page 392 note b The word Tun is so often improperly rendered Town, that a few words on its real signification may not be out of place here. Mr. Thorpe, in the valuable glossary appended to his justly esteemed collection of the “Ancient Laws and Institutes of England,” thus defines the meaning of the word as it is found in Anglo-Saxon writings:—
“Tūn, Villa: Originally a plot of ground inclosed with a hedge. German, ‘zaun.’ It came afterwards to signify a dwelling with the land inclosed about it; then many dwellings within the inclosure, till it became what we now denominate a town.”
Mr. Kemble, however, (see the Glossary prefixed to the third vol. of the Codex Dipl. Ævi Sax.) observes that the German “zaun,” a hedge, is not to be interpreted in the same sense with us, tun signifying “not so much that which surrounds as that which is surrounded; not the hedge, but that which is inclosed by the hedge.” Tun is the termination of numerous places in England which have never risen to the dignity of towns. It was in fact the designation of an inclosed space, as Bere-tun, i. e. the Barton or Barley-yard; Sceap-tun, a Sheep-fold, &c. Whenever the word occurs in our earliest authorities, it is desirable to ascertain what description of tun or inclosure is intended, for it has obviously a more limited meaning in some cases than in others. When compounded, as in garstun (A. S. zænu;γ - τūn), we know it signifies a small inclosure of grass-land, a paddock. The word still exists in a corrupted form in the south and west of England, as garson and gasson. Garsden, with which it is often confounded, I take to mean a portion of meadow-land in a valley. Coney Garston is a rabbit-warren.
That tun in its primitive meaning was not so comprehensive, and did not signify Town, we may infer from many passages in Anglo-Saxon authorities. If we turn to the Holy Gospels in that language we rarely find the Greek κώμη rendered by tun, but instead of it castel, ceastre, burg, or wic. I give the examples :—
The exceptions occur in Mark vi. 36 and 56, and Luke ix. 12. In the first, τúnas is used in a generic form ; in the second, in a general sense; and in the third, in the sense in which it occurs in Mark xv. 21 where we find ἐρχόμενον άπ᾿ άϒροῦ, “coming out of the country,” rendered cumenbe of pam tune.
“It is very remarkable,” observes Mr. Kemble, “that the largest proportion of the names of places among the Anglo-Saxons should have been formed with this word, while upon the continent of Europe it is never used for such a purpose.”
