156 THE ANTIQUITIES [LETT. 



LETTER II. 



THA.T Selborne was a place of some distinction and note in the 

 time of the Saxons we can give most undoubted proofs. But as 

 there are few, if any, accounts of villages before Domesday, it 

 will be best to begin with that venerable record. " Ipse rex tenet 

 Selesburne. Eddid regina tenuit, et imnquam geldavit. De isto 

 manerio dono dedit rex Eadfredo presbytero dimidiam hidam 

 cum ecclesia. Tempore regis Edwardi et post, valuit duodecim 

 solidos et sex denarios ; modo octo solidos et quatuor denarios." 

 Here we see that Selborne was a royal manor ; and that Editha 

 the queen of Edward the Confessor, had been lady of that 

 manor ; and was succeeded in it by the Conqueror ; and that 

 it had a church. Beside these, many circumstances concur to 

 prove it to have been a Saxon village ; such as the name of the 

 place itself, 1 the names of many fields, and some families, 2 with 



1 Selesburne, Seleburne, Selburn, Selbourn, Selborne, and Selborn, as it 

 has been variously spelt at different periods, is -of Saxon derivation ; for Se 

 signifies great, and burn torrents, a brook or rivulet : so that the name seems 

 to be derived from the great perennial stream that breaks out at the upper 

 end of the village. Sel also signifies bonus, item, fmcundus, fertilis. " bel- 

 srepj-cim : fcecunda graminis dausura ; fertile pascuwm : a meadow in the 

 parish of Godelming is still called Sal-gars-ton." LYE'S Saxon Dictionary, 

 in the Supplement, by Mr. Manning. 



3 Thus the name of Aldred signifies all-reverend, and that of Kemp means 

 a soldier. Thus we have a church-litton, or inclosure for dead bodies, and 

 not a church-yard : there is also a Culver-craft near the Grange-farm, being 

 the inclosure where the priory pigeon-house stood, from culver a pigeon. 

 Again there are three steep pastures in this parish called the Lithe, from 

 Hlithe, clivus. The wicker-work that binds and fastens down a hedge on 

 the top is called ether, from ether a hedge. When the good women call 

 their hogs they cry sic, sic, 1 not knowing that sic is Saxon, or rather Celtic, 

 for a hog. Coppice or brushwood our countrymen call rise, from Arts, 

 frondes ; and talk of a load of rise. Within the author's memory the Saxon 

 plurals, housen and peason, were in common use. But it would be endless 

 to instance in every circumstance : he that wishes for more specimens must 



1 "Z/KO, porcus, apud Lacones ; un porceauchez les Tjaeedemoniens : ce mot a sans doute este 

 pris des Celtes, qui discent sic pour marquer un porceau. Encore aujonr'huy quand les Bretons 

 ehassent ces animaux, ils ne disent point autrement quo sic, sic." Antiquite de la Nation et de 

 lit Langue des Celtes, par PEZRON. 



