Names denoting Wood, Forests, Sfc. 173 



Perhaps the original form of the name, which Aubrey says is 

 "fantastically" termed Que7nerford, though his strange spelling 

 may be traced back to the time of Edward the First, was Combre- 

 ford, i.e., the ford by the Combes. Another interpretation, I am 

 aware, is suggested for this last name in Cj/nemcere's ford, the scene 

 of a battle, as recorded in the Saxon Chronicle. This battle, how- 

 ever, is much more likely to have been fought at Kemps-ford, by the 

 Isis, on the borders of the counties of Gloucester and Wilts. Lyn- 

 combe, I conceive, is composed of two British words, the former of 

 which is lynn, and which signifies simply " water .^* 



IV. Names denoting wood, forests, &c. 



15. The Welsh word for wood is Coed. This appears however in 

 Cornish as Coat, Coit, Cuit, Cos, and in the plural we have the 

 forms Coos, Cossaws, Cossow (Pryce, Cornish Vocabulary). We 

 may interpret many Wiltshire words by referring them to one or 

 the other of those forms. 



Chute. — On the eastern border of the county. It is spelt Cet-um 

 in Domesday. It is, as will be perceived, closely allied to 

 one form of the Cornish word, and means simply " wood." 

 You have the same word, though with a different spelling, in 

 '^oxit^-kewet {=cuit). 

 Cadenham. •\ In each of these examples the former syllable, it 

 Cadley. J is believed, is a form of this same word. They would 

 mean respectively the " dwelling," and the " legh " by the 

 wood. In the north of England coed takes the form of caid, 

 (Compare Kin-ea^J, in Scotland). 

 CoATE. -v Each of these is also derived from the same source. 



CoDFORD. > The first is the name of two places, one in Bishop^s 

 CuTTERiDGE. J Cannings, and the other near Swindon, and is but a 

 varied spelling of the Cornish colt : — the second, the name of 

 two villages in the south of Wilts, spelt in Domesday Cote- 

 ford, and meaning " wood-ford : " — the third, that of a farm 

 near Westbury, and spelt originally Cote-rige, meaning the 

 " ridge of the wood." 

 CoKSHAM. Formerly Coseham, or Cosham, I am much inclined to 



