344 On the Study of Anglo-Saxon and 
flourishing were connected with Bishop Aldhelm’s preaching visit 
to the place afterwards called Bishopstrow. Compare the case of 
St. Augustine’s Oak. Beda, Hist. Eccl. Lib. 11, 2. 
The facts which seem clear from William of Malmsbury, not- 
withstanding the miraculous part of the story, are that Bishop 
Aldhelm made a preaching visit to the place in question, and that 
in consequence of the connexion of some tree or trees with his visit 
the place was called Bishopstrow. To these facts we are able to add 
two others, that at this moment the village is called Bishopstrow, 
and the Church is dedicated to St. Aldhelm. 
In this neighbourhood we have a very pleasant place called Sheer- 
water, which we are all permitted to enjoy from time to time by the 
hereditary kindness of the noble owner, who has also recently cut down 
some trees that all may have a view of its beauties as they pass along 
the road towards Maiden Bradley. When] first heard the nameSheer- 
water I thought it must be a fancy name adopted by some owner of the 
estate who had a knowledge of Anglo-Saxon; but upon further en- 
quiry I found it marked in Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s Wiltshire and 
old maps as the name of the little stream which was dammed up to 
form the ornamental lake, and the name is there spelt Shire Water. 
Various and not unreasonable interpretations have been suggested 
as to the meaning of the name; some believe that it had something 
to do with the shire or county. This appears to me a most round- 
about conjecture. That because a little stream runs into the Deverill, 
and the Deverill into the Wily, and the Wily runs past Wilton— 
which is believed in late Saxon times to have given the name of 
Wiltshire to the county—that therefore the original little stream 
should be called shire or county water. Others again say, it was 
so called because there was a sheep-washing and sheep-shearing 
place connected with it. My experience of a sheep-farming district 4 
tempts me to remark that water is used, not for shearing, but for 
washing sheep, and the processes are usually distinct in time and 
place. Sheep are not usually washed and shorn “there right,” as ~ 
we say in Wilts, but are driven home after washing, and the shearing 
is deferred till the wool is fairly dry and the sheep have a little — 
recovered from the shock to their nerves caused by the preliminary 
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