A man of good taste (and good taste is much more nearly allied to good feeling than most people imagine,) would no more consent to the extirpation of an ancient name, than he would lend his hand to demolish an ancient 491 structure. Nay, he would no more presume to alter such a name, than he would presume to modernize or repair a Gothic abbey or castellated mansion, which had fallen into picturesque decay. As the very ruin forms the grand charm in the one case, so does that tinge of obscurity, that affinity to the obsolete, which the changes in our changing language during so long a period must naturally impart, in the other. In the former we discern the characteristic touch, in the latter we distinguish the peculiar accent, of that exquisite artist, that eloquent moralist, Time; and the Goth who is dissatisfied with either, should be sent forthwith to vegetate in the United States of America, or the settlements of New South Wales, or some country equally destitute of ancient recollections, and of names of longer standing than a generation or two. Away with such a contemptible breed from glorious Old England, mine and my family's Father-land-they are literally Swine, and should go, not to Swine in Holderness, but to some congenial stye, where they can munch their tasteless husks, without vexing our more patriotic spirits by defiling and gnawing the pearls which our progenitors have here so plentifully scattered for our intellectual benefit wherever they may happen to turn. Away with them: they can well be spared: they belong to that class which Shakspeare has particularized as having no music in their souls. But surely my friend Milne has no ambition to be in this sense a SwineHerd. Now that the hot weather has departed, I confidently expect his wonted good sense will return, and chase from his mind the absurd scheme which has so unaccountably obtained a transient lodgment there. And pray, what inducement can you possibly have for performing this unheard of freak? Why truly, the Vicar of Swine is a title which holds out a most tempting lure to any graceless wag, who, like myself, may occasionally indulge in cracking a joke at a friend's expense. This may be very terrific to a weak mind, but what mind of ordinary powers would condescend to be scared by such a bugbear? Did you ever hear of Cicero quarreling with his name, because it happened not only to sound like, but absolutely to mean Pimple 492 History of the Church and Priory of Swine. Pimple-nosed? Or Ovid, whose name in plain English would be Nosy (Naso)? Or Strabo, who was continually accosted as Mr. Squint-Eye? Or Čato, one of whose names was actually this identical one of Swine (Porcius)? And, supposing for a moment that ridicule were really a thing to be dreaded by a person in your situation, would you escape" the world's dread laugh" by taking the step you propose? I can assure you that, to use a homely proverb, you would leap out of the fryingpan into the fire. Can you not perceive, that you would be calling the attention of the whole country to the feature of ridicule you are so shocked at having discovered, and virtually say ing "Laugh at me"? And depend apon it you would be laughed at to some purpose, not only now, but many a succession of Antiquaries would enliven the dryness of their learned details by the standing joke of the clerical metamorphoser, who was to Ulysses and his Swinish adventure in the Isle of Calypso, precisely what the Knight of the Woful Countenance was to the genuine Knight-errant of the days of Chivalry. You might as well pin a paper to your back with an inscription requesting those who read it not to laugh at you. - But enough of this. I shall now proceed to fulfil my promise of endeavouring to convince you that the name of your parish is one of which you have no reason to be ashamed. My respect for you has led me to give the subject some consideration, and the result is, that I can by no means acquiesce in the etymology assigned to Swine by its respectable topographer Mr. Thompson, not being able to discern the slightest ground for it; while on the other hand I can see abundant confirmation of that which he has thought proper to reject. I think you will allow there is force in the arguments which I am about to lay before you. Mr. Thompson says "the name is undoubtedly of Saxon origin, and is. in fact, the word Swin (porcus) with the addition of the final letter." The supposition he makes is, that "as the Saxous of Holderness probably kept numerous flocks and herds at Swine, and in the neighbourhood, this circumstance might tend to fix the name of the place." I can point out many reasons why this etymology is not at all probable. [Dee. 1. The situation of the place does not sanction such a supposition. That the district ever was suitable for feeding herds of swine, even Mr. Thompson does not seem to intimate. For such a purpose, as acorns formed the principal food of this animal, woody tracts, abounding with oak, which does not generally thrive so near the sea, were usually selected. Now, not only is this portion of it in particular in many respects unsuitable, but it can be shown, that Holderness, from an earlier period than that of the Saxons, was appropriated to a very different purpose. At the era of the Roman Invasion it was inhabited by the Parisi, who are supposed to have derived their name from the two British words Paur Isa, which signify Low Pasture, and are sufficiently descriptive of the situation and use of the country. They were the herdsmen of their powerful neighbours the Brigantes; cattle, as Cæsar informs us, constituting the principal wealth of the Britons, which were kept, he adds, "in open grounds." 