Notices of Trowbridge in Domesday Book. 211 



river bore the name of " Biss." 1 The latter of these streams, as 

 far as the junction near Cock-hill farm, is called in Andrews' and 

 Durv's map (1773) the "Were." Against this proposed solution 

 of the difficulty, such as it is, may he set the fact that in two maps, 

 each drawn about a century ago, one of which is in the possession 

 of the present Lord of the Manor, the name " Were " is applied to 

 that portion of the stream which flows behind what are still called 

 " the Courts." It would be more correctly, as we think, called the 

 u Biss ; " though no doubt at different times both names have been 

 applied to it. 



There is in most of us a natural love of " ancient " things ; our 

 feeling towards those who lived in times long since passed away is 

 somewhat akin to the reverence we all entertain for age. It is 

 hardly surprising- therefore that writers on Trowbridge, especially 

 those connected with it, should seek to establish for their town a 

 greater antiquity than has generally been conceded to it. Hence 

 they have caught at a stray conjecture of Leland, who, after giving 

 us an extract from an ancient record to the effect that Dunwallo 

 Molmutius, the first crowned king of the entire realm of Britain, 

 who lived about B.C. 550 founded three cities with three castles, 

 Casr-Bladon (afterwards called Malmesbury), Lacock, and a place 

 called Tetronburgh, adds concerning the last " nunc forsan Trouburg 

 in Comitatu Wiltunensi" (now perhaps Trowbridge, in Wiltshire). 

 We may quiet such dreamers with the assurance, that the place 

 alluded to was no doubt Tetbury, in Gloucestershire, and further 

 that most probably,, for at least 1600 years after that date, there was 

 nothing approaching either a castle, or a town, at what we now call 

 Trowbridge. 



It is indeed a long jump, but nevertheless, till we come to the end 

 of the eleventh century after Christ, we can find no trace of the 

 history of this place. And then we find it in that marvellous record 

 — the oldest survey of a kingdom now existing in the world — 

 Domesday Book. 



The entries respecting what is now included in the parish of 

 Trowbridge are three in number. 



1 Wilts Arch. Mag., v., 19. 



