Chapter VII

), but we find also de le hacking, which suggests a forest clearing.

Thwaite, from Anglo-Sax. þwitan, to cut, is found chiefly in Cumberland and the adjacent region in such compounds as Braithwaite (broad), Hebbelthwaite, Postlethwaite, Satterthwaite. The second of these is sometimes corrupted into Ablewhite as Cowperthwaite is into Copperwheat, for "this suffix has ever been too big a mouthful in the south" (Bardsley). A glade or valley in the wood was called a Dean, Dene, Denne, cognate with den. The compounds are numerous, e.g. Borden (boar), Dibden (deep), Sugden (Mid. Eng. suge, sow), Hazeldean or Heseltine. From the fact that swine were pastured in these glades the names Denman and Denyer have been explained as equivalent to swineherd. As a suffix -den is often confused with -don (