148 MR. CARR ON COMPOSITE NAMES OF PLACES. 



Heckley, for a kid was known hj the term hecen in Anglo-Saxon. 

 Stirklej, from stirk a steer, takes also the form of Stirchley. 



From wild animals we find not only Hartley, Harely, Foxley, 

 Brockley, and Wolfsley, but even Crowley, and Gledley from the 

 large hawk called a glede, which forms its nest upon the ground. 

 In other instances streams of water or conspicuous boulder-stones 

 have given their appellations to the lea; as Burnley, Brockley, 

 Stoneley, Stoneleigh, Stanley. We find also Binley and Botley, 

 signifying, probably, the inner and the outer lea, as the country- 

 man still speaks of the hut and the he7i of his dwelling. 



So long a list of these plain and self-evident compounds, by 

 help of the term lea or ley, would not have been worth insertion, 

 had not many of the class been subjected to illiterate corruption, 

 so as to appear in the form of adverbs or adjectives, such as Slowly, 

 Quickly, Softly, Gladly, Starkly, and the like. 



Moor, A.S. mor, is the origin of many expressive compounds 

 in every part of England, but chiefly in the north. 



Myre : in Old-Norse myri, a morass. It is met with chiefly in 

 the nomenclature of places in Cumberland, as Blamire (or Black- 

 mire), Lowmire, &c. ; being one of the many indications of a large 

 Scandinavian infusion in the north-western population. 



Mere : A. S. mere, a lake or considerable sheet of water, occurs 

 sometimes, though not frequently, in our Northumbrian names : 

 as, in that of Kimmere lough, near to Eglingeham, equivalent, 

 perhaps, to Kye-mere. Not far from West Boldon, in Durham, 

 is the White -mere-pool, a small sheet of water generally turbidly 

 white from the plunging of cattle in the light-coloured clay which 

 surrounds it. 



The wisdom of modern times, however, to render the appellation 

 more intelligible, has conspicuously hung up the likeness of a 

 white mare upon the public house near the spot, and there is not 

 a man in the parish who would hesitate to say that the mare 

 gave her name to the pool, not the white muddy pool to that 

 imaginary beast. 



On a high bleak table-land, between Wooler and Chillingham, 

 is a considerable sheet of water and morass, known as Cold Martin 

 Moss, (or, as some learnedly pronounce it. Cold Martinmass !) It 



