ly situated. Poyntz
is sometimes for des ponts; cf. Pierpoint for Pierrepont.

Even Norman names which were undoubtedly borne by leaders among the
Conqueror's companions are now rarely found among the noble, and many
a descendant of these once mighty families cobbles the shoes of more
recent invaders. Even so the descendants of the Spanish nobles who
conquered California are glad to peddle vegetables at the doors of San
Francisco magnates whose fathers dealt in old clothes in some German
Judengasse.

CHAPTER XV. OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES

"When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"

Chant of Wat Tyler's followers.

The occupative name would, especially in villages, tend to become a
very natural surname. It is not therefore surprising to find so large
a number of this class among our commonest surnames, e.g. Smith,
Taylor, Wright, Walker, Turner, Clark, Cooper, etc. And, as the same
craft often persisted in a family for generations, it was probably
this type of surname which first became hereditary. On the other
hand, such names as Cook, Gardiner, Carter, etc., have no doubt in
some cases prevailed over another surname lawfully acquired (Chapter
I). It is impossible to fix an approximate date for the definite
adoption of surnames of this class. It occurred earlier in towns than
in the country, and by the middle of the fourteenth century we often
find in the names of London citizens a contradiction between the
surname and the trade-name; e.g. Walter Ussher, tanner, John Botoner,
girdler, Roger Carpenter, pepperer, Richard le Hunte, chaundeler,
occur 1336-52.

The number of surnames belonging to this group is immense, for every
medieval trade and craft was highly specialized and its privileges
were jealously guarded. The general public, which now, like Issachar,
crouches between the trusts and the trades unions, was in the middle
ages similarly victimized by the guilds of merchants and craftsmen.

Then, as now, it grumblingly recognized that, "Plus ca change, plus ca
reste la meme chose," and went on enduring. [Footnote: If a student
of philology were allowed to touch on such high matters as
legislation, I would moralize on the word kiddle, meaning an illegal
kind of weir used for fish-poaching, whence perhaps the surname
Kiddell. From investigations made with a view to discovering the
origin of the word, I came to the conclusion that all the legislative
powers in England spent three c