C.
In reply to your correspondent's Query, I beg to submit the following, which may prove of utility in tracing out the meaning of the word, viz.:—Forby's Glossary by Turner, vol. i. p. 56., thus has it:
"CAR, s. a wood or grove on a moist soil, generally of alders."
We have them in this country; also the term "osier-cars."
In Kersey's English Dictionary, 1708, we have thus:
"GNAR or GNUR, a hard knot in wood."
In Bailey's Dictionary, 1753, we have it thus:
"GNARR [Knorre, Teutonic], a hard knot in a tree.—Chaucer."
May it not thus mean a knot or clump of trees?
It is also allied to quarry, from the French carré, which signifies a bed, not only for digging stones for building purposes, but also as they are sometimes called, osier-beds, alder-beds.