Etymology of Garston. 131 
hundred of Selkley, for which we must refer to the work itself. 
And we will end as we began by thanking the author for the 
agreeable contribution which he has afforded in it to the history of 
our county. If we have anything to regret in its perusal, it is a 
want of sufficient references to the sources of the writer’s informa- 
tion, and perhaps something of imperfect arrangement in the 
structure of the volume. On the whole, however, it is a most 
entertaining work, much more so than the ordinary class of topo- 
graphies, and cannot fail to interest every Wiltshire reader into 
whose hands it may come. PUES 
GARSTON. [p. 67]. 
The word (as rightly explained by two correspondents, E. W. 
and F. A. C.) means “ grass enclosure :” “ gaers’”’ being Saxon for 
grass, and “tun” enclosure. It is common in Surrey and Sussex, 
as well as in the West of England; generally, for an enclosed 
grass field near a village (as at Charlton, in the Pewsey Vale), but 
sometimes also for arable fields (as at Bratton and Malmsbury), 
which have been grass but are now broken up. The provincial 
pronunciation of the word in Wilts is, perhaps most frequently, 
“ Garesen,” or “Gaasen,” and as the way in which the name of the 
parish of Garsden, near Malmsbury, is pronounced, is also with the 
a lengthened, Garesden: it is most likely that from the “ gaers- 
denes”’ or grass valleys, by which that place is surrounded, its name 
has been derived. It is much to be wished that some Anglo-Saxon 
scholar would favour us, at once with the true etymology of our 
Wiltshire names: at least, of such as are of Anglo-Saxon origin. 
CALNE. 
The proper spelling and derivation of this name? R. J. 
s 2 
