By Q. Poulett Scro2}e, Esq., M.P. 299 



and the question in dispute is not whether Asser is right in 

 fixing the battle at that place, but simply whether Ethandun 

 is Edington (the Edendone and Edintone of Domesday), or 

 Etton-f/«», Ettone being the Domesday appellative of Yatton, or 

 rather, as it is still pronounced, and in old maps and other docu- 

 ments spelt, Eaton or Etton, and 'dun' or 'dune' the Saxon for 

 'dovrn' or 'open hill.' 



With reference to this final syllable of Ethanf^«<n, as diflFering 

 from that of Edingfou, Mr. Matcham, admits (p. 183), "that a dis- 

 tinction may be made between dun, a hill or down, and tun, a 

 (town or) residence; but" (he goes on to say, with some rashness 

 as I think he will himself, on further consideration, allow,) "the 

 one is so often resolved into the other {as in the case of Ethandun 

 and Edington,) that they are usually convertible terms,, and the one 

 termination may stand for either description." Here again is a 

 seeming assumption that Ethandun and Edington are identical. 

 But passing this, is Mr. Matcham justified in the broad and sweep- 

 ing assertion he here makes, that tun (or tune) and dun (or dune) 

 in Anglo-Saxon terminology are usually convertible terms ? I have 

 carefully looked the Index of all the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in the 

 Monumenta Britannica, and find not a single instance favouring the 

 idea of such convertibility. On the contrary, whenever dun or dune 

 forms the final sjdlable of the name of any place, it is represented 

 in the modern name by the syllable don, or down, or directly trans- 

 lated into *mons' a hill: whilst all the names I believe without 

 exception, that end in tun or tune, arc known at present by words 

 ending in ton or town.^ Nothing, therefore, can be more opposed 



' e.g. iEsccsdune, now Ash-down in Berks, 



Abbandune, now Abingdon in the same county. 



Bredune, — Bredon or Brea-down in Worcestersliire. 



Bcamdunc, — Bindon in Dorset. 



Fearuduno, — Fariugdou in Berks. 



Wilbandune, — Wimbledon in Surrey. 

 All iilaccH, be it observed, seated on high open hills or downs. In the three follow- 

 ing names dune is expressly' translated " mons" by Florence of Worcester, viz. : 



" EUendune i.e. ' Mons EUto." 



"Hengestduue i.e. ' Mous Ilengiste." 



" Snaudune i.e. ' Mons Nivis." 

 1 1 On tho other hand, the places whose names now terminate, like Edington, in 



X AJ 



