186 Mr, Stuart on Chirnside. 



In the same way in England, we read in " Notices of the 

 Domesday Book for Wiltshire" that " some of the parishes 

 of the country of which there are more than one of the same 

 name, owe their distinctive appellation to the proprietor of 

 the manor recorded in the Domesday Book; thus there are 

 two parishes of Fonthill, the one known as Fonthill Bishops, 

 and the other Fonthill Giffards. Now in Domesday we have 

 two manors of the same name, one of which was held by the 

 Bishop of Winchester, who is still the patron of the living, 

 and the other by Berenger Gifard. Again there are two 

 parishes of Cannings Bishops and All-Cannings ; and in the 

 Domesday Book there are two manors called Caninge, one of 

 which was held by the Bishop of Winchester, and the other 

 by the nuns of Winchester." The same writer remarks '' The 

 greater portion of the present parishes of the county derive 

 their names from the ancient manors mentioned in Domesday ; 

 but in several instances the manors have become divided for 

 parochial purposes, when only one division has retained the 

 manorial appellation, whilst in other instances several parishes 

 comprise two or more of the ancient manors*," and a careful 

 examination of the Domesday Book for Hampshire and Wilt- 

 shire, did not furnish this writer with a single mention of the 

 word " parish" or any expression which would lead him to 

 suppose that such a division then existed. " The churches 

 which are mentioned, most of which I doubt not are the pre- 

 sent parish churches, are in Domesday spoken of as belonging 

 to the several manors in which they were situated." 



What is precisely meant by the word " mansio" it may be 

 difficult to determine, but it seems to denote a district with a 

 settlement in it and to be equivalent to a manor. The erec- 

 tion of a church in the " mansio" of Chirnside, which probably 

 followed at no distant period after the grant of it, would soon 

 confer parochial rights and require parochial boundaries. It 

 has been remarked in Sir John Sinclair's statistical account 

 of the parish of Chirnsidef that, " before the barony of Chirn- 

 side was divided among the heritors in consequence of a decree 

 pronounced by the Court of Session in 1740, it is to be ob- 

 served that there were no outfield farms, excepting those be- 

 longing to the three mills in the parish. The village, like 

 others in the country, comprehended all the houses and cot- 

 tages appertaining to the several proprietors, great and small. 

 Adjacent to the mansion house of some of the farms, there 

 was what was called the mains farms, or that of his domain 



* Proceedings of the Arcliseological Institute at Salisbury, 1849, p.p. 177-8. 

 t Statistical Account, Vol. XIV. p. 47. Edinburgh, 1795. 



