Extent of the Parish. 249 



epithet Ruge (or Ruh), the equivalent to our modem word ro«^^^^ 

 was api^lied to such places as were rugged, wild, or uncultivated — 

 thus we meet in the charters with Ruan-Xeah, or Puge-\ed\\, which 

 is represented by the Wiltshire " Row-ley'^ and by the Staffordshire 

 " Ruge-ley." This hundred may have derived its name from some 

 particular tumulus, or possibly from a group of sepulchral barrows. 

 Its name exists in a modern form in " Rough-bridge " Hill, a de- 

 signation given to a portion of the down near Wan sdyke just on 

 the border of the hundred, and " Rawbridge " Lease, in the tithing 

 of Worton, may be another form of it. The whole of that part of 

 the down is in fact covered with barrows, and an account of the 

 opening and examination of several of them by Mr. Cunnington 

 and the late Dr. Thurnam is to be found in the pages of our Magazine 

 (vol. vi., 317). I should not be surprised if the name Round- way 

 was a corruption of a not uncommon expression in charters, Rugau- 

 wege, i.e., the rugged or hoar way. At all events it seems to me 

 to be as probable a derivation as any of the others that have been 

 suggested. 



The parish of Potterne consists of three tithings or townships. 

 (1) PoTTEEXE proper, containing 3142 acres; (2) Worton, containing 

 923 acres; (3) Marston, containing 881 acres : — the entire parish 

 thus comprising no less than 4956 acres. There is some ground also 

 for thinking that Poulshot was at the time of Domesday included in 

 it, unless indeed it was reckoned as a part of Melksham. Poulshot 

 is not named separately in the Domesday record, which implies that 

 at that time it was deemed a portion of some larger manor. 



Maeston means the toion or village on the meer or boundary. 

 WoRTOX was I imagine originally Ufer-iun, changed in time to 

 JJver-ion and Wor-ton, a transition natural enough when you recollect 

 that there was but one character in early writing for v and n. A 

 similar change has taken place in the name now spelt Wrotjghton, 



' Thus in Pottern Terrier we meet with Rde-mooee (No. 731) and Rough 

 Geound (Nos. 667, 65S). The strange corruption Rage-Wallen, which is 

 given as the name of lands close to Poulshot (No. 729 — 736) is possibly Rough- 

 wood-lands. I should not be surprised if the former part of the name RooKT 

 Maesh (No. 676) was not originally from a similar source. 



