The Society’s MSS. Chiseldon. 51 
of St. Frideswide ” issued by that society for doing first-rate work 
in the best possible way, the Oxford Historical Society, vol. 11., 
_ pp. 359—362, you will see how Henry Foliot confirmed to Richard 
ee 
Foliot, his brother Ralph Foliot’s gift to Roger Foliot of land in 
Chilton ; how Richard gave it to the Canons of St. Frideswide, and 
how Henry Foliot and Sampson his son confirmed the gift. In 
the same volume (p. 349) “ Henry le Tyer’s” occurs quit claiming 
to the prior and convent his right in land in Hungerford. From 
this time on, what is true of Chilton is true of Draycot. Through 
the families indicated above both passed to the Duchess Eleanor. 
In the document now presented to your attention there is no 
mention of Chilton, but a most minute statement of what befel 
Draycot after the Duchess’ decease. The cause of existence of this 
document, and of the proceedings detailed in it, was the claim by 
Lord Rutland to an estate of inheritance from the Duchess in 
Draycot. Now there is a very curious and charming book by Mr. 
Hubert Hall, of particular interest to Wiltshiremen, called “ Society 
in the Elizabethan Age.” Based very largely on the Darrell 
papers in the Public Record Office, it essays, somewhat perversely, 
the whitewashing of the character of “ Wild”’ Darrell, and in it are 
set out, among other injustices endured by the cultured lord of 
Littlecote at the hands of unsympathetic cotemporaries, the pro- 
ceedings of Lord Rutland to recover from him the manor of Chilton. 
It appears that Chilton was sold by the Crown to Darrell’s ancestor. 
The Crown title to Chilton and to Draycott was one and the same, 
and it becomes apparent that the claim by Lord Rutland to Draycot 
was, if not a test case, part and parcel of an assertion of his claim 
to lands of which Draycot itself was but a small and unimportant 
detail. No book displays more clearly than Mr. Hall’s the 
extraordinary uncertainty of titles to lands existing on all hands in 
the reign of Elizabeth, and the personal violence and court interest 
resorted to to enforce them. ‘To a great extent, over large areas, 
this resulted from the leases granted by religious houses on the eve 
of dissolution ; in the particular case we are concerned with from a 
direct usurpation by the Crown. Mr. Hall has a hero, and a 
command of language which leaves us in grave doubt as to the 
E 2 
