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Just to glance at some not seasonal, but perhaps connected with tracks. First, the quaint ones, the reproach in Thistley Grounds Farm, the mystery in Mobs Hole and Moco. Are Munseys, Money Hill, and The Moon all on Moon alinements, or what? Dumpilow Farm indicates a tumulus, which once “humpty” was also “dumpty”—low and flat. It had probably been levelled, and if so all the King’s horses and all the King’s men can’t replace it. Why Wrangling Corner? I only know that a track unexpectedly came to it.
Jack-o’-Thumb’s Farm seems to link up with track-making; all the Jacks of legend were clever mechanical blades, and I find in other districts a Jack’s Green, and a Climbing Jack’s Common, both high up of mountain sides.
There are two “Low” Farms, and many “Low” names, as Shardeloes (mound with pottery shards), Mutlow (the mound which was also a moot or folk-assembly place), Limlow Hill, with a tumulus, Burloes, where ancient burials were found on this hill-top farm, and Bobloes.
There is a Howe Wood, a Howe House, and a How Farm, but this corruption of the Saxon “hlaew” is not so common here as the other corruption “low.”
The Great Covens Wood (Weston Colville), with its moat, should be investigated, as a “Coven” was a gathering of witches.
There are two Arbury earthworks. A “bury” was always an earthwork first, even if a town afterwards. And “Ar”? Might it not be a dropping of the “H” in “ Har,” ancient.
Cold Harbour places—the subject of perennial discussions—number two in this map. My tracks go through both—they always are on such tracks. Major Dunning, in his Roman Road to Portslade, not knowing of my thesis, reports his surprise to find that four Cold Harbour places in Sussex lie on one straight line in the map—assuredly here an old straight one.
It is repeatedly stated that all the Cold Harbours are on Roman roads. Not one of the five which I find on this and the adjoining maps is on a {42} through road at all, but is at the end of a farm road leading out of a road not marked “Roman.” Like other farms, they are on a cul de sac.
I have found seven separate cases in the Place-name books where the earlier forms of such places were “Cole” Harbour. The “d” is a false intrusion, and there is no “chilly” meaning to the word. It is simply a form of the Celtic place-name element “cole,” a mutation of “gole-” light, and occurs in names for many farms and hills, usually beacon hills. One has only to look at the many Cold Oaks, Cold Elms, Coldman places, and so on, to know that there is some corruption here; they are not chilly.
The “Gold” names, as Goldstones (there is a Goldstone at Hove), are corrupted forms of “Cole.” The Celtic mutation between “c” and “g” is shown in the Pembroke Church, Llangolman, dedicated to St. Colman.
A German calendar describes and illustrates a tall grooved stone like the Yorkshire Devils Arrow, “called Gollen or Colgen stein, regarded by some as a boundary stone or landmark, by some as a menhir used in Celtic worship, and by others as a sign or mark of an ancient seat of justice, or place of execution.”
No. 1 track, through Cambridge, comes down through Cold Harbour Farm, and also on part of a footpath through Coldham Common. Eliminate the “d” in both places to get at the meaning. This track also comes through another deceptively named place, Scotland Farm. The late J. G. Wood, F.G.S., in a paper on the numerous “Scot” and “Scotland” places, found that they had nothing whatever to do with the northern nation, but were shelter places for early watchers or scouts.
There are not many of the “Col” or “Cole” places in the Cambridge district. Weston Colville, one of them, perhaps Cowless Hall another.
I do not find “Dod” names, also an attribute of track making. There is a “Tute” Farm, a Celtic name for mound.
“Street” and “Stret” names are plentiful. In one case (crowded out of my map), I found Silver (Silvia) Street Farm, Streetly End, and Streetly Hall on one alinement with a mile of present-day straight road.
As to tracks to potteries, Crocksford Farm is almost certainly on one, and probably Red Cross—a cross-road spot—as is Mark’s Grave, where a suicide has been buried with a stake through his body. Whether this denotes a surname or a mark-stone I cannot say.
There are a few “Salt,” “Whit” and “wick” places. I find but one “beacon” name, and that with a well-proved track through it. I am inclined to think that most such names if not on the top of a hill, denote rather a track laid out or marked by a beacon at intervals, than a beacon fire at the site.