254 KINGSCLERE 



Roman remains which have been discovered in this 

 district are coins, chiefly of the later empire, which 

 have been found at Overton, on Kingsclere Downs, 

 and on Beacon Hill, and the pavements of villas 

 which have been met with at Redenham, Thruxton, 

 and Castlefield, Andover. 



Amongst the documents relating to Kingsclere 

 which are cited by the historian is King Alfred's 

 will, in which that monarch bequeathed the town of 

 Clere to his middle daughter, Ethelgiva, Abbess of 

 Shalftesbury. Inasmuch as Kingsclere continued 

 to be a manor of the king's demesne through the 

 whole of the Saxon period, one arrives at the origin 

 of the distinguishing prefix ' Kings.' For no less 

 than a thousand years, during which period their 

 history can be distinctly land-marked, these magnifi- 

 cent Downs have nurtured sport. We learn from 

 the Domesday Book that as far back as the time of 

 Edward the Confessor Edwin the huntsman held 

 two hides of the king's demesne in Clere, which 

 Edward gave him. Freemantle Park — as the stretch 

 of Down overlooking Park House and stables was 

 afterwards named, and concerning which a word 

 presently — was evidently, from the beginning, a 

 favourite place of sport. Mr. Shore says that 

 Freemantle is apparently a name compounded 

 partly of the Latin word ' mantellum,' a covering 

 or mantle. ' The worship of Freya was, to a large 

 extent, that of the Mother Earth of our remote 

 pagan forefathers, and it is certain that at and near 

 Freemantle the earth becomes covered with wood 



