"Dodonesse." That we are warranted in seeking to the Anglo-Saxon for
etymology in this instance is shown by the fact, that the names of
places in Devon are very generally derived from that language; e.g.
taking a few only in the neighbourhood of Totnes--Berry, Buckyatt,
Dartington, Halwell, Harberton, Hamstead, Hempstin, Stancombe.

First, of the termination _ais_ or _eis_. The names of many places of
inferior consequence in Devon end in _hays_, from the Ang.-Saxon _heag_,
a hedge or inclosure; but this rarely, if ever, designates a town or a
place beyond a farmstead, and seems to have been of later application as
to a new location or subinfeudation; for it is never found in Domesday
Book. In that ancient record the word _aisse_ is often found alone, and
often as a prefix and as a terminal; e.g., Aisbertone, Niresse,
Aisseford, Aisselie, &c. This is the Ang.-Saxon _Aesc_, an ash; and it
is uniformly so rendered in English: but it also means a ship or boat,
as built of ash. _Toten_, the major of the name, is, I have no doubt,
the genitive of _Tohta_, "dux, herzog," a leader or commander. Thus we
have _Tohtanoesc_, the vessel of the leader, or the commander's
ship,--commemorating the fact that the boat of some great invader was
brought to land at this place.

S.S.S


_Ædricus qui Signa fundebat_ (Vol. ii., p. 199), must surely have been a
bell-founder: signum is a very common word, in mediæval writings, for a
"bell."

D. ROCK