92 A SKETCH OF OLD NEWCASTLE. 



meaning of the appendage, " under-Lyme," which dis- 

 tinguishes our town from Newcastle-upon-Tyne ? It is 

 often written by outsiders Lyne, and Line, but this is 

 simply a mistake : old charters and documents spell it 

 Lyme ; and the most probable explanation is Newcastle 

 under the forest of Lyme. Not, indeed, the forest of 

 limes, or linden trees (as has been said), but the forest 

 boundary the word lime (from limes, a boundary.) An 

 old monkish writer says that the county of Chester is shut 

 in from the south of England by the wood lime. Thus, 

 Lyme Handley, in that county (a seat of the Leighs, near 

 Macclesfield) is said to be so called from being on the 

 limes or border of Cheshire. The forest may be traced 

 through a line of country in which the names of several 

 places indicate the course, bringing us to Audlem (Old 

 Lime, or Aldelime, as in Domesday book), at the other ex- 

 tremity from Lyme Handley or End-ley, the ley or pasture 

 at the end of the lime or boundary. This is confirmed 

 by such expressions as Chesterton-under- Lyme, Madeley- 

 under-Lyme, and Whitmore-under-Lyme, formerly used ; all 

 being under or beyond the lime, or " extra leniam " as it 

 is expressed in a charter of Randle de Blonderville, Earl 

 Palatine of Chester, who at the time held the Manor of 

 Newcastle, which was beyond the border of his own 

 county. 



I have spoken of the name before giving any account 

 of the rise or beginning of the town and castle bearing 

 the name ; but this need not mislead us. On this point, 

 as well as with regard to the origin of the name, there 

 has been some uncertainty. That it was called Newcastle, 

 in contradistinction to Chesterton, the old fortress or 

 camp, is generally admitted. But the precise time when 

 the new fortress arose is doubtful. It is not mentioned 



