88 Devon Notes and Queries. Domesday spelling Sulfreton points away from Sylva, con- taining as it does the terminal r, a letter which we must needs borrow and tack on to Sylva in order to make this derivation complete. As bearing on this subject a reference to the earliest use of < sylvan ' would be interesting. Mr. Llewellin*s derivation from Sulh-ford^ an artificial and narrow ford, is ingeniously worked out, but is not convincing. The word Scealfr=a. didapper, a bird of the goose family, developed into Shelfer. Referring to Shefermere in Hunts, we find in No. 733 of Kemble's Cod. Dipl. : — ** In australi uero parte illius est aqua angusta trium stadiorum longa quae uocatur Scaelfremaere bece — in cuius fine est stagnum quod uocatur Sclefremaere,"* a mere which was probably the haunt of didappers. Mr. Llewellin quotes Trenchford, immediately preceding the above quotation Trendtnere is mentioned. It is possible that all the Silvers may not possess the same derivation. Norton, Bradford. J. Hambley Rows, M.B. 63. Little Silver (I, p. 187, par. 143; II, p. 2, par. 2). — Going from the Northgate in Exeter down the hill across the bridge, and then ascending towards St. David's Church, there stood on the hill on your right a group of tenements which formerly went, and I believe still go, by name of Little Silver. I do not see how now or ever they can have been connected with a ford over a stream. Close by was a lane formerly called Pound Lane. At Lympstone, nearly opposite Wotton Pound, three cottages formerly stood near the stream in the meadow, south of the lane which leads from Lympstone, past Wotton Pound to Rogues Roost and the Common. These were adjacent to a ford and also near a pound. Little Silver in Shobrook certainly lies near a stream, anciently no doubt crossed by a fordy and the same may be said of the Little Silvers in Cadeleigh, Crediton and Manaton (I, p. 219), but neither Little Silver in Dunsford, Torington (I, p. 210) or in High Bickington are near a stream, so that the evidence against and for a ford over a stream is about equal. I believe, however, that the termination ford and the place names ford and forda, locally pronounced vord and
- Kanble. Codex Diplomaticus Alvi Saxonici. Vol. II, p. 12.
