76 PLACE AND FIELD NAMES OF DERBYSHIRE. 
would in many instances be left standing, when other forest 
trees had been cleared away for pasturage or tillage. The 
Anglo-Saxons would then, in all probability, make use of these 
prominent features of the landscape in naming the different 
localities. Here are two of the supposed virtues of the birch, 
from the Welsh Triads :— 
‘The top of the rush-sprigged tree (the birch) declares 
When drawn under the pillow— 
The mind of the affectionate will be liberal.” 
‘* The shoots of the green topped birch 
Will draw my foot out of a snare, 
Reveal not the secret to a youth.” * 
The oak, “sole king of forests all,” also has a considerable 
share of the tree names of Derbyshire. In the first instance we 
notice DarLtey t+ (2), and DarFieLp (Tissington) from the 
Cymric dar, an oak. Derived from the Anglo-Saxon @e are 
OAKERTHORPE, OAKTHORPE, OAKHURST, SHIREOAKS (2), 
OckBROOK, and OckLeyNnook (T. C. Ilkeston); whilst it is 
used as a suffix in Happock, Coppock, CHADDOCK, CHARNOCK, 
and perhaps Bostock. ‘The mystic virtue of the oak was known 
throughout those parts of Europe where the religion of the 
Druids was practised. Even among the Basques, a people of the 
lower Pyrenees, it is stated that their public assembly was held 
upon an eminence of the mountains with pieces of rock for the 
seats of the president and secretary, whilst the members remained 
standing, leaning with their backs against the o/d oaks which 
formed a circle round their place of meeting. The Druids held 
that no sacrifice could be regularly performed, unless the fresh- 
* Davies, Celtic Researches, p. 250. The above conjecture, as to the 
reason of the frequency of the occurence of the birch in Derbyshire place 
names, is offered with some diffidence ; I have, however, carefully examined 
both maps and gazetteers for similar names in adjoining counties, and have 
failed to find in them anything like the number. I venture therefore, to 
look upon this as an additional proof of the permanent lodgment that the 
Celts maintained in Derbyshire, long after they had deserted all other 
central parts of the kingdom. 
+ It has also been suggested that dav, in Darley, is a corruption of the 
Celtic dw, water. 
