Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 1.djvu/159

 IX.

valuable and interesting local information maybe obtained from the Anglo-Saxon grants of lands, of which a large collection, called "Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici," edited by that erudite Anglo-Saxon scholar J. M. Kemble, Esq., was published by the English Historical Society between 1839 and 1848.

These grants generally contain very precise descriptions of the boundaries of the lands granted; and it is at least curious to trace those boundaries after the lapse of a thousand years, on a modern map, and to remark how many of the ancient landmarks are still remaining in the names of places, farms, hills, valleys, mounds, roads, rivers, streams, trees, stones, and other remarkable objects, which in all ages have been used to point out the extent of landed possessions and jurisdictions.

Mr. Kemble, in his preface to the third volume of the "Codex," says:—"In general, certain well-defined natural objects, as a hill, a stream, or a remarkable tree, furnished the points by which the boundary-line was directed; when these were wanting, a hedge, a ditch, a pit or well, or the mound of an ancient warrior, served the purpose; even posts of wood and stone appear to have been common; and upon many of these it is pro-