Lords of the Manor of All Cannings. 11 



fragment. The mark of the instrument which severed it was 

 distinctly seen." ' 



To the north of St. Anne's hill, intersecting the upper portion of 

 the parish, is the well known territorial line of demarcation, at the 

 first no doubt the border-line of a kingdom, Wansdyke, or— as it is 

 in the original, Woden's-dyke— such great works being supposed 

 to have been carried out in part by supernatural power, or perhaps 

 designating the sacredness of boundaries by placing them under 

 the protection of one of their chief deities. There the Wansdyke 

 may be seen in almost its original perfection, — the deep vallum 

 and agger extending east and west as far as the eye can reach over 

 miles of velvety down. Probably there is no place where this 

 ancient work can be viewed to greater advantage, or where, amid 

 the surrounding solitude, and general absence of man's handy work, 

 its effect is more impressive. 



The Manor. 

 The Lordship of the Manor of All Cannings was vested in the 

 Abbess of St. Mary, Winton. Its owner exercised the rights of 

 chief lord over the subordinate manors of AUington and Etchil- 

 hampton ; to this day indeed the lord of the manor of All Cannings 

 receives £1 per annum, by way of quit-rent from the manor of 

 Allington.2 ^g in similar instances, the rights and privileges were 

 leased out from time to time to sundry persons, who, as firmarii, 

 or Lord Farmers, as they were termed, acting in the name and under 

 the authority of the Abbess. Thus in one record, we find that 

 Dame Jane Ligh (or Light), Abbess of St. Mary, it is conjectured, 

 about 1497, granted a lease of the manor to John Burdon, who 



1 Archffiologia, (1844). It may be mentioned, wliilst on the subject of 

 antiquities, that a series of about 80 coins, medals, and tokens some of which 

 were found at All Cannings, is in the Museum of the Wiltshire Archaeological 

 Society having been presented to it in 1860, by the Rev. H. H. Methuen. 



* In the following extract from the Chamberlain's accounts for Devizes, for the 

 year 1637, we seem to have the same acknowledgment of the rights of the 

 chief lord of All Cannings over the subordinate manor of AUington, within the 

 limits of which the fair alluded to is held : — '' The sum of £2 10s., was by Mr. 

 Mayor's appointment paid to Captain Nicholas, as an indemnity for the not 

 keeping Tan Hill Fair, which was interdicted this year in order to prevent the 

 dispersing of the plague." Waylen's Devizes, p. 192. 



