in the Keltic tongue, wherewith the Saxon or Scythian speech
doth not a little participate, huge woods and forests were called _walds_,
and likewise their Druids were named _walie_ or _waldie_, because they
frequented the woods, and there made sacrifice among the oaks and
thickets. So that, if my conjecture in this behalf be anything at all, the
aforesaid town taketh denomination of _Wald_ and _end_, as if I should
say, "The end of the woody soil;" for, being once out of that parish, the
champaign is at hand. Or it may be that it is so called of _Wald_ and
_dene_: for I have read it written in old evidences Waldaene, with a
diphthong. And to say truth, _dene_ is the old Saxon word for a vale or
low bottom, as _dune_ or _don_ is for a hill or hilly soil. Certes, if it
be so, then Walden taketh her name of the woody vale, in which it sometime
stood. But the first derivation liketh me better; and the highest part of
the town is called also Chipping-Walden, of the Saxon word _Zipping_,
which signifies "Leaning or hanging," and may very well be applied
thereunto, sith the whole town hangeth as it were upon the sides of two
hills, whereof the lesser runneth quite through the midst of the same. I
might here, for further confirmation of these things, bring in mention of
the Wald of Kent; but this may suffice for the use of the word _wald_,
which now differeth much from _wold_. For as that signifieth a woody soil,
so this betokeneth a soil without wood, or plain champaign country,
without any store of trees, as may be seen in Cotswold, Porkwold, etc.
Beside this I could say more of our forests, and the aforesaid enclosures
also, and therein to prove by the book of forest law that the whole county
of Lancaster hath likewise been forest heretofore. Also how William the
Bastard made a law that whosoever did take any wild beast within the
forest should lose an ear (as Henry the First did punish them either by
life or limb, which ordinance was confirmed by Henry the Second and his
peers at Woodstock, whereupon great trouble rose under King John and Henry
the Third, as appeareth by the chronicles); but it shall suffice to have
said so much as is set down already.[203]

CHAPTER XXI.

OF PALACES BELONGING TO THE PRINCE.

[1577, Book II., Chapter 9; 1587, Book II., Chapter 15.]

It lieth not in me to set down exactly the number and names of the palaces
belonging to the prince, nor to make any description of her grace's court,