518 ANTIQUITIES 



octo solidos ct 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 circum- 

 stances 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 a 

 variety of words in husbandry and common life, still 

 subsisting among the country people. 



What probably first drew the attention of the Saxons 

 to this spot was the beautiful spring or fountain called 



1 Selesburne, Selebnrne, Selburn, Selbourn, Selborne, and Selborn, as 

 it has been variously spelt at different periods, is of Saxon derivation ; 

 for AW signiOes great, and burn torrens, 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,/<rcun- 

 dus, fertilis. Sel-^aejir-ton : fcecunda graminis clausura ; fertile pascuum. 

 Abiit tamen apud nonnullos in nomen proprium. Inde pratum quoddam 

 apud Godelming in agro Surriensi hodie vocatur Sal-gars-ion." Lye's 

 Saxon Dictionary, in the Supplement, by Mr. Manning. 



2 Thus the name of Aldred signifies all-reverend, and that of Knnp 

 means a soldier. Thus we have a church-litton, or enclosure for dead 

 bodies, and not a church-yard: there is also a Culver-croft near the 

 Grange-farm, being the enclosure where the priory pigeon-house stood, 

 from culver, a pigeon. Again there are three steep pastures in this parish 

 called the Lithe, from Hlithe, clitus. 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 *, not knowing that 

 sic is Saxon, or rather Celtic, for a hog. Coppice or brushwood our 

 countrymen call rise, from hris, 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 circum- 

 stance : he that wishes for more specimens must frequent a farmer's 

 kitchen. I have therefore selected some words to show how familiar the 

 Saxon dialect was to this district, since in more than seven hundred years 

 it is far from being obliterated. 



* Siiccr, porcus, apud Lacones ; un Porceau chez les Lacedemoniens : 

 ce mot a sans doute este" pris des Celtes, qui disoent sic, pour marquer un 

 porceau. Encore aujour'huy quand les Bretons chassent ces animaux, 

 ils ne disent point autrement, que sic, sic. Antiquite" de la Nation et de 

 la Langue des Celtes, par Pezron. 



