Miscellaneous Words. 



263 



the word as the genitive case of a word formed from the 

 Welsh term nawt, signifying a " sanctuary e.g., Nat-e (gen. 

 Nat-an) ; and observes, concerning the latter portion, that 

 " Leod" though not found in our Anglo-Saxon dictionaries, 

 occurs in Anglo-Saxon poems with the sense of " Pri?ice." 

 He explains the whole word as signifying the " Prince of the 

 sanctuary," 1 and as being a title given to Ambrosius, and 

 one of which a man, as exalted even as he was, might well 

 have been proud. Our remarks above in § 16, under Ames- 

 bury, will explain what this sanctuary was. We can gather, 

 from other sources, circumstantial evidence that he died in 

 this same year to which the entry in the Saxon Chronicle 

 relates, and the coincidence of dates seems almost to de- 

 monstrate the identity of Natanleod and Ambrosius. 



The Saxon Chronicler goes on to say that " the country 

 was called Natan-leaga as far as Cerdic's ford." This last- 

 named place was clearly Chard-ford, a smalt village, or hamlet, 

 in Hampshire, on the banks of the Avon at the point where 

 that river leaves the county of Wilts. The territory called 

 Natan-leaga (or the Leas of the Nat-e) consisted most proba- 

 bly of the woodlands which stretched from the Avon (which 

 flows through the south-west of Hampshire till it enters the 

 English Channel by Christchurch) to the Test and Itchin, 

 on which last river stands Southampton. Throughout this 

 district, which includes not only a portion of Wilts but also 

 of Hants, we find memorials of Britain's early chieftain. 

 First and foremost you have the well-known name of Net-ley. 

 Again, between Amesbury and Old Sarum we still have this 

 hamlet called Net-ton, which is of course only a corruption, 



1 A philological friend has suggested to me that Natan-leod may be from 

 Nathan (Irish and Gaelic), an adjective meaning noble, andLlui/dri (z=army), and 

 that the whole name signifies " Commander in chief," the Chronicler speaking 

 of Ambrosius by his title. As a parallel instance, he mentions, as recorded by 

 Beda (Eccles. Bist. B. 2, chap. 13), that the priest who answered Taulinus 

 when he was persuading Edwin, King of Northumbria to become a. Christian, 

 was " Coifi." Now the name given by the British Celts to an Arch-Druid 

 was " Coibhi," (=Coifi) ; they therefore seem to have spoken of th« priest 

 alluded to by his title. See Armstrong's Gaol, and Irish Dictionary. 



