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THE SAXON LAND CHARTERS OF WILTSHIRE. I ~J\ the lands of the neighbouring parishes of Linkenholt and Vernham Dean in Hampshire. B.508; K.1059. RD. A.D. 863. Granted by Aethelred, king of the West Saxons, to the Prince Wulfhere. Names (1) in title, Buttermere, Escmerae·, (2) in body of document, Butermere, Aescmere. Ident. K. Buttermere, Wilts. ; B. Buttermere, Wilts. This is a very curious and interesting charter. It includes all the lands of Buttermere ; but it also deals with land at Aescmere, a name which has disappeared from the modern map. It is fortunately possible to identify in a general sense the area to which this vanished name was formerly applied. The earlier landmarks of the survey of this charter show, by comparison with landmarks which occur in the charter of Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hants (B.1080), that this grant included either the whole or part of the lands of Linkenholt and Vernham Dean, just over the Hants border. Aescmere, Ashmere, or ' Pond of the Ashtrees,' was probably the old name of the land now included in those two Hampshire parishes. The old name survives on the modern map in the corrupted form Ashmansworth (Aescmereswyrth) ' the outlying farm of Ashmere,' 1 a parish a mile or two east of Vernham Dean and Linkenholt. The earlier landmarks of the survey refer to these Aescmere lands; but there can be little doubt that they were part of what was originally a complete survey of those lands, a portion of which has been omitted by the copyist, probably because Throcmere occurred in both surveys; and when he reached this point in the Aescmere survey, his eye passed on to the same landmark in the Buttermere survey, and he went on copying that survey instead of completing the survey of Aescmere. 1 Considerations of space render it impossible to give here all the evidence for the view that AS. toyrth, or weortb, meant a secondary farm or settlement which had been formed on the uncultivated lands of a pre-existing 'tun ' community—the settlement of a squatter or of squatters who took up and cultivated land within the area of some already existing community at an early but secondary stage of the settlement of the Anglo-Saxons in this country. The modern map shows that, though such settlements became originally part of the pre-existing settlement, and in many cases remained so permanently, there were numerous cases in which at some later time they became separate land-units and separate communities, such as Aescmereswyrtb became in the present instance.
THE SAXON LAND CHARTERS OF WILTSHIRE. I ~J\ The extant copy of the survey looks as if it had been made in AS. times; but the mistake above mentioned shows clearly that it is not the original copy of the survey made at the time of the grant. Survey. 1. Aerest on Masan Cumb: 'First to Titmouse Combe.' The surviving name Mascombe Copse (OM6), the copse between 5 and 6 fur. E. of Lower Conholt Farm (OMi) in Vernham Dean parish, together with the occurrence of Mascombe as a field-name in the same neighbourhood, shows that Masan Cumb was the deep combe in the south part of Vernham Dean parish, 3 to 4 fur. S. and SE. of Lower Conholt Farm (OMi) 2. Τhanon and lang Faccan Cumbes on Rugan Beorh : ' Then along Facca's Combe to Rough Barrow.' This combe gave its name to Faccombe, the parish next E. of Linkenholt. It was the great combe which runs down the W. by. of Faccombe and E. by. of Linkenholt just W. of the village of Netherton (OMi). The survey has gone with one jump along the whole of the SE. by. of Vernham Dean and the S. by. of Linkenholt. The Vernham Dean by. in this part has been modified in recent times, but the old line was, generally speaking, much along that along which the present SE. by. of the parish runs. It is possible that some landmarks have fallen out of the charter ; but in any case it is quite certain that the by. took the course indicated above. It is also worth noting that this district of Aescmere is included in that Hurstbourne Tarrant grant (B.1080) made by King Edgar to the abbey at Abingdon, Berks., at the reputed date of A.D. 961. This Hurstbourne charter mentions also the rough barrow; and a comparison of the two charters shows that the barrow must have been at the NE. corner of the parish of Linkenholt, 1 m. almost due N. of Netherton (OMi). 3. Fhanon up on Lilan Mere : ' Then up to Lilla's (or, reading Lilian, Waterlily) Pond.' The Hurstbourne charter mentions a Lilian Hrycg, ' Lilla's Ridge,' which was the ridge which runs down from the N. to the N. by. of Linkenholt, and on which Combe
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