The Goldmine.
  • Spy vs Spy
    • At Fox River
    • Patty and the Tet Offensive
    • Pale and Interesting >
      • More pale and interesting
      • Older, still pale, possibly only interesting to a couple of people
    • The Heckler and Koch Affair
    • Spy vs Spy
  • Peeling the Onion
  • Old unhappy far-off things
    • Wipers and the Ypres League
    • Fanny and Cobber.
    • In Memoriam
  • Slightly Saltirical
    • A Dexter Hand
    • The Boar-Worshippers
  • Taken by the Hand
    • Geranium Days
    • The Lockhart Papers
    • A Martial Aspect
    • O Perfect Love >
      • Sonnets Unplugged
      • Stout Cortez
    • Tea and an Ascot
  • Childe Harold
    • Monikers >
      • The Sandman and Sleipnir
    • Bos Indicus
    • Three things in a field >
      • Dance With A Bull
  • Eureka (Stockade)
    • Two for Joy
    • At the Bottom of the Garden >
      • Coins of the Realm
  • Superstitious Nonsense
    • Leaves of Tea
  • The Best of Times
    • The Space Race >
      • C.P.Snow
  • Sorry luv, I missed that.
  • Valley Girls
    • Britten, B et al >
      • Gammon and Spinach
      • The Blue Flowers >
        • The Beautiful People
        • The girls from 9DY Rangi Ruru >
          • The Fires of Hell and other Works of Art
        • The Cat's Paw and other Feline Fables
        • Flowers in Bloom
      • The Moon and Daisies
      • Snowmaiden Revelry
  • Sitting on Custard
  • The Long White Grass
    • Somewhere...
  • I have pictures
  • The Queen's Cake
  • A Portrait by Hoppner
  • The Iron Fist.
    • Slow twitching gams.
  • Whips and Whatnot
  • Showering with Friends

Sallow, Miracle, Relish, Tumbler, Fernsby, Loughty, Birdwhistle and MacQuoid, et al.

All endangered breeds.
The world of the surname is (to me) an interesting one. My own surname is a seven letter English name starting with 'H'. There is an  old adage 'Change the name and not the letter, change for the worse and not the better'. Ignore at your peril.

Better known.

Picture
My first copy of the Penguin Dictionary of Surnames had the words 'Kilroy was here' on the front cover. My husband's cousin pinched it in 1988. I haven't seen her since. She did leave me a present of influenza that became broncho-pneumonia. Handy to have at 40 weeks pregnant.


An extinct title.

Picture
Flag of the Board of Admiralty.
Francis Hopwood, 1st Baron Southborough (bestowed in 1917), was a Privy Councillor, a Civil Lord of the Admiralty, and secretary to the Irish Convention. On a completely unrelated point my brother-in-law is a Gribble. That is also a term for an underwater termite. My sister has retained her original surname. I suppose she has her reasons. They have three daughters. And on another point (vaguely related) I once boarded with a woman whose name was Loveday Pickersgill. Really.
The Viscount of Verdane is not a relative of mine either.