272 JANUARY 



searching in consequence, and I should like to 

 know what the Roman maiden said when her swain 

 turned up on Tiber's banks without her gage of love. 



The parish consists of six small villages, with 

 a total population in these days of about eight 

 hundred souls. Various Saxon charters are extant 

 which deal with lands in the parish, and in Domes- 

 day it is recorded that a principal owner of property 

 was a certain Editha, who may possibly have been 

 the widow of Edward the Confessor. She appears 

 to have had power to deal with the place as she 

 chose, for the book in its quaint phraseology tells 

 us that " Editha herself might go where she 

 pleased," or, in other words, that she had the 

 privilege of alienating the property if she should 

 desire to do so. 



Until the year 1226 that portion of the parish 

 which lies about the River Kennet was included 

 within the confines of Windsor Forest, although it 

 lay at least forty miles from the royal domain. 

 It was disafforested in the year mentioned, but it 

 is evident that the King was still liable to come 

 hunting here, for in 1284 William Lovell held two 

 carucates of land by the sergeanty of keeping a 

 kennel of hounds at the King's cost. There is still 

 a lonely cot called King's Barn in the part of the 

 parish in which William Lovell's manor lay, but I 

 doubt if its name has been handed down from the 

 thirteenth century. Local tradition asserts that it 

 was the abode of a certain Daddy King, who died 

 a violent death, and still haunts the lane near 

 King's Barn. He wandered when in his cups into 

 a shallow dip-hole on the hillside, and falling on 



