Newsletter 43 - Spring 2005

Editorial

C K Currie

It is to the north and east of the county that my contributors take us in this newsletter.  Ro Leamon has been one of the few researchers in the north who has published regularly over the years, and her views are always of interest. This time she discusses the name of Knightsbridge and its connection with the enigmatic Knights Hospitallers, one of the medieval period’s more interesting religious orders.  Over in the east near Havant, the indefatigable John Pile continues his researches on the origins of common pasture, and suggests a link between Saxon commoners and their Roman counterparts.  The use of common pasture is a somewhat overlooked subject in the UK generally, but I am certain John’s work in the southeast of our county will be seen by posterity as having made a valuable contribution to the national picture on the subject.

Finally, we move to the subject of errors.  In the last issue the illustration to the article by Currie and Wade was captioned ‘Detail of antiquarian print of 1860’.  I have no idea where this caption came from, as it did not leave my office in this form.  As numerous readers would have known, it was a detail from the 1588 map of Hursley parish that hangs in Hursley House, the home of IBM.  The nice clear version offered on this occasion was photographed by Sue Sutherland, Landscape Architect for the Hursley Park project described in the article.

How this mistaken caption came about is beyond my understanding.  Section editors pass their copy on to the overall Newsletter editor and from there it goes on to the printers.  Mistakes can happen during this transit.  Here it is clearly demonstrated that it can even happen to the editor’s own pieces.  My apologies to those readers who noticed the error and were confused by it. (Sorry for muddling ‘the editor’s own pieces’ – Newsletter overall editor)

On the bright side, it gives me a chance to say something about the map itself as it is one of the finest early maps in the county, and is capable of elucidating a number of local mysteries, as is shown by the little piece below.

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