126 The Early History of the Upper Wylye Valley. 



Goddingchestiche, Bogecliche, Cuslei, Piddewllmede, Forsfelde 

 (also Forfelde), Westcampus, Suthcampus, Braddemecle. 



Of these names the following are still in use, and the place can 

 be identified : — The Ham, Worscombe, Sand Street, Broadmead. 

 The name Horloc appears in the list of tenants, and a field on the 

 Manor Farm is still called " Hor lock's." 



In the same way, field-names going back to 1300 can still be 



identified at Mere 1 and Maiden Bradley. 2 The total number of 



names of tenants is ninety-eight, which, allowing an average of 



four persons to each household, would give about four hundred 



inhabitants to Longbridge and Crockerton. The name of the 



clergyman (persona, parson) is given as Walter, so this adds an 



earlier name to the list of the clergy given by Hoare, whose list 



begins with the year 1306. A detailed account is given of the 



holding of the ale-l'east : — 



" The lord of the Manor may hold three feasts in the year for the estates 

 of Longbridge and Monkton. On Saturday, the married men and young 

 men come after dinner and are served three times with ale ; on Sunday the 

 husbands and wives come with their pennies, and they can come back again 

 the next day, if they will. The young men must pay a halfpenny (obolus) a 

 head if they come on the Sunday ; but on the Monday they can come and 

 drink for nothing, provided they do not sit on [or perhaps "above"] the 

 bench. Any one of them caught sitting down must pay his half -penny as 

 before. These rights, say the jury, belong only to the natives of the manor 

 and their children ; a stranger who is servant to anyone in the manor, or who 

 is staying there, shall have no share in the rights." 



We may be sure that these curiously minute rules were kept 

 strictly, but such feasts must have led to abuses, for just at this 

 time the Archbishop forbad the presence of the clergy at them ; and 

 a hundred years later Archbishop Langham discountenances them. 

 But in the words of Mr. Elton, we must bear in mind 

 " the life of the ancient tenantry, their patient struggles with fortune, and 

 their rarely seen and somewhat dismal holidays. The Merry England of the 

 thirteenth century was a place where there was much to do and little to get ; 

 and the predecessors of our modern farmers had a great deal of hard work 

 with very little in the way of amusement to lighten it." 



1 Wilts Arch. Mag., xxix., 235. 

 2 Parish Magazine, Warminster, July, 1903, paper on the early history of 

 Maiden Bradley, with a discussion of the name. 



