By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 



163 



deer — belonged to the Crown, and no one, under very heavy penalty, 

 was allowed to destroy them. I have never seen any ancient map 

 showing* the limits of the forest when at its largest ; but from what 

 was called a Perambulation Document, which gives in words and 

 names the course of the boundary, a rough sketch has been constructed, 

 enough to show how far it extended in the reign of Hen. III. That 

 is indicated by the red line. The green line denotes that part of the 

 country which continued to be called Braden after the disafforesting 

 in A.D. 1635. 1 The hamlet of Braden formerly belonging to the 

 Duchy of Lancaster, then to the Earl of Clarendon, and now to Sir 

 John Neeld, is described as "adjoining the Forest of Braden.'" 

 Speaking generally, it may be said to have reached north and south 

 from Cricklade to Wootton Basset, if not a little farther, and across, 

 west to east, from Garsden to Widhill. 8 



1 Aubrey (Nat. Hist, of Wilts), says :— " Mr. G. Ayliffe, of Grittenham, told 

 him that at the time of the disafforesting a squirrel might have jumped from 

 tree to tree between Wootton Basset and Brinkworth Churchyard. 



2 The late Mr. J. Y. Akerman, in a valuable paper on the Possessions of 

 Malmesbury Abbey and the Ancient Limits of the Forest of Braden (Archaeologia, 

 vol. xxxvii., p. 304), has the following remarks upon the probability of the forest 

 district having extended, in very early times, far beyond the limits set forth in 

 the accompanying map, which is constructed from the verbal description of the 

 bounds as they were in the reign of King Henry III., and recited in a forest 

 roll of temp. Edward III. : — " Manwood, in his Treatise on the Forest Laws, 

 observes that the only forests in England of which the period of their formation 

 is known, are the New Forest, made by William the Conqueror, and that of 

 Hampton Court, formed by Henry VIII. I shall therefore be pardoned if I 

 fail in tracing the forest of Braden to its origin. Of its great antiquity, how- 

 ever, we have evidence in the fact, that in the land limits of the charters already 

 cited, reference is made to its former name of ' Orwoldes Wood.' It was perhaps 

 an escheat to the Crown in the days of the Anglo-Saxon Kings which history 

 has failed to chronicle. Previous to the Norman Conquest its southern limit 

 included Wootton Basset, according to a charter of Eadwig, which speaks of it 



! as 'intra silvam quce vocatur Braden.' It seems probable that the southern 

 boundary once extended as far as the high road from Wootton to Malmesbury, 

 where the sterile soil known as 'Braden land' terminates, and is succeeded by 



i some of the richest pastures in the county." 



Lands in Cliffe Pypard parish are mentioned in old deeds as adjoining Braden: 

 and Brompton, an ancient chronicler, says that in 905 JEthelwold put to military 

 execution all " Brytheadune as far as Brandestoke," or, as Higden more cor* 



' rectly calls it, Bradenstoke. This seems to bring the forest down much more 



, to the south than appears from the perambulation in Hen. III. 



M 2 



