328 On WaylancVs Smithy, and on 



exposed, and, to a great extent, thrown down. The chamher, which 

 was allowed to retain its cap-stone, seems in early, and probably 

 pagan, Saxon times to have received the name of Weland's Smithy. 

 Such at least was its name in the tenth century, as is proved by a 

 charter of Eadred, a.d. 955, in which "Weland's Smithy" ( Welandes 

 smi^^an) is named in the boundaries of an estate at Compton near 

 Ashdown, where the " smithy " is represented as situate on the west 

 side of a wide road, or opening (geat), near the Ridge-way.^ It is 

 clear, as has been observed by Mr. T. Wright, that the name of 

 Weland's Smithy could not have been assigned to this place unless 

 the chamber were then exposed.^ 



A few remarks must be made on the name. This is clearly a 

 slight corruption of the Saxon name of Weland's Smithy. The 

 local designation for the last two centuries has been simply Wayland 

 Smith, — not Wayland Smith's Cave, as the present generation have 

 learned to call it. As " Wayland-Smyth " it appears in the MS. of 

 Aubrey , as "Wayland-Smith" in the pages of Wise, and the same 

 even in those of Gough^ and King,* and in Lysons,^ as late as 1813. 



Wise offers an etymology for the name. After giving the story 

 of the invisible smith, he proceeds as follows : — "The stones standing 

 upon the 'BindigQ-way, as it is called, I suppose, gave occasion to the 



Du Tus, in Guernsey. Some Cromlechs stand on a platform, slightly raised 

 above the adjacent ground, but I know of none that have been covered by a 

 tumulus, or mound of earth, of which they form the chamber." Ibid, vol. xvii. 

 p. 47. 



'Kemble, Cod. Diplom., No. 1172. Eadred grants "ministro suo ^Ifheho 

 eight "cassatos" at "Cumtune" (se. Compton Beauchamp, in Berks) "juxta 

 montem qui vocatur ^Escesdun (Ash-down)." MS. Cott. Claud., B. vi., fol. 406. 



2 Archscologia, vol. xxxiii., p. 268. Journal Brit. Archoeol. Association, vol. 

 xvi., p. 51. 



3 Gough's Camden, 1789; 2nd Ed. 1806, vol. i., p. 221. 

 ^ King, Munimenta Antiqua 1799, vol. i. p. 130. 



^Lysons, Berkshire, 1813, p. 215. "A little way to the west of Uffington 

 Castle, near the ridgetoay leading over the Downs, there is a considerable 

 iMmw/MS, commonly called Way land- Smith; &c. (vide ante, p. 316.) Lysons 

 gives a small view of the chamber, showing its position with reference to the 

 Ridgeway and to Uffington Castle. 



