[206]In the parish of Eling we have Netley Down and Netley Down-field, the Nutlei of Domesday. Upon this word—which we find, also, in the north of Hampshire, in the shape of Nately Scures and Upper Nately (Nataleie in Domesday)—as the equivalent of Natan Leah, the old name of the Upper portion of the New Forest, see Dr. Guest, as before quoted, [p. 31].
[207]A Keltic derivation has, I am aware, been proposed for this word. It is to be met with under various forms in all parts of the Forest. The Forest termination den (denu) must, however, be put down to this source. See Transactions of the Philological Society, 1855, p. 283.
[208]See what Mr. Cooper says with regard to the affinity of the western dialect of Sussex, as distinguished from the eastern, to that of Hampshire, in the preface (p. i.) to his Glossary of Provincialisms in the County of Sussex. For instance, such Romance words as appleterre, gratten, ampery, bonker, common in Sussex, are not to be heard in the Forest; whilst many of the West-Country words, as they are called, used daily in the Forest, as charm (a noise—see next chapter, [p. 191]), moot, stool, vinney, twiddle (to chirp), are, if Mr. Cooper’s Glossary is correct, quite unknown in Sussex.
[209]It is surprising, in looking over the musters of ships in the reigns of Edward II. and Edward III., to see how few Northern ports are mentioned. The importance, too, of the South-coast ports, which were sometimes summoned by themselves, arose not only from the reasons in the text, but from being close to the country with which we were in a state of chronic warfare. See, too, the State Papers, vol. i., p. 812, 813, where the levies of the fleets in 1545, against D’Annebault, with the names of each vessel and its port, are given; as also p. 827, where the neighbouring coast of Dorset is described as deserted, in consequence of the sailors flocking to the King’s service. I think that I have somewhere seen that our sailors were once rated as English, Irish, Scotch, and the “West Country,” the latter standing the highest.
[210]From an old chap-book, The Hampshire Murderers, with illustrations, without date or publisher’s name, but probably written about 1776.
[211]That is to say, the smuggled spirits were concealed either below the fireplace or in the stable, just beneath where the horse stood. The expression of “Hampshire and Wiltshire moon-rakers” had its origin in the Wiltshire peasants fishing up the contraband goods at night, brought through the Forest, and hid in the various ponds.
[212]See Dictionary of Americanisms, by J. R. Bartlett, who does not, however, we think, refer nearly often enough to the mother-country for the sources of many of the phrases and words which he gives. Even the Old-English inflexions, as he remarks, are in some parts of the States still used, showing what vitality, even when transplanted, there is in our language. Boucher, too, notices in the excellent introduction to his Glossary of Archaic and Provincial Words, p. ix., that the whine and the drawl of the first Puritan emigrants may still in places be detected.
[213]All over the world lives a similar fairy, the same in form, but different in name. His life has been well illustrated in Dr. Bell’s Shakspeare’s Puck and his Folk-lore. In England he is known by many names—“the white witch,” “the horse-hag,” and “Fairy Hob;” and hence, too, we here get Hob’s Hill and Hob’s Hole. For accounts of him in different parts see especially Allies’ Folk-lore of Worcestershire, ch. xii. p. 409, and Illustrations of the Fairy Mythology of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by J. O. Halliwell. Published by the Shakspeare Society.
[214]The most popular songs which I have noticed in the Forest and on its borders are the famous satire, “When Joan’s ale was new,” which differs in many important points from Mr. Bell’s printed version: “King Arthur had three sons;” “There was an old miller of Devonshire,” which also differs from Mr Bell’s copy; and