Page:Rural Hours.djvu/538

Rh 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, Rivermead, Oldoaks, Nutwoods, Highborough, Hillhamlet, Shallowford, Brookdale, Clearwater, Newbridge, &c., &c., are instances of the class of names alluded to, and it would be easy to coin hundreds like them, always bearing in mind their fitness to the natural or artificial features of the spot; springs, woods, heights, dales, rocks, pastures, orchards, forges, furnaces, factories, &c., &c., are all well adapted to many different combinations in this way.

Another large and desirable class of names may be found in those old Saxon words, which have been almost entirely overlooked 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 borough, 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 winding 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 either a stream or a boundary, and