Names of this type abound in the newer England at the present day; as in the case of Birmingham, Buckingham, Wellington, Kensington, Basingstoke, and Paddington.

But while in America the clearing is merely a temporary phase, and the border of forest is soon cut down so as to connect the village with its neighbours, in the old Anglo-Saxon fatherland the border of woodland, heath, or fen was jealously guarded as a frontier and natural defence for the little predatory and agricultural community.
Whoever crossed it was bound to give notice of his coming by blowing a horn; else he was cut down at once as a stealthy enemy.

The marksmen wished to remain separate from all others, and only to mix with those of their own kin.

In this primitive love of separation we have the germ of that local independence and that isolated private home life which is one of the most marked characteristics of modern Englishmen.
In the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a wooden stockade, stood the village, a group of rude detached huts.

The marksmen each possessed a separate little homestead, consisting usually of a small wooden house or shanty, a courtyard, and a cattle-fold.