Minor Queries.
_Gillingham._--Can you, or any of your correspondents, furnish me with
any historical or local data that may tend to identify the place where
that memorable council was convened, by which the succession to the
English crown was transferred from the Danish to the Saxon line?
Hutchins, in his _History of Dorset_ (Edw. II., 1813, vol. iii. p.
196.), says:
"Malmsbury[4] mentions a council held at Gillingham, in which
Edward the Confessor was chosen king. It was really a grand
council of the realm; but the generality of our historians place
it with more probability at London, or in the environs thereof."
[Footnote 4: Book ii. c. 12. p. 45.]
I am not aware of anything else that can be advanced in support of the
claims of the Dorset shire Gillingham to be the scene of this event
except it be the fact that a royal palace or hunting-seat there was the
occasional residence of the English kings early in the twelfth century,
and subsequently. I do not know whether its existence can be traced
prior to the Conquest; and unless that can be done, it is obviously of
no importance in the present inquiry. Now it had occurred to me that,
after all, Gillingham, near Chatham in _Kent_, may be the true locality;
but, unfortunately, my knowledge of that place is limited to the fact,
that our London letters, when directed without the addition of "Dorset,"
are usually sent to rusticate there for a day or two. Perhaps one of
your Kentish correspondents will favour me with some more pertinent
information.