a eR 5 a, 3 a a2 x ar Soe +. ~s K A *~ ee oo i oy, ? > hes vty?) Mies . pr) + > 7! a Dy cK * AN ie fy r a > > G , > fete , 29 eter tng we ane ORE ONS YE Mtr ra or — Dh Onn Sy THE WILTSHIRE Arebeologeal ont Botoeal Wistory MAGAZINE. Published under the Birectton of the Society FORMED IN THAT COUNTY A,D. 1853. VOL. III. DEVIZES: Henry Burt, Saint Joun Srreerr. LONDON: Bett & Datpy, 186, Freer Srreer; J. R. Surry, 36, Sono Savane. 1857. 4 ‘DEVIZES: PRINTED BY HENRY BULL, SAINT JOHN STREET. a¢ a(S * CONTENTS OF VOL. III. fo. DU. PAGE AccouNT OF THE THIRD GENERAL MEETING AT CHIPPENHAM, Sept. 11th, 12th, and 13th, 1855— LT AR Re eee Oe ENE Rite oe eee et PN Re 4 Articles exhibited at the Temporary Museum................ R=: 13 On the History of Chippenham: By the Rey. J. E. Jackson ........ 19- 46 On Edington Church: By the Rev. A. FANE.............. Jone pAer 47- 57 On Parochial Histories: By the Rey. Joun WILKINSON ............ 57- 67 On Lanhill Barrow near Chippenham ; and the Battles of Cynuit and Mihandun: by Dr: True aM +. sel CBN eset PL ee: Pee 67- 86 Memoir of George Montagu the Ornithologist, with Pedigree: By W. Cunnineton, F.G.S. ....... On Pilgrims’ Signs found at Salisbury: By J. Y. Akerman, F.S.A... .94- 97 Coffin Plates of Godolphin, recently discovered at East Coulston: By is ey: HNWRED, WEBEON. © Soot alne scx beet cee eee oe. tia ee 97-106 The Old Market House and Great Fire at Marlborough: By F. A. WRERENGTON HISGs "2.5 Qs. be te pone eae es sant tied oy fe Lage Lvs 106-114 Ancient Seals of the Borough of Marlborough: By ditto ....... ites 114 Christopher Wren of East Knoyle, D.D.: By J. Warten, Esq....... 115-119 Who destroyed the Images at the West End of Salisbury Cathedral ? Pee MUG oc osc ohe'setafase endo 2 EA te cece dad: RROD. CAO 119 Wutsuire Nores AND QUERIES :— - Dr, rinchclift’s Schools Salisbury: :<:s.:2s.issscsq 2321326 tooo eee 125 Sena Parks Acoident-at. 5... 0 oths..+ oe cas oko cee e cent 125 Waltshire during the Civil Warkt..c2 <>. >. Ses ols se ee ns oe *... 125 PATULEN i DOCUIMENES,'.'s/c's cls 01 feet: (als cieioid ita a cialstots ies erateiety oe ae 126 Bilton Winibhler ater... cn. /\ ap Se R PAT ab ls os. > weiss weg’ aigieuee 127 Contributions to the Museum and Library .............. 22.0200, 128 iene of PAlteration in’ Rule DV). 2% wis pabe toot!) . 2.6. aiidanws : 128 Pret Mam bards). VSL e Te. Ty tok Gad SG HSA DOSS | a as i. MS AUANIOE: LLCO LM a o/s! aeleta ts x eh Si Ais eRe. ae dig eiomyy lee heise iv. fo. DH. The Great Bustard: By the Rev. A. C. SMITH ................4.-: 129-145 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities, as exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe: By G. P, Scropn, Esq., M.P....... 145-163 On a Cromlech-Tumulus called Lugbury, near Littleton Drew: And Note on the name of Drew: By Joun Tuurnam, M.D., F.S.A..... 164-177 Descent of the Manor of Draycot Cerne; with Pedigree of Cerne and Heryng: By Cuartzs Epwarp Lone, Esq..................000- 178-181 Bells of the County of Wilts, with their Inscriptions. (No. 3.) By the Rey. W. C. Loxkis 7 HESS GEIP COE Gk ORR RI OALT RAUMM II 182-184 iv. CONTENTS.—VOL. III. PAGE Account of a Barrow on Roundway Hill, near Devizes, opened in April, 1655: By Mr. W.‘Connuveron, F.G.8.... ie e00 5 i cee ies 185-188 Sheriffs of Wiltshire: By the Rev. J. E. JACKSON..........-. 00005: 189-235 Devizes Seals: By Mr. EDWARD KITE. ....... cesses ce ceeccccees 236-238 Font in the Church of St. George, Preshute: By ditto.............. 239 Pilgrims to Rome from the County of Wilts, 4.p. 1504: By ditto .... 241 The Office of Awakener: By F. A. CaARRINGTON, Esq.............-. 242 Foster of Marlborough, with Pedigree: By the Rev. Jomn Warp.... 244 The Despencers’ Estates in Wilts: By J. WAYLEN, Esq............. 245 Wuitrsuire Norrs AND QUERIES :— On ‘‘Carduus Tuberosus:” By T, B. FuoweEr, Esq............... 249 Wamily Of NOS... 2... ccc ese e ec eee ts cece been cee ns «oe mele 251 Contributions to the Museum and Library...............00eeeeeeee 252 Ao. EX. AccounT oF THE FourTH GENERAL MEETING, AT WARMINSTER, Stny6th, and. ‘Tih Angust, 1857 6T v.35 os. vs beds aoconmneie Bere 253 Articles exhibited at the Temporary Museum.............+.. 266 An Address on Archeology: By the Rey. J. O. PrcTon ............ 271-280 Draycot Foliot Church, (Destroyed:) By F. A. CARRINGTON, Esq.... 280 The History of Longleat: By the Rey. J. E. JACKSON.............. 281-312 On the Music of the Middle Ages: By Jon Lamperr, Esq. ........ 313-336 On the Ornithology of Wilts (Falconide): By the Rev. A. C. SmmrH 337-357 An Account of Colerne Church: By E. W. Gopwin, Esq. .......... 358-366 Notice of the Botany of Wiltshire: By T. B. FLower, Esq. ........ 366 Mysterious Death of a Lord-Lieutenant of Wilts: By J. WayLEn, Esq. 367-376 WiurTsHrre NoTEes AND QUERIES :— Wiltshire during the Civil Wars; Accident to Charles Dryden at Charlton Park; near Malmsbary ©. sisis. 6 <:e/stelete oom wisitervicle » ole leis 376 Glothmalanpitemp: Henry Vill... ... civ eee sens snes secs ache 378 Birthplace of William Pitt, First Earl of Chatham .............. 379 Noyes Family... . 2.5.26... een e cece ees Sele wale cede ovine cane 380 » Kilustrations. Map of Ethandun, p.75. Bratton Camp,77. Bury Wood Camp, 79. Pilgrims’ Signs, 94. Old Market House and Seals of Marlborough, 106. Old Belfry of Salisbury Cathedral, 124. Cantelow the Devizes Wizard, 126. The Great Bustard, p. 129. Tumulus, with fallen Cromlech, near Littleton Drew, 164. Ground Plan of ditto, 172. Seals of Devizes, 236. Font in the Church of St. George, Preshute, Wilts, 239, Longleat House, p. 281. Seal of the Priory of Longleat, 283. Murder of Thos. Thynne, Esq., in Pall-Mall, 298. Illustrations of Medieval Music, 3386, Colerne Church, Ground Plan, 358. Ditto, East End, exterior, 359. Ditto, Sedilia in Chancel, 361. Ditto, Section through Chancel looking North (restored), 362, Accident to Charles Dryden at Charlton Park, 377. 3 ” WILTSHIRE Arehwalogieal ont Batural Wistory MAGAZINE. No. VII. JUNE, 1856. Vou. III. Contents. PAGE AccouNT oF THE THIRD GENERAL MreEtine at CHIPPENHAM, Sept. 11th, 12th, and 13th, 1855— cE. ST ROE OC Ste 8 PRR A Oe as Articles exhibited at the Temporary Museum...................5 13 On the History of Chippenham: By the Rey. J. E. Jackson........ 19- 46 On Edington Church: By the Rev. A. FANE...........0..000eeeee 47- 57 On Parochial Histories: By the Rev. Joun WILKINSON............ 57- 67 On Lanhill Barrow near Chippenham ; and the Battles of Cynuit and Bextra Dy. Dr. PrammeMney. — 6 3)., « ae Gch « oieaisistni eee coe «cits 67- 86 Memoir of George Montagu the Ornithologist, with Pedigree: By W. MM UNCSEON, MER Sei ead 5 Ser Mt arora sb aids < CuAod-«w ees Naa 87- 94 On Pilgrims’ Signs found at Salisbury: By J. Y. AKERMAN, F.S.A... 94- 97 Coffin Plates of Godolphin, recently discovered at East Coulston: By the eee SO WARD: WiILAO Nips Meee reeds Fe, S20 Mas cvs es gets 97-106 The Old Market House and Great Fire at Marlborough: By F. A. ecm nsrtON, « Bikey Stes. pone sce eee ioe atic ov aw see: 106-114 Ancient Seals of the Borough of Marlborough: By ditto............ 114 Christopher Wren of East Knoyle, D.D.: By J. WaxtEn, Esq....... 115-119 Who destroyed the Images at the West End of Salisbury Cathedral ? TN Go Mele Nato areata te cet 3 > Suiie s ORE aioli 119 WitrsHire Nores AnD QUERIES :— Dr. Hincheliff’s School, Salisbury..............0.000Beece sees 125 Peoumuion Park, apcident as. ee koe woe ie os wale 125 Wiltshire during the Czyil Wars...........0......-40.-sgn- +c 125 Pesieretnly Piast once Gin, t's< «ins vic ADEs swale as ee 126 DINE NEMS 9 tte. 5 1 Se oes Mon pg aloo» vo de ce 127 Contributions to the Museum and Library..................00000. 128 Mmemearet Alteration gi Rule V ge cc euiceh dice cco: ¥ odin «aciee'ne « 128 7 EE OES i a a. eae ee «Ca i MN Da, ha PAT ANS) Cook oe tae eo re ek lv ILLUSTRATIONS, : PAGE gl ne ne an S| ae 75 Se CD oy sam coe ated ak cede. ¢ «ae hes Gh Buea Wand Canin. AMG 2246. Ree edo Mase. % rte m i SE eae ie. gy ee 94 Old Market House and Seals of Marlborough,............. 106 Old Belfry of Salisbury Cathedral ......¥ aR Ee . 124 Cantelow the Devizes Wizard.............ce.......005- 126 DEVIZES: * bd Henry Burt, Sarnt Jonn Srrerr, LONDON: G, Bert, 186, Firer Srreer; J. R. Suirn, 36, Sono Square. * at 7 Tal ial’ hems: 1 ij a ats fit) Os nd bad ly ” Hea bya at s ! - \ ea ee Ne aly ‘f ict ie we tom lefl Meda Hiatt , tnt: rae hatte’ ee ia my tae tet gyhuh i See eRe ees a J tole se tea, ak, NaS a ‘col te ie ses eh a ‘7s A eee ee as - pa He se Oe wn Te a ee Das he - ide . 7 “yoda sik eit ‘date wai? A yer bas op antl eh tt se 7 (Liat Fee th 2) hist ah 4 Ae ee te alam ais ats PORN a. re . ed ot: uty 7 PA Fy ¥ irs Lie Ste “i ; . 2 PETE Ni ¥ RM, Teo “ " * jaa! a — we , (Ati ii a WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. patel 3) ork net, nihor tang, ‘‘MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR ONUS.”—Ovid. THE THIRD GENERAL MEETING Wiltshire Archeological and Patural Pistory Society, HELD AT CHIPPENHAM, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, September 11th, 12th, and 18th, 1855. PRESIDENT OF THE MEETING, Gerorce Pouterr Scropz, Esa., M.P. THE proceedings opened with a Meeting at the New Town Hall, lent for the occasion by Joseph Neeld, Esq., M.P. The attendance was exceedingly large and influential, including the Lord Lieutenant of the county, the Marquis of Lansdowne; the greater part of the Members of Parliament for the various towns in North Wilts; almost all the Clergy and Gentry for many miles around, with numbers from a distance. Soon after one o’clock, the noble Marquis having entered the room, Mr. G. P. Scrope, M.P. addressed the company as follows: —My Lord, ladies and gentlemen,—I am really ashamed to appear before you in my present position, in the first place because this chair by right should belong to our noble Patron, who has been kind enough to come amongst us now for the third time,—but he tells me it would be inconvenient for him to remain here for any length of time, and therefore, though feeling wholly unfitted to assume the duties of the chair, I have consented todoso. And I have another reason for feeling greater than usual diffidence on this occasion, VoL 11I.—No. VII. B 2 Third General Meeting. and that is, owing to the overwhelming intelligence we have heard this morning, which really almost takes away ones breath and ones power of considering any other subject, (loud cheering), and es- pecially as probably many here, as well as myself, have relatives engaged in the struggles in the Crimea, about whose fate they must be exceedingly anxious, and which anxiety is sufficient to prevent their taking much interest in battles fought three or four centuries ago, and questions relating to family history and local topography. Notwithstanding, I will do my best in introducing the report, which one of our Secretaries, Mr. Lukis, will presently read to you. You are aware that we are now assembled for the purpose of holding the third annual meeting of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society. You will shortly hear the report; but I think I may so far anticipate the tenor of it as to assure you it is of a most satisfactory nature, and that the members of the Society may rest assured that we have made from the first continual progress; and that on the whole we may consider the Society as established on a satisfactory basis, and to an extent quite as great as the most ardent supporters of it could have anticipated. (Cheers). It will not on this occasion be necessary for me to dwell at all on the advantages to be derived from the studies which it is the object of our institution to promote and encourage. Every one who takes an interest in his native country, must feel anxious to become acquainted with all those material evidences, upon which its history is founded. The facts which every historian is bound to know, are derived in a great degree from objects which the archz- ologist brings together and secures. The national MSS. of a country, the spots on which great events have taken place, the dwellings which have been inhabited by personages of historical importance, the buildings which piety or superstition has raised in former days, and even the decorations, clothing, armour, ornaments, coins and medals of former generations compose the real materials of history, and by giving us an insight into the manners, customs, and habits of those times, form records as important as the account of battles and sieges, and the intrigues of monarchs and statesmen. To supply these evidences is the object of the Archeologist. (Cheers). As to _Mr. Poulett Scrope’s Address. 8 the second object which this Society has in view, namely, to en- courage the study of Natural History, it is quite as interesting and important. We should all know something of the beautiful world in which we live. We are scarce worthy to live in a world so replete with objects calculated to excite our admiration and grati- tude, unless we feel an interest and desire to become acquainted, as far as opportunity serves us, with the wonders of the animate and inanimate creation; with the miracles of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. (Cheers). Therefore I think you will agree with me, in saying that this Society is seeking to encourage studies, which are not altogether useless and vain. All this is very trite, but I know true; and if true of general, it is much more true and forcible with regard to the study of Joca/ history,—the Archeology and Natural History of each province of the county; and to that especially our experience and studies have been directed. All this, I say, is very trite, and I must apologize for making such observa- tions, but I trust the truth of them will come home to every one who will examine the remarkable objects that are brought together in this room, and the adjoining ones, or who will accompany us in our excursions during the next two or three days, to objects of interest in the neighbourhood. It has been asked why we selected Chippenham as our place of meeting this year. People have said, “ what is there at Chippenham deserving the attention of Archz- ologists ? we only know Chippenham as having a railway station, and sending two members to Parliament.”’ But the railway station is not so unimportant a thing as some may suppose; but for the railway station I believe we should not have brought together such a company as I now see before me. And then as to the members for Chippenham, we owe to the munificence of one of them the very handsome room in which we are assembled. (Cheers). But really I think I may promise myself that in the course of the next two or three days, ladies and gentlemen who have come to Chip- penham, with the object of making themselves acquainted with the Archeology of the neighbourhood, will not be disappointed. I think those who listen to the paper that will presently be read by our accomplished Secretary, Mr. Jackson, will think there is a good a2 + Third General Meeting. deal to interest them even in connection with the town of Chip- penham. And with regard to the neighbourhood, those who will accompany the learned Recorder of Devizes this evening to the “ Abbeys of Lacock and Stanley, and the Priory of Lockswell,” will find that there are undoubtedly objects of great interest to be met with here as elsewhere, and, notwithstanding that we have not at Chippenham an Old Sarum, a Stonehenge, an ancient Castle, nor a Cathedral, as at those towns in which we have formerly met, yet we shall find that there are many objects of interest in this neighbourhood, as well as in those. We shall have the opportunity also, of opening one or two remarkable barrows ;—one of them “ Hubba’s Lowe,’’ which marks the site of a very remarkable battle between the Saxons and the Danes, as the result of which Alfred took possession of the British throne. There are other interesting places to be visited, besides several churches; Lord Methuen has kindly opened Corsham Court to our inspection, and another noble lord, our Patron, has had the kindness and generosity to invite the members and subscribers to visit his house and grounds, (cheers), where they will have the opportunity of seeing the per- fection to which high art can attain, under the patronage of the most consummate taste. Iam sure those who are assembled here, and look around this room, who listen to the papers that will be read, and follow our excursions, will not be disappointed. The difficulty will be to find time to inspect the objects of interest that will be presented. With these remarks I beg to introduce Mr. Lukis, who will read the report of the Society for the last twelve months, and thereby give you some idea of our position and progress. REPORT. “The Committee of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society, in presenting their annual Report, deem that it will be sufficient on the present occasion, to place before the meeting a brief statement of the position of the Society, at the close of the second year of its existence. It has made a most satisfactory progress since its formation in the year 1853. At the period of the Inaugural Meeting in the Society’s Report. 5 October of that year, the members numbered 137. At our second general meeting, held in Salisbury last year, they reached the number of 281; and up to the present time the total number of persons who have been admitted is 375, being an increase of 94 during the last twelve months. We have to regret the loss by decease of 4 Life Members, and of 3 Annual Subscribers, and by withdrawal or removal from the county of 13 Annual Subscribers ; leaving a total at the present time of 355, of whom 20 are Life Members. With reference to our financial position, your Committee have to report that the subscriptions and donations have amounted, during the year, to £354 15s. 7d.; the disbursements to £227 14s. 2d. ; we have in hand, £134 18s. 1ld., and arrears of subscriptions, £97 10s. 6d. Many subscriptions having continued unpaid, it was resolved at a committee meeting held in Devizes, June 20th, 1855, that forms of receipt should be printed and supplied to the local secretaries, who were also requested to collect subscriptions from members residing in their respective districts. By these means many arrears and subscriptions have been gathered in, which it would have been found difficult and troublesome to obtain in any other way. The Committee desire to impress upon the consideration of the members the necessity of their zealous co-operation. The objects which the Society has in view are so extensive, viz.—the collection of accurate information on the Archeology, Ecclesiology, and Natyral History of the entire county, that without such co-opera- tion, it will be impossible for the Committee to prosecute their labours with success, or to accomplish that which the members in general expect from them. We look to you for materials for our Magazine, and we would even invite those gentlemen residing in the county, or possessing subjects of interest relating to it, who are not members of the Society, to communicate with us. It is sometimes not convenient, or possible, for them to incur the risk and expense of printing their collections, whereas at a trifling cost to themselves for postage, and by means of our Magazine, they may make known much very valuable information. However essential the subscrip- tions of the members may be for the support of the Society, its 6 Third General Meeting. labours can only be properly continued, and its objects successfully attained, by the intelligent co-operation of your minds. Whilst, therefore, the objects which the Society has in view, would be greatly facilitated by a stricter attention to the rule which relates to the regular payment of annual subscriptions, the publications themselves would be rendered more valuable and interesting. It is to be regretted that several works of interest which were alluded to at our former general meetings, as desirable to be pub- lished, have not been undertaken in consequence of the non-payment of arrears.” At the conclusion of the Report, the President called upon the Rev. J. E. Jackson to read his Paper ‘On the History of Chip- penham,” printed in a subsequent page. The town being one of those in the northern part of the county, which had not hitherto been made the subject of close topographical research, the greater part of the information contained in this paper was new, and ap- peared to be received by the audience with much satisfaction. At its conclusion The Marquis of Lanspowne said he had heard with very great interest the ample account of Chippenham which had just been read, and he wished to detain them for one moment in reference to it. They must be aware of the vast amount of research, labor, and diligence, which Mr. Jackson had bestowed on the subject; and certainly the history of any district was never more fully opened and distinctly traced, than that of Chippenham had been to-day; and they were indebted to him for the interest it attached to that meeting. The neighbourhood of Chippenhain having never been explored before, this essay would remain as a permanent record, both as to the families and localities of the place. He was sure they would allow him to propose that the thanks of the meeting be presented to Mr. Jackson. The Present said that for his part he did not anticipate such an account as they had now heard of Chippenham and its locality, —not one word of which he had ever heard before, and which he believed must have been new to every one present. Third General Meeting. 7 The Rev. J. Wiikiyson, of Broughton Gifford, then read a paper on “Parochial Iistorics,” the purport of which was to recom- mend that (under the sanction and direction of the Bishop), a history of each parish should be compiled by its clergyman, the whole, when finished, forming a complete county history. Asa precedent for this, he referred largely to a “History of Scotland,” that had been compiled in this way, under the supervision of the Kirk Session. The thing was perfectly practicable, the clergy were the best, and indeed the only qualified persons to write such parochial histories; the scheme had the sanction of the Bishop; and he (Mr. Wilkinson) hoped to see it speedily carried out. This paper which will also be found in ezfenso, in the present number, closed the morning’s proceedings. After inspecting the articles in the Museum, the company dined together at the Angel Inn. About 150 ladies and gentlemen assembled under the lively presi- dency of H. A. Merewether, Esq., Recorder of Devizes. At the evening meeting in the Town Hall, Mr. Scrope having again taken the chair, the Rev. Prebendary Fane read a paper on Edington Church, and Mr. Merewether another on the Abbeys of Lacock and Stanley, and the Priory of Lockswell. SECOND DAY—WEDNESDAY. It had been doubted whether Chippenham would be a favorable spot to be selected for the meeting of an Archeological Association, the town itself being certainly not rich in objects of curious interest. But the experiment proved successful beyond all anticipation. As a central position, easily accessible by railways, with a neighbour- hood abounding in resident influential gentry, and by no means destitute of antiquities of various kinds; the result showed, that, perhaps no better place of meeting could have been selected. The time was limited to three days, whereas, it turned out that a week would scarcely have sufficed for visiting, in detail, all that the bill of fare presented for the entertainment of the company. Perhaps no holiday was ever more thoroughly enjoyed than Wednesday. The noble owner of Bowood had announced his in- tention of receiving the Society, of which he is Patron; and never was intention more hospitably fulfilled, 8 Third General Meeting. The place and hour of meeting having been announced, the excursionists were left to choose their own course thither, amongst the several routes pointed out in the programme. Some took the way by Corsham Court, which, by the kindness of Lord Methuen, was thrown open for inspection. The celebrated collection of pic- tures was, as might be expected, the chief point of attraction, but the recent addition of several fine rooms and halls, has enabled his Lordship to set forth a number of other interesting objects, with the examination of which the visitors were highly gratified. The grounds also, around the house, filled with fine cedars, and forest trees of many kinds, of which the noble owner is a most diligent protector, combine to render Corsham Court one of the most com- plete of English baronial residences. Lacock Abbey was the next rendezvous. The peculiarity of this house consists in its being, in some respects, unaltered since the days when it was occupied by a convent of nuns. It has indeed undergone considerable change; but the cloistered quadrangle stands almost exactly as it used to be; and some parts also of the chapel, and the kitchen still remain. Mr. Fox Talbot and his family were absent from home; but a general order had been left for unlimited range over the apartments and pleasure grounds ; and domestics were everywhere in attendance, who, with an unwearied civility, continued for some hours to point out to the numerous visitors, every thing that was worth seeing and that they wished to see. They had however, another, and a most agreeable cicerone in Mr. H. Merewether, whose residence being close to Lacock, enabled him to undertake the office of interpreter, with a more familiar knowledge of the subject than others could be expected to possess; and we need not add, in a vein of humorous description, that in no degree diminished the pleasure of the listeners. From Lacock Abbey the company proceeded up Bowden Hill, through Captain Gladstone’s grounds, Spye Park, and thence to Bowood. Here they were received with a cordial welcome by the noble Marquis and his family, and were immediately introduced into the house, to examine at leisure the multitude of rare and beautiful ~ Third General Meeting. 9 works of art with which it is so richly stored. The Earl of Shelburne and the Rev. Mr. Guthrie, of Calne, chaplain to Lord Lansdowne, kindly attended to point out and explain the pictures; but the throng was so great that it was not easy to come within reach of them, nor indeed, had the whole day been given to this occupation alone, would it have been a moment too long for the purpose ; for few are the mansions of our nobility or gentry, that can vie with Bowood in the variety and number of works of art, all of the most tasteful selection, that have been gathered together under this roof by its present distinguished owner. But other occupation now awaited the archeologists; and the ringing of a bell summoned them to make acquaintance with the interior of an immense tent, erected upon the lawn. The noble Marquis, followed by the members of his family, and personal friends, led the way, and in a few moments the large company, not less than 300, found themselves seated at an exquisite entertainment. When it was over the noble host addressed the company in a few words. Taking advantage of the news just arrived of the fall of Sebastopol, he called upon them to drink the health of the Queen and the Emperor, and the united gallant armies and navies of England and France. One more toast was given, by Mr. G. P. Scrope, the health of the noble Marquis himself, who, in acknowledging it, expressed the real pleasure which he felt in seeing his visitors, and kindly requested them to amuse themselves in and about his house and pleasure grounds, so long as might be agreeable; and they would find tea and coffee ready for them in the course of the evening. Of this permission the company then availed themselves; and we can truly say that never was a holiday more admirably conducted by a host, or more thoroughly enjoyed by the guests. To name the company is impossible, for it included the whole neighbourhood. In the evening the Mayor and Corporation of Chippenham gave a Conversazione at the Town Hall. The large room, as well as a smaller one adjoining, was filled with various illustrations of Wiltshire antiquities, the examination of which supplied great amusement to a crowded assembly. The Rev. Mr. Bingham, of Redcliffe Church, read a portion of a paper on ecclesiastical sculp- C 10 Third General Meeting. ture ; after which John Lambert, Esq. entertained the company with an exceedingly interesting lecture on the Music of the Middle Ages, of which he gave practical examples by the aid of a piano- forte, accompanied by his own excellent voice. This lecture being quite novel, and most scientifically treated, was received with universal approbation. THIRD DAY—THURSDAY. The example of Wednesday was followed ; and, indeed, the pro- fusion of kind hospitality that attended this congress at Chippenham, was almost bewildering. On Thursday, the signal for assembling was hoisted at Castle Combe, by Mr. G. P. Serope; and at Draycote House by Viscount Wellesley. Those who chose the former, took the route by Lanhill Farm, at Allington, occupied by Mr. Edward Little, and the property of Mr. Neeld. Here was to be examined an ancient tumulus, known by the name of “ Hubba’s Lowe,” and supposed to be the mound under which had been buried the famous Danish General of that name, who, according to one of our chroni- cles, had been killed in the reign of King Alfred, in a fight close to Chippenham. The “Lowe” (which means mound), had been already laid open, and several graves brought to light. They consist of rude cells, formed with large rough slabs of the country; but the mound which was originally very long and of oval shape, being formed entirely of stones, all laid with the hand and not promis- * cuously thrown together, had been so sadly pulled to pieces, many years ago, by non-archzxological surveyors of the highways, for the sake of the materials, that we are afraid Hubba’s remains have long since disappeared, even if they were ever there, which is doubtful. Mr. Scrope explained to the company the history of the spot and the tradition, as old as Leland (1540), which assigned it to the Danish leader of this name. But Dr. Thurnam, of Devizes, who has given much attention to these subjects, expressed his opinion to be that it was a British tumulus, and had probably been erected long before the Danish invasion. It was one that had required considerable time and trouble in erection, and therefore not likely to have been placed over a chieftain fallen in battle, whose burial Fs Third General Meeting. 11 would be hasty. A few fragments of human bones and a flint arrow head were found upon this occasion. From “ Hubba’s Lowe”’ the party set forth to inspect the site of Slaughterford and Bury Camp, which another tradition pronounces to have been the scene of a battle with the Danes, as well as Yatton Down, which Whitaker considers to have been the Ethandun of Alfred’s great victory, although it is placed by others either at Headington, near Calne, or, with more probability, at Edington, near Westbury. But the rain coming on put an end to this exploration; so the party proceeded at once to Castle Combe. Here, notwithstanding the weather, the more zealous, ladies as well as gentlemen, visited the fine old posi- tion on which the ancient Castle of the Dunstanvilles formerly stood, lying about half a mile beyond the present mansion house; and thence crossed the valley which forms the pleasure grounds, to inspect a cromlech and mound, near the Foss Road, known by the name of Lugbury. Labourers had been already at work, and had arrived at three interments, nearly perfect. The company then adjourned to a tent in Mr. Scrope’s grounds, where about a hundred sat down to an excellent collation, highly consolatory under the adverse circumstances of the weather. This being disposed of, Dr. Thurnam entered into an explanation of the discoveries at Lugbury eromlech ; and with numerous addresses from Mr. Scrope, the Rev. _ Mr. Fane, of Warminster, and Mr. Britton, who, at the age of 85, made a gallant response to the toast of the ‘Beauties of Wiltshire,” the afternoon passed pleasantly away. They then inspected Castle Combe church, where Mr. Fane gave an extempore lecture for nearly an hour, upon architecture, as illustrated by the building before them. Mr. Lambert, of Salisbury, was so kind as to continue the subject of his lecture on Medieval Music, by further illustration upon the church organ. After these agreeable efforts, and further refresh- ments at the house, this party returned at night to Chippenham. Another party had gone, either direct or taking a tour by Braden- stoke Abbey or Malmesbury, to Draycote House, where they first inspected the church. This is an interesting building, chiefly of early English character, and contains several memorials of the c 2 12 Third General Meeting. Cerne and Long families; also a brass of the date of about 1380. They then proceeded to the house, where, in the absence of the noble owner, Lord Wellesley, unluckily detained from home, they were by his special direction most sumptuously entertained. After the repast had been duly discussed, Mr. Sergeant Wrangham called upon the company to make their hearty acknowledgments for the noble Viscount’s hospitable entertainment, which they did with a thorough cordiality. Draycote House contains many objects of interest, such as paintings, ancient and modern; a collection of fine fossils, some beautiful Sevres china, a pair of curious fire-place “dogs,” and candelabra, presented to the Longs by King Charles II. after the Restoration. The Park is one of the finest in North Wiltshire, richly studded with ancient oaks, and crowning a hill from which is an extensive prospect. The party then returned home, and with these various and well sustained festivities, ended this annual meeting of the Wiltshire archeologists. Other excursions had been projected to Chalfield, South Wraxhall, and Kingston House, Bradford; and hospitalities were kindly pro- vided by the Rev. J. Wilkinson, of Broughton, and other gentlemen: but it was found absolutely impossible in the time allowed for the meeting, for the visitors to avail themselves thereof. 13 @ List of Articles Exhibited IN THE TEMPORARY MUSEUM AT THE NEW TOWN HALL, CHIPPENHAM, September 11th, 1855. Those marked with an Asterisk have been presented to the Society. By G. Povurerr Scropz, Ese., Castle Combe :— The Gore Chartulary, a fine illustrated folio volume, in the handwriting of Thomas Gore, of Alderton, the Wiltshire Antiquary, who died in 1684 ; containing the genealogy of his own family, and copies of all the ancient charters and other deeds, relating to their estates in several parishes, as Luckington, Alderton, Hullavington, West Kington, &c. See Mr. Scrope’s ‘* History of Castle Combe,” p. 311. Copy of the ‘‘ History of Castle Combe.” “Geology of France.” By Huneerrorp Porzen, Ese., Rodbourne :— Bronze figure of a knight on horseback. By P. A. Lovett, Ese., Colepark, Malmesbury :— A magnificent MS. Latin Bible in 4 volumes, large folio, written on vellum, with the initial letters, &c. exquisitely illuminated. By Rey. J. E. Jackson, Leigh Delamere:— Portrait of Margaret [Halliday], wife of Sir Edward Hungerford, of Corsham, K.B., and foundress of Corsham Almshouse, who died a.pD. 1672. Paintings:—Of Farleigh Castle as it appeared in 1645; interior of the Chapel in its present state ; old Manor House at Norton, near Malmesbury, and South Wraxhall Manor House. Two Drawings, showing the exterior and interior of Leigh Delamere old Church, taken down in 1846. Also portion of an ancient Cope of velvet, with embroidery, representing the Crucifixion, now used as a pulpit cloth in Hullavington church. On this, the Redeemer is represented in the centre suspended on the cross, with angels catching the blood in chalices; the velvet ground is powdered over with angels with outspread wings, standing on stars of Bethlehem, with fleurs-de-lis, and a curiously flowered pattern. See ‘‘Archwological Jour- nal, Vol I., p. 330. 14 The Museum. By Rey. W. C. Luxts, F.S.A., Collingbourne Ducis:— Small drinking Cup of coarse pottery, and Bead of Kimmeridge Coal, found, with the body of an infant, in a barrow at Collingbourne Ducis. Seven Beads, (two of jet), portion of a Bone instrument, fragments of coarse Pottery, and aremarkable human Jaw, from other barrows; also an ancient British Silver Coin, and several others, together with a Flint Celt, all found in the same Parish. Bronze, Iron, and Ivory articles, found in a Roman Villa at Great Bedwyn. By F, A. Carrineton, Ese., Ogbourne St. George :-— An extensive and miscellaneous collection of Antiquities, consisting of MSS., impressions from Monumental Brasses, Coins, Medals, &c. MSS.—An illuminated Breviary, temp. Edw. III. A small volume of Law Forms, temp. Edw. II. Lists of Wilts Magistrates, temp. Rich. III. and Charles II. Brass Rubbings.—Thomas and Johan Goddard, (1517), Ogbourne St. George. John Seymour, (1514); and inscriptions to Thomas Dogeson, : (1501), and Edward Lord Beauchamp, (1664), Great Bedwyn. William : Bayly, (1427), and incised inscription to Frances Cripps, (1646), Berwick Basset. Edward Seymour, aged 11 months, (1631), Collingbourne Ducis. Robert Weare alias Browne, (1570), Marlborough. Francis Rutland and Wife, (1592), Chiseldon. Thomas Polton and Wife, (1418), and an in- scription in the Belfry, (1435), Wanborough. John Bailey and Wife, (1518), Preshute. Rev. Thomas Alcock, (incised inscription), (1664), Broadhinton. Henry Frekylton, (1508), and incised effigy to John Stone, (15. .?), Aldbourne. Sword of John Banning, of Burbage, Wilts, and of Magd. Coll., Oxon. ; B.A. 1630, M.A. 1634. Specimens of Encaustic Tiles, from Wick, near Marlborough, Buildwas Abbey, and St. Chad’s Church, Stafford. Drawings of Flags in Charles 1st’s army, at the muster at Aldbourne, in 1644, Im- pressions from the Seals of Great Bedwyn, Worcester, and Stafford. Draw- ing of a Coffin Lid at Broad Hinton. List of Wiltshire Gentry fined by Charles I. Shells of Helix Pomatia, a species of snail used by the Romans in soups. Bronze Jug from Pompeii, &c., &e. By Miss ApPPLEFoRD, Ogbourne St. George :— Cribbage Board, with legend, temp. Charles I. Alms Bag, of Beads, with date 1632. Egg-shaped Watch, made by Grinkin of London, temp. Charles I. Ladies shoes of the last century. By Rev. J. Briss, Ogbourne St. Andrew :— Spectacles formerly belonging to, and used by the poet Cowper. By Rev. G. A. Brepermann, Dauntsey :— Medieval Painting on wood, representing the great Doom, found beneath some plaster in the chancel-arch of Dauntsey Church. Two twisted co- lumns of oak, with richly carved capitals, dug up under an old house near Malmesbury Abbey. Two stone Candlesticks found at Bradenstoke Abbey. Sundry Fossils including some remains of large Saurians from the strata of the neighbourhood. By Mr. E. W. Gopwiy, Bristol :— Drawings, (accompanied by a written description), of a Roman Tesselated Pavement found at Colerne. Also some remains of Pottery. The Museum. 15 By tHe Drrectors oF THE Baru Lirerary INstTITUTION :— A collection of early antiquities, consisting of Spear-heads, Celts, Fibule, Armlets, &e. By J. B. Nicuots, Esa., F.S.A., Parliament Street, London :— Chasuble, (probably of the 13th century). By Joun Britton, Ese., Burton Street, London:— Several elaborate Photographs of the west front of Wells Cathedral, and one of the doorways of the west front of Exeter Cathedral, by — Bird, Esq. Sketches and Drawings of the Cloister, Kitchen, Chapel, &c., at Lacock Abbey, and Lacock Church ; Chippenham Church and Town; Avebury and Stonehenge; Kington St. Michael Church, Almshouses, and the house in which Mr. Britton was born; Malmesbury Abbey, &c. Also Prints and memoranda. Autograph Letters and Papers by John Aubrey, Dr. Stukeley, and Bishop Tanner. A model of Stonehenge, made by Joseph Brown of Amesbury, for Mr. Britton, being a careful representation of all the stones, together with those in the embankment, &c. Roll of Furniture in the Castle of Coleshill, Warwickshire, written on parchment, the one side in 1584, and the other in 1684. By Rey. E. C. Awnry, Grittleton :— A series of rubbings of Monumental Brasses, comprising some of the finest and earliest specimens of these memorials, remaining in England; amongst which may be noticed the magnificent brass of Thomas Delamere, Abbot of St. Albans, (engraved probably about 1360), in the Abbey church of that place. The early military brasses of Sir John D’Aubernoun, (1277), at Stoke Dabernon, Surrey ; and Sir Roger de Trumpington, (1289), at Trumpington, Cambridgeshire. Also some Wiltshire specimens from the churches of Bromham, Clyfte-Pypard, Lacock, Dauntsey, Draycote, and Salisbury ; with others from Fairford in Gloucester, and Oxford. By Roser Core, Ese., F.S.A., Upper Norton Street, London :— A MS. Psalter of the 13th century, in the original oak binding. * A curious and rare work on aquatic animals, by Francis Boussuet, published at Leyden, a.p. 1558. It is illustrated with many well executed wood- cuts, and the original Latin verse is considerably augmented by the addition of manuscript notes in an ancient handwriting. A valuable collection of autograph Letters, &e. By Dr. Tuurnam, F.S.A., Devizes :— Arrow-heads and Knife of flint; Beads of glass and Kimmeridge coal ; Pins of ivory and bone; small Cup of baked clay ; all from early British barrows near Wansdyke and Shepherd’s Shore. By H. J. F. Swayne, Esa., Stratford :— Knife and Fork of the 17th century, lately found behind the wainscot of a room in the Saracen’s Head Inn, Blue Boar Row, Salisbury : the property of Henry Cooper, Esq., Salisbury. By Rey. G. T. Marsu, Sutton Benger :-— A hundred specimens of Stuffed Birds, found mostly in Wiltshire. 16 The Museum. Amongst the more remarkable specimens Mr. Marsh particularizes the following, viz.:— “1, The golden-winged Woodpecker; killed in Amesbury Park in the autumn of 1836. No other specimen of this bird has been recorded as killed in England, nor has it appeared in any published work on British Birds : it is a native of North America. 2. Wilson’s Petrel; this bird was picked up dead at Sutton Benger, in the autumn of 1849. It has been met with very rarely on the coast: no other specimen eyer recorded for Wiltshire. 3. The Hawfinch ; this bird was killed at Winterslow, in the year 1832. It is rare. 4. The Hoopoe; killed at Winterslow in the year 1830. Very rare in Wiltshire and in England. 5. The Great Shrike; killed near Malmesbury in the year 1837. A very rare bird in Wiltshire. 6. The Crossbill; large flocks of this bird were seen in North Wilts in the year 1837. 7. The Ringed Dottrel; rare in Wiltshire; killed near Malmesbury in 1840. 