176 Note on the name of Drew. 
persons seems neither satisfactory nor conclusive—the reverse indeed 
appears more probable. It would certainly be a curious circum- 
stance, if three places, in as many counties of the west of England, 
all remarkable for ancient British, and probably Druidical, remains, 
should each have been the property, in the 12th or 13th century, 
of persons or families of the name of Drew or Drogo, unless indeed 
they derived their names from the localities. 
That Drogo, the chamberlain of the Empress Matilda, had 
extensive possessions in the western counties, in great part probably 
derived from his illustrious mistress and her son Henry II., is well 
known.! It must also be admitted, that in one remarkable instance, 
a place derived its name from this very Drogo. In this case, 
however, the name took the form of Drown, a corruption evidently 
of the Latin Drogonis. A remarkable spring in a very romantic 
situation on the top of a hill, in the forest of Pewsham, about three 
miles from Chippenham, now called Lockswell, was given by Matilda 
and her son Henry to Drogo. “ Ego,” says the charter, “et Mater 
mea dedimus et concessimus Drogoni matris mez camerario.”’ The 
spring hence came to be called “Fons Drogonis,” and in the English 
of that time, Drownfont. We owe to Mr. Bowles the publication 
of the original documents, and the topographical enquiries 
by which this spot was identified, as well as the discovery that it 
very soon after, in the same reign, became the site of an Abbey, 
hence called Drownfont abbey,— “Abbatia de Drogonis Fonte.” 
After three years, this abbey was removed to Stanley, but the 
water of the spring was so highly prized, that the monks had it 
conveyed in pipes to their new abode, about three miles distant. 
Mr. Bowles, in a note, appends the following enquiry from his 
friend, the celebrated Saxon scholar Dr. Ingram, late President of 
Trinity College, Oxon. ‘Is there not a romantic spot near Devizes 
called ‘Drew’s Pond?’ Is this another ‘Fons Drogonis?’ I suppose 
he had more wells or ponds than one; but there was only one ‘fons 
sacer ?”’ Mr. Bowles has not answered this not unnatural enquiry 
of his friend; and it may not, perhaps, be superfluous to observe, 
1 Polwhele, ‘‘ History of Cornwall,” cited by W. L. Bowles, “‘ History of 
Bremhill,” pp. 87, 90, which see for the description and identification of 
Lockswell and Drownfont. 
