By the Rev. W. G. Clark- Maxwell, F.S.A. 319 



Combe, about 1340, published in the History of Castle Combe, p. 146, 

 and that of Bromham Manor (contemporaneous with the hundred 

 -rolls), in the Custumals of Battle Abbey, Camden Soc, 1887, the 

 only Wiltshire custumals, so far as I know, which have yet been 

 made public, 1 but many more must exist, and it is greatly to be 

 desired that they should be made available to the historical student, 

 for the sake of the light which they would throw on the social and 

 economic condition of the County of "Wilts at a very interesting 

 and critical period of our national development. 



Those who wish to study the whole question may find the 

 following books useful for a general view of English agriculture at 

 this time : — Seebohm, Village Community in England ; Yinogradoff, 

 Villainage in England ; Thorold Eogers, Six Centuries of Work and 

 Wages ; and Cunningham, Groivth of English Industry and Commerce 

 in the Early and Middle Ages. 



There only remains to me the pleasant duty of expressing my 

 gratitude to all those to whom I have applied for solution of the 

 many difficulties which present themselves, when one attempts to 

 edit a document of this kind. To my friend Mr. A. S. Story 

 Maskelyne, of the Public Eecord Office, and to Mr. W. H. B. Bird 

 I owe thanks for many helpful suggestions and explanations, while 

 Mr. G-. E. Dartnell has furnished me, though personally a stranger 

 to him, with two valuable notes on the words " mancorn " and 

 " sedelepe," which I have reproduced almost in his own words. 

 One or two enigmas remain unsolved, such as the precise meaning 

 of " Wrcbedrip " and " mercbedrip " on Hatherop, and of the 

 " denarius evesuri " on Lacock manor, and I should be very grateful 

 for any light which may be thrown on these expressions by readers 

 of the Magazine. 



1 A good deal of similar matter has just been published by the Society in 

 the 1st part of the Inquisitiones post mortem oi the time of Henry III. 



N.B. — Since the above was in type I have had the opportunity of consulting 

 a photograph of the Hatherop entries referred to above, and I am now clearly 

 of opinion that the true reading is " Wribedrip " and " metebedrip." 



