Page:The New Forest - its history and its scenery.djvu/184

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The New Forest: its History and its Scenery.

Stockleys, all from the Old-English leag; in the various tons, as Wootton, Winkton, Everton, Burton, and Hinton; in Gore and Goreley, the muddy places; in Culverley, the dove lea; in the Roydons and Rowdouns, the rough places; in Rhinefield, the hrook field; and in Brockis Hill, the hadger's hill.

Take only the very names of the fields and we shall meet the same element, as in the Wareham field, the fishing place field; Conygers and Coneygar,[1] the King's ground, to be met in every village; in the linches, as Goreley Linch, that is, Goreley Headland, or literally, the dirty-field headland; in Hangerley, the corner meadow; Hayes, the enclosure, with all its compounds, as Westhayes, Powelhayes, Crithayes, and Felthayes; in such terms as Withy Eyot, that is, Withy Island; and the different Rodfords—"hryðeranford"—the cattleford, the Old-English equivalent to the Norman Bovreford.

We meet, too, in daily life, such words as hayward for the North-Country "pinder;" barton, literally the barley place, instead of the Keltic "croo yard;"—the same Old-English element in the names of the flowers, as bishop-wort (bisceop-wyrt), one of the mints, from which the peasant makes his "hum-water;" cassock (from cassuc), any kind of binding weed, and cammock (from cammec), any of the St. John's worts, or ragworts; clivers (from clife, a bur), the heriff; and wythwind, by which name the convolvulus is still known, the Old-English "wið-winde."


    north of Hampshire, in the shape of Nately Scures and Upper Nately (Nataleie in Domesday)—as the equivalent of Natan Leah, the old name of the Upper portion of the New Forest, see Dr. Guest, as before quoted, p. 31.

  1. A Keltic derivation has, I am aware, been proposed for this word. It is to be met with under various forms in all parts of the Forest. The Forest termination den (denu) must, however, be put down to this source. See Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 283.
166