is now the largest pasture-ground in Quarendon, in the county of Bucks, known by the name of Bery-field. And those meads (called Berie-meadows) have been interpreted demesne or manor meadows, yet were they truly any flat or open meadow, that lay adjoining to any vill or farm." also Kennett's Paroch. Antiq. Gloss., sub voce BERIA. 42. Stóc, Stow. These two words, though distinct, are placed

See

together because they have much the same meaning, viz., "place" or "habitation." Of the latter Florence of Worcester explains the signification in the words: "Sanctæ Mariæ Stou Anglice, Latine Sanctæ Mariæ locus appellatur." Mon. H. B., 609. The former is the very frequent termination stoke or stock, as in Laver-stock, formerly Laver-stoke. It is frequently also found as a simple name. One of the tithings

of Bradford-on-Avon is called STOKE. In the Shaston Chartulary Stoke, and in Domesday Stoche, are the names respectively for Beeching-stoke and Braden-stoke. From the way in which it is often used it would seem sometimes to denote a small out-lying portion of some larger estate. Leáh. This assumes the form of ley or legh. It is defined in a charter (Cod. Dipl., 190) as equivalent to campus (= field): thus we have "campus armentorum, id est hriða leah." Kemble thinks that Witena-leah (Cod. Dipl., 588), which was by Maddingley, near Cambridge, may be so called from a meeting of the "Witan," having been held there. He further gives it as his opinion that the root of this word, still common in English poetry, is licgan, (= to lie), and that in all probability it originally denoted meadows lying fallow after a crop. It has also been suggested that from the way in which this word is used in the Saxon Chronicle it may have been the old Gothic word used for the waste or march which, according to Cæsar, always surrounded the territory of a German tribe, De Bell. Gall., iv., 3. We have the word LEIGH in its simple form frequently in Wilts as the name-of a tithing of Bradford-on-Avon-of a portion of the parish of Westbury-and of a place close by Malmesbury.

43. Thorp. A name for a village, but originally signifying an assembly of men. (Compare the Latin turba and the German dorf.) We meet with this word in Wiltshire in the compounds WESTROP (=West-thorp) and ESTROP (=East-thorp). Leo (Anglo-Saxon Names of Places, p. 49) says "The antiquity of the word thorp is supported, not only by the fact of its being common to both Latin and German, but in that it is found in almost all European dialects :-torf signifies in Welsh a crowd, a multitude, a troop; and tearbh (olim turbh) in Gaelic and Erse means a tribe, a family, a farmers' village. Torppa, also in Finnish, signifies a village. The French troupe, troupeau, are related, whether such an affinity is brought about by the Latin turba, or by the Celtic torf, or trubh." He adds, "Whilst hám suggests the internal and mutual relationship of inhabitants of districts-tún, ham, burh, their external isolation and stability-thorp conveys the idea of their social intercommunion."

Wurth, Wyrth. This is the Anglo-Saxon wurd or weorð ( = a homestead) and forms the termination worth, as in TID-WORTH, CHEL-WORTH, and a few other names. It has much the same meaning as the Low German worthe, a protected enclosed homestead. It is sometimes found as weordig (= Worthy) as in Ham-worthy, in Dorset. Thus in the charters Tamworth is spelt sometimes Tamo-word and at others Tamowordig. In the laws of King Ine, § 40, "Ceorles weordig " is rendered in the old Latin version "Rustici curtillum" (= ceorl's close). Rocquefort defines it " Jardin qui est ordinairement enfermé de murailles, de haies, ou de fossés." See Anc. Laws and Inst., I., 127; and Glossary, sub voce Weordig. The word occurs in its simple form as the name of a hundred now usually termed HIGH-WORTH, but which is called in the Exon Domesday and Hundred Rolls

WORDE and WORTH. Wilts Domesd., 164.

44. Thus far then concerning what is usually the second portion of Anglo-Saxon names of places. There are a few others, whose meaning is well understood; these will be explained in a supplemen

tary list, in which an account will be given of the names in which they occur.

We have now to deal with the first member of such names-that which qualifies the generic term and limits its application to some particular locality. For convenience sake we will class them under four general heads.

I.-Names derived from the general physical features of the country.

It will be evident that among the first names imposed by any new. settlers in a country would be those derived from the general physical features of the country itself. Many of such names, as we have already shown, were adopted from the language of the aborigines, the Anglo-Saxons in not a few instances adding their own Teutonic terminations to the Celtic words. But as soon as they were at all settled in the country they would begin to give names derived from their own language, and these would at first necessarily be descriptive of the natural features of a locality. Under this head, which may well include names derived from the productions of a place, whether from the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom, may be ranged a large number of words. Among such names we may place the following:

BRADFORD means simply the broad ford over the Avon ;BRADLEGH is the broad legh ;-BRATTON is the broad village, a name describing accurately enough the straggling village bearing that designation close by Westbury ;-HINTON (A.S. Heántún) means the high village, or that which is situated on hilly ground;-HENLEY is the high legh, a fair description of the table-land which is to be seen in such large tracts on the tops of our downs ;-LANGLEY is the long legh, a word of frequent occurrence in Wiltshire.

