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for river. Abury is the shortened form of the name. Avebury would then 
mean the ‘bury,’ ‘ earthworks’ (not necessarily a camp) on the Ave. Stukely, 
in his description of Avebury, has the following :—‘ This town is wrote 
Aubury, Avebury, Avesbury,sometimes Albury; ’tis hard to say which is the true. 
The former three names may have their origin from the brook running by, 
au, aux, water awy in Welsh: the Old German aha (sic). The latter points 
to Aldbury or old work, regarding its situation within the vallum. Nor is it 
worth while to dwell on its etymology. The Saxon name is a thing of so 
low a date, in comparison of what we are writing upon, that we expect no 
great use from it, unless Albury has regard to al, hal, healle—a temple or 
great building.’ These different spellings of the name may be accounted for 
as follows :—We may start by assuming that there were two names for the 
place—Aubury and Avebury. Aubury would pass into Albury by the 
analogy of such place-names as Aldbourne, Aldworth, and more especially 
Oldbury, which are met with in that district. Avebury would become 
Avesbury by the analogy of Amesbury. 
“With regard to Silbury the following points should be observed :—In 
discussing the etymology of English place-names it must be remembered 
that they are Saxon in form, that is, that where the name is descriptive the 
adjective precedes the substantive ; whereas in Keltic districts the converse 
is the case. Names ending in ‘bury,’ which is a Saxon word, may be classed 
as English. The first part of such names is asarule Keltic, as in the case 
of ‘ Avebury,’ and may be regarded as an independent Keltic word. This is 
the case with Silbury. The question is what is this word? It is improbable 
that it is an adjective, according to the general rule. It is more likely that 
it is a noun, and that the ancient name was Sil—(the hyphen representing 
some unknown formative suffix, which has disappeared). Now there is a 
wide-spread root in the Keltic languages, sel, sil, syl, sul, sol, &c., which 
means to see, behold, look, gaze at, &c., and in all probability the name Sil 
meant ‘the post of observation.” The English who invaded Britain, not 
knowing the meaning of the name, affixed to it the syllable ‘ bury,’ meaning 
‘earthwork,’ and called the mound Sil-bury, and when ata later period the 
meaning of the word ‘ bury’ was lost, the name was further augmented by 
the addition of the modern word ‘hill,’ the result being the extended form 
‘Silbury Hill.’ Another Keltic root ‘edrych,’ meaning ° to see,’ was used in 
the same sense, and supplied the first part of the name ‘ Drakestone,’ indi- 
cating the point of observation on Stinchcombe Hill (Bellows’ Forest of 
_ Dean.) The Scandinavians introduced the root ‘ tot,’ having the same mean- 
ing, and which is seen in such names as Toots (Selsley Hill,) Mythe Toot 
(Tewkesbury,) and Tothill. It is evident, however, that Silbury was not 
intended originally as a mound of observation, though standing, as it does, 
close to the Roman (or Romano-British) road, it may have been used for 
that purpose, as the surrounding high ground, such as Waden Hill, would 