8. The Mountain Finch ; killed at Bowood, 1838. 9. Montagu’s Harrier; killed at Somerford Common, 1839. 10. A rare species of diver ; killed at Salisbury, 1830. 11. Rough-legged Buzzard ; killed at Grittenham wood, 1840. 12. Pied Flycatcher; killed at Ford in 1837.” By Miss Merepiru, Bromham :— A specimen of the Great Northern Diver, caught at Chittoe in November, 1853. By Mr. Cunniyeton, F.G.8., Devizes:— A very perfect specimen of Ichthyosaurus Intermedius, seven feet six inches in length, from the Lias of the neighbourhood of Glastonbury. Five cases, containing about 500 specimens of Fossil Echinoderms from the Corn-brash, Coral-rag, Upper Green Sand, and Chalk of Wiltshire. A series of large Saurian Bones and Teeth, from the Kimmeridge Clay of Wiltshire. Some new specimens of Ammonites from the Chalk Marl of North Wilts. Three volumes of the publications of the Palcontographical Society, containing engravings of Wiltshire Fossils. By Mr. H. Weaver, Beversbrook, Calne :— A collection of Coral-rag and Chalk-marl Fossils ; also a small case con- taining a series of Roman Coins, about 35 in number. By Mr. Corsorne, Chippenham :— Several specimens of Encaustic Tile, from Chippenham Church and Bradenstoke Abbey. Engraving of G. Poulett Scrope, Esq. By Rev. D. Matcotm CrerK, Kingston Deverill :— Curious instrument of bronze, probably a curry-comb or scraper (strigilis ) used by the Romans whilst in the baths. Tobacco stopper temp. Jas. I. The Museum. 17 By Mr. C. Moorn, F.G.8., Cambridge Place, Bath :— A series of Fossil Fishes of the genus Pachycormus ; ditto of the genus Leptolepis; a Cuttle Fish from the Lias; Fossil Lobster, Prawn, and Shrimp; two Fossil Teleosauri; a pair of Eyes belonging to an Ichthyosaurus; a series of Fossil Insects from the Lias and Tertiary beds; a series of Brachi- podous Shells, and Fossil Foramenifera ; the latter arranged in glass tubes with enlarged drawings. By Mr. Howirtr, Devizes :— Plaster Cast (from a squeezing in clay) of a beautiful Finial, of early English date, from the monument of Bishop Bridport, (1262), in Salisbury Cathedral. By Mr. J. Provis, Chippenham :— An original portrait of Thomas Hobbes, born at Malmesbury, 1588, died, 1679; large engraving from Michael Angelo’s celebrated painting of the Last Judgment; coloured drawing of Bowood House. Sixty specimens of Fossils from the Oxford clay ; also some interesting remains of Mammalia, from the drift of North Wilts. Two cases containing plaster Casts of Grecian antiquities. By Mr. Atrrep Kernr, Bath :— Portfolio of coloured Drawings, including views of Farleigh Castle and Chapel; Maud Heath’s Pillar at Wick Hill; Malmesbury Abbey; the Churches of Great Chalfield and Bremhill; South Wraxhall Manor House; tomb of Inverto Boswell, king of the Gypsies, in Calne churchyard; Fountain at Derry Hill, &e. By Mr. Bracxstone, Lyncombe Hill, Bath:— A cube of stone, with three of its sides engraved as if for a seal; one side represents a lion, another a wolf or dog; the third has a lion full-faced, with a stag in front of it, and in the foreground alamb. It was found in July, 1852, in the garden of the late Mr. Giller, at Corsham. An ancient sword, four feet in length, the hilt inlaid with silver, found in cleaning out the moat surrounding the ancient manor house at Kington Langley, Wilts ; also a large iron key found at the same time. An oblong piece of polished flint, found, together with a beautifully formed arrow-head of the same material, in grubbing up an ash tree on some waste land at Pick Rudge, in the parish of Overton, Wilts, 1848. Bronze sword, dagger, and axe, from the counties of Tyrone and Donegal, Treland. By Mr. Spencer, Bowood:— * Fossil teeth and tusk of Elephas primigenius, found at Foxham; also a collection of Fossils from the Coral-rag, Kimmeridge clay, and Oxford clay of the neighbourhood of Chippenham. By J. Rawtence, Ese., Wilton :-— A personal Seal, formed of an antique intaglio set in silver, with medieval inscription. By A. Gore, Ese., Melksham :— A desk Seal, engraved with the arms of Trapnell, of Great Chalfield. By Rev, G. Farry, Cherhill:— A small collection of Fossils from the chalk. eS ee 18 The Museum. By Mr. R. Brotnrernoop, Chippenham :— A numerous collection of Fossils and Minerals from the strata of North Wilts; also some fine Mammalian remains from the drift of the same district. By Mr. Tomas Hirt, Nettleton :— Fragments of armour, weapons, horse-trappings, &c., found in a tomb or vault formed by a wall five feet in thickness, at the south side of the Priory Farm house, Nettleton. By Mr. H. Gatz, Chippenham :— A limb of fossil oak from the railway cutting near Kellaways. By Mr. A. P. Hottann, Devizes :-— A collection of rubbings from monumental brasses, chiefly in the counties of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. The following information respecting the ancient Bible exhibited by P. Audley Lovell, Esq., and mentioned in the foregoing list, p. 18, arrived too late for insertion in that place. It is an exquisite manuscript probably of the fourteenth century, and appears to have been executed on the continent. The initial letters contain representa- tions of various saints, in gilt and rich colours. According to a note inserted in the title-page of one of the volumes, it appears to have belonged originally to a foreign convent of Carthusians. It was brought to England a.p. 1407, and deposited probably in the library of Malmesbury Abbey, from whence it passed into the hands of an ancestor of the present owner, by whom some of the Abbey property, including a Manor House formerly occupied by the Abbots, was pur- chased from the crown at the dissolution of religious houses, temp, Hen. VIII. The manuscript is in excellent preservation, and each volume retains the ancient wooden binding. sr —" 19 On the Bistory of Chippenham. I wave chosen the History of Chippenham for a paper upon this occasion for two reasons: first, because the Wiltshire Archzologists have done the town the honour of chusing it for their Annual Meeting; and next, because as a topographical subject, it has not been much investigated before. Though it may not contain much that is curious or remarkable, still the place has a history. The difficulty has been where to find it; for, in most of our more ancient authorities, local memoranda are excessively rare. A short reference to ancient times will be necessary ; but only so far as to enable you the better to understand the original condition of this neighbourhood, without which it is impossible to throw a proper light upon the early history of the town itself. Every one knows that Britain, as our island was at first called, was visited in turn, by what an old writer calls four scourges ;! the Romans, the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans. Tue Brirons. Of the primitive state of this part of Wiltshire before the first scourge fell upon it, there can be very little doubt. It was covered with forest, cleared here and there by a scanty population, and affording the finest hunting ground—not for fox-hunting, which, in its present style at least, is a modern invention—but deer hunting. If any body could have been found to follow him so far, a stag might have run, almost without leaving shelter, from North Wilts to the lower part of Hampshire. Of this long, and as it must have been, beautiful range of open forest scenery, the names and traces are still left in the forests of Braden, (which came down as low as 1 Henry of Huntingdon. pn 2 20 On the History of Chippenham. Bradenstoke,) Calne and Bowood, Chippenham and Pewsham, Blackmore, Selwood, Groveley, Gillingham, Cranbourn Chase, and the New Forest. At no great distance we still have Savernake and Marlborough Forest, probably a fair sample of what the whole must have been. It is quite certain that no county in England has been at all times more famous for field sports than this, from the days of King Arthur, to those of His Grace the Duke of Beaufort. If venison is good living, these old Wiltshire Britons lived well. It is scarcely possible to open a barrow upon the Downs, without finding by the side of the skeleton the heads of hunting spears, or bones and horns of deer; so that it would almost seem that they not only lived upon venison, but sometimes died of it. Thriving on such fare very happily in their own way, they were interrupted, B.c. 65, by the lash of the first scourge, viz. :— Tue Romans. There is no mention of Chippenham in the Commentaries of Julius Cesar, for several good reasons, of which two will suffice. First; because, in his time, there was probably no such place, certainly no such name: and next, even if there was such a place, Cesar did not come into Wiltshire to look at it. It may be added, that even if he had come so far and had described it, I do not know that we should be bound to put implicit faith in his deserip- tion. For though Cesar was undoubtedly a very great soldier, he was also occasionally given to story telling. He has been convicted of this by (amongst others), a Wiltshire clergyman, of this very neighbourhood, the late Rev. Henry Barry, Rector of Draycote, in a little treatise called ‘‘ Caesar and the Britons.” Mr. Barry maintains, ingeniously and with much learning, that the Britons could not have been the absolute savages described by Cesar; and though, perhaps, Mr. Barry may have ridden his own hobby a little too far into the opposite extreme, and would appear to attribute to them a higher degree of civilization than they are likely to have possessed; still he points out great misrepresentations in Ceesar’s narrative. Cesar was an invader, but not a conqueror. He was forced to retire; and as soon as the Britons had driven him out, they By the Rev. J. E. Fackson. 21 became as independent as before. The real conquest was by Claudius, 62 years after Christ; and under the Romans this island remained until a.p. 450. Not that Chippenham so re- mained ; for, (as just observed), of any town or even village having been on this site during the presence of the Roman scourge, no trace seems to have been discovered. In the neighbourhood there are several marks of Roman habitation; as at Studley, Bromham, Lacock, Box, and Colerne; (the remains of villas at the two latter places being at this moment open for inspec- tion); near Bath, of course, very frequent; but at Chippen- ham, so far as I know, nothing. Devizes rejoices in a Roman name—a mark of the scourge: but, (as will presently be ex- plained), that of Chippenham is Saxon; and, therefore, later than Roman. The site of the town is between, and at some dis- tance from, two great Roman roads; the Foss on the north, which ran from Bath by North Wraxhall and Sherston; and another on the south, which went from Bath by Neston, and a little south of Lacock, through Spy Park, past Wans House and Hedding- ton, to Marlborough. No main road passed over the site itself; so that as there is no Roman “Chippenham Station” to stop at, we may go on to the next scourge. Tue Saxons FRoM a.D. 450. It is to the early part of the Anglo-Saxon period, that Chip- penham seems capable of being traced; the name is undoubtedly of Saxon date; and, as to its meaning, there is no difficulty. It is not spelled quite in the original way; but names are often spelled as they are pronounced. Railway pronunciation has reduced it to two syllables—“Chip’nam:” and, on their labels, for the sake of still greater despatch in business, they have even shortened it to one—“Chip.” In so doing, however, (though without any design to restore the Anglo-Saxon tongue in its purity), they are really returning to that which is called, in grammar, the root of the word. In Saxon, c-e-a-p, pronounced cheap, signifies goods of any kind, cattle, or whatever is bought and sold; and the place where the buying and selling went on, was called—“ the chepyng.” The word is still retained in some of our towns, as 22 On the History of Chippenham. Chipping Sodbury and Chipping Norton. In London, we have Cheap-side and East Cheap. In Bath, we have Cheap street ; and all who go to buy, with the laudable design of making a good bargain, are still so far Anglo-Saxon, that they do their best to “‘cheapen” their purchases. The word “chepying” continued to be used for “market” long after the Saxon period. In the first English translation of the Bible, by Wycliffe, about 138380, the text in St. Matthew, (xi. 16), which is now translated “It is like unto children sitting in the market,” is rendered “It is like unto children sitting in ehepyng.” “Ham,” the last syllable, is also Saxon, signifying either a house, a farm, or a village. In the latter sense we still use it, in the diminutive, hamlet. Chepyng-ham, therefore, signifies neither more nor less than “ market-village.” How it came by the name will be obvious, when you recollect what has been already said as to the early state of this neighbour- hood ; that it was chiefly open forest, cleared here and there, and peopled by degrees. As numbers increased, some place of course would be required for buying and selling; hence, judging from the name only, the origin of the town. But we have other information. If the old British natives, spoken of above, had one amusement —hunting, the Saxon kings had two—hunting and fighting. When they were not doing the one, they were sure to be doing the other: and it is hard to say, to which of the two they were most addicted. The whole history, or nearly so, of the Saxon occupation of England, is a succession of wars, almost without ceasing. They fought for a long time to win the country, and Wiltshire still bears marks of those battles, in its earthworks, camps, barrows, and the like, as so many stripes of the Saxon scourge. Having at length got possession, they established, not as it is commonly said, seven—but eight separate kingdoms. One of those was the kingdom of Wessex, or the West Saxons. It included Berkshire, Hampshire, part of Devonshire, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire. After many years of contest for supremacy, the Kings of Wessex became the masters of England; and the last By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 23 battle which made them so was fought at Wilton. So long as there were eight petty kings, each resided within his own province, and the King of Wessex being as fond of field sports as his predecessors, like them came to North Wilts for that purpose. He had several hunting seats, and one at Chippenham; for this is all that is meant by the Royal Palace which constant tradition has given to this place. Jt is not necessary to suppose that there was a Windsor Castle here. The Windsor Castle of the King of Wessex was at Winchester. Chippenham was his Balmoral, or his Osborne. But why did he fix upon Chippenham? Simply, and without suggesting various reasons which your own partiality might approve, because it belonged to him. The Wessex crown had a very large property in this neighbourhood, including the whole parish, or, as it would then be called—Manor, of Chippenham ; all Calne, Bromham, Melksham, Corsham, and "Warminster. These Manors together formed one noble demesne, of which the king was landlord. Whatever villages or farms may have been within it, were held directly of the crown, without any intermediate lord. Of course, wherever kings take up their residence, were it even in a wilderness, there will presently spring up the needful establishment of followers and appurtenances; a church and chaplains, farmers, labourers, mechanics, and the other materials of society. The places just named, of whatever size they were in Saxon times, (probably humble enough), must have owed their origin and growth to their dependence upon the crown of Wessex. Such, then, was the condition of this neighbourhood, when scourge the third suddenly fell upon England in the form of Tue Danes. These visitors also, like their predecessors, came from the northern coasts of Europe, Jutland and thereabouts, and made their first descent, A.D. 833. Not long after this, King Alfred was born at Wantage, in Berk- shire. He was properly, and by family descent, King of Wessex ; but, by position, King of all England. His history, so well known, must only be alluded to so far as concerns the present subject. 24 On the History of Chippenham. In a.p. 866, (Alfred being seventeen years old, and not yet king), a swarm of these Danes settled on the east coast, under two leaders, Hungar and Hubba. They spent their winter where they landed ; and in the spring went to York, took it, and then came to Nottingham, where they wintered again. Then they turned their steps westward, taking Reading in their line; where they fought a battle at a place called, in the Saxon chronicles, Englefield, since called (probably from one of these two Danish chiefs) Hunger-ford. “After that,” says one of the Chroniclers, (and here is the first time that this town is named,) “they fought at Chippenham ; and there was Hubba slain: and a great hepe of stones layed coppid up, where he was buried.” . There are in the neighbourhood, two or three ancient mounds, or burial places, which had been piled up, no doubt in memory of some event of this kind. One, a hundred feet long, composed entirely of stones laid with the hand, is close to Badminton Park, on the side towards Alderton. Another stood, until lately, on the boundary of the parishes of Leigh Delamere and Castle Combe, but being made of earth, and not of stones, it had no claim to the distinction of containing the remains of Hubba. The place hitherto supposed to be the one alluded to, and long called Hubba’s Low, (Low being a corruption of hlaw, the Saxon word for a burial place), stands three miles north-west of Chippenham, by the side of the road leading to Marshfield, in Lanhill mead, the property of Mr. Neeld. It corresponds exactly with the description in the Chronicle, being a large pile of stones, now covered with bushes and moss. Part of it was taken away some years ago: what remains has been opened during the present meeting. The Danish wars continued ; Alfred becoming king in a.p. 871, defeated them in his first battle at Wilton; afterwards he was less fortunate. In the seventh year of his reign, a.p. 878, they had got possession of the whole kingdom north of the Thames; and even 1 The Scala Chronica, quoted by Leland, (Collect. II. p. 521). Another account says, that Hubba was killed on landing, at Appledore, on the north coast of Deyon, By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 25 that, (says the Chronicle) they grudged him. In the winter of that year they advanced after Twelfth-night from the central part of England into Wessex, and took up their quarters at Chip- penham. From this place, they over-ran the country, driving the people out; Alfred himself they forced to take refuge in the wild country (as it then was) about Athelney, below Glastonbury. Now, as Chippenham, from the nature of the case, could not have been at that time a place of any size, what could induce the Danish army to come here? The answer seems very simple: they wished to catch the king at home. Here was his residence, in the middle of the royal demesne just described. That he did live here there is proof. His sister, thelswitha, was married at this place to the king of central England, then called Mercia; and, (says the Latin authority), the nuptials were celebrated with royal splendour, “in the villa regia, which is called Cippenham.”? Some topographical writers upon Wiltshire, without duly con- sidering the previous state of things, have been misled by these two words “villa regia,” to describe Chippenham as having been at that time “a considerable city, one of the strongest and finest towns in England!” I cannot flatter your local vanity by con- firming that statement. There is in this immediate neighbour- hood, it is true, a highly respectable town, which, for some reason or other, assumes the privilege of bestowing upon its suburb the exalted title of “the City” ; but Chippenham is more modest than Melksham: and though, if any manor in England had a fair right to dignity of title, arising from connection with the Crown, this certainly had; still, looking at the plain circumstances of the case, though a royal residence, it is simply absurd to suppose it to have been what we usually understand by a royal city. In the remote days now alluded to, it was only a humble “Chepyng-ham,” or market-village. But, being the king’s own estate and residence, it would naturally be a point of chief attraction to a Danish army, whose first object would be, above all things, to pounce upon the crown itself. Further, as a military position, for winter 1 Leland Coll. III. 280. Ex Chronico Mariani Scotti. 26 On the History of Chippenham. quarters, it may not have been a bad one; for it stands, when you examine the situation, upon a kind of peninsula, the river winding round it in the form of a horse shoe. On the land side, towards the south-east, a line of earthwork would easily protect a tempo- rary camp. After a few months, Alfred came out of his Athelney retreat, and defeated the Danes, who broke up their quarters at Chip- penham and retired to Cirencester, leaving him at liberty to re-occupy his villa regia in peace. He died in a.p. 901, and was buried at Winchester, leaving, by his will, his Chippenham manor to his youngest daughter, Alfritha, who married Baldwin, Count of Flanders. This, of course, was only a provision for life; as Chippenham continued to belong to the Crown for centuries after- wards. It is next mentioned in the reign of king Edward the Confessor, about a.p. 1042, when we have a partial description of its condition. The record states that there was a church; the rector was one bishop Osbern, and one hundred acres belonged to the church. King Edward had also given to his huntsman Ulviet, a small farm for his life; and three others are named, to whom small portions of land had been granted; but, with these excep- tions, the whole manor was still in the king’s own hand. It paid no tax or assessment of any kind; so that this must have been its golden age. But iron days were drawing near: the fourth scourge was ready, and Chippenham manor fell into the hands of THe Normans. One of the Conqueror’s most celebrated acts, was the great survey of England, called Domesday Book. In making it, he had two objects in view; the first, to find out how much he was himself worth: the second, what every body else was worth, and how much taxing they would bear. He sent commissioners into every manor, (the word parish does not occur in Domesday Book'), who made inquiry so searching, that, as one person complains, the king knew of every cow and pig in the country, and even how many 1 Notices on the Domesday Book for Wiltshire, by H. Moody, “‘ Memoirs of the Archeol, Inst. at Salisbury,” p, 177. By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 27 hives of bees the old women kept. The return made from Chip- penham manor shows that, during the preceding forty years since Edward the Confessor, it had undergone very considerable change; that cultivation, and the number of the inhabitants, had very much increased ; and that, instead of being unprofitable pleasure ground, it was broken up into useful farms; all, however, still held di- rectly of the king, as landlord. Amongst them there were 113 holders, great or small, of arable land; 23 hog-keepers, with six miles square of wood ; and 12 mills. The number of persons men- tioned in various employments (altogether about 180) referring probably to heads of families only, we may suppose the whole population to have been about 600 or 700. At this point in the history of Chippenham, (the Norman Con- quest), there comes, in all printed notices of the place that I have ever seen, a dead blank for more than three centuries, till the reign of Henry VI. Its name does not occur, as those of Malmsbury, Devizes, and Trowbridge, frequently do, in the wars between Stephen and the Empress Matilda; and we must, there- fore, infer that there was no strong castle here, as there was in those towns. Whether it continued to be visited occasionally as a hunting seat, by the early Norman kings, is uncertain. They had several other villas for that purpose in this county, as at Corsham, Fasterne near Wotton Basset, Marlborough, Clarendon, and Tollard Royal. But their chief residence was now in or near London; and if they spent Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, as their custom was, in the country, it was generally at some of the larger towns, as Gloucester and Winchester. I fear that, after the Conquest, Chippenham must have lost favour with royalty, and that our villa regia would be—“ to let, unfurnished,” the various dependents being left quietly to follow their own ways, cropping lands, driving mills, and fattening hogs in Chippenham Forest. Still, the place has a history during those 300 years, as well as since; and this I believe it is now in my power to bring to light, from the Conquest down to the present day. As you will not care to require from me continual reference to the authorities from which it has been obtained, I will only say, once for all, that E 2 28 On the History of Chippenham. every statement that may be made, rests upon the evidence of original documents. The Manor haying been for some hundreds of years private demesne of the Crown, began under the early Norman Kings to be granted out piecemeal, until at length it was all disposed of to various subjects. The matter will be clearer if taken in the follow- ing division :— I. Grants to LayMeEn. II. Grants to Rericious Hovsss. I. Tue Grants to LaymMen consisted of 1. The Manor of Sheldon and Lordship of the Hundred of Chippenham. 2. Rowdon. 3. Lowdon. 4. Chippenham and Pewsham Forest. 1. Toe Manor or Suetpon, (forming the western side of the Parish,) AND THE LorpsHIP oF THE HuNDRED oF CHIPPENHAM. This was given by one of the early Norman Kings, (the authority does not state which) to William de Beauvilain, a Norman, on whose death it reverted to the Crown. In 1231, King Henry III. bestowed it upon Sir Walter de Godarville and his heirs. The Godarvilles were also Norman. They had another estate in Wiltshire, at Cheverell, and were keepers of Clarendon Forest. The last of them left two daughters, coheiresses, one of whom married Sir Godfrey Gascelyn, of a Dorsetshire house; who, in right of his wife, became owner of Sheldon, and lord of the Manor of Chippenham. The Gascelyns continued for about 174 years, from 1250 to 1424, during which time they obtained for the town two of its fairs; one held on the 17th May, and the Long Fair held on the 22nd June. In grateful memory for these benefits, Chippenham still wears as one of its two coats of arms, the shield of Sir Walter Gascelyn— a golden field surmounted by ten billets azure, and a label gules. There are copies of the charters for these fairs, as well as many particulars of the Gascelyn property, in deeds dated at Sheldon, from which it appears that the family resided there. It ended in By the Rev. J. EB. Jackson. 29 an heiress, Christina Gascelyn, who married Edward Hales, Esq. ; and in the year 1424, (2 Hen. VI.) she and her husband sold the Hundred of Chippenham and the Manor of Sheldon for the sum of £1000, to Walter Lord Hungerford, High Treasurer of England. Sheldon continued in the Hungerford family for about 250 years, being during that period more than once forfeited, but again restored. In the year 1684 Sir Edward Hungerford, having reached the crisis of extravagance, was compelled to break up all his noble inheritance. He sold Sheldon (then under lease to Mr. Gorges Scrope) to Richard Kent Esq. of London, afterwards Sir Richard Kent, Kt., and M.P. for Chippenham. Sir Richard did not keep it very long; for being in debt, his estates were sold by order of the Court of Chancery in 1698, and the purchaser of this part was Sir Richard Hart of Hanham, near Bitton, beyond Bath. In 12 years it changed hands again; and was bought in 1710 by Mr. Norris of Lincoln’s Inn. The last owner of this name died at Nonesuch some years ago, and Sheldon now belongs to his rela- tives, the Marshalls. ] The lordship or liberty of the Hundred of Chippenham accom- panied the Manor of Sheldon through the older families, down to the Hungerfords. It fell to the Crown on Lord Hungerford’s forfeiture in 1540. It was then, and has since continued, severed from the Manor of Sheldon. King Edw. VI. sold the fee simple of this hundred to Thomas Lord Darcy, K.G.!_ Lord Darcy sold it to Sir William Sherington of Lacock. In 1650 it belonged to the Danvers family of Dauntsey. When forfeited by Sir John Danvers the regicide, King James IT. granted it to Charles Mordaunt, the celebrated Earl of Peterborough. From him it descended to Mr. Mordaunt Fenwick, who sold it in 1854 to Joseph Neeld, Esq.? 1 Sir T. Phillipps’s Index to Grants in the Augmentation Office, temp, Edw. V1, p. 6, Bund. D., No. 12. 2 The Hundred of Chippenham was anciently (7.e. in the year 1423), called the Hundred of Bishopstone, Donelewe, and Chippenham. The connexion of any Bishopstone with the hundred of Chippenham I cannot explain. Dunley survives within it: it lies between Grittleton and Alderton, and was formerly a small hundred of itself, about which there are records. 30 On the History of Chippenham. 2. Rownon, South-west of Chippenham. Rowdon lies on what was formerly a down, (the old name was Rughdon, probably meaning rough down), and is traversed by the road to Bath. Upon the principal estate there is an old mansion, now a farm-house, close to the Avon. It bears marks of having seen better days, when it was the residence of families influential in this town; and it was once the scene of a little military exploit. The oldest document I have seen relating to it, is (if correctly interpreted), a curious one. King Richard I. about the year 1190, charges Rowdon with £7 10s. a year, as a provision for life to a person described in the Latin document as “ Hodierna Nutrix,” a name which seems to admit of but one translation, “‘ Hodierna the Nurse.” The name of Odierne is still attached to a parish in South Wilts, Knoyle Odierne or West Knoyle, in the Hundred of Mere; and Sir R. C. Hoare, in his account of that parish, p. 38, gives authority to show that lands also at Knoyle belonged to this very Hodierna the Nurse; but who she was, he says he never could find out. A simple solution of the difficulty may perhaps be, that she had been nurse to the king himself; chief controller of the juvenile department of Queen Eleanor’s household, when Coeur de Lion was in his long-clothes. It is certainly a tradition in Wiltshire that his brother, King John, was christened in the font of Preshute Church, close to Marlborough; and it used formerly to be said that Richard himself was born at Fasterne, near Wotton Basset, one of the royal hunting seats. Be this as it may, he must, like any body else, have required in the early stage of his life, those peculiar atten- tions which none but a nurse can render; and possibly Queen Eleanor may have sent to Chippenham for that important domestic: but whoever nurse Hodierne was, and wherever she came from, she was rewarded for her services with part of the rents of the king’s estate at Rowdon. Such manner of provision was common enough. We have already seen that Edward the Confessor pensioned an old huntsman, with part (probably the same part,) of this parish ; and many other similar cases might be produced. Nothing is more likely, than that Richard, being rather short of ready money in the days of the Crusades, adopted this way of making his old nurse = —= By the Rev. J. E. Tackson. 31 comfortable: and all admirers of the lion-hearted king will be of opinion, that the rents of Rowdon were very well bestowed, in rewarding any “bonne,” who had undertaken to manage so un- manageable a young gentleman as he must have been. When nurse Hodierne ceased to require the pension, it was again used for similar purposes for two lives; and at length the estate was granted (subject to a rent to the Crown of £7 10s.,) by King Henry III. in 1250, to the Lady Agnes, widow of Sir Godfrey St. Maur, sometimes called “Agnes de Roudon.” Her son Henry St. Maur, being obliged to abscond in 1274, on a charge of felony and rebellion, Rowdon was forfeited. But it was afterwards restored, and Henry St. Maur sold it to Nicholas Husee. This family held it for 142 years, down to 1392. Their name in Latin is “ Hosatus,” signifying “hosed” or “booted,” and their armorial device was “three boots sable,” which is the second of the two shields now used by the Borough of Chippenham. What particular service the Husees may have rendered to the town does not appear, but the arms used by the town are clearly those of the two private families; Gascelyn, Lord of Sheldon, and Husee, Lord of Rowdon. Whence the palm- tree, from which the two shields depend, was borrowed, I know not. It is a tree remarkable for unfading verdure, and is often referred to in Scriptural language as an emblem of the prosperity of the upright. Finding it therefore introduced into your municipal blazonry, in association with the motto of “Unity and Loyalty,” I gladly regard the whole as a favourable omen, both of your flourishing condition, and of the principles which animate the heart of Chippenham. It was mentioned just now, that when King Henry III. granted Rowdon to the Husees, he reserved an annual rent of £7 10s. Out of that sum, his successor, King Edward I., granted a pension of £5 a year, to the Monastery of Ederose or Ivy-church, near Clarendon. In the Schedule of the property of that monastery, taken at the dissolution 300 years afterwards, this identical pension of £5 a year, appears as paid out of lands at Chippenham and Rowdon, formerly belonging to Nicholas Husee. There cannot be much doubt which were the particular lands that provided the 32 On the History of Chippenham. pension to Ivy-church monastery. The name itself seems to indicate that it must have been what is called “the Ivy-house, and the islands in the Ivy,” close to Chippenham bridge. The origin of the name of that property has long been a puzzle, for which this pension to Jvy-church may perhaps suggest a satisfactory expla- nation. ; In the year 1392, the Husees sold Rowdon to Sir John Erleigh, of Beckington in Somerset. His only daughter Margaret Erleigh, married Sir Walter Sandes, Kt. ; and in the year 1434, Sir Walter Sandes and Margaret his wife sold Rowdon to Walter Lord Hungerford, who, ten years before, had purchased Sheldon and the Manor and Hundred of Chippenham. Some of the Hungerford family resided at Rowdon House. In January, 1469, Sir Thomas Hungerford, Kt., (a young man, eldest son and heir of the baron of the day, and great-grandson of the purchaser,) was beheaded at Salisbury for an attempt to restore King Henry VI. He is de- scribed in the indictment as “of Rowdon.” During the civil wars of Charles I., it was the property of Sir Edward Hungerford, the Parliamentary Officer; and after the battle of Roundway Down, the Parliament troops occupied it as a garrison. It was immediately surrounded by the Royalists. Col. Stephens governor of Beverstone Castle (near Tetbury) for the Parliament, came to its relief with a body of horse, and forced his way in: but instead of forcing his way out again as fast as he could, he being tired with his gallop from Tetbury stayed to eat and drink, giving the Royalists outside the house time to rally and send for more help. So the Parliamentary gentlemen being cooped up were obliged to capitulate. The Royalists then dismantled the house, which was at that time a large one, with a quadrangle inside, and a moat round it. Sir Edward Hungerford the owner died in 1648, and a few years afterwards it passed to a relative, the spendthrift Sir Edward. The story is that he lost this estate by gambling, and that ata bowling match he staked the property, calling out as he threw his last chance, “ Here goes Rowdon.” Whether this story is true or not, Rowdon certainly went; but the legal way in which it disap- peared from his rent-roll was this:—Sir Edward mortgaged it for By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 33 £3000. The mortgage was assigned to Sir Richard Kent (mentioned before as the purchaser of Sheldon,) sometime M.P. for Chippenham. When Sir Richard Kent’s property was sold by order of the Court of Chancery in 1698, Rowdon was bought by Mr. Thomas Long of Monkton, near Melksham, from whom it has descended to the present owner, Walter Long, Esq., of Rood Ashton. 3. Lowpon, West of Chippenham. This was granted by the Crown, first to the Pavely family of Westbury; afterwards to the family of Turbervile or Turvile. Whilst in their hands, King John granted to Roger de Turbervile a market at Chippenham every week on Wednesday, and one fair every year, viz.—that which is now held on the 29th October. In 1258, King Henry III. gave the property to William de Valence Earl of Pembroke, his half-brother, a foreigner, and a very trou- blesome gentleman. He took part against the king at the battle of Evesham, and so lost Lowdon, which was restored to the Pavelys. In 1272 they sold it to the Gascelyns of Sheldon. From this period, i.e. from the union of the Lowdon and Sheldon estates under the Gascelyns, the Manor of Chippenham came to be called (as it still continues to be) the Manor of Chippenham, Sheldon, and Lowdon. Christina Gascelyn and her husband Edward Hales, Esq., sold Lowdon with Sheldon to the Hungerfords. It is now broken up into various smaller holdings. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem had some land in Chippenham, I do not exactly know where, but probably in this part of the parish. 4, CHIPPENHAM AND PEwsHAM ForEsT. This portion of the royal manor continued in the hands of the Crown many hundred years after all the rest had been granted away. From the dimensions given to Chippenham Forest in - Domesday Book, where it is called six miles square, it would seem _ probable that the Forest extended originally much farther than what in later times was Chippenham and Pewsham Forest proper. The Forest proper lay towards the South, extending from the town to Derry Hill. The western side of it lay towards Lackham. It formed what may be called the home park of the king’s hunting : 84 On the History of Chippenham. villa. The Forest was fenced round for deer, and within it also ranged, by special license, the living Wiltshire bacon belonging to the monks of Stanley and of Farley. The monks of Bradenstoke were still more favoured. King John who was frequently at their Abbey, allowed them grazing within the Forest for 40 cows, as well as a place, then called Aldebiri, for building a Dairy’ farm. In the year 1275, (1 Edw. I.) owing to the confusion that had arisen in course of years, from various grants of land by the Crown, and from encroachments made upon the king’s rights all over England, a royal commission was issued, to inquire into and correct these abuses. The return for the Manor of Chippenham (made by a jury at Malmesbury) is amongst the public records, and is a valuable illustration of the history of the town. In this document the Forest of Chippenham, then of course in the king’s own hands, is described as beginning at a place called “‘ Fermerie House,” and ending at “Hinlond.” ‘“Fermerie” is no doubt a corruption of “Infirmary,” and the place meant is, in all probability, the same that is now called “Spital” (i.e. Hospital) “Farm.” This stands exactly on the southern edge of Chippenham Forest. It is believed to haye been the infirmary belonging to Stanley Abbey, and it is now the property of the Marquis of Lansdowne. ‘“ Hinlond,” the other extremity, is a large piece of ground close to the town of Chippenham, and as it is now commonly known by the misnomer of “England’s,” the present opportunity may be taken of cor- recting this error in the parish nomenclature. Inland is a Saxon word, which meant exactly what we now call “home ground,” lying about a mansion, as distinguished from land outlying, and let to tenants. This “inland” lay close to the site, or the reputed site, of the king’s villa, which tradition assigns to the spot now occupied by the premises adjoining the new County Court, including perhaps the Angel Inn. Pewsham takes its name from a little stream, anciently called the Pewe, which rises at Lockswell, and runs at the back of the Swan public house into the Avon, opposite Lackham. In the record 1 Ts not Derry Hill a corruption of Dairy Hill? . By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 35 of the inquisition held at Malmesbury mentioned above, the jury particularly state that the Abbot of Stanley had committed a trespass, by some hinderance to the Pewe rivulet, which had caused it to overflow and flood the king’s highway, to the annoyance of his liege subjects and all passers-by. The Forest was granted by King James I. to Christopher Villiers, Earl of Anglesey, (brother of the Duke of Buckingham who was stabbed by Felton). It was disafforested in the year 1630. The people of Chippenham, (as well as the monks of Stanley, Farley, and Bradenstoke,) had certain rights of feeding within it, and the loss of these rights seems to have given rise to a serious riot in the neighbourhood. This fact is incidentally obtained from Sir William Davenant’s poetical works, amongst which is “A copy of verses written to the Countess of Anglesey, upon being led away captive by the rebels at the disafforesting of Pewsam.” John Aubrey also preserves a doggerel rhyme, current in his day, (1670), relating to the same event. ‘‘ When Chip’nam stood in Pewsam’s wood, Before it was destroyed, A cow might have gone for a groat a year, But now it is denyed.” “The metre,” he adds, justly enough, “is lamentable ; but the cry of the poor was more lamentable.” He also says that “he knew several, amongst them Robert Smyth of the White Hart, that did remember the going of a cow for 4d. a year. The order was, how many they could winter they might summer; and pigges did cost nothing the going.” The Earl of Anglesey, to whom the Forest had been granted, had two grand-daughters, coheiresses. One of them married Mr. Edward Cary of Torr Abbey in Devonshire, by whose son, George Cary, the principal part of Pewsham was sold in 1791, to Mr. Montagu of Lackham; and on the breaking up of his property, it was bought by Mr. Lysley, whose family are now the owners of the Lodge Farms. Elizabeth, the other grand-daughter of Lord Anglesey, married James Touchet, Lord Audley and Earl of _ Castlehaven; and her portion of the Forest now belongs by purchase to Mr. Ludlow Bruges. F 2 36 On the History of Chippenham. Pewsham is extraparochial, a privilege which is perhaps a relic of that golden age, (before alluded to) when, being royal demesne, taxes and assessments were unknown within the manor. The Wardenship of Chippenham Forest was attached to the office of Constable of Devizes Castle. The portions of the parish thus far described as having been granted to Laymen, lay on its southern, south-western, and western sides. We now come to the district on the north-west, east, and south-east, granted to Religious Houses, consisting of the principal estates at ALLINGTON, Monkton, and STANLEY. 