Note 96 — Chapter II · THE MARK.

The boundaries of the Anglosaxon charters supply a profusion of evidence on this subject. The trees most frequently named are the oak, ash, beech, thorn, elder, lime and birch. The heathen burial-place or mound is singularly frequent. Cod. Dipl. Nos. 247, 335, 476. The charter No. 126 has these words: “Deinde vero ad alios monticulos, postea vero ad viam quae dicitur Fíf ác, recto itinere ad easdem fíf ác, proinde autem ad þreom gemǽran.” Here the boundaries of three several districts lay close to a place called Five Oaks. That the trees were sometimes marked is clear from the entries in the boundaries: thus, in the year 931, tó ðære gemearcodan ǽc æt Alerburnan, the marked oak. Cod. Dipl. No. 1102. ða gemearcodan æfse, the marked eaves or edge of the wood. Ibid. Also, on ða gemearcodan lindan. Ibid. No. 1317. Cyrstelmæl ác, or Christ cross oak. Ibid. No. 118. At Addlestone, near Chertsey, is an ancient and most venerable oak, called the Crouch (crux, crois), that is Cross oak, which tradition declares to have been a boundary of Windsor forest. The same thing is found in Circassia. See Bell, ii. 58. The mearcbeám, without further definition, is common: so the mearctreów. Cod. Dipl. No. 436. The mearcbróc. Ibid. No. 1102. Artificial or natural stone posts are implied by the constantly recurring háran stánas, grǽgan stánas, hoary or grey stones. Among Christians, crosses and obelisks have replaced these old heathen symbols, without altering the nature of the sanction, and the weichbild, or mark that defines the limits of a jurisdiction, can, in my opinion, mean only the sacred sign. On this point see Haltaus. Gloss. in voce, whose derivation from wíc, oppidum, is unsatisfactory. See too Eichhorn, Deutsche Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte, ii. 76. § 224 a. note c: with whose decision Grimm and I coincide.