In the great number of town-names that are formed from
patronymics, such as _Walsingham_ "the home of the Walsings,"
_Harlington_ "the town of the Harlings," etc.,[5] we have unimpeachable
evidence of a time when the town was regarded as the dwelling-place of a
clan. Indeed, the comparative rarity of the word _mark_ in English laws,
charters, and local names (to which Professor Stubbs alludes) may be due
to the fact that the word _town_ has precisely the same meaning. _Mark_
means originally the belt of waste land encircling the village, and
secondarily the village with its periphery. _Town_ means originally a
hedge or enclosure, and secondarily the spot that is enclosed: the
modern German _zaun_, a "hedge," preserves the original meaning. But
traces of the mark in England are not found in etymology alone. I have
already alluded to the origin of the "common" in English towns. What is
still more important is that in some parts of England cultivation in
common has continued until quite recently. The local legislation of the
mark appears in the _tunscipesmot_,--a word which is simply Old-English
for "town-meeting." In the shires where the Danes acquired a firm
foothold, the township was often called a "by"; and it had the power of
enacting its own "by-laws" or town-laws, as New England townships have
to-day.
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