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retain their Indian names. We find again that all the 

 arbitrary and conventional divisions of the country, the 

 townships, parishes, hundreds, and shires, have, with few 

 exceptions, Saxon names. This certainly implies an entire 

 reconstruction of the territorial arrangements. These Saxon 

 names consist for the most part of a prefix and termination, 

 — the prefix being a proper or characteristic name, and the 

 termination a term of a general character, as, for instance, 

 Alnwick, the dwelling or village on the river Alun ; East- 

 ham, tlie hamlet to the eastward. Proceeding further in 

 our investigation, we find two classes of Saxon termina- 

 tions, the one class indicative of habitation, cultivation, 

 and settlement, as wick, a habitation or village ; ham, a 

 homestead, the original of the word home; ton or tovm, 

 a collection of houses; stede, a settled place, from which 

 steady is derived, and others of kindred significance. The 

 other class of terminations is indicative of the wildness 

 of uncultivated nature, such as loood, dell, den, a wooded 

 valley; holt; a wood; httst, a thicket; fold, an enclosure 

 in the woods ; shaw, another term for wood, etc. Now it 

 is a remarkable fact that these two classes of appellations 

 are not mixed up indiscriminately, but bear to each other 

 a certain definite relation, the hams, tons, wicks, etc., being 

 within, and the holts, hursts and de7is being in a surround- 

 ing border. These circumstances evidently indicate that at 

 the period when the nomenclature was given, the popula- 

 tion was divided into a series of isolated settlements sur- 

 rounded by the original woods and forests. These were 

 the separate jurisdictions or Marks. This subject is not 

 entirely one of inference. From the nature of the original 

 Saxon institutions, there were certain rights of common in 

 the woods and plains of the Mark, appertaining to each 

 allodial proprietor or simple freeholder. These rights 

 naturally led to disputes, the records of which were pre- 

 served in the Manor Courts, which succeeded to the juris- 



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