Note 106 — Chapter II · LOCAL SURNAMES.

One of the best puns extant is put to the credit of the Duke of Buckingham by Walter Scott, in his Peveril of the Peak. A Mrs. Cresswell, who had borne anything but a creditable character, bequeathed 10l. for a funeral sermon, in which nothing ill-natured was to be said of her. The duke wrote the following brief but pointed discourse: ‘All I shall say of her is this: she was born well, she married well, she lived well, and she died well; for she was born at “Shad-well,” married to “Cress-well,” lived at “Clerken-well,” and died in “Bride-well.”’