136 



ago. The Fir tree is a native, and gives its name to a few places, 

 but not in these parts ; and the Walnut, by its very name, is a 

 foreigner. 



I will now go to somewhat humbler trees. I am surprised that 

 so few places are named from the Holly or Holm. It must once 

 have been most abundant, and probably formed the chief 

 underwood of Kingswood Forest. But I know of no placa 

 certainly named after it. There are plenty of Holmes, but they 

 all mean Islands. There is, however, a Holcombe near Bath, 

 which may have been Holmcombe, and if so, it must have been so 

 named from the Holly — a valley could not have been named from 

 an island. I am also surprised to find none named after the 

 Hazel ; for Evelyn says, " for the place they above all affect. . . 

 . . Where quarries of freestone lie beneath." Yet, though we 

 have abundance of freestone, I know of no other place named 

 after the Kazel nearer than Haslebury, in Wiltshire, and 

 Hasleton, near Cheltenham. 



I know of no place near here named after the Elder, but 

 I mention it because there is a family name, known to some of 

 us, which may be traced to that tree, I mean the name of 

 EUacombe. The old form of Elder was EUer, or Ellern, and 

 Eller-combe or EUern-combe would very easily be written 

 phonetically Ella-combe. Ferguson, however (a good authority 

 on names), says that Ell or EUi is the old Norse form for the 

 Alder.* So I can take my choice between the Alder and the Elder. 



I wish we could say that the different Hayes — Combehaj', &c., 

 were named after the Hawthorn, but I suppose they are simply 

 " Hagas " (enclosed lands), the same word which afterwards 

 became " Hedge." It is true that the same word also forms the 

 first syllable of Hawthorn, but we cannot stretch it further. We 

 can, however, claim the Thorn as the chief component of 

 Thornbury, 



• Ferguson's " North Meu," p. 125, 



