THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY &> NATURALIST. 



81 



the ancient idea of the baptistery. Mr. J. M. Peake, 

 of Liphook, mentioned a tradition that there was 

 formerly a similar font in Bramshott church ; and the 

 Rev. G. N. Godwin had seen another in the museum 

 at Bruges. 



Not far from the church is an old building known 

 as the Court House. This formerly contained a large 

 hall, which has, however, been cut up into different 

 rooms, part being used as a dwelling-house. The 

 woodwork of the roof is in good preservation, and 

 apparently untouched by worms or spiders. On the 

 corbels are carved heads of royal and episcopal 

 personages, and these gave rise to some speculation 

 as to their identity. The Vicar intends, we believe, 

 to have some of these photographed for the purpose 

 of identification. Mr. Shore here read the following 

 paper : 



THE HALL OF THE OLD COURT HOUSE. 



It is historically interesting to consider that while we 

 are constructing in England a system of local government 

 at the present day, in which all householders shall have a 

 voice through their representatives in a district council, 

 here in what remains of this old Court House, we come 

 upon the relics of an ancient system of local government. 

 The parts which remain of this delapidated hall are like 

 the wreckage of some gooc 1 old ship which has drifted 

 down to us from the sea of time. Here was the place of the 

 ancient Hundred Court of East Meon, an ancient seat of local 

 government and also of justice, where the Bailiff of the 

 Hundred and a jury in olden time administered both 

 criminal and civil law in the Hundred Court. We may 

 look on these ruins with respect, for they have voices of 

 their own, which come to us from an obsolete system and 

 from past centuries. The building itself is, I think, prob- 

 ably of VVykeham's time. This old Court House at East 

 Meon has been for a long time popularly known as King 

 John's House. This tradition connecting the place with 

 King John must be very ancient, and some kind of 

 authority has been given to it by the mention of King John 

 residing at East Meon, when Earl of Mortain and Glouces- 

 ter, in the well known local election petition and trial 

 called the Petersfield Case. It is certain that John, when 

 Earl of Mortain (not Moreton, as erroneously stated in the 

 Petersfield Case) and Earl of Gloucester, in right of his first 

 wife, granted a charter to Petersfield, which I believe is 

 still preserved there at any rate a lac-simile is published. 

 I have no wish to deprive East Meon of any of its ancient 

 glories, but I do not think John ever lived here, and I will 

 now explain how the Court House may, perhaps, have 

 otherwise become connected in the popular mind with his 

 name. East Meon Manor, with the Hundred, was in 1086 

 held by the King. It had been held by Archbishop 

 Stigand, but the Doomsday record does not say that it had 

 always been Church land, as it states in connection with 

 so many other ecclesiastical manors. 



Stigand held it after his deprivation, while a semi- 

 prisoner at Winchester, and at his death the Conqueror 

 kept it as a royal manor. He held nothing in West Meon, 

 and these places in Doomsday are called each of them 

 Menes, and West Meon is mentioned also as Mene. East 

 Meon appears to have been held as a royal manor for more 

 than 120 years alter the Doomsday Survey, for in the glh 

 year of Richard I the accounts of the Exchequer show 

 that in that year the Sheriff of Hants was allowed so much 

 off his account " for stocking the king's lands in Mienes." 

 This was in 1198, and the amount allowed was the value of 

 12 oxen at 33. each, and 100 sheep at 4d. each. 



No doubt the Bishops of Winchester between 1086 and 

 1198 were anxious to get this manor back, but I cannot find 

 any record of its restoration until the ist year of King 

 John's reign, when a charter was granted by that king 

 conveying the manor of East Meon to the Bishop of Win- 

 chester. In after years I can well imagine that the Court 

 House might from this very likely get the local name of 

 King John's House, and one of the royal heads here 

 appears to me to be intended to represent that king. 



In the year 2 Edward II. 1309, a plea was made before 

 the King and his Council between the Bishop of Win- 

 chester and the men of his manors of Waltham, Merdon, 

 Crawley, Twyford, Sutton, Overton, and Menes, and this 

 probably followed on differences expressed between the 

 Bishop and his tenants here. 



In 17 Edward III, 1344, there appears to have been 

 another matter in dispute between the Bishop and his 

 men of the manor oi Menes, for the Patent Rolls show that 

 in that year a plan or description of the land in the Manor 

 of Menes was ordered to be made from the Doomsday 

 Book, and was no doubt produced here. 



From here a short walk led to the site of an ancient 

 vineyard terrace lying on the side of the hill over- 

 hanging the church, and then several of the party 

 made a hurried ascent of this hill, from which an ex- 

 tensive view was obtained, which well repaid the 

 climb. It was in the programme for Mr. Whitaker 

 to give a description of the geological features of the 

 district. He did so on the summit of this hill, but to 

 an audience of two only. From this point the 

 escarpments of the chalk with an outlier could be 

 distinctly traced. Time did not allow of a repetition 

 of the discourse to those who had not ventured so- 

 high, as the party had received an invitation to tea at 

 Westbury Park, the seat of Mr. H. Le Roy Lewis. 

 Arrived here, the members were very hospitably en- 

 tertained by Mr. and Mrs. Lewis on the green-sward 

 in front of the house. After tea, Mr. Shore read the 

 following papers : 



THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME MEON. 



Whatever may be the meaning of the word Meon, I think 

 there can be no doubt that the name is as old as the British 

 period. In Ireland there are at least 50 names of places of 

 sufficient importance to be included in county maps com- 

 pounded of the words mon, meeny, money, and these 

 names appear to denote a pasture of some kind. If the 

 name Meon as applied to this valley is from the same root 

 word, it may be a Gaelic name denoting a pasture, or high 

 pasture, near springs. I have shown in a paper read 

 before the Anthropological Institute that Hampshire con- 

 tains many examples of Celtic names derived from the 

 Gaelic branch of the Celtic race, as well as others ap- 

 parently more allied to the Cymric branch. 



A distinguished scholar and antiquary has, however, 

 given another explanation of the origin and meaning of 

 this name Meon. It is certain that the early inhabitants of 

 this valley both the Celts and the Jutes, who succeeded 

 them were pagans. 1'he Jutes were worshippers of 

 Woden, Thor and Freya or Mother Earth, in which we 

 must include water sources, all of the Teutonic mythology. 

 We know less of the religion of the Celtic or British people 

 who preceded them, but they certainly also reverenced the 

 sun and moon, and also water sources. I think the name 

 Meon as applied to this district is an older name than the 

 date of the Jutish settlement, and the word may be very 

 old indeed. 



