Bi) John Bcddoe, M.D., LL.D., F.B.S., cfec. 21 



Like Bath, and unlike Gloucester, it seems to have been destroyed ; 

 and we may suppose that the Cricklade and Swindon districts were 

 laid open for Saxon colonization. But what about Malmesbury 

 and the valley of the Bristol Avon ? That was probably for the 

 most part swamp and forest. Dr. C4uest, and more recently Bishop 

 Browne, have adduced various arguments to prove that this whole 

 district remained British for a considerable period after the battle 

 of Deorham, and formed a sort of eastern horn or prolongation of 

 the districts of Mendip and Selwood, which were still unconquered. 

 I will return to this question later on, only remarking now that 

 the battle of Bradford-on-Avon, seventy-five .years after that of 

 Deorham, is unfortunately described in such a manner that we do 

 not know whether the vanquished were Welshmen or not ; but 

 that the largesse of King Athelstan to the freemen of Malmesbury 

 would be more intelligible if we could suppose that the men of 

 that town were not exactly his own fellow-Englishmen, bound by 

 every obligation to fight their best for him, but were recognized as 

 a Welsh half-foreign survival whose unexpected zeal and prowess 

 deserved special recognition. Ambresbury (Amesbury) may 

 possibly have been a similar enclave ; and if Alfred really intended 

 to speak of Wiltshire in his will as Wealkyn these considerations 

 may help us to understand his meaning. 



We may now pass on to the Norman conquest. 



I do not think that any military transaction of importance is 

 recorded in the story of the Conqueror or of the conquest as having 

 occurred in Wiltshire. 



The county probably submitted early, and never rebelled. It 

 was one of those counties whereof the native proprietors came best 

 out of that calamitous period. In order to illustrate this fact I 

 have prepared the following lists from the Wiltshire Domesday. 



Owners and mesne tenants mentioned as having held land 

 " tempore liegis Edwardi " : — 



Harold (King) Ulward (3) Ketel (2) Alsi (3) 



Tosti (Earl) (2) Lessida Harding (10) Ulwen (3) 



Gyda Levenot (8) Osmund Wingod 



Edith (Queen) Tovi (2) Siward (3) Edred 



Edgar's father Ulgar (9) Ednod (3) Lewin (4) 



