and from the hore-stone into the "Derneford;"[1] and so forth, westrigte (westward), endlong streme into the more at "Estwode's end;"[2] and so up between Estwode and "Otershaghe,"[3] to the "Hore Thorn."[4]
- ↑ Durnford, where there is now a bridge over the Bourn, on the road between Ottershaw Park and Onnensley or Anningsley farm.
- ↑ The more or marsh at Eastwood's End must have been at the west side of Ottershaw.
- ↑ The Otter's house, which is plain enough, and proves the great antiquity of the name of that seat.
- ↑ The old white thorn. There is nothing more beautiful in nature than a fine old white-thorn tree in full blossom; and those who are aware of the great age to which the thorn-tree attains, will not be surprised that such trees should have been selected as landmarks. The age of the hawthorn extends to 100 or 200 years. At Cawder Castle there is one which is said to be be coeval with the building, the date of which is 1450 to 1500. There is a thorn-tree at Studley, near Ripon, Yorkshire, 43 feet high; its trunk is 4 feet in diameter, the diameter of its head being 43 feet.—(Loudon's Arboretum, vol. ii. p. 840.) Old thorn-trees were particularly cherished by our Saxon forefathers, and even in these days, when land is cleared of underwood, immunity is given to thorns and hollies.—(Akerman's Spring Tide.) In the South of Ireland, Mr. Crofton Croker tells us, "Old and solitary thorns are regarded with reverence by the peasantry, and considered as sacred to the revels of the fairy sprites, whose vengeance follows their removal." Piers Plowman tells us in his olden English,—
"And thanne met ich whith a Man on Midlents Soneday as hor as an hawethorne."—(Piers Plowman, p. 314.) Chaucer, in his "Court of Love," makes all his Court to go forth on May-day to fetch the flowers fresh, and branche and bloome, and
"Marke the faire blooming of the hawthorne tree,
"Who finely clothed in a robe of white,
"Fills full the wanton eye with May's delight."
than landmarks, deriving their name from Harz (Armoric), a bound or limit; as, Men hars, a bound-stone. There was formerly at Pentecost, in Chobham, a white cross; but that is at some distance from our boundary, if it be, as I suppose, the same that I find in the maps as Pancras or Pancrets farm; and I should rather suppose the hoar-stone to have been at the angle formed by the boundary of the parish of Chertsey, at the Canal on Woking Common.