1. ALLINeTON. This was given by King Stephen to the alien Nunnery of Martigny, in the upper valley of the Rhone; and by the Prioress and Nuns of that house, it was transferred in the reign of Edward I., to the Priory of Monkton Farley, near Bath. The monks held it in their own hands, and had a farming establishment there. There is an account of their farming stock when they were deprived of it. Wheat was then 5s. a quarter, barley 2s., oats 1s. 4d., and their oxen were valued at 6s. 8d. a piece. Allington was granted at the dissolution of monasteries, in August 1537, to Sir Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp, after- wards the Protector Duke of Somerset. In 1623 it was the residence of Sir Gilbert Prynne, of a Bristol family, who, with his Lady, was buried in Chippenham church. In the house which he occupied, now a large barn, fire-places and windows may still be observed. Algernon Duke of Somerset, who died without heirs male in 1749, was succeeded in one of his titles (the Earldom of Egremont,) and in some of his estates by Sir Charles Wyndham. In this way Allington came to the Wyndhams, Earls of Egremont, from whom it was purchased in 1844 by Mr. Neeld. 2. Monxron, N.E. of Chippenham, beyond the Avon. This portion of the royal manor was given by Matilda the Empress (mother of Henry II.,) to the Priory of Monkton Farley. There does not appear to have been any house on the estate for the residence of a religious society, though they cultivated the lands i By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 37 on their own account, probably under the superintendance of one or two of their order. At the dissolution, it was granted by Henry VIII. to Sir Edward Seymour, who, (as above stated) had recently obtained the grant of Allington. Monkton remained in his family till the marriage of the heiress, Lady Elizabeth Seymour, with Thomas Lord Bruce, afterwards Earl of Ailesbury. In 1686, Lord Ailesbury sold his property at Monkton, to Mr. Arthur Esmeade of Calne, from whom it passed by family arrangements, first to the Edridges, and from them to the present owner G. Moore Esmeade, Esq. 2. SranLEy ABBEY. Of Stanley Abbey nothing is left but the green site, which lies just within the eastern edge of the parish of Chippenham. It was a house of Cistercian Monks, placed originally at Lockswell, near the top of Derry Hill, but removed two or three years after to the lower ground on the bank of the rivulet of Marden. What the monks may have lost in fine air, they gained in good land. The house was founded by the Empress Maud, and her son King Henry II., and further endowed by Edward I. with a large portion of the land in that quarter of the royal manor, extending southward from the Marden, under Derry Hill, to Nethermore. For a history of this monastic establishment there is plenty of material, but of the appearance and extent of the building itself, I am not aware that any view is preserved. The monks were the improvers of a large tract of waste land on the outskirts of the Forest; and in Nether- more, where the various landowners of Chippenham had rights of feeding, the Abbey, by degrees, procured the transfer of those rights to itself. At the dissolution, the principal part of the Stanley Abbey estate was purchased by Sir Edward Baynton of Bromham, to whose representative, the owner of Spy Park, it still belongs. The Abbot’s house stood for some time afterwards, and was occupied by a family of Ansty, one of whom married the daughter and heiress of Andrew Baynton, Esq., who is buried in Chippenham church. Tue Borover or CurerEnnaM. We have now made the tour of the parish, a tedious one I fear for the lady Archwologists; but having ended the walk at Monkton 38 On the History of Chippenham. close to the town, you will allow me to say a few words about the Borough itself, promising to confine your attention only to such points in its history as are most likely to be novel. THe Baiirr. Chippenham is now ruled by a Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors. Asa municipal power these officers are very young, not much above twenty years old, having been created under the Municipal Reform Act. Before that time the town was governed by a Bailiff and twelve Burgesses, who traced their title as a Corporation to a Charter granted by Queen Mary in the first year of her reign, dated 2nd May, 1554, just 300 years ago. It was confirmed by Letters Patent of Elizabeth, dated 29th January, 1560; and a new one was granted by King James II. five weeks after he came to the throne, dated 13th March, 1685. Concerning the government of the town before the charter of Queen Mary, nothing appears from the borough records, as they only begin in 1554, and throw no light upon more remote times. But from other sources the state of things seems to have been as follows. Whether he had, or had not, a council of discreet and honest Burgesses to assist him, I cannot say, but Chippenham was certainly under the authority of a chief officer called the Bailiff, for many hundred years before the charter of Mary. There are (as will be shown) notices of such an officer in the reign of King Edward L., 300 years before Queen Mary; but I believe the fact to be that the town always had a Bailiff, ever since it was a royal demesne, which, as you have already heard, was a very long time ago. Every private estate of the Crown was under charge of some resident official. He was not always called Bailiff, but sometimes Steward, as was the case at Calne; or Portreeve, as at Great Bedwyn: but Bailiff was the title at Bromham, Corsham, and Melksham, all which places, like Chippenham, were royal demesne. The duty of this officer was to protect the king’s property, and to keep things right, if he could; and that the Bailiff of Chippenham was originally armed with formidable powers so to do, and was a person not to be trifled with, is clear from the fact that he had not only a pillory : a > By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 39 and a prison at his command, but also a gallows. In short, within the manor he was second only to the king himself. All this may have worked very well so long as the whole manor was in the king’s own hands, and there were no rival proprietors to quarrel with the agent of the Crown. But when the king’s demesne had been granted out in parcels to noblemen and others, (as has been described), and the royal authority began to be less absolute, the Bailiff had sometimes a hard matter to hold his own. The “market village” was growing by degrees into a town, and as various new rights arose, the old ones would suffer encroachment. This statement is founded upon evidence. In the year 1275 (3 Edw. I.), when the inquiry (alluded to before) was made into the state of this manor, it was reported to the Crown amongst other grievances, that several matters touching the king’s authority at Chippenham required to be looked to, that his Bailiff was thwarted either by the Sheriff of the county, or by some of the principal landowners under the Crown within the parish. Two or three distinct cases are mentioned in the record. A certain fellow imprisoned in the castle of Old Sarum on a charge of felony, had turned king’s evidence, and had implicated in the charge one “Solomon the Jew of Chippenham.” ‘The Sheriff of Wilts issued his warrant to Robert Stoket the Bailiff of Chippenham, to arrest the said Solomon. But before he had time to do so, Godfrey Gascelyn, then lord of the manor of Sheldon and Chippenham, interfered by forbidding the Bailiff to meddle in the matter until he, Gascelyn, had conferred with the Sheriff upon the subject. The consequence was that the Bailiff’s perplexity was the Jew’s opportunity. Solomon improved it; took to his heels, and when at length he was wanted, was “no where to be found.” _ Another case was thus:—During the civil troubles in the pre- ceding reign of Henry III., raised by Simon de Montfort against the Crown, the same Robert Stoket, Bailiff of Chippenham, had seized as they were passing through the town, sundry packs of wool, which one Simon the Draper was conveying from Bristol to Southampton ; but the Sheriff ordered the Bailiff to release the wool. Again: one Nicholas Hamund, imprisoned by the Bailiff on a charge of larceny had been released by the Sheriff. The jury 40 On the History of Chippenham. quietly add in their report, “ how much the Sheriff got from Nicholas they do not know.” These cases show, first, that Chippenham had a permanent officer under the title of Bailiff long before the charter of Mary; and next, that his power was subject to continual challenge. Per- haps it may safely be concluded, that when Queen Mary granted a charter with a view of setting the local authority upon a fresh footing, it was not before it was wanted. THE Boroveu Lanps. ' It was of little use to grant a charter to the town and to endeavour to set the local authority on a better basis, without pro- viding ways and means for strengthening its usefulness and dignity. Accordingly, together with the charter came the Borough Lands. The history of this donation is curious. It will be seen by reference to the dates of the several grants of land above recited, that in the reign of Mary no part of the original royal demesne remained in the hands of the Crown except the Forest of Chippenham. This portion was still available, but it was probably of insufficient value. The alternative therefore was to take what was required from somebody else. Very conveniently for the purpose, it hap- pened that Walter Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury and Farley, owner (by descent from the Lord High Treasurer of that name temp. Henry VI.) of a large part of Chippenham parish, had, a few years before Mary came to the throne, fallen into fatal disgrace by calling King Henry VIII. a heretick, and by having conspired with one William Byrd, Vicar of Bradford (in Wilts) against the kine’s life. The conspiracy (so far as appears) only amounted to this; that the reverend gentleman was a dabbler in the strange, but then popular, branch of chemistry called Alchymy, and had ventured upon some experiments in Lord Hungerford’s house, to find out how long this heretick sovereign should live. His Majesty not approving that sort of inquiry on the part of his subjects, and being no doubt very sensitive of the stigma of heresy, called the two alchymists to account more sharply than they had probably anticipated; for Lord Hungerford lost his head on Tower Hill, and ~ with his head he also took leave of his Manor of Chippenham, By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 41 Sheldon, and Lowdon, besides a very considerable number of good Wiltshire manors elsewhere. The whole of his property was forfeited ; and the Crown kindly promised to take care of it until the next heir, then a minor, should reach the age of twenty-one. Before that time arrived King Henry and his successor King Edward VI. died: and Queen Mary wishing to ingratiate herself with her new Bailiff and Burgesses of Chippenham, severed a goodly slice from the Hungerford estates and bestowed it upon them. The Bailiff and Burgesses were only just in time to receive it, for the Heir of Lord Hungerford came of age twenty-three days after the date of the charter, when all the rest of his family property was restored to him by Letters Patent. The conditions annexed to the grant of these lands to the borough were, that the profits thereof should maintain two Burgesses in Parliament, and keep in repair the bridge over the Avon and a high footpath called ‘the Causeway” leading from the town to Derry Hill. - About sixty-six acres of Lord Hungerford’s land given by Queen Mary were afterwards claimed by the Crown, as assart land of the Forest of Chippenham, but on payment of £40 they were secured to the borough by Letters Patent of King James I., dated 21st November, 1607. Tue Parish Cuurcu Is in one respect not a bad study for Archzologists, exhibiting as it does samples of various styles, very old, very new, very good, and very so so. That a church, held by one Bishop Osbern, was here in the reign of the Confessor, has been already stated, but as Chippenham had even at that time been for some hundreds of years the residence of Wessex Royalty, some building of the kind, with a clerical establish- ment attached to the court, would probably have been on the spot from the first conversion of the province to Christianity. No visible part of the present church is quite so old as the Norman Conquest, but the chancel arch is not far short of it, being apparently of about A.D. 1120. The masonry of the chancel walls outside, consisting of small unhewn stones, and a small window on the north side, are also much older than the general body of the church. If the chancel G 42 On the History of Chippenham. was built about a.p. 1120, (Henry I.) it must have been almost before any part of the manor had been granted to subjects; also before the Tithes were appropriated and whilst there was a Rector resident. Into any detailed description of Chippenham church I cannot now enter. The best parts of it (both of them much later than the chancel) are the two chapels on the south side; the one against the chancel, the other against the nave. The former was, I believe, dedicated to St. Mary,! the latter to St. John the Baptist. Both were originally Chantries for the use of private families, the Hun- gerfords, and the Beauchamps of Bromham, or their successors the Bayntons. The difficulty has been to decide which was built by which, for the evidence usually decisive of such points, (as monu- ments, family devices, coats of arms, &c.), is so confused that it is not easy to distinguish the respective founders. That the chapel against the chancel was built by the Hungerfords seems most probable, for the ceiling is still covered with their arms, and Aubrey who lived close to Chippenham in 1650 and knew the living Hungerfords well, describes this part of the church as theirs, iden- tifying it by certain marks which still remain. In the corner of it is amonument to Andrew Baynton, Esq., which has been perhaps the reason why this has often been called the Baynton chapel. But as his family were living in 1579 (the date of his death) at Rowdon House, which belonged to the Hungerfords, possibly he may have been buried in the Hungerford’s chapel. There are notices of a third chantry dedicated to St. Andrew. Where this was is uncertain. A few years ago a large fragment of gravestone (now preserved in the vestry) was found under the church floor near the present lesson desk, bearing a portion of very old inscription, which mentions a chantry founded by one Clerk and Alice his wife. Some part of the church was also used for sacred purposes by a guild, (a company formed either for protection of trade or for 1 One of the tenements with which this chapel was endowed, was in that part of Chippenham called ‘‘ Foghamshire,” and was known as “‘the house of St. Mary.” By the Rev. J. E. JTackson. 43 some benevolent purpose) called “the Fraternity of St. Katharine,” and their altar was endowed with lands and houses. The church is dedicated to St. Andrew, and to this the town owes its fourth fair. I have already mentioned three fairs as granted to the town by charters. For the fourth there was no charter, and the reason is this. The fair is now kept on the 11th of December. Before the change from Old to New style it used to be kept on the 30th of November, and the 30th of November is St. Andrew’s day. There is therefore no manner of doubt that this fair arose out of the holiday originally kept in observance of the Dedication of the church, and that this is therefore the oldest fair in Chippenham. Tue Tower. The common tradition is that it was built by Lord Hungerford, lord of the manor in Henry VI. That he did so or helped to do it, is very likely, as his coat of arms within the Order of the Garter (and he was the only one of the family who was a Knight of that Order) is, amongst others, still preserved high up against the present belfry. But his Lordship’s tower came long since to an untimely end, through the partiality of Chippenham for bell-ringing. An old Churchwardens’ book testifies that the townsfolk appear to have been ready with a peal for every body. They rang when King James I. passed through the town in 1621, and when his son the Prince came back safe out of Spain; for my Lord Bishop; for all the days of triumph in the year; when Sir John Danvers’s son came to town, (he was the son of the lord of the hundred); and for the routing of the Scotch: and when Colonel Cromwell came through and slept at the White Hart, they not only welcomed him in the usual way, but in order to make his evening still more agreeable, presented him with two bottles of sack. With so much ringing, no wonder the old tower began to quake. A few violent storms brought matters to a crisis; so in 1633 they took down and re- stored (an old church-book says) tower and spire. This cost £320, towards which Sir Francis Popham, then M.P. for the borough, gave £40, and as bankers’ checks and penny postages were in those days unknown, the town spent 8s. 2d. in sending to Littlecote G 2 LL On the History of Chippenham. for his donation. The arms of Sir Francis are on a large shield above the western door. In 1655 the north side of the church was rebuilt. It has been once more rebuilt in modern times, and the sooner it undergoes the operation again, the better the church will look. Tue Recrory and VicaraceE. Chippenham would have a Rector resident until about a.p. 1150, when the tithes were for the first time severed from parish uses. They were bestowed, about that year, by the Empress Maud, on the Monastery of Monkton Farley; the gift consisting of the tithes of the whole parish, including the chapelry of Titherington-Lucas. The Prior and Monks then appointed a Vicar, with a small en- dowment. The Vicar frequently complained that it was too little, and the Bishop augmented it. Again he complained, and again it was increased. Under the second application of the Episcopal screw, the Prior and Monks began to wince, and presented a re- monstrance in their turn that the Vicar’s share was too large, that his income was now “immoderate;”’ whereupon the Bishop directed an entirely new Ordination. A copy of this document is preserved in the Registry at Salisbury, and it forms in fact the title-deed of the present Vicarage. In it the Official, one Master Stephen, professes his determination to pursue a just and middle course. He will do on the one hand, not too little, on the other not too much. The Vicar’s income, for all time to come, shall not be lean, but it must not be exuberant. The Parish Priest must live, but to be pampered is not good. Following out these cautious principles, his sentence therefore is that the first augmentation shall stand, and that in addition to it, the Vicar shall take and enjoy the profits of the chapelry of Titherton-Lucas, the tithes of which had hitherto belonged to the Prior. But Master Stephen’s mind still secretly feared the error of excess to the secular clergy. The Vicar might, after all, be overpaid and underworked. He would have indeed upon his hands the care of the parish, and the ministrations of the parish church. This might one day be enough, whilst the emolu- ments of Titherton might be superfluously plenteous. The further precaution was therefore taken, that out of the Titherton By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 45 incomings the Vicar should pay a pension of 40s. a year to the impoverished Prior of Farley, and should also provide for the services of Titherton chapel, by proper ministers, at his, the Vicar’s, own cost. This deed is dated 20th April, a.p. 1272, the 56th year of King Henry III. This was the way in which the chapel of St. Nicholas and Rectory of Titherton-Lucas became annexed to the Vicarage of Chippenham. Things having been thus amicably arranged between the Prior and his Vicar, the Monastery of Farley continued to take the tithes (plus the 40s. a year from the Vicar) until the dissolution, when the estate of the Priory in this parish was bestowed (as mentioned above) upon the Protector Somerset. The Rectorial tithes were then transferred, not, as they ought to have been, back to the parish, but to Oxford; being granted by King Henry VIII. to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, then newly founded. The grant is dated 11th December, 1546, just two months before the king’s death. DistincuisHED Natives. ? One more point must be alluded to in this sketch of Chippenham history. It will not detain you very long, but you would perhaps not object to its being longer, as it is to refer to the distinguished natives of your town. No doubt there have been many, but un- luckily (‘“‘carent vate sacro,”) for want of some one to collect in times past the particulars of this interesting property, we are left in considerable ignorance of the eminent deceased. At present my list is very brief, for it contains only two names. One of these was Dr. Thomas Scott, the author of “'The Christian Life.’ Born at Chippenham, as the Register states, in October 1638, he became a very celebrated Divine; was within reach of Prebends, Deaneries, and twice, of Bishopricks; but from private scruples he refused all. His works were printed in two volumes folio. I need not more particularly allude to them, as of course they are to be found in every library in Chippenham. This will hardly be the case with the literary remains (if indeed there are any) of the second fellow-townsman to be brought before your notice, for the very fact of his connection with the place at all will 46 On the History of Chippenham. probably be quite novel to the greater part of the audience. But with his name you will be historically familiar; for every one will remember amongst the extravagances of the Commonwealth, a certain denomination of fanatics who rejoiced in the title of Muggletonians. I have no claim to particular intimacy with their doctrines, and therefore in giving authority for the fact that their founder, Lodowick Muggleton, was Chippenham born and bred, I can only hope that there isno Muggletonian present to take offence at the pungent description of his chief which I am obliged to borrow. A memoir of this person, in which he is said to have been born here, “of poor though honest parents,” is printed in the Harleian Miscellany,! and its title is as follows: “A modest account of the wicked life of that grand Impostor, Lodowick Muggleton: wherein are related all the memorable actions that he did, and all the strange accidents that have befallen him, ever since his first coming to London, to this 25th day of January, 1676. Also a Particular of those reasons which first drew him to those damnable principles ; with several pleasant stories concerning him, proving his com- mission to be but counterfeit, and himself a cheat.” The biography goes on to show that Mr. Muggleton (of Chippenham) began his religious career as a Church of England man; exchanged for Independent; slipped off to Anabaptist; tasted Quakerism; and finally, as might be expected, subsided into no religion at all. His practice is described as having been as loose as his theories were wild, and through the one or the other he appears to have fallen occasionally into troubles. “‘Howbeit,” says the “modest account,” ‘a little before Oliver’s death, Muggleton, by continual flatteries had got into his books, and, amongst other prophecies concerning him, had declared that Oliver should perform more wonderful actions than any he had yet achieved, before he died. But, he happening to depart this life, before he had done any thing else that was remarkable, Muggleton was demanded why his prophecy proved not true? He answered very wisely, and like himself, viz., that he was sure Oliver would have performed them had he lived long enough.” J. HE. J. 1 Vol VIII. p. 83, (Svo. 1810). 47 On Ghington Chueh, and Aemorials of ite Aistory. By the Rey. ArrHur Fane. It devolved upon me at the last year’s Archeological Meeting at Salisbury, to endeavour to elucidate the antiquities and throw some light upon the historical associations of an ancient church of much beauty and rare interest in the Vale of Wylye,—a church, too, which was the centre of many stirring historical traditions, but which remains at once a monument of the munificence, splendour, and architectural style of past ages, and of the neglect and want of taste of more recent times. It chances, from near residence, that another church has specially interested me, which in all particulars seems a twin church to that of St. Mary’s, Boyton. The Church of All Saints, Edington, to which I purpose calling the attention of my brother archeologists, is a far grander and more imposing building than its sister church; it is also as remarkable a specimen of the transition from one style to another, as the mortuary chapel of the Giffards at Boyton. As in the latter building we see the struggle between the harsher and more severe times of early English, gradually blending into the trefoil or quatrefoil of Decorated architecture, and the fuller foliations of the architecture of the middle of the 14th century warming the acute cuspings and plain mouldings of the 13th; so in the church of Edington, we may observe the straight and more formal lines of the Perpendicular dispersing the elegant tracery and cutting the flowery developments of the 14th century. We see at Boyton, so to speak, Henry the 3rd contending with Edward the Ist; whilst at Edington we see the struggle of Edward the 8rd with Richard the 2nd. 48 On Edington Church, and Memorials of its History. Without further delay—except to entreat the most favourable consideration for a paper roughly sketched amidst the engrossing cares, the ceaseless anxieties of a large parish, and the usual share of social and domestic occupations which I believe entangle anti- quarian quite as much as more modern students—lI will proceed to the details of the church and parish of Edington. The table-land which, dispersed in several groups, is called by the common appellation of Salisbury Plain, terminates from Westbury to the high road hanging over Earlstoke in a series of ramparts of turf, which seem to stand out against the Vale of Pewsey with the sheer massiveness of a fortified town. At no point does the upper plain rise more abruptly than where the down lands, forming a bason in which the little hamlet of Bratton is placed, sweep round to the northwestward and rise up almost perpendicularly from the Vale of Pewsey below. Close under this natural rampart, about four miles from Westbury, a rich fringing of gigantic elms and walnuts surrounds the village of Edington, whilst on a sort of open space where cross roads meet, the magnificent old church startles the passer by with its almost cathedral proportions and rich outline of pinnacle, and battlement, and tower. The village is mentioned by Camden—“At Edindon, heretofore called Eathendone, King Alfred won the most glorious victory that ever was obtained over the ravaging Danes, and drove them to that extremity that they took a solemn oath immediately to depart the land.” It would appear, on the authority of Tanner and Leland, that as early as the reign of John, the Church and Manor of Edington were held under the Abbey of Romsey, and that the church was held as a prebendal benefice under that Abbey. William of Edington, Bishop of Winchester, and so well known by the commencement of that work of restoration in Winchester Cathedral which was so gloriously carried forward by his successor, William of Wykeham, determined to acknowledge God’s goodness in raising him to so high a post in His Church, and built the present church; and furthermore, moved by the same pious gratitude and zeal, founded subsequently a college for a dean and twelve ministers, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, St. Katharine, and All Saints. The By the Rev. Arthur Fane. 49 confirmation of the good Bishop’s grant and establishment seems to haye been made in 1347; so that we may, without any stretch of credulity, believe that whilst the mighty and victorious Edward was haughtily demanding the lives of the patriotic citizens of Calais, the good Bishop was in the conqueror’s camp, pleading for the royal protection to his munificent endowment at the lowly village perched at the foot of Salisbury Plain; and the pious Bishop’s prayers may have been blended with Philippa’s, that the ignominious halters should be removed from the necks of the brave Eustace and his fellow-patriots. Subsequently to the first grant to the dean and ministers, at the request of the Black Prince the government of the new monastery was altered, and a body of Monks of the order of Bonhommes, a ramification from the Augustinian root, be- came the proprietors of the newly-founded church. Edington and Ashridge in Bucks, are the only two places in England, according to Tanner, where this order existed. Probably from that time to the dissolution, the monastery of Edington contained the usual amount of knowledge and ignorance—of true devotion to God, and hypocritical pretence—the same amount of zeal and apathy, of virtue and vice, which at this day is to be discovered in any com- munity of men. When the Reformation—that fiery tide of religious zeal and irreligious avarice—that mingled storm of godly refor- mation and ungodly destruction—fell upon the monasteries, Edington and its community of Bonhommes fared no better than the rest. The revenue of the monastery amounted to the sum of £442 9s. 7d., or, according to Speed, to £521 12s. 5d. The whole monastery buildings, lands, and tenements were granted to Seymour of Sudeley, the Protector’s brother. On his fall, the site was granted to William Powlett Lord St. John, from whom it passed to the Duke of Bolton, and finally became the property of the Taylor family, to whom it _ now belongs, in the person of the worthy High Sheriff of this county. I purpose giving this meeting a few details of the church, which rivals almost any sacred edifice in the diocese, both in size and _ beauty of detail. Placed at the foot of the great down ramparts of 5 rt Salisbury Plain, this beautiful building stands out in bold relief H 50 On Edington Church, and Memorials of its History. against the opposing hill. Its proportions are beyond most paro- chial churches, as the following dimensions will show :—length of nave, 75 feet; breadth of ditto, including aisles, 52 feet 8 inches ; height of ditto, 45 feet; square of tower, 25 feet 4 inches by 20 feet 6 inches; length of chancel, 54 feet; breadth of ditto, 23 feet 9 inches; transepts, length 71 feet 9 inches, breadth 23 feet 7 inches. Outside, the church strikes us by the beauty of the stone and the clearness of the cuttings. The state of repair outside is far from giving the idea of the decay which strikes the visitor on entering this magnificent fabric. The drawings which I now exhibit, the work of entirely amateur artists, will show you the peculiarity of the style, as well as the exquisite beauty of this church. First, the east window is one of the most elegant specimens I am acquainted with, of that style which we might call Decorated Perpendicular. The upright line of the mullions, the general arrangement of the mouldings, and some of the tracery is almost Perpendicular; whilst the upper portion partakes of the rich tracery and the flowing and graceful arrangements of the Decorated style. The general effect is almost perfect. If the straight lines of the centre mullions seem stiff and elongated, observe the way in which the stone seems to spring into flowery grace and lightness in the tracery above the lower portion of the window. Observing this window and the rich and exquisite carving of the north and south and side windows of the chancel, as well as the statuary in the inside, we cannot doubt but that this part is the work of the predecessor of William of Wykeham—that Wil- liam of Edington whose windows and arches in Winchester Cathedral are the forerunners of the more decided Perpendicular work of his more celebrated successor. Nor can we fail to blend the historical associations with the architectural, and to realize the pious Prelate submitting the plans of his new church to the warlike Edward, and perhaps opposing the more stiff and less elegant style of Wykeham, whose innovations were then beginning to be felt. I will draw your attention to the side windows also of the chancel, which are formed of Decorated quatrefoils in very perfect proportion and finish. The tower also has a window which has the same peculiarity of style which distinguishes the east: four slightly By the Rev. Arthur Fane. 51 cusped trefoils meet at a centre, and the junction of the four sides forms a cross pattée of elegant design. The windows and exterior of the nave generally are inferior and certainly later than the chancel, especially on the north side, where the arches of the cloisters may be traced above the wall, and the malformation of the side aisle windows may be accounted for by the abstraction of the cloisters which formed an integral part of the original plan. On the north side of the church stood the conventual buildings, connected with the church by a continuous cloister. The traces of the abbot’s pond, the massive stone walls of the abbey gardens, and a majestic yew tree of colossal proportions, form a collection of objects which seem to complete the interest which the church itself must excite. But I must hasten to the inside. Here the decay and neglect of past ages form a sad contrast to the traces of glorious beauty with which this church must have been adorned when fresh from the chisel of William of Edington’s workmen. Pews unsightly and of all heights—the floor a chaotic plateau, with traces of stolen brasses and ruptured inscriptions—green and dank walls— a huge oven, similar to a brewing vat, to warm the church—the mutilated statuary of William of Edington—all speak of the wreck of magnificence and beauty caused by the hasty zealots of the Reformation, and of the apathy of many succeeding ages. Entering by a lofty southern porch, with a parvise or priest’s room above, we find the nave divided from the side aisles by six lofty arches on each side, under one of which is a singular altar tomb, of which I am able to present a drawing. The tomb seems to have combined a brass memorial to the dead, which has been removed by sacri- legious hands, with a small oratory wherein the priest might repeat the daily service for the souls of the departed. Resuming our walk through the nave, and hoping as we pass on _ that the day will come when the hand of restoration shall cleanse _ those noble pillars and arches from the three centuries’ white and ochre wash which cloaks their mouldings, begrimes their fair _ proportions, and disfigures the once beautiful stone—we arrive at the tower. Nothing can well be more graceful or elegant than H 2 52 On Edington Church, and Memorials of its History. this part of the church. Four lofty arches, meeting from nave, transepts, and chancel, are joined by fan tracery which once was light and chaste, but which now is defaced by the usual church- wardens’ bounty of obliterating washes of many colours and divers shades. The south transept claims special notice. A lofty window of Decorated architecture lights it, and underneath the southern window we observe a tomb, of which again I present a drawing. Whose is it ? Who is the lordly monk or mitred abbot who there reposes? The architecture and style speak of a later date than the times of William of Edington. An ecclesiastic of evident dignity reposes under a canopy, the upper part of which is formed of two quatrefoils, with long perpendicular tracery meeting at the centre of the arches. Four quatrefoils on the body of the tomb contain, in their centres, two butts or barrels alternating with two Tudor roses: each butt has a branch projecting from the bung. An angel above the tomb holds a shield with the same device; whilst on the cushion at the feet of the figure are the initials J. B. A delicate bordering of Perpendicular foliage runs along the top moulding of the tomb; whilst many traces of colouring are to be observed on various parts of the tomb, telling us plainly that once it was a rich and gorgeous memorial of the departed ecclesiastic. The initials J.B. and the rebus on the tomb have suggested to me an elucidation of the name of the monk who slumbers below. The purpose of a rebus, we all know, is to convey the name of an individual by outward symbols. If we take the branch to be a beck, which is an old word expressing a twig, and then look at its insertion in the ton or barrel, we make the word Beckinton; and as the most ordinary mode of describing a monk or friar in those days would be the conjunction of his Christian name and place of abode—and as the village of Beckington is near enough to have probably supplied recruits to the neighbouring Monastery of Edington—may it not be that John of Beckington is the name of the monk who slumbers in death beneath? This may seem a wide guess; but this tomb is just one of those subjects of mystery, that wide guesses may be hazarded even at the risk of some archeological Edie Ochiltree dissolving the dream by clearly proving that J. B. means a’ 2 By the Rev. Arthur Fane. 53 nothing else than John Brown, and the rebus that from his love of the abbatical beer, his life was as lively as a growing branch. The survey of the church must recall our minds from archzo- logical guesses to the more patent beauties of the church. The windows in the transepts still give us examples of the contending styles. Between the windows of the chancel a light canopy of exquisite work formerly contained a statue: two of these are wholly emptied of their tenant. The remaining two figures are headless; but, even thus mutilated, show a high school of art in proportion and drapery. Two other canopies at the east end are remarkable for the light- ness and beauty of their details. It remains for me to mention the tomb which is placed on the south side of the altar, of the renaissance period of architecture ; and also one of modern art, which appears to be an imitation, and which is to be found in the nave. A magnificent tomb of alabaster and marble contains two effigies, one of a lady of high rank, placed in a loftier position even in death than her husband. The tomb is a really beautiful specimen of the age, and the faces have a sharp- ness and grace and life about them that will not altogether seem despicable even in the presence of the exquisite work of the immortal Chantrey which is placed! exactly opposite. The male figure is dressed in the plate armour of the early part of Charles the Ist’s reign, and represents, as the inscription informs us, Sir Edward Lewys, gentleman of the Privy Chamber of Charles I. The lady is gorgeously arrayed in the ruffled and plaited and buckramed splendour of the Court of Henrietta, and represents Ann, Lady Beauchamp, widow of Lord Beauchamp, and daughter of the Earl of Dorset, and, by second marriage, wife of Sir KE. Lewys. Around the plinth of the tomb are five kneeling figures, marble effigies of the sons and daughters of the lordly couple above. According to the fashion in mortuary matters of that day, the little sons and daughters are all in act of prayer, kneeling along the front of the tomb. Even these look scarcely comfortable in their trunk hose and angular doublets, or stiff stomachers and stiffer ruffles; and they seem to have required some Medusa’s head to have fixed them 54 On Edington Church, and Memorials of its History. thus stiffly at their orisons. We must feel uncomfortable ourselves whilst we look on the forced attitudes and painful prostrations of the little knights or lordlings around their parental pattern of buckram and stiffness. Angels hover above, of inferior material and vastly inferior workmanship to the human figures below. The whole tomb would really be an ornament in almost any other part of the church, but it seems so exceedingly out of place in the chaste yet rich chancel of William of Edington, that the archeologist cannot but wish Sir E. Lewys rested in some other spot than where now his effigy meets our view. Opposite to this tomb is an entirely modern work of art. When I say it is from the chisel of Chantrey, I say enough to make it acceptable to the most scrupulous Gothic archeologist. It repre- sents the last moments of Sir Simon Taylor. The dying youth seems scarcely alive, scarcely dead, and the marble is so wondrously wrought that the looker-on hardly knows whether the figure has passed from life or not. The afflicted relatives watch the passing spirit, and hang over the beloved form as though they would grasp that passing spirit, even if it must quit the earthly tabernacle. Chantrey has fully maintained his high fame in this exquisite monument, which even of itself repays a visit to this beautiful church. In the nave is a singular monument, which appears to be the erection of a sculptor who was fired with an ambition to rival the monument of Sir E. Lewys. I have no doubt the descendant of the gentleman and lady represented on this tomb were fully as piously desirous of doing justice to their ancestor as the children who raised the monument in the chancel, but I trust I shall be excused observing that the modern dress of our bold yeomanry— I mean gaiters and tight (what shall I call them?) tight trunk- hose are not well suited for monumental immortality. I trust in this, and any other remarks I may have made, no person will suppose that I would offend any living being; indeed, in any observations I have made with regard to the dilapidation of the fabric, I have fully before my eyes the fact that this generation has nearly three centuries of destruction, fanatic spoliation, and By the Rev. Arthur Fane. 55 cold-blooded neglect to replace, to restore, to regenerate; and that whether in this church or in the one I last treated of, we may say with Horace of old— ‘‘Delicta majorum immeritus Iues, Romane, donec templa refeceris, ANdesque labentes deorum, et Foeda nigro simulacra fumo.” The names ‘of two ecclesiastics of fame—the one for his prosperity and intellect, the other for his misfortunes—must be briefly men- tioned ere I close this paper. William of Edington, Bishop of Winchester, is the first of these prelates: from his bounteous liberality arose the beautiful church of which we have been treating. The other ecclesiastic whose name is connected with this building is the unfortunate Bishop Ayscough, or Askew. It would seem that he was a singular favourite of the weak and vacillating Henry VI. Apparently employed about the Court, he rose to the post of Bishop of Salisbury. For twelve years he administered the diocese; and, uniting high offices of courtly employment with his more sacred work in his diocese, he was Confessor to the King. He had retired from his more worldly occupations, and had sought out the quiet retirement of Edington for a short repose, and for celebrating the holy offices in more private and calm retreats. The mass was chaunted, the holy Eucharist was about to be administered, the Bishop was himself administering at the altar. Was ever retreat more suited for a mind palled with the splendours, anxieties, and cares of a court? Can any din of war, or strife of tongues, reach that holy temple of God, in the midst of that calm village? The Bishop kneels and partakes of the holy elements—he turns to offer the same privilege to the monks and the waiting congregation. What meant that wild shout which reigns through the vaulted church? The worshippers start from their knees—the awful sounds increase—the surging voices of a crowd again echo through the church. The doors are burst open—the crowd rushes in—the Bishop, in his episcopal robes, faces the approaching crowd—the monks, aghast, expect instant death; but the Bishop stands before the altar, calmly awaiting whatever violence may be in store, Again and again the fatal cry is heard—“ Death to the Bishop— 56 On Edington Church, and Memorials of its History: death to the King’s Confessor.”” His holy office—the sacred work in which he is engaged—the sacredness of the place—avail nothing. The ringleaders seize the Bishop—they drag him through chancel and nave with rude violence; and now the cry arises, “to the hill- top with the traitor.” The Bishop takes one long lingering look at the calm, holy retreat below—it is his last look. The crowd gather round—the heaped-up flints that chance to be nigh give ready means for execution—the first blow is struck, and now the blood flows over the sacred vestments—another and another—he is prostrate—his venerable brow and calm visage become one ghastly wound—he breathes a prayer—he dies. Such was the fate of William Ayscough, Bishop of Salisbury— the victim of Jack Cade’s rebellion, brutally murdered upon the hill above Edington, by his own people, upon the plea that he was the King’s Confessor, and did not hospitably entertain his people. The mob concluded the horrid tragedy by spoiling his palace of 10,000 marks, and leaving his body naked and gory upon the down above. Such is popular violence—such is King Mob in his full reign. The shocking tragedy of the murder of Bishop Askew may leave a mournful impression. Let me, then, conclude by reading to you the exact counterpart of this tragedy in the most truthful and accurate of writers, William Shakespeare. “Dick, The first thing we do let’s kill all the lawyers. Cade. Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment: that parchment, being scribbled o’er, should undo a man? Some say, the bee stings: but I say, ’tis the bee’s wax: for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since. How now: who’s there? Enter some, bringing in the CLERK OF CHATHAM, Smith. The clerk of Chatham: he can write and read, and cast accompt. Cade. O monstrous! Smith. We took him setting of boys’ copies. Cade, Here’s a villain! Smith, H’as a book in his pocket, with red letters in’t. Cade. Nay, then, he is a conjuror. Dick, Nay, he can make obligations, and write court-hand. Cade. I am sorry for’t: the man is a proper man, on mine honour: unless I find him guilty, he shall not die. Come hither, sirrah; I must examine thee: what is thy name ? Clerk, Emmanuel. — oS On Parochial Histories. 57 Dick. They use to write it on the top of letters: "Twill go hard with you. Cade. Let me alone :—Dost thou use to write thy name: or hast thou a mark to thyself, like an honest plain dealing man ? Clerk. Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up, that I can write my name. All. He hath confessed: away with him; he’s a villain and a traitor. Cade. Away with him, I say: hang him with his pen and ink-horn about his neck.” [Exeunt some with the Clerk, Henry VI.—Part I1.—Act IV.—Scene II. On Poruchial Aisturies. By the Rey. Joun WitKxrnson. (Rector of Broughton Gifford.) I suppose that I am not wrong in believing that the collection of materials for a County History was one of the main objects proposed at the foundation of this Society. In the preface to our Magazine a hope is expressed, “that such a work may be not only a means of providing popular amusement and instruction, but may also serve as a valuable assistant to those who may hereafter undertake the more serious task of finishing the history of the county.” In the report of the Provisional Committee, it was expressly said that “one of our chief purposes is to collect materials for a county history,” and the clergy were appealed to for their assistance. In the inaugural address we were reminded that Wilts was, in this matter, “ unfortunately much in arrear of other counties; indeed, that there is scarcely any district of England whose local history has been, till very lately, so much neglected; or, where so much, even now, remains to be accomplished.” It was safely asserted that “the history of no part of the kingdom is more deserving of close examination and study; while it is too certain that few counties have profited less from the labours of the local historian.” This reproach was said to rest particularly on the Northern division of the county; and the hope was indulged that “many of us may live to see a complete County History of Wilts, worthy of the title, _ worthy of this most important part of England, in which so many I 58 On Parochial Histories. interesting historical events have occured, with which so many remarkable historical characters have been connected.” One of our secretaries, in his address, pointed out what a county history ought to be, stated from his own experience the difficulties which beset the task, and showed how they could be met and overcome, namely, by the power of combination, directed and animated by this Society. Mr. Jackson has done more than deliver precepts on this subject. ‘He has taught by example, by his various contributions to our Magazine, and particularly by his account of Farleigh-Hungerford—which may be regarded as the model of a parochial history. That parish indeed lies chiefly in Somersetshire, though part of it is within the County of Wilts; but we have further in our own county the history, by our President, of a parish, as rich in matters of historical interest, as happy in its historian. A County History then is one of the main objects before the members of this Society. Now, such a history must, from its very nature, consist of many component parts; it will be, if in any way full and perfect, a com- bined whole, made up of the histories of a county’s sub-divisions— the Parishes: for every parish has a physical, civil, and ecclesiastical story of its own,.more or less interesting. Its very name requires etymological investigation; it has a certain configuration of surface, certain geological strata, certain peculiarities of climate, of drainage, of animals, and of plants; certain natives or inhabitants, who, at some time may have been historical characters; certain buildings of note, public or private: its industry will always repay inquiry ; if agricultural, we may ask how many acres under the plough? how many in grass, what the management of each, what the rent, the produce ? what the condition of the labouring population, their amusements, their toils, their habits, the state of the cottages, what improvements have been made, what are still wanting? if the industry be manufacturing, the questions will refer in our neigh- bourhood to the state of the woollen trade in the West, as distin- guished from that in the North; the factories and their management, the progress of the power loom, the displacement of homemanufactures by hand, the effects of this on the physical and moral condition of € tle =— a By the Rev. John Witkinson. 59 the artisans. Then the means of communication, the roads, canals, railways; the religious and ecclesiastical condition, the church and those who frequent it, the Parsons, past but not present; the means of education and of moral improvement, the schools, the libraries, the mechanics’ institutes; the charitable societies, the poor and other parochial funds. A Parochial History should not be a piece of antiquarian research merely; not a sketch of what a parish was, so much as of what it is. Let us aim at presenting a faithful picture of the present age, remembering that what is present to us, and from its very familiarity but little noticed by us, will soon be matter of past history and of much inquiry to those who will follow us, and who will require from us what we are now requiring from our predecessors, and what we blame them for not handing down to us—a plain statement of what was every day before their eyes. Antiquarian detail may be interesting to a few, but we want some- thing useful to all. The accounts of some parishes will be more full than those of others, but all these sub-divisions of the county must be more or less described, before the county historian, the man of the future, ean enter on his task. Parochial Histories then I imagine to be the materials which we are called on to provide, and which were contemplated by the Society at its foundation. Who is to do the work before us? No one man can. No number of persons simply visiting the different localities will do it. Such peripatetic investigators may look round a place, but have not time or opportunity to look into it; they will certainly overlook much most worthy of attention, and their published reports will be, as often before, meagre, superficial, inaccurate, and generally unsatisfactory. Our parochial historians must be residents in, or near, the places they describe. But who is there resident in each parish, interested in and acquainted with its affairs, past and present, of sufficient zeal, intelligence, and knowledge, to undertake the work? This is not a very easy question to answer, but, unless it be answered, we are stopt at the very threshold. Perhaps I may be prejudiced in favour of my cloth, as the cobbler of the besieged town was in favour of his leather; but for the life of me I cannot 12 60 On Parochial Histories. think of anybody but the Clergyman, as in any way meeting our requirements. Who else is there in very many of our rural parishes? Look at the progressive changes taking place in the residences of our population. It may be worth while marking for a moment the slow, sure, and silent course of the stream. ‘Tis sixty years since,” or more, that farms were small, and the occupiers were their own landlords, the chief occupier was the Squire, himself a farmer. But small farms have not been found profitable, many have been merged into one, economy has been enforced, there are fewer dwelling-houses to keep in repair, improved modes of cultivation have been introduced ; the former gentlemen yeomen have become either tenants or bailiffs, and their sons have gone into trade and taken to other occupations in life. The squires, small and great, are gone to watering places, to the neighbourhood of the railway termini, or to London, for pleasure, for business, for the education of families: the smaller have no country house whatever; the larger cannot keep up a// the country houses which belong, or did belong, to the several estates which compose their accumulated possessions, so they retain one which they may occupy for a few months in each year; the other baronial mansions are deserted or occupied by tenants, or in many cases by paupers. Within a mile of the parish in which I live there is the finest existing English specimen of domestic Gothic architecture, built in the middle of the 15th cen- tury, occupied as a farm house. The manor house of the adjoming parish is filled with paupers. There are, close to me, four houses, once of consideration, occupied by tenant farmers or by paupers. The second largest resident landed proprietor, if not the largest, and the owner of a large proportion of the houses, is a beer house keeper. What is true of my parish is true of those around me. The smaller manor houses are every where deserted. Such is the abandonment of the country, resulting in a great measure from railroads, that persons of intelligence, knowledge, and education, are not generally to be met with in the country. We must then, as a rule, have recourse to the Parish Priest, he, at least, is adstrictus glebe, the last sole remnant of feudalism; for him the law of settle- ment is in full force, and will be, long after our President and Eo By the Rev. John Wilkinson. 61 others like minded have repealed that law in regard to the labouring poor: the sooner the better. But will or can the clergy undertake the work? The want of willingness will be very exceptional, and may be provided for as such. But the want of ability, arising from occupations which admit of no interference, will be more frequent. We must remember however that this difficulty will oceur in towns and populous neighbourhoods—the very places where it can be most easily met—by enlisting the services of other most competent residents. Here in Chippenham you could not indeed ask the Vicar to write a physical, civil, and ecclesiastical history of his parish, he has other and more serious calls on his time and attention. But he has already found a brother Clergyman who has done the most difficult part of the work for him, and I am very sure there are many here perfectly willing and able to finish it. In every parish of any size or importance there must be a division of labour: a committee of parochial historians must be formed, who shall divide the composition between them; and generally, in asking the Clergyman to undertake the work in any parish, you would permit him to call in what helpers he chose. All the reports of the several parties would be in answer to certain specified heads of inquiry, and the whole would be revised, consolidated and ar- ranged by a competent body of editors. But, of course, it is not for me, nor for any other private individual, nor indeed for this Society, to summon the Clergy to this labour. We might call, but I fear they would not generally answer. ‘ Do nothing without the Bishop” must be our motto in this as well as in other matters in which the Clergy are concerned, and I have not failed to observe it now. Before moving in this affair, I consulted the Bishop of Salisbury. He has twice written to me, approving warmly; and he authorizes me to say this. He hopes that the promoters of the scheme will visit him at the Palace, and form with him a plan of operations ;! he wishes the Palace to be 1 This meeting has been held. The plan, already in progress, is, that a paper of parochial topics, together with a specimen history of one parish in Wilts and of another in Dorset, be prepared, printed, and circulated among the Clergy, with an address from the Bishop. 62 On Parochial Histories. considered the head quarters of this movement, which he desires should embrace the whole diocese, Dorset as well as part of Wilts. He has already laid the matter before the Archdeacons and Rural Deans of the whole diocese, and secured their co-operation and good will. If there remain in any corner of any one’s mind a doubt as to the feasibility of this plan, perhaps I may remove that hesitation by showing that all the difficulties, incident to a much more extensive scheme, have been met and conquered. I can show you a history, not of a county, but of a kingdom, successfully executed by the parochial Clergy. J allude to the new statistical account of Scotland, by the ministers of the respective parishes; a complete topography, parish by parish, county by county, of the whole of the Island north of the Tweed, contained in fifteen volumes. This work is so remarkable, that I ask to be allowed to describe it, and the circumstances which led to it, a little in detail. I shall take my facts and my views chiefly from an article which appeared in the “Quarterly Review,” number 164. Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, suggested, as early as 1641, to the general assembly of the Kirk of Scotland a general scheme for describing the country by the parochial ministers, under the directions of the assembly. But the undertaking had fallen on troublous times, and when the work, with the maps accompanying it, did after some years issue from the press, it plainly showed in its imperfect condition, its sympathy with the disasters of the country it professed to delineate. It was, however, meritorious, in spite of its defects, as a first attempt, and was the starting point of all succeeding inquiries. The geography and topo- graphy of Scotland passed through several hands—Sibbald, Walter Mac Farlan (from whom Sir Walter Scott largely borrowed), Pennant, and others, with more or less assistance from the Clergy; till at last the Kirk and the Highland Agricultural Society united its strength in a great work of parochial statistics and local history. Towards the close of the last century, the project of a general topographical account, to be furnished by the ministers, was taken up by one to whom Scotland owes much of her present forward position in agriculture and intelligence—Sir John Sinclair, the By the Rev. John Wilkinson. 63 President of the Highland Agricultural Society. He circulated, among the ministers, a number of queries respecting the geographical and natural history of each parish, its population, its productions, state of religion, morals, manners, education; of the poor, their maintenance and employment, antiquities and historical events; it being intimated that the great object of the inquiry was to know the present state of the country, and the means most likely to promote its welfare. Being a member of the General Assembly he obtained the co-operation of that Ecclesiastical Parliament. “Nothing” he says “could be more flattering than the reception the queries met with. Scotland is divided into 950 parishes or districts, and in less than eighteen months reports were received from above half that number.’ He conquered all obstacles chiefly, according to his own account, by four fortunate peculiarities: first, the winning affability of his manner and address, which was irresist- able to young Clergymen; second, having an estate and residence in the north part of the kingdom, which gave him superior access to information, and opportunity of cultivating an uncommonly extensive acquaintance; third, the golden rule of pointedly answering every letter he received; fourth, a spirit of perseverance which no obstacle could resist, and which was kept up, from time to time, by animating eulogies from various respectable quarters, some of which eulogies the worthy Baronet has, with very pardonable complacency, printed in his appendix. This work of Sir J. Sinclair’s is called “The Old Statistical.” For forty years the Kirk rested on her oars, as well she might; but at the lapse of that period, after a general war had been followed by as general a peace, and by the important and inevitable changes which took place on the recurrence of men and money to civil occupations; after the impulse given to every branch of our domestic industry, after the extraordinary advances of that age in science, arts, and manufactures; after the increase of intelligence in all ranks of population, of various employments, of public institutions and charities, of religion and education, the ministers of the Kirk wisely thought that the time had come for another and a more important endeavour to mark the progress, the state, and the capabilities of their own, their native land. 64 On Parochial Histories. The undertaking was again under the sanction of the General Assembly, who ‘recommended the members of the church to give all the aid in their power towards its completion.” Heads of inquiry were circulated among the Clergy in 1831 by the committee of the Society for the sons and daughters of the Clergy, to whom Sir J. Sinclair had bequeathed the copy-right of “The Old Statistical.’ Several gentlemen of literary and scientific distinction were appointed to revise the contributions in the several departments. Professor Jameson for geology and natural history, Mr. Tytler for civil history, Professor Low for agriculture. The publication began in 1834, and ended in 1845. The information is grouped under the heads of Topography and Natural History, Civil and Ecclesias- tical History, Population, Industry, Parochial Economy. Perhaps this arrangement might admit of improvement; it is hardly necessary to require from the ministers of adjoining parishes, answers to the same string of minute queries as to geography, hydrography, and geology. These are pretty much the same within a certain district larger than the parochial. The whole county might be de- scribed by some scientific person. So again in regard to zoology and botany. A condensed and digested physical history of the county might be given according to its natural divisions, reserving for the minor and often capricious divisions of parishes, what might be peculiar to each, and so lightening the burden imposed on the contributors. But these are matters of detail. Taking the work as a whole, it must be acknowledged that the ministers of the Kirk of Scotland have furnished a compilation which must long be regarded as a lasting memorial of their intelligence, of their zeal, of their research, and of that varied and intimate acquaintance with the affairs, history, condition, and resources of their parishes, which so well becomes them. Be it remembered also, that they have raised a monument to the honour of their country, such as no other can boast, unaided by public funds, and supported throughout by no other means than such as might arise from the sale of the work. They have been entirely self-reliant. The work has paid and more than paid its way. a By the Rev. John Wilkinson. 65 Now, shall it be thought that the Clergy of the Church of England cannot do for one county, what the ministers of the Kirk of Scotland have done for a whole kingdom? Dr. Johnson is reported to have said, “Shall the Kirk of Scotland have its General Assembly and shall the Church of England be denied its convocation? I will stand before a battery of cannon to restore convocation.” Without entering into the question of the revival of convocation, and without _ professing the fire-eating zeal of the High Church Lexicographer, we may stir up our own church to a reasonable jealousy, and ask, Shall the Kirk of Scotland have the completest parochial history existing, and shall we of the Church of England have none? Why? Are we less naturally intellectual, less highly educated, less zealous and inquiring, less fond of research, less literary in our tastes, less interested in our several spheres of duty? I reject the notion of our inferiority in any of the qualifications for the task: that we have not yet undertaken it with a simultaneous effort is an accident which may be repaired. Indeed in one very essential requisite—knowledge of church history, of christian and ecclesias- tical antiquity, we may, without much vainglorying, suppose ourselves better informed than they are in the north. We should not probably, it is hoped, fall into such mistakes as some which I am going to mention in the great Scotch work. Many churches in Scotland, as well as elsewhere, are dedicated to Michael the Archangel. The ministers of one of these (Kirk Michael) says, in “The New Statistical,” that “the name of this parish, which is common to no fewer than five others in Scotland, is obviously derived from St. Michael, a saint of great note in the Roman breviary, who flourished in the 10th century.” The minister of Cross Michael also tells us that “St. Michael seems to have been regarded as an individual of more than ordinary sanctity :” quite unconscious that he is speaking of him who in heaven made war on the great Dragon. Again, the Church of Kilmorack—a Gaelic word meaning literally “the Church of Mary’’—was dedicated, of course, to the Blessed Virgin. The minister was at a loss who this Mary might be, and adds, “from what family this lady sprang cannot with certainty be ascertained, though it seems most likely K 66 On Paroch ial Histories. she was a descendant of one of the lairds of Chisholm.” This occurs first in “The Old Statistical,” but the suggestion appeared so valuable, and probably so gratifying to the clan, that it has been repeated by the more recent topographer. The same reverend gentleman may be excused for quoting the foundation charter of the Priory of Beaulieu 1230, as confirmed by Pope Gregory III. who lived in the 8th century. Another describes the choir of a church as that part “in which some special rites of the Church of Rome were performed.” A Font is said to be ‘a large circular basin of freestone, used as the depository of holy water in times of Popery.” We happily have not that narrow-minded contempt for church learning, which would cause us to fall into these little errors. We are not wanting in successful examples of parochial histories by members of our own body. Dr. Kennett’s “Parochial Antiquities of Ambrosden and Burcester”’ is a classical work. It is not indeed necessary or desirable that we should each of us compile two quarto volumes, nor perhaps that we should read all that Dr. Kennett has written; but if any want a vindication of these pursuits, and of the propriety of the Clergy’s joining in them, he may be referred to Dr. Kennett’s preface, in which he attacks those “‘idle, witty people, who think all history to be scraps, and all antiquity rust and rubbish. I say only this,” and he speaks with authority, for he was afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, “next to the immediate discharge of my holy office, I know not how in any course of studies I could better have served my patron, my people, and my successors, than by preserving the memoirs of this parish and the adjacent parts, which before lay remote from common notice, and in a few years had been buried in unsearchable oblivion. If the present age be too much immersed in cares and pleasures to take any relish, or to make any use of these discoveries, I then appeal to posterity, for I believe the time will come, when persons of better inclination will arise, who will be glad to find any collection of this nature, and will be ready to supply the defects and carry on the continuation of it. Men would delight to read any account of former ages, if they could themselves hope to make any good figure in future story.” He appeals also ' : 7 On the Barrow of Lanhill near Chippenham. 67 to his successors—‘ I have the vanity to hope that some of those who shall succeed in the benefice I now enjoy, will be glad to recollect that they had a certain predecessor who seemed to have some zeal for the good estate of his church and parish, and who was at some charge and pains to search into histories and records, upon no other motive but the love of his parochial charge and the benefit of posterity.” J.W. ON THE Barraw at Lonbill near Chippenham, WITH REMARKS ON THE SITE OF, AND ON THE EVENTS CONNECTED WITH Che Battles of Cynnit and ECthandun, A.D. 878. By Jonun Tuunnam, M.D. F.S.A. The Lanhill Barrow is situated about three miles north-west of Chippenham, very near a farm-house of that name, in a meadow close to the road leading to Marshfield and Bristol. It is thus described, as it existed in the middle of the 17th century, by Aubrey in his “ Monumenta Britannica”! “On the left hand of the road from Chippenham to Bristow, about half a mile short of Biteston, near a ground called Lanhill in Chippenham parish, is a barrow or tumulus, commonly known by the name of Barrow Hill, where they say one Hubba lies buried. This monument is sixty paces long, it is raised of small stone-brash stones, such as the fields thereabouts doe so plentifully yield; and is covered with earth a quarter of a foot thick; which I came to know by the tenant, who thought to have digged down this hill, for the earth to lay on other land. Perhaps there might have been some stones at the great end as in Lugbury.” To what is here said, as to this barrow being regarded as the burial-place of Hubba, we will return. 1 See “Ancient Wilts” by Sir R. C. Hoare, vol. Il. p. 99. The original MS. of Aubrey’s ‘“‘ Monumenta Britannica” is now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and a copy of the part relating to Wiltshire is preserved in the library, collected by the late Sir R. ©. Hoare, at Stourhead. - K 68 On the Barrow at Lanhill near Chippenham; Since the time of Aubrey, this tumulus has been much levelled; and it is known that, about fifty years since, a former tenant removed a large quantity of the stone of which it is formed. The only particulars we have been able to obtain of these excavations are from an old man, who states that many human bones were thrown up, among which he particularly recollects several lower jaws. At present, the mound has the appearance of several irregular hillocks, in part overgrown with thorns and briars, resembling somewhat the site of an old quarry. Sufficient still remains to show that it was a long barrow, ranging east and west, about 160 feet in length, broadest near the east end, and with its present ereatest height not exceeding six or seven feet. About thirty or forty feet from the eastern extremity, the upper edges of two flat stones were just visible above the turf. These stones were parallel with each other, placed from east to west, and about four and a half feet apart. Their position was such as to lead to the in- ference that they formed part of a stone chamber or cist; and, on the occasion of the meeting of the Wiltshire Archeological Society at Chippenham, in September last, it was agreed to make some excavations, with the view of determining the period to which the barrow belongs. It would have been proper to record what was then ascertained, had this even been less than was actually the case. Enough however was observed to establish the agreement of this with other long stone barrows, containing cists or chambers, found in this part of England; and which must be regarded as altogether distinct from the round, (bowl, or bell-shaped) barrows so common on the downs of Wiltshire and the adjacent counties. An excavation was made between the two stones, which soon disclosed a third flat slab, like the others, of a rough oolite. This was placed between, and at right angles with, the others, so as to form the figure of the Roman letter H, having the cross-bar disproportion- ately long. ‘The two side stones are about four and a half feet in height, and about the same in length; the stone which separates them, and by which they are maintained in the erect position, is about five and a half feet high, and four and a half long, being sunk about a foot deeper in the earth than the two others. These [2 See a Ses: she’ eee Sree eet SS and on the Battles of Cynuit and Ethandun. G9 - stones differ altogether in size and character from the large massy stones forming the megalithic monuments, usually called triliths, dolmens, or cromlechs, such as are found at the east end of some Jong barrows; the most perfect example in this part of England, being that called Lugbury, near Littleton Drew. The space between the two upright stones was filled up with the small cornbrash of the district, roughly thrown in. Exterior to these large stones, the barrow must have been piled up, by hand, in the same way as a common dry wall at the present day. The stones were placed in regular layers, and their under surface encrusted with a remarkable white calcareous efflorescence. The same ar- rangement of the stones, and the same incrustation were observed, in other parts of the barrow. It was clear that the space enclosed by the two upright stones had at some time been disturbed, as nothing was found beyond a few scattered fragments of human bones, and a few belonging to lower animals, among which were those of some bird. These were at a depth of from three to four feet. Among the human remains, were parts of the lower jaw of a person about twenty, and another of perhaps fifty, years of age, both probably females. These remains were found on each side of the transverse stone, but chiefly on the west. The only object of art discovered, was a single flint flake, of very dark colour, and somewhat clumsy form, which might however have served as a knife, or as a spear or arrow-head. At a depth of about four and a half feet, the natural soil of a reddish clay was found, and below this the substratum of cornbrash. Further to the west, the barrow had been almost entirely levelled; and the excavations made in that situation only disclosed the natural soil. Nearer the centre, it preserved in great measure its original eleva- tion, and at a distance of about forty feet from the former, another considerable excavation was made. The stones here presented their original stratified condition, as already described; but there were no traces of cists or chambers. Nothing was found beyond the jaw and molar teeth of an ox, very much decayed and encrusted with calcareous deposit. These were about two feet below the surface, where they had evidently remained for ages undisturbed. 70 On the Barrow at Lanhill near Chippenham; In a hollow, on the north side of the barrow and of this excavation, the upper edge of a somewhat thick flat stone, about five feet in length, projected above the turf. On digging round this, it proved to be about two and a half feet in height, and to range from 8.8.E., to N.N.W. On the east side, a piece of the large horn of a red deer was found, and on the west, were a few fragments of two human skeletons, which, as indicated by the lower jaws, were probably those of men, of about twenty and forty years of age. The stone rested on the natural soil, and at its south-west corner, a much smaller stone was observed, which was placed at a right angle with the other; and perhaps indicated that a small rude cist had existed in this situation. Nothing else was found. Whilst we have no hesitation in classifying the Lanhill tumulus with the other long stone barrows of this part of England, we must remain in doubt whether the dilapidated stone structure near the east end had formed part of a chamber, such as may be seen at Stoney Littleton and Uley,' or whether it had rather been a large cist. If a chamber, intended to be entered from the east end, we must suppose that the covering stones had been removed, and that the stone now placed transversely between the two others, had, possibly during some earlier examination, been forced into its present place, with a view of preserving the position of these two side stones. If this transverse stone is regarded as always having occupied its present position, we must then conclude that the three stones formed the western end of a small chamber or large cist, the rest of the stones having long since been removed. On the whole, the former view appears the more probable. As to the stones on the north side of the centre of the barrow, we can have little difficulty in tracing in them the remains of a small cist, such as have been found in long stone barrows in this district; and of which we have examples at Littleton Drew, Duntesbourne Abbots, and other places. The occurrence of stone cists, with 1 See ‘¢ Archeologia,” 1819, vol. XIX, p. 43, for Stoney Littleton; ‘* Archzeo- logical Journal,” 1854, vol. XI, p. 313, for Uley. - > ee ———_ and on the Battles of Cynuit and Ethandun. 71 interments in such a position, should induce future explorers to examine with care the sides of these long barrows. We need hardly here reproduce the arguments by which it may be shewn that these long barrows are to be assigned to a very ancient British period, prior to the introduction of metallic imple- ments or weapons, whether of bronze or iron. Lest, however, the historical evidence should be thought to outweigh the archeological, it seems proper to take some notice of the statement that this tumulus was the burial place of the Danish chief, Hubba, who died so . late as towards the end of the 9th century. Aubrey, as we have seen, alludes to a popular tradition to this effect, when he says, here “they say one Hubba lies buried.” Of such a tradition there are, now at least, no traces in the neighbourhood. Aubrey, in a note, adds, “Mr. Wood!” (meaning Anthony A’Wood) “TI leave it to you to give the name to this sepulchre, whether Hubbaslow or Barrow Hill. Sir Charles Snell, of Kington St. Michael, told me of it in 1646 or 47, when I was a freshman, and said it was Hubbaslow. He shewed me then an old Stow’s chronicle of the first edition, in a thick octavo, or rather quarto, which mentioned it; but Caxton’s chronicle makes him to be buried in Devonshire, which I presume is anerror.” In this last statement, Caxton, as will be shown, was in all probability correct; his narrative, however, is full of incon- sistencies and improbabilities; and neither he nor Stow, writers of the 15th and 16th centuries, can be accepted as authorities in a disputed question of this sort. On turning to the cotemporary, and nearly cotemporary historians of this period, Asser, the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, and Florence of Worcester, we find in them an almost uniform statement to the following effect, of the events early in the year 878. “The brother of Hynguar and Healfden, with twenty-three ships, came from the country of Demetia, (South Wales,) where he had wintered, and sailed to Devon, where he was slain before the Castle of Cynuit, by the king’s servants; and where was gained a very large booty; and, amongst other things, the war standard called the Raven ;” which, as the annals, (erroneously attributed to Asser,) 72 On the Barrow of Lanhill near Chippenham ; add—perhaps from a fabulous source\—“ the three sisters of Hynguar and Hubba wove in one day.” That the brother of Hynguar and Healfden, here named, was really Hubba, is almost certain ; and, indeed, his name is expressly mentioned by Geoftrey Gaimar, Roger of Wendover, and Matthew of Westminster; whose authority, however, has not the same weight as that of Asser and the other historians quoted. These two last writers, describe the three brothers, Hynguar, Hubba, and Healfden, as all being slain at Cynuit. It is certain that their names do not again appear as engaged in these expeditions. There is no sufficient proof, to be derived from the earliest authorities, that Hubba was ever in the neighbourhood of Chippen- ham. Though no doubt frequently in alliance with Guthrum, the Danish king of East Anglia, Hubba and his brothers were more intimately connected with the Danes of Northumbria, of whom, one of them (Healfden) was the actual ruler. In the year 876-7, the Danes, under Guthrum, had wintered at Exeter, and were besieged there by Alfred. Notwithstanding temporary advantages, Alfred, being supported only by the people of Somersetshire, was obliged to retire from the contest, taking up his abode in Athelney, towards the end of 877. At the same period, the Danes under Guthrum left Exeter and went to Chippenham, where they win- tered. Asser is very particular, in describing these movements of the Danish forces, to distinguish between those under different leaders. He appears to have the Danes under Hynguar and Hubba, who were at this time in South Wales, as well as another force, which had retired to Mercia, in view, when in speaking of the departure of the army under Guthrum from Exeter to Chippenham, he terms it the army before mentioned—“ supra memoratus sepe exercitus.” The other Danish leaders, kings as they are called, immediately associated with Guthrum, according to Asser, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and Henry of Huntingdon, were Oscytel and Amand, or Anwynd; who, if we credit the latter authority, accompanied Guthrum to Chippenham. As to the sons of the celebrated 1 See “Mon. Hist. Brit.,” p. 481; also Gaimar ‘“‘L’ Estorie des Engles,” line 3147. and on the Battles of Cynuit and Ethandun. 73 Ragnar Lodbrok, Healfden seems to have been occupied in con- solidating his conquests, and settling his followers on the lands of Northumbria; whilst Hubba, almost certainly, and Hynguar, probably, had fallen at Cynuit. Guthrum’s army was still at Chippenham, when, a few days before Whitsuntide, which this year fell on the 11th of May, Alfred, encouraged by the recent defeat of the Danes at Cynuit, rallied his followers, and entering Wiltshire from Athelney, marched north- ward, and attacked the invaders of his country, at a place called Ethandun. Here he gained that great victory, by which the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon power was decided. After defeating the Danes in a pitched battle, with great slaughter, he pursued them flying to their fortress, (no doubt some earth-work in the neighbourhood,) where he besieged them fourteen days. After an almost unconditional surrender, they entered into a treaty; and soon after Guthrum with thirty of the most distinguished of his army came to Alfred, and embracing Christianity, received baptism at his hands. In none of the narratives, do we find mention of any other king or leader, as might certainly have been expected, had so celebrated a chief as Hubba either been killed at Ethandun, or been in any way immediately connected with these events. And here we naturally pause to inquire the site of this celebrated battle. That it was at no great distance from Chippenham, seems certain; it being expressly stated that the Danes had their quarters at that place, both before and after the battle. Camden states, but gives no reasons for the opinion, that Edington near Westbury was the ancient Ethandun, where this battle was fought; and, in this assertion, he finds a strenuous supporter in Sir R. C. Hoare. Gough, the annotator of Camden, equally with Sir Richard Hoare, main- tains that the fortified earth-work or camp, known as Bratton Castle, on the down immediately above Edington, is the fortress to which the Danes were pursued by Alfred.!. These views are now so generally received as to be incorporated, not only in 1 Camden, ‘ Britannia,” Ed. 1806, vol. 1, pp. 131. 