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THE SAXON LAND CHARTERS OF WILTSHIRE. I ~J\ the ditch or watercourse (OM6) on the Somerford side of the river which runs into the Avon from the direction of the aforesaid farm. The withybed of 14 was probably near the big brook, the Dauntsey Brook of OM6, which the by. crosses 3 fur. NW. of Swallett Gate (OMi). The appletree stump of 15 must therefore have been on the by. between this brook and the Avon. 17. ' And from that place straight by the Avon round the place first mentioned (in the survey), namely Domet's Island.' The by. runs round the W. side of the island mentioned in landmark 1, following the backwater, not the main stream of the Avon. A Survey of the Mead of Dauntsey. It may be well to explain here once and for all for the information of those who are interested in the archaeology of the charters, but are not acquainted with that rural economy of AS. times on which the charters throw so much light, that the ' mead ' was the only hay land of the village community. It was of the utmost importance at a time when hay fields could not be artificially created by the sowing of grass seed, for there were no means of getting such seed. Hay-grass grew only in the neighbourhood of streams; and the meads of the land-units are always situated near brooks or rivers. Their importance was such, and their area so limited, that, when a land-unit did not possess mead within its area, it held some detached piece of it near some stream which might be a mile or more away from its lands. How such detached allotments were originally made to communities we do not know ; but the mere fact that they were made, and, furthermore, that they must have been made at the time of the original settlement, shows that that settlement was not of the more or less haphazard character which it was sometimes assumed to have been. The value of mead land was at the time of the Black Death in 1349 six times that of an equal area of ploughland. The detached pieces of parishes which are so noticeable a feature of the map of England represent in the vast majority of instances detached pieces of mead attached to those secular land-units which were later adopted as ecclesiatical units, or parishes. In the case of Dauntsey the mead was not detached from
THE SAXON LAND CHARTERS OF WILTSHIRE. I ~J\ the main land-unit; and it is unusual for a separate survey of an undetached mead to be given, though other instances might be found in the charters. The mead in the present case was a strip of land running along the N. border of the parish, along what is now called Brinkworth Brook. ' These are the boundaries of the meadow called Herdsmen's Croft (or Enclosure) Mead (Swanhammes Mede) which belongs to Dauntsey.' 1. ' First from a certain place called Rock {tone), which lies in the western part of the same meadow, to the Thorntree called Thorn of the Hedge (haythome) ... (a midezvarde).'' 1 2. ' And from that Thorntree to the brook called Island Brook (ydoure), 2 viz, over against the Old Gore (triangular strip of ploughland) (le holde garanne).'' 3. ' And straight by Island Water (ydoure) to the Black Pool {leblakepole):* 4. ' And from that place to a certain Stone right opposite the Elder-tree (ellerne).' 5. ' And so from the Stone straight to the track to the place first mentioned, viz. the Rock (la Torre).'' That the survey refers to the mead land of the N. part of the parish is clear, though the bounds, with the exception of the ydoure, which is almost certainly Brinkworth Brook, are not traceable. The name survives in that of Idover Demesne Farm (OMi). That the parcel of land extended right across the N. end of the parish is shown by the fact that Brinkworth Brook is not cited as a by. in the earlier survey of the main portion of the land-unit. .Torre means ' rock.' But it seems hardly likely that a rock could have existed in the NW. part of the parish ; and therefore it seems probable that the word had here some other unknown meaning. 1 I cannot translate these last words. 2 This stream is mentioned as Idoure in that Brokenborough charter B. 921-2, which gives the bounds comprising all the Malmesbury lands in the neighbourhood of Malmesbury. Its name survives in that of Idover in the NW. part of Dauntsey parish. I have no doubt that the original AS. form was Ig-Dofer (or -Defer), ' Island Stream,' where the second element is a Celtic word which occurs in various placenames in England, e.g. Andover, Micheldever, and Candover in Hampshire. The Ig was probably due to its entering the Avon close to Dometes Ig. 3 AS. pol, ' pool,' and pyll, ' pool,' seem to be used in the charters only of pools in streams and rivers.
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