22 On the History of Chippenham. 
Chipping Sodbury and Chipping Norton. In London, we have 
Cheap-side and East Cheap. In Bath, we have Cheap street ; and 
all who go to buy, with the laudable design of making a good 
bargain, are still so far Anglo-Saxon, that they do their best to 
“‘cheapen” their purchases. The word “chepying” continued to 
be used for “market” long after the Saxon period. In the first 
English translation of the Bible, by Wycliffe, about 138380, the 
text in St. Matthew, (xi. 16), which is now translated “It is 
like unto children sitting in the market,” is rendered “It is like 
unto children sitting in ehepyng.” 
“Ham,” the last syllable, is also Saxon, signifying either a 
house, a farm, or a village. In the latter sense we still use it, in 
the diminutive, hamlet. Chepyng-ham, therefore, signifies neither 
more nor less than “ market-village.” 
How it came by the name will be obvious, when you recollect 
what has been already said as to the early state of this neighbour- 
hood ; that it was chiefly open forest, cleared here and there, and 
peopled by degrees. As numbers increased, some place of course 
would be required for buying and selling; hence, judging from 
the name only, the origin of the town. But we have other 
information. 
If the old British natives, spoken of above, had one amusement 
—hunting, the Saxon kings had two—hunting and fighting. When 
they were not doing the one, they were sure to be doing the other: 
and it is hard to say, to which of the two they were most addicted. 
The whole history, or nearly so, of the Saxon occupation of England, 
is a succession of wars, almost without ceasing. They fought for 
a long time to win the country, and Wiltshire still bears marks of 
those battles, in its earthworks, camps, barrows, and the like, as so 
many stripes of the Saxon scourge. 
Having at length got possession, they established, not as it is 
commonly said, seven—but eight separate kingdoms. One of 
those was the kingdom of Wessex, or the West Saxons. It 
included Berkshire, Hampshire, part of Devonshire, Somersetshire, 
and Wiltshire. After many years of contest for supremacy, the 
Kings of Wessex became the masters of England; and the last 
