128 Swindon, and its Neighbourhood. 



hood. By a Katharine Lovell, certain lands at Wicklescote were 

 given to the Nuns of Lacock Abbey, and at the Dissolution of 

 Monasteries those particular lands were bought by Mr. Goddard, 

 then of Upham. 



The five properties, all called Swindon in Domesday, are after- 

 wards variously called Haute, High, or Over-Swindon, Nether- 

 Swindon, Even-Swindon, and West Swindon. They passed into 

 different hands; and among other owners were, in Edward 1., 

 Philip Avenel holding under the Abbess of Wilton, Robert de 

 Pontl'arge, holding under the Crown, the Bassets, the Despensers, 

 the Abbey of Malmesbury, the Monastery of Ivychurch, near 

 Sarum ; and at a later period, the families of Everard, Alworth, 

 and Vilett, the last-named being now represented by Mrs. Ptolles- 

 ton. Some of the lands that belonged to Monasteries were pur- 

 chased in 1541 by Sir Thomas Bridges, ancestor of the Dukes of 

 Chandos, and some at Even-Swindon by the Wenman family. 

 With more access to documents, and an acquaintance with localities, 

 a thing essential to accuracy in these matters, all this might be 

 developed ; but for the present we can only dwell upon the descent 

 of the principal manor and lordship of Swindon. 



The Bishop of Bayeux, already mentioned as holding, by the 

 gift of the Conqueror, one of the larger estates, was Odo, half- 

 brother to King William : created Earl of Kent. The best de- 

 scription of him, is from his own seal, an extremely rare and very 

 curious one. On one side he appears as an Earl mounted on his 

 war-horse, at full speed, clad in armour, and holding a sword in 

 his right hand. This is one moiety of him. On the reverse is the 

 other : a Bishop, in full pontificalibus, bestowing the benediction. 

 He was one of the prime instigators to the invasion, and performed 

 the part of a military chaplain : celebrated mass before the whole 

 army the night before the battle of Hastings, and sang their re- 

 quiems after it. Historians speak of him as a cruel, luxurious, 

 overbearing man : and as the principal agent employed by William 

 in dividing the prey — the lands of the defeated English. In this 

 department he washed them all so clean, that he obtained the name 

 of " The Conqueror's Sponge." This Earl Bishop did not forget 



