Names denoting Land-Divisions. 85 
in Wilts was, perhaps, some 20 years before Alfred’s time. Up to 
the close of the eleventh century, the date of the Exeter Domesday, 
_ there is no such Hundred as Malmesbury. In the year 1540, as 
we learn from the Inquisitiones Nonarum, what is now the town of 
Malmesbury was situated in two hundreds, the dividing line running 
through it. The church of St. Mary, together with Brokenborough 
and Charlton, was in the Hundred of CunacrLews ; the church of 
St. Paul, together with Rodbourn and Corston, was in the Hundred 
of Srercuzter. If the town of Malmesbury existed at the time 
when the Hundreds were formed, is it likely that it would have been 
parted between ¢#wo Hundreds, especially when we bear in mind that 
the lordship of both, as well as of all the neighbouring estates, be- 
Yonged from an early period to the Abbot of Malmesbury? In fact, 
is it not almost certain that had it so existed it would have given 
its name (as it did in after times) to the hundred, like Bradford, 
_ Westbury, Calne, Warminster, &c.? Now, Malmesbury is mentioned 
asa town by Beda, who calls it “ Maildulfi urbs,” under the date of 
A.D. 705. If therefore there be any force in the facts on which I 
have been dwelling, they would furnish, to say the least, a strong 
_ probability that the Wiltshire Hundreds were formed before the 
_ town of Malmesbury was built, and so perhaps some 200 years 
_ before Alfred the Great was born. As far as they go they would 
give ‘some confirmation to the opinion advanced by Hutchins and 
| otbers, that their first institution is, with far more likelihood, to be 
attributed to Ine, the friend and kinsman of Aldhelm, who was king 
of Wessex, A.D. 690—726. 
. 48. The word sutre, as in Wilt-shire, signifies simply a share 
or division *(Anglo-Saxon Scyr). This word enters into the compo- 
. ar ee aoe ee FS 
; 

















Sition of many names of places that are upon the borders of the 
ty, and these are interesting as showing for how long a time 
% the limits of the county have remained unchanged. A comparison 
_ of ‘the entries in the Domesday record for Wiltshire and the neigh- 
_bouring counties leads us also to the same conclusion. Thus on the 
_ north-west border of Wilts you have SuEr-ston, originally Scyr-stdn 
‘@hire-stone). At another part of the boundary you have SHER-RELL 
farm, which seems to derive its name from a 77// or small stream 