146,—Sir R. C, Hoare, ‘Ancient Wilts,” vol. I, p. 56. L 74 On the Barrow at Lanhili near Chippenham; popular histories, but also, very improperly, in most of the modern editions of the ancient chronicles. Let us, however, turn to the pages of, perhaps, the only strictly cotemporary authority, Asser; whose narrative, stripped of matter irrelevant to our present inquiry, is as follows: “In the seventh week after Easter, Alfred leaving Aithelingaeg, rode to Ecgbryht’s stone, which is in the east- ern part of the wood called Selwood, but in the British ‘Coitmaur.’ Here he was met by all the men of Somerset, Wiltshire, and part of those of Hampshire, who rejoiced greatly when they saw him once more; and there they encamped one night.” On this, the first day of his expedition, Alfred and those who accompanied him, being on horseback, of course, were able without difficulty to accomplish a longer journey than on the following days. On his arrival at Egbert’s stone, the king, it is clear, mustered his forces, the principal part of whom would consist of foot soldiers. “When the following day dawned, the king moving his camp, came to a place called Aeglea, where he encamped for one night. The next morning, at daybreak, he moved his forces, and coming to a place called Ethandun, he engaged the entire host of the pagans, fighting for a long time in a close line of battle. The pagans were defeated with great slaughter, and pursued flying to their fortress (‘usque ad arcem.’)! Outside the fortress Alfred took much booty of horses and cattle, and made many prisoners, who were at once slain. Boldly encamping before the gates of the pagan fortress, with all his army, he remained there fourteen days, until the pagans, driven by famine, cold, fear, and last of all, by despair, sued for peace.””? This narrative of Asser is fuller than that of any other of the early authorities, which, however, so far as they go, entirely correspond; in fact, they were probably copied from Asser. 1 “Ad firmitatem suum,” says Henry of Huntingdon. 2 The map here given will assist the reader in following the narrative, and in understanding the different views as to the line of Alfred’s march and the sites of the battle and siege. The unbroken line ( ) represents the road taken by Alfred, according to the views held by Whitaker and adopted in this paper. The interrupted lines (----—) indicate the route in accordance with the differing opinions of Camden and his annotators, Hoare, Milner, Beke, and Moffat. The names of places are, as far as practicable, given in the Anglo-Saxon of the times. eae AMTU \ woerul DANES ‘ Bor Tom ! i AVEN ING o ‘ a i { \ = ot \ SHERSTON o ~ > ed YU c A BS hei 4 care g &. h. RS - > EAA = eS N Zocenesh wii ily Why LW) eam aS “it eee E > = be - ZEORP FECUT 4@ LES wLEY - ZPEVIZES_& e 4--~~ = eats S. We tT Ai f rif My jt ip i SN Spa R\s Naf" Wil, ili" Y, Wh My , i) eign = os FJ CUAN- Hike 4 2B ee -— 7 BUSLEY e “ity yy oe S-/ap_ ¢_ = Mp ening z 7 oy ie. Rue eee SBYRIG, < i gf = / ONY we ace 4, Z Api tj ety, are ee > BR g7osTuM - aun a gh ieee : Xe 2 4e STERETON PEN - pen s cee MERA ve Tae SCALE MILES LE Lf fo o Sirares, 3 9 ¢ Sy ie Dade Sail Ea pe ee ee and on the Battles of Cynuit and Ethandun. 75 There appears no difficulty in admitting with the learned Spelman! and Sir R. C. Hoare, that Egbert’s stone (the Eegbryht’s stane of the chronicle) is represented by Brizton Deverill, a distance of about 35 miles from Athelney. As to Aicglea, (Asser,) Iglea or Aiglea, (Saxon Chronicle,) or Ecglea, (Florence,) the place where Alfred rested the second night, Gough and Sir R. C. Hoare place it at, or near Clay Hill or Bugley; whilst Bishop Gibson thought it was Westbury Leigh. The former of these sites, however, is little more than five, and the latter less than nine, miles to the north of Brixton; distances which seem too short for a day’s march, when the king is described as setting forth at dawn, and with the head quarters of the enemy at Chippenham, a distance of at least twenty-five miles. Supposing Edington to have been the site of the battle, the same objection would apply to the next day’s march, the length of which would be only four miles from Westbury, or eight miles from Clay Hill or Bucley. Here the question arises, whether the battle was fought on the day of the arrival at Ethandun, or on the following. Though not so stated, the former would seem implied in Asser’s narrative, and is stated expressly, in a passage from a life of St. Neot, in the apocryphal “ Annals.” however, to Simeon of Durham, whose statements ought, perhaps, to be received, when not in direct opposition to earlier authority, we are told that the battle was not fought until the third day after leaving Egbert’s stone; and, further, that the two armies spent the night previous to the battle opposed to each other at Ethandun. “ After the third day” (post tertiam diem) says Simeon, in his somewhat inflated style, “Alfred came with a great army to a _ place which is called Edderandun, near which he found immense hosts of the pagans prepared for battle. After a brilliant sun-rise, the king and the chief of his followers, armed themselves for battle, not omitting the triple breast-plate of faith, hope, and the love On turning, 1 “ Vita Alfredi,” 1678, p.33. ‘Nobis hodie, ni fallor, Brixtona,” 2 It is worth notice that Gaimar, whose authority, however, ts not decisive, makes Alfred reach Ethandun at noon on the third day. ’ ‘*® lendemain a hure de none, ‘¢Done sunt yenuz a Edenesdone.”’—Line 3189. L'2 76 On the Barrow at Lanhill near Chippenham; of God. Advancing in warlike array, they boldly challenged their most renowned enemy to battle...... The two armies fought the greater part of the day, and their cries and the clashing of their arms were heard far and wide.” It must also be objected that, from the promptitude of Alfred’s movements, it is hardly probable that the Danes could have advanced so far to the south as Edington, fourteen or fifteen miles from Chippenham, after obtaining intelligence of the king’s approach. Little difficulty, it must be admitted, exists on the ground of orthography, in accepting Edington as the representative of Ethandun; Edington being clearly the Edendone of Domes- day, and being written Edyndon, at least as late as the time of Henry the VIth, (1449.)! An objection, on this ground, does exist against Heddington, near Calne, which is, the Edinfon of Domes- day, but which has been assigned most improbably, as the site of this battle by Milner. The narrative of Asser seems, however, decidedly opposed to our assuming Edington and Bratton Castle as the sites of these important events. The description of the fortress, and the booty of horses and cattle found outside, appear to point, not to a stronghold hastily thrown up, or resorted to under the pressure of events, but clearly to a place of security where they had been some time encamped. That the Danes had advanced to meet Alfred and give him battle, seems evident, but it is not probable that they would have encumbered themselves with stores of horses and cattle. Even if Edington must be admitted as the site of the battle, we should still demur to accepting the camp at Bratton as the Danish fortress. Those who are familiar with the site of this earthwork, on the edge of the steep escarpment of the downs above Edington, will admit the difficulty of the Danes effecting a retreat thither; and we think it must be further granted, that Alfred could scarcely have maintained a successful siege whilst remaining, as he must, in the vale below; the Danes, meanwhile, possessing free egress to the south. The white horse, cut out in the chalk, directly 1 “ Modern Wilts,” by Sir R. C. Hoare, ‘‘ Hundred of Westbury,” p, 15. 2 “ History of Winchester,” 1798. 3 There seems indeed much doubt whether the entrance to the north, with the road to Edington, are not altogether of modern origin. The principal entrance and on the Battles of Cynuit and Ethandun. 77 below Bratton Castle, can have no reference (as is often thought) to these events, unless in the fancy of those who formed it, in quite recent times. NPA) WAY My INN Yj p PI \\\ Wi ~ \\ eM wif wea ANY SS es Dy Wy Pansat, D ee inne oN eS ‘o Edington. | wv Za oy Y Vig <= " eS SS Bratton Camp. Scale 266 yards to 1 inch. Rather might it be supposed, with Dr. Pauli,’ that at Chippen- ham itself was the fortress to which the Danes retreated. That Chippenham was their head quarters, there can be no doubt. It was such in the previous winter, and continued to be so in that of the following year, when in accordance with their treaty, they departed for Cirencester. Chippenham was a villa regia, and as such, may have been defended, not only by the winding stream of the Avon, is clearly that on the south side, and it is by no means certain that originally any other existed. Earthworks of this kind, situated on the brows of hills, seem to have been so placed for the sake of the natural advantages for defence, which such situations afford, and were not usually weakened by approaches on the side of the declivity. 1 Figures of a horse, cut out in the side of the chalk hills, are common in Wiltshire: no fewer than eight might readily be named. The only figure of this kind, with a genuine ancient aspect, seems to be that of the Vale of White Horse in Berkshire. Their supposed significance, as to events in the Anglo-Saxon history of this period, is at once set aside by the fact that a dragon, not a horse, was borne on the standard of the West Saxons. The white horse is supposed to have been the standard of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent. 2 “Tife of King Alfred,” 1852, p. 180. 78 On the Barrow at Lanhill near Chippenham; but also by an earthen rampart and hedge, or palisade;! but that it was sufficiently strong, either by nature or art, to resist a siege for fourteen days, seems hardly probable. On the whole, a third view, suggested by Mr. Whitaker, seems most probable; viz., that the battle was fought near Yatton, about five miles to the north west of Chippenham, in which place he finds “the fair representative of the Ethandun of the history.” Aicglea, he places at Highley Common, near Melksham, giving about eighteen miles for the second day’s march, and ten for that of the third. ‘But the battle,” says Whitaker, ‘was a little lower, on the Avon, even at Slaughterford; the very name of which denotes, what the tradition of the inhabitants has handed down, concerning a great slaughter of the Danes in this place. So happily do the local circumstances accord with the historical representation. Yet where was the fortress to which the routed Danes fled? It was undoubtedly that double entrenchment in Bury Wood, betwixt Colerne and North Wraxall.’’? Aubrey, in writing of Yatton field, says “the country people have a tradition that here was a fight with the Danes, as also another at Slaughterford, about a mile and a half hence; it is likely it took its denomination from the flight and slaughter. Hereabout groweth great plenty of a good vulnerary herb, called Dane’s blood. They doe believe it sprang from the blood of the Danes shed here in battle.’ Bury Wood camp, or North Wood camp, referred to by Whit- aker as the probable Danish fortress, is in the parish of Colerne, 1See under “Ham,” 1852, p. 39. 2“ Tife of St. Neot,” 1809, p. 269. In this passage, Mr. Whitaker adopts statements, as regards Slaughterford and Bury Wood, to be found in the additions to Camden, by Bishop Gibson, (vol I, p. 141,) which were clearly taken from Aubrey. See ‘Collections for North Wilts,” Part 2, 1838, pp. 17. 31. 33. 3 Aubrey ‘‘Mon. Brit.” This passage is erroneously attributed to Stow, by Sir R. C. Hoare.— Ancient Wilts,” vol. II, p. 100. See also Aubrey’s “Natural History of Wiltshire,” 1848, p. 50. The plant called Dane’s Blood or Danewort, Sambucus Ebulus, is said, to occur in various sites where traditions as to the Danes exist, particularly in Essex and Norfolk.—Camden, ‘‘ Britannia,” vol. II, pp. 125, 135. 197. This plant is still to be found about Slaughterford. Leo’s ‘‘Local Nomenclature of the Anglo-Saxons,” and on the Battles of Cynuit and Ethandun. 79 on the borders of Gloucestershire, and within about half a mile of the Roman road, the Fosse. “It has,” says Aubrey, ‘“ double- works [and is] therefore not Roman.” It contains about twenty- five acres, and is situate on a promontory of Colerne Down, from which it is separated by a double, deep rectilinear rampart, having a single entrance in the centre facing the south-west. The other sides, says the same writer, are well secured by the precipice, at the bottom of which runs a stream. Within the arca is a small subsidiary earthwork, about an acre in extent, and with an opening facing the west.!. The name of Doncombe Bottom, which attaches to the ravine below the camp, may possibly refer to the Danes. IY BO SE = SS y Conmanaton, F.G.S. a... 0.6 ote ess eases cose 185-188 Sheriffs of Wiltshire: By the Rev. J. E. JAcKSon...............- 189-235 Devizes Seals: By Mri HpwWAaRp KIvk..% 0. 0... ceccieees ovnsee 236-238 Font in the Church of St. George, Preshute: By Ditto............ 239 Pilgrims to Rome from the County of Wilts, a.p. 1504: By Ditto.. 241 The Office of Awakener: By F. A. Carrineton, Esq..............- 242 Foster of Marlborough, with Pedigree: By the Rev. Jonn WARD.... 244 The Despencers’ Estates in Wilts: By J. WayLen, Esq............. 245 WItTsHIRE NOTES AND QUERIES :— On ‘‘ Carduus Tuberosus:” By T. B. FLowrr, Esq............... 249 PRE HOMER «clo wisn cic otRcd He MS ¢ oa Maina ney as lass gins 251 Contributions to the Museum and Library..................2085 252 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE ihe Groat Busterd i556 2s. Me eo ees ny oun 129 Tumulus, with fallen Cromlech, near Littleton Drew.. 164 pee Bg POR ig lin ea ae ee 172 EAB MON EVIGON ER, cre Paria cei ah aciecazsl ces, 2 aieced sieeve’ 236 Font in the Church of St. George, Preshute, Wilts.... 289 DEVIZES: Henry Bort, Sarvt Jonn Srreer. LONDON: Bett & Darpy, 186, Freer Srreer; J. R. Smirn, 36, Sono Square. nt * a > fe ¥ he ra ‘5 ite i ‘ i 7 : Pi, * iat oe ae? ge oe tae 8 glace cts iy}: ve anal ey 7 inal _unto: : se gmk wl mek So r : #07 pe te i eer Pa ents : ig " iy: ay nt: a i_ tal ar. wy Eg gt, be Miser Sees ae A — - oe. “ae * oe * a . ; . at : : 7 We ie f » - a spas WAS He ‘ = ae eae + : eine : 4 Lela x 6 qedeutl Ta ait ad . a i i Be we) tT ea} pists si = * = = a as : Lapit dy: te Mace oe > Pes Paez frie amy <= 0T. SY ext re hie Se aig * ae 1 a) a ayers ,% -_ As i. . ie as e : ta ’ . : 5 * , « * . . < wa w . ss a ” * =“ wa Berg ax rath es ee ie nereaa cae. sae » Lae * a, Aigo? 6 ae. wae de se gaxh rey "owe I T. J. Smyth se. Jos. Reed del. RD. THE GREAT BUSTA atural History Society. For the Wiltshire Archeological and N THE WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. ‘“MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR ONUS.”—Ovid. Che Great Buastard. ( Otis tarda.) In sealing the circumstances of the recent capture of a fine male specimen of this most noble bird, on the borders of Wiltshire, (of which the accompanying woodcut is a portrait,) I propose to preface that account with some particulars of the habits of the species, and enter into some enquiry as to its former abundance or scarcity, believing as I do, that every fact is valuable which relates _ to so exceedingly interesting a bird, now alas! for a long time extinct as a resident throughout the kingdom, and only rarely and after an interval of several years, seen as a straggler. And the evidence which I shall adduce will be derived, in the first place, from former writers on the subject, especially Yarrell’s most val- uable work, and an exceedingly interesting paper on the Great Bustard, which appeared in a recent number of Frazer’s Magazine, (September, 1854), supposed to be from the pen of the Rev. Charles Barham; and, in the second place, from facts which I have gleaned during several years, after diligent enquiries instituted by myself, and through others, of old shepherds, farmers, &c, who can recollect, when boys, seeing this bird in its wild state on our Downs, but — which eye-witnesses are daily becoming fewer, and their memories of things so long passed away, more and more confused. The Great Bustard (Otis tarda,) belongs to the Order of “Ground birds” (Rasores,) and to the Family Struthionide; and it is the largest of the British land birds: its bill is nearly straight, and with the point of the upper mandible curved; its legs long, and VOL. 11I.—NO. VIII. s 130 The Great Bustard. naked above the knee, very muscular and strong; its toes three only in number, and these very short, united at the base, and all directed forwards; its wings of mean length, but also muscular. A full grown male, if in good condition, will weigh 28lbs, and measure three feet nine inches in length: its general plumage is as follows—head and neck, bluish grey; back and tail coverts, buff orange, barred and spotted with black; upper part of the breast reddish orange; all the under parts white: the adult male is also furnished with long wiry feathers, depending laterally from the chin, and moustaches of the same; the female, which is only about one third in size as compared with the other sex, has no lateral chin feathers or moustaches, and her head and neck are of a deeper grey, but in other respects her plumage is similar to that of the male. Of large and bulky form, but with powerful wings as well as legs, it is enabled to fly as well as to run with considerable speed and endurance; it never perches at all; it is of a roving disposition, and loves vast open plains, amidst the long coarse grass of which, and the fields of corn, and thick gorse, it delights to dwell, and it will also frequent marshy ground, where such tracts are to be found near its favorite haunts. Its food consists chiefly of herbage and grain, such as rye and barley, stalks as well as ears; and insects such as beetles; but reptiles and the smaller mammalia are said to be devoured by this omnivorous bird. It is polygamous, and the males separate from the females at the period of incubation, leaving them to lay their two eggs on the bare ground, and rear their young alone; but they all unite in flocks as autumn approaches, and during deep and continued snows are sometimes driven from their open plains to more sheltered and enclosed districts ; they are exceedingly bold and pugnacious, sometimes attacking those who come near them with most determined ferocity; they are at the same time very wild and difficult to approach, so that sportsmen were accustomed to mask their advance, as they do at this day in Spain, by means of a stalking horse. When in repose, bustards usually rest with one leg drawn up, and with head reclining backwards on the neck; when seen at a distance, Gilbert White said they resembled “fallow deer,” a fact corroborated by Mr. Wolley, who By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 131 saw them in Spain, apparently walking in file, some with their heads down, as he was ascending the Guadalquiver in a steam-boat. When they take wing, they generally rise to a considerable height above the ground, and will fly often at an elevation of one hundred feet, with a regular, but by no means slow flap of the wings, for two miles or more before they alight again. As both in flight and in running its speed is remarkable, naturalists have been much puzzled to account for the specific names assigned to it, as the universal scientific name “tarda,” and by the French “ outarde,” and by the Spanish “ abutarda.” In the paper above alluded to in Frazer’s Magazine, Albertus is quoted, as accounting for these specific names, thus, “ Bistarda avis est bis vel ter saltum dans, priusquam de humo elevetur, unde et eis nomen factum,” and this alleged habit of the bird, giving two or three leaps, before it rises from the ground, and thus recalling the action of ascending a stair- case, is mentioned as being likewise the origin of its German name “ Trapp-gans,” whence also the quaint distich— ‘‘The big-boaned Bustard then, whose body beares that size, That he against the wind must runne, ere he can rise.” Such then being the habits of the bird, I proceed to its history; and here we can trace it back to very remote times, its form appearing among the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and many well-known ancient writers having thought it not unworthy of mention. Athenzeus, Plutarch, lian, Oppian, Xenophon, Aristotle, and Pliny, are some of those who have described it, and though much fable is mixed up with their accounts, the description is sufficiently clear to enable us to identify the bird. But to pass on from these bustards of ancient Greece and Asia, to those of ancient Britain, when the Druids were in full force, and held their mystic rites at Avebury and Stonchenge, then this bird flourished on the unbroken down, and abounded in the unreclaimed wastes throughout this county; its name was “Yr araf ehedydd,” but to what extent it abounded, or how far it was looked upon as game, or how much it was the object of pursuit in those days of flint arrow-heads, does not so clearly appear. To come down, however, to a much later period, from the earliest records we have of it in comparatively s 2 132 The Great Bustard. modern days, viz., three hundred years since, the price it fetched proved it to be no very common fowl, for it figured in the list of game, provided at a feast in the Inner Temple Hall, at no less than ten shillings each, a large sum at that period, the third year of Philip and Mary: again, in 1712 an advertisement appeared in the Spectator, announcing in the market the seat of a deceased Baronet, containing in addition to fish ponds, canals, &e., “woods of large timber, wherein is game in great plenty, even to the Bustard and Pheasant :’” and I have now before me an autograph letter of the Duke of Northumberland, bearing date May 10th, 1753, addressed to Michael Ewen, Esq., of Milton Lislebon, on the verge of Salisbury Plain, thanking him very heartily for a fine bustard he had sent him, proving the bird at that date to be sufficiently rare to be sent as a present to a nobleman. But Wiltshire was always allowed to be the stronghold of the Great Bustard, and our wide downs, and especially Salisbury Plain, were known to be its favorite haunts, and they are described as such by most of our older Ornithologists. In 1667 Merrett notices that it was “taken on Newmarket Heath and about Salisbury.” In 1718 Ray thus describes its localities: “In campis spatiosis circa Novum Mercatum et Royston, oppida in agro Cantabrigiensi, inque planitie, ut audio, Salisburiensi, et alibi in vastis et apertis locis invenitur.” In 1771, Dr. Brookes says of it, “this bird is bred in several parts of Europe, and particularly in England, es- pecially on Salisbury Plain &c., for it delights in large open places; the flesh is in high esteem, and perhaps the more so, because it is not very easy to come at.”” In 1777 Gilbert White was told by a carter at a farm on the downs, near Andover, that twelve years previously he had seen a flock of eighteen of these birds, but that since that time he had only seen two, though Gilbert White’s correspondent, Pennant, would lead one to suppose them far more common, for he says “in autumn these are (in Wiltshire) generally found in large turnip fields near the downs, and in flocks of fifty or more.” Up to this point then, we may regard the Great Bustard, if not very numerous, (which from its size and its value it was not very a wa ian 5 annie By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 133 likely to be), at any rate by no means a rare bird, but indigenous to our downs; and doubtless highly prized by our sporting fore- fathers, was this pride of Wiltshire, this stately denizen of our ‘plains. But from this time the breed began to decline apace, and as cultivation increased, and the Enclosure Acts came into force, and the downs began to be broken up, and the waste lands to be reclaimed and drained, and, perhaps, more than all, as the system of wheat hoeing in the spring became general, the poor bustard had no chance, but, like the American Indian, rapidly retired before the advancing plough, till the race, (once so free to rove over its vast and retired solitudes as it listed), dwindled one by one, till the last survivor was no more; but the destruction of these rem- nants of the bustard family was not unrecorded; each bird as it fell a victim to the gun, the dog, or the snare, found a willing chroni- cler to record its death and his success; and even now there are a few people living, who recollect seeing them wild in their haunts on our downs, and many others who have often listened to their fathers’ account of them in their days, my own father-in-law in Norfolk, being perhaps the last person in the kingdom who ever fired into a flock of seven or eight of these birds: but before I pro- ceed to record the unpublished testimony of eye and ear witnesses, of its more recent occurrence in this county, I will first quote a very interesting paragraph, headed “The Bustard of Salisbury Plain,” which appeared in the Wiltshire Independent about two years since, and was afterwards copied into the Times.—< There are people now living in Wiltshire, who recollect the time when it was the custom of the Mayor of Salisbury, to have a bustard as a prominent dish at the annual inauguration feast; and these birds, once numerous on the wide and then uncultivated expanse of Salisbury Plain, could at length only be shot by means of a vehicle so covered with bushes and placed in their haunts, as to enable men therein concealed, to bring them down at a long range. For more than fifty years the Wiltshire bustard has been extinct, and the Mayor of Salisbury has been obliged to forego his yearly delicacy.” I do not know who was the writer of this curious and interesting fact, but he is incorrect in stating that the bustard has 134 The Great Bustard. been extinct in this county “ for more than fifty years,” as I shall presently proceed to show. In a paper “ On the habits and structure of the Great Bustard,”’ read before the Linnean Society in January, 1853, by Mr. Yarrell, that accomplished Ornithologist quotes a communication from our well-known Mr. Britton, respecting this bird on Salisbury Plain ; it is so extremely interesting that I shall not hesitate to repeat it in extenso. ‘A man, about four o’clock of a fine morning in June 1801, was coming on horseback from Tinhead to Tilshead. While at, or near, an enclosure called Asking’s Penning, one mile from the village of Tilshead, he saw over his head, about sixty yards high as near as he could estimate, a large bird, which afterwards proved to be a bustard. The bird alighted on the ground imme- diately before the horse, which it indicated a disposition to attack, and in fact very soon began the onset. The man alighted, and getting hold of the bird endeavoured to secure it, and after strug- gling with it nearly an hour he succeeded, and brought it to Mr. J. Bartley of Tilshead, to whose house he was going. Not knowing the value of such a bird, he offered it to Mr. Bartley as a present ; but Mr. Bartley declined to accept it as such, though he much wished to have it, and after repeated solicitations, prevailed on the man to receive for it a small sum, with which he was perfectly satisfied. During the first week that Mr. Bartley had this bird in his possession, it was not known to eat anything; however, at length it became very tame, and would at last receive its food from its patron’s hands, but still continued shy in the presence of strangers. Its principal food was birds, chiefly sparrows, which it swallowed whole in the feathers with a great deal of avidity: the flowers of charlock and the leaves of rape formed also other parts of its food ; mice it would likewise eat, and in short, almost any other animal sub- stance. The food in passing into the stomach, was observed to go round the back part of the neck. Mr. Bartley is of opinion that the idea of the bustard’s drinking is erroneous, in support of which he says, that during the time this bustard was in his possession, which was from June till the August following, it had not a drop of water given it, after two or three weeks at first. This fact he considers a By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 135 as a proof that the generally received opinion of the bustard’s drinking is untrue. This bird was judged to weigh upwards of 20Ibs, and to measure between the extremities of its wings when extended about five feet, and its height was about three and a half feet. Its plumage was beautiful, and from its gait, which was extremely majestic, a spectator would be led to infer that it was sensible of its own superiority over others of the feathered tribe. In August, Mr. Bartley sold this noble bird to Lord Temple, for the sum of thirty guineas. The bustard inhabits the extensive downs of Salisbury Plain, but its race is now almost extirpated. It is thought that not more than three or four are now remaining. Some time in the last summer, (viz. 1801), while Mr. Bartley had this bird in his possession, a nest, supposed to belong to this bird, or at least to its mate, for Mr. Bartley’s bird was judged to be a male, was found in a wheat field on Market Lavington Down; it contained two eggs; they sometimes lay three though very seldom; they are about the size of those of a goose, of a pale olive brown, with small spots of a darker hue. The nest was made upon the ground by scratching a hole in the earth, and lined with a little grass; the eggs were rotten, and had probably undergone a period of incubation. “An instance of a bustard attacking a human being, or even a brute animal of any considerable size, was, I believe, never before heard of, and that two instances of this kind should occur so nearly together, may be considered very remarkable. About a fortnight subsequent to the taking of this bird, Mr. Grant, a respectable farmer of Tilshead, was returning from Warminster Market, and, near Tilshead Lodge, (which is something more than half a mile from the village), was attacked in a similar manner, by, as it is thought, the mate of the same bird. Mr. Grant’s horse being rather high mettled, took fright, became unmanageable, and ran off, and consequently Mr. Grant was compelled to abandon his design of endeavouring to capture the bird.” Such is the account communicated by Mr. Britton, and with reference to the bird kept by Mr. Bartley, I have further learnt, through the kindness of the Rey. E. Wilton, that it was kept in a kind of staked cage made for 136 The Great Bustard. it in a little close belonging to the house, and that several bustards used to come and congregate round their confined companion at that date, and that people often used to hear them at night. The confined bird is described to have been a kind of spotted turkey. At that date the good people of Tilshead affirm there were many bustards haunting the flat between that village and Shrewton; they were also in some abundance near the now Bustard Inn. Mr. Coleman, of Tilshead, says he perfectly recollects how horses tra- velling over the plain, were known to shy at the noise of the bustards. The late Mr. Robert Pinckney, of Berwick St. James’, used to say that during his occupation of Mr. Duke’s farm at Lake, the bustard used to make its nest every year in the water meadows belonging to the estate, and was disturbed annually by the mowers. Again, a Mr. Compton, of Eastcott, described as a great sportsman and bird studier, was known to have shot two of these birds; while an old whip of Squire Tinkers, carried nolens volens down a steep ‘“linchet”’ in the ardour of the chase, almost rode over two bustards, and could have struck them with his whip, had he been prepared to encounter such tenants of the linchets base; he said they “ were spotted all’s one as a pheasant.” Mr. B. Hayward, of Easterton, near Devizes, says he recollects the keeper of West Lavington having often told him that when a boy, as he was on the downs with his father and the dogs, they came upon a young bustard, which he caught, but it being only partly grown, his father made him put it down again, saying, it would be better worth taking in a fortnight, at the end of which time they came up again, found, and took it: this shows the wildness of the downs at that time, but little of them being cultivated. Again, the late Rev. R. Ashe, of Langley Burrell, was riding in 1806 from Broad Hinton to Chisledon, when he rode down what he then conjectured, and afterwards ascertained to be a young bustard; having farther to go, he got off his horse, and tied its feet with a pocket handkerchief, and left it in a hole in a ploughed field; but on his return, to his chagrin, both the bird and handkerchief were missing. Another bustard was killed in the early part of the present century at Langley, and came into the fine collection of Mr. Warriner of Conock; this By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 137 Wiltshire specimen is, with the rest of Mr. Warriner’s birds, now in the possession of W. Tugwell, Esq., at Devizes. In addition to the above instances of the capture or observation of these last remnants of the Great Bustard, some very interesting particulars of these birds have already appeared in our Magazine, vol. II, p. 212, obligingly communicated to reply to the queries we put forth about them in vol. I, p. 54. In Maton’s “Natural History of Wiltshire,” (by the way a very meagre and incorrect account), is the following.—“ A very observant and credible person of the name of Dew, whom I knew as a sportsman in my younger days, informed me in the year 1796, that he once saw as many as seven or eight of these birds together on the downs, near Winter- bourne Stoke; but I have not met with any one since, who has actually seen the bustard in Wiltshire subsequently to that year.” Others, however, were more fortunate, and, in addition to the instances above-mentioned, we have many published accounts of it sthee that date. Thus, in the year 1800, Daniel in his “Rural Sports,” recounts how Mr. Crouch of Burford, shot a hen bustard on Salisbury Plain, with a common fowling-piece and partridge shot, at 40 yards distance, and how there were two other bustards in company with the one shot, neither of which appeared to be hurt. In 1802 Montagu observes that the bustard is only found upon the large extensive plains, and that the species is almost extinct, except upon those of Wiltshire, where they had become very scarce within these few years. In 1812, the Editor of the last edition of Pennant says, “the breed is now nearly extirpated, except on the downs of Wiltshire, where it is also very scarce.” In 1813, Montagu in the Supplement to his Dictionary, says, “we were informed by the shepherds that they had not been seen for the last two or three years in their favorite haunts on the Wiltshire downs, where we have often contemplated this noble bird with pleasure.” In 1821, Graves (whose figure of the Great Bustard was drawn from a male bird taken alive on Salisbury Plain in 1797, and kept for three years in confinement, when it died), says, in the third volume of his “British Ornithology,” “the enclosing and cultivating those extensive downs ie 138 The Great Bustard. and heaths in various parts of Great Britain, on which formerly this noble species was seen in large flocks, threatens within a few years to extirpate the bustard from this country; instead of being met with in flocks of forty or fifty birds, it is a circumstance of rare occurrence that a single individual is now seen.” Bewick merely states generally that ‘“bustards were formerly more frequent in this island than at present,” and that ‘they are now found only in the open countries of the south and east, in the plains of Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, &c.; and in 1825, Selby, in his “ Illustrations of Orni- thology,” unable, on repeated enquiry, to hear of the re-appearance of a single bustard, since the days of Montagu, even in its most favorite haunts, pronounces “the breed to be extinct upon our extensive downs, of which it once formed the appropriate ornament.” Thus has this noble species, once so common in our county, dwindled and died away, and now, alas! is no more to be accounted a resident throughout the kingdom. Occasionally, however, a straggler makes its appearance in some quarter, and from its large size, invariably attracts observation, which generally ends in its capture. These occurrences have taken place in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and more recently, in 1843, a female was shot in Cornwall, near the Lizard Point, while in 1850 another was killed in Romney Marsh in Kent, and another in 1851 in Devonshire; both of these two last were females: but Wiltshire still stands pre-eminent as the haunt even of stragglers of this species, two specimens having occurred in the county within the last six years ; one in 1849 near Stonehenge, seen and recorded by Mr. Waterhouse of the British Museum, a well-known Naturalist, and the other, the subject of this memoir, at the beginning of the present year near Hungerford. With regard to the first of these, Mr. Waterhouse was returning with a party of friends, from Stonehenge, at about seven in the evening, in the month of August, when a great bustard rose and flew with a heavy, but tolerably rapid, flight at about twenty feet above the ground; it was very wild, and would not suffer itself to be approached; Mr. Waterhouse never entertained any doubt of the species, and had a clear view of the bird for about ten minutes. rT, By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 139 But the last Wiltshire bustard, figured at the head of this paper, occurred as lately as January last, and is an undoubted male, and a very fine specimen; the particulars of its capture were as follows.— Very early in January, one of Lord Ailesbury’s keepers named King, seeing a large bird which he could not recognize, ‘but sup- posed to be an eagle, flying over a part of Marlborough Forest called Henswood, fired a cartridge at it, though from the distance had little expectation of reaching it; he was not therefore disap- pointed to see the bird continue its flight, apparently unharmed, and went away thinking no more of the matter. Subsequently, and apparently only a day or two after, a little boy of not more than seven years old, saw a large bird, crippled with a broken leg, and succeeded in capturing it, and the following is his own description of the occurrence, taken at the time from his own lips, and obligingly communicated to me by Mr. W. H. Rowland, of Hungerford, who afterwards purchased the bird. “I was going to Starve-all farm with my brother’s dinner, about twelve o’clock, and passing along the edge of about a ten-acre field of turnips, I saw a great red bird laid down and fluttering away, he was close to the side of the turnips, I went to him and he tried to flutter away; he came at me and bit my fingers, but did not hurt me much, and as he put out his great wings, I caught hold of one, and dragged him along, pretty near a quarter of a mile, up to ‘Starve-all,’ where a man broke his neck: the bird wasn’t dirty when I first saw him, I made him so pulling him along the field; the bird made a terrible row with his wings on the barn floor, after his neck was broken: one of the men put the bird on my back, and I held his head in my hand and carried him home to mother; he was main heavy, and I couldn’t scarce get along with him.” So far we have the account of the little boy himself, the fortunate captor of the last British bustard, but it appears farther that there was a council of war held over the bird, (when the boy first took it into the barn alive), by all the labourers, who were just at that time assembled at dinner, and it was very nearly decided to pick it and dress it then and there, but the little boy’s brother claimed it for him, so one of the men killed it, that the boy might carry it home better. Later in the T 2 140 The Great Bustard. day, at about two o’clock in the afternoon, two young men were going shooting, and the mother of the little bustard-catcher asked them to come into her cottage to see what a bird she had got, when one of them offered her six-pence for it, then eight-pence, and ultimately bought it for one shilling, with the promise that the woman should have the carcase after the bird was skinned, but its purchase by Mr. Rowland prevented that being done. The dragging across the field by the boy, and the rough handling of the man at the barn, injured its feathers a good deal, but owing to the care and skill of Mr. Leadbeater it has been well cleaned, and is pronounced by Mr. Yarrell, who also examined it, a very good specimen. The latter gentleman was extremely anxious to procure the neck for dissection, in order to clear up the much-vexed question, as to whether the male bustard has, or has not, the gular pouch, or bag between the under side of the tongue, and the lower mandible of the bill, which, from the days of Daines Barrington, and Edwards, afterwards copied by Bewick and Yarrell in their respective histo- ries of British birds, was supposed to exist and to supply the bird with drink in dry places when distant from water. Subsequent research, and careful anatomical observation, have since shaken Mr. Yarrell’s belief in this gular pouch, and in this he is supported by the old French Naturalists, with Cuvier at their head, as well as Professor Owen of the Royal College of Surgeons; the question, however, is still an open one, with warm advocates on both sides, “et adhuc sub judice lis est.” But to return to the Hungerford bustard. Though, unfortunately for science, Mr. Yarrell was unable, in this case, to prosecute his investigation by dissection, all the soft parts required having been irrecoverably destroyed, Mr. Leadbeater satisfied himself by ana- tomical observation that the bird under his hands was a young male, and has preserved in spirits a sufficient portion of the body to satisfy any one on that point. This is the more important, as, though the dimensions are too large for a female, the specimen before us being a bird of the second year only, is without the whis- kers so conspicuous in an adult male, as may be seen in the woodcut; for in young birds these become visible only at the pairing season. ET By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 141 Though in a poor emaciated condition when captured, it weighed thirteen and a quarter pounds, and measured from tip to tip of the wings, six feet three inches. How so large, powerful, and pugnacious a bird, should suffer itself to be mastered by a boy of tender age, seems strange at first sight, but if we take into account the broken leg, the wound in which seemed to be a stale one of some days’ standing, and its consequent exhaustion from loss of blood; and if we suppose the boy to have caught hold of the /eft wing, the same side as the broken leg, we can easily conceive how the bird was rendered powerless, and could not recover itself to offer resistance. How it came by the broken leg, has been also much disputed, the limb not being shattered as if by shot, but the bone broken off, as if by ball, and the fracture being too high up to have been caused by atrap. Mr. Yarrell suggested the probability of the accident occurring by the bird getting its leg entangled among the bars of a sheep hurdle, and making efforts to get loose; but ever since I gained intelligence of the keeper’s shot with a cartridge, I have come to the conclusion that that shot took effect, and that the bird he fired at, and the one caught subsequently by the little boy, were one and the same, and therefore Henswood, (the scene of the keeper’s shot,) being in Wiltshire, I lay claim to this bustard as a bona fide Wiltshire specimen, though I own it was so misguided as to cross the border to die within the county of Berks. I am happy to add, that this last of the Wiltshire bustards is established in the county, in the excellent collection of the Rey. G. Marsh, at Sutton Benger. I shall conclude my account of the Great Bustard by some enquiry into another doubtful point with regard to this bird, as to whether or no it was hunted down with greyhounds by our ancestors; a practice generally declared by our older Ornithologists to have been in vogue, though of late years it has been much disputed. There are three distinct opinions on this knotty point, each of which has its strenuous supporters. 