360 Ahury. 



"In the interval between the Conquest and the Reformation, the 

 temple at Abiiry being under the protection of these communities, 

 perhaps suffered but little from dilapidation. If any Court RoUs^ 



1 The following extract from the late Mr. Kciuble's " Notices of Heathen Inter- 

 ment in the Codex Diplomaticus," printed in the ArchoDological Journal, No. 54, 

 is inserted here, although it has no reference to the period mentioned in the text. 



"The Anglo-Saxon boundaries then, do very frequently run to the old grey 

 stone, or hoary stone or stones, and among these it is reasonable to believe that 

 sometimes cromlechs or stone-rings were intended. There is one case of consider- 

 able interest, and I will request your particular attention to it, because it contains 

 the clearest possible allusion to the great stones at Avebury, and besides fur- 

 nishes a singularly interesting example of the accuracy with which the lines of 

 boundaries may, even to this day be followed. It occurs in Cod. Dip. 1120, (one 

 of Athelstan's charters. A.D. 939,) and is the limitation of the territory of Over- 

 ton, a little village in Wiltshire, near the Kennet. The Saxon estate comprises 

 very nearly what is now known as Overton town. The words are as follows : — 



" ' These are the bounds of Overton. From Kennet to the Elder tree ; thence 

 to "Wodens den ; thence to the wood on the main road ; thence upon Horseley 

 up to Wansdyke upon TytferS's road ; thence upon the hedge of Willow mere 

 (or Withy mere) eastward by south round about to ^SelferSe's dwelling on the 

 stony road ; thence to the narrow meadow ; then through Shothanger along the 

 road to the rising ground, or link ; thence to the west head ; then northward 

 over the down to the right boundary ; then to the town or enclosure ; thence to 

 Kennet at the Saltham ; from the Saltham up between the two barrows ; from 

 them to the furlong's west head; thence to Screws pit; thence to the Pan- 

 croundel, in the middle ; then by Coltas barrow as far as the broad road to Hak- 

 pen ; then along the road on the dike to the south of iESelferSe's stone ; then 

 south along the Ridgeway to the dun stone ; then south-west over the ploughed 

 land to Piggle dean ; then up to Lambpath, southward up to the link, to the 

 hollow way ; then back again to Kennet. Now this is the boundary of the 

 pastures and the down land at Mapplederlea, westward. Thence northward up 

 along the stone row, thence to the burial places ("byrgelsas"); then south along 

 the road ; from the road along the link to the south head ; thence down upon 

 the slade ; thence up along the road, back again to Mapplederlea.' 



" I do not know whether there is any place called 3Iaple Durley in the neigh- 

 bourhood, but nothing can be more accurate than the boundary which takes in 

 nearly the whole of Overton town, extending, however, at first southward from 

 the river Kennet, at East Kennet, to the Wansdyke ; re-ascending on the east 

 by a road still very remarkable for the great stone blocks which lie aboiit it, till 

 crossing the river again it runs northward iip towards Hackpon Hill, then turns 

 westward and southward in the direction of Avebury, and declining again to 

 the south, crosses the little spot then called Pyttelden, now Pigglodeau, and re- 

 turns to where it commenced at the corner of East Kennet. The stone row here is no 

 doubt the great avenue. Hackpen or Haca's pen enclosure, &c., is the well- 

 known stone ring ; what the hyrgchas are, it is, of course now, impossible to 

 identify ; it may have been some particular set of barrows, but it may, I think, 



