the conquering race.

What remains have we in our English villages of our Saxon forefathers,
the makers of England? In the first place we notice that many of the
names of our villages retain the memory of their founders. When the
family, or group of families, formed their settlements, they avoided the
buildings and walled towns, relics of Roman civilisation, made clearings
for themselves in the primeval forests, and established themselves in
village communities. In the names of places the suffix _ing_, meaning
_sons of_, denotes that the village was first occupied by the clan of
some chief, whose name is compounded with this syllable _ing_. Thus the
Uffingas, the children of Offa, formed a settlement at Uffinggaston, or
Uffington; the Redingas, or sons of Rede, settled at Reading; the
Billings at Billinge and Billingham; the Wokings or Hocings, sons of
Hoc, at Woking and Wokingham. The Billings and Wokings first settled at
Billinge and Woking; and then like bees they swarmed, and started
another hive of industry at Billingham and Wokingham.

These family settlements, revealed to us by the patronymic _ing_, are
very numerous. At Ardington, in Berkshire, the Ardings, the royal race
of the Vandals, settled; the Frankish Walsings at Wolsingham; the
Halsings at Helsington; the Brentings at Brentingley; the Danish
Scyldings at Skelding; the Thurings at Thorington; and many other
examples might be quoted.

Many Saxon names of places end in _field_, which denotes a forest
clearing, or _feld_, made by the axes of the settlers in the primeval
woods, where the trees were _felled_. These villages were rudely
fortified, or inclosed by a hedge, wall, or palisade, denoted by the
suffix _ton_, derived from the Anglo-Saxon _tynan_, to hedge; and all