ee ae 
Notices of Trowbridge in Domesday Book. 211 
river bore the name of “ Biss.”! The latter of these streams, as 
far as the junction near Cock-hill farm, is called in Andrews’ and 
Dury’s map (1773) the “ Were.” Against this proposed solution 
of the difficulty, such as it is, may be set the fact that in two maps, 
each drawn about a century ago, one of which is in the possession 
of the present Lord of the Manor, the name “ Were” is applied to 
that portion of the stream which flows behind what are still called 
“the Courts.” It would be more correctly, as we think, called the 
* Biss ;”’ though no doubt at different times both names have been 
applied to it. 
There is in most of us a natural love of “ancient ” things; our 
feeling towards those who lived in times long since passed away is 
somewhat akin to the reverence we all entertain for age. It is 
hardly surprising therefore that writers on Trowbridge, especially 
those connected with it, should seek to establish for their town a 
greater antiquity than has generally been conceded to it. Hence 
they have caught at a stray conjecture of Leland, who, after giving 
us an extract from an ancient record to the effect that Dunwallo 
Molmutius, the first crowned king of the entire realm of Britain, 
who lived about B.C. 550. founded three cities with three castles, 
Cer-Bladon (afterwards called Malmesbury), Lacock, and a place 
called Tetronburgh, adds concerning the last “ nwne forsan Trouburg 
in Comitatu Wiltunensi” (now perhaps Trowbridge, in Wiltshire). 
We may quiet such dreamers with the assurance, that the place 
alluded to was no doubt Tetbury, in Gloucestershire, and further 
that most probably, for at least 1600 years after that date, there was 
nothing approaching either a castle, or a town, at what we now call 
Trowbridge. 
It is indeed a long jump, but nevertheless, till we come to the end 
of the eleventh century after Christ, we can find no trace of the 
history of this place. And then we find it in that marvellous record 
—the oldest survey of a kingdom now existing in the world— 
Domesday Book. 
The entries respecting what is now included in the parish of 
Trowbridge are ¢hree in number. 
1 Wilts Arch. Mag., v., 19. 
