Chapter XII Spot Names
“In ford, in ham, in ley and tun
The most of English surnames run”
(VERSTEGAN).
Verstegan’s couplet, even if it be not strictly true, makes a very good text for a discourse on our local names. The ham, or home, and the ton, or town, originally an enclosure (cf. Ger. Zaun, hedge), were, at any rate in a great part of England, the regular nucleus of the village, which in some cases has become the great town and in others has decayed away and disappeared from the map. In an age when wool was our great export, flock keeping was naturally a most important calling, and the ley, or meadow land, would be quickly taken up and associated with human activity. When bridges were scarce, fords were important, and it is easy to see how the inn, the smithy, the cartwright’s booth, etc., would naturally plant themselves at such a spot and form the commencement of a hamlet.