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The syllable " set" in this county, and in Dorset, scarcely needs 

 further remark. It is the English word '' seat," connected with 

 the Latin " scdes," the Greek eSor the Gaelic " suidh :" in this last 

 word however the letter " d" is not now pronounced. 



The Saxon form of this " set," as mentioned above, was " Saeta," 

 e.g., " Dorset" was " Dorsaeta," and meant the settlement or 

 settlers by the water. 



Wiltshire in the Saxon Chronicles is " Wiltunsir," and in 

 Doomsday, " Wiltescire." 



As Doomsday will be often named, it may be well to give some 

 very good remarks on it in the Cornhill Magazine for December, 

 1880, where we read : " Doomsday, priceless as it is, often fails 

 to give us a trustworthy form of the early place-names. For 

 William's Norman Commissioners sometimes Latinized native 

 English names under the most astoundingly garbled disguises." 



But however this be, Wiltshire at any rate derives its name 

 through the town of Wilton, from the Wilsaetas, the West-Saxon 

 tribe, who made it their home. 



As Wilton means the town on the river Wily, so the Wilsaetas 

 means the settlers on that river. Wilton is between two rivers, 

 the Wily and the Nadder, The former was anciently the 

 Gwillow and got the name from the Kymric " Gwilli," which 

 means full of turns. The Nadder means the gliding serpentine 

 stream. Nadder, in fact, is the original form of adder ; a nadder 

 having become an adder. Similarly a napron became an apron ; 

 and an eft is the same as a newt. 



I may observe in passing that the Belgse occupied this district 

 as well as that of Somerset. 



The next subject for consideration is the meaning of the 

 Prefixes and Suffixes to the names of places near Bath. And for 

 facility of reference these Prefixes, &c., shall be arranged in 

 alphabetical order. 



BURN. 



English, burn or bourne, signifies a spring of water, or running 



