238 Etymology of some Names of Places, by R. Carr-Ellison. 



descriptive of the site of an undoubtedly British town or 

 village, there is nothing- of Cymro-Celtic in the compound 

 term — Greves Ash. There is no reason to doubt that it is 

 Anglo-Saxon English, handed down, as we may believe, 

 from the corresponding epoch of our history. At first 

 thought, one is led to inquire whether some stately ash-tree 

 might not have once distinguished the spot — the soil and 

 situation being quite such as might favour the conjecture. 

 But what could a Saxon greve — the chief-officer of the ward 

 or sub-division of the shire adjoining the rivers Glen, 

 Breamish, and Till — have to do there ? Let us consider 

 then. Could greve here be the Early-English for grove? 

 Hardly so ; for in neither form is the word grove in popular 

 Northumbrian use ; and if it were, why should a British 

 village be denominated the Grove's Ash-tree ? Again, could 

 greves be used in the sense of grooves, or trenches ? But 

 such trenches are nowhere in the north called greves. Could 

 it be graves ? But this is never pronounced as greves. 

 Whilst again the British graves, which are traceable amidst 

 the heather at some little distance around Greves Ash, are 

 very unconspicuous objects, and nowise such as to be 

 regarded as characteristic of the locality. But the key to 

 the difficulty lies in the word Ash, or Ashe ; or Ashe, as it 

 also known to have been written. Let us, therefore, here 

 examine how many other places called simply Ash, or Ashe, 

 are to be met with in a topographical dictionary. Of these 

 I find thirteen, and one Aske. Moreover we have Ashen, in 

 one instance, a plural form of great interest and importance, 

 as we shall see. But ere we give up the ash-tree, let us 

 compare the derivatives from other native trees. We find 

 only one place denominated Oake, and one Aike (the 

 northern equivalent). The beech affords but one place 

 simply so named ; and the elm, three called Elm. The 

 birch and the thorn, however, are more productive : six 

 places being called Birch, or Birche ; and six Thorn or 

 Thome. If the places named Ash, or Ashe, were chiefly in 

 the Danish regions of England, we might ascribe them to 

 the known fact ol the ash-tree being held in special regard 

 by that people. But it is not so. These sites are rather in 

 Saxon or Anglian districts. When, however, the Danish 

 word by, hamlet, is annexed, then we have a perfect co- 

 distribution of the numerous Ashbys, with the other charac- 

 teristic terminations of Dano-Saxon nomenclature in Eng- 



