4 
By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 171 
originally, held like others in different parts of the county, by the 
tenure of being /atiner, i.e. interpreter, between the different races 
that once dwelt there side by side? Dr. Guest, in a learned paper 
contributed to the Journal of the Archeological Institute, con- 
jectured that the valley of the Avon was one of the boundaries 
between the Welsh and the English in the sixth century. May 
not these tenures, if our conjecture be true, (and certainly it is not 
unreasonable) confirm his opinion? In the immediate neighbour- 
bourhood we certainly have names still remaining which indicate 
the same state of things, in Wal-cot and English-comb, the posses- 
sions respectively of the Welsh and the English. 
Once more, in the Wilts Domesday we have Urso holding an 
estate at Drveret,! under Ernulf de Hesding. This manor was a 
portion of the present parish of Hill Deverel, on the western bor- 
ders of the county. The same tenant is recorded in the Domesday 
for Dorset as holding an estate at MeLzsBerie* (Melbury), under 
the same chief lord Ernulf de Hesding,—and this was just on the 
Dorsetshire side of the borders. 
It is right to add, that in one or two cases we are not able so 
accurately to identify the holdings that seem to have been on the 
limits of the several counties. Thus, in the Wilts Domesday, we 
have a small manor at GrtincEeHam,? which, by comparing the 
entry with others in the Dorset Domesday, we are sure refers to 
Gillingham. No portions of the present parish, or of any of its 
chapelries, appear to be in Wiltshire. In this case either the name 
has ceased to be applied to any land on the eastern side of the 
border, or, as is not improbable, there has been an exchange of 
lands, the more so as at one time the property on either side be- 
longed to the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall. The con- 
clusion nevertheless to which we may fairly come is this, that in 
all essential particulars the boundaries of the county of Wilts 
remain just as they were at the time of Domesday. There may 
have been a few mutual interchanges of land on either side of the 
border,—but that is all. 
It may not be out of place to add, that a collateral proof of the 
1 Fol, 10a, * Fol, 84a, 3 Fol, 730, 
