THE PEAK OF DERBYSHIRE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Sir W. Beach Thomas will find a very interesting article on this Peak in the Oxford Dictionary. Sir Jas. Murray is sure it has no connexion with the word peak, which does not occur in the sense of " pointed top of a mountain " till 1634. He thinks, the Peak or Peac may originally have been the name of a demon, connected with the well-known puck. There is a full discussion of Peak in the English Place Name Society's volume on Bedford, p. 176. There it is held that " there is good reason to believe that the name originally denoted a hill," and may be Germanic. The earliest mentions of the Derby- shiie Peak rather confirm this—charter of ante Boo, Pecsatan, "Peak settlers," and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 924, Peaclond or " Peak land." We also have East and West Peek in Devon- shire, in Domesday Peak. But, as confirming the demon or puck derivation, we have Domesday's Pechesers now Peak's Arse, Domesday's Pealtesdon or " Peak's or Puck's hill," now Pagsdon, Bedford, and Domesday's Pechetra or " Peak's or Puck's home," now the London Peckham.—Very truly yours,- 63 Cluny Gardens, Edinburgh, to. JAMES B. JOHNSTON.
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