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bard's elegy. In thid opinion, I am confirmed by the etymolopry 

 of the Saxon name, as it at present stands. The first syllable 

 is merely a variant of the Anglo-Saxon Scir, Scyr^Sheer, the 

 meanings of which, according to Lye,* are "clarus, nitidus, 

 limpidus, lucidus, alhus, merus, &c. In the second syllable, 

 substituting for the stan of the Chronicle, the ton, of actual speech, 

 we have the precise translation into Anglo-Saxon, of the older 

 British name, which I consider sufficiently conclusive, as regards 

 the correctness of my supposition. 



In the sixth stanza, in which the bard apostrophises Feenek, 

 one of the slaughtered sisters of Kendelann, he repeats a state- 

 ment which he has previously made in the same composition, 

 accusing himself, " through the fault of his tongue," of having 

 brought about the catastrophe which he deplores ; from which 

 we way infer that he had precipitated it, either by the unfortu- 

 nate exercise of his influence in council, as a leader, or by his 

 impassioned appeals to his fellow-countrymen, as a poet. The 

 Trenn, which he mentions, both as a river, and as a town, the 

 " cradle," or birth-place, of Kendelann, is supposed, with good 

 reason, to be the present township of Tern, in Shropshire, which 



other. The only other Anglo-Saxon roots which I can find as possible 

 substitutes for Scir, Scyr — Sher, are : — ■ 



Seara — Snares, an Ambush. 



Searo — Deceit, Wile, Instruments, Arms. 



Searu ) Device, Wile, Fraud, Treachery, Art, Contrivance, Work, 

 Seorwse j Machine, Warlike Engine. 



These words from Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, are clearly identical 

 in signification, and also in sound, to any uncultivated or uncritical ear, and 

 difter in form only, from the indiscriminate use of the terminal vowels, of 

 which they are by no means rare examples. Adding to either of these, the 

 genitive-forming s, we have Searas, Searos, &c., &c. Stan, or Ton,=" the 

 Stone, or Town of Treachery," or of warlike works or appliances. Sup- 

 posing that we adojit either of these significations, the first can only refer 

 to some incident in the history of the place, of which we have neither record 

 nor tradition ; and the second, (which must require ton, not stan), would 

 suggest that our Sherston, was the " town of Forts,'" alluded to as fallen in 

 another unquoted portion of the elegy. 



* Dictionarium Saxonico et Gothico-Latinum. London, 1772. 4to. 



