24 The 'Ethnology of Wiltshire, as illustrated in the P lace-Names. 



Some were no doubt formed by the Saxons themselves, but they , 

 Wefe all included under the general term of Ikiry, of which the 

 examples are very numerous as suffixes to the place-names. The 

 prefixes are sometimes proper names not always of a prehistoric 

 character* Malms-bury is said to take its name either from a British 

 king- Malmutius, or the Scottish monk Maidulph, who founded the 

 monastic community afterwards developed into the celebrated abbey. 

 Amesbury is supposed, with considerable show of reason, to have been I 

 the head-quarters of Ambre or Ambrosius, a British king who dis- 

 played considerable gallantry in resisting the Saxon invaders. In 

 Domesday Book it is called Ambresberie. Wan-borough and Wans- 

 dyke are no doubt connected with the traditions of the hero Woden, 

 or Odin, so celebrated in the Saxon and Norse legends. His name 

 is connected with many localities in various parts of the kingdom, 

 such as Wednesbury, Wednesfield, Wensley, &c. 



The most frequent suffix in the place-names of Wiltshire is ton, 

 indicating the thoroughly Saxon predominance in the county. Ton j 

 originally meant a simple enclosure, and in this sense it is still used , 

 dialectically in Scotland. It was then extended to a cluster of 

 houses, and finally to a town in the modern sense. The Saxon towns 

 usually stood at the intersection of cross-roads, or at the fork formed 

 by the junction of three. The tons in Wiltshire are very numerous, 

 with all sorts of prefixes, some Saxon, some Cymric, some of which 

 the meaning is not obvious, some descriptive, others patronymic. 



Ham is another Saxon suffix, common in the county, though not , 

 so numerous as the tons. The Saxon Ham, corresponding with 

 Ger. Helm, primarily meant the homestead, the cluster of buildings 

 constituting the farm and is the origin of the endearing associations 

 connected with the English home. The prefixes are, of course, 

 various. Chippenham (in Domesday Chepeham) indicates that it was 

 a market or trade-mart. Melksham has been explained to mean the 

 milk or dairy farm, but it is more likely to have been adopted from 1 

 a personal name. 



The number of streams which water the county, sufficiently ex- ,: 

 plain the frequency of the suffixes Bourne and Ford. There were 

 several Winter-bournes ; small streams, dry in summer, but forming 



