Names denoting Land-Divisions. 



87 



49. It has already boon mentioned that one way of marking 

 Boundaries, when no other moans wore at hand, was by placing a 

 Hone or wooden pillar at the point to be indicated. This was called 

 in Anglo-Saxon stapol, and from it we have the word staple, which 

 is frequently found as a component part of the names of places. 

 Indeed the history of this word, and of its various meanings, is very 

 interesting. In its primary signification you have it in such words 

 as Staple-ford, which is the ford by the staple or pillar set up to 

 mark the boundary of the manor ; and Staple-hill, the name of a 

 hill at YVestwood, across which runs the border of Wilts and Somerset. 

 It came next to denote a land-mark generally, and in this sense it 

 is used in such a word as Stapel-thorn, that is, a thorn serving as 

 a point of boundary just as the customary " staple." In time it 

 became a custom to erect such stone pillars in the middle of villages 

 and towns to mark the place where men might congregate for the 

 purpose of transacting business, and the village " staple " was after- 

 wards developed into the " market cross." In ancient days when 

 the privilege of holding a market was ceded to any town or village, 

 it often had the name " Staple 99 or " Steeple 99 prefixed to it. Hence 

 the names Steeple Ashton and Steeple Lavington, the latter 

 place being commonly called Market Lavington. From the less 

 to the greater the step was not difficult. The principal place in 

 London for the sale of wool, the chief article of commerce in ancient 

 times, was in Holborn, near what is now called Staples Inn. The 

 principal articles of commerce came, from being sold there, to be 

 called " Staple articles/'' and they who dealt in them were in due 

 time called " Merchants of the Staple" 



50. Of course every one has heard of the division of the country 

 into hides. In the Domesday record, in every instance the extent 

 of a manor is given first in hides and then in carucates. The former 

 mode of measuring, or, perhaps, I ought to say, assessing estates, 

 had existed for many years prior to the Norman conquest. Hence 

 in our local names we have several traces of the custom. Thus 

 Fifield and Fifehead are but corruptions of fif hid, and mean 

 simply an estate containing five hides. In like manner Tin-head, 

 a tithing of Edington, means an estate of ten hides. Tilshead, 



