The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 



Welsh eglwys (= a church), Lat. ecclesia. We have the old 

 word in a simple form in the name Eccles, in Lancashire. 

 They are all interesting words, as leading to the fair pre- 

 sumption that a Christian Church was standing at each of 

 these places before the Roman invasion. 

 Ayebury. The site of the largest and most ancient Celtic monu- 

 ments in the county. Those curious to see the many specu- 

 lations as to its meaning, some of them wild enough, may 

 find them in the Wilts Mag., iv., 318, and in Jackson's 

 Aubrey, p. 328. 



The way in which we find the name written in Domesday 

 is Avreberie, though of course, as there was but one character 

 used in that record for v and u, it is just possible it may have 

 been meant for Aureberie. Still the usual way in which it 

 is spelt in the Sarum Registers from A.D. 1297 downwards, 

 viz : Avelury, seems to give weight to the opinion that the 

 former spelling was intended by the Norman scribe. 



We know of course that the entries in Domesday are no 

 sure index to the original forms of the words, as the scribes 

 spelt the names as best they could. Nevertheless it is the 

 oldest form of the name we have, and thus much we may 

 concede that the spelling in Domesday would be indicative of 

 the sound which the words had in the ears of the Frenchmen, 

 when pronounced by the English. 



There can be no doubt of the extreme antiquity of Ayebury, 

 and so it would not be unnatural to find a Welsh word cling- 

 ing to it. In the case of Stonehenge, a name which is of Teu- 

 tonic derivation, 1 the older name has been entirely superseded. 

 For Ayebury we have no more ancient name preserved to us. 



1 " Stoxehexge is said to mean the 'hanging stones.' The oldest form in 

 which this name occurs is Stan-henges — it is so written by Henry of Huntingdon, 

 who nourished in the earlier half of the twelfth century. Di. Guest has pub- 

 lished an essay on the derivation of the word in the ' Philolog. Trans.' (vol. 

 vi., p. 31), in which he contends that the name is descriptive of the great stones 

 which form 'imposts' — (such he contends is the meaning of the second syllable, 

 henge) — on the two immense supporters. The Britons called it Choir-gaicr, i.e., 

 * giant's dance,' because it was fabled to have been built by giants, or other- 

 wise constructed by magic art." 



