The Evidence of Local Names. 



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 Roydon, the rough ground ; Bramshaw, the 

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

 tune of Domesday ; Stockeyford and Stockleigh, the woody 

 place ; Ashley, the ash ground ; besides Staneswood, Arnwood > 

 and Testwood, all more or less afforested in Domesday, clearly 

 show its character. 



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. 

 Rose's Red King was privately printed, and I know the book only through 

 Ellis's Introduction to Domesday (vol. i. p. 108), and a notice of it in the 

 Edinburgh Review (Jan., 1809, vol. xiii. pp. 425, 426); but it is amusing 

 to see certain recent writers trying to prove William's devastion because 

 the remains of brick have been discovered. This certainly shows that long 

 since the Conqueror's time the people have endeavoured, with very ill- 

 success, to live on the barren soil of the Forest. 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. 



f "Nova Foresta, quse lingua Anglorum Ytene nuncupatur," however, 

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

 origin of the word is better. 



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