By the Rev. Canon J. EF. Jackson, F.S8.A. 171 
of the little stream that runs here. A great many of our rivers, 
especially those of one syllable, have, in spite of all changes, pre- 
served their ancient Celtic names. A village or town built by the 
river took the name: Frome, for example. How or when your 
stream got the name of Marden, I do not know; but Drayton, in 
his geographical poem, called “ Poly-olbion,” written in the reign of 
James I., knew nothing of the Marden. He says :— 
“Then Bradon gently brings forth Avon from her source, 
While southward making soon, in her most quiet course, 
Receives the gentle Calne.” [Part I., 3rd Song, p. 43.] 
A very early chronicle, speaking of an event that took place here 
(of which more presently), calls Calne a “ Villa Regia,”?’ a royal 
vill. To our ears*such a title might, perhaps, convey the idea of a 
Windsor Castle, a Balmoral, an Osborne: certainly nothing under 
a Sandringham. But Calne must not be too ambitious. Kings 
and Queens were contented in early times with much more modest 
accommodation than is provided for them now. A villa regia in 
Anglo-Saxon days was a house (larger or smaller as it might happen) 
whieh stood upon the Crown property,and was occupied not necessarily 
by a King, but by an officer or representative. That this was the case 
here is proved by an old Latin poem, called the life of St. Swithin, 
written by a monk of Winchester, who lived about A.D. 800. 
The writer is speaking of a certain criminal, who was sent up to the 
principal Proeses, or Prefeet—the magistrate of the district—whose 
residence was at Calne: “ Regia quem tenuit tum Villula, nomine 
Cal-ne” (who then occupied the King’s little Villa called Calne).? 
From this line you learn two things, 1st, that here, a thousand years 
ago, was the official residence of a King’s representative; and the 
other thing is, how, if anyone should be tempted to try his hand at 
Latin hexameters, he may introduce the name, by making two 
syllables out of one. 
There is also another authority, one hundred and fifty years later, 
1 Marianus Scotus, in Leland’s Collectanea, I,, 285 
* Leland’s Collectanea, I., 154. The author of the Latin poem was Wolstan, 
a monk and precentor of Winchester Cathedral, in his preface to the Life of St. 
Swithin, addressed to Bishop Hlphege, 
