128 History of the Sarsens. 
Among the several suggestions about the origin of the word it 
has been thought “Saracen” was the term applied opprobriously, 
and softened to “Sarsen”; but neither old Saxon nor Briton knew 
anything of the Saracens. The Latin word Sava (stones) is better 
than the last as a root (John Phillips) ; and the Roman landowners 
must have known them well in the fields which their slaves worked 
and the walls they built (Silchester, for instance) ; but the Saxon 
derivation seems to be quite satisfactory. 
Other derivations have been suggested for “Sarsen” or “ Sarsden.’ 
Wilts Mag., vol. v. (No. 14, November, 1858), p. 168. Mr. W. 
Cunnington, quoted by Mr. W. Long, states :— According to Mr. 
Falkner, of Devizes, the Anglo-Saxon word for a rock or stone is 
Ses,' in the plural Sesen or Sesan. The letter ¢ in Sesan is sounded as 
e in there, ai in fair, and as ¢ inaprés. The people where the stones 
are found (on the Marlborough Downs) call them Sasens or Sassens ; 
so that perhaps the word Sarsen is no other than the Anglo-Saxon 
word for rocks properly pronounced, as many other words from the 
same origin are in the present day.” So also R. Falkner’s note in 
the Geol. Mag., 1874, p. 96, with which the above has been 
collated. 
Mr. H. J. F. Swayne, of the Island, Wilton, kindly reminds me 
that Aubrey, in his “ Natural History of Wiltshire” (edited by 
J. Britton for the Wiltshire Topographical Society, 1847), which 
appears to have been written between 1656—84, says, at p. 44, 
that the stones called “ Grey Wethers which lye scattered all 
over the downes about Marlborough . . . . arealso (far from 
the rode) commonly called Sarsdens or Sarsdon stones.” 
Mr. Swayne also has been so good as to refer me to an entry in 
the Marlborough Corporation Book, given by the late F. A. 
Carrington, Esq., ina paper on the Old Market House, &c., at 
Marlborough, Wilts Mag., vol. iii., 1857, p. 111, thus :— 
“©1673. Recd. for the Market House (first time since the fire), 40%. Paid for 
two loads of sarazen stones, 8°.” 
2 
Mr. Swayne himself thinks that these blocks were so called as 
1 See Bosworth’s “ Anglo-Saxon Dictionary ” (Addenda), 8vo, London, 1838. 
