The Evidence of Local Names. 33 



If, however, we look at the district from another point of 

 view, we shall find further evidence against the Chroniclers. It 

 was a part of the Natan Leaga * a name still preserved in the 

 various Netleys, Nateleys, and Nutleys, which remain the 

 Ytene of the British, that is, the furzy district, a title eminently 

 characteristic of the soil.f Again, too, the villages and manors, 

 such as Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Ashurst, and half a dozen 

 more hursts, point to the woody nature of the place. Such 

 names, also, as Boydon, the rough ground ; Bramshaw, the 

 bramble wood ; Denny, the furzy ground ; Wootton, the Ode- 

 tune of Domesday ; Stockeyford and Stockleigh, the woody 

 place ; besides Staneswood, Arnwood, and Testwood, all more or 

 less afforested in Domesday, clearly show the character of the 

 district. 



but by no means necessitates that the church was standing at the afforesta- 

 tion. Thus we know that in Leland's time a chapel was in existence at 

 Fritham (Itinerary, ed. Hearne, vol vi f. 100, p. 88), which has since his 

 day disappeared. It would, of course, be absurd to argue that all ruins 

 which have been, or yet may be found, were caused by the Conqueror. 

 Further, with regard to the castles, had there been any, they would most 

 certainly have been noticed in Domesday, and it is most unlikely, knowing 

 how very few existed in England at the Conquest, that five or six should 

 have been clustered together in the Forest. The fact, too, of Rose's 

 finding " minute fragments of brick and mortar/' lumps of chalk, and 

 pieces of slate bored with holes, simply proves that persons have, subse- 

 quently to the Normans, found the New Forest a most ungrateful soil. 

 I may, perhaps, add that Mr Akerman, the well-known archaeologist, 

 when, a few years since, exploring the Roman potteries in the Forest 

 (for which see chapter xvii.), in vain tried there, or in other parts, to find 

 any traces of old buildings. (Archceologia, vol xxxv p 97 ) 



* See Dr. Guest's Early English Settlements in South Britain ; Proceed- 

 ings of the Archaeological Institute, Salisbury volume, p, 57. 



t " Nova Foresta, quse lingua Anglorum Ytene nuncupatnr," however, 

 says Florence of Worcester (vol. ii. pp. 44, 45, ed. Thorpe) ; but the Keltic 

 origin of the word is better. 



F 



