Adelaide, South Australia.
_Minnis._--There are (or there were) in East Kent seven Commons known by
the local term "Minnis," viz., 1. Ewell Minnis; 2. River do.; 3.
Cocclescombe do.; 4. Swingfield do.; 5. Worth do.; 6. Stelling do.; 7.
Rhode do. Hasted (_History of Kent_) says he is at a loss for the origin of
the word, unless it be in the Latin "Mina," a certain quantity of land,
among different nations of different sizes; and he refers to Spelman's
_Glossary_, verbum "Mina."
Now the only three with which I am acquainted, River, Ewell, and Swingfield
Minnis, near Dover, are all on high ground; the two former considerably
elevated above their respective villages.
One would rather look for a Saxon than a Celtic derivation in East Kent;
but many localities, &c. there still retain British or Celtic names, and
eminently so the stream that runs through River and Ewell, the Dour or Dwr,
_unde_, no doubt, Dover, where it disembogues into the sea. May we not
therefore likewise seek in the same language an interpretation of this (at
least as far as I know) hitherto unexplained term?
In Armorican we find "Menez" and "Mene," a mount. In the kindred dialect,
Cornish, "Menhars" means a boundary-stone; "Maenan" (Brit.), stoney moor;
"Mynydh" (Brit.), a mountain, &c.
As my means of research are very limited, I can only hazard a conjecture,
which it will give me much pleasure to see either refuted or confirmed by
those better informed.