96 



The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 



ground) either dedicated to him, or supposed to be under his 

 protection ; and that thus Woden was here, as in Germany, the 

 supreme god whom the Saxons, Franks, and Alamans concurred in 

 worshipping." 



Another of the deities worshipped by our Anglo-Saxon forefathers 

 in the days of their heathendom was Tiw, from whom we derive the 

 name for the third day of the week, Tiwes-dseg ( = Tuesday). He 

 would seem to have corresponded with Mars, and was worshipped as a 

 god of battle. We have the name of this deity in such compounds as 

 Te6wes-\orn (= Tiwes- thorn), in the charter relating to Purton 

 (Cod. Dipl., 174) — Tmies-den, in that referring to Chel worth (Cod. 

 Dipl., 829) — and possibly also in Tasan-mced, in that concerning 

 Alton Priors (Cod. Dipl., 1035), a name now known as Teow's-mead, 

 the designation of a farm close by Wansdyke. It is not impossible 

 that in the name Tis-bury, a parish in the south-west of the county, 

 we have a like memorial of Saxon heathendom. In a charter of 

 Cnut (A.D. 1023), amongst the boundaries of an estate at Hanitune 

 (Hannington), in Hants, we have " Tis-ledh" which, if the place 

 could be identified, would no doubt be Tis-ley. 



One other illustration under this head shall be given — others will 

 be found in the lists appended to this general account. An ancient 

 encampment on the downs, not far from Heytesbury, is called 

 Scratchbury Camp. I venture to suggest that the former portion 

 of the name is from the same source as the Danish and Swedish 

 skratti ( == a daemon). Notice has already been drawn to the idea 

 so common in ancient times of works like these being carried out 

 by the help of evil spirits (See above § 17). There is a Scratby in 

 Norfolk, and in Norway we find Skradascar as the name of a haunted 

 rock on the coast. 



61. (b) Of names which illustrate the early Christianity of our 

 forefathers, the following may be named : — 



Bishopstrow. A village near Warminster, originally Biseopes-ireow 

 ( = Bishop's tree), a memorial of the good St. Aldhelm, 

 first Bishop of Sherborne (A.D. 705 — 709), to whom the 

 church is dedicated, and who, as he founded the monas- 

 teries both at Bradford and Frome, no doubt visited this 