2. Nor is there greater probability in the conjecture, that "as the Saxon lords in England kept innumerable herds of swine in the forests which then covered a great part of the country, the village of Swine might be a convenient place into which to drive the swine from the woods of Holderness, for examination or sale." The Saxons generally fixed on British sites for this and other public purposes. Now, a more inland situation would certainly be far preferable as a home market, which was commonly as central as possible: and we have no reason to suppose the animal was then an article of exportation, even to the neighbouring Trans-Humberine nation of the Coritani, who were equally absorbed in pastoral pursuits with the Parisi. Nor were the Saxons more in the habit of exporting this species of stock. Besides, how does it happen that no other place in the kingdom appropriated to the purpose (for I presume in such a swine-stocked country this was far from being the only one) bears a similar appellation?—and why should the word so often occur in a particular line-to use Mr. Thomp son's words, especially in Yorkshire," where the Danes were most numerous and powerful? and be so rarely met with elsewhere? and uniformly occur in the track of the Da 1825.] History of the Church and Priory of Swine. nish incursions? and very generally where the monarch of that name is known to have been under very memorable circumstances? 3. The name itself is far from being in accordance with Mr. Thompson's interpretation. Hog, I am inclined to think, was a far more ordinary Saxon appellation for the animal in question than Swine; at least it occurs very frequently in the names of places once appropriated to the accommodation of "swinish multitudes." I may instance the Hog-heys, near Manchester; and Hog-thorpe, and various others in Lincolnshire. Many more will at once recur to memory. Then again, names derived in part from animals have al ways some other term appended, descriptive of the special nature of the place, as in those just quoted. Consider also, that it was the custom of our ancestors, in Latinizing names of places, to render them by existing Roinan words, and not to coin new ones except in the case of proper names, which were translated by merely add ing a Latin termination. Thus, Chaworth was De Cadurcis; Marsh, De Marisco; Pudsey, De Puteaco; Roch, De Rupe; Saltmersh, De Salso Marisco, &c. &c. But Swine, in the Close Catalogue of Vicars, and other ancient documents, is written, not De Suillo, or De Porcis, but De Swynd: more than a presumption, in my opinion, that the place derives its title from a proper name. 4. As to the Saxons translating the old names of places into their own language," the slightest acquaintance with the nomenclature of the island will be sufficient to evince that Mr. Thompson labours under a grand mistake. I will venture to affirm they never did any such thing. In districts where they had completely extirpated the Britons, or at a period when the British language had become obsolete, they indeed called any prominent natural object, as a hill, a wood, a defile, by the most significant term their own tongue afforded, which would of course be equivalent to that imposed by their predecessors, as the peculiarities of such objects would necessarily strike both nations alike and in some instances, where the British name was retained, the Saxon synonyme has been appended, by way of gloss, forming such pleonasms as the later ones of Dun-hill, 493 Law-hill, How-hill: but I know not of one name in the whole island assigned to a spot by the Aborigines from the purpose to which it was devoted, which has been translated by their Saxon conquerors. There is not the slightest ground for considering Swine a translation from the British. 66 5. "Some of the Saxons who settled at Swine," says Mr. Thompson, "might have emigrated from a place of the same name in Germany;" and he quotes Verstegan in support of this theory, who informs us that the Saxons gave names [in England] similar to the names of like places in Germany from which they came. Thus the name of Oxford or Oxenford on the river Thames, he adds, " was given after the town of the same name in Germany, on the river Oder; and the same may be said of Hereford, Swinford, Bradford, Mansfield, Swinefield, and many other places." Verstegan, though a somewhat venerable, is by no means an unquestionable, authority; and on this point I for one must venture to differ from him. It is likely enough that the names of many places in England would coincide with those of places similarly situated in Germany: because the people by whom such names were imposed were in both countries the same; the rule by which settlements were chosen, was the same; the principle on which names were given, was the same; and the language in which those names were expressed, was the same. It could scarcely therefore be otherwise. But it does not by any means follow, that the Saxons were in the habit of