284 The Wiltshire Possessions of the Abbess of Shaftesbury. 



perhaps, that the foundation of the chantry was taken as the oppor- 

 tunity for rebuilding the original church. 



Of its tythings, ' Ferne ' is the only one, in Donhead St. Andrew, 

 that has any interest for us. Like ' Sedge-hill/ and * Brem-hill/ — a 

 corruption of Bremble (as it is spelt in maps of the 17th century), 

 the modern form of the Anglo-Saxon 'bremele' — and 'Brarnshaw/ 

 an abbreviation of ' bremele-scaga, i.e. ' bramble- wood/ — and very 

 many others that might be mentioned, Ferne clearly derives its 

 name from the natural production that most prevailed there. In a 

 confirmation charter of King Henry I., Ferne is named as having 

 been for at least a century previously among the possessions of the 

 Abbess. In the time of Edward I., it was held by Walter de 

 Ferne. The estate passed through various families to the Brock- 

 ways (the name still exists in the neighbourhood), and by one of 

 them it was sold in 1563, to William Grove, of Gray's Inn. The 

 ' Grove ' family, who still retain the estate, came originally from 

 Chalfont St. Giles, in Bucks, and settled in Wilts about the time 

 of Henry VI. The purchaser of Ferne was M.P. for Shaftesbury 

 in the time of Philip and Mary. From his elder son, descend the 

 * Groves ' of Ferne ; from his younger, those of Zeals House. Several 

 members of the family have represented Shaftesbury in Parliament ; 

 and, towards the close of the 17th century, Robert Grove, who 

 had been Archdeacon of Middlesex, was consecrated Bishop of 

 Chichester. 



Donhead St. Andrew. 



The Church of Donhead St. Mary, or Upper Donhead, is deserving 

 of especial notice. Here you have abundant evidences of great 

 antiquity, and you can form a very fair judgment of the probable 

 date of the various portions of the building. The church consists 

 of a chancel, nave, two side-aisles, a south porch, a western tower, 

 and two chapels, one on either side of the chancel, with an entrance 

 in each case from the aisle, of which, in fact, they form a continu- 

 ation. Were it not that one well able to judge has pronounced the 

 wall and arches at either side of the chancel-arch to be twelfth century 

 work (c. a.d. 1150), I own I should have been rather sceptical on 



