172 Gleanings from the Wiltshire Domesday. 



same fact, is supplied by the names of many of the places that are 

 situated on the borders of the county. A large proportion of them 

 are certainly old names and clearly of Anglo-Saxon origin ; — as 

 such they give unmistakeable evidence as to the boundary-line of 

 the county being much the same now as in the eleventh century. 

 Thus, at the north-west corner we have Sherston, originally seir- 

 stdn, i.e. the Shire-stone, or boundary. In the same vicinity, we 

 have Rod-mar ton, of which the Acman Street (or Roman road 

 from Bath to Cirencester) forms the boundary, as also of the 

 counties of Wilts and Gloucester, — and Tod-mar-ton, a border- 

 parish on the Gloucestershire side. Whatever the first syllable of 

 these names may mean, we can have no doubt as to the meaning 

 of the termination mar-ton. It designates a village on the boundary, 

 the Anglo-Saxon mcer, meaning a boundary. Again, at the point 

 where our county projects into Somerset, between Limpley Stoke 

 and Freshford, you have the name Shas-ton, evidently a corruption 

 of Shire-stone. At another point, where Westwood (Wilts) is 

 divided from Freshford, (Somerset) you have Staple Hill, so called 

 no doubt from the old stapol, a pillar either of wood or stone which 

 so frequently marked points of boundary in ancient times. And then, 

 at the extreme western point of Wilts, at the boundary of tivo 

 counties and four parishes, you meet with Mid-ford, which, it is 

 presumed, means the ' dividing ford.' A few miles further to the 

 south, near Maiden Bradley, there is Sher-rell farm, so called 

 most probably because close by flows the Shire-rill, the stream or 

 rivulet which at that point separates Wilts from Somerset. Next 

 we have Mere, a large parish which itself for some miles forms the 

 south-west boundary of Wilts, and the name of which is simply 

 the Anglo-Saxon mcer (boundary) of which we have already spoken. 

 Then along the southern border we have Mar-ton (or Mar-ten. as 

 it is sometimes spelt) which whether it means mcer-tun (a village 

 on the boundary) or mcer-\orn (a thorn planted to mark the bound- 

 ary), indicates the same fact that it was on the borders. Next we 

 come to Staple-ton, a word which our previous remarks will have 

 explained. At the south-west corner of Damerham you have 

 Crendel, a term which recalls to Anglo-Saxon students the crun- 



