342 On the Study of Anglo-Saxon and 
made for the convenience of cultivation, or have resulted from the 
exigences of ploughing, derive their name from the Anglo-Saxon 
word “ Hline,” usually a balk in ploughing. The word frequently 
occurs in Saxon charters, and sometimes in the later form “‘ Hlinch.” 
To pass to another example of the value of Anglo-Saxon to the 
archeologist. 
The parish Church of Bishopstrow, the village two miles from 
Warminster on the Salisbury road, is dedicated to St. Aldhelm, who, 
after being Abbot of Malmesbury, in North Wilts, about thirty years, 
became Bishop of Sherborn in 507, and died in the village Church of 
Doulting, near Shepton Mallet, in A.D. 709. The Church of 
Doulting, as also that of Broadway, Somerset, is dedicated to St. 
Aldhelm, and he founded Churches at Frome Selwood, and Bradford-~ 
on-Avon. 
Bishopstrow, to anyone accustomed to Saxon, clearly indicates 
Bishop’s Tree, “ treow ” being the Saxon word for tree. In Domes- 
day survey it is spelt Biscopestreu. 
The ordinary biographies of St. Aldhelm state what a wonderful 
scholar he was in Latin, Hebrew, music, &c., and how earnest and 
successful he was in his ministrations, but they give no hint of his 
connection with Bishopstrow. Some light is thrown on the subject 
by a passage in a life from Capgrave, given at the end of the works 
of St. Aldhelm, edited by Rev. Dr. Giles, Rector of Sutton, Surrey, 
a native of Frome Selwood. But the fullest account is given by 
William of Malmesbury, in his long biography of St. Aldhelm, 
whom he specially venerated as the benefactor and Abbot of the 
abbey to which he belonged. This life is only printed in Wharton’s 
Anglia Sacra and in the Acta Sanctorum. I quote from the 
Anglia Sacra, vol. i., pp. 23, 24:.! 
I need scarcely remind the members of an archzological society 
that it would be extremely unphilosophical to reject entirely the 
statement of a medizval writer because he admits miraculous reports. 
We must treat many of these miracles as Niebuhr treated the fables 
of Livy, and extract what truth we can from them. The most 
1 Compare ‘“‘ Life and Times of Aldhelm,” by Rey. W. H. Jones, F.S.A., 
Wilts Mag., vol. viii., p. 62, n. 2, and p. 72. 
sO Rides aap ess tate 
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