PLACE AND FIELD NAMES OF DERBYSHIRE. 59 
the Parliament held at Winchester, 1016, wild horses and cows 
were exempted from that class of animals, technically termed 
‘beasts of the forest,’ whose capture was attended with such 
fearful penalties.* There can be no reasonable doubt that the 
forests of the Peak and the lowlands of Derbyshire were the 
resort of herds of wild horses or ponies up to the time of the 
Norman invasion. Rapsurn is the brook which can be ridden 
over, from vad, a riding, a being on horseback,t whilst Rappock 
(T.C., Castleton) probably denotes ‘“‘ the oak by the bridle-road.” 
The ass was introduced into this country by the Romans, and 
there is no trace of it to be found in our local nomenclature. 
The mule, however, if Domesday Book be correct, is com- 
memorated at Mitrorp. In the Survey it is spelt Mu/eford, 
and this can scarcely have been an error of the Norman Scribes. 
Milford was an important ford on a hitherto untraced Roman 
cross road leading to the lead mines of Wirksworth. In the 
Saxon charters, the mule gives the prefix to no less than seventeen 
place-names. 
Wild cattle were indigenous to the island, and a variety of 
breeds distinguished by their colour were known at an early date. 
They were domesticated by the Britons, and formed the most 
important item of their property.§ In many of the unenclosed 
* Percival Lewis, Forests and Forest Laws, p. 85. 
+ Two other derivations are possible. Firstly, from the Welsh rhedyn, a 
fern; Charnock interprets Radford and Radnor as “fern way” and ‘‘ fern 
land.” Secondly, from ved, the colour red ; but this seems improbable, as the 
Sixteen names with this prefix, which are mentioned in Edmunds’ Vames and 
Places, are all upon red sandstone formation. 
t Codex Diplomaticus, vol. iii. p. 37. 
§ Cattle, the first wealth of mankind, were probably in most countries the 
first money ; that is to say, commodities were valued at so many cattle, and 
cattle were commonly given in exchange for all other things. When metal 
money, therefore, was first introduced, it was looked upon merely as a 
substitute for cattle, and hence in some languages the terms expressive of both 
were nearly synonymous. Thus /ecws, cattle, is the origin of the Latin pecusza, 
money, and of our English pecuniary. Mulct, a fine or pecuniary penalty, is 
a translation of the Latin muz/¢a, an ancient Roman law-term fora fine. The 
Roman antiquaries have themselves told us that its primary signification was a 
‘Yam, or sheep. It is remarkable that the original word still survives, with its 
original signification, in the Celtic dialects of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, 
in which it respectively takes the forms of mol/t, molt, and mult. Hence, In 
fact, come the French mozfon, and the English muéton. 
Grant, Origin and Descent of the Gael, p. 145. 