Then again from the Anglo-Saxon wudu (or wude) meaning a wood, come many words. WOODFORD explains itself;- WOOTTON, i.e., "village by the wood," is a name given to several places in the vicinity of forests, e.g., Wootton Bassett by the large forest of Braden, Wootton Rivers by that of Savernake.

In late Saxon you have sceaga, which signifies wood, wilderness.

This is the origin of SHAW, the name of two places, one near Melksham, the other by Alton Priors. From the compound bremele sceaga, literally "bramble-wood," we have the name BRAMSHAW. I am inclined to think that the name SHOCKERWICK, on the Somersetshire border, by Batheaston, is a corruption of sceaga-wic, and means simply the "dwelling by the wood."

45. In some cases the peculiar shape of a manor or estate seems to have fixed the name. STERT, near Devizes, may fairly be presumed to be the Anglo-Saxon steort, which means a tail, an extremity, a promontory. GORE, a tithing of Market Lavington, would seem to be gara, an angular point or neck of land stretching out into the plain, a word which, according to Kemble, is itself to be referred to gár, a javelin or pike.

Then from the Anglo-Saxon dún, which signifies hill, and from which we get our common expression "the downs," come amongst others the following names: DoWNTON (dún-tún) is the village situated between the hills or in the neighbourhood of the downs;DONHEAD (dún-heáfod) means literally the head, i.e.,the commencing, or the highest point, of the downs; HINDON (heán-dún) means high hill, an apt description of the locality of the now decayed town bearing that name, and which at first was simply the hilly part of the parish of East Knoyle.

46. Then, amongst the names derived from the natural productions of a locality, the following may be mentioned :

:

(a) Those derived from the vegetable kingdom.

Such for example are ASH-DOWN (asces-dún), the "hill of the ash-trees," and the similar compounds of ASHTON, ASHgrove, ASHTON, which sufficiently explain themselves. Again GARSDON

1 As regards this well known word, a philological friend has sent me the following observations: "Dún (=hill, a fortified hill) is found in Anglo-Saxon Dictionaries but it is not Teutonic. It is the Ir. and Gael. dun, a fortified house or hill; W. din, a fortified hill or mount, a camp or fort. Its appearanco in such Celtic names as Lug-dun-um, and Lon din-ium, shows clearly its origin. It has been imported into the German dialects: Frisic dünen and S. German donen are instances, but its proper home is on Celtic ground. Bæda says it is a word of the ancient British language." See Pritchard's Researches, iii., 126.

(gærs-dún), near Malmesbury, means simply the " grassy hill." PURTON, in the same neighbourhood, from its original spelling, pirig-tún, would seem to mean the village where the pear-tree flourished. From ellen-dún (the hill of elder-trees) you have ELINGTON, a name now superseded by that of Wroughton, of which parish it forms part.

The wild broom (Anglo-Saxon bróm) gives its name to SOUTH BROOM, near Devizes, as well as to BROMHAM, in the same locality. (b) Those derived from the animal kingdom.

Under this division will be placed SWINBROOK, the name of a small stream in Pomeroy, on the Somerset border, so called probably from the swine that revelled among the acorns of the adjoining wood. STODFOLD, the name of one of the ancient hundreds, is the Anglo-Saxon stödfald, a word of frequent occurrence in boundaries, and means simply the "fold for horses" (the words steed and stud being still familiar to us as connected with horses), and STUDLEY has much the same signification. FUGGLESTON, if the former part be not a corrupt or shortened form of some personal name, is perhaps from the AngloSaxon fugel (= a bird or fowl), and may be so termed from the wild fowl that frequented the neighbourhood of the Wyly and the Nadder, near the confluence of which streams it is situated. Of the derivation of RAMSBURY, however specious the disguise in which it appears, we can have no doubt. Its original name was Hrafnes-byrig (= raven's bury), and its Bishops (for at that place was the seat of the ancient bishopric of Wiltshire) fully understood its meaning when they signed themselves" Episcopi Corvinensis Ecclesiæ." In its immediate vicinity is a place called CROW-WOOD.

(c) Those derived from the mineral kingdom.

One of the Wiltshire Hundreds is called CHALK, and within it are the parishes of Broad-Chalk and Bower-Chalk. SEEND, and SAND-RIDGE, which is in its immediate vicinity, are so called from the light sandy soil that is to be found there. From the Anglo-Saxon clif, clyf (= a rock or cliff) come a number of names, such as CLIFFPIPARD, CLIFF-WANCEY (now corrupted into Clevancy), CLIFTON, and the like. The compounds from the Anglo-Saxon stán (= stone) are very numerous. We have not a few places of the name of STANTON in Wilts. Near Hungerford we have a STANDEN, and by