86 The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 



that in that part bounds the county. At Freshford, also on th - 

 borders, you have a place the name of which is now spelt Shaston' 

 there can be little doubt but that you have its original form h 

 Share-stone, close by Chapmanslade, and that both are called fron , 

 a stone placed near them for the purpose of marking the boundary 

 of the county. 



•Again, the word mosr, or, as it is generally written, ge-mcere, de| 

 notes a boundary. In its simple form Mere we meet with it as th< 

 name of a hundred which forms a portion of the south-west boundary 

 of our county, and of the principal town in it. Its compounds are 

 numerous. Every Wiltshire man is familiar with the term " mere* 

 stones" or the stones by which, on our open downs, one plot of lane 

 is separated from another. The same word appears in Marstos 

 (Maisy), originally mcer-stdn, near the north east boundary of Wilts 

 Close by Poulshot also you have a Marston, though there it indicates 

 the boundary between two hundreds. Mar-den, near Devizes, means 

 the boundary " dean," and also is at the point of separation between 

 ancient hundreds. Near Burbage you have Mar-green, close by 

 the borders of a neighbouring parish. A place by the Gloucestershire 

 border of our county is called Marsh-field (originally spelt Mares- 

 feld), and a house at Road, on the Somersetshire border, still bears 

 the name of Mer-field, that is, in each case the " boundary field. " 

 The line of hills that separates Winsley from Warleigh, a few 

 miles only from Bath, is called Mur-hill, and there is a place 

 of much the same character near Swindon which is spelt Mur-rell ; 

 in either instance it was probably originally mcer-hyl, i.e., the 

 " boundary-hill." Near Swindon also, you have some rising ground, 

 which was at first, no doubt, called m&r-hyrcg, i.e., the " boundary- 

 ridge," and this has been corrupted in the course of centuries into 

 Marriage Hill. We have also several places in Wiltshire called 

 Mar-ton or Mar-tin ; all of which are on the borders either of the 

 county or of hundreds. They mean either the " boundary village," 

 or (as certainly is the case with the place of that name near Burbage) 

 the " boundary thorn/'' the idea of their deriving their appellations 

 from the supposed dedication of their churches to St. Martin being 

 quite unfounded. 