1. That old and young birds indiscriminately, were so hunted by greyhounds. 2. That the young only were so coursed. 38. And that neither old or young could have been ever so taken. With regard to the first, that both 142 The Great Bustard. old and young were hunted down with dogs, Brooks in his Orni- thology in 1771, above-quoted, says of the bustard in France, near Chalons, “sometimes fowlers shoot them as they lie concealed behind some eminence, or on a load of straw; others take them with grey- hounds, which often catch them before they are able to rise.” Yarrell in his article on the bustard in his “British Birds,” quotes the Rev. Richard Lubbock for the following, “A very fine bird, an old male, is still in preservation as a stuffed specimen, at the house of a friend, in my neighbourhood, which was taken by grey- hounds 40 years ago, within three miles of Norwich.” Again, Mark Antony Lower in his “Contributions to Literature,” (1854), says, “The South Downs afford a fine field for the Naturalist as well as the sportsman; one cannot but regret, however, the extinction of some of the animals which they formerly nourished, particularly that fine indigenous bird, the bustard or wild turkey. ~The grand- father of the present writer was among the last who joined in the sport, about the middle of the last century, of hunting down the !” andina last remains of the species with dogs and bludgeons note which I have lately received from that gentleman, he adds “ My grandfather, John Lower of Alfriston, was born in 1735: he was a boy at the time he went a-hunting bustards, and we may assume the year 1750 as about the period: my friend the late Mr. John Dudeny of this town, (Lewes), a shepherd in his youth, and the son of a shepherd, told me that his father, who must have been cotemporary with my grandfather, had also taken part in bustard hunting in his youthful days:” and, he adds, “I have no hesitation in saying, that fully grown birds were hunted down with dogs, though I have never heard it mentioned what kind of dogs were employed.” The next witness I adduce for the hunting of bustards generally on the ground, is the Honorable Robert Curzon, in his recent work on “Armenia and Erzeroum.” At p. 145 he says, “ Later in the year I risked my neck by riding as hard as I could tear, over the rocky, or rather stony, plains at the foot of the mountains after the Great Bustard; I have more than once knocked some of the feathers out of these glorious huge birds, as they ran at a terrible pace, half flying and scrambling before my straining horse, By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 143 but I never succeeded in killing one, though I have constantly partaken of those which had fallen before more patient gunners, who stalk them as you would a deer, and knock them over with a rifle or swan shot from behind a stone or bank.” Lastly, Bishop Stanley in his familiar history of birds tells us, “the bustard can fly, but its usual motion is on foot, running with such speed as often to rival a greyhound.” For the second opinion, that the young alone were thus coursed with dogs, I first adduce Bewick, who lived when these birds were not yet extinct, and who, (one would suppose), could not well have been mistaken as to the method of obtaining them generally adopted by sportsmen ; in his life-like woodcut of the Great Bustard in his first edition in 1800, we see in the back-ground of the picture, one of these birds running, pursued by greyhounds, and followed by a man on horseback; and in his subsequent editions, with the descrip- tions added to the figures, he says, ‘they are slow in taking wing, but run with great rapidity, and when young are sometimes taken with greyhounds, which pursue them with great avidity: the chase is said to afford excellent diversion.” My next authority for this opinion, is Mr. Hooper of Littleton, who has always lived on or near the plain, and states that he has often heard from old men, that in the days of bustards the shepherds were in the habit of hunting the young birds with their sheep dogs; he says “there can be no doubt of the matter as far as the practice of this neighbour- hood is concerned ;” but, he adds, “the older birds were too swift under the combined help of wings and feet, thus to be taken, and they were understood not to be so followed; they hunted the young ones before they were fully fledged.” With such authority for the hunting of bustards with dogs, as I have adduced, and I might mention much more to the same effect, we shall scarcely be prepared to deny the fact altogether, whether we incline to the belief that the old birds were so coursed, as well as the young, or no; for my own part, I incline to the belief that the old birds were occasionally so taken, though, perhaps, this was generally in drizzling wet weather, which was certainly the time usually chosen for the sport, when the birds feathers were soaked 144 The Great Bustard. with rain. But I must adduce the arguments of the advocates for the contrary opinion, that neither old nor young birds were so hunted with dogs at all, and these are founded on the supposed impossibility of the thing. Thus, Selby, the talented author of the “ Tilustrations of British Ornithology,” says, ‘upon being disturbed, so far from running, in preference to flight, (as has been often described), it rises upon wing with great facility, and flies with much strength and swiftness, usually to another haunt, which will some- times be at the distance even of six or seven miles. It has also been said, that in former days, when the species was of common occurrence, it was a practice to run down the young birds, (before they were able to fly), with greyhounds, as affording excellent diversion; so far from this possibility existing, with respect to the present remnant of the breed, the young birds, upon being alarmed, constantly squat close to the ground, in the same manner as the young of the Lapwing, Golden Plover, &c., and in that position are frequently taken by the hand.” The same opinion, though with somewhat less confidence, is given by Mr. Nicholson, (quoted by Yarrell in his paper on the bustard, read before the Linnean Society), who had enjoyed great opportunities of observing these birds in the neighbourhood of Seville, where they abounded; he says, “they never try to run; one that I had winged making the most absurd attempts possible to get away from me, and though a young bird, showing much more disposition to fight, than to get away by running. I cannot imagine greyhounds being able to catch bustards, though there seems to be good authority for believing they did.” With these observations, and leaving every one to form his own conclusions on this much-disputed point, I take leave of the Great Bustard, regretting with all my heart, the extinction of so noble a bird from its once favorite haunts on our open wide-spreading downs, and earnestly entreating all who can glean any authentic information regarding its habits and appearance, within the memory of living persons, to rescue from oblivion facts of such deep interest to the Ornithological world, relating, as they do, not only to the largest, but, I may say, the noblest and most highly prized of On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Commamities. 146 British birds; as well as to that one for which our county was so notorious, as the principal stronghold of what once stood at the head of the game list. ALFRED CHARLES SMITH. Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, June 4th, 1856. ON THE Self-Guuermment of Small Manovial Communitivs, ag exemplified tr the Mawar of Castle Combe. By G. Povrerr Scrorr, Esq., M.P. Those who have paid any attention to the Constitutional History of our country need not be told that to the Municrpat privileges exercised from a very early period by the citizens of its townships, we are in a great degree indebted for those political liberties of which we are justly proud, and which by securing to us the blessing of domestic tranquillity, form the main source of our national wealth, power, and greatness. The origin of these privileges is obscure. Nor has much light been hitherto thrown upon the subject, however interesting, by constitutional historians. That they existed long before the intro- duction of the feudal system is as certain as that they formed the most effectual barrier against the oppressive and tyrannical influence of that remarkable military institution. It is known that the provincial cities under the Roman empire enjoyed a municipal constitution, securing to the citizens a magistracy of their own appointment, and important rights of internal regulation and self-government, together with much common property. And in France and Germany, as well as in this island, claims to privileges of this character were more or less successfully maintained by local communities throughout the period of the occupation of these countries by their Teutonic invaders, with whose native institutions such rights assimilated readily, and became closely incorporated. U 146 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities Even when the general establishment of feudality had compelled the towns to submit themselves to some paramount lord, he usually found it politic to respect the ancient privileges of their inhabitants; or, if temporarily suspended, they were recovered at the first favourable opportunity. It was not so easy to oppress a collected body of citizens, as the scattered and dispirited cultivators of the soil. The monarchs, moreover, found in the towns efficient allies in those contests in which they were so frequently engaged during the middle ages with their powerful vassals; and they repaid the assistance of the citizens by confirming and extending their ancient franchises, under the form of royal or imperial charters of incor- poration. By an extension of the royal prerogative, springing from the same obvious motive, many towns or manors which possessed no special charter, grant, or corporation, claimed and enjoyed analogous privileges of self-government, as having anciently formed part of the royal demesnes. It is remarkable how little attention has hitherto been paid to this very important element of our constitutional history. Even in the case of many of the larger cities and towns, whose charters of incorporation have been repeatedly confirmed and renewed by successive sovereigns, little is known, or has at all events been communicated to the public, of the early history and character of their municipal privileges. The very title deeds of these privileges, and the records of the proceedings of their courts, corporations, or governing bodies, have been imperfectly preserved, and in the majority of instances, it would appear, are irrecoverably lost. Their ancient customs and usages have been allowed to fall into desuetude, and few memorials remain of their former existence, unless in the case of some parliamentary franchise, or other privilege to which a pecuniary or party value was attached. This very general neglect of the ancient municipal constitutions of our towns was remarkably brought out by the replies forwarded in the year 1831 to queries circulated by the Record Commission among them, requesting information as to what documents relating to these matters were in the custody of their municipal officers. From the replies it appeared that in very few out of some hundred As exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe. 147 places to which the circulars were addressed, was any thing clearly known by these officers, or any series of documents preserved relative to the history of their ancient liberties, the proceedings of their local courts or governing bodies, or the early usages and customs of the place. There are, as I have said, some few exceptions to this general neglect; and from the records preserved in these instances, and other sources, it would be possible to derive much valuable information on the general history of our municipal institutions. Whoever would undertake such a work would confer a great benefit on the literature of this country, and supply an important defect in the materials of its history. In the meantime I have thought it may not be uninteresting to those who look into the philosophy of history, and love to trace the remote sources from which our most valuable institutions of the present day are derived, if I produce an example of the extent of self-government practised from a very early time in one of these privileged communities, although unincorporated, and of an insig- nificant character in comparison with the great towns of the kingdom—being in fact at no time more than a rural or upland township, with a population consisting of but a few hundred persons—from the records that happen to be in my possession, and in a tolerably perfect state, relating to the manor of Castle Combe. The very insignificance of the place, indeed, may add to the value of its history in these respects, as being a specimen probably of many hundred other village communities, in which similar customs prevailed. The inhabitants of the Manor of Castle Combe, although not incorporated by Royal Charter, enjoyed, however, from an early period all the special rights and privileges which appertained by the Common Law to those Vills which belonged to the domain of the Crown in the Saxon era. These rights were conveyed under the terms, now scarcely intelligible, of Tol, Them, Sok, Sak, Infangthef, View of frank-pledge, Waif, Stray, &c., and were generally known as Jwra Regalia, including the power of punishment by Stocks and Pillory, Pit and Gallows, (Cippus, Pilarum, Fossa et urea). The particular meaning of all these obsolete terms is (uper?? _ 148 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities not at present clearly distinguishable, nor would it repay us to investigate very closely points upon which the highest authorities differ. It is sufficient to know that they comprised among other rights the valuable one of Exemption of the free inhabitants from the arbitrary exactions of the usual collectors of tolls or taxes for the military service of the Sovereign; contributions under the name of Tallage being specially rated upon these towns only on extraordinary occasions, by the King’s writ as Royal Vills, and distributed upon the inhabitants by officers of their own choice. They were relieved from contributing to the expenses of Knights of the shire. They were not to be put on Juries in the Sheriff’s Courts. They elected their own officers for the protection of the public interests. They were entitled to local Courts of Justice, both Criminal and Civil, which held pleas of debt or damage arising between the inhabitants, and adjudicated on offences against the common weal. These Courts enacted bye-laws for the regulation of sundry matters of local interest, and enforced them by penalties. In them the Citizens themselves determined all the Causes heard, as Jurymen, under the presidency of the Seneschal or Steward of the Manor, who was the only officer appointed by the Lord, and seems to have had little power over the decisions of the Court. The Courts held within the Manor of Castle Combe were of three kinds, viz :— 1. The Court Baron, or Manor Court, usually in the Rolls styled Curia Intrinseca, at which the Customary Tenants of the Manor surrendered or were admitted to their holdings, paid their quit-rents, and transacted all business relating to their tenures through a Homage, or selected body of themselves, usually six in number, chosen upon the meeting of the Court. This Court was usually held twice in the year, but oftener if required; and in this last case was styled “ Hok-day Court,” (Curia tenta ad hoc). The Steward presided, and looked to the Lord’s interest in these matters. The Bailiff (Ballivus Domini) collected the fees due to the Lord, and the fines and amerciaments imposed by the Homage. The Homage appointed the Hayward of the Manor (Prepositus Camporum), and a Sheep-teller (Numerator ovium). They determined all cases of As exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe. 149 Waif and Estray, of Villains absenting themselves, or marrying their daughters without the Lord’s consent, of trespass on the Lord’s soil or waters, or the deer in his park, or the hares, conies, or pheasants in his warren, of trespass on their own lands or tenements, the stint of sheep or cattle which each tenant might place on the common lands, questions of bounds, of the necessary repair of tenements, and generally speaking all matters relating to their own estates and that of the Lord; as to which matters they also enacted and enforced bye-laws, with the assent of the Lord, given through his Seneschal, and appointed proper officers to see them carried out. The Homage also tried causes of debt and damage to the amount of 40s. between the inhabitants of the Manor, or pleas brought against them by strangers, with the ancient common-law proceedings of ‘“distringas, or common plaint.” And great pains were taken by repeated orders, followed up by the levy of penalties, where these were contravened, that none of the residents of the Manor should sue one another, or be sued themselves, in any other Court, nor any officer of another Court execute a writ within the Manor; unless in cases of felony, and such as were beyond the Jurisdiction of its proper Court. The Homage occasionally appointed special meetings of them- selves, or sometimes of all the tenants, at the Market-cross, or elsewhere, for the purpose of proceeding thence to view and determine questions relating to boundaries, or damage to property, or encroachments on the common, or waste of the Manor, or the state of repair of some Copyhold tenement, or of the fences of the woods, common arable fields, or commons of pasture, which the several occupiers were bound to maintain. Or they looked to the necessary repairs of the Church-house, the Market-cross, the Town- bridge, the Town-well, the pynfold, or Pound, the Stocks, the Butts, and other public properties; and ordered their due repair, under penalty for default, by the parties respectively liable thereto by ancient custom. The Homage presented at every Court the ancient Customs of the Manor, by which the Copyhold tenants were bound, as to 150 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities Executorships, widow-hoods, seasons of surrender, right to fell timber, heriots, &c,: and great care was taken (a care continued up to the present day), to enrol the record of these customs in the Court-book. They presented the decease of any Copyholder since the last Court, and reported the heriot that fell to the Lord, and the name of the succeeding taker, if any ; who, thereupon, prayed to be admitted, and on doing his fealty, and paying his fine, if any, was admitted, by delivery of the rod, in case of a yardland, (virgata terre, from virga a rod,) and enrolled as Tenant.’ From time to time (and especially on the entry of a new Lord, or the appointment of a new Steward), an extraordinary Court Baron was held, for the Survey of all the Copyholds, at which each Tenant was required to exhibit the Copy of Court Roll by which he claimed to hold, an abstract of which was entered on the Roll. 2. The Knight’s Court (Curia Militum) sometimes called in the Rolls Curia Extrinseca ; usually held at the same time with the Court Baron, but occasionally on separate days for special purposes. At this Court the Noblemen or Gentlemen who held lands or manors by Knight’s Service of the Barony of Castle Combe were bound to attend, either in person or by proxy, to do their suit and service, and pay the rents, escheats, and reliefs due from them severally, as it might happen. They were generally, as a matter of course, essoigned ; that is, excused from attendance, on payment of a fee, latterly of 2s. each, but which in early times appears to have been higher. Against such as failed to pay, writs of distringas were issued, to be executed by the Bailiff of the Manor, and on further failure pledges were required, or distraint actually enforced. The proceedings of this Court, it will be observed, referred wholly to the interests of the Lord. It was presided over by the Steward of the Manor, and composed of the freeholders who resided within it, or attended on summons, owing suit and service there to the Lord. 3. Lastly the Court Leet, or View of Frank-pledge, which was usually held twice a year, and at the same time with the Court 1 The rod seems to have been typical of Serf-ship. As exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe. 151 Baron, but sometimes oftener, and separately. At this Court the matters treated of had reference to the interests of the entire Community, ‘ totius Communitatis,” or “totius Villae.” It was presided over by the Seneschal or Steward of the Lord. The Tything-man attended, with the entire tything, (Decennarius cum toté Decennid), that is to say, the Dozein or twelve principal inhabitants, who acted as a grand Jury. In later times a Jury was sometimes sworn of as many as sixteen or even twenty persons. The absence of any inhabitant duly summoned to attend was reported, and he was fined 2d., as also was the Tything-man for not producing him. The Tything-man presented a nominal list of foreigners, chiefly servants and artificers, who paid yearly 2d. each, for the privilege of living in the Manor, not being tenants of the Lord, or members of the tything, into which they could only be admitted by license of the Court. This list was called Capitagium Garcionum, sometimes Chevagiwm, or Head-roll. Its numbers varied from twenty to seventy, or more. Their masters stood pledged for the good conduct of these strangers, who might at any time be removed by order of the Court. The several public officers then reported all cases of breaches of the common or statute law, or of the bye-laws enacted by the Court itself for the good government of the place. These officers, the number of which increased as general Statutes were passed pre- scribing their appointment, consisted in the fifteenth century of The Tything-man, (Decennarius), whose duties have been already noticed. Two Constables specially appointed to see that the peace be not broken, and to arrest and bring to Justice all offenders against the laws. Two Ale-Conners (Tustatores Cervisiw), whose duty it was (perhaps not an unpleasant one), to taste the ale made at every brewing for public sale within the place, and see that it was of the ordained strength and goodness. They had to report to the Court all cases of breach of the Assize of Beer. And the same persons, but some- times others specially appointed, were to fulfil the same duties in respect to the Bread offered by the Bakers of the place for sale. 152 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities Two “ Viewers of Flesche or Vitealls,” (Carnarii), who exercised a similar superintendence over the Butchers. Two Sigillatores Core’, Searchers or Sealers of Leather, to look after the Tanners and Curriers. Two Overlookers of the process of dyeing and fulling Cloth, a business much followed within the Manor. (Conservatores artis tinctorum et fullatorum). Two Wardsmen, (Gardinares), Guardians or Overseers of the ~ Poor. Two Supervisores Regie vie, or Highway Surveyors. The two Churchwardens, (Custodes bonorum Ecclesia), were not, I believe, appointed at the Leet Court, but probably at a vestry held within the Church. The offences of a public character adjudicated in the Court Leet were usually of the nature of affrays, assaults, blood-shedding, tippling in ale-houses, eaves-dropping or night-walking, keeping bad houses, gaming or playing at forbidden games, barratry, or disturbing the peace by false reports and quarrels, rescue, pound- breach, scolding or scandal, nuisances of all kinds, breaking hedges or neglecting to keep them, or the highways, or village bridge, or well, in repair, using false or unstamped weights or measures, forestalling, regrating, and all the other numerous tribe of offences against the general statutes or bye-laws of the Leet, enacted for the purpose of regulating the sale or quality of provisions or other goods—flesh, leather, cloth, bread, beer, wine, &e. Felonies do not appear to have been finally adjudicated in this Court, notwithstanding that several entries in the Rolls record the repair of the ‘Gallowes,’ (probably kept up only in terrorem), and that, according to Aubrey, writing late in the seventeenth century, old men then alive remembered them; evidence, however, was taken in all cases of felony, and if the Jury presented the prisoner as guilty he was committed by the Court to the County Gaol for trial. It was the duty of the Tything-man to convey him to Old Sarum Castle, for which purpose he was authorised to seize the horse of any tenant. The goods of every convicted felon being forfeit to the Lord of the Manor, the Jury of the Lect, on presenting any one as guilty As exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe. 153 of felony, and remitting him for trial at the County Sessions, always had his goods appraised by the Tything-man, and impounded for the Lords’ use, in case of his conviction by the Court which tried him. And the same process took place when any accused person fled from justice, or did not abide judgement. Many such instances occurred; so many, indeed, that the goods of felons appear to have been a perquisite of some value to the Lord. On one occasion, in 1524, a criminal who had committed homicide, took shelter or Sanctuary, in the Parish Church, on which the Coroner was sent for, to whom he abjured his fealty to the Sovereign, and elected to leave the kingdom by the Port of Dover, and so was indicted of murder, and his goods forfeited as above to the Lord. This seems to have been the process by which alone even a murderer who had taken sanctuary could be got rid of. At another time, one Thomas Hassell was presented by the Jury as “having feloniously broken into the Parish Church, by force of arms, to wit, a dagger, and stolen therefrom a Missal, worth 15 marks, (probably richly illuminated, to be worth that sum), a silver- gilt cup worth 8 marks, a silver cup worth 5 marks, and a pav- brede of the value of 15 shillings, of the Goods and Chattels of the said Church.” Though instances occur of the infliction of personal punishments, but generally for a second offence, or on the non-payment of fines, such as whipping, the stocks, and the pillory, the usual penalties awarded were pecuniary fines, to be levied, if need be, by the Constable, by distress on the goods of the offender. These fines seem to have been practically unlimited in amount at the discretion of the Court, since I find very considerable sums occasionally taken ; as for instance, in the year 1438, when Sir John Grene, parson of the Parish, was fined in 40 marks, (£26 13s. 4d.), for cutting down an ash tree and some thorns in the Lords’ park; which fine he being totally unable to pay, ten marks were taken from him at the time, and a bond for the remaining £20 at his death; on the occurrence of which event his goods were sold, and it is stated in an abstract of the Roll, that the fines actually levied for this offence, were worth to the Lord more than £40,—probably one x 154 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities hundred times the value of the timber destroyed by the unlucky Parson. The Parsons, indeed, figure very frequently in the Rolls; sometimes as accusers, more often as defendants. They were occasionally fined for oppressing the Parishoners by citations into the Keclesiastical Courts, for it was, as I have already stated, one of the ordinances of the Manor Court, most rigidly enforced, that no tenant, or resident, should sue or implead another tenant or resident within the manor, in any other Court, under a penalty of twenty shillings; and, of course, the church very unwillingly submitted to this rule. But, strange to say, the offence of which the Parsons appear to have been most frequently accused and con- victed, was that of poaching in the Lords’ park or preserves, or encouraging poachers to bring fish or game to them from thence. One entry, in the year 1392, records the conviction, for breaking the Lords’ park and warren, of a large party, headed by no less than four chaplains, viz., of Castle Combe, of Kington, of Netelton, and of Bath. The fines ranged in this instance, from 6s. 8d. to 40s. each, and amounted in all, to the sum of £12. The Clerical appetite for sport, or perhaps for venison and game, must have been something checked by so severe an amerciament ! On the other hand, the Leet Court duly protected the person of the Parsons, who appear, not unfrequently, to have been in some danger from violent assaults, perhaps from some sinner to whom absolution was refused. On one occasion, in 1364, John le Tayllor was presented for “homesokene,’ by drawing a knife upon the Parson in the church. Again, in 1414, Richard Spenser was fined for assaulting the Rector, “quia levavit ictus super dictum Rectorem.” The fines were not large in these cases, considering the offence, being only three pence in one, and six pentce in the other. William Baate, however, three years later, was bound under a penalty of twenty pounds, to keep the peace towards the same Parson. And the church was occasionally conciliated by the imposition of fines upon transgressors, in the shape of candles, to be burnt upon its altars. The most frequent offences brought before the Court, were, as might be supposed, (since the same may be said, I fear, even in the As exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe. 155 present more tranquil days), of the nature of assaults, for which the usual penalty imposed was a pecuniary fine, and the forfeiture of the weapon employed, the value of which is always carefully given.! The offender was also bound over to keep the peace, and to find sureties for the same, in considerable sums, for the time. Some offenders were proceeded against, not for particular breaches of the peace, but as habitual disturbers of it, “communes perturbatores pacis in perturbationem totus dominit.” This, I presume, was the offence styled Barratry in the old law books. Both males and females were occasionally convicted of Haves- dropping, that is, “listening at windows at night, to hear the conversation going on within.” Night-walking, “ noctivagari,” was also treated as a serious offence. And as the public-houses were compelled to close at nine o’clock at night, all good subjects were of course expected to be asleep soon after that hour, and fined if they were found about. Indeed, it is stated in one accusation against a prisoner for assault, in the year 1429, as an aggra- vation of the offence, that it took place at nine o’clock at night, and had the effect of “disturbing and waking from their sleep, the tenants who lived in the neighbourhood.” Another singular and common offence was called “hole-creeping,”’ explained to mean the creeping into pig-styes, and geese or hen-houses—whether for shelter, or with the intention of stealing the swine or poultry, does not seem clear. Scandal seems to have been severely punished. In one case of the year 1570, John Brewer pleaded for damages to the extent of 39s. 11d. against Nicholas Willes for using these words, viz., ‘‘ Thou, John Brewer, art a fals theff, and thou mayntenest theves in thi hous.” The Jury brought in a verdict of guilty, and awarded damages 26s. 8d. and for costs of Court 12s. The keeping of bad houses, or harbouring of dishonest women, was checked by frequent convictions and fines; as also habitual 1 Sometimes this is a knife, as in the case of assault on the Parson by John Tailor. Sometimes it is a sword, a dagger, or an axe, (baselars), In several cases it was a candlestick! occasionally a stick ‘nullius valoris,” and, of course, sometimes the fist, “suo pugno,” which could not conveniently be forfeited to the Lord. x 2 156 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities. drunkenness, “alehouse-haunting, and idling.” Surely it may be regretted, that proceedings of this kind have fallen into disuse in our days. Gambling was often the subject of presentment and punishment, and ordinances frequently issued and enforced against the playing of illegal games. Those mentioned are card-playing, at a game called kuffes and tables, shifte-groate, thimble-rigging, dicing, playing at bowls, (g/obi), at hand-ball, foot-ball, and stave- ball or “stobball;” (pilwm manualem, pedalem, sive baculinam), “nine-holes” and “ kittles.”” Workmen not having forty shillings a year of income, are specially prohibited from playing at these games, which seem to have been considered fit only for their betters. On the other hand, many of the lieges were fined 6s. 8d. each, for not practising with bows and arrows at /es buttes, in obedience to the statutes thereunto provided. The Butts themselves were repeatedly repaired by order of the Court. The keeping of dangerous dogs, accustomed mordere homines, to bite the king’s subjects, or any hound or grey-hound, if the owner was not possessed of 40s. a year, was treated as a punishable offence. So also the opening of shops or public-houses on the Sabbath day, or during Mattins; the not attending Church on Sundays, (even the Lady of the Manor was fined for this on one occasion) ; the carrying of lighted candles in any barn, stable, or other out-house, or any fire without a proper cover- ing, in the street. Fines were levied on all inhabitants who left dung or any other nuisance in the street, or who defiled the water of the river by washing skins in it, or throwing in filth, &e. The unlicensed harbouring of strangers, or persons liable to become a burthen on the community, was an offence punishable by penalty, if the stranger was not removed upon notice from the Constable. The keeping of “‘Quernes” for the grinding of corn at home, instead of sending it to the Lords’ mill, where it would be subject, of course, to toll, was prohibited under penalty. Of all the proceed- ings at the Court Leet, however, those which, perhaps, most repeatedly occur, related to the sale of beer, bread, and other necessaries, or articles of general consumption, and had for their chief object to secure the amplest supply of such articles, of the best quality, and at the lowest prices;—a matter which at the As exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe. 157 present day we have at length happily discovered to be far more effectually attained through the influence of free competition in an unfettered market, than by any compulsory process of law. It is well-known how obstinate was the struggle, protracted almost up to the present day, and, I may add, how vain and unsuccessful, to effect this object by statutes, regulating what was called the Assize of Beer and Wine, and of Bread, and prohibiting under penalties certain offences styled Forestalling and Regrating. Of these endeavours, and of their complete failure, the records of the Court Leet of Castle Combe present abundant instances. The regulations respecting the brewing and selling of ale and beer, were especially various and perplexing. Firstly, no one was permitted to brew any for sale, so long as there remained unsold any Church-ale, (that is, ale made at the Church-house, by the Church-wardens, and sold there for the benefit of the common fund for the relief of the poor), or so long as the keeper of the park, or any of the Tenants of the Manor, had any to sell. Nor could any one sell liquors at any time, without license from the Lord or the Court ; nor without a sign, or at fair-time an Alestake, hung out; nor refuse to sell so long as the sign was hung out; nor ask a higher price for each quality than that fixed by the Jury of Assize; nor lower the quality below what the Ale-tasters approved of; nor sell at all without entering into a bond for ten pounds, with a surety for five pounds to keep order in his house, and in particular to close at nine o’clock in the summer, and eight in the winter months. The enforcing the Assize of Beer and Ale, was ever a matter of endless difficulty. From the beginning of the fifteenth, to the middle of the sixteenth century, the price at which malt liquors were ordered to be sold, was two pence the gallon for the best ale, (optimam et saluberimam Cervisiam), one penny for the second sort, and one half penny for the third, “and no more.” In 1557 I find the following order of the Court, “that the sellers of ale do sell their beste ale under the herseve (hair-sieve, that is, freshly brewed) for three pence a gallon; there stalle ale for four pence a gallon; their second ale under the herseve for three half pence a gallon, 158 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities when itt ys stale for two pence a galon; there smallyst ale under the herseve for a half penny a galon; their beste ale in ther housys a wyne quarte for a peny, and withoute ther dore, a ale quarte for a peny; ther second ale a half penny the wine quarte withyn dore, and without ther dorres the ale quarte for a half penny. And every of them to selle oute of their houses so long as there ys three gallons in the howse, every of them who may break any of these ordinances, to forfeit to the Lord ten shillings for every defaute.”’ But this Assize did not endure long. In 1566, the Court order “that all brewers or ale-wyffes, shall sell at their dores the best liquor for four pence the gallon; and of ale or beer of the best, within and without, for one penny the ale quart; and the fine ale - at one half penny the quart, within and without, so long as they sell of the best.” Ata Court held the year after, the Jury order “that the Constables visit and view the ale-brewers, and see that the orders of the leet Courte be followed, under penalty of forty shillings ;” and they soon after issue a fresh order, varied from the last, “that all the brewers doe sell the beste drink in their houses at six pence the gallon; and that all vitulers shall sell the second best ale, out of their houses, for two pence the galon, under penealty of three shillings and four pence.” In the next year we find another change, viz., “the Jury present the tiplers ‘ tiplatores,’ to sell their ale within doors and without, the best for an ale-quart, one penny, and the other sort as the order before made was.” But at a subse- quent Court, held in the same year, (1570), it is presented by the Tything-man that “the ale-wyves have broken all the orders of the last lawe-day.”’ Next follows the order “that the ale-wyves shall sell their ale forthe of doors, for an ale-quart, one penny, and in the doors, a noggin-quart for a penny; and yf they make bere and have no ale, they shall sell their bere in the same order and pryse, and not to deny any man as long as they have the stake at the dore; pena every one that makyth default, to loose ten shillings.” That this order also was unsuccessful, is shewn by frequent convic- tions and renewals of similar orders, and complaints of their non- observance. The Assize of Bread was another matter of frequent regulation. The price by weight was from time to time fixed. Penny, half- As exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe. 159 penny, and farthing loaves were ordered to be made by all bakers. (1557). No inhabitant was allowed to buy bread of a foreign baker; and such were of course prohibited from selling it, except on market-days and in the market of the town. So also in the article of Candles. The Chandlers were required to sell at prices fixed by the Jury. And to enable them to do so the butchers were prohibited from selling out of the town the fat of the animals they slaughtered (1572); and again no inhabitant was allowed to have in his house at one time more candles than he could readily use, (1573). The brewers were prohibited from selling their ‘graines’ out of the town, and the price was also fixed which they were bound to accept, viz.: 2d. the bushell, (1590). None were to sell “ grain or other viteal,”’ except on market-days, nor to sell at all before nine o’clock, or buy more than might serve their own household. This buying of any article more than was actu- ally required for immediate consumption was called ‘“ encroaching;”’ the buying before-hand for the purpose of profit by re-sale, “forestalling,” and the subsequent sale at a profit ‘“regrating.” And these practices were prohibited’as well by general statutes, as by the orders of the Court, and punished if detected. All those branches of business which are now carried on by what are called middle-men or salesmen, merchants who buy and sell articles of general consumption for the sake of the profit, and who thus act most beneficially for the general interests, by equalizing as near as possible the supply to the demand, as respects both time and place, were by these absurd laws and regulations prevented from exercising their most useful callings. It must have offered a curious and instructive lesson in political economy, this small community endeavouring in so many various ways to carry out the ‘ Protectionist’ principle of self-supply, by prohibiting themselves from buying or selling almost anything in any other market than their own, accu- mulating restraints upon manufactures and trades of every kind, and dictating the terms of almost every bargain. We have no right, however, to cast ridicule for these absurdities on the uneducated inhabitants of this remote rural township. They only copied on a small scale the proceedings of the Sovereign and supreme legis- 160 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities lature of their times in similar matters; and, indeed, it is only at a very recent period, if even now it can be declared with truth, that the Parliament of this kingdom, and its highest authorities, have wholly emancipated its internal and external commerce from similar shackles, and themselves individually from the prejudices in which they had their root. Without prolonging these extracts further it is evident from the proceedings already noticed, that the inhabitants of this and of similarly privileged Manors (and, indeed, it seems probable that many of these privileges were shared by all ordinary Manors, entitled to hold a Court Baron and View of Frank-pledge, although not having Jura Regalia, as being of Ancient Demesne), formed, from a period as early as the close of the thirteenth century at least, and probably from the the time of the Saxon monarch, Edward the Confessor, down to the beginning of the eighteenth— when the proceedings of their Courts fell into disuse—a community to a very considerable extent self-governed. The Grand Jury and Homage, appointed by and from amongst themselves, at the Leet and Baronial Courts, exercised, it is clear, a very extensive and powerful authority within their jurisdiction, both of a civil and criminal character. They amerced all offenders against the public peace or welfare, or who committed damage or injury on any of the inhabitants, in pecuniary penalties, or punished them by whipping, imprisonment in the stocks, or the pillory. They legislated, moreover, very largely, by ‘orders,’ upon numerous matters which may appear perhaps of trifling moment individually, but which still are, and in those times were collectively yet more than at present, of great and daily importance to the inhabitants of a rural township; such as the stocking of their common lands, the repair of fences, roads, bridges, water-courses, and drains, the abolition or prevention of nuisances, the prices at which bread or liquors should be sold within their jurisdiction. They provided for the good morals of the place by punishing disorderly conduct, idleness, gambling, debauchery, foul language, eaves-dropping, petty thefts, assaults, and affrays. They regulated their own numbers in a great degree by a superintending control As exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe. 161 over strangers coming in for work, or residence, and in later times by enforcing the statutes regulating the settlement of the Poor, whom, also, they relieved at their discretion. They chose their own officers, numerous as we have seen, each with his special department and authority, to see that their “orders” were obeyed as well as the general statutes of the realm, and to bring all offenders to Justice. These officers had power to levy by distress the fines forfeited by order of the Court, and were expected to account for them at the succeeding Court to the Lord’s bailiff, and he to the Auditor or Supervisor. They collected and applotted among themselves the public as well as the local taxes, or compo- sitions to which they were liable. They possessed a “ Peculiar” Jurisdiction for the proof of Wills. Moreover the inhabitants at these Courts determined all disputes among themselves, or arising within the limits of the Manor, and all pleas of debt or damage, both as to person and property. They inspected their own provision-shops, regulated their own ale- houses, their market, their poor, their roads, paths, fences, common- rights, and crops. And all this without the intervention of a Justice of Peace, or an Attorney! without payment of a single lawyer’s fee! The Steward of the Manor was paid an annual stipend by the Lord, and though presiding over the Courts, and probably more or less influencing, as well as recording, their proceedings, does not appear to have been empowered to exercise much direct authority over them. He acted, of course, as attorney or agent for the Lord in all matters in which his interests were concerned, saw that the proceedings were regular, and gave advice to the Lord’s tenants, who composed the Homage and Jury. He was occasionally, but not necessarily a lawyer by profession. William of Westbury, made a Judge of the King’s Bench in 1426, had been previously for many years Steward of the Manor of Castle Combe. It may be questioned whether such communities have gained much by the gradual extinction of all these ancient privileges and customs of Self-government to a considerable extent, which has taken place very generally within the last two centuries. No doubt Y 162 On the Self-Government of Small Manorial Communities the general improvement in communications, by facilitating inter- course and multiplying transactions between the inhabitants of different parishes and towns, rendered highly inconvenient, if not impracticable, the continuance of separate municipal jurisdictions of so very limited an area; and at the same time facilitated the resort for Justice to the Courts of the Hundred or County. But it seems now generally recognised that the concentration of all authority in the higher Courts, and the disuse or decay of local municipalities have been allowed to proceed too far. And in many recent legislative measures for establishing, or increasing the autho- rity in respect to many of the matters above-mentioned, of County Courts, Union Boards of Guardians, local Boards of Health, and Commissions for paving and lighting of towns, &c., as well as in the grant of Corporations to many towns not hitherto possessed of them, may be seen a clear admission of the necessity for restoring much of the practice and principle of local self-government, which the inhabitants of this country seem to have enjoyed from the very earliest period of its history, and to which in a great degree they are indebted for that rational liberty and that general attachment to their free institutions, which so peculiarly distinguish it from nearly every other part of the old world. Tt is not, however, intended by what has been said, to deny that the institutions of the country at these early periods were very faulty, and the liberties of its inhabitants defective. Quite the contrary. The power of the Lords over their tenants was for a long time excessive, and their exactions sometimes intolerable. Personal and predial slavery were long maintained, and lasted in some instances to a very late date, though gradually growing obsolete, and frequently terminated through the good sense and liberality of individual Lords, or still more of the Judges of the superior Courts, who, (as is observed by Blackstone), made it a general rule in doubtful cases to decide in favor of the liberty of the subject. Moreover nothing could be more tyrannical than many of the laws in force in these early times, and even of the practices which the chief inhabitants themselves ordered, and did their best to enforce; such as those described above, intended to regulate trade, to fix the As exemplified in the Manor of Castle Combe. 163 prices of goods, and even of labour, and to prevent migration. It is hardly, indeed, in the present day that we can boast of the complete abolition of such unwise shackles, or of the entire extinction of the prejudices in which they took their rise. On the whole we may gain something from a study of the peculiar modes adopted by our ancestors for the conduct of their public interests, both in the way of warning and example. And I shall be much gratified if the sketch I have given, from the materials that have fallen into my hands, shall contribute in any the slightest degree to either of these ends. I may add a hope likewise that the owners of other Manors, or the custodiers of their title-deeds, may be led, by my example, to examine them with a view to ascertain how far, and during what period, their inhabitants possessed or exercised any of these muni- cipal rights. It seems a mistake to suppose, as is generally done, I believe, that such rights were confined to the larger and incor- porated towns. And it will probably appear, on examination, that they were commonly exercised to a considerable extent at least, in all Manors holding Courts Baron and Leet. If this be the fact, it opens up, I think, a new and interesting view of our Political History, as yet almost unsuspected by the bulk of writers upon it, but quite as important as that of the transactions of Statesmen, or Ambassadors, Sovereigns, or Parliament itself. 164 On o Cromlech-tumults called Lughury, ear Littleton Drew. By Joun TuurnAM, M.D., F.S.A. In the County of Gloucester, and north-west of Wilts, particu- larly in the district of the Cotswold hills, and some neighbouring parts of Somerset, are several sepulchral tumuli of peculiar character, which have hitherto attracted but little attention, and which, so far as we know, are nearly confined, at least in their most fully developed forms, to this part of England. These tumuli are cairns or barrows (in the language of the district twmps) composed chiefly of loose stones, of long or oval form, varying from about 120 to 180 feet in length, ranging nearly from west to east, and having the broadest and highest part towards the east. Internally they are found to contain, in some cases, chambers walled in with stone, which open into a gallery, evidently intended to be entered from one end, the east; in others, cells or cists, which, when used for the purpose of interment, must have been opened from above. In some instances, from their ruinous condition, or from the imperfect descriptions given of them, it is almost impossible to decide to which of these classes they belong. Of the first class, or those containing chambers, the best examples are at Uley in Glouces- tershire, and at Stoney Littleton in Somersetshire.' Of those containing one or more cists or cistvaens, as it is usual to call them, Duntesford Abbots in Gloucestershire, and Littleton Drew in Wiltshire, now to be described, present well-marked instances. In the long barrow at Avening, there seems to have been both a chamber and cists; whilst as regards those at Lanhill, Luckington, ) Archeologia, vol. 19. p. 43. Archeeological Journal, 1854, vol. XI. p. 315. Ford & West bith™ Tumulus, with fallen Cromlech near Littleton -Drew, Wilts. from a sketch taken in 1821. On a Cromlech-tumulus called Lugbury, 165 and Shurdington,' there is more or less doubt to which form the contained structures must be referred. There is however sufficient similarity in their character, notwithstanding this variety of internal structure, to lead us to refer all these barrows to the same period and people. This conclusion is confirmed by the mode of interment, which, so far as they have been examined, is common to all of them. In the chambers, and also in the cists, are found entire human skeletons, in a contracted posture, and frequently crowded together in groups. With these only very trivial objects of art have been discovered; but, so far as appears, these are confined to stone implements, such as flint flakes, knives, or arrow-heads, and stone axes; and with these, bones and teeth of the lower animals, for instance, of oxen, horns of the red deer, and tusks and other teeth of boars. In several instances, fragments of pottery and other objects have been met with, chiefly near the surface ; but these are evidently of a later, and generally of the Roman, period, and must have been deposited in these spots, either by those who have resorted to them for superstitious or funereal purposes, or who have dug into and rifled them, in search of treasure. From these general remarks, we may proceed to the description of the Littleton Drew tumulus, which is situated in a field called the “three stone field,” in the parish of Nettleton, nearly equidistant, and about a mile, from the villages of Littleton Drew, Nettleton, and Castle Combe. The earliest notice to be found of this barrow is in an unpublished work by John Aubrey, the well- _ known Wiltshire topographer and antiquary, from whom we learn that in the 17th century it was called “Lugbury,” a designation which it has probably long ceased to bear. “Lugbury,” says Aubrey, “is in a field in the parish of Nettleton, but near to Littleton Drew in Wiltshire, over against the ruins of Castle Combe. At the east end of this barrow is a great table stone of bastard free- 1 For the Lanhill barrow, see ante, page 67; for that at Luckington, Sir ‘R. C. Hoare’s ‘“ Ancient Wilts,” vol. II. p. 101; and for that at Shurdington, the ‘ Journal of the British Archwological Association,” vol. I. p. 153; vol LI. p. 64; and Wright’s “Celt, Roman, and Saxon,” p. 53, may be consulted. 166 On a Cromlech-tumulus called Lugbury, stone, leaning on two pitched perpendicular stones. I suppose it was heretofore borne up by two more such stones like the legges of a table. Neer to this stone was a little round barrow, before it was ploughed away since a.p. 1630.”! In Aubrey’s manuscript work, Monumenta Britannica, now in the Bodleian Library, is a rough sketch of the barrow, with the trilith at the east end, which shews that, two hundred years since, the stones had the same position as they retain at present.? The barrow is about two hundred yards from the great Roman road, the Foss, which traverses nearly the whole of south Britain, from S.W. to N.E., from Devonshire to Lincolnshire, and whence the legionaries of the Czsars must have often contemplated this ancient monument.* Traces probably of earlier occupation exist on the opposite Castle hill of Combe; where, within range of cannon shot from the Foss-way, is an entrenched camp or hill fortress, curiously protected by a series of parallel earth-works, doubtless of ancient British construction, though afterwards chosen as the site of the Castle of Combe, in Norman times.* The barrow, though in the parish of Nettleton, is immediately without the boundary of that of Littleton Drew, and it may be worth naming that a road or trackway now disused, but evidently of great antiquity, leads directly past the western end of the barrow to this last-named village, which it connected with that of Nettleton. Where it descends the intervening valley, this path is hollowed out, so as to form a true “covered way.” Upon this road, 1 Sir R. C. Hoare, Ancient Wilts, vol. II. p. 99, quotes this from Aubrey’s M.S., ‘‘Monumenta Britannica,” written chiefly between the years 1663 and 1671. See Memoir of Aubrey, by J. Britton, 1845, p. 39—47, 2 A wood engraving from this sketch, is given in the ‘‘ History of Castle Combe,” by G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., M.P., 1852, p. 7. 3 Collinson, (History of Somerset, 1791, vol. I, p. 101), gives a brief notice of this tumulus, which has been copied into the additions to Camden, (Britannia, 1806, vol. I. p. 119). Collinson adds ‘‘I doubt not that this was the monument of some Roman chief who died on the march, and was commemorated in this rude manner, for want of time and other conveniences.” This opinion will scarcely now be regarded as calling for serious refutation. 4 Sir R. C. Hoare, ‘‘ Ancient Wilts,” vol. II. p. 301, and ‘‘ Roman Era,” p. 102. G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., M.P., ‘‘ History of Castle Combe,” p. 7. near Littleton Drew, North Wilts. 167 half-way between the barrow and Littleton Drew, close to a farm- house, is an ancient quarry, yielding large blocks of what the quarrymen still, as it would seem in Aubrey’s time, call “bastard freestone,” belonging to the great oolite, which occurs in this district of the Cotswolds. From this quarry, the stones of which the cromlech is formed, were evidently obtained. Both Aubrey and Sir Richard C. Hoare appear to connect the barrow with Littleton Drew rather than Nettleton ; and the latter, in particular, insists on its neighbourhood to “Littleton Dru or Drew, a name evidently of druidical antiquity.” There is perhaps no difficulty, in the fact of its position beyond the boundary of the parish of Littleton, in connecting it with this place rather than with Nettleton ; there being much reason for concluding that the existing parochial divisions, in many cases at least, do not ascend beyond Norman times. Whether, however, the epithet Drew had in its origin any reference to the Druids, may admit of enquiry. There are at least three other places, where are remarkable remains commonly called druidical, into the name of which this epithet enters. These are Stanton Drew in Somersetshire, where are the well known megalithic circles of unhewn stones, inferior only in size and number to those of Abury; Drews’ Teignton, Dartmoor, Devon, where is one of the best preserved cromlechs in England ; and Trer Drew in Anglesea, near the spot where the Romans are believed to have landed, and where are many remains of cromlechs and other early British monuments. Here, not improbably, were the groves devoted to superstition and barbarous rites, with altars dedicated to human sacrifices, which, Tacitus tells us, were destroyed by the Romans.' In all these cases, topographical writers to the 1 Stukely, “Itin. Cur.” vol. Il. p. 91, plate. Camden, ‘“ Britannia,” vol. Ill. p. 197. Pennant’s ‘‘ Wales,” 1810, vol. II. p. 229; vol. III. p. 11. Rowland’s ‘Mona Antiqua,” 1766, p. 88—236. Compare Tacitus, “Annales,” Lib. 14. §xxx. Mr. Herbert, ‘Cyclops Christ.” p, 30, maintains that the Welsh word here should be written ‘ Dryw,—‘Tre’r Dryw,” meaning “the house of the wren.” He himself however quotes a passage from Taliesin, which at least shews that in the mystical system of the bards, the Druids were sometimes called wrens, ms v dwr, wyv dryw, “‘T am water, I am a wren, yV saer, wyv syw.” I am a builder, I am wise,” 168 On a Cromlech-tumulus called Lugbury, present time, have not failed to connect the epithet Drew with a supposed Druidical origin. This has however been contested by some, who suppose this name to be derived from that of families who have lived near, or possessed lands at, these places. Aubrey himself in his “ Collections” for North Wilts, has preserved a deed, probably of the 12th century, to which “‘ Walterus Drew, Dominus de Littletone” is the principal party. The question certainly admits of discussion, though the evidence seems to be in favour of the druidical derivation of the name; and in this instance there appear grounds for Dr. Stukeley’s opinion, who, in writing of Stanton Drew, says, “I make no doubt but the name of Stanton Drue is derived from our monument, Stanton from the stones, and Drue from the Druids. It moves not me that some of the name of Drew might have lived here formerly, for such a family might take the denomination of the town, and leaving out the first part retain only that of Drew. It is sufficient conviction that there are so many other [ places | in England and elsewhere that have preserved this name, and all remarkable for monuments of [this] nature.’ To return however to the tumulus itself. It is of a long oval form, ranging nearly due east and west, measuring somewhat more than 180 feet in length, by 90 in greatest breadth. Its present greatest elevation is about six feet; but, being in a ploughed field, it has lost somewhat of its eriginal height in the memory of those living, and the rude sketch of Aubrey, seems to shew that, two hundred years since, its elevation, towards the east end, was much more considerable.* The south side of the mound is still somewhat According indced to Welsh lexicographers, the words Derwyd and Dryw both signify a Druid, the latter having the additional meaning of a wren. See Owen, 1805, and Spurrell, 1848. 1 “Collections for Wilts,” part I. 1821, p. 125. The family of Drew of Littleton Drew, appear to have been lords here for several centuries, and the family to have ended in the female line, by marriage with the family of Mompesson. Ibid. p. 56. 2 Stukeley’s ‘‘ Itin. Cur.” 1776, vol. II. p. 177. Some further remarks on the topographical question, as to the name of Drew, will be found in a supplementary note. 3 Collinson, toward the close of the last century, gives the length as 200, and the height as 9 feet. near Littleton Drew, North Wiits. 169 steeper and more defined than the north, a character which was much more marked as late as the year 1821, the date of the sketch from which our view is taken.1 The most remarkable feature is the trilith, or cromlech of three large stones, at the east end, which still give its name to the field. ‘Campus ab illis Dicitur, eternumque tenet per seecula nomen.” These stones are placed somewhat on the slope of the barrow, about thirty feet from its base. The two uprights, which are six and a half feet apart, are of a flattened pyramidal form, about two feet thick and four wide. That to the south is six and a half feet in height, that to the north, from which part of the top seems to have been broken, is a foot lower. From recent excavations, made by Mr. Scrope, it is found that these stones are sunk upwards of four feet below the surface. Resting on the ground, and leaning against the western edges of these uprights, is the large table stone, measuring about twelve feet in length, by six in breadth. There ean be no doubt, whatever was their intention, that this large table stone was originally supported by the two uprights, aided perhaps by a third, or, as Aubrey thought, by two others. The stones are altogether rough and unhewn, and are richly covered with time-stains and lichens. Their first inspection suggested the idea that they were the remains of a chamber, such as exists at Stoney Littleton and Uley, but a consideration of their size, and the great height of the uprights above the highest part of the barrow, is sufficient to refute such an opinion. Sir R. C. Hoare concludes the account he gives of his examination of the tumulus, by stating that he had no doubt the primary interment was placed “beneath the huge superimpending stones at the east end.” This view, however, has been fully disproved, by examinations made in the summer of 1854, and again in September 1855, when the space between the two uprights was excavated down to the base of the stones, and a considerable trench dug in front of them, by which the red clay of the natural surface was uncovered. A similar excavation was made on the western side of the stones. No traces 1 This sketch was by Mr. Crocker, the artist employed by Sir R. C. Hoare. Zz 170 On the Cromlech-tumulus called Lugbury, whatever of human remains were met with; and the only objects found were some trifling fragments of black Roman pottery, a foot or two from the surface; and at a greater depth, in part mixed with the natural soil, a few fragments of bones, tusks and teeth of boars, with one or two rude flakes of black flint. It is not probable that these stones had been at any time buried beneath the cairn, as would have been the case had they formed part of a sepulchral chamber, of which, it has been shewn, there is no proof. The only likely view which remains is that they had in reality formed an external structure, such as the French term a dolmen and the English a cromlech, in all probability devoted to pagan sacrificial rites. In 1821, an extensive excavation, 150 feet in length, was made by Sir R. C. Hoare, along the whole length of the mound, to the west of the trilith. On this occasion, what was probably the original principal interment was disclosed, about 60 feet from the east end of the barrow, and about 30 to the west of the cromlech. Here, on the natural soil, a slight cist had been scooped out, and furnished with a rudely constructed pavement of unworked thin stone. Over this, a sort of rude arch, of the same kind of stone appeared to have been raised, which however had fallen in. In the cist, was an entire human skeleton, laid on the right side, having the head to the west, and the face to the south. It was in a contracted position, with the knees drawn up, the right hand on the upper part of the chest, and the left arm laid across the body. Under the left hand, and not far from the head, was a small instrument of flint about an inch and a half in length, brought to a very sharp point, and apparently formed for piercing or cutting. “Tt was,” says Sir R. C. Hoare, “too thin for an arrow-head, but might have served for a lancet.’ Flint Instrument found with Skeleton. 1 Our wood engraving of this curious relic has been drawn from the object itself, very obligingly lent for this purpose, by Mrs. Carrick. The late Dr. Carrick of Clifton was the former owner of the Nettleton property. near Littleton Drew, North Wilts. t7t Dr. Wallis of Bristol, at that time a lecturer on anatomy, who was present when the skeleton was exhumed, informs us it was evidently that of a young man, the sutures of the skull not being firmly united. The skull was of full size and well formed, the teeth were perfect, the thigh bone measured 18 inches in length, and the humerus was of the usual size. In the course of the excavation, many scattered pieces of charcoal were thrown out, but nothing else was met with. There were traces of two dry walls of loose stone having been formed across the barrow; one close to the cromlech on the east side, and the other about 60 feet to the west, the interment being midway between the two.' In the spring of 1854, the existence of a rude cist on the south side and near the centre of the barrow, containing several skeletons, was brought to light by the plough. Subsequently to this, the proprietor of the field, G. P. Scrope, Esq., M.P., has made a very complete examination, by which a series of four such cists has been discovered. Their position is shewn on the ground-plan. They vary a little in form and size, but on the average, are about ten feet in length, by four in width, and two in depth. Their shape is an irregular oblong, and they are formed of large rough flat stones set on edge: there were no covering stones, (though it is possible that such may have formerly existed, and been removed when the barrow was first subjected to the plough), the cists being filled with stone rubble carelessly thrown in; whilst in the spaces between the cists and elsewhere, the stones forming the barrow had evidently been heaped up by hand. The largest cist nearest to the east is within a few feet of the south-west angle of the cromlech, and has its long axis placed east and west. The three other cists range north and south, and lie somewhat nearer to the edge of the barrow and nearly equidistant from each other. In three of these 1“Gentleman’s Magazine,” vol. XCII., Feb. 1822, p. 16, and MS. letter from G. Wallis, M.D., Bristol. 2 Two of the cists were opened at the time of the Meeting of the Wilts Archeological and Natural History Society at Chippenham, in September, 1855; on which occasion Mr, Scrope, the President of the Society, entertained a large party of the Members at Castle Combe. Mr. Scrope kindly contributes the lithographic illustrations. Z 2 172 On the Cromlech-tumulus called Lugbury. cists, were nine, seven, and ten skeletons respectively, there being, apparently, some distinction of sex and age, as to the cists in which they were found. ‘The bodies must have been packed closely together, in a crouched or sitting posture, and were particularly crowded near the angles of the cists. Their being buried in rough stone rubble, made it difficult to ascertain their precise position, or to remove the bones in an entire state. No relics of any other kind were found in the cists; but in the course of the general excavations, a flake or two, and a round worked disc, of black flint were met with. Cist A.—This, it is said, contained seven skeletons ; we examined five, all of which appeared to be of women or children, of the ages of about 1, 2, 5, 15, and 50 years of age. Cist B— This appears either never to have been used, or to have been rifled at some period of its contents, not even a fragment of bone being found in it. Cist C.—This contained nine skeletons, all apparently males, and of adult age, about 20, 25, 30, 45, 50, and 55 years; two others were those of aged persons. There were the fragments of a ninth skull, the fractured edges of which were very sharp and clean, suggesting the idea of having been cleft during life, but they may possibly have been broken after interment, by the falling-in of one of the side-stones of the cist. Cist D.—In this were ten skeletons, eight of which we examined; four were those of adults, two possibly of each sex, and four of children, of about 3, 4, 7, and 17 years. It may here be briefly stated that the crania from these cists are almost uniformly of a somewhat lengthened oval or doli- chocephalic form. The facial bones are generally smooth and little indented ; the alveolar edge of the superior maxillary, upright and rather short; the lower jaws narrow ; the crowns of the teeth generally very much worn. The only thigh-bone which could be obtained for measurement was 18 inches and a half in length. The whole of the barrow has latterly been excavated by Mr. Scrope, but without discovering any further interments, nor any- thing worthy of note except two or three more flint-flakes of irregular form. The bulk of the stones having been carted away, the barrow is now consequently much reduced in elevation ; except * General ground-plan of Tomulus,with Cr omlech and. Ci = a hey Note on the name of Drew. 173 at the east end where the cromlech stands, where the barrow has been left of its full height, and only dug through, (as stated above), ‘to ascertain the non-existence of any deposit. » Considerable light is thrown on the long barrows of this part of England, by the examination of that of Littleton Drew; the real character of which seems now fully ascertained. Some other long barrows in this district must have been of the same description, containing cists or chambers within, and having megalithic struc- tures, in the form of standing stones, apparently the remains of cromlechs, at the east end. Such probably was the long barrow at Gatcombe Park, near Minchinhampton, in Gloucestershire; the barrow in a spot called Irecombe at Boxwell, near Wootton-under- Edge; the long tumulus at Duntesbourne Abbots, near Cirencester, both in the same county; and that with a fallen cromlech, at Enstone, near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. In all these instances there are, or have been, large stones on the barrow, which appear unconnected with the sepulchral cists, and to have been designed for some other purpose than one connected with the interment of the dead. The evidence afforded by such examples as these, is in fayour of some of the megalithic structures called cromlechs, being really designed (as the whole of them were formerly erroneously supposed to be) for other purposes, and most probably for sacrificial rites,—in fact that they were altars. NOTE ON THE NAME OF DREW. At what period the name of Drew was first applied to places and persons is not clear. In Doomsday Book, the name occurs as that of two servants of the Conqueror, Herman de Drewes, and Amelric de Drewes, each of whom held of the king a manor in Wiltshire. The name of Drogo, common in medizval times, is generally and with good reason, regarded as synonymous with that of Drew. Both the words appear to be of Teutonic origin, and to be derived from the verb dragan, to draw, which makes drog and drogon in the past tense, as our modern English verb makes drew. Skinner 174 Note on the name of Drew. in his Etymology,! under the proper name of Drew, traces it to Drogo, but, it is noticeable, that he hesitates whether it should not rather be derived from the Anglo-Saxon dry a druid or magician. As in early English, Drogo and Drew appear synonymous, so in the Norman-French of the same period, are Drogo and Dreux. This last name Dreux, that of a place in France near Chartres, so called, as conjectured, from the Druids, is supposed to have been the site of the “locus consecratus,” or temple “in finibus Carnutum,” alluded to by Cesar, where was held the annual assembly of the Druids for the whole of Gaul.2 That the name was in common use among the Normans, as a personal appellation, a reference to the Anglo-Norman history of Ordericus Vitalis is sufficient to shew. Ordericus refers to at least four persons of the name of Drogo. The first is Drogo, Archbishop of Metz, the son of the Emperor Charlemagne, who is mentioned under the year 840.° The next is Drogo, also called Dreux, Count of the Vexin, who died about 1035, whilst on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and who was likewise descended from Charlemagne. A third Drogo, otherwise Dreux, was of the celebrated Norman family of Hauteville, one of the twelve sons of Tancred de Hauteville, who conquered the south of Italy in the early part of the 11th century; this conquest, under the fourth brother, Robert Guiscard, embracing at a subsequent period the whole of Sicily. The eldest brother William had assumed the title of Count of Apulia in 1043, in which he was succeeded by his brother Drogo or Dreux in 1046.° The fourth of the name is Drogo, called indiscriminately Dreux, the son of a Norman baron, Geoffrey de Neuf-marché, who became a monk and had great influence, in ecclesiastical affairs, at the court of William, about the time of the conquest.® 1 “ Etymologicon,” 1671, Onomasticon, sub voc Dru. Mr. Lower, in his ‘Essay on English Surnames,” 1849, chap. 9, pp. 152. 167, treats of Drogo and Drew as identical. 2°B. G. 1.°6, ¢. 18. 3 Ordericus, Lib. 1, ¢. 34. 4 Tbid, Lib. 3, ¢. 8. Lib. 7, ¢. 14. 5 Ibid, Lib. 3,¢. 3. Lib. 8,¢.7. See Gibbon, Chapter 56, 6 Ordericus, Lib. 5, cap. 12, Lib. 6, ¢. 4. Lib. 6, ¢. 4, and 8. Note on the name of Drew. 175 To return, however, to England; in Doomsday, Drogo, the son of Ponz, is named as holding Seagry and other places, with half a messuage in Malmesbury. Drogo or Drugo de Buerer, a Fleming, married a niece of William the Conqueror; he was the first Earl of Holderness, and is said to have built the Castle of Skipsea. In the following century, we find mention of another Drogo, the cham- berlain of the Empress Matilda, who was possibly the father of that “Drogo the Younger,” from whom the Montacutes, four of whom were Earls of Salisbury, are said to have descended. Risdon, in his survey of Devon, “writing of Drew’s Teignton, says expressly that in its name it “honours” that of “its ancient landlord Drogo de Teign, by time’s continuance mollified into Drew. In the reign of Richard the First, Drogo granted one farthing of land to Parisius Arlecheston.”! Collinson, speaking of Stanton Drew, says that at the time of Doomsday, and some time later, this place in great part belonged to a family who derived their name from it, among whom he instances Roger, William and Hugh de Stanton, and a Geffrey de Stanton, as late as the time of Henry the Third. One of this family, he says, bore the appellation of Drogo or Drew de Stanton, and gave the place his name, by way of distinction from other Stantons in the neighbourhood. The descendants of this family, as he states, were chiefly settled here and at Littleton Drew in Wiltshire. He goes on to say that, 12 Edward III., Walter Drew was certified to hold half a knight’s fee in Stanton, which William de Stanton formerly held ; and that, 10 Henry IV., the same moiety, late the property of Roger Drew, was held by John de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury. Collinson adds that these Drews were closely allied to the Dinhams of Buckland and Corton.” Aubrey, in his collections for North Wilts, as we have shewn, (ante p- 168), has preserved a deed probably of the 12th century, to which “Walterus Drew dominus de Littletone” is the principal party. We have had no opportunity of tracing the documentary evidence, on which the statements of Risdon, as regards Drew’s Teignton, and those of Collinson, with respect to Stanton Drew, rest ; but the argument which derives the name of the places from that of the + Survey of Devon,” ed. 1811, p. 127, 2 Collinson’s ‘‘ Somerset,” vol. II., p. 432, 176 Note on the name of Drew. persons seems neither satisfactory nor conclusive—the reverse indeed appears more probable. It would certainly be a curious circum- stance, if three places, in as many counties of the west of England, all remarkable for ancient British, and probably Druidical, remains, should each have been the property, in the 12th or 13th century, of persons or families of the name of Drew or Drogo, unless indeed they derived their names from the localities. That Drogo, the chamberlain of the Empress Matilda, had extensive possessions in the western counties, in great part probably derived from his illustrious mistress and her son Henry II., is well known.! It must also be admitted, that in one remarkable instance, a place derived its name from this very Drogo. In this case, however, the name took the form of Drown, a corruption evidently of the Latin Drogonis. A remarkable spring in a very romantic situation on the top of a hill, in the forest of Pewsham, about three miles from Chippenham, now called Lockswell, was given by Matilda and her son Henry to Drogo. “ Ego,” says the charter, “et Mater mea dedimus et concessimus Drogoni matris mez camerario.”’ The spring hence came to be called “Fons Drogonis,” and in the English of that time, Drownfont. We owe to Mr. Bowles the publication of the original documents, and the topographical enquiries by which this spot was identified, as well as the discovery that it very soon after, in the same reign, became the site of an Abbey, hence called Drownfont abbey,— “Abbatia de Drogonis Fonte.” After three years, this abbey was removed to Stanley, but the water of the spring was so highly prized, that the monks had it conveyed in pipes to their new abode, about three miles distant. Mr. Bowles, in a note, appends the following enquiry from his friend, the celebrated Saxon scholar Dr. Ingram, late President of Trinity College, Oxon. ‘Is there not a romantic spot near Devizes called ‘Drew’s Pond?’ Is this another ‘Fons Drogonis?’ I suppose he had more wells or ponds than one; but there was only one ‘fons sacer ?”’ Mr. Bowles has not answered this not unnatural enquiry of his friend; and it may not, perhaps, be superfluous to observe, 1 Polwhele, ‘‘ History of Cornwall,” cited by W. L. Bowles, “‘ History of Bremhill,” pp. 87, 90, which see for the description and identification of Lockswell and Drownfont. Note on the name of Drew. 177 what perhaps nearly every inhabitant of Devizes could have told Mr. Bowles—that this well-known spot can claim no connection either with the druids, or with the favorite chamberlain of Matilda. The name of Thomas Drewe, occurs in a list preserved by Fuller, of the gentry of Wiltshire in the twelfth year of Henry VI. (1483),' whether of the same family with that settled at Devizes, for at least two centuries from Henry VII. to the close of the reign of Charles II., is not clear. Robert Dréw represented Devizes in several of the parliaments of Elizabeth and James the First; and different members of this family are commemorated by monumental tablets in the old church at Westbury, and in those at Devizes of St. John and St. James’, Southbroom.? This family was possessed of the Southbroom estate, which they parted with about the year 1680. Drew’s pond was included in this property, and indeed continued to be so down to its last change of ownership, about the year 1826. _ There are title-deeds, and other old documents, preserved in the office of the Town Clerk of Devizes, shewing that in the time of _ Henry the Seventh, this family bore the name of Trewe; among which is a lease from the Bishop of Salisbury to John Trewe, bearing date the twenty-fifth year of this reign. That this is not a mere clerical error is proved, by a deed of the 20th of November of the 25th Elizabeth, in which are found the names of “John Drewe alias Trewe,”’ and of “ Robert Drewe alias Trewe his son and heir apparent.’* In the case of Drew’s pond then, we have this name applied to _ a locality, almost in our own day, without any reference to Druids, and without any further significance than any other common name would have in the same connection. The name itself, in this in- stance, traced back as far as we can reach, was not Drewe but Trewe. 1 “ Worthies of England,” ed. 1840, p. 339, 2 See R. C. Hoare “Modern Wilts, Westbury ;” and Waylen ‘Chronicle of Devizes,” 1839, pp. 292. 307. 313. 3 There is a pedigree of this family of Drew in the ‘‘ Visitation of 1623,” and a continuation in the possession of the family of the lateWilliam Hughes, Esq., of Devizes and Poulshot ; whose father, by marriage with a female descendant of _ the Drews, (Elizabeth Marsh the daughter of Elizabeth Drew, of Lacock), became the representative of the Drew family, which seems to have become extinet, except in the female line, by the death in 1728, of Robert Drew the younger, ~ and in 1729, of Joseph Drew, both the sons of Robert Drew of Lacock. 