underside of the foot is engraved, in Roman lettering of the time:

EX DONO D. C. MOLINEUX DNO RICHARDO HOLME

ANGLO-BENEDICTINO 1697.

The giver of the chalice was Caryll, 3rd Viscount Molyneux, who with his brother Richard raised two regiments for the king in the great Civil War, and was outlawed by the Parliament. He died at Croxteth, Feb. 2nd., 1698. The recipient of the gift was Rev. Richard Holme, O.S.B., professed at Douai 1676, sent to the mission in Lancashire and in 1697 appointed chaplain to Lord Molyneux at Sefton and Croxteth. He died at Woolton Dec. 18th, 1717. The story of its wanderings is little to the credit of its former owners. Eventually it was found by Rev. Edward Powell in the shop of a dealer of old silver, purchased by him and presented to the church of St. Alexander, Bootle, where it now is.

13. WOOLTON. I mentioned that Dom. Richard Holme, the recipient of the Molyneux chalice, died at Woolton. Here his chalice long remained, until lent to other churches. One reason of the willingness on the part of the priests at Woolton to let this chalice out of their hands was the fact that they possessed another equally valuable. This latter is still at Woolton, but there is no record how it came there. On the foot is the Crucifix and on either side the letters:

M H obiit Sept 2do 1694.

I would like to think that this was also a Molyneux chalice, the M H standing for Molyneux gave to Holme, but there is no confirmation of this idea. It has been suggested that M H stands for Mary Harrington, the Harringtons being resident at Huyton, and having large properties in the neighbourhood. So far we have found no Harrington who died in Sep. 1694. The hall mark is interesting. It occurs in Chaffers' Hall Marks on Gold and

Silver in an illustration with a number of others, and the text says On the above plate are the marks from workmen taken at this Office (Goldsmiths' Hall) prior to 15 April, 1697, of which not any other entry is to be found"; and again (p. 3i), “but nothing is known of the names of the workers who used them.” Elsewhere the date of the marks is said to be between 1694 and 1697. This is in agreement with the inscription on this chalice.

14. BIRCHLEY. This chalice is connected with the preceding by bearing the same hall mark. It is larger than any of the others: height 8 in., diam. of cup 3ğin., diam. of base 5 in.; knob with three angels, stem hexagonal, crucifix at foot; silver gilt. Inside the foot is the inscription:

Ex dono Annae Blounte uxoris Jacobi Anderton 85, which Dean Powell took to be 1685. James Anderton died in 1673, aged 56; he had married Anne, dau. of Sir Walter Blount, Bart., of Todington. The chalice is of beaten silver recently gilt.

Other chalices it is hoped to describe at a later date: the present list is not exhaustive, but tentative, forming a beginning. I wish to return thanks to Mr. Waite for slides, and to (the late) Mr. Radcliffe for notes and photos.

125

THE

WIRRAL FIELD NAMES.

By Eric H. Rideout, B.Sc.

Read 8th March, 1923.

HE serious study of field names, like that of the nearly related place names, has been somewhat neglected until recently. Both subjects have suffered in the past from careless guess work. Names and their origins have often been distorted by local enthusiasts anxious to prove some pet theory. In Wirral one has only to recollect the name of Thurstaston, and the frantic endeavours, recently summarised by Mr. Beazley, to trace its origin to a supposed sacrificial stone erected in honour of the god Thor.1 But because field names have been generally neglected by careful historians they have been even more liable to ridiculous distortion.

The modern study of place names depends almost entirely upon the study of early forms of the name, as found in contemporary documents; and this, taken in conjunction. with a careful analysis of local topography, has undoubtedly led to results of some value. Early sources of place names, it is true, are scanty, but in comparison with those of field names are relatively abundant. Field names occur sometimes in early deeds, especially where any boundaries are concerned. Sometimes a rent roll or terrier is found, but always the discovery is more or less accidental and we are far too dependent upon chance sources for our information. Again some place names are found on every map, however small the scale, but rarely do we find a map whose scale is sufficiently large to mark the field names. In fact it is not until the early years of

1 Beazley, F.C., Thurstaston (1924), pp. 198 et seq.