What is the origin of the phrase 'neck of the woods'?

Oh, dear.... This is another of those questions with many different 'answers'. As I lack any books of phrase origins, I googled this one, and, predictably, found quite an assortment of possible explanations. However, the one that sprang up the most times in my search was as follows: The phrase originates in eighteenth-century America. A 'neck' referred in those days to a narrow strip of wooded land. Over time, the meaning of the phrase was corrupted, and came to mean an area or neighbourhood in general.

Brewer's Dictionary doesn't come up with anything very exciting - A settlement (USA) in the forest, or slang for any area.

"Neck" had been used in English since around 1555 to describe a narrow strip of land, usually surrounded by water, based on its resemblance to the neck of an animal. But the Americans were the first to apply "neck" to a narrow stand of woods or, more importantly, to a settlement located in a particular part of the woods. In a country then largely covered by forests, your "neck of the woods" was your home, the first American neighborhood.

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