Names denoting Land-Divisions. 



83 



Chippenham a Stanley, both of which explain themselves. Stowell, 

 or as it is sometimes spelt Stawell, is from the Anglo-Saxon start- 

 Wyll ( = stone well) . Collinson gives " Stan- well " as a form in 

 which he meets with the name of what is now commonly called 

 " Stowell/' near Wincanton, in Somerset. 



II. — Names derived from the division of the land among the 

 settlers in the country. 



47. We now advance a step further. As soon as the new settlers 

 have made themselves secure in the land which they have won, they 

 begin to divide it among themselves; and hence another class of 

 names is introduced, those that derive their origin from the nature 

 of the settlement, or from circumstances connected with such partition 

 of territory among the conquerors. 



It is no part of our purpose in this essay to trace out the way in 

 which the ancient marks were occupied by the men of a family or a 

 clan, or the gradual means by which manors were granted out to 

 various owners, or how these manors or estates were formed into 

 tithings and hundreds, and these subsequently into shires. We have 

 only to do with such subjects so far as the names we meet with 

 throw light upon them or are illustrated by them. 



It will not however be irrelevant, if, on one of these points, inas- 

 much as the ancient names in Wilts seem to throw some light upon 

 it, I make a few remarks. 



In the oldest list of the Wiltshire Hundreds, that contained in 

 the Exeter Domesday Book, out of forty which are enumerated, there 

 are but twelve which are called from a chief town within their limits. 

 These are : — Ambresbury, Bradford, Cricklade, Chippenham, Calne, 

 Downton,Heytesbury,Melksham, Mere, Ramsbury,and Warminster. 

 The comparatively small places Alderbury, Damerham, and Worth 

 ( = Highworth) give names to hundreds, but neither Bedwin (un- 

 less, as is possible, Kinwardston may be another designation of 

 it), Wilton, or Malmesbury are found assigning their names to such 

 divisions of territory; and of the rest, the meaning of some of the words 

 is so obscure as to be beyond our power to explain, whilst of others 

 the interpretation seems to point to a remote time when the country 



