By the Rev. Canon J. EL. Jackson, F.8.A, 163 
deer—belonged to the Crown, and no one, under very heavy penalty, 
was allowed to destroy them. I have never seen any ancient map 
showing the limits of the forest when at its largest ; but from what 
_ was called a Perambulation Document, which gives in words and 
names the course of the boundary,a rough sketch has been constructed, 
enough to show how far it extended in the reign of Hen. III. That 
is indicated by the red line. The green line denotes that part of the 
country which continued to be called Braden after the disafforesting 
in A.D, 1635.! The hamlet of Braden formerly belonging to the 
Duchy of Lancaster, then to the Earl of Clarendon, and now to Sir 
John Neeld, is described as “adjoining the Forest of Braden.” 
Speaking generally, it may be said to have reached north and south 
from Cricklade to Wootton Basset, if not a little farther, and across, 
west to east, from Garsden to Widhill.? 
1 Aubrey (Nat. Hist. of Wilts), says :—“ Mr. G. Ayliffe, of Grittenham, told 
him that at the time of the disafforesting a squirrel might have jumped from 
_ tree to tree between Wootton Basset and Brinkworth Churchyard. 
2 The late Mr. J. Y. Akerman, in a valuable paper on the Possessions of 
Malmesbury Abbey and the Ancient Limits of the Forest of Braden (Archeologia, 
vol. xxxvii., p. 304), has the following remarks upon the probability of the forest 
district having extended, in very early times, far beyond the limits set forth in 
the accompanying map, which is constructed from the verbal description of the 
bounds as they were in the reign of King Henry III., and recited in a forest 
roll of temp. Edward IIT. :—* Manwood, in his Treatise on the Forest Laws, 
observes that the only forests in England of which the period of their formation 
is known, are the New Forest, made by William the Conqueror, and that of 
_ Hampton Court, formed by Henry VIII. TI shall therefore be pardoned if I 
_ fail in tracing the forest of Braden to its origin. Of its great antiquity, how- 
ever, we have evidence in the fact, that in the fad limits of the charters already 
_ cited, reference is made to its former name of ‘Orwoldes Wood.’ It was perhaps 
an escheat to the Crown in the days of the Anglo-Saxon Kings which history 
a thas failed to chronicle. Previous to the Norman Conquest its southern limit 
included Wootton Basset, according to a charter of Eadwig, which speaks of it 
_as ‘intra siluam que vocatur Braden.’ Tt seems probable that the southern 
boundary once extended as far as the high road from Wootton to Malmesbury, 
where the sterile soil known as P Beadom, land’ terminates, and is succeeded by 
some of the richest pastures in the county.” 
~ Lands in Cliffe Pypard parish are mentioned in old deeds as adjoining Braden: 
nd Brompton, an ancient chronicler, says that in 905 Adthelwold put to military 
execution all *‘ Brytheadune as far as Brandestoke,” or, as Higden more cor- 
_ rectly calls it, Bradenstoke. This seems to bring the forest dawn much more 
bs to the south than appears from the perambulation in Hen. III. 
M 2 
