By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 



127 



near the Wansdyke. If it was at Wodensbergh, that is not im- 

 probably Wanborough. Dr. Guest, who is endeavouring very 

 elaborately to throw some light upon the events of this obscure 

 period, says that beyond all question Wanborough was the place ; 

 and certainly the convenience of its position, with respect to the 

 old roads, seems to favour his opinion very much. 



SWINDON. 



In Camden's account of Wiltshire, Swindon is not even men- 

 tioned. In another old work, " Cox's Magna Britannia," it is 

 mentioned, but only thus : " Swindon is so inconsiderable a place 

 that our histories take no notice of it." Many years before the 

 Conquest the land belonged to the Saxon Crown of Wessex, and 

 had been, by charter, granted to a Saxon Thane or Nobleman, and 

 so became what was called Thane-land, free from certain burdens. 

 About the time of Edward the Confessor, A.D. 1050, that Saxon 

 nobleman, whose name was the Earl William, had given it back to 

 the Crown in exchange for some other lands in the Isle of Wight. 

 Consequently, at the Conquest it was again in the hands of the 

 Crown. At the time of the great survey called Domesday Book 

 about A.D. 1084, the lands called Swindon had been divided among 

 five proprietors, two larger and three smaller ones. The largest 

 was a person of whom nothing more appears than that his name 

 was Odin, and that he had filled the office of Chamberlain to 

 William. The next largest landlord was the Bishop of Bayeux, 

 a foreign prelate. Of the smaller proprietors, one was Alured of 

 Marlborough, a small owner here, but of comfortable dimensions 

 elsewhere. The two remaining ones were Uluric, and Ulward, 

 who, as he is called the " King's Prebendary," was probably not 

 badly off in the world. All these five estates are registered in the 

 Great Survey under one and the same name of Swindon. Besides 

 these is Wicklescote, now called Weslecot. 



At Wicklescote, in after times, we find successively the names of 

 these owners — Bluet, Bohun (holding what he held there under 

 the Manor of Wootton Basset), Everard, the Darells of Littlecote, 

 and the Lords Lovell, who had a vast property in this neighbour- 



