Names from those of ancient Owners or Occupiers. 91 



with the sepulchral tumuli, to which reference is so constantly made 

 in the charters, and which are still to be seen in such numbers on 

 our downs. The present mode of burial in cemeteries set apart for 

 the purpose, and then attached to churches, was not usual till nearly 

 the end of the ninth century. At certain periods they observed the 

 custom of solitary burial, under a mound or barrow, in the open and 

 uncultivated ground which separated the possessions of different 

 communities or settlers. Hence the very frequent reference to such 

 mounds on the borders of ancient manors, — sacred land-marks they 

 became, — the work of man indeed, but intended for his home, when, 

 after his days of toil, he folds his hands and lays him down to rest. 

 Perhaps in our zeal to interpret the past we are in danger of some 

 irreverence in peering into these ancient sepulchres. It would be 

 well for us, if, when eDgaged in what to some is the exciting chase 

 of " barrow-digging," we bore in mind more frequently that in that 

 " dust and ashes " are the germs of immortality. The old charters 

 deal with a time when the names of a few past generations had not 

 quite faded from men's memories. In going through these records 

 a feeling often comes over you, like that which, after a residence of 

 many years in a village, you feel as you walk through the church- 

 yard, and can tell, one by one, whose memorials the little turf-heaps 

 are, and who sleeps beneath them. Frequent allusions are often 

 found to older " barrows : " a common expression found is " oft $a 

 harSenan byrgelsas/'' i.e., to the "heathen burial-places moreover 

 the way in which mention is made of persons being placed in these 

 "heathen barrows" seems to imply that the earliest Christians buried 

 where the pagans had previously deposited the burnt remains 1 of 

 their dead. 



55. A few names selected from charters relating to Wiltshire 

 may be interesting : possibly an intimate knowledge of the localities 

 to which they refer may enable some of my readers to discover the 

 name still remaining in our county. 



1 Kemble well observes that the Anglo-Saxon verb byrgian does not mean 

 simply what we call burial, but has the more extended meaning of covering and 

 so does not exclude the idea of cremation. It corresponds to the Latin sepelire, 

 which is applied to the urn containing the ashes, quite as correctly as to the 

 burial of the unburnt body. See above, § 40. 



M & 



