Notes. 433 



This word carries us back to the time when there were only two " fields " 

 in the parish, the North and the South. These were cultivated in 

 commonalty, each tenant having portions in different parts, divided by 

 narrow strips of unploughed land called meares. In the terriers of 

 North Wraxall, printed in the last number of this il/o^a.'!««e, page 296, 

 the two fields are named and also mears. — F. Harrison. 



Seal of John DauntSey. in the Catalogue of Antiquities found 

 in the British Isles, recently issued by Messrs. Spink »& Sons, of Piccadilly, 

 there is a good illustration of a seal thus described : — 



" Silver seal of Dauntesey, ('? of Potterne). Ivory handle. 



SIGILL . lOHIS . DAVNTESEI." 

 The arms are a griffin and a lion rampant combatant. 

 The price asked is 8/10/0 



South Wilts in Roman Times. The statement in WHts Arch. 

 Mag., xxxiv., p. 287, which has been questioned, that only one Roman 

 villa is to be found in South Wilts between Somerset and the Hampshire 

 border, is, in spite of the villa at West Dean, not untrue. Not only is 

 West Dean parish in both counties, but the buildings of the villa extend 

 into both counties. Like the villa at Rowlands Castle, in the east 

 of Hampshire, where Sussex touches it, it is— to use the phrase of 

 Mr. Haverfield, in the Victoria History of Hampshire— ^' astride the 

 border." But the exact situation of the villa does not affect the argu- 

 ment of the context, namely, the want of an organised Roman centre in 

 South Wilts; for it clearly falls in with the Roman settlements in the 

 valley of the Test. Of course, for dealing with Roman times, our county 

 divisions are purely arbitrary, and any such boundary is quite artificial. 

 Accounts of West Dean will be found in Wilts Arch. Mag., xiii., 33 sqq. 

 and 276 sqq. ; xxii., 243 sq. ; xxv. 118, 195 ; and in the recently published 

 Victoria History of Ham'pshire, vol. i., p. 311. 



The pavement from Pitmead, mentioned in the same paper, seems to 

 have disappeared. It was last referred to in 1830, by Hoare, who says 

 (Warminster Hundred) that the only fragment now remaining, a hare 

 sitting in her form, was " preserved at Longleat." Nothing seems to be 

 known of it there now, and the late steward, Mr. H. P. Jones, knew 

 nothing of it. Inquiries at the Museums at Devizes, Salisbury, 

 Dorchester, Bath, at the British Museum, and in the pages of " The 

 Antiquary," have proved unsuccessful. — J. U. Powell. 



