By the Rev. E. P. Xnubley, M.A., Vicar. 181 



latter view, as the source of the name of the parish, for ninety 

 years ago he planted in the vicarage garden a row of these trees, 

 which in the present day have attained very fine proportions. 



However that may be, this manor was probably the ^sctune 

 bequeathed just a thousand years ago (A.D. 901), by the will of King 

 Alfred the Great for the maintenance of his youngest daughter. 

 It is pleasant in this year, when the nation is commemorating the 

 noblest name in all English history — the name of him who united 

 more and more varied virtues than any other recorded ruler, unless 

 we except the great Queen of blessed memory, whose loss we mourn 

 — it is pleasant to be able to associate Ashton with the memory 

 of this great, wise, and noble kmg, the captain of his people, 

 their lawgiver and their teacher. 



But we have not yet accounted for the prefix " Steeple." This 

 word has nothing whatever to do with the Church, but is a cor- 

 ruption of the word " Staple," which literally means an upright 

 post or pillar. Now on the cross which stands on the village green, 

 and of which I shall have more to say later, is a legend that it was 

 founded A.D. 1071, and I venture to suggest that this gives the 

 date when the staple was erected at Ashton to mark the place 

 where the hundred court was held, and where, meeting in the open 

 air, the tithingmen made their presentments and transacted the 

 business of which that ancient court took cognisance. Wliether, 

 as suggested by the late Canon Jones, the name of the hundred— 

 "Wherwellsdown or Whorwellsdown — is derived from Hdr-ioelles- 

 chin, or whether the lord ever held his court by a hoar or ancient 

 well on a down, one cannot say. At any rate there is now no trace 

 of such a site. 



In support of the view here advanced in favour of Steeple Ashton 

 as the venue of the hundred court, I may mention that the village 

 occupies a central position in the hundred, and on that account 

 was likely to have been selected for the sake of convenience ; that, 

 at the date of which we are treating, it was the most important 

 manor in the hundred and had till recently formed part of the 

 possessions of the Kings of Wessex ; and that there is no other place 

 in the hundred which claims tliis distinction. But the most important 



