and their Historic Teachings. 



71 



the former portion of this place-name was from the Welsh dryw 

 (=a Druid) or from an Anglo Saxon dry (=a magician). But 

 not only is Draycot too common a name in England — there are no 

 less than three in Wilts — to warrant such an idea, but the former 

 portion in ancient charters in spelt " drag" There is an old Frisian 

 proper name "Dmge" probably the modern " Drake/' and which, 

 judging from the crest of the " Drake " family, which is a " dragon/'' is 

 no doubt more allied to " draco " than to the domestic web-Looted bird 

 called a " drake" that quacks about our home-steads and on our 

 ponds. My own belief, is however, that " Dray " — as in Dray-cot 

 and Dray '-ton — is just as likely to be a form of Drais or Dreis, a 

 contraction of " Andreas " which we find in " Dreiske " in Germany. 

 As " Drais " and " Dreis " are Saxonic forms for " Andreas/' Drai 

 and Drei will be legitimately formed from Andrew. The modern 

 Friesic forms are " Drewes " and " Drew/' 



Strangers Farm ; — the name of a holding in Dauntesy parish. 

 In the eharter relating to i( Domices-eye " we have one point of 

 boundary called Sir enges -bur gels • that is, the burial-place of some- 

 one of the name of Streng, or Strong. Whatever the precise form of 

 the original name may have been, I believe it has been corrupted 

 into " Strangers." 



Malmesbury : — about this place-name there have been not a few 

 guesses. Some tell you that it is from Maildulf, a Scot, or perhaps 

 Irish, hermit, who settled here in the earlier part of the seventh cen- 

 tury, and laid the foundation of what afterwards became its famous 

 abbey. But even our dear old friend John Aubrey, who had his full 

 share of credulity, says — " Methinks it is too forced an Etymologie 

 for this place." Others will have it, that it is a corruption of 

 " Aldhelms-bury," whilst Bishop Gibson goes so far as to suggest 

 that it contains something of Maildulf and something of Aldhelm ! 

 His words are " turn Maildulfi turn Aldhelmi aliquid continet, et ex 

 utroque conflatur" — that is, literally, " blown together," or so to 

 speak " evolved " from both. That Bede calls this place u Maildulfi- 

 urbs " (=MaildulPs city) is true ; nevertheless its earliest name, 

 after the re-establishment of Christanity here, was most certainly 

 rf Mal-dunes-berg," and in Latin it was called " Monasterium 



