84 The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 



was but thinly peopled, and there were but few towns or villages 

 of any note in it. Thus Blache-grave means the dark grovt 

 or wood ; Thorn-grave and Thorn-hill, the wood and hill 

 covered with thorns or brambles; Stan-ford, the stone (paved) 

 ford over a stream, the old name for the present hundred of 

 Chalk ; Stod-fald, the fold, or place, for horses (Anglo-Saxon stdd- 

 fald) ; El-stub, in Anglo-Saxon ellen-stub, the stump or stowl of i 

 the elder, of very common occurrence in the recital of ancient boun- 

 daries ; Staple (Anglo-Saxon stapol), literally an upright post on 

 pillar, designating, at the first perhaps, the place where the Hundred' 

 Court was held, when, meeting in the open air, they transacted the 

 business of which that ancient court took cognisance; Rugebersh, 

 i.e., the rough, or hoar barrow; Wher-wels-don, (originally perhaps 

 hdr-welles-dun,) i.e., the hill by the hoar, or ancient well. Such 

 names as these tell, as it seems to me, of great antiquity, and point 

 clearly to a time when Wiltshire had but few places of note which 

 might give names to the Hundreds in which they were situated. 

 And it is hard to explain, except by the merest conjecture, such names 

 as Ferstesfield (Frustfield), Sterkley, Brenchesberg (Branch), 

 Doles felt (Dole), and Selkley, — all traces having for the most 

 part long since perished of the sources from which they were origi- 

 nally derived. 



Now it is a common assertion that Tithings and Hundreds were 

 instituted by King Alfred. The Chronicon Wintoniense, under A.D. 

 882, says expressly that he formed them, "ad latrones investigandos,'" 

 Ingulphus repeats the same statement, and attributes their establish- 

 ment to King Alfred, about A.D. 893. No doubt Alfred may have 

 re-modelled the Hundreds and Tithings, but I cannot help thinking 

 that the institution of them was ot much earlier date, and I submit 

 that this opinion is in a measure confirmed by fair deductions from 

 the names of the ancient hundreds in Wilts. For, certainly, a very 

 early and primitive state of things in Wiltshire seems to be indicated, 

 when the ancient barrow or tumulus, the elder- stowl, the hoar or 

 ancient well, the staple or stone pillar, gave names to Hundreds. 



Add to this the following facts, and I venture to think that I have 

 made out a fair case for my belief, that the institution of Hundreds 



