THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
207 
the chief centre of population in this part of Devon, and all its 
surroundings were populous in like manner. There seems ground 
therefore to suppose that Tavistock held or had held somewhat of 
the position, next to Lydford, of a provincial capital. Lydford was, 
however, the chief town of south-west Devon, as Totnes was of 
the south-east, Barnstaple of the north, and Exeter of the centre ; 
an arrangement, by the way, that could hardly be accidental. 
This brings us to the head manor of the ancient hundred — 
Wachetone, or Walkhampton — a place noteworthy only for being 
part of the royal demesne. Most of the lands hence between 
Dartmoor and the Meavy or Plym, downwards to Plympton, were 
owned by the omnivorous Judhel of Totnes. 
There were no fewer than four manors bearing the name of Mewi 
(Meavy), each of which in Saxon times had been owned by a 
separate thane or franklin — Alward, Alwin, Edward, and Osulf, 
but all of which were now the property of Judhel. Two were 
rented from him by Turgis, who was likewise the tenant of Judhel's 
lands in Shaugh. Two of the Meavy manors were of course Good- 
a-Meavy ( = the Fertile Meavy ; or, if a Keltic derivation is taken, 
Coed-y-Meavy, the Wooded Meavy), and Hoo Meavy ( = High 
Meavy), and these I take it were the two held by Turgis, as 
adjoining Shaugh. The larger of the others was the mansa 
granted by Cnut, at the further extremity of the parish ; but I am 
not sure that the fourth was within the present limits of Meavy 
parish at all, or whether it may not be the modern Sheepstor 
(anciently Schitestor). There is no name in Domesday which 
definitely represents this in any form; and Judhel, who owned 
most of the lands in this neighbourhood, has no Tor that can be 
identified with it. Sheepstor may, however, have been simply 
part of the Dartmoor waste, and therefore unappropriated in the 
Survey. On the other hand, we may find it under the name of 
Metwi, a manor which had belonged to Alwin, but had become the 
property of Eobert the Bastard, and which seems to have been 
somewhere in this locality. Its breadth of pasture and wood give it 
all the characteristics of an ancient upland farm. There are perhaps 
more grounds for associating with Meavy parish the Coltrestan of 
Judhel, held by Turgis, and identifying it with the manor of 
Callisham. The corruption is not greater than is frequently found 
where no doubt can exist, Moreover, all the other manors held by 
