80 PLACE AND FIELD NAMES OF DERBYSHIRE. 
purposes of turning. It therefore appears, from the following 
passage from the Faerie Queene, that in Spenser’s day that tree 
was called Holme :— 
‘* Much can they praise the trees so straight and hy, 
The sayling Pine ; the Cedar proud and tall ; 
The vinepropp Elme; the Poplar never dry ; 
The builder Oak, sole king of forrests all ; 
The Aspine good for staves; the Cypress funerall ; 
The Laurell, meed of mightie Conquerours ; 
And Poets sage; the Firre that weepeth still ; 
The Willow, worne of forlone Paramours:; 
The Eugh, obedient to the benders will; 
The Birch for shafts ; the Sallow for the mill; 
The Mirrhe sweete bleeding in the bitter wound ; 
The warlike Beech ; the Ash for nothing ill ; 
The fruitfull Olive ; and the Platane round ; 
The carver Holme; the Maple seeldom inward sound.”* 
These lines on the trees and their qualities, as known to Spenser, 
are of interest in many respects. The name of Sallow, or Sally, 
applied to a particular species of willow (salix caprea), is now 
almost entirely forgotten. ‘The Anglo-Saxon form was sa/h, and 
it is preserved in the names of SawLEy and SALLEWELL (T. C. 
Matlock). Wi LLEsLEY, WILKIN, and WILTHORPE speak of the 
wi, or common willow. The willow, owing to its blossoming 
so early, was formerly used instead of the palm on Palm Sunday, 
though in the Roman Catholic Churches in England they now 
use box upon that day. “The willow, worne of forlone Para- 
mours,” is an allusion to the very ancient custom of wearing 
the leaves of this tree, generally woven into garlands, in token 
of being deserted by one’s mistress. It is difficult to conjecture 
the origin of this custom. The tree seems to have been con- 
nected with sorrow and weeping since the days that the Jews 
hung their harps upon the boughs thereof.t 
Alderwasley and Alderscar do not, as might be supposed, 
* Spenser, Faerie Queene, Book i. cant. 1. 
+ Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. i. p. 164. 
: 
' 
‘ 
Q 
a 
