By ike Rev. G. S. Master. 251 



forest of Natau-leah.^ It is possible that this may have been 

 assigned (as was not unusual in cases of manors which had no wood- 

 land near at hand) to the royal manor of Amesbury, for under that 

 heading occurs " a wood, six miles long and four miles broad/^ ^ and 

 it is difficult to identify it with any other. 



The Saxon possessor of West Dean may possibly have been the 

 same Godrie Venator, who, as one of the king's thanes, was allowed 

 by the Conqueror to retain small estates at Mere and Hartham, the 

 latter inherited from his father. The name occurs in the Wiltshire 

 Domesday as tenant in the Confessor's time of land at Alderton, Alton, 

 Fisherton-Anger, Frustfield, Littlecote, Orcheston, and Standen. 



Of Waleran, the powerful Englishman who succeeded him, more 

 will be said hereafter. 



The Hampshire entry referring to West Dean runs thus :— 



" Idem Walerannus tenet Dene. Boda tenuit de rege Edwardo in allodium. 

 Tunc et modo geldat pro 2 hidis et una virgata. Ten-a est 3 carucatffi. In dominie 

 est una carucata ; et 11 bordaiii cum 2 carucatis ; et molinus de 20 solidis, et 4 

 acrae prati. Silva ad clausuram. Tempore Regis Edwardi valebat 4[libras ; post 

 60 solidos. Modo 40 solidos." 



"The same Waleran holds Dene and Boda held it allodially of King Edward. 

 It was then as now assessed at two hides, and one yardland. Here are three 

 plough-lands, one in demesne ; and eleven borderers with two plough-lands : also 

 a mill worth twenty shillings, four acres of meadow, and a copse for fences. Its 

 value in the time of King Edward was £4, afterwards 60s., now 405." 



The diminution in value may, perhaps, have been occasioned by 

 the extension of the royal forest rights. But the quantity of arable 

 land in the Hampshire portion equalled that in the Wiltshire portion 

 of the parish, while its population and previous value were greater. 



I take this entry to represent the six hundred and sixty-eight 

 acres of the parish lying in the county of Hants, which were some- 

 times erroneously styled " East Dean," and sometimes more properly 



* See a paper by Edwin Guest, Esq., F.R.S., in the " Salisbuiy Volume of the 

 Archffiological Institute," 1851. 



* Jones's "Wiltshire Domesday," p. 8, note; Hoare's "Modern Wilts," 

 Hundred of Heytesbury, p. 168. 



