Rochefort and Beeforth for
Beaufort or Belfort. With the first syllable of Beeforth we may
compare Beevor for Beauvoir, Belvoir, Beecham for Beauchamp, and
Beamish for Beaumais.

The name Beamish actually occurs as that of village in Durham, the
earlier form of which points Old French origin, from beau mes, Lat.
bellum mansum, a fair manse, i.e. dwelling. Otherwise it would be
tempting to derive the surname Beamish from Ger, boehmisch, earlier
behmisch, Bohemian.

A brief survey of French spot-names which have passed into English
will show that they were acquired in exactly the same way as the
corresponding English names. Norman ancestry, is, however, not always
to be assumed in this case. Until the end of the fourteenth century a
large proportion of our population was bi-lingual, and names
accidentally recorded in Anglo-French may occasionally have stuck.
Thus the name Boyes or Boyce may spring from a man of pure English
descent who happened to be described as del boil instead of atte wood,
just as Capron (Chapter XXI) means Hood. While English spot-names
have as a rule shed both the preposition and the article (Chapter
XII), French usually keeps one or both, though these were more often
lost when the name passed into England. Thus our Roach is not a
fish-name, but corresponds to Fr. Laroche or Delaroche; and the blind
pirate Pew, if not a Welshman, ap Hugh, was of the race of Dupuy, from
Old Fr. Puy, a hill, Lat. podium, a height, gallery, etc., whence also
our Pew, once a raised platform.

In some cases the prefix has passed into English; e.g. Diprose is from
des preaux, of the meadows, a name assumed by Boileau among others.
There are, of course, plenty of places in France called Les Preaux,
but in the case of such a name we need not go further than possession
of, or residence by, a piece of grass-land--

"Je sais un paysan qu'on appelait Gros-Pierre,
Qui, n'ayant pour tout bien qu'un seul quartier de terre,
Y fit tout alentour faire un fosse bourbeux,
Et de monsieur de l'Isle en prit le nom pompeux."

(Moliere L'Ecole des Femmes, i. 1.)

The Old French singular preal is perhaps the origin of Prall, Prawle.
Similarly Preece, Prees, usually for Price, may sometimes be for des
Pres. With Boyes (Chapter XIV) we may compare Tallis from Fr.
taillis, a copse (tailler, to cut). Garrick, a Huguenot name, is Fr,
gangue, an old word for heath.

TREE NAMES

Trees have in all countries a strong infl