198 Edington or Yatton the Ethandun of Alfred’s Victory ? 
tinction from a hill. It is variously spelt lea, leah, leag, legh, 
lega and ley. It ischiefly, perhaps exclusively, used in composition. 
Its primitive sense, as seen in the Old Friesian words /ege and /ech, 
which mean /ow, (Germ. niedrig) is a flat ground. (See Richthofen’s 
Alt-Friesisches Worterbuch.) Leo, without sufficient reason, ex- 
plains it as a pasture among woods. Kemble thinks it meant 
originally a meadow lying fallow after a crop. Cod. Dipl. i. p. 33. 
It is undoubtedly connected with the various verbs in the Germanic 
languages, which signify die down. A.S. liggan, Germ. liegen, Dan. 
ligge. In Old Friesian, so valuable for the light it throws upon 
our own vocabulary, lech or leegh are constantly opposed to hach or 
haegh, high; like the Scotch ‘laigh and hie.’ 
Our Ig-lea or Aiglea then, as being an island flat, cannot be 
represented by Clay Hill, or by Bugley, which have no water near 
them. In what direction shall we find such an island? Now as 
Alfred was not marching at the head of an army fully appointed 
and ready for fight, but collecting and disposing his levies, as they 
came in, he could not have gone far the very next day after his 
arrival at Brixton, and we should expect to find this island at no 
great distance. It appears to me most probable that it was one of 
those in the Willy near Heytesbury, more particularly that at 
Upton Lovell. It is the general, but an utterly groundless as- 
sumption, that, if the battle was fought near Edington, Alfred 
must have marched round under the downs. But at a time when 
the low country was full of wood and marsh, it is more reasonable 
to think that he would have ascended the hill on the western side, 
and met the enemy upon level ground. In doing so he would 
cross the Willy somewhere at the point indicated. 
From this island, Auglea, he advanced the next day to Aupandun, 
The derivation and meaning of this word Avpandun is extremely 
obscure, and after considering it with the greatest attention I am 
unable to give any from the Anglo-Saxon that is satisfactory. It 
is possibly taken from the name of some person called Aipa, and 
not resolvable into any elements with which we are acquainted. 
It is most likely to be derived from the Welsh aeth, a furze bush. 
