ARDEN, FOREST OF, a well marked physical area of north Warwickshire, England, the "woodland" as opposed to the "fel den" or "fielden" ; i.e., open country, in the south, the river Avon separating the two. Originally part of a forest tract of far wider extent than that within the confines of the county, it is still, though lacking the true character of a forest, well-wooded. The undulating surface is from 25o to 500 ft. high. Wide lands in this district were held, in Edward the Confessor's day, by Alwin, whose son, Thurkill of Warwick, or "of Arden," founded the fam ily of the Warwickshire Ardens who, in Queen Elizabeth's time, still held several of the manors. Shakespeare, whose mother, Mary Arden claimed to be of this family, knew the district well, and it probably inspired his pictures of forest life in As You Like It. The name is preserved in Henley-in-Arden and Hampton-in Arden, etc.