298 



" Andover and its Neighbourhood." 



afterwards wife of King Edgar, and by him mother of King Ethelred II , which 

 Queen Elfrida after Edgar's death murdered his eldest son, King Edward the 

 Martyr, and founded the nunnery of Wherwell." 



In Freeman's "Old England" he is at a loss about Harewood. 

 He knows the story of the murder, but he cannot identify the place 

 where it took place. Harewood, in Yorkshire, the only place of 

 that name he knows of, " cannot possibly," says he, " be the scene of 

 the murder." Doubtless the difficulty has now been solved by him. 



The words in the Domesday Book about Andover are : — " The 

 King holds Andover in demesne, and King Edward held it. The 

 number of hides is not mentioned. Here are two ploughlands in 

 demesne, and sixty-two villeins, thirty-six borderers, three freemen 

 and six servants with twenty-four ploughlands ; also six mills, worth 

 72*. 6d., eighteen acres of meadow, and woods for the pannage of 

 one hundred hogs." Or, in modern language : — " Andover belongs 

 to the King. It was formerly part of the property of King Edward. 

 "We do not know exactly how much land the manor contains. There 

 are two ploughlands, sixty-two copy-holders (or men working on 

 the land for the lord of the manor), thirty-six cottagers (who work 

 on the estate), three freemen and six slaves cultivating twenty-four 

 ploughlands. There are six mills, worth altogether 725. 6d.' f eighteen 

 acres of meadow land, and woods sufficient to supply mast and other 

 food for one hundred hogs." There is no mention of a Church, but 

 it by no means follows that the Norman scribe mentions all the 

 Churches which existed in the manors that he describes. It is 

 almost certain that a Church existed in Andover at that time, as the 

 events which then took place at Andover would almost necessitate 

 such a building. 



The Church and benefice of Andover were under the alien priory 

 of St. Florent, in Normandy. It may be well to observe that the 

 alien priories were cells in England which belonged to foreign 

 monasteries. When manors or tithes were given to foreign convents, 

 the monks, either to increase their own rule, or probably in order to 

 have faithful stewards of their re veuues, built a small convent on 

 the manor, or on the tithe land, for a number of monks, and placed 

 a prior over them. Within these cells there was the same distinction 



