Names denoting Water. 



167 



oo :e, and wash, and possibly also gush, would seem to be different 

 forms of the same. The well-known term whisk?/, means, it is 

 conceived, originally " the water/' — what in France is called express- 

 ively eau de vie. 



The forms in which you meet with this root, which Ferguson de- 

 rives from the Sanscrit ux or uks, to water, are indeed manifold. It 

 occurs as the Ash (the JEsce of the charters), the Axe, the Exe, the 

 Ouse (the Use or Wuse of the charters), the Isis, the Wisk (as in 

 Danby on Wisk), and the Usk. Often the towns situated on the 

 river assume one form, whilst the river itself retains another. Thus 

 in Cambridgeshire the town on the Ouse is called ^is-beach, whilst 

 a portion of the same stream that flows through a part of Norfolk 

 is called the Wis-sey, and the name 0^-burgh is that of a parish 

 immediately adjoining. In like manner O^-ford is on the Isis, and 

 signifies simply " river-ford." There can be little doubt that the 

 Wash, off Lincolnshire, is another form of the same word. In the 

 Saxon Chronicle you have, what we now term the Usk, called the 

 Wijlisce Axa, that is, the " Welch Axe," and Asser, in his Life of 

 King Alfred, says, the old name of Exeter was Cosr- Wise, which he 

 adds is, in Saxon, Exan-Ceastor, and he describes it in Latin as 

 " civitas Exoe quce orientali ripa fluminis Wise sita est." 



It will be readily seen how the former portions of each of the 

 following names, — ^-mouth, Ash-ioY&, Ex-mouth., Cb-ford, Os-born, 

 ^-bridge, are all different forms of the same original word. In 

 Suffolk and Stafford you have, in the names Jew-ford, and Yox-aW } 

 another modification. 



In the following Wiltshire names, you have this word in one or 

 other of its various forms. 



Wish-ford \ One of these names is that of a village near Heytes- 

 Wish-mead J bury, the other that of a meadow at the point where 

 East and West Lavington are separated from each other : they 

 mean respectively " river-ford," and " water-meadow." We 

 have a confirmation of the former in a document in the 

 Wilton Chartulary relating to South Newton, 1 in which was 

 comprised the tithing of Little Wishford, and which latter 

 'Cod. Dipl., 1114. 



