188 



Notes on Wiltshire Books, 8fc. 



old ceremonial still exist at Hungerford. In the old days the two tithingmen 

 then appointed to keep watch and ward over the town " were entitled to demand 

 on Hock Tuesday a penny a head from the townspeople for services rendered 

 during the year. The duties have long since ceased, but the emolument is still 

 claimed ; and the two officers parade the town, each carrying a staff tastefully 

 ornamented with flowers, surmounted by an orange, and bedecked with blue 

 ribbon. If the penny is refused, all the females in the house must submit to 

 be kissed by the tithingmen, who are commonly called " Tuttimen " (Tutty= 

 a nosegay). On the following Friday the court baron is held at which the 

 officers elect are sworn in." 



The author disclaims any idea of this little book being anything more than 

 its title indicates, a slight sketch of^the history of a town which possesses an 

 interesting past and a great deal of documentary material which has never yet 

 been made use of. He gives the derivation of the name as " Hingwar' s-ford," 

 relying on the statement of the chronicler in the " Book of Hyde," who writes 

 "After the murder of King Edmund by the Danes, the Danes Hingwar and 

 Hubba usurped the kingdom. Which Hingwar was drowned as he was crossing 

 a morass in Berkshire, which morass is called to this day by the people of 

 that county Hyngerford." He then touches on the site of the Battle of 

 JEthandune ; the manorial history and its connection with the Hungerford 

 family ; the rectory ; the old Church— destroyed in 1814— of which he gives 

 us a reproduction from an old print ; its monuments, &c. ; historical occurrences 

 as connected with the Civil War and the Revolution of 1688, &c. Then follows 

 an appendix, with a list of the constables from 1550, the seneschals of the 

 manor from 1621, an interesting series of extracts from the constables' 

 accounts which begin in 1658, an abstract of documents relating to the manor, 

 and extracts from the churchwardens' accounts beginning in 1659. A noticeable 

 point about both the constables' and the churchwardens' accounts is the great 

 number of travellers and vagrants relieved, or whipped, in some cases both 

 whipped and relieved, which is doubtless accounted for by the situation of 

 Hungerford on the great western road. 



In the notice of the manors and free chapels of North Standen, or Standen 

 Cha worth, and South Standen, or Standen Hussey — both in the county of 

 Wilts, though in the parish of Hungerford— the author states that the chapel 

 of the latter has wholly disappeared, whilst that of the former is still standing, 

 with most of its walls of the end of the twelfth century, intact, and now 

 converted into a barn. An extract from the Report of the Commissioners of 

 1819, as to the charities of Hungerford completes this very interesting 

 " sketch. " 



