18 The Ethnology of Wiltshire, as illustrated in the Place- Names. 



the counties bordering thereon the basis of the place-names may- 

 be expected to be Cymric, whilst in many, probably the most o£ 

 the others, the Celtic and Norse elements almost entirely disappear, 

 and are replaced by nearly pure Anglo-Saxon. Amongst these 

 latter Wiltshire stands conspicuous. 



Of course a large proportion of the place-names in every county 

 are of comparatively modern origin, and present no difficulty. With 

 these I do not propose to deal. My present subject is the names 

 which are found in Domesday Book or a century or two later. 



If we take even a cursory glance at a map of the county, we find 

 most of the names composed of a prefix and suffix, such as Salis-bury, 

 Winter-bourne, Brad -ford, &c. Now these suffixes, which constitute 

 the substance of the names, qualified by the prefix, are in the great 

 majority of cases perfectly intelligible in modern English. Ton, 

 Ford, Burn or Bourne, Cot, Ham (home). Bridge, Brook, Sfc., are 

 part and parcel of our daily speech. Many others which are now 

 somewhat obsolete are easily explicable from the old forms of our 

 Language. Such are Holt, Hurst, Shaw, Bon, Bury, Worth, &c. 

 The qualifying portion of the name is the prefix. Many of these 

 prefixes are pure Saxon and easy to understand, such as Nor-ton, 

 Easton, Sutton, or south town, taken from their relative position. 

 Some from the surroundings, such as Hazle-hury, Alder-hury, Wood- 

 borough, Hill-marton, Mil-toti, and others from various circumstances 

 to which I shall presently refer. When every allowance is made 

 for these, there remain a large number which cannot be thus resolved, 

 and the question is, where are we to look for the solution ? Some 

 of the writers on the subject — and there are not many who have 

 entered upon it at all — make very short work of it. If there is 

 any difficulty they have only to invent a personal name, and the 

 thino- is done. Thus Chat-ham and Chat-moss are supposed to be 

 derived from a person bearing the name of Chat. Fretisham from 

 one Fren or Frene. In other cases circumstances of the most un- 

 likely character are assumed if the name happens to fit. Thus 

 Keele, in Stafibrdshire — nearly in the centre of England — has been 

 held to be so called from Keel a north-country word for a barge or 

 ship, with which the place could not have the slightest connexion. 



