By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 173 
del, s0 frequent in ancient charters as a boundary-point, and which 
would seem to have been a natural pend or well by the road-side. 
Then close by Breamore Down we have a portion of the GRrrs- 
DYKE, the boundary for half a mile of the parish of Downton, and also 
of the county of Wilts, and which is mentioned as such boundary of 
_ Downton in Anglo-Saxon charters. Again on the south-east bor- 
der you have the parish of Suer-F1ELD which is simply Shire-field, 
and then, alittle further north, Mar-ton (i.e. boundary village), at the 
south-east corner of the large parish of Bedwin. And still further 
north, and at no great distance from the point whence we started, 
you have Mar-sron, which is only the modern form of mer-stdn 
(mere-stone), i.e. a boundary stone, a term well known to all 
Wiltshiremen. 
It is conceived that from such facts, deduced as they are from a 
minute examination of the Domesday Record for Wiltshire and 
neighbouring counties, and corroborated by the old names of places 
along the border-line of our own county, we are fully justified in 
concluding that the boundaries are in the main the same as in the 
eleventh century. It says much for the complete and final settle- 
ment of the country that was effected by the Conquest, when we 
find our borders still undisturbed after a lapse of eight hundred 
“years; and much also for the scrupulous accuracy of the great 
Domesday Record, rightly valued by us as the oldest survey of a 
kingdom now existing in the world. 
