sicut scribitur in principio de Landeboc' This spurious charter of privileges, granted (it was said) by K. Cnut on his visit to the tomb of Edmund Ironside, 30 Nov. 1033, formed no part of the original book—it is not mentioned in the calendar of 1247—but was written in on a fly-leaf at the beginning.
The second reference occurs at the end of a charter of K. Edred (B. C. S. 867), granting Idmiston in Wilts to the thegn Wulfric. Here we find a note appended to say that, as there are three charters for this property, so there are three records of the bounds which may be read 'in libro qui dicitur land bok'. This ancient book, then, was still extant and in occasional use in the fourteenth century.[1]
Two other references to the Liber Terrarum are worth noting. They are found in the endorsements of Glastonbury charters preserved at Longleat. One is on Baldred's charter granting Pennard in a. d. 681 (B. C. S. 61), and runs thus: 'Carta Baldredi de Pennard et est septima in landbok.' This charter is a document written at the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century—probably an expansion of an earlier charter. The second is on a genuine charter of K. Edred (A.D. 955: B. C. S. 903): 'Carta Edredi regis de Pennard minster et est lxviii in landeboke.'
Each of these endorsements is in a hand of the thirteenth century. When we turn to the calendar of the Liber Terrarum, we find these two charters as the sixth and sixty-seventh entries respectively. The apparent discrepancy is explained by the fifth entry: 'Hedda episcopus de Lantokay, i. Leghe, dat. Glast. II.' The numeral at the end indicates that there were two charters in the book which referred to Bishop Haeddi's gift: these would be numbered v and vi, and so Baldred's charter would be no. vii and Edred' s no. lxviii, as stated in the endorsements.
At the end of the titles of the 136 charters contained in the Liber Terrarum stands another title: 'Nomina diversorum maneriorum pertinencium Glaston.' Possibly this pointed to an index locorum at the end of the volume. After this there follow in the Trinity MS Lists of Ancient Charters still existing at that date, and stated to be (as all the Saxon charters were) 'without seals':
abbey (20).
2. Of lands granted to subjects in the first instance, and still retained by the abbey (12).
3. Of lands granted direct, but no longer retained (15).
4. Of lands granted to subjects and believed to have been given to the abbey, but no longer retained (22).
In these lists the latest charters are eight of K. Ethelred, six of which refer to properties no longer held. A later heading, Antiqua Privilegia, introduces the titles of three spurious documents: the Great Privilege of
- ↑ The three Idmiston charters appear in the calendar of the Liber Terrarum together thus:
de Yfemestone dat. ^Elfswid.
Eddred de eodem dat. Wlfrico.
Idem de eodem dat. eidem.The spelling of the place-name suggests that the scribe did not find the book very 'legible' after all.
