PLACE. AND FIELD NAMES OF DERBYSHIRE. 77 
gathered leaves of an oak had been previously strewn upon the 
altar. Another passage (which has just been quoted from the 
Welsh triads), in connection with the birch tree, says of the oak :— 
“*The shoots of the Aindly oak 
Will draw my foot out of a chain ; 
Keveal not the secret to a maid. 
“*The shoots of the /afy oak 
Will draw my foot out of prison ; 
Reveal not the secret to thy voice.” 
These priests of the grove were in the habit of selecting the 
largest oak of the forest, stripping it of all its side branches, and 
_ then joining two of them to the highest part of the trunk in the 
form of a cross. Under this tree they performed the most sacred 
rites. Can there be in this a prophetic symbol of the Christian 
‘religion! * The special value of mistletoe, when found upon an 
oak, was known even to Virgil, for he makes his hero present a 
branch, thus nurtured, as a necessary means to gain admission to 
the réalms of Pluto. + 
The maple-tree, mapel, gives its name to MappLeton, and 
-Map.ewoop, and also to MAPPERTON. 
_ The ash, @sc, gives the prefix to ASHOVER, ASHTON (2), 
ASHFORD, and ASHLEYHAY, and the suffix to BorRRowasu, 
and Monyasu. { The ash-tree was associated by the Anglo- 
axons with certain deities, and was supposed to possess peculiar 
"powers of healing. There is an ancient and extensive supersti- 
tion, which has only died out within the last few years, of passing 
a weak or ruptured child through a longitudinal fissure artificially 
‘made in the trunk of a young ash. The tree was then carefully 
bound up, and if the fissure healed, the child was sure to recover. 
_ * Borlase, Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 105. Fosbrooke, Antiquities, vol. ii. 
. 746. 
a + Aneid, vi. 204. 
_ }Ina preceding chapter, on Celtic names, the reason has been given for 
‘not including Ashburne in this list ; perhaps Ashford ought also to be exclud- 
ed. In the Domesday survey it is spelt, Azseford. Should this be correct, the 
_ first syllable may be derived from the Norse, as, belonging to the gods ; 
_ Aisthorp, in Lincolnshire, is said to be the god’s farm-house. 
