WIGMORE-WINCHESTER

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a small manor of two taxable hides in Saxon times. Whereas it had then been unproductive, at the date of the Survey there were two ploughs in the demesne, and the borough attached to the castle yielded 77. Here we have another instance of the planting of a borough close to a castle, and of the revenue which was thus obtained.

There is a very large and high motte at Wigmore Castle, of oval shape, on a headland which has been cut off by a deep ditch. The earthen banks of its first fortification still remain, enclosing a small ward, but on top of them is a wall in masonry, and the ruins of a polygonal keep; also the remains of two mural towers. Half-way down the end of the headland, below the motte, is a small square court, which may have been the original bailey; below it, again, is a larger half-moon bailey furnished with walls and towers. But the whole area covered is only 1 acre. The masonry is none of it earlier than the Decorated period, except one tower in the bailey wall which may be late Norman.

WINCHESTER, Hants. We include Winchester among the castles mentioned or alluded to in Domesday Book, because we think it can be proved that the domus regis mentioned under Alton and Clere is the castle built by William outside the west gate of the city, where the present County Hall is now almost the only remaining relic of any castle at all. the head of "Aulton

Under

'Aulton" we are told that the abbot of

1 This keep rests on a broad extension of the earthen rampart, similar to what is still to be seen in the mottes of Devizes, Burton-in-Lonsdale, and William Hill, Middleham.

2 Ordericus says: "Intra moenia Guentæ, opibus et munimine nobilis urbis et mari contiguæ, validam arcem construxit, ibique Willelmum Osberni filium in exercitu suo precipuum reliquit." II., 166. The intra mania is not to be taken literally, any more than the mari contigua. It is strange that Mr Freeman should have mistaken Guenta for Norwich, since under 1067 Ordericus translates the Winchester of the A.-S. C. by Guenta.

3

Hyde had unjustly gotten the manor in exchange for
the king's house, because by the testimony of the jurors
it was already the king's house.1 That excambio domus
regis should read excambio terræ domus regis is clear
from the corresponding entry under Clere, where the
words are pro excambio terræ in qua domus regis est in
civitate. The matter is put beyond a doubt by the
confirmatory charter of Henry I. to Hyde Abbey, where
the king states that his father gave Aulton and Clere to
Hyde Abbey in exchange for the land on which he built
his hall in the city of Winchester. Where, then, was
this hall, which was clearly new, since fresh land was
obtained for it, and which must not therefore be sought
on the site of the palace of the Saxon kings? The
Liber Winton, a roll of Henry I.'s time, says that twelve
burgesses' houses had been destroyed and the land was
now occupied by the king's house."
by the king's house. Another passage
says that a whole street outside the west gate was
destroyed when the king made his ditch. These
passages justify the conclusion of Mr Smirke that the
king's house at Winchester was neither more nor less
than the castle which existed until the 17th century
outside the west gate. Probably the reason why it is
spoken of so frequently in the earliest documents as the
king's house or hall, instead of the castle, is that in this
important city, the ancient capital of Wessex, where the
1 "De isto manerio testatur comitatus quod injuste accepit [abbas] pro
excambio domus regis, quia domus erat regis." D. B., i., 43a, I.

in

2 Ibid., i., 43a, 2.

3 "Sicut rex Willielmus pater meus ei dedit in excambium pro terra illa qua ædificavit aulam suam in urbe Winton. Mon. Ang., ii., 444.

• "Pars erat in dominio et pars de dominio abbatis; hoc totum est post occupatum in domo regis." P. 534. This passage throws light on the fraud of the abbot of Hyde, referred to above.

...

5 "Extra portam de Vuest . . . ibi juxta fuit quidam vicus; fuit diffactus quando rex fecit facere suum fossatum." P. 535.

6 Arch. Inst., Winchester volume, p. 51.