114 The Early History of the Upper Wylye Valley. 



in Longbridge, just as one Ubba left his name at Upton Lovel, men- 

 tioned above. We may dwell for a moment on this Longbridge 

 name. It has entirely disappeared from maps, and is used only 

 by some of the elder generation of inhabitants. It lies at the 

 bottom of the northern slope of Lord's Hill, near springs, and may 

 be regarded as the earliest part of the Longbridge settlement. 

 Indeed the central part of the village must at that time have been 

 a large marsh, and the ancient British habitations are all along the 

 bottom of the slope. The pronunciation of the name is Upinton, 

 or Uppington, but the same slight corruption of Ubban-ton (the 

 genitive of Ubba) Ubba's-ton, occurs at Upton Lovel, anciently 

 Ubbantun, 1 and many examples of this syllable -ing are later 

 corruptions of -an, as Dr. Guest has shown ; 2 for example, Abingdon 

 is Aebban-dun, that is, Abba's-dun. At the end of the high ground 

 the invaders paused, and the woodland below them, Selwood, was 

 their boundary, their " Mere." Their names are numerous, and to 

 those given above may be added Hegtred at Heytesbury, i.e., 

 Hegtred's-bury. 



We get a glimpse of their old worship in names of places near, 

 though not actually in the valley itself : the name of the god 

 Woden is seen in Wans trow ; Scratchbury is the hill of a Norse 

 demon Skratti, whose name appears also in Derbyshire ; the deified 

 hero Waermund is seen in the name Waermunds-tre, which is 

 mentioned in a charter as a boundary-mark at Tisbury. Perhaps 



Brightricstone as late as 1291, in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV. Later 

 authorities have copied Hoare blindly, and even Hoare himself is not con- 

 sistent, for while in Hundred of Heytesbury, p. 3, he says "Brixton was un- 

 doubtedly Petra Ecbryhta," on p. 4 he says "Brixton, a title derived most 

 probably from Brictric the Saxon, who held it tempore Edwardi Kegis." 



In a letter, of which Mr. Whistler sent me a copy, Dr. Clifford, formerly 

 the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clifton, gives the Domesday derivation of 

 Brixton, and adds " thus it appears that there is no connection between " the 

 rock of ^Egbert and Brixton." 



In the same way it has been suggested that certain large stones at Kingston 

 are " King's-stones " ; that again is guess-work; but the name is King's-ton, 

 because part of it belonged to the Earl of Cornwall, and was hence connected 

 with the Crown. 



1 Hoare, Heytesbury Hundred, p. 190. 

 2 Orig. Celt., ii., 329. 



