Posted by Robert Hill on August 10, 2010 at 15:03:40 user eclrh.
In Reply to: Re: Peter Swainson, mentioned in The Hoofmarks of the Faun posted by Mike Field on August 10, 2010 at 01:23:55:
I understood that the Swainsons (Mary et al) in AR's books were the only family in the district whose name he didn't invent.
I suggest that invent is not an ideal choice of word here, as the names he uses for farming and other local families - Jackson, Dixon, Swainson, Tyson, Atkinson, Lewthwaite, Braithwaite, Warriner - are all names that are particularly common in Cumberland and/or Westmorland, according to the National Trust surnames website.
If you spend some time looking at large-scale OS maps of the area, you find several places which contain one of these names, often followed by "Ground" rather than "Farm".
I think he probably did more rearranging of names than inventing.