CHAPTER XIV.
WESSEX (continued), WILTS, AND DORSET.
In the Southern counties, where the underlying strata are chalk and limestone, there are numerous streams whose upper courses are dry in summer and have water in them only in winter. In Dorset there are two streams called Winterborne, in Wiltshire three, in Berkshire one, and in Sussex one. In these counties there are also many streams which have water flowing in them in winter and not in summer, but which have not the word winter connected with their name. Why a few should have this and many others not have it has not been explained. There are also villages called Winterborne on the streams of the same name. In view of the fact that there is a winter flow of water in many streams not called by the name winter, the popular explanation of the origin of the name Winterborne may not be the correct one. The names are old, the earliest references to a place or district so called in Dorset being A.D. 942 and 949.[1] The possibility that they have been derived from a tribal name must be considered.
The evidence already stated shows that the earliest settlers in Hampshire could not have been all of one race, and that there were in that county very considerable settlements of Goths and other Scandinavians. There are also traces to be found in parts of Dorset and Wiltshire
- ↑ Cart. Sax., ii. 508, and iii. 43.
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