86 The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 
that in that part bounds the county. At Freshford, also on the 
borders, you have a place the name of which is now spelt Suaston’; 
there can be little doubt but that you have its original form in 
SHaRE-STONE, close by Chapmanslade, and that both are called from 
a stone placed near them for the purpose of marking the boundary 
of the county. 
Again, the word mer, or, as it is generally written, ge-mere, de- 
notes a boundary. In its simple form Mere we meet with it as the 
name of a hundred which forms a portion of the south-west boundary 
of our county, and of the principal town in it. Its compounds are 
numerous. Every Wiltshire man is familiar with the term “ mere-. 
stones,” or the stones by which, on our open downs, one plot of land 
‘ is separated from another. The same word appears in Marston 
(Maisy),originally mer-stdn, near the north east boundary of Wilts 
Close by Poulshot also you have a Marston, though there it indicates 
the boundary between two hundreds. Mar-pen, near Devizes, means 
the boundary “ dean,” and also is at the point of separation between 
ancient hundreds. Near Burbage you have Mar-creen, close by 
the borders of a neighbouring parish. A place by the Gloucestershire 
border of our county is called Marsu-Friexp (originally spelt Mares- 
feld), and a house at Road, on the Somersetshire border, still bears 
the name of Msr-FizxpD, that is, in each case the “ boundary field.” 
The line of hills that separates Winsley from Warleigh, a few 
miles only from Bath, is called Mur-nitt, and there is a place 
of much the same character near Swindon which is spelt Mur-RELL ; 
in either instance it was probably originally mer-hyl, 1.e., the 
 boundary-hill.” Near Swindon also, you have some rising ground, 
which was at first, no doubt, called mer-hyrcg, i.e., the “ boundary- 
ridge,” and this’ has been corrupted in the course of centuries into 
Marriace Hitt. We have also several places in Wiltshire called 
Mar-ton or Mar-tin ; all of which are on the borders either of the 
county or of hundreds. They mean either the “ boundary village,” 
or (as certainly is the case with the place of that name near Burbage) 
the “boundary thcrn,” the idea of their deriving their appellations 
from the supposed dedication of their churches to St. Martin being 
quite unfounded. 

