— 
64 PLACE AND FIELD NAMES OF DERBYSHIRE. 
parts of Derby.* From droch, the badger, BRocKwoop (Little 
Eaton), Brock Hoes, BrocKLEy, BRocKHURST, and CHURCH 
BrouGHToN (if the spelling in the Domesday Survey as 
BROcTUNE is correct), are also derived. This animal is still 
occasionally met with in the woods of Derbyshire. It was 
reckoned by the Anglo-Saxons in the second class of ‘‘ beasts of 
the chase.” 
The fox, which is common to every quarter of Europe, is not 
forgotten in this country’s nomenclature. Besides FoxHoLes, 
Fox.Low, and FoxEnwoop,f there is also Tapsor, near Swadlin- 
cote, whose prefix is derived from the old English word for a fox, 
Tod. The Anglo-Saxon youth were very expert in the slaughter 
of this vermin, but they would have much shocked the feelings of 
our modern lovers of ‘sport,’ as they were in the habit of 
catching them in nets, instead of worrying them with dogs. That 
this animal was a perfect pest to the farmer is proved from the 
numerous entries throughout the county in the old parish 
accounts of the rewards given for their slaughter. 
The caution expressed at the commencement of this chapter as 
to place-names compounded of Wau/f not signifying of necessity 
a direct allusion to the animal itself, need hardly apply to the two 
names of this description, WoLFscoTE and WoLFsHoPE, found in 
Derbyshire. In the first place, had they been chieftain’s titles they 
would not probably have been found with such suffixes as co/e and 
hope ; and, secondly, wolves did abound largely in the Peak, and 
it would have been strange if these traces of their existence had 
not been found in that district. That all the wolves in this 
country were destroyed in the time of Edgar is one of that 
numerous class of historical delusions so unhappily fostered by 
those wretched compilations—Juvenile Histories of England. 
Here are the words of William of Malmsbury :—“ He, Edgar, 
* Other interpretations are given of the prefix dag. Edmunds conjectures 
that it is sometimes another form of zg or fic, a Celtic word meaning the top 
or peak of a thing ; and sometimes from Zega, the owner’s name. 
+ Edmunds interprets the prefix far as folces, belonging to the people. This 
seems somewhat far-fetched when fox is an original Anglo-Saxon word. See 
Bosworth, Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. % 
