his name,
informs me that the Longfellows of Brecon were a branch of a Yorkshire
family; and that a portion of more than one family, probably from the same
county, are now settled in Kent. My friend has not before had his attention
turned to this subject, but he promises farther inquiry.

T. S. N.

Bermondsey.

Why should W. P. STORER suppose that the name of Longfellow originated
otherwise than in the lengthy proportions of an ancestor? Surely the
well-known surnames, Rufus, Longshanks, Strongbow, are sufficient to
warrant us in saying that Longfellow need have nothing to do with
Longueville. From what shall we derive the names of Longman, Greathead,
Littlejohn, and Tallboy?

JOHN P. STILWELL.

Dorking.

By the kindness of the Registrar-General, I am enabled to point, with some
precision, to a few of the localities in which the name of Longfellow
exists in this country. Upon reference to the well-arranged indexes in his
office, it appears that the deaths of sixty-one persons bearing this name
were recorded in the years 1838 to 1852; and of these, fifty occurred in
the West Riding of Yorkshire, namely, in Leeds thirty-five; Otley, and its
neighbourhood, ten; Selby four, and in Keighley one. The other instances
were, in the metropolis seven, and one each in Swansea, Newport (Monmouth),
Tewkesbury, and Hastings. More than one third of the males bore the
Christian name of William.

It is not probable that the Longfellows are numerous in any part of
England: indeed, as we {425} know that of the general population the
average annual mortality is 2.2 per cent, the sixty-one deaths in fifteen
years, or four deaths yearly, might be supposed to result from about two
hundred persons of the name; but inferences of this nature, except when
large masses are dealt with, are often very fallacious.

May not the derivation of the name be from _long fallow_, of the same
family as Fallows, Fellowes, Fallowfield, and Langmead, which are not
uncommon?

JAMES T. HAMMACK.

19. St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park.

C. H. quotes some lines said to have been written on a window-shutter of
the "Golden Lion," Brecon, when a Mr. Longfellow was proprietor, fifty or
sixty years ago:

"Tom Longfellow's name is most justly his due;
Long his neck, long his bill, which is very long too;
Long the time ere your horse to the stable is led," &c.

These lines remind me of the following passage of the poet Longfellow's in
his _Hyperion_