By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 299 



crowrij^ we have most valuable testimony regarding the houses which 

 were so crenellated, and which must have included all the principal 

 houses in the land, in the catalogues of licences granted for the 

 purpose during the reigns of the several sovereigns of that period. 

 A complete list of these licenses to crenellate was printed in the 

 Gentleman's Magazine for 1856 in chronological order, carefully ex- 

 tracted from the Rolls themselves, under the direction of Mr. Duffus 

 Hardy, the Assistant Keeper of the Rolls : and T have the authority 

 of the author of the " Glossary of Architecture,^' for saying that 

 " the licenses to crenellate or fortify a mansion may generally be 

 relied on as fixing the date of it, because every house of any im- 

 portance was obliged to be fortified;" and in another part of his 

 book he says in still more distinct terms, " the licenses to crenellate 

 give us the exact date of each house within a very few years." 



Now in the list of licenses for the eleventh year of Edward III. 

 (A.D. 1338) we find licenses granted to Robert Bishop of Salisbury 

 to crenellate his manor houses at Poterne, Wilts, Canynyges, Wilts, 

 and at Remmesbury, Wilts. ^ For some reasons which we cannot ex- 

 plain, though it was by no means an uncommon occurrence, these 

 licenses were not immediately acted on; and consequently at the 

 beginning of the next reign, the first of Richard II. (A.D. 1377) 

 we find a ratification of the licenses formerly granted in the eleventh 

 of the Edward III., under the Privy Seal ; viz. to Ralph, the then 

 Bishop of Salisbury, and his successors to crenellate his several 

 manor houses of Poterne, Canynge, and Remmesbury aforesaid ; ^ 



• " Some curious instances occur of pardons granted to persons for having ven- 

 tured to fortify their houses without a licence, and others of licences renewed 

 at the beginning of a new reign, where the original intention had not been 

 carried out. These exceptional cases would suffice to clearly prove the general 

 custom and law upon the subject, if there were any doubt about it." — Turner's 

 Domestic Architecture in England, vol. iv., p. 201. 



^ " Anno Kegni Edw: III., 11. Robertus Episcopus Sarum possit kernellare 

 mansum manerii Poterne, Wilts mamtum manerii. 



. . . . Cannyngg, Wilts mansum manerii. .... 



Remmesbury, Wilts." 



'"Anno Regni Rich: II., 1. RadulpKus Episcopus Saresburiensis, et sue- 



cessores sui .... manerium Potterne, .... 



manerium Canynge .... manerium Rammesbury." 



