2 Devon Notes and Queries, adding their sum to the next pile, resulting from the first multiplication, i.e. 9000 x 5000.
- And before you add the four results together, * I said ; you
actually seem to see the four several piles ? ' ' Exactly so,' he answered quickly, as though he were weary of the subject, and wished to dismiss it, * four several piles, like four piles of shot. • " (Vol. I., pp. 176-7.) T.N.B. 2. Little Silver(VoL I., p. 187, par. 143). — I beg to oflFer for your readers' consideration an entirely diflferent theory for the origin of the place-name Silver from any, I thinks that has been advanced of late years. I take it that the syllable ver is nothing more nor less than the local corrupt spelling and pronunciation for ford^ as it occurs in the well- known names of Staverton, Tiverton, Thorverton, and Silverton, the last of which contains the full word in ques- tion. Consequently, we find that every anciept SUver is close to, or not far away from, what was once a ford across a stream or small river. But, I imagine, in nearly every case the ford has been superseded by a bridge; its very memory as a ford is gone, and the name only retained by the district, town, hamlet, homestead, field, street, or hill, which stood near what would have been one of the most important of physical features in early days. As a perfect example ta this point I will instance Silford, a homestead close to one ford, and near at least two others, in the parish of Northam, near Bideford. The first syllable, 5i/, presents more difl&culty. Looking^ back for the name of Silverton in Doomsday I find it Sulfreton. The first syllable is here without doubt the original one, used while people understood its meaning; and modern mis-pronunciation and spelling are responsible for the change. In Bishop Stapleton's register the name is Sylfertone. No Devonshire man knows now what a Sulford is ; but it was well-known in the eighth and ninth centuries, when the Saxons were conquering Britain, and calling places and physical features by Saxon names. In the index to Kemble's Codex Diplomaiicus are several Charter names "Sulhford" and "Sulfhere." The first I believe to be the original name, to which the modem Silver corresponds in name and meaning : while the second is of
