86 THE CHILTHRN COUNTHY, 
of Coleshill, belonging to some manor in the adjoining county of 
Hertford: that of Ackhampstead, belonging to Lewknor, in the 
county of Oxford, &c., &e. These portions seem to have been 
occupied by a kind of colonisation, before the whole forest 
was thought worth entire occupation and regular division into 
parishes. 
This division took place in or before the reign of Alfred the 
Great, whence all old English parochial names date. In some 
not exactly known year, in his time, the name each village or 
town then bore was distinctly ascertained, or a name given to it, 
if it had none, and its boundaries were fixed: and thus the first 
official survey of the island took place. 
The names of the Chiltern parishes enable us to look for a 
moment with the eyes of our Saxon-German forefathers over our 
hills and vales. A list of these names, and a few remarks by 
way of explanation, may be both useful and interesting, especially 
as the subject has never before been systematically attempted. 
To ascertain the signification of the names, we must generally 
recur to some earlier spelling, in consequence of the corruptions 
produced by many centuries of tradition. Doomsday Book, the 
oldest authority, is generally most correct in this particular, and 
the best guide to deciding the meanings. 
AmersHAM. The first name on our list presents a singular 
difficulty. Tracing it from the earliest, we find it successively 
called Almondesham, Agmondesham, Amondsham, Amersham, the 
two last being easily corrupted from either the first or second, 
one of which is evidently incorrect. Notwithstanding the 
authority of the spelling Agmondesham, which has been in 
use from the XIII century to the present time, though cor- 
rupted in pronunciation, I take the first, as being in Doomsday 
Book; ALMOND’s HAM—THE PLACE oF THE AtMaANN, Almand, or 
Almanian (Zat. Alemanni), 7.¢., (1) a German or Germans of the 
Alemannic nation, as distinguished from the Saxons, Franks, 
Frisians, or (2) generally, a German or Germans as distinguished 
in the later times from the Danes of the adjoining parish of Chal- 
font. The word was constantly used in this second sense.* It is 
* Schilter, Thesaurus Antiq. Teut. iii, 21. 
