170 The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 



eontinued long after the introduction of Christianity, and among 

 the laws of King Cnut^ was one which distinctly forbade such 

 worship. One illustration may be interesting : in the Shaftesbury 

 Chartulary^ you have the scribe spelling Tef-font as Theo-funta 

 (^ God's-fountain, or Holy-well) . It was, as we shall see im- 

 mediately, merely a conceit of his own, but it seems to show the 

 strength of the feeling alluded to. 



Font-hill. — The present name of two villages in the south-west 

 of Wiltshire. The spelling is misleading, and has no ancient 

 authority. Till a comparatively recent period, the form of 

 the word was Font- el or Funt-el, possibly a diminutive form 

 signifying the " little spring.'^ Going back however to very 

 early times, we find it spelt Yxmi-geal, and Yxini-ial, and 

 possibly these forms give us the clue to the etymology. As 

 the English called the British Wealas i.e., Welshmen (= 

 foreigners) , so they may have affixed a designation on the old 

 wells which they found at the place, and given the name 

 YMXit-weal i.e., the " spring of the Welshman,'^ or Briton. 

 Certainly, in a charter relating to Tisbury,^ an adjoining 

 parish, there is reference to an old British track-way, 

 which is termed Weala-weg (= Welsh-way), and close by is 

 Brid-sor (or Brit-sor), which probably has much the same 

 meaning, i.e. " causeway of the Brits " (or British) . The 

 name PFa^^-mead, moreover, still exists at Tisbury. 

 Tef-font This is the name given to two villages in the same neigh- 

 bourhood. They are called from the stream, which is stUl 

 designated the Teff (or Tef), that flows by them. Compare 

 TaflT (as in Llan-f/o^) , Tavy, &c., as names of rivers or streams. 

 FovANT. The oldest form of this name that has been met with is 

 Fobbe-funte or Fobban-funt^ shewing clearly enough the 

 origin of its latter portion. What the former means it is 

 not so easy to say. In the land-limits of Down ton* we meet 



' See " Ancient Laws and Institutes," p. 379. 

 »Cod. Dipl. 284, 513. 

 3 Cod. Dipl., 331, 687. 

 * Cod. Dipl., 698, 985. 



