By the Rev. G. S. Master. 



251 



forest of Natan-leah. 1 It is possible that this may have been 

 assigned (as was not unusual in cases of manors which had no wood- 

 land near at hand) to the royal manor of Amesbury, for under that 

 heading* occurs "a wood, six miles long and four miles broad/'' 2 and 

 it is difficult to identify it with any other. 



The Saxon possessor of West Dean may possibly have been the 

 same Godric Venator, who, as one of the king's thanes, was allowed 

 by the Conqueror to retain small estates at Mere and Hartham, the 

 latter inherited from his father. The name occurs in the Wiltshire 

 Domesday as tenant in the Confessor's time of laud at Alderton, Alton, 

 Fisherton-Anger, Frustfield, Littlecote, Orcheston, and Standen. 



Of Waleran, the powerful Englishman who succeeded him, more 

 will be said hereafter. 



The Hampshire entry referring to West Dean runs thus : — 



" Idem Walerannus tenet Dene. Bc-da tenuit de rege Edwardo in allodium. 

 Tunc et modo geldat pro 2 hidis et una virgata. Terra est 3 carucatse. In dominio 

 est una carucata ; et 11 bordarii cum 2 carucatis ; et molinus de 20 solidis, et 4 

 acrte prati. Silva ad clausuram. Tempore Regis Edwardi valebat 4,libras ; post 

 60 solidos. Modo 40 solidos." 



"The same Waleran holds Dene and Boda held it allodially of King Edward. 

 It was then as now assessed at two hides, and one yardland. Here are three 

 plough-lands, one in demesne ; and eleven borderers with two plough-lands : also 

 a mill worth twenty shillings, four acres of meadow, and a copse for fences. Its 

 value in the time of King Edward was £4, afterwards 60.?., now 40s." 



The diminution in value may, perhaps, have been occasioned by 

 the extension of the royal forest rights. But the quantity of arable 

 land in the Hampshire portion equalled that in the Wiltshire portion 

 of the parish, while its population and previous value were greater. 



I take this entry to represent the six hundred and sixty- eight 

 acres of the parish lying in the county of Hants, which were some- 

 times erroneously styled " East Dean/' and sometimes more properly 



1 See a paper by Edwin Guest, Esq., F.R.S., in the " Salisbury Volume of the 

 Archteological Institute," 1851. 



2 Jones's "Wiltshire Domesday," p. 8, note; Hoare's "Modern Wilts," 

 Hundred of Heytesbury, p. 168. 



