4 
PLACE AND FIELD NAMES OF DERBYSHIRE. 85 
at the time of the Anglo-Saxons, when by far the greater pro- 
portion of the soil was uncultivated, and when drainage was 
almost unknown. The common Genista or broom, probably 
from the brightness of its flowers, was a favourite prefix in 
distinguishing their various abodes and settlements. BROOMFIELD 
(2), Brampton, BramMLow, BramLey (2), and the suffix in 
STONEBROOM come from dbvom, the broom. Bannets (Mickle- 
over) is from another word, Janel, of the same meaning. Our 
word broom, a brush, points out that that necessary of house- 
hold life was originally made of the twigs of this plant. 
HEATHCOTE, HEATHFIELD, HATHERSAGE, HaTron, and Hat- 
FIELD take their prefix from Aae‘h, heath, or‘heather. The 
vast tracts of land, covered with nothing but heather, were 
useful to the Anglo-Saxons, by affording so admirable and 
constant a supply of food for the bees. Heather honey is by 
far the richest. Hives are sent yearly for a few months 
from a considerable distance, to Ashover and other places 
on the outskirts of the moors, by our modern bee-keepers. 
Our ancestors used the strong fibres of the heather for many 
useful purposes, such as the making of ropes. It also afforded 
them a favourite substance for bedding. Walter Scott says— 
‘‘________The stranger’s bed 
Was there of mountain heather spread ; 
Where oft a hundred guests had lain, 
And dreamed their forest sports again ; 
Nor vainly did the heath-flower shed 
Its moorland fragrance round his head. 
Tue Lincs, the name of certain fields in North Winfield 
_ and elsewhere, refers to ling, an almost equally common name 
for heather in the northern counties.* 
Chwynn, the Cymric form of whin, gorse, is found in 
Wuinyat, WHINGATsS, and WHINSTONLEE. Whin is the word 
for gorse used by Chaucer, and also by many of our later 
writers. It is not quite obsolete at the present day. The 
* Glover, Hist. Derbyshire, vol. i. p. 113. For a curious definition of 
“ling” see AZinsheus sub voce. 
