258 



The Names of Places in Wiltshire. 



Swill brook. In the Cambrian "Register, (1796,) Deri (=the 

 oaks), is given as the name of a place in Anglesea. 



Goatacre Near Lineham. The former portion of this Name is 

 probably a corruption of the Cornish coit (= wood), and the 

 whole word means " wood-acre/'' The personal name " Gat- 

 aker" seems to be another form of this word. In the Test, 

 de Nev. (p. 137) this local name appears as God-acre. 



Hessick. A name given to a barn near Ogbourn St. George. The 

 Welsh hesg (= sedge) would seem to be the origin of it. 

 Compare the Anglo-Saxon hassuc, which means coarse grass, 

 and also a low marshy place where such coarse rank grass 

 springs. From this material is probably derived the name 

 hassock, used to kneel on in churches. 



25. Isey or Eisey. So called from the Isis — a stream flowing through 

 Somerford Keynes and Ashton Keynes to Cricklade — on 

 which it is situated. The name Isis itself is probably but 

 another of the many forms of the root wysg (== water), of 

 which illustrations have already been given. The name 

 0#-ford stands in the same relation to the Isis, as 0#-burgh 

 and Wis-heach to the Ouse and Wissey, 1 names applied to 

 different portions of the same stream. See § 10. 



Keevil. Spelt in Domesday Chivele, in the Edington Chartulary 

 Kyvele, and in that of Shaftesbury, in a Latinised form, 

 Kyvelia. The former portion of this name may be the Welsh 

 cae, Cornish chy (= a house, or field) ; the latter is possibly 

 the Welsh gwely or wely, which assumes the form of wele 

 (= vele) in the extent of North Wales, the Welsh Domes- 

 day Book, temp. Edw III., and means much the same as 

 villa in the Exchequer Domesday. Thus one of the entries 

 for Anglesey is as follows : — " Tref Edenevet; In eadem villa 

 sunt tres wele; vid. Wele Grono ap Eden; Wele Jeu ap 

 Eden — et Wele Pilth ap Eden." Cambr. Reg. 1 796, p. 391. 

 The whole word, if such an interpretation be admissible, 

 might designate a " free-holder's farm or manor."" 



1 See some observations on these forms in Max Muller's " Chips from a German 

 "Workshop," vol. iii., p. 301. 



