82 The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 



(gars-dun), near Malmesbury, means simply the " grassy hill." Pur- 

 ton, in the same neighbourhood, from its original spelling, pirig-tun, 

 would seem to mean the village where the pear-tree flourished. From 

 ellen-dun (= the hill of elder-trees) you have Elington, a name now 

 superseded by that of Wroughton, of which parish it forms part. 



The wild broom (Anglo-Saxon brdm) gives its name to South 

 Broom, near Devizes, as well as to Bromham, in the same locality. 



(b) Those derived from the animal kingdom. 



Under this division will be placed Swinbrook, the name of a small 

 stream inPomeroy,on the Somerset border, so called probably from the 

 swineth&t revelled among the acorns of the adjoining wood. Stodfold^ 

 the name of one of the ancient hundreds, is the Anglo-Saxon stod- 

 fald, a word of frequent occurrence in boundaries, and means simply 

 the u fold for horses'''' (the words steed and stud being still familiar 

 to us as connected with horses), and Studley has much the same 

 signification. Fuggleston, if the former part be not a corrupt or 

 shortened form of some personal name, is perhaps from the Anglo- 

 Saxon fug el ( = a bird or fowl), and may be so termed from the wild 

 Jowl that frequented the neighbourhood of the Wyly and the Nadder^ 

 near the confluence of which streams it is situated. Of the derivation 

 of Bamsbury, however specious the disguise in which it appears, we 

 can have no doubt. Its original name was Hr&fnes-byrig ( = raven's 

 bury) , and its Bishops (for at that place was the seat of the ancient 

 bishopric of Wiltshire) fully understood its meaning when they 

 signed themselves " Episcopi Corvinensis Ecclesise.'''' In its immediate 

 vicinity is a place called Crow-wood. 



(c) Those derived from the mineral kingdom. 



One of the Wiltshire Hundreds is called Chalk, and within it 

 are the parishes of Broad-Chalk and Bower- Chalk. Seend, and 

 Sand-ridge, which is in its immediate vicinity, are so called from 

 the light sandy soil that is to be found there. From the Anglo-Saxon 

 clif y clyf ( = a rock or cliff) come a number of names, such as Cliff- 

 Pxpard, Cliff- Wancey (now corrupted into Clevancy) , Clifton, and 

 the like. The compounds from the Anglo-Saxon stdn ( = stone) 

 are very numerous. We have not a few places of the name of 

 Stanton in Wilts. Near Hungerford we have a Standen, and by 



