BERIE, BERRY, signifies a large open field; and hence those cities and towns in England, the names of which end with that word, are built on plain and open places, and do not derive their names from boroughs, as Sir Henry Spelman imagines. Most of our glossographers, in the names of places, have confounded the word berie with that of bury and borough, as if it had been the appellative of ancient towns; whereas the true sense of the word berie is a flat wide champagne, as is proved from sufficient authorities by Dufresne, who observes that Beria Sancti Edmundi, mentioned by Matthew Paris, 1174, is not to be taken for the town, but for the adjoining plain.