Forms: 1 weald, 3–4, 6 welde, 5 weeld, 5–6, 8 weld; 6–9 wild(e, wyld(e, 7 wile; 6 weylde, 6–7 weild(e, 7 wield, 6– weald. [OE. weald ‘forest’ (the WS. equivalent of Anglian wald: see WOLD), normally developing into southern ME. wēld(e, weeld; the modern spelling, which is due to Lambarde, is a re-adoption of the OE. form. The form wild(e, which occurs early in the 16th c., is probably parallel to Kentish and Sussex dial. fild for field, but in later use was apparently assimilated in pronunciation to the more intelligible WILD sb., which had an appropriately descriptive meaning.
The OE. weald is applied in the Chronicle (see below) to the forest of Andred, which included at least part of the present ‘Weald’]
1. The name of the tract of country, formerly wooded, including the portions of Sussex, Kent and Surrey that lie between the North and South Downs.
(a) O. E. Chron., an. 893. Se [Limene] muþa is on easteweardre Cent, æt þæs miclan wuda eastende þe we Andred hatað;… seo ea … lið ut of þæm wealda; on þa ea hi tuʓon up hiora scipu oþ þone weald.
[1018. Charter of Cnut (Ord. Surv. Facs. III. No. xxxix). Quoddam siluulae nemus concedo famosa in silua Andredeswealde.]
c. 1290. St. Kenelm, 52, in S. Eng. Leg., 346. Sethþe hadde þe kyng of westsex southsex also, Þe welde and al þe bischopriche of Cicestre þerto.
[1357. in Cal. Pat. Rolls, 31 Edw. III., m. 17 (1909), X. 578. Towns and places within La Welde, co. Kent.]
1471. Caxton, Recuyell, Pref. (Sommer), 4. I … was born & lerned myn english in kente in the weeld where I doubte not is spoken as brode and rude english as in ony place of englond.
1483. Dk. Norfolk, in Paston Lett., III. 308. The Kentysshmen be up in the weld, and sey they wol come and robbe the cite.
1523. Act 14 & 15 Hen. VIII., c. 6. The hundred of Cranebroke, in the wilde of your county of Kent.
1543–4. Act 35 Hen. VIII., c. 17 § 11. Townes parishes or places … within the weldes of the counties of Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
1558–9. Act 1 Eliz., c. 15 § 2. The Weilde of Kent. Ibid. In the Weylde of the Countye of Surreye.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 268. I was borne in the wylde of Kent.
1595. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. i. 60. There’s a Franklin in the wilde of Kent, hath brought three hundred Markes with him in Gold.
1619. Dalton, Country Justice, xxvi. (1630), 72. In the highways within the Wields of Sussex Surrey or Kent.
1642. Howell, For. Trav., v. 61. The Wiles of Kent.
1662. Act 14 Chas. II., c. 6 § 17. Any Owner Farmer or Lessee of any Iron worke … within the Wildes of the Counties of Surrey Sussex or Kent.
1697. De Foe, Ess. Projects, 109–10. That unpassable County of Sussex, which especially in some parts in the Wild, as they very properly call it,… hardly admits the Countrey People to Travel to Markets in Winter, [etc.].
1778. England’s Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Newdigate, Surry, The Wyld hereabouts is observed to bear excellent oats.
1801. W. Huntington, God Guardian of Poor, 66. Being a native of the Wild of Kent, which is none of the most polite parts of the world.
(b) 1570. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1576), 167. Nowe then we are come to the Weald of Kent, which (after the common opinion of men of our time) is conteined within very streight and narrowe limits, notwithstanding that in times paste, it was reputed of suche exceeding bignesse, that it was thought to extende into Sussex, Surrey, and Hamshyre.
1625. Markham, Inrichment Weald Kent, 1. The Weald of Kent is the lower part of that Shire, lying on the South side thereof, and adioyneth to the Weald of Sussex, towards the West.
1787. Phil. Trans., LXXVII. 190. The right hand stations occupy … the heights which extend across the Wealds.
1822. W. D. Conybeare & Phillips, Outl. Geol., 144. The Weald. This district may be generally described as stretching along the coast of the channel from Folkstone to Beachy Head, and thence extending westwards into the interior as far as the confines of Sussex and Hampshire.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 196. There is a great deal of valuable timber and coppice-wood in Surrey, particularly in the weald…. Turnpike roads good; but cross-roads, particularly in the weald, very indifferent.
1863. Herschel, Fam. Lect. Sci. Subj., 1. § 4. What has become of all that great bed of chalk which once covered all the weald of Kent?
1903. Kipling, Five Nations, Sussex, 24. And through the gaps revealed Belt upon belt, the wooded, dim Blue goodness of the Weald.
2. A wooded district or an open country; a wold. Now only poet.
1544. Bale, Chron. Oldcastell, 47. Manye fledde … into the welde of Scotlande, Walys, and Irelande.
1603. S. Daniel, To Lady Marg. C’tess Cumberland, 8. What a faire seate hath he, from whence he may The boundlesse wastes, & weilds of man suruay.
1851. Meredith, Sunrise, 18 Poet. Wks. (1912), 78. Glimmering fields, And wakening wealds.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, etc., 83. Forest and upland frith, and the wide weald Hercynian, where the demon shadow stalks.
1859. Tennyson, Guinevere, 127. But she to Almesbury Fled all night long by glimmering waste and weald.
3. attrib. and Comb., chiefly ‘of or pertaining to the Weald.’ Weald clay, the upper stratum of the Wealden formation immediately above the ‘Hastings sand’; also pl. with reference to the various subdivisions of this stratum. Weald saurian = HYLÆOSAURUS.
1822. W. D. Conybeare & Phillips, Outl. Geol., 145. A second valley … occupied by the argillaceous beds which we have called the *Weald clay.
1878. Chamb. Encycl., X. 114. The Hastings beds contain more sandstone and less clay than those of the upper Weald Clays.
1828. P. I. Martin, Geol. Mem. W. Sussex, Advt. p. vi. The space thus comprised, has otherwise, in geological language, got the name of the *‘Weald Denudation.’ Ibid., 40. *Weald Formation, or Wealden.
1869. J. Timbs, Ancestral Stories, 164. The forest or *Weald Saurian (Hylæosaurus).
1828. P. I. Martin, Geol. Mem. W. Sussex, 54. Although any considerable segment of the circle of the *weald valley may be taken as a specimen of the whole.
