262 



and who was a representative in General Court fVoui tlie 

 town of SalisbXiry, when the name was changed in 16-10. 

 The farm of Mr. Batt had been pointed ont to-day by Mr. 

 Evans. 



Sahsbury, in Wiltshire in England, sometimes called Old 

 Sarum, is a town of great antiquity, and the etymology of 

 its name is involved in great doubt, though Camden is inclin- 

 ed to trace it to Sorbio- or SorviO'dtmum which, in the an- 

 cient language of Britian, signifies a dry hill — a name which, 

 on account of its high and barren situation, was quite ap- 

 propriate in the earliest times, if we may believe the Old 

 Latin distich which is translated thus : 



" Water's there scarce, but chalk in plenty lies, 

 And those sweet notes that Philomel denies, 

 The harsher music of the wind ^lapplies." 



South of Old Salisbury is the famous Salisbury Plain, mem- 

 orable not only for its curious Druidic stones, known as 

 Stonehenge, but as the scene of Hannah More's touching 

 story of the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain. North of Salisbury, 

 on the river Avon — not the Avon id Warwickshire, on which 

 is Stratford where lie the remain;-; of Shakespeare, but an- 

 other river of that name flowing southwardly into the Brit- 

 ish Channel — is Ambresbury or Amesbury, from which our 

 town of Amesbury takes its name. The origin of this name 

 is more certain than that of Salisbury, being traced to Am- 

 brosius Aurelianus, a British king, who died about the year 

 608, and who gave name to the place, which is strictly Am- 

 brose-bury, that is, Ambrose's-towii ; and hence the old-fash- 

 ioned pronunciation of the name as Amsbiiry is, etymologi- 

 cally, more correct than the modern pronunciation of Ames- 

 bury. 



Amesbury was set off from Salisbury in the year 1668. 



