72 The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 



which in many cases he must simply trust to some guess more or 

 less happy, or leave them altogether unexplained. 



It is still necessary here, as in the previous essay, to come to 

 conclusions with much caution. Even in Anglo-Saxon charters, 

 especially when they are not originals but copies, we meet with 

 names evidently in a corrupt form. To draw inferences too readily 

 from the entries in Domesday Book is unsafe ; the Norman scribes 

 spelt the names as best they could, and the effect of their own 

 language on the Anglo-Saxon is evident even in that early record. 

 The influence of centuries moreover has been at work in changing 

 the form, or modifying the pronunciation, of a name, till at last it 

 becomes so disguised that hardly a trace of its true origin remains. 

 The well-known tendency of names when corrupted to assume a 

 feasible form, the counterfeit in fact being specious enough and 

 looking just like sterling coin, is most misleading. Every careful 

 student of Local Nomenclature must often feel suspicious of inter- 

 pretations that are accepted readily — and, strange as it may seem, 

 almost for the very reason that they are apparently so self- 

 evident. 



37. As an illustration of my meaning I will give one or two 

 examples : — 



(a) Sometimes names derived from the same source assume very 

 different forms. Thus the Anglo-Saxon Fearn-dun becomes Farring- 

 don, whilst Fearn-lege becomes Far-legh, and Fearn-ham retains 

 almost its original form in Farn-ham. Again the Anglo-Saxon 

 Stan-ford } i.e., the stone, or paved, ford, becomes Stow- ford; whilst 

 the compound Stdn-ford-tun [i.e., the village by the Stone-ford) 

 becomes softened down to Sta-ver-ton. 



\b) In other cases names derived from different sources assume 

 similar forms. Thus Upton is the name of two villages at no great 

 distance from each other not far from Warminster. One of them, 

 Upton Scudamore, is literally the " Up (=upper) Town" or village, 

 and is sometimes called the "North Town/' The other Upton 

 Lovell is a contraction of Ubhan-tun, i.e., " Ubba's Town" and so 

 a memorial of a celebrated Danish chieftain, or at all events of his 

 name-sake. Another good instance is in the name Woolley, which 



