108 The Sheriff's Turn, Co. Wilts, A.D. 1439. 



Warminster, close to Southleigh (or "Sowley") wood. Here was an 

 Oak called " Iley Oak/' or "the Hundred Oak." Sir R. C. Hoare 

 (H. of Warminster, p. 11) prints a document of A.D. 1651, in 

 which it is stated that " The Courts holden by the Sheriff, called 

 < The Sheriffs Turn Courts 3 are kept at Iley Oak." And in a MS. 

 Register (at Longleat) of the Protector Duke of Somerset's Estates 

 in Wiltshire, is this entry : " Out of Corsley Manor/-' (near War- 

 minster) " was paid viij s yearly, to the Sheriffs Turne at Hundred 

 OTce> 



1 A lively discussion was conducted some years ago in this Magazine, about 

 the site of the celebrated Battle of iEthandun; in the course of which, an 

 ingenious suggestion was made by Dr. R. C. Alexander Prior as to the route 

 taken by King Alfred (V. 193). The stages of the King's advance against the 

 Danes, according to the two old authorities, the Saxon Chronicle and Asser, had 

 been, from Athelney to the " Petra Ecbrighti," or Ecgbright's Stone in the 

 eastern part of Selwood: where he was met by the Men of the Counties 

 Somerset and Wilts and part of Hants. Next day to iEcglea or Iglea where 

 he encamped for one night. On the third day he encountered the Danes at 

 iEthandun, defeated and drove them into a stronghold. Dr. A. Prior, [on the 

 supposition that Ecbright's stone was Brixton Deverell] suggests that "Iglea" 

 (if that is the real word) would from its meaning, (viz., " island flat ") be found 

 probably in the vale of Wyly near Heytesbury ; in which case the Down above 

 Heytesbury might be .iEthandun, and Bratton Camp, the stronghold. This 

 suggestion is, so far, curiously supported by the fact that in the vale of Wyly, 

 two miles below Warminster near Bishopstrow Church, there is a ground 

 marked in old maps as an island formed by the river Wyly and another small 

 contributory stream: also, that about 400 yards from this are, still existing, the 

 remains of a Camp, called " The Buries." Iley Oak or the oak where the folk 

 of the Hundred of Warminster attended the Sheriff's Court was contiguous to the 

 Camp called " The Buries." A verv old man told me that the exact site of this 

 oak (now gone) was close to Lord Heytesbury's Lodge at Sowley Wood (of 

 which wood, Iley Wood forms the eastern part). A spot to which the Hundred 

 had for centuries been summoned to meet the Sheriff, being notorious, might 

 have been fixed upon as a rendezvous for military muster. 



E»,ut Brixton (Deverell) could scaroely have been Eegbryght's stone, for in 

 Domesday Book Brixton is distinctly called " Brictric's Town." This according 

 to the meaning of the Anglo-Saxon word " town," would signify the en- 

 closed, or separate lands of some great owner of the name of Brictric: but 

 " Ecgbryght's Stone" indicates a wholly different origin, viz, a Memorial 

 of some circumstance or transaction connected with a hero of the name of 

 Ecgbryght : either a combat, or a compact with neighbours, a limit of property, 

 or some other of the many purposes for which great stones used to be set up in 

 ancient times. If therefore in that neighbourhood any such Stone should still 

 be forthcoming, bearing to this day a name at all approaching that of " Ecgbright's 



