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owner as are preserved by his name, his neighbours would soon 
do so for him ; if the field belongs to Mr. Jones, they will not long 
call it by its old name of Smith’s field ; they soon call it Jones’. 
I now come to names which I must take singly, because they 
will not fall in under any of the divisions I have named, and I 
will take first those which I can explain, or at least guess at their 
meaning. 
I suppose former industries are commemorated in Potter's 
Wood, and the Matmans, who may have made his mats out of the 
rushes, Chapter’s Mead may have been part of the old Prebendal 
property, but is more probably a surname. Tump Tyning may 
mark some large mound or clump of trees, as Barrow Hill takes 
its name from the Barrow that stands in its centre. Normead is 
the North Meadow, and Lynch and Grass Lynch must mark fields 
that formed the boundary to something or other. Claypit Acre 
has no claypits and apparently never had, and is of ten acres, and 
this is a matter of some interest. Acre is simply the old English 
form of the Latin ager and the Greek ’aypos,* and was originally 
of any extent, and it was not till the reign of Edward I. that its 
size was fixed at four roods of forty poles each. It was even a 
measure of length, and this loose way of speaking of it has 
survived in our field names, many of which are called simply acre, 
as long acre, middle acre, etc. The best survival is in that good 
name for a churchyard, ‘‘ God’s Acre,” which may be less than a 
quarter of an acre or may be nearly two acres as at Bitton. With 
this we may join furlong as a field name (we have or had a Long 
furlong at Bitton), the furlong being now a fixed measure of 
length, but originally a furrows length, 7.¢., the amount that could 
be ploughed within a given time.t 
* The old plant-name Staves-acre is the Anglicised form of 
Staphisagria, which again is the Latin form of soragus ‘aypia 
+ The old term a “ yard of land” looks as if it might be connected 
with acre and furlong ; but in this case the “ yard” has no connection 
with the measure; it is the word used in vineyard, orchard, etc., the 
garth and garden, z.e., an enclosure. 
ike ee ee ee ee 
