Some Queer English Names

1910

Sussex can produce queer names in plenty, for example: Replenished Pryor, a damsel who dwelt at Heathfield; Mr. Stand-fast-on-high Stringer; Mr. Ales Cressel, and Master Perform-thy-vows Seers. The county archives also yield unusual family names, such as Pitchfork, Devil, Leper, Juglery, Beatup, Breathing, Whiskey, Wildgoose, and Lies.

Dorset can hold her own tolerably well with villages named Ryme Intrinseca and Toller Porcorum; rivers called Wriggle river and Devil's brook; commons christened Giddy green and God's Blessing green, and heights called Hungry down, Mount Ararat, Grammars hill, and Dancing hill. A prospective tenant might well hesitate before signing the lease of Wooden Cabbage farm, Labor in Vain farm, Poor Lot farm and Charity bottom, even though he should hail from Kent, which owns two Starvecrow farms within a ride of each other. — London Chronicle.