By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 173 



del, so frequent in ancient charters as a boundary-point, and which 

 would seem to have been a natural pcnd or well by the road- side. 

 Then close by Breamore Down we have a portion of the Grims- 

 dyke, the boundary for half a mile of the parish of Downton, and also 

 of the county of Wilts, and which is mentioned as such boundary of 

 Downton in Anglo-Saxon charters. Again on the south-east bor- 

 der you have the parish of Sher-field which is simply Shire-Jield, 

 and then, a little further north, Mar-ton (i.e. boundary village), at the 

 south-east corner of the large parish of Bedwin. And still further 

 north, and at no great distance from the point whence we started, 

 you have Mar-ston, which is only the modern form of mcer-stdn 

 (mere-stone), i.e. a boundary stone, a term well known to all 

 Wiltshiremen. 



It is conceived that from such facts, deduced as they are from a 

 minute examination of the Domesday Record for Wiltshire and 

 neighbouring counties, and corroborated by the old names of places 

 along the border-line of our own county, we are fully justified in 

 concluding that the boundaries are in the main the same as in the 

 eleventh century. It says much for the complete and final settle- 

 ment of the country that was effected by the Conquest, when we 

 find our borders still undisturbed after a lapse of eight hundred 

 years ; and much also for the scrupulous accuracy of the great 

 Domesday Record, rightly valued by us as the oldest survey of a 

 kingdom now existing in the world. 



