By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 



287 



Tisbury. Sir R. C. Hoare tells us that amongst the MS. memo- 

 randa of his fellow-labourer, Mr. Cunnington, of Heytesbury, he 

 found the following note: — "In a field near Place Farm, (in this 

 parish), was a circular work, with a vallum set round with stones, 

 and a large stone placed erect in the centre. On removing this 

 stone, which was twelve feet high, four feet wide, by Lord Arundel's 

 order, to the old castle at Wardour, a skeleton was found at the 

 depth of eighteen inches under the surface, deposited close to the 

 central stone." The historian of the 'Hundred of Dunworth,' 

 speaks of a field bearing the name of ' Lost Stone ' field, close to 

 Place Farm. 



Bearing these facts in mind, — and if you refer to the map of this 

 portion of the county in ' Hoare's Ancient Wilts/ you will be sur- 

 prised at observing the many proofs of ancient occupation or 

 interment there noted, — you will not perhaps deem it too venture- 

 some to suggest that possibly in the name Tis-bury we may have a 

 memorial of Saxon heathendom. The name of ' Woden,' the Saxon 

 idol, is perpetuated in ' Wans-dyke ' (originally Wodnes-dic), in 

 ' Wanborough ' (formerly Wodnes-beorh), and in ' Wednesbury ' 

 now pronounced as though written ' Wedgebury.' In like manner, 

 (it may be,) the name of ' Tiw,' another Saxon idol, from whom our 

 third day of the week, Tuesday, i.e. Tiwaes-dseg, derives its name, 

 is to be found in T/s-bury. So in a charter of Cnut (a.d. 1023), 

 amongst the boundaries of an estate at Hannington (Hanitune), in 

 Hants, we have ' Tis-leah,' which, if the place could be identified, 

 would probably be ' Tisley.' 1 In other charters, one of which 

 relates to Wilts, we have mention of ' Teowes thorn,' 2 and * Tiwes 

 mere,' i.e. the mere or lake of Tiw. 



There is reason for thinking, that, from a very early period, there 

 was a house of monks established at Tisbury. Tanner tells us, 3 — 



1 See Kemble's Saxons in England, i., 351. 

 2 It occurs, as a land-mark near Puritone (Purton), in North Wilts, in a 

 charter, of the year a.d. 796, by which Ecgfrith, King of Mercia, restores to the 

 ' Abbot Cuthbert and the brethren of the monastery at Malmesbury ' lands at 

 that place, which had been taken from them by his father Offa. See Cod, 

 Diplom., No. 174. 



8 Notitia Monastica, p. 593. 



