134 



On a Hoard of Gold Nobles 



parish of " Bremel," le manor de Bremelrugg ove housbote et heybote 

 renables estovers et communes en lez boys de Westbury et la voeson 

 d'une chauntrie de Hewode et une mees et quinze acres de terre in 

 Dulton,' &c, i.e., the manor of Bremeridge, with materials for repair 

 of house and fences, and with reasonable supplies and commons in the 

 woods of Westbury, aud the advowson of a chantry of Heywood [in 

 Westbury Church] and a messuage [i.e., superior dwelling-house] 

 and fifteen acres of land in Dilton. 1 



Bremel is, in Anglo-Saxon, a common form of the word now known 

 in English as bramble. 2 



Bremhill, the modern form of the name of the village above re- 

 ferred to near Calne, "Wilts, is a late alteration. The Norman scribe 

 in Domesday Survey writes the name " Brerae," of course intending 

 the final e to be sounded, and he states that part of the land there 

 was four acres of bramble wood. 3 Bremelridge has clearly the same 

 origin for its first part, either from early connection with " Bremel," 

 now called " Bremhill," or from its own supply of brambles in early 

 times. The shape of the land where the homestead stands is so 

 clearly a ridge, as marked in the Ordnance Map, that there can be 

 no doubt of the significance of the latter part of the name. Brem- 

 eridge or Bremridge is a conveniently worn down form of Bremelrugg, 

 &c, but Brembridge is surely an inconvenient and misleading cor- . 

 ruption, no considerable stream being near to require a bridge. 



Doubtless further illustrations might be obtained by referring to 

 other documents connected with Edington, Salisbury Cathedral, and 

 the locality. 



The Bremeridge nobles are most interesting as historical tokens, 

 giving life and reality to the English, French, and Flemish history 

 of the period, especially to the Chronicle of Froissart. 



It is within the bounds of possibility that, by antiquarian research 

 or even by what may be called happy accident, it may yet be dis- 



1 Apparently that part of Dilton called then as now Dilton Marsh. 

 2 In Genesis, iii., 18, the words of the Vulgate, " Spinas et tribulos germinahit 

 tibi," are rendered by the Anglo-Saxon translator " Thomas and bremelas heo 

 asprit the." " BibL der Anglesachs. Prosa, Grein, Cassel und Goettingen," 1872. 

 3 Jones's " Domesday for Wilts, 1865, p. 38, and note. 



