84. The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 
was but thinly peopled, and there were but few towns or villages 
of any note in it. Thus Biacnu-Grave means the dark grove 
or wood; THORN-GRAVE and THOoRN-HILL, the wood and hill 
covered with thorns or brambles; Sran-rorp, the stone (paved) 
ford over a stream, the old name for the present hundred of 
Chalk ; Stop-ra.p, the fold, or place, for horses (Anglo-Saxon stod- 
fald) ; Ex-stus, in Anglo-Saxon ellen-stub, the stump or stowl of 
the elder, of very common occurrence in the recital of ancient boun- 
daries; Stapte (Anglo-Saxon stapol), literally an upright post or 
pillar, designating, at the first perhaps, the place where the Hundred 
Court was held, when, meeting in the open air, they transacted the 
business of which that ancient court took cognisance; RUGEBERGH, 
i.e., the rough, or hoar barrow ; WHER-WELS-DON, (originally perhaps 
har-welles-din,) 7.e., the hill by the hoar, or ancient well. Such 
names as these tell, as it seems to me, of great antiquity, and point 
clearly to a time when Wiltshire had but few places of note which 
might give names to the Hundreds in which they were situated, 
And it is hard to explain, except by the merest conjecture, such names 
as FrrsresFietp (Frustfield), SreRKLEY, BRENCHESBERG (Branch), 
Do.rsrett (Dole), and SxtKLEy,—all traces having for the most 
part long since perished of the sources from which they were origi- 
nally derived. . 
Now it is a common assertion that Tithings and Hundreds were 
instituted by King Alfred. The Chronicon Wintoniense, under A.D. 
882, says expressly that he formed them, “ad latrones investigandos.” 
Ingulphus repeats the same statement, and attributes their establish- 
ment to King Alfred, about A.D. 8938. No doubt Alfred may have 
re-modelled the Hundreds and Tithings, but I cannot help thinking 
that the institution of them was of much earlier date, and I submit 
that this opinion is in a measure confirmed by fair deductions from 
the names of the ancient hundreds in Wilts. For, certainly, a very 
early and primitive state of things in Wiltshire seems to be indicated, 
when the ancient barrow or tumulus, the elder-stowl, the hoar or 
ancient well, the staple or stone pillar, gave names to Hundreds. 
Add to this the following facts, and I venture to think that I have 
made out a fair case for my belief, that the institution of Hundreds 

