OF ANGLO-SAXON DERIVATION. 149 



is difficult not to believe that the Anglo-Saxon name was Mere- 

 den-meos, that is, the moss of the Mere -forest, or chase. 



Fen : A.S. fen, is common as the prior element in compound 

 names, as Fenham, Fenton, Fenwick. Though less common as 

 the terminal or substantive member, we find it in Matfen, and in 

 Moulsfen and Meresfen the early designations of two places, now 

 absurdly called Mousin and Mason, the first situated near Bam- 

 burgh, the latter a township not far from Ponteland, on the margin 

 of Prestwick Car. Without much violence to modern pronun- 

 ciation, both might be brought nearer to their etymology if written 

 Mouls'en and Meres'en. 



Ford : A.S. ford, is also written /or^A in composition, as Mains- 

 forth. Gosford, or Gosforth, must have received its name from 

 the lake, there situated, having being a favourite haunt of wild 

 geese, which indeed still resort to it. Rutherford, which must have 

 been originally the name of a site, before it was assumed by the 

 famous Border Clan as a family appellation, would, in Anglo- 

 Saxon, appear under the form of Hrythera ford, that is, the ford 

 of cattle, being nearly synonymous with Oxford. 



Wade, wath : from the Anglo-Saxon wadan, to wade, to ford, 

 to traverse. In Old-Norse vad signifies a ford, and vredh a 

 fordable stream. It is probable that wath, in Anglo-Saxon, bore 

 the same primary sense, although it is poetically used in that of 

 a flight or wandering-forth. 



As an initial member, this term is very frequent in the nomen- 

 clature of sites upon fords or fordable waters, as Wadebridge, 

 Wadworth, Watton, Wedmore; and, without any addition, as 

 Wade, Wath, Waith. 



As a termination, it appears in Biggleswade, Lasswade. 



Keld : Old-Norse kelda, palus, a sheet of water. This is the 

 sense attributed to keld by Brockett, in his valuable Glossary of 

 North- Country Words. But we have it also, I think, in the sense 

 of a spring head or well. In the Old-Norse we find also kyll 

 (pronounced kydl) nearly in this latter signification ; and in the 

 Scandinavian dialects, the sound of dl often glides into that of 

 Id; as Old-Norse fiallr, pronounced fiadlr, a mountain range, 

 becomes, in modern 'Norse, f eld, as in Dovre-field. 



VOL. II. PT. II. V 



