OF ANGLO-SAXON DERIVATION. 101 



Anglo-Saxon Dictionary explains comb as " A low place enclosed 

 with hills, a valley." Hence certain names of places situated in 

 valleys and in combs, as Alcomb, Boscomb, Chilcomb, (fee. Some- 

 times the names of the owner is annexed, as Comb-Basset, Comb- 

 Raleigh, Sometimes b is changed into p, as Compton." 



To this excellent account I may add, that such names, though 

 less frequent than in the Southern and South Western Counties, 

 are to be met with in the North also. 



The situation of Comb-field, upon the Derwent, above Shotley 

 Bridge, is in the bosom of the vale, at a point where it expands a 

 little, and assumes, as it were, a cuplike conformation. It is 

 bounded by varied and picturesque banks which appear to form 

 almost a circle around Comb-field. Near the head of Chirdon-burn, 

 there is a place called Greencomb Shield, but with the locality I 

 am not acquainted. Another spot upon Tarset-burn is called 

 simply Comb. 



It may be observed, that these places all lie in wild and remote 

 tracts, where the British inhabitants must long have lingered, and 

 which they probably never entirely left; remaining doubtless, until 

 they were lost by intermarriage with the more powerful and more 

 advanced, if not more civilized, invaders. When we cross the hills 

 into the still more British region of Cumberland, the coums (as 

 the word is there written) become more numerous in the nomen- 

 clature of localities. 



Dene, A.S. denu, but believed to be a word of ancient British 

 origin, is of frequent use to designate those beautiful sylvan 

 ravines which abound in the north country; as Shaivdon Dene, 

 Castle Eden Dene, and numberless other instances. But the word 

 is scarcely to be met with in close and proper composition. 

 The term den which has been supposed to be the same, is now 

 known to be entirely distinct. This latter will be considered 

 hereafter in its proper place among the designations for woods 

 and thickets, as it enters largely into our nomenclature as an 

 element of composition. 



In this place perhaps may be introduced an element of com- 

 position no longer extant as an independent word but of extended 

 occurrence in names of places, since it may be distinctly traced 



