Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 7.djvu/116

 neighbourhood are still more clearly of Saxon origin; Tilford, Oxenford, Shalford, and Guildford, however their first syllables may be explained, remind us of a time before the upper course of the Wey had been crossed by a bridge; Milford, on a tributary brook, tells its own story, and I strongly incline to believe that Shackleford and Attleford embody the names of fords, not across streams, but across morasses or swamps, which have not been wholly obliterated by modern drainage. Whether Attleford may signify the rotten ford, and Shackleford the chain-ford or the ford over the pool, are questions on which I hazard no opinion; but, considering the situation of Eashing, I do not see any rashness in supposing it to mean the "water meadow.'* Some have rendered it the "ash meadow," but Mr. Earle assures me that it is perfectly susceptible of the former meaning, so far as the first syllable is concerned. Others hold that "ing" specificallv denotes a "family-settlement"; but if it may be used with equal propriety in the sense of "meadow," the proximity of Little Ing is in favour of that rendering. Hurtmore is sometimes popularly interpreted as meaning the moor of whortleberries, locally called "hurts" or "horts"; but it may perhaps be derived from "heorot," the Anglo-Saxon name for a hart or stag. Gatwick must surely be "gate-wick," a form which is found in use near Gatton; and this appellation is entirely in keeping with its local position at the outlet of Puttenham Common towards the river. Ry-hill, which is first mentioned as Riehull, and which is bounded on the Elstead side by a low sandy ridge, is far more likely to have been named after this ridge, which any one can see, than after some mythical association with royalty.

It is the less necessary to dwell on the descent of the Peper Harow estate, because it has been so carefully traced out by Manning, the county historian, who was long rector of the parish. It begins, of course, with the well-known entry in "Domesday Book," where Walter Fitz Other, Governor of Windsor Castle, is registered as its tenant-in-chief, and Girard as holding under him. Under King Edward the Confessor, when one Alward