384 A Sketch of the Parish of Yateshury. 



at Yatesbury. There was a great stone laid at top, just under the 

 surface. When taken up, they found a body laid in a stone coffin, 

 formed by several stones. He says, in another they found a body, 

 with a flat gold ring, which was sold for 305., and a piece of brass, 

 about the bulk of a pint mug, with spear-heads of iron.'" 



The only other relics of past time which — so far as I know — ^have 

 been found at Yatesbury, are some encaustic tiles discovered in the 

 churchyard, and a quarry of stained glass, bearing the arms of 

 Eettijalace, from a window in the old rectory, which were exhibited 

 by Mr. C. May, of Marlborough, at the temporary museum formed 

 in that town during the meeting of the Society there in 1859.^ 



Name. 



With regard to the name of Yatesbury, I have in the course of 

 years listened to an immense amount of learned disquisition, positive 

 assurances, unhesitating assertions, and bold conclusions about it ; 

 much of which would have been very admirable and very edifying, 

 if it had not proceeded from a wrong basis, and so been altogether 

 wide of the mark. Thus I have heard a great deal about the 

 meaning of " Yat " or " Yate,'''' as being identical with gate ; and 

 I have been assured that our village was once a fortified town, with 

 gates to defend the approaches; while of course the termination bury 

 — which everybody knows frequently denotes a place of defence or a 

 fortress — triumphantly vindicates such a conclusion ! ^ It is really 

 ludicrous to think how our poor little retired roadless village should 

 be thus lifted from its humble state and dignified as once a fortified 

 gated town ! it is not more ridiculous than wide of the mark ; be- 

 cause there is not the smallest ground for any such fancy, and it 

 would be well if, before people begin to investigate the meaning of 

 a name, they would first ascertain accurately what the word which 

 they are about to examine really is. 



Yatesbury then, as it is now called, though often corrupted in 



' Magazine, vol. vi., p. 259. 

 '^ See Hoare's Ancient Wilts — North, p. 53. 



