26(5 The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 



Rode- Hall in Cheshire^ which may possibly be derived from 

 the same som'ce. 



Seagry. Spelt in Domesday Segrie and Segrete, in the Nom. Vill, 

 Segre. The only suggestion that can be made as to this word 

 is that its root is to be found in the Welsh hesg (olim sesg) 

 which means " sedge." See above under Hessick (§ 24) A 

 confirmation, in some sort, of this derivation is found in the 

 Anglo-Saxon charter relating to Sutton Benger, an im- 

 mediately neighbouring parish, where Seg-mede seems clearly 

 intended for what we now call Seagry. See Cod. Dipl. 460. 

 What the latter portion of the word was originally it is not 

 easy to say, though if we may trust the second spelling of 

 Domesday it is just possible that it may have been the Welsh 

 rhyd (olim rit), which means afford,'"'' so that the whole- 

 word might be equivalent to Sedge-ford. 



Selk. ■) The former is the name of a place near Mildenhall, the 



Selk-ley. J latter the name of a Wiltshire Hundred. We also meet 

 with SilJc Wood in the norfh west of the county, and Silk Hill 

 by Figheldean, which are possibly from the same root, what- 

 ever it may be. The words seem Celtic. The only derivation 

 that can be suggested is from a root which in Irish appears 

 as Sealg (= Selc) , and in Welsh as helg, and signifies in the 

 former a " chace," and in the latter a careful " hunting 

 about.'''' In the dictionaries Jielgi is given as meaning a 

 *' hunter,^^ and helgorn a " hunting horn." If such a deriva- 

 tion be at all feasible, the names might fairly denote the 

 forest, and other land, where animals of " the chase " were 

 found. Certainly all the places above enumerated are in 

 parts of the county that might fairly be so described. 



31. Sherrington. Spelt in the Wilton Chartulary Scearn-Ume and in 

 Domesday Scaren-tone. It is derived possibly from the 

 Welsh word sarn, a " stepping-stone " or " causeway." In 

 the land limits of the adjoining manors of Stockton and 

 Sherrington as contained in the chartularies of Winchester 

 and Wilton respectively^ the boundary between them from 



*~ ' See Wilts Mag., xii. 217. 



