194 p. MANNING — PLACE-NAMES AND JIELD-NAMES 



Mr. Guppy,"' and few records of family names are so enduring as 

 those which are stereotyped in field-names. 



Another very fertile source of place-names we have in the trees 

 and other plants which grow in or ahout the places, a subject 

 which of course comes within the scope of a Natural History 

 Society. Such names as "Eroom Field," "Crab Tree Pightle," 

 and " Service Tree Field " will serve as examples. 



The wild animals, too, of a district leave their names on their 

 habitats, and though we cannot in this parish boast of a Beverley 

 or Beaver's Meadow, yet the name " Otterspool " marks the 

 favourite haunt of an animal once much more common in the 

 Home Counties than now; and " Eail Mead" and "Swan Mead" 

 mark the nesting-places of two well-known water-fowl. 



But perhaps of more interest than these are the names which 

 tell of the early history of agriculture, and of the growth of rural 

 institutions. The name "Innings," i.e. reclaimed land, carries us 

 back to a time when the inhabitants of this district were still 

 engaged in cutting down and clearing away the thick woods which 

 covered most of the face of the country. The name " !Newlands " 

 signifies, in the same way, land newly brcmght under cultivation. 



An ingenious writer f on early village life points out how in 

 India the settlers in clearing their land left a small piece with the 

 trees standing on it, which no one was allowed to appropriate, to 

 form a sanctuary for the woodland spirits, the propitiation of 

 whom forms such an important feature in primitive religion. It 

 is quite possible that this may have been the meaning of the 

 ownerless scrap of groimd called "No Man's Land" which is to 

 be found in this as in many other parishes in England. 



The intensely real belief of our forefathers in spirits and goblins 

 is shown by the host of names such as "Devil's Dyke," " Hobb's 

 Hole," "Lubber's Down," etc , which abound all over the country. 

 We may perhaps trace this belief in our own parish in the name 

 " Myryden," the " dene " or narrow valley of the " myre " or 

 goblin. " Hagden-lane," though it may only represent the "hedge 

 dene," may just as well allude to the "hag" or witch, especially 

 as tradition credits this still dark lane with a ghost. 



But the field-names tell us besides of the village community 

 with its elaborate system of lands, held, not individually, but in 

 common ownership. Fitzherbert,]: writing in 1539, thus describes 

 the communal system of agriculture then in use: — "To every 

 townshyppe that standeth in tyllage in the playne country, there 

 be errable lauds to plowe and sowe, and leyse to tye or tedder 

 theyr horses and mares npon, and common pasture to kepe and 

 pasture their catell beestes, and shepe upon, and also they have 

 medowe grounde to get theyr hay upon." Such a community 

 Watford must have been. 



* H. B. Guppy: ' Homes of Faiuily Names.' 

 t G. L. Gomme : 'Yillaae Commuuity.' 

 'I ' Book of kSurveying ami InipiDvement. ' 



