The Life of T.E. Lawrence (Home)

T.E. Lawrence’s cottage, Clouds Hill which is located in Dorset, England.

Clouds Hill is really the name of the high ground rising to its highest peak about 180 yards S.S.W. of Lawrence’s cottage at a height of about 260 feet above mean sea level. The origin of the name is similar to The Cloud near Buglawton in Cheshire where it refers to a hill as far back as 1199 AD. Either the hill was shaped like a cloud or it rose to meet the clouds. Another possibility o its etymology is in the possessive ’s’ of Cloud’s Hill – the majority of place names ending in ’s’ imply a personal possession; Petersfield means the field of St Peter or St Peter’s field and so on. Pat Knowles believed that in medieval times a recluse, a French monk named Claude or Clowood, lived by the spring just to the north of Knowles’ bungalow. Hence he thought it came to be known as the hill of Clowood or Cloud’s Hill. The former explanation is the most likely.

I like Pat Knowles’ theory better…

Source: The Last Days of T.E. Lawrence: A Leaf in the Wind by Paul Marriott and Yvonne Argent