318 " Lndgershall Castle and its History." 



among the trees from the village street. The gossips, however, 

 were not slow to inform me that the said old lady and her next-door 

 neighbour on one occasion had had enterprise enough to trudge as 

 far as Portsmouth, after the colours of a marching regiment that 

 had been billetted in the village. So much better is " a living dog 

 than a dead lion." 



The ancient name of Ludgershall, or, as it is commonly called, 

 Lurgeshall, was Lutegars' Hall, the residence of some Saxon owner. 

 It was held at the Conquest by Edward of Salisbury, but must 

 afterwards have reverted to the Crown, as the vill, domain and 

 castle were in the hands of the Kings of England from Henry II. 

 Governors were often appointed to this and Marlborough Castle to- 

 gether. Various suppositions have been made as to the derivation 

 of the name. In Domesday Book it is written " Little Garselle." 

 One idea is that it comes from the words Leod — gars — legh=people 

 (who lived in a) — grass — flat. A long flat common sprinkled with 

 gorse and scrub extended for nearly a mile both east and west of 

 the village till within the last fifty years, and on which many people 

 had grazing and other rights. It is certain that the successive 

 cultivators of the soil have found it an easy farm to work, owing to 

 its level character, and those who have had the good fortune to shoot 

 over the manor on a broiling day in September — days, however, 

 that have been few and far between in late years — have been wont 

 to congratulate themselves on the absence of hills to be breasted in 

 their day's sport. 



It is generally acknowledged that the castle was built soon after 

 the Norman Conquest, but the date of its building and the name of 

 the architect are alike unknown. A parishioner of mine took the 

 trouble to procure for me from a relation in London a book which 

 was said to contain " all about " Ludgershall Castle. I could only 

 discover this short paragraph : — " Luggershall Castle, built 1199 99 : 

 clearly a wrong date. That it was in existence before 1141 is 

 certain, for in that year the Empress Maude took refuge in it as 

 she fled before Stephen's victorious army. Stowe thus describes 

 her visit to the castle : — " The Empress fled to the castell of Lute- 

 garshale heavy and almost dead for feare— from thence she was 



