286 The Vale of Warminster. 
the little pond where the spring rises about a quarter of a mile from 
the lake. The other explanation is, that it is called “ Shire-water ” 
from giving its name to this county. This seems to have been 
suggested by Drayton, the poet above-mentioned. Many people, 
speaking of a county, pronounce the word as “ shere:” they say 
Derby-shere, or York-shere. The lake of Shear-water was not made 
till the year 1791; and before that time the name of Shire-water 
was given to the stream that now feeds the lake. Ina map of 1727, 
in Cox’s Magna Britannia, the little pond where the spring comes 
out is called “ Shire-water Head.” This Shire-water stream and 
the Deverel proper meet at Longbridge, and together form the chief 
source of the Wyly, which, growing larger, farther on, gives the 
name to Wyly-town, a/ias Wilton, which was once the capital of 
Wiltshire. Drayton, in the poem already mentioned, makes the 
Wyly assert her rights in these lines :— 
“And therefore claims of right the Plaine should hold her deare, 
Which gives that town the name, which likewise names the Shere.” 
You can adopt which of the two derivations you please: “ set,” 
the adjective, clear; or “‘scir,”’ the substantive, county: both being 
of the same period, commonly known as Anglo-Saxon. By what 
name the water was called before that time I do not know. 
Two more remarks are to be made about the Water in this vale. 
I do not know of any mineral spring in it, whereas on the other side 
of its northern boundary, [viz., the high ground or ridge called 
properly North Ridge, but corruptly Norridge, extending from Cley 
Hill to the downs, beyond which all the water runs away north,] 
there are several. The geological explanation of this is, that a line 
of earth, charged with iron, runs all the way along, outside of the 
chalk hills, and impregnates the water of the springs there. Here, 
in your vale, there is none of that peculiar iron earth. 
Lastly—Please to observe on the map, that all the drainage of 
your valley comes to a very narrow passage down at Wishford. 
From hill to hill there is not a quarter of a mile. Keep on good 
terms with the people of those parishes. Otherwise they may throw — 
a dam across, only a few feet high, turn the whole into a lake, and 
Ries. s_- ~ 
