It must be understood by all those who read these charters that this ...

THE SAXON LAND CHARTERS OF WILTSHIRE. I ~J\
Hides. 50 hides. 1
Name : in body of charter, Ceoseldene.
Ident. K. Chiselden, Wilts. ; B. Chiseldon, Wilts.
The survey of the charter is given in three forms,
Saxon, Middle English, and Latin. That the Saxon copy
goes back to an original of AS. times is practically certain.
Of the extant copy it is not possible to speak so positively;
but, if not made in AS. times, it must have been made at
some date very near to 1066. The ME. and Lat. copies
are of the same date with one another, and may, judging
from the forms of the words in them, have been made a
century or two after the Conquest. They are probably
translations of the AS. copy made by one who had a good
working knowledge of AS, though not a perfect knowledge
of that language. He was at any rate in most instances able
to identify the words of his own day which corresponded
with the words used in the AS. survey.
It will be well to take the landmarks of the surveys
together, only giving the translation of the ME. and Lat.
forms in cases where they either deviate from, or elucidate
the AS. survey.
Surveys.
i. Aerest of Eorthebyrg to Sym.br oce innan Blaec Pytte :
' First from the Earthen Camp to . . . Brook on the near
side of the Black Pit.' 2
Fyrst begyn at Orbryggbe, so forth to Swymbroke
wythinne the Blake Pytte :
Imprimis ineipe in termino latine voeitato Pons Ίerrestris,
angliee Orthebrygge 3 reete procedendo quousque pervenias ad
1 It would be a very gratuitous assumption
to assume that this number was miswritten
in the text. But it is, on the other
hand, quite impossible to suppose that the
lands included in the survey amounted to
anything remotely resembling 50 hides.
The probability is that the grant referred
to a group of land-units, massed together,
perhaps for purposes of administration,
under the name Ceoseldene, and that there
were originally attached to the grant
surveys of the other land-units included in
it. The Blewbury charter in Berkshire
records a grant stated to amount to 100
hides (K.1151). Under Bradfield in Berks.
(B.74) are grouped Streatley and Bessils-
leigh, 4.5 hides altogether. There are
similar groupings in certain Meon and
Micheldever charters of Hants.
2 Sym is probably a pre-Saxon name of the
brook. I suspect that it is the same name
which appears in the Hants place-name
Somborne, and the Wilts, name Sambourn.
It may even be the same as the river-name
Sem, which gives its name to Semley in
SW. Wilts, 4 m. NE. of Shaftesbury. A
mere name which conveyed no meaning to
the AS. settlers would tend to take slightly
valiant forms in various districts.
3 The adaptor of the AS. form has mistranslated
the byrg of the survey, and has
supposed it to mean ' bridge.'