CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY. 31 



Meaux in Yorkshire, and a De Meaux or St. Mavves in Cornwall, 

 all of them monastic sites; and it is probable, I think, that 

 Aylward, who was unquestionably of Royal Saxon lineage, may 

 have had some early connection with either Cornwall or Yorkshire. 

 Be this as it may, we know nothing of him beyond this brief but 

 laudable account m the Chronicle of Tewkesbury. He seems to 

 have been an early Lord of the Honour of Gloucester, which 

 would give him the patronage of the Church of Tewkesbury. He 

 appears to have been buried in the Church of Cranborne, which 

 he had founded, and which, after his death, was enlarged and 

 beautified by the filial piety of his son and grandson, the last of 

 this Saxon line. From Domesday Book we learn that the Church 

 of St. Mary at Cranborne held land in Gillingham, Boveridge, 

 Monkton Up-Wimborne, Levetesford (Eastworth ?), Langford 

 (Stratton, near Dorchester), Tarrant Monkton, Orchard, and at 

 Damerham, in Wilts. The whole annual value amounts to about 

 500 shillings, which might be reckoned at least 500 of our 

 money, probably more. These lands and estates were most 

 probably of Aylward's original grant, and were, of course, trans- 

 ferred to Tewkesbury by the subsequent grant of FitzHamon. * 



Soon after the usurpation of the lands and estates of Brihtric 

 by William the Conqueror, to which act he is said to have been 

 incited by his wife Matilda, in revenge for the slight which she 

 had received from Brihtric when he visited the court of her father, 

 Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, to whom he was sent as ambassador by 

 Edward Confessor, followed by his cruel death, A.D. 1070, the 

 palmy days of the Abbey of Cranborne departed after the short 

 reign of about 120 years ; its prosperity faded, and its glory under 

 Saxon nursing-fathers suffered an eclipse from which it never 

 again emerged. I must confess that I never contemplate this 

 change without a feeling of sadness and regret. 



The principal agent in this transaction was Robert FitzHamon, 

 a Norman nobleman of very great wealth and power, cousin of 



* Hutchins gives more details of the property of this Abbey, confirmed 

 by grants of Henry I. and Roger Bishop of Sarum, A.D. 1109. 



