320 



Rood Ashton, Sfp. 



historical notice, known to me, of any proprietor of the Manor of 

 Ashton, is that it belonged to the Kings of Wessex. About A.D. 

 959 the King was Edgar, of wolf-destroying celebrity, but who did 

 a great deal more than that for the settlement of England. He 

 was a very liberal founder and promoter of Monastic Houses. In 

 Wilts he enriched Wilton Abbey with large gifts of land, and he 

 gave the Manors of Ashton and of Edington towards the endow- 

 ment of the Nunnery of St. Mary, at Romsey, in Hants. Many of 

 you may have seen the fine old Norman Church at Romsey, between 

 Salisbury and Southampton. It was partly built by money from 

 Ashton Manor, near Trowbridge. Unfortunately the Register 

 Book, or Cartulary, and I fear, most of the Records, of Romsey 

 Abbey are missing ; but the Cartulary of Edington is in the British 

 Museum, and it contains a copy of King Edgar's grant, dated A.D. 

 964. It is written in the strange bombastic Latin used in docu- 

 ments of that day : very difficult to make any sense of ; and that 

 sense, when made, sometimes very extraordinary. The particular 

 document, giving Ashton to Romsey Abbey, concludes with this 

 imprecation upon any one who should hereafter deprive the Abbey 

 of the estate : " If any one shall venture rashly to infringe this my 

 grant and refuse to make satisfaction, let him be dragged down 

 with heavy chains round his neck among the fire-breathing legions 

 of black devils. [Si quis hanc meam donationem infringere certa- 

 verit, sit gravibus per colla depressus catenis, inter flammivomas 

 tetrorum daamonum catervas.""] 



This gift included apparently the whole of what at that time was 

 the Manor of Ashton. The limits mentioned were as follows : — 



" The Metes and Bounds of Ayston. — This is the landmark to Ayston 

 First on Semnit \_Semington ? ] : from Semnit to Kefle \_Keevil? ], to Milbourne 

 then to Frestham and then along to Werefore stone, to Cranmere ; on to 

 Metoldswill, and then to Clenanstitch : to Hassocks-more, and Holebrook : then 

 to Lechmere, then to Rode-stone. From the stone to Beretmrn, and then to 

 the Biss. From Biss to Malm and then to Alburn : then to Frome-setinga- 

 hazen : thence to "Wuntfield and thence to Burgreed's-Rood. From the Rood 

 to Marebrook and then to Lambrook and then on to Haram-mere \_Ammer- 

 acre ? ] to Leofed-hazen by Biss. From Biss to Abbenford and then to 

 Hulpring-moor [Hilper ton-moor ? ] and then to Hazel-durhill and so by Mark- 

 brook to Semnit." 



