NATURE NOTES. 
164 
laTies it is ahva3'S given as the translation oi pratiivt, and in them 
we also find mention of the meadow-sweet or meadow-wort, 
Avhich I have no doubt is the same plant which Ave noAV call 
by that name. The English meadoAV Avas exactly the Latin 
pratiim, cultivated ground for grass only, and not brought under 
the plough and so ahvays green (Cicero speaks of pratorum herbes- 
cens viriditas). And this Avas certainly the English meadoAV, 
Avhich in its A. S. deri\-ation is the moAved ground. The 
meadoAv Avas ahA'ays a pasture of large extent (“ Avide-skirted 
meads” is Shakespeare’s description), yielding a quantity of 
rich but not A'ery superior grass. In our part of the country 
the meadoAvs are all loAvland pastures, and hay-dealers draAV a 
Avide distinction betAveen upland and meadoAV hay. 
Close is also an old English Avord, though it is derived directl}^ 
from the Latin clausuva, or locus incliisus. It probably almost 
ahvays mea^t a place enclosed Avith AA'alls (the Pyomptorium 
has “ cloos or yerde, clausura,” and yerde is the j'ard or garden), 
and so Shakespeare makes Timon saA’, “ I liaA^e a tree Avhich 
groAvs here in my close” [Tiinon of Athens, x. 2). It Avas 
also near the house, sometimes in it, and then it AA'as reduced 
in size, and becomes a closet. As applied to buildings the 
name still surA'h'es in Cathedral close and Vicar’s close, and I 
belieA'e is noAV confined to cathedral buildings ; as field names 
AA'e haA'e long close, broad close, and cling close, Avhich if it 
means anything probably means that it Avas the field that lay 
nearest to or joined the house. 
Lcaze is entirel}'^ an old country Avord. I once thought it 
might be the plural of lea, a meadoAV, but in some parts, Oxford- 
shire for instance, the plural leazon appears, and it is certainly 
the same as the old A. S. lese, or leswe, a pasture. We hax-e 
seA'eral leazes in Bitton, as east leaze, crooked leaze, middle 
leaze, coav leaze, bean leaze, little leaze, long leaze, beach leaze, 
pigeon-house leaze, AA'heat leaze ; these all explain themseE'es, 
and Nann3*'s leaze. Hart’s leaze and Bright’s leaze are clearly 
named from former OAA'ners ; but I cannot explain lark’s leaze or 
pill leaze. 
Tyning as a field name is a very curious survEal of a very old 
Avord, noAV onlj^ knoAvn as a field name. It comes from the A. S. 
tunen, to hedge in, and in the old authors it is not restricted to 
field AA'ork. In the Ancren Riwle (13th century) a nun is advised 
to “ tunen ” her eyes against AA'icked sights, but in the Pyomp- 
torium (15th century) the AA'ord seems strictly confined to hedges. 
“Tynj'd or hedgydde — septus;” “ Tynin or make a tyninge — - 
sepio ; ” ‘‘ Tynynge, drye hedge — sepes.” Originall}", therefore, 
meaning the hedge itself, it came to mean a hedged-in enclosure, 
and that meaning only it has retained. We haA'e in Bitton 
long tyning, loAA'er tjming, upper tyning, Robin’s tyning, Bath 
Road tyning-'^ and Avail tyning, and this last is of interest as a 
* This is a very curious instance of corruption. In an earlier survey it is 
Bath Way Tyning, but in older deeds it is Blathwayt Tyning. 
