48 



Gleanings from the Wiltshire Domesday. 



times. The owner is there called Gosfeidus Marescal, 

 i.e, Geoffrey the Marshal. The estate was held by the 

 C ernes and their predecessors, the family of Venoir, by 

 the service of supplying " the third rod of marshalsea in 

 the king's household/'' by which is meant perhaps the 

 supplying one of the vergers or wand-bears to attend on 

 the marshall; the "third rod's" post, acrording to the 

 Testa de Nevil, p. 147, being ad ostium coqidnce at "the 

 door of the king's kitchen.'" Aubrey 229. It has been 

 commonly thought that "the fetter-lock/'' which was used 

 by the Long family, who became in the 15th century the 

 owners of Draycot, was symbolical of this tenure, but 

 reasons are given in an Article in a recent number of 

 Notes and Queries (May 20th, 1871,) for doubting the 

 correctness of this opinion, and for believing that it was an 

 emblem of the honourable office that for some time before 

 they had held, in virtue of an estate at Wraxall which was 

 appurtenant to it, as Bailiffs of the Hundred of Bradford. 



Fittelton ; — this place in Domesday Book is called Viteletone, 

 (W. Domesd., 113) and the owner in the days of the Con- 

 fessor was Vitel, a name which looks like Vitellius " writ 

 short/'' as though people then as now were fond of borrow- 

 ing names from those of great people. It is no stretch of 

 imagination, I hope, to believe, that from this early owner, 

 or some namesake, came the name of the manor, which 

 means simply ViteVs town (or village) . 



Hardenhuish ; — - this place, which is close to Chippenham, 

 belonged according to the Domesday Record, to Ernulf 

 de Hesding (W. Domesd. 78). This word, which was 

 sometimes spelt Harden-hewishe (Inq. p. m., 43 Hen. Ill), 

 I conceive means literally " Harding's estate." 1 The 



1 In a charter of ^Ethelwulf of the date 854 (Cod. Dipl. 270 ) we have the 

 grant of one cassate at a place called Heregeardingc — hiwhce, which can cer- 

 tainly only mean the "estate of Harding /' or possibly of the clan so called, 

 as the word itself, a very common one, was originally no doubt a patronymic. 

 See Leo on " Anglo-Saxon Names" (translated by Williams) p. 35. Kemble's 

 " Saxons in England," i., 465. 



