Words in connection with the Trees. 183 



only to tall isolated clumps of trees. Now, however, it does not 

 merely mean a clump or ring, as the "seven firs" between Burley 

 and Ringwood, and Birchen, and Dark Hats, near Lyndhurst, 

 but any small irregular mass of trees, as the Withy Bed Hat in 

 the valley near Boldrewood. 



Then of course, in connection with the Forest trees, many 

 peculiar words occur. The flower of the oak is called "the 

 trail," and the oak-apple the " sheets axe," children carrying it 

 on the twenty-ninth of May, and calling out the word in derision 

 to those who are not so provided. The mast and acorns are 

 collectively known as "the turn out," or "ovest;"* whilst the 

 badly-grown or stunted trees are called " bustle-headed," equiva- 

 lent to the " oak-barrens " of America. 



Other words there are, too, all proclaiming the woody nature 

 of the country. The tops of the oaks are termed, when lopped, 

 the " flitterings," corresponding to the " batlins " of Suffolk. 

 The brush-wood is still occasionally Chaucer's " rise," or " rice," 

 connected with the German reis ; and the beam tree, on account 

 of its silvery leaves, the "white rice."t Frith, too, still means 

 copse-wood. The stem of the ivy is the " ivy-drum." Stumps 

 of trees are known as "stools," and a " stooled stick" is used 

 in opposition to " maiden timber," which has never been touched 

 with the axe ; whilst the roots are called "mocks," "mootes," 

 "motes," and "mores." But about these last, which are all 

 used with nice shades of difference, we shall have, further on, 

 something to say. 



* I have never in the Forest met the old phrase of " shaketime," or 

 rather " shack-time," as it should be written, and still used of the pigs 

 going in companies after grain or acorns, according to Miss Gurney, in 

 Norfolk. Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 35. 



t On this word, see Appendix I., under " Hoar- Withey," p. 283. 



