[ iv ]
How far the Editor has ſucceeded in his attempt to apply the modern names to the antient, muſt be left to the judgment of his readers. He, by no means, conſiders the ſcheme perfect, though he has ſpared neither pains nor enquiries to render it ſo. The difficulties of forming an Index, of this kind, were greatly enhanced by the circumſtance of the Hundreds of this County being omitted in Domeſday. For, unfortunately, the Manors and Eſtates in Wiltſhire are not therein arranged under their reſpective Hundreds, as they are in many other Counties, and, therefore, it was ſometimes neceſſary for the Editor, to ſearch the county at large, for a ſynonymous appellation, when, if the place had been allotted to it's proper Hundred, the deſcription alone might have immediately led him to it's certain diſcovery.
The names of Winterbourn, Clive, Langford, &c. &c. ſo frequently occur in Domeſday, and are ſtill ſo frequently found in various parts of this County, that it would be incumbent on an Editor to be intimately acquainted with the actual ſurvey of every pariſh, and even of it's partial diviſions, before he could pretend to apply ſuch names, with preciſion, to their reſpective ſituations. But this difficulty may, in a great meaſure, be remedied with the aſſiſtance of the preſent
