294 An English Manm- in the time of Elizabeth. 



Wilton it was called the Bellhouse Court. It met every three 

 weeks in a building still standing near the Wilton House stables, 

 and now called the Almonry. This was the only part of the abbey 

 that Lord Pembroke did not pull down when he built Wilton House, 

 and it was probably left standing because it was not monastic but 

 the court house of a barony that the abbey happened to hold. In 

 Saxon times a ceorl could not become a thane untU he possessed 

 five hides of land, a church, a kitchen, a bellhouse, and a burhgate 

 seate where justice was administered. The parish church was the 

 old manor church. A bellhouse consisted of a hall with tables 

 down the centre, where the retainers sat at meals presided over by 

 the usher of the hall. At one end of the hall was the kitchen and 

 under the kitchen the cellar, while over the gable was the bell- 

 turret. The court was summoned by sound of bell, hence these 

 courts were often called bell-motes. 



As a rule all matters beyond the competence of a manor court 

 went to the court of the hundred, but the manors in the Seignory 

 of Wilton, although placed in several different hundreds, were 

 apparently considered as forming a ragged hundred, which is 

 referred to in the survey as the " Hundred of the Bellhouse." The 

 lord's steward presided and recorded all that took place in a roll, 

 taking the same roll with him from one manor to another. When- 

 ever there was a view of frankpledge the men of the tithing were 

 first sworn as a leet to consider criminal offences and fiscal affairs, 

 and a tithing man was chosen for the next year. Then the homage 

 was sworn (being usually the same men) to consider civil matters. 

 Each entry in a court roll sets forth the date and the names of the 

 homagers present, and then any presentments made as to holdings. 

 The names of suitors not present are also entered. Above the 

 names in the list of suitors is a sum which was the fine payable 

 for non-attendance at the court, but as a rule " by the grace of 

 the court" they are not fined. Houses in disrepair are reported 

 and the customary tenant is cautioned. They seem to have had a 

 curious way of keeping customary tenants up to the mark in 

 repairing copyhold houses. When the bailiff' warned them he 

 drove a stake into the ground against the door of the house that 



