166 



The Names of Places in Wilts/lire. 



Bkm. A small stream near the south-west of the county by the 

 Donlieads. Perhaps the Gaelic seamh which means gentle 

 and placid, may explain it. The village of #m-ley derives 

 its name from it; and the hamlet of /SW-bourn, close by 

 Warminster, would seem to have been called from a stream 

 once bearing the same designation. 

 Cole. This river for some miles forms the north-east boundary of 

 the county. The Cal-der in Lancashire is said by some to 

 be derived from the Welsh call (=winding) and dwr (= 

 water), and possibly the former word is the source of the 

 name Cole. Others however refer it to the Gaelic caol, 

 straight, narrow. What is now spelt Coleshill, but in 

 ancient documents is called Cole-selle, is situated on this 

 stream and derives its name from it. 

 Stour. A river in the south-west of Wilts, though in England 

 there are several others of the same name. Ferguson thinks 1 

 that the words sar, sor, stir, so widely spread in the names 

 of rivers (as for instance in the Soar &c.) are to be traced to 

 the Sanscrit sar, sri, (=to move,) sra, (to flow) whence 

 saras, water, sarit, srota, river. He observes further that 

 one Celtic dialect, the Armorican, by inserting a phonetic t 3 

 changes stir into ster, and thinks that through this source 

 we obtain the form Stour. 



The names of Stour-txm and Stour-head are derived from 

 this Wiltshire river. There is also a Sturry Brook close by 

 Highworth which looks as though a portion of the stream 

 there once bore a name like that of Stour. 

 10. In addition to these names of rivers, there are other words denot- 

 ing water, which enter into the composition of many local names. In- 

 deed, in ancient days, almost every brook would seem to have had 

 its distinctive name. Numerous instances might be cited fron the 

 Anglo-Saxon charters of names of the smaller streams which are 

 now quite forgotten. 



One of these words is wish, or wish (as in Wish-ford) . This ap- 

 pears in Welsh as wisg, and in Irish as uisg. The English words 

 1 River-Names of Europe, p. 57. 