assigning certain names to places in their adopted country, because others bore them in that from which they had emigrated. And such coincidences being confined to places denominated from local appearances, is a proof that they were not. As to the particular towns mentioned, far greater Antiquaries than Verstegan have assigned a widely dif ferent cause for the appellation of Hereford. I happen to know that the name of Bradford occurs very fre quently, and in very distant situations, and also that there is a chieftain of the name mentioned in the Saxon Chrouicle. Oxford and Mansfield are capable of a much more plausible derivation. And if there be a Swinford and a Swinefield in Germany, it is not improbable they may originate, as in 494 History of the Church and Priory of Swine. this country, from a proper name. All which militates against Verstegan's rule, and Mr. Thompson's inference from it. The name of Swine not being indicative of any local features, is even less likely than most others to be borrowed from a place of the same name then existing in Germany. Thus far I have principally confined myself to such arguments as were requisite to confute the theories advanced by Mr. Thompson. I shall now, having, I hope, sufficiently cleared the way, apply myself more exclusively to the establishment of my own. I certainly consider Swine, as I have already hinted, as being the Danish proper name written in various authors, Swin, Sweine, Sweyn, &c. and as very probably conferred in commemoration of the celebrated Monarch of that name. My reasons are these: 1. It was customary with that warlike nation to confer the name of their most renowned warriors on the scenes where their valour had been signalized, or their camps or other habitations erected. A multitude of instances might be easily adduced in confirmation of this assertion. We have, among others, Knottingley in Yorkshire; Knot Mill at Manchester; and Knutsford in Cheshire; from Canute; Guthramgate, in York, from Guthrun, probably the same to whom Alfred was sponsor: and whence have we Swinegate in that city, as well as in Bristol, Leeds, and other places of remote antiquity, but from one or other of the Danish Monarchs or other illustrious chieftains who bore the name of Sweyn? It would be strange indeed, if while each of his countrymen of equal note, who headed a successful invasion of England, was honoured with this species of commemoration, the renowned father of Canute should be without it; as he must be, if Swine is uniformly to be derived from the ignoble root of Suillus. What name of a place have we that bears a closer resemblance to his name? I may observe that many places in Denmark and Sweden are named on this principle; as Svanholm in Zealand, and Sundford in Norway, from Svend and Svane, which are common Christian and surnames in those parts, and synonymous with Sweyn or Swain. I can add, from personal observation, that in one of the streets above alluded to, [Dec. that at Leeds, there is nothing to indicate in the least its appropriation to swinish purposes, and that it is near, and the direct road to, several acknowledged Danish encampments. 2. This very spot is perhaps the most likely in the whole Island to be selected for such a purpose. It is near the shore of that part of the country most frequently infested by these piratical adventurers, and where they most firmly established themselves, and at the mouth of that very river where their vessels usually wintered. Nay more. King Sweyne, according to the testimony of all our historians, landed more than once on the banks of the Humber, when his arms spread such devastation through the land which he eventually conquered. Not having other authorities at hand, I give you Fox's account of one of these invasions from his ponderous Martyrology: "1004. Swanus, King of Denmark, returns for thirty thousand pounds; but soon after hearing of the increase of his people in England, breaks his covenant before made, and with a great army and navy in most defensible wise appointed, landed in Northumberland, and proclaimed himself to he King of this land, when, after much vexation, when he had subdued the people, and caused the Earl, with the rulers of the country, to swear to him fealty, he passed the river Trent to Gainsburgh, and to North Watling-street, and subduing the people there, forced them to give him pledges, which pledges he committed with his navy unto Canutus his son to keep, while he went further into the land, and so with a great host he came to Mercia, killing and slaying." Swine seems one of the most suitable situations on the coast for such an encampment, as it is natural to suppose would be formed on such an occasion, near the place of landing; and the traces of fortifications here, and the absence of them elsewhere in the district on a suitable scale of magnitude, are strong corroborative circumstances. 3. The current tradition to which Mr. Thompson alludes, is not without weight to me. Popular traditions of this description are like shadows, which, however distorted, must invariably proceed from some substantial cause, however distant from our reach, or concealed from our perception. Traditions originate with the vulgar; and what could the vulgar of a village appropriated from time immemorial to the ending or bartering of hogs, know, about |