TARRANT RUSHTON CHURCH. 65 



the same people pointed to the Lamb and the Cross and the Name 

 of Him who is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and Saviour, and very 

 possibly to the Heavenly Dove, the Holy Spirit. 



May I hazard the conjecture a mere conjecture as to the 

 word Tarrant, Avhich gives a name to every village in the valley. 

 In the last edition of Hutchins it is suggested that it may be a 

 corruption of the word torrent. But, whatever our stream may be, 

 it is certainly never a torrent. I should as soon accept this 

 derivation by a Latin scholar as I should one of the synonyms for 

 Eushton viz., Russeauton given probably by French ecclesiastics 

 when they walked down the valley from Launceston, which was 

 connected with the Abbey of Caen, to Keyneston, which belonged 

 to the Bishop of Lisieux or to the far-famed Abbey of Tarent i.e., 

 Crawford. 



To me Tarent, as it is almost always spelt in old documents, 

 seems to be the same as Trent, or Derwent, the d and t being 

 interchangeable, and derived from dwr = water a word which is 

 found in Durweston, Dorchester, and Dorset. 



Then what about the emling 1 If it is more than an ending I 

 should connect it with the word Wynne, which we find in "Wyn 

 Green, Wyngate, Vindogladia, and which in the Latin form is 

 found in Venta, as Venta Silurum, now Caerwent, meaning 

 bright, clear. 



The poor stream is sadly failing now, in consequence of the long 

 drought, but Charles Kingsley, when for a short time he had 

 charge of the neighbouring parish of Pimperne, wrote of it, among 

 others, almost enthusiastically, and said he could preach for an 

 hour on the chalk streams of Dorset because of their clearness. 



