490 
RURAL HOURS. 
tions from different natural objects have been hitherto very little 
used in this country, and yet they are always very pleasing when 
applied with fitness, and form a class almost inexhaustible from 
their capability of variation. Broadmeadows, Brookfield, River- 
mead, Oldoaks, Nutwoods, Highborough, Hillhamlet, Shallow- 
ford, Brookdale, Clearwater, Newbridge, (fee, &c., are instances 
of the class of names alluded to, and it would be easy to coin hun- 
dreds like them, always bearing in mind their fitness to the nat- 
ural or artificial features of the spot ; springs, woods, heights, 
dales, rocks, pastures, orchards, forges, furnaces, factories, (fee, (fee, 
are all well adapted to many different combinations in this way. 
Another large and desirable class of names may be fonud in 
those old Saxon words, which have been almost entirely over- 
looked by us, although we have a perfectly good right to use 
them, by descent and speech. They will bear connection either 
with proper names or with common nouns. A number of these 
may be readily pointed out. There is ham or home, and horougli, 
also, which have occasionally, though rarely, been used. We 
give others of the same kind : 
Bury, means a town or a hamlet ; Seabury would therefore 
suit a town on the sea-shore ; Woodbury another near a wood. 
Rise, speaks for itself, as rising ground. 
Wick, has a twofold signification : either a village, or a wind- 
ing shore, or bay. Sandwich would suit another village on the 
shore ; Bushwick for a bushy spot upon some river. 
Stead, and Stowe, and Stock, have all three the same general 
signification of a dwelling-place. Thus, Newstead means also 
Newtown ; Woodstock means a place in the woods. 
Burn and Bourne, signify eitlier a stream or a boundary, and 
