104 



sometimes the proiiuuciation formerly given to fough, as now to 

 Lo if^/iborougli, in Leicestershire. In the clough adjoining called 

 Great Clough, there is a large drift mound, which has at one 

 time made up the clough and so retained the water as to 

 form a lake, the water from which evidently flowed on what is 

 now the left or higher side of the mound, and thus the estate 

 from which the booth takes its name was the Lake Clough or 

 Loui/h Clough, subsequently corrupted into Love Clough. Clough, 

 " a cleft in a hill " is \mve Saxon. 



The third of the Higher Booths is Ooodshaw, which in the old 

 list of 12tli Edward IV, is spelt Gode-shagh, literally. The God's 

 Wood. That it can have no reference to God's House, or to God's 

 Acre, at Goodshaw, is evident from the fact that " Godshaw " 

 was in use long before these had an existence ; for there was no 

 Church or Chapel, and no burial ground there until after 

 December, 1540. And moreover, when the Church was built 

 it was not called Goodxhaw Church but Dunkirk, the kirk or church 

 on the hill, and the original Church still stands in Dunkirk Square, 

 though now degraded into a hen house. Originally the word 

 god, in tlae Saxon, was used simply as the adjective good, but on 

 the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity they required a 

 name for the Supreme Being, and finding none in their language 

 expressive of his character as they then understood it, they 

 adopted their adjective god, " good," as a noun, and called him 

 God, The Good. Godeshagh, " the Wood of the God" then, is the 

 earliest name of the Booth with which we are acquainted. It 

 seems probable that a heathen god was worshipped at some time 

 in this locality. The ancient inhabitants of this district were 

 Celts, and the worship of the Celts was Druidic, which, where 

 practicable, was conducted in woods and forests, within a circle 

 or circles of stones, many of which are still extant, especially in 

 out of the way or secluded places, where sacrilegious hands have 

 not as yet converted them to secular uses. Even where this has 

 been done, the places where they formerly stood retain names 

 indicative of their previous existence. Near the central part of 

 this Booth, and about mid-way up the valley, we have what are 

 still known as Eings Field and Rings Meadow, giving names to 

 Eings Row and Rings House. And in an old survey of the Town- 

 ship, we have adjacent to these, or clustered about Rings Row, 

 the following, viz : a farm called Rings, having upon it Ri7igs 

 Meadow and Eings Field; and upon Five other adjoining farms 

 or separate properties we have six inclosures bearing the name of 

 Ring or Rings, making in all Nine place-names, of which the 

 word Fdng or Rings forms a distinctive part. 



As the old Druid Circles are well known throughout this 

 country by the designation of Rings, we think we are quite justi- 

 fied in coming to the conclusion that this particular place was 



