By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 27 
hives of bees the old women kept. The return made from Chip- 
penham manor shows that, during the preceding forty years since 
Edward the Confessor, it had undergone very considerable change; 
that cultivation, and the number of the inhabitants, had very much 
increased ; and that, instead of being unprofitable pleasure ground, 
it was broken up into useful farms; all, however, still held di- 
rectly of the king, as landlord. Amongst them there were 113 
holders, great or small, of arable land; 23 hog-keepers, with six 
miles square of wood ; and 12 mills. The number of persons men- 
tioned in various employments (altogether about 180) referring 
probably to heads of families only, we may suppose the whole 
population to have been about 600 or 700. 
At this point in the history of Chippenham, (the Norman Con- 
quest), there comes, in all printed notices of the place that I have 
ever seen, a dead blank for more than three centuries, till the 
reign of Henry VI. Its name does not occur, as those of 
Malmsbury, Devizes, and Trowbridge, frequently do, in the wars 
between Stephen and the Empress Matilda; and we must, there- 
fore, infer that there was no strong castle here, as there was in 
those towns. Whether it continued to be visited occasionally as a 
hunting seat, by the early Norman kings, is uncertain. They had 
several other villas for that purpose in this county, as at Corsham, 
Fasterne near Wotton Basset, Marlborough, Clarendon, and 
Tollard Royal. But their chief residence was now in or near 
London; and if they spent Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, as 
their custom was, in the country, it was generally at some of the 
larger towns, as Gloucester and Winchester. I fear that, after the 
Conquest, Chippenham must have lost favour with royalty, and 
that our villa regia would be—“ to let, unfurnished,” the various 
dependents being left quietly to follow their own ways, cropping 
lands, driving mills, and fattening hogs in Chippenham Forest. 
Still, the place has a history during those 300 years, as well as 
since; and this I believe it is now in my power to bring to light, 
from the Conquest down to the present day. As you will not care 
to require from me continual reference to the authorities from 
which it has been obtained, I will only say, once for all, that 
E 2 
