ARDEN, a part of Temple-Grafton parish, midway between Stratford-on-Avon and Alcester, in Warwick; or, more extensively, a tract about 17 miles long and 12 miles broad, extending northward from the Avon to the vicinity of Birmingham. This was anciently a forest; and originally but part of a still greater forest, between the Severn and the Trent, held by the British Cornavii. It was probably the type of Shakespeare's "Forest of Arden;" and it gave the title of Baron to Earl Egmont. The name signifies "the high wood;" and much of the tract designated by it is now called the Woodland.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))