they were recruited. During the long period of the occupation, therefore, they must have very considerably augmented the general population of the country as they settled down as colonists.

Now it is found that the names of rivers are in many instances derived from the names of the earliest settlers upon their banks. I do not, then, think it an improbable suggestion that our river Wandle should have derived its name from a legion of Vandals, who we know were stationed in England in considerable numbers. If we allow this to have been the case, the name Wandsworth is easily derived; for as "worth", in the AngloSaxon (according to Lysons), signifies a village or a shore, so to these later invaders the place would become known as "Vandalsworth", or the Vandals' village. The Rev. Isaac Taylor, in Words and Places, says "worth" denotes a place warded or protected.

The first known recorded mention of Wandsworth in the long story of the centuries carries us back to that remote period when the county of Surrey formed a portion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. According to Mr. W. H. Stevenson, in a letter to The Academy of February 1888, "there is extant a very early mention of Wandsworth in a contemporary charter of A.D. 693. It is in Domesday Book, however, that we find the first descriptive account of Wandsworth. At the time of the Conqueror's survey it was held by one William Fitzanculf; previously, however, in the days of King Edward the Confessor, it had been held by six socmen (socmanni), who are described as being free to remove whither they would. In speaking of this class of tenants Mr. Justice Stephens says, in his Commentary on the Laws of England, "these socmanni are supposed to have been derived from the superior class of Anglo-Saxon carls, and were perfectly free from all marks of villeinage. They are regarded as the root of a noble plant, the free socage tenants, or English yeomanry."

In the Survey Wandsworth was assessed at twelve hides. The ladies, perhaps, may like to know that a hide was so much land as could be ploughed with one plough, and was variously estimated, according to local usage, at from 60 to 80 or 100 acres. There were two halls, and

they were recruited. During the long period of the occupation, therefore, they must have very considerably augmented the general population of the country as they settled down as colonists.

Now it is found that the names of rivers are in many instances derived from the names of the earliest settlers upon their banks. I do not, then, think it an improbable suggestion that our river Wandle should have derived its name from a legion of Vandals, who we know were stationed in England in considerable numbers. If we allow this to have been the case, the name Wandsworth is easily derived; for as "worth", in the AngloSaxon (according to Lysons), signifies a village or a shore, so to these later invaders the place would become known as "Vandalsworth", or the Vandals' village. The Rev. Isaac Taylor, in Words and Places, says "worth" denotes a place warded or protected.

The first known recorded mention of Wandsworth in the long story of the centuries carries us back to that remote period when the county of Surrey formed a portion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. According to Mr. W. H. Stevenson, in a letter to The Academy of February 1888, "there is extant a very early mention of Wandsworth in a contemporary charter of A.D. 693. It is in Domesday Book, however, that we find the first descriptive account of Wandsworth. At the time of the Conqueror's survey it was held by one William Fitzanculf; previously, however, in the days of King Edward the Confessor, it had been held by six socmen (socmanni), who are described as being free to remove whither they would. In speaking of this class of tenants Mr. Justice Stephens says, in his Commentary on the Laws of England, "these socmanni are supposed to have been derived from the superior class of Angle free from all marks of the root of a noble pla lish yeomanry."

In the Survey W hides. The ladies, p

carls, and were perfectly They are regarded as cage tenants, or Eng

assessed at twelve to know that a hide hed with one plough, ding to local usage, at e were two halls, and

are really the title-deeds, and to enable the genealogist to sketch out the pedigrees of almost all the known families of the county down to the sixteenth century.

To write the history only of the western peninsula of the county, or Gowerland, with its varying fortunes, culminating in the remarkable charter of privileges granted by Bra ose, its chief lord, early in the fourteenth century, would have been an impossible task prior to the publication of these volumes. Again, the history of Margam was unsatisfactory and fragmentary until Mr. Clark first drew attention to it in the pages of the Archæologia Cambrensis. The charters, however, which are preserved among the Harleian collections in the British Museum, when set side by side with those in possession of the owner of the site, furnish enough material to construct pretty fairly the general history of what was once one of the most noble Cistercian Abbeys of Wales.

In the same manner the present work contains texts which throw new light upon the history of Neath and Ewenny, and even upon Llandaff itself. The credit which attaches to the preparation and publication of a series of county records such as this may, we hope, serve to stimulate others to imitate Mr. Clark's example. Brecknockshire, for example, is at present very poorly represented by any collection of printed deeds, and the same may be said, with more or less truth, for every county in Wales. A few years ago a small collection relating to Pembroke was published in our Journal, on the occasion of our Tenby Congress. With this exception we know of no other similar work. When it is considered that it is upon collections of early deeds that the historian and genealogist chiefly rely for trustworthy notices of events of local influence, and the descent of families, it will readily be conceded that it is no thankless task that Mr. Clark has performed in so able and conscientious a manner.

Archæological Congress at Moscow.-The Society of Naturalists of Moscow is organising two international congresses of (1), prehistoric anthropology; and (2), archæology, in that city; which will take place-(1), 13-20, and (2), 22-30 August. It is hoped that the attendance of delegates from kindred societies in England, at either of these meetings, may be facilitated; and we have much pleasure in inviting those of our members who desire to be present, either as delegates or as ordinary members, to communicate with the Hon. Secretaries.

THE JOURNAL

OF THE

British Archaeological Association.

SEPTEMBER 1892.

SOME MEMORIALS OF WANDSWORTH,
SURREY.

BY G. PATRICK, ESQ., A.R.1.B.A.

(Read 19th February 1890.)

Or the people who dwelt in the district of Wandsworth in prehistoric times there are some evidences in the interesting collection of weapons and other implements kindly lent to me to illustrate this paper by Mr. Lawrence of Wandsworth town, who discovered most of them himself, and has promised to give the Meeting some description of them. They consist of arrow-heads, knives, scrapers, and other implements of flint, found on St. Ann's Hill and elsewhere in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, and are probably relics of that far-off time when the mammoth and other wild animals roamed over the district, and the river Thames extended, in a broad sheet of water, over the low-lying lands of Fulham and Putney, Wandsworth and Battersea.

You may also see, at the British and other Museums, vestiges of a later age in the local history of Wandsworth; of a period, probably, not long anterior to the coming of the Romans, bearing mute but eloquent testimony to the belief that the district was frequented by the Britons; if, indeed, they had not established settlements here. These consist of the usual implements of war and the chase, instruments of domestic use, and objects of personal adornment, such as are generally associated with this early race; and they comprise such things as bronze celts and palstaves, bronze swords and

1892

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