2A Descent uf the Manor of Draycat Cerwe. By Cartes Epwarp Lone, Esq. In connection with the Topography of Wiltshire, the descent of a property belonging to one of its oldest families, may not be, altogether, unworthy of notice. The manor of Draycot, otherwise Draycot Cerne, has, for four centuries, been the inheritance of the family of Long, yet how it came into their possession, whether from consanguinity to the last of the race who conferred upon it its agnomen, as has been hitherto, traditionally, supposed, or by the less distinguished process of purchase, remained, until a short time back, a matter of doubt. It will be my endeavour to trace its history in as succinct a way as is practicable with a due regard to intelligibility; and the appended pedigree will serve to explain the case more clearly as regards the family of Cerne, while the nature of its transfer to the Longs, may be readily understood without the necessity of printing in extenso the record upon which the fact of its acquisition by them is founded. It appears from the Hundred Rolls, that, in the time of Henry the Third, the vill and advowson of Draycot were held of the king, in capite, by John de Venuz, and that he alienated the same to Henry de Cerne, sometimes spoken of as “Magister Henricus de Cerne.” On the decease of this Henry de Cerne it was held by his successor Philip de Cerne, and who appears to have been in possession in the thirty-ninth of Henry the Third, (1254-5). From this period, and until the decease of Richard de Cerne in the eighth of Henry the Sixth, (1429-30), it remained one of the possessions of that family, and was held by the like tenure. By the inquisition taken in the ninth of Henry the Sixth, (1430-1), on the decease of Richard de Cerne, John Heryng was found to be his cousin PEDIGREE OF CERNE AND HERYNG, OF DRAYCOT CERNE. GEOFFRY DE CERNE .» held the Manor of : Melecombe, Co. Dorset, temp. R. I. Knt., “John Chid liok, ‘and Bllen wife ‘of ‘Richard Tee. Sancto ‘Noruag a as ecuiinn and hein sometimes been called “ Elene de Avon,” was not, as might be supposed, the he PEDIGREE OF CERNE AND HERYNG, OF DRAYCOT CERNE. GEOFFRY DE CERNE 7 held the Manor of Meleombe, Co. Dorset, ? temp. R. I. Sh pues if i Henry pp CERNE (a)P noir DE Crrye had ANASTASIA DE CERNE.=.... DE WINTERBOURNE, grantee of the vill succeeded to Draycot, of Winterbourne Clenston, and advowson of as heir of Henry de Co. Dorset. Draycot, Co. Wilts. Cerne, 39 H.IIL., Rot. temp. H. Ill. Hund., Sheriff of Dor- Seer T| set, 45 H. I1.,(1260.) REGINALD DE WINTERBOURNE. T : ET (b)HENRY DE CERNE=JOAN.......- RocER DE INTERBOURNE, of Draycot Cerne, | claimed topre- living 28 E. I., (1299-1300). Ing. p.m., 24E.,1. | sent 1302, to = (1295-6). Melcombe. JoHN DE CERNE,=ISABELIA.... Rocer DE WINTERBOURNE, of Draycot Cerne, | ...........+ presented to Winterbourne aged 27 ad. m pat- | living13 0.11. ‘lenston, 1312-14. ris, presented to | (1319), Rot. = Draycot, 1304, Ing. | Fin. pak al) dogs antl 1327). | Jomn DE WINTERBOURNE, | presented to W. ©. 1845-6. Joun pe Cerne of Draycot—MARGARET .... = Cerne, aged 28 ad m. patris, Settebatelsvedele = i resented to Draycot, 1338, | living 18 E. II. | ng. p.m. 18 E, IIT., (1844). Axicr.=[Srr Waxrer] Huryne. | 1st Wife. | 2nd Wife. 1st Hus. Joun pr Cerne, of Purrrra...=Srr Epwarp pr Cerne, Knt., of=ELLen .=Srmr WALrTeER(c) Watrer Herre, of Draycot Cerne, aged ..s+ese...+| Draycot Cerne, heir to his brother, ........-. Pavetey, Knt. Chaldon Heryng, Co. 20 ad m, patris, pre- living 26 E.| and then aged 21, presented to presented to Dorset, 1372. sented to Draycot, III., (1352), | Draycot, 1381-4, and to Avon 1383, Draycot, ms 1346, ob. s. p. 22 E. Rot. Pin. | Ing. p.m. 17 R. IL, (1393), Mon. 1408, Inq.p. ILL, (1548). Brass at Draycot. m. 7H. V., (1419), Mon. | Brass at | Draycot. re DE CERNE, of=ISABELLA.... aes JOHANNA....=JOHN tee ave, of Chaldon=ALICE ... Draycot Cerne, aged 27, | ........---- Mon. Brass .essss+..--. Heryng, found heir to kee: Nets ad i, patris, presented | living 16 H. at Draycot. Richard de Cerne by Inq. p. \ to Draycot, 1897-1410- | VI., (1458). (Aubrey). m., 9 H.VI., (1430-1), and 12 and 18, Ing. p. m. then aged 40; also for Wilts 8 H. V., (1420). 16 H.VI., Inq. p. m. 34 H. iViEe ~\ Ricwarp pE Cerne, of Drayeot Cerne, aged 7, ad m, patris, ob. s. p. January 27th, 8 H. VI., (1429-30), Ing. p. m. for Dorset, 9 H.VI., for Wilts 16 H. VI. (a) His name occurs as a juror for the Hundred of Selkley, 39th of Henry the Third, (1254-5). He is further alluded to as having been Sheriff of Somerset before the 4th of Edward the First. Rot. Hund. (b) His name occurs as a juror on an enquiry respecting the Manor of Rodden, and also respecting the Manor of Bradford, 9th of Edward the First, (1280-1 Plac. de quo Warranto. (c) The Inquisition of Elene de Cerne recites, that Sir John Paveley, Knt., died seised of the Manor of Avon, and gave it to Walter Payeley; that the said Walter died s. p., having married the said Elene, who afterwards married Edward de Cerne, and that the said Manor ought to descend to Sir William Cheyney, Knt., John Chidiok, and Ellen, wife of Richard de Sancto Mauro, as cousins and heirs of Sir John Payeley. It is clear, therefore, that this Elene, who has sometimes been called * Elene de Avon,” was not, as might be supposed, the heiress of the property. Descent of the Manor of Draycot Cerne. 179 and heir, and the Estates, both in Dorset and in Wilts, de- volved to him. The line of his descent from a common ancestor with the deceased possessor, is given in both Inquisitions in a narrative form, though there is an omission of one descent, a mere clerical error, in the Wilts Inquisition, viz., the one in the sixteenth of Henry the Sixth, (1437-8). These pedigrees are curious, as exhibiting the accuracy with which genealogies must have been preserved at that period, for the relationship was, as will be seen, extremely remote, and yet, on reference to the several Inquisitions and other documents, the correctness in the recital of these descents is fully borne out. In the thirty-fourth of Henry the Sixth, (1455-6), John Heryng died, leaving his grandsons, John de la Lynde and John Russell, his co-heirs, as appears from his Inqui- sition: but he did not die seized of Draycot, and, on further research, it is shown that, by a fine levied in the sixteenth of Henry the Sixth, (1437-8), he had conveyed his reversionary interest in the manor and advowson, expectant on the decease of Isabella, relict of Edward de Cerne, the father of Richard, to William Ryngeborne for life, to be held by the nominal payment of a rose at the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist, with remainder to John Longe, the son of Robert Longe, and in default of heirs of his body, to Richard Longe, brother of John, and the heirs of his body; in default to Reginald Longe, another brother, and the heirs of his body; in default to Robert Longe, the father, and the heirs of his body, and failing these, to the right heirs of the before- mentioned John Heryng. At the date of this conveyance there was then living an elder brother of John Longe, viz., Henry Longe, who eventually succeeded his father, Robert, at Wraxhall, but, dying without issue, that property descended to his nephew Thomas, the eldest son of his next brother John. Thus the two properties of Wraxhall and Draycot became thence-forward united, and so remained, until their severance on the decease of Sir Walter Long in 1610. There was then some truth in the traditional tale recounted by Leland.—“ Then succeeded him,” viz., the supposed first possessor of Wraxhall, “Robert and Henry. .... Then cam one Thomas Longe, descending of a younger brother, and could 2A2 180 Descent of the Manor of Draycot Cerne. skille of the law,” viz., Thomas, afterwards Sir Thomas, eldest son of John, the first owner of Draycot, “and had the inheritances of the aforesaid Longes.”” From John Longe then, this younger brother, the Draycot estate descended, through ten generations in the male line, to the late Mrs. Long Wellesley, and so to her son, Lord Wellesley, the present possessor. It will, therefore, be clear, from the foregoing statement, that there was no descent of Long from either Cerne or Heryng, and, it may be observed, in further confirmation of this, that whenever the armorial bearings of the Longs of Wraxhall and Draycot are noted in the early MSS. at the British Museum and at the Herald’s College, the quarterings are invariably confined to Popham and Seymour, and that there has never been any pretence, in any authentic document, to introduce any Coat of Cerne or Heryng. The Coat of Philip de Cerne, as tricked in Glover’s Ordinary at the College of Arms, f. 60, appears to have been, Quarterly Or and Gules a lion rampant within a bordure, all counter-changed. The shields on the monumental slab of Sir Edward de Cerne, still, with the effigies of himself and his second wife, existing in Draycot Church, were unfortunately torn away before the days of Aubrey, but the cutting of the stone for the insertion of the brass, proves plainly that the crest which surmounted the helmet was a demi-lion rampant. With regard to William Ryngeborne it might seem, at first sight, a question whether the interest he took under the above limitation, was beneficial or fiduciary. There can, however, be really very little doubt. His position was obviously that of a Trustee, to carry out some legal fiction, probably to represent the real purchaser Robert Longe the father, and we find him holding the office of Escheator for the Crown, for Wiltshire, on this Ingnisition of Richard de Cerne, sixteenth of Henry the Sixth, (1437-8), the year in which the - conveyance was executed. It is a somewhat remarkable coincidence that this William Ryngeborne and his family, appear, on another occasion, in connection with the Longs. One moiety of the manor of Barton Sacy in Hampshire, now called, in error, Barton Stacey, was held by these Ringebornes, while the other moiety devolved upon John Long by his marriage By Charles Edward Long, Esq. 181 with the co-heiress of Wayte and Popham. It may be further remarked, that the grandfather of William Ringeborne had married the niece of William of Wykeham, whom tradition has handed _ down to us as the son of one John Long, and that the name existed anterior to Wykeham’s time can be shown by the Placita de quo Warranto, where, in the ninth of Edward the First, (1280-1), a John Long was a juror in respect of a rent due to the Crown in Ludgershall. But this point would more properly form the subject of a separate communication. In the mean time, the name of the present contributor may, peradventure, induce a belief that he puts himself forward as a claimant to be of the undoubted blood and lineage of the knightly race of Wraxhall and Draycot. Bor- rowed plumage is not a creditable garment. A Wiltshire origin, family traditions, and the inference to be derived from scattered allusions, in early times, of friendship, if not of kindred, are all that would lead to such a conclusion. The male line of the Wraxhall and Draycot Longs, as far as direct evidence can show, is extinct. We may all believe, but none can prove, a descent from Robert,— the recorded Rodolph of the race. Be this as it may, the real foundation of the fortunes of all our respective and wide-spreading branches was, most probably, laid in the substantial broad cloths of Wiltshire. Whether we were originally “Prewx” adventurers from Normandy, or good old Saxon Longs, so called, seemingly, though not in truth, in the tongue of the Conqueror, from stature, is a matter of no great moment. In conclusion, I should desire to state that I am indebted to my friend, Thomas Bond, Esquire, of Tyneham, Dorset, and of the Inner Temple, during his researches respecting the family of Tleryng, for the discovery of the Final concord which has so clearly and satisfactorily established the true story of the acquisition of the Manor of Draycot by the family of Long. 182 [ CONTINUATION OF PAPER ON CHURCH BELLS. | From Vol. I, p. 355. Bella of the County of Wilts. WITH THEIR INSCRIPTIONS. By the Rey. W. C. Luxis. Deanery of Avebury. (Omitted in List given in Vol. II., page 338.) All Cannings, 5, and 1 Priest’s Bell. 1. R. 6261: in: im: od: on: na *M* 2. Thomas Andrews, William Maslen, Churchwardens, 1771. T @ R. 3. He an:no:do:mi:ni. 16268 4, James Wells, Aldbourn, Wilts, fecit 1806. Henery Hitchcock and William Hayward, Ch-wardens. 5. Robert Mareslen, William Stevens, Churchwardens, 1658. &W &P& Priest’s Bell, dated 1629. Deanery of Pottern. [Omitted Vol. II., page 349.] Broughton Giffard, 2. 1 & 2. Recast in 1850 by Llewellyn of Bristol. + Archdeaconry of Bristol. Deanery of Cricklade. Inddington, 5. 1, 2. Robert Webb and Richard Haggard, Churchwardens. 1663. 3. Robert Webb, Churchwarden, 1663. WA&PARSAP. 4, Giles Tombs and John Crips, Churchwardens. Robert Wells, Aldbourn, fecit 1786. 5. John Brind and Edward Jeffries, Churchwardens. W. Taylor, fecit 1849, Swindon, 6. 1, Peace and good neighbourhood. A @R. 1741. * Letters reversed. + The former bells were inscribed thus :— 1, William Harding, Nicholas Gore, Churchwardens, 1665. W & P a R A = a 2. && AVE MARJA GRACIA PLENA DOMINVS TECYM. Bells of the County of Wilts. 183 2. Prosperity to this Parish, A @R. 1741. 3. Prosperity to the Church of England. A&R. 1741. 4. Wm. Nichols, Vicar. AMR. 1741. 5. Richard Wayt and Wm. Lawrence, Churchwardens. A&R. 1741. 6. C. and G. Mears, founders, London, 1851. Wandborough, 5, and a Priest’s bell. 1. John Fox and John Brind, C. W. John Corr 1750. 2. Richard Herring, Churchwarden. A MRS 1706. 3. George Gooding, John Hayward, C.W. 1662. W & P & made mee. 4, Willum Purdeu and Roger Purdeu & & & B& Thomas Smith and Daniel Wells, Churchwardens, 1664. 5. George Gooding, John Hayward, Churchwardens, Anno Domini, 1662. William Purde & cast mee in: the : year: of : our: Lord : 1662. Priest’s bell. ‘W. Lee and J. Avenell, C. Wardens. R. Wells, Aldbourn, fecit 1783. Deanery of Malmsbury. Castle Combe, 1, and a Priest’s bell in Turret. I to the Church the living call And to the grave do summon all. T. & B. 1766. Priest’s bell. »%% SANCTE GREGORA ORA PRO NOBIS. Chippenham, 8. 1. Let us ring For the Church and King. A @R. 1734. . Peace and good neighbourhood. A&R. 1734. . Prosperity to this Town and Parish, A @& R. 1734. . The gift of John Norris, Esq. A&R. 1734. . These bells were all cast by A. Rudhall of Gloster, 1734. . Prosperity to the Church of England. A @R. 1734. . Unity and Loyalty.* Saml. Martyn, Gent., Bayliffe, 1734. 8. John Norris, Esq., and Anthony Guy, Gent., Churchwardens, 1734. Corsham, 6. 1. Robert Neale and Anthony Guy, Gent., Churchwardens, 1757. T. B. F. 2. 3. 4. Robert Neale and Anthony Guy, Gent., Churchwardens, 1758, a, B. F. 5. William Hulbert and Harry Ovens, Ch-wardens. James Wells, Ald- bourne, fecit 1820, TO an Pw DH * Motto of the Borough Seal, 184 Bells of the County of Wilts. 6. Robert Neale, Esq., and Anthony Guy, Gent., Churechwardens, Thos. Bilbie cast mee 1758. I to the church the living eall And to the grave do summon all. Draycot Cerne, 1. James Wells, Aldbourn, Wilts, fecit 1803. Garesden, 2. 1. \ SANCTA ANNA ORA PRO NOBIS. 2. Richardus Modi* Armiger secundus mei conditor 1586. Grittleton, 5. 1. John Wilshire and ........ Sargent, 1718. 2. Anno Domini, 1627. 3. a AVE MARIA GRACIA PLENA. 4. No inscription. 5. B PROTEGE PVRA VIA QVOS CONVOCO VIRGO MARIA. Kington St. Michael, 6.+ 1. Prosperity to this Parish. 1726. . Peace and good neighbourhood. 1726. . Prosperity to the Church of England. 1726. . William Harrington, Vicar. A. R. 1726. . No inscription. 1726. 6. Jonathan Power and Robert Hewett, Churchwardens, 1726. or BR to be Laycock, 6. 1. Robert Wells, Aldbourne, Wilts, fecit' 1792. “2. James Wells, Aldbourne, Wilts, fecit 1813. John Awdry, Esq., James Edwards, Churchwardens. 3, 5. Anno Domini 1628. 4, Henry Goddard, Esq., and Edward Barton, Ch-wardens, 1852. Jefferies and Price, Bristol. 6. Wm. Selfe, Churchwarden. R. Wells of Aldbourne, fecit 1770. Tittleton Drew, 3. 1. §j JOHANNES XPE CARA. 2. Al praise be to God. I. G.§ 3. SANCTA MARIA ORA PRO NOIS. * Moody. + Of the former bells the first was dated 1620, the second 1618, and the third was inscribed SANCTA MICHAEL ORA P NOBIS. + Date in Gilt Figures. % Inscription in black letter. ACCOUNT OF A Borrow om Rountwoy Bill near Denies, OPENED IN APRIL, 1855. By Mr. Cunnineron, F.G.S. As the progress of modern agriculture is rapidly sweeping away from our downs the barrows and other similar relics of the ancient inhabitants of the district, it becomes increasingly important that a faithful and minute account of all the discoveries made, should be permanently recorded. Happily our “Wiltshire Magazine” affords opportunities for the publication of such records. The barrow in question is situated near the brow of the hill, on the right hand side of the track leading to Calstone, and is about mid- way between the “Leipsic” plantation, and the large chalk quarry. It is on land in the occupation of Richard Coward, Esq., by whose kind permission and assistance it was opened. The elevation is very slight, not exceeding six inches, and the area ill defined, but extending over a space of about eighteen yards in diameter. This was all the external indication afforded of the interesting interment beneath; and it is by no means surprising that it had hitherto escaped the notice of antiquaries. It is probable that at some former period the original mound was levelled. The excavation was commenced as near as possible to the centre, and on removing the turf, abundant evidence of the artificial con- dition of the subsoil was obtained. There were traces of the ashes of wood, and the peculiar mouldiness which is so often found in barrows. At from two to four feet a considerable quantity of ashes occurred, mixed with the bones of birds and other small animals, numerous shells of Helix nemoralis,' a fragment of burned bone, a few bits of 1 Query. Were these snails used for food? Although this species occurs abundantly among the brush-wood on the side of the hill, they are never found on the open down, and they must consequently have been brought to this spot. 2B 186 Account of a Barrow on Roundway Down. rude British pottery, and a flint flake. After the hole had been dug to the depth of five feet, traces of vegetable mould and ashes ceased, and the chalk was in such a pure condition, as at first to lead to the supposition that the bottom of the barrow had been reached. A few inches further, however, at about five and a half feet, a skeleton was found in a flexed position, with its head towards the north, and lying on its left side. The left arm was bent up, so that the hand was close to the face, the other arm and hand were placed across the body, and the knees bent upwards. The skeleton was deposited in an oblong oval cist of about five feet long, and two and a half feet wide, very smoothly hollowed out of the chalk. The depth of the barrow was somewhat remarkable; from the surface of the turf to the bottom of the cist being rather more than six feet. At the distance of a few inches from the skull was a small flint arrow-head. An urn six inches in height was standing upright at the feet. This, although highly ornamented, must have been fashioned by hand previous to the introduction of the lathe. It contained nothing but loose chalk. Near the left hand, with the point towards the feet, lay a plain bronze dagger, ten inches long, without any ornament except that the surface is neatly bevelled off towards the edge. It is somewhat curious that the portion by which it was attached to the handle has no rivet holes. When first found it was covered with a thin layer of a black pulverulent substance; and there was a similar layer underneath it, doubtless the remains of the sheath. A small quantity of the same substance, extending for a short distance beyond it, seemed to represent the handle. In front of the breast, and between the bones of the left fore arm, lay an oblong piece of chlorite slate, an inch and a quarter wide, and four inches in length, nicely smoothed, and pierced with two holes at each end, the holes being neatly countersunk on both sides. Adhering to it was a small bronze pin much corroded. It was doubtless used for a brooch, or ornament for the breast. Similar plates have been found in other parts of Wiltshire. The late Mr. Fenton found one in a tumulus on Mere down which had two holes only. It is figured in “Hoare’s Ancient Wiltshire,” pl. ii, vol. I. Another, but much broader specimen was found by the late Mr. Cunnington at By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. 187 Sutton, (vide pl. xii “ Hoare’s Wiltshire.”’) In a subsequent exami- nation of the rubbish which had been removed, another flint flake, and a fossil bivalve shell, apparently from the Green sand, was found. All the articles discovered on this occasion have been pre- sented to the Society by Mr. Coward. I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Thurnam for the following remarks on the bones found in this barrow. “The skull is that of an ancient Briton, an old man at least seventy, perhaps even eighty years of age. Many of the teeth have been lost during life, and of various others, including all the upper incisors, canines, and bicuspids, only the stumps remain, thus giving to the upper jaw a completely edentulous aspect. The crowns of the more perfect teeth in the lower jaw are very much ground down and hollowed out by the rough usage to which they have been subjected in the mastication of coarse, and perhaps half- cooked food. The nose has been somewhat abruptly prominent. The general form of the skull is a short oval, narrow in front and wide behind. The frontal sinuses are full, the brows have been prominent and overhanging. The forehead is somewhat receding, but elevated posteriorly, especially in the centre, giving a conical appearance to the front view of the skull. The middle (parietal) region of the cranium, is remarkable for disproportionate width, and the posterior (occipital) for width and flatness, especially the latter. The peculiarity of form in this last respect is decidedly unusual. The occipital ridge, and other processes for muscular attachment are strongly marked. The thickest part of the parietals measure the third of an inch. The probable weight of the brain has been recovered by a process which consists in filling the skull with sand, and after making certain requisite deductions, comparing the weight with that of the healthy human brain. By this means the brain is ascertained to have weighed 55 (54.8) ounces; this considerably exceeds, by nearly five ounces, the average weight of the adult brain in the modern European. The thigh bone measures twenty-one and a half inches in length, which may be taken as indicating a stature of not less than six feet. This is much greater than the probable stature of the ancient Britons in general, the 2B2 188 Account of a Barrow on Roundway Down. length of the thigh bones in their barrows seldom exceed eighteen or nineteen inches, which gives a probable stature of about five feet eight or five feet nine inches. The skull possesses all the characteristics of that of a man of great physical power, who through a long career in a rude and barbarous state of society had maintained a successful struggle with, and supremacy over the wild animals from which he obtained food and clothing. The bones of this cranium and skeleton are unusually dense and firm, retaining probably more of their animal matter than is usual in bones from ancient British tumuli, This no doubt arises from the considerable depth in the dry chalk of the cist in which the body had been interred.” In addition to Dr. Thurnam’s remark that the skeleton gives evidence of a physical power which maintained supremacy over the wild animals, would not all the circumstances of the interment— the presence of the breast-plate, the dagger, and urn, together with the unusual size of the grave, lead us to the conclusion that this was the burial place of a person of considerable distinction amongst his rude cotemporaries? 189 Shevitts of Wiltshire. By the Rey. J. E. Jackson. A List of the Sheriffs of this County from 1 Henry II. (1154), to 25 Henry VI. (1446), when the Shrievalty ceased to be held ea officio by the Castellans of Old Sarum, is printed in Hatcher and Benson’s “History of Salisbury,” part II, p. 706. A still longer one, from 1 Henry II. to 4 Charles I. (1628), is to be found in “ Fuller’s Worthies,” vol. II, (8vo), under the head of “ Wiltshire,” and the same, with continuation down to 1821, was printed by the late Sir R. C. Hoare in a thin folio volume called “ REPERToRIuM Witronense,”! of which work, however, only twenty-five copies were struck off for private distribution. In all these lists there is a frequent mis-spelling of names, and (the more modern portion of Sir R. C. Hoare’s excepted) a total want of identification of the Sheriffs, by reference to family history, property, or residence. In the following list (though it by no means pretends to be free 1 The title of this very scarce book is as follows. ‘‘ REPERTORIUM WILTON- ENSE,” printed with a view to facilitate inquiry into the Topography and Biography of Wiltshire. Collected by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Baronet. Bath, Richard Cruttwell, 1821.” The contents of the volume are as follows:—1. List of Cities and Boroughs in Wilts which send Representatives to the British House of Commons, with particulars of the respective returning officers, rights of election, &c.; extracted from Beatson’s Chronological Register. 2. Knights of the Shire from 26 Edward I. 3. Borough Members to 1821. 4. High Sheriffs from A.D. 1154 to 1821. 5, Wiltshire Gentry temp. Charles I. and II. (Harl. MS. 1057). 6. Ditto a.p, 1565 (Harl. MS. 1111). 7. A second list of ditto. 8. Justices of the Peace a.p. 1667. 9. Wilts Gentry who contributed to the defence of the Country at the time of the Spanish Invasion a.p, 1588. 10, Knights of the Royal Oak, with value of their estates, A.p. 1660. 11. Names of personages who came in with William the Conqueror, whose families appear _ to have been connected with the County of Wilts, (v. Leland. Collect. I. 208), 12, Wilts’ Nobility. 13. Bishops.—I. Of Sherborne. II. Wilton and Sherborne, Ill. Sarum before the Reformation. IV. Sarum since the Reformation. 13, Nomina villarum, Edward II. (1308-9). 190 Sherifis of Wiltshire. - from error), an attempt has been made not only to supply certain vacua, but to add to the historical value of the names, by annexing to each, so far as opportunity has permitted, a brief notice of the family or place with which the Sheriff was connected. The absence from the list, of the names of some of the principal County Families, especially in modern times, is accounted for by the circumstance that members of Parliament are exempt from serving the office. On the Office in general, and the difficulty of defining with pre- cision the exact year of each Shrievalty, one or two observations may be useful. The Saxon governor of the county was the Earl, (Comes). The Shire-reeve or Sheriff, is an officer of great antiquity, attributed by historians to Alfred. His Latin name was Vice-comes; not, as being subject to any other superior than the king, but as appointed by him to supply the place of the Earl (swpplere vicem Domini) in such territory as had no Earl placed in them; or if they had, these were still subject to the king’s immediate jurisdiction. The effect of the first appointment of Shire-reeves upon the peace and morality of the kingdom, is gravely stated by Ingulphus, Abbot of Croyland, to have been such, that if a traveller left ever so large a sum of money in the fields or open roads over night, he would be certain to find it the following day; even a month afterwards. If so, it is to be feared that the Sheriff’s moral influence is now much less than it used to be. Before the 9 Edward IT. (1315), Sheriffs were elected by the Freeholders at the County Courts, in the same way as Knights of the Shire were chosen down to the time of the Reform Act. In some counties (as at one time in Wilts), the office was hereditary. But popular elections growing tumultuous, they were put an end to in the year above-mentioned (9 Edward IL.), by a statute which enacts that the Chancellor, Treasurer, and Judges are to meet on the Morrow of All Souls (“crastino ani- marum’) in the exchequer chamber, and shall nominate Sheriffs. The day was afterwards altered to that which is observed at present, the Morrow of St. Martin, November 12th. The Crown selects one of the three nominated, who receives his appointment (until By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 191 lately by Letters Patent, but now) by warrant, signed by the Clerk of the Privy Council. For a long time the appointments were very irregular, sometimes several being named within the same year, sometimes the same person continuing his office for several years, sometimes for term of life. Many acted by Deputies, whose names are in some lists mistaken for Sheriffs. Many of the Pipe Rolls are wanting, and the mandates are irregularly preserved. Perfect accuracy in the lists is therefore seldom to be expected. With respect to the time of year at which the Sheriff always entered upon office there is also some uncertainty. Madox (“ Hist. of Exchequer,” IJ, 174) says that “they were wont to account for the whole term they held their bailiwick, whether a quarter of a year, half a year, or a whole year. In process of time they generally accounted from Michelmas to Michelmas.” In later reigns, the Sheriff has been usually considered to enter at the commencement of the old legal year, March 25th. It will therefore be borne in mind, that the actual year of a Shrievalty rarely, if ever, corresponds exactly either with the regnal year, or with the year of our Lord. Lach person is Sheriff in two regnal years, and in two years of our Lord. In the case of James I., whose regnal year began March 24th, a Sheriff entering on office March 25th, would be for 364 days of the first, and for a single day of the second regnal year. Under the particular circumstances of Charles the First’s death, the Sheriff of that time would be of three regnal years. Charles’s regnal years dated from 27th March, so that the last Sheriff in his reign, entering on office 25th March, 1648, would for that and the following day be reckoned as of “23 Charles;” from 27th March, 1648, to 30th January, 1649, as of “24 Charles;”’ and from 31st January 1649, to 24th March following, as of “1 Charles IT.” These examples will be sufficient to explain to the reader that a precise description of each separate shrievalty, as to regnal years, &c. could not have been given without much elaborate reckoning, and a wearisome repetiton of figures. 192 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. LIST OF WILTSHIRE SHERIFFS. REGNAL A.D, oF WittmM I. From 25th December, 1066. 20 1085 | Aiulphus the Sheriff. Mentioned in Domesday Book (Wyndham, p. 433), as holding Tollard of the Crown. Henry I. From Sth August, 1100. 20 1119 | Edward of Salisbury “The Sheriff.’”! Edward D’eureux held thirty-eight manors in Wilts. Wyndham’s Domes. Bk., p. 219. 31 1130 | Warin de Lisures or de Lisoriis. Sheriff of Dorset, Somerset, and Wilts, (Gt. Pipe Roll). The counties being set to farm, Warin accounts for the old farm and has acquittance. Henry II. From 19th December, 1154. out 1155 | William, the late Sheriff, (qui fwit vicecomes). Great Pipe Roll. 2-5 | 1156-9 | Patrick (D’eureux), (four cpg Son of Walter; and created 1st Earl of Salisbury by the Empress Maude. Slain by Guy de Lusignan, and buried in the church of St. Hilary in Poictou, 1167. 6,7, 8 |1160-1-2} Richard Clericus. Probably the Sheriff’s Clerk. 9 1163 | Milo de Dauntesey. Of Dauntsey, near Malmesbury. 1 Edward of Salisbury was youngest son of Walter Rosmar, called ‘le Heureux” or “the Fortunate,” from having received at the Conquest, enormous grants in Wiltshire, including the Castle of Old Sarum. Walter’s eldest son remained in Normandy. Edward having been born in England was selected by his father for the English inheritance, with the adopted name of Edward of Salisbury, and the hereditary office of Vicecomes. He was father of another Walter of Salisbury, who founded Bradenstoke Abbey, and ancestor of Ela, Countess of Salisbury,who founded Lacock Abbey. He is commonly distinguish- ed as Edwardus Vicecomes or the Sheriff. Wiltshire seems to have had no Comes or Earl at the time of the Domesday Survey. The official rents of the Sheriff were received in kind ; bacon-hogs, corn, honey, hens, cheeses, &e. 10-27 | 1164-81 27 1181 28 1182 29-33 1183-87 1 1189 2 1190 3 1191 4 1192 5-9) 1193-7 9-10; 1197-8 1 1199 2,3,4; 1200-3 By the Rev. J. BE. Jackson. 193 Richard de Wilton or de Wilteshire, (seventeen years). In 1168 the Sheriff accounts in the exchequer for seventeen murders in Wilts, for which various fines were paid, from £10 to 20s. In 20 H., II. (1174), Richard de Wilton was one of the king’s chief Justices, (Madox). Michael Belet and Robert Malde (Mauduit). Of Warminster, Fonthill, or Somerford Parva. Ditto, ditto, and Roger Fitz Renfr: or Reuf. Q. Fitz Reinfred (Ulverstone), or Fitz Ralph of Stratton, (Wilts. Fines. 10 Richard I.) Robert Mauduit. See above, A.D. 1181. RicHarD I. From 3rd September, 1189. Hugh Bardolf. History of Castle Combe, p. 33. Adam, the Sheriff’s clerk, mentioned Abb. Place. Rie. I. William (D’Eureux), Earl of Sarum. Son of Patrick, 1156. Robert de Tregoz. Married Sibilla, the Heiress of Ewyas of Lydiard Ewyas, now Tregoz. William D’Eureux, Earl of Sarum. Same as 1190. Buried at Bradenstoke 1196. Ditto and Thomas his son, (four years). Stephen de Turnham and Alexander de Ros. JOHN. From 27th May, 1199. Stephen de Turnham and Wandragesil de Cour- celles. Descended from Roger de Curcelle (Churchill) of Fisherton, (Domes. Book 403), William Longspee, Earl of Sarum. Natural son of Henry II. and Fair Rosamond. Marr, Ela, Countess of Salisbury. Laid the fourth stone of Salisbury Cathedral. 20 11-12 ? 1-7 10 11 12 1209-10 1225-6 1226-7 1227-8 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Robert de Berneres, (three years). A Family of this name held Alton Berners, now cor- rupted into Alton Barnes. William Longspee, Earl of Sarum, and John Bonet, (6 years). Sir John Bonet, Clerk,was one of the Earl’s executors. (History of Lacock, 147.) William de Brewere. ‘‘ William at the Heath,” Lord of Torbay: married Beatrix de Vannes. (History of Castle Combe, p. 18, note). Constable of Devizes Castle, 8 Henry III. (See ‘‘ Wilts Mag. vol. I., p. 169, note 4. Robert his son. Nicholas de Vipont. William de Chanton. William Longspee, Earl of Sarum. From this time William, Earl of Sarum, held the Shrievalty for life. Henry Fitz-Alchi or Alet. Henry III. From 28th October, 1216. William, Earl of Sarum. Robert de Crevecceur. Ditto and Sir Adam de Alta Ripa (Dantry), Kt. Sir Adam Dantry was one of the executors of the Earl of Salisbury. (Hist. of Lacock 147.) William, Earl of Sarum. Died 7th March, 1226. Bur. at New Sarum. (Hist. of Lacock, 138). His will (ditto 144). Robert de Hales. Mentioned as Sheriff, Wilts Fines, Phillipps, p. 12. Ela, Countess of Sarum. Heiress of the family of D’Eureux, the first Earls of REGNAL YEAR. A.D 12} 1227-8 13} 1228-9 22-24| 1237-40 25-31) 1240-46 31-33} 1246-9 34-38 | 1249-53 38-39 | 1253-4 40-42) 1255-7 43-44 | 1258-59 By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 195 Sarum, and widow of William Longespee. Foundress of Lacock and Henton Charter house Abbeys. Born at Amesbury. Buried at Lacock 1261. She laid the fifth stone of Salisbury Cathedral. John Dacus (the Dane). For John the Dane see Hist. of Lacock, 183, and app. p. X. John de Monemue, Knt. (Monmouth). Of Steeple Langford. Son of John de Monmouth, Executor to King John, who married one of the co-: heiresses of Walrond of West Deane. This Sheriff was afterwards hanged for killing Adam de Gilbert a Chaplain at Wells. (Abb. Plac., p. 256). His estates went to St. Martyn and Ingham, who represented the two other heiresses of Walrond. (Hist. of Alderbury). Ela, Countess of Sarum. John the Dane. Ditto and Robert de Plugenet. The Plugenets held Whaddon, a Tything of Alderbury. In 1307 Alan Ploukenet, Kt., was patron of West Kington. (Wilts Inst.) Robert de Haversham. Nicholas de Haversham. Of Barford St. Martin. Nicholas de Lusteshall. Now Lushill near Highworth. William de Tynhide. NearEdington, now called Tinhead. Ditto and John his son and heir. John de Vernon. Of Horningsham. Founder of the Priory of St. Radegund at Longleat. Ditto and Godfrey de Escudamore. _ Of Upton Scudamore near Warminster. Married Maude, one of the aunts and coheiresses of John, last Lord Giffard of Brymstfield, called “le Rych.” Ap- pointed 48 Henry III. Conservator of the peace for the County of Wilts. (Hoare’s Hist. of Warminster, ». 56.) He wore on his shield a eross pattée fitchy (Harl. MS. 5804, p. 118.) } 202 196 REGNAL YEAR. 45 46-48 49 51-56 1-3 4-9 10-17 18-19 20-25 1275-80 1281-88 1289-90 1291-6 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. John de Vernon. See 1253. Ralph Russell. Of Codford St. Mary [?]. (Heyts. 231). East Bedwyn (Nom. Vill.) Ralph de Aungers. John de Aungers. Of Little Fangtord, (Wilts Inst.), and of Alton Daungers. Mere 1 Ralph de Aungers. William de Duge and Stephen de Edworth, (five years). Robert de Vernon. Heyts. 47. John Benett. Plac. de quo War. I, 807. Nicholas Luteshill. (Wilts Fines. p. 12). ] Stephen de Edworth and Walter de Strichesley. Alderbury, p. 158. Epwarp I. From 20th November, 1272. Walter de Strichesley. (Hist. of Alderbury, p. 158.) In this year the abbess of Amesbury rater ‘to let the Sheriff execute the kings’ writ in Melksham and Beanacre. (History of Amesbury, 177). Hildebrand or Hildebert de London, (six years). (Hist. of Westbury, p. 74.) John de Wotton, (8 years). One of the Commissioners to perambulate Groyeley Forest. (Hist. of Dunworth, 184). Richard de Combe. Of Fittleton. [Amesb. 152. Wilts Inst. 1303]. Thomas de St. Omer, (five years). Of Britford, which was settled on ined in 1280 by his grandmother, Petronilla de Tony. 28-29 1300 30-32] 1301-3 33| 1304-5 34-35| 1305-7 2,3| 1308-9 ” ”) aN 1310-11 or 1311-12 6, 7 | 1312-14 8| 1314-15 By the Rev. J. E. Tackson. 197 Walter de Paveley. Of Westbury. (See Hist. of Westbury). John de Novo Burgo or Newburgh. [South Damerham, p. 29]. John de Hertinger. (Wilts Fines. p. 8. 39). Henry de Cobham. Of Chisbury. [Nom. Vill.] Broad Hinton [ditto]. Binknoll and Langley Burrell [ditto]. Cliff Pypard, Froxfield, 1310. [W.1I.] John de Gerberd. Of Odstock. Epwarp II. From 8th July, 1307. Andrew de Grimstead, Knt. West Grimstead, (Alderbury p. 202). Patron of St. Nicholas, Wilton 1308. (Wilts Inst.) Alexander Cheverell, Knt. Of Little Cheverell. John St. Loe. Married Joan, heiress of Alex. Cheverell. [Hutchins’s Dorset, I, 518]. Died 1314. William de Harden. Of Harden near Sayernake. Knight of the Shire a.p. 1307. ‘The heiress of this family married Sir Robert de Bilkemore. Adam Walrand. Of Asserton in Winterbourn Stoke, B. and D, 31. Wilts Inst. 1305. Knight of the Shire a.p. 1314. Ditto and John Kingston, Knt. Of Sutton Parva. Wilts Inst. 1312. John de Holt, Knt. Of Holt near Bradford. Arms on his Seal, Three lions rampant, 2 and 1. Philip de la Beche. Of Hackneston, [Elstub and Everley, p. 153], Also Patron of Wotton Ryvers 1321, [W. I.] 198 REGNAL YEAR. A.D. 11-13) L3t7-20 14-16] 1321-3 17-19| 1323-6 fh 1327 2 1328 3-6 | 1829-32 7 1333 8 1334 9-10} 1335-6 ite NST 12-14} 1838-40 15 1341 Sherifis of Wiltshire. [In 9 Edward III. Sheriffs were no longer elected by the people, but were nominated by the Crown on the 3rd November ]. Walter de Risum. John de Tichbourn. Marr. Margaret, daughter of Sir Richard de Sifrewast of Chitterne. Heyts. 170. Adam Walrand. Sce 5 Edward II. Adam Walrand. Epwarp II]. From 25th January, 1327. Adam Wiles See 5 and 17 Edward IT. Philip de la Beche. See 9 Edward II. John Mauduit. OfFonthilland Westbury. See 27H. II. Ditto and William Randolph. Kt. of Shire a.p, 1327. John Tichbourn. John Mauduit. Gilbert de Berwick. Kt. of the Shire. Of Norrington (Chalk 83). Luck- ington 1338 (W. I.) Reginald de Paveley. Kt. of the Shire. See 25 E. I. Peter Doygnel. Of Huish 1309. Yatesbury 1331 (W.I.) Kt. of the Shire 1338. Peter de Berwick. John Mauduit. See 3 Edward III. Probably the founder of Poulton Priory, Wilts. Sce vol. I, p. 136, note 3, and Hist. of Westbury, p. 4. Thomas de St. Maur and REGNAL YEAR, 16 16-18 19-20 21 22-24 25 26-28 29 30-34 30 41 46 47 48 49 1342-4 1345-6 1347 1348-50 1351 1352-4 1355 1356-60 1361-6 1367-71 1372 1373 1374 1375 By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 199 Robert Lokes. R. L. is claimed as an ancestor of the Locke family. See Gent. Mag. 1792, p. 799. John Mauduit. See 3 Edward III. John Roches. Sir John Roche of Bromham. One of his daughters and coheiresses married Walter Beauchamp; the other Nicholas Bayntun of Falstone. Ditto and Thomas St. Maur. See 1341. Robert Russell. Q. of Quedhampton, (Hist. of Castle Combe, 83), or Kellaways near Chippenham. No return. Thomas de la Ryver. Of Wotton Ryvers. John Everard. A family of this name at Salthorp in Wroughton, (Hist. of Castle Combe 83.) Thomas de Hungerford, (five years). Of Heytesbury. Purchaser of Farley-Montfort, after- wards Farley-Hungerford, Co. Somerset. Henry Sturmy, (five years). Of Wolf Hall and Figheldean. Ranger of Savernake Forest. See his Seal, vol. II., p. 387. Walter de Haywood, (five years). Q. Heywood near Westbury. William de Worston (Wroughton). Of Cliff Pypard 1381. (W. 1.) Henry Sturmy. See 1361. John Dauntesey, Knt. Of Dauntsey. Died 1391. Descended from the Sheriff of 9 Henry II. John Delamere, Knt. Of Steeple Lavington, Langley Burrell, Fisherton Delamere, Leigh Delamere. 200 REGNAL YEAR, 50-51 ” 2? 1381 1382 1383-4 1385-6 1387-8 1389 1390 1391 1392 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Hugh Cheyne. Q. of Barford St. Martin and Deptford. RicuarD II. From 22nd June, 1377. Peter de Cusaunce, Knt. Lord of Lackham 1352, and of Hilmarton 1380 (W.1.) William de Worston. See 1372. [Sir John Delamere, named as Sheriff this year, Heyts. 255]. Ralph de Norton, Knut. Of Fisherton near Wyly, (W. I. 1381). Arms: Vert a lion rampant or. Laurence de St. Martin, Knt. Of Upton Lovell 1349, (W. I.), and Steeple Langford 1348. (Hist. of Heyts, 191), Of Wardour, (Nom. Vill.) Hugh Cheyne. See above 1376. Michael Woodhull. Q. of Great Durnford. See Hist. of Amesbury, p. 127. Bernard Brocas, Knt. Patron of Barford St. Martins 1394. Wilts Inst. John Lancaster. John de Salisbury. Hugh Cheyne. See 50 Edward III. Kt. of Shire 1386. Richard Mawardyn. John Roches. Of Tollard Royal. See 19 Edward III. Robert Dyneley. Patron of Fittelton 1385, Wilts Inst. John Gawayne. Of East Hurdcot, Dunworth 99. Of Norrington, Chalk 84, REGNAL YEAR. - D. 17 1393 18 1394 19 1395 20-22| 1396-8 23 1399 1 1400 2} 1400-1 3} 1401-2 4-5 | 1402-3-4 6| 1404-5 7\ 1405-6 8| 1406-7 9| 1407-8 By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 201 Richard Mawardyn. Q. of Marden near Devizes. See Hist. of Lacock, app. p-. Xxviii. John Moigne, Knt. Of Maddington. Mere 44. B. and D.18. Of Alton 1397. Wilts Inst. Thomas Bonham. Of Bonham in Stourton. Mere 89. Of Gt. Wishford 1418. Wilts Inst. Richard Mawardyn. See 17 Richard II. Henry IV. From 30th September, 1399. John Dauntesey, Knt. Died 1413. Son of the Sheriff of 48 Edward III. Arms; Gules, a lion rampant ar, pursuing a Dragon retreating to the dexter, vert. William Worston. John Gawayne. Sce 46 Edw. III., and 16 Rich, IT. William Cheyne. See 11 Richard II. Patron of Hilperton 1403. W.I. Walter Beauchamp. Of Bromham, mar. the coheiress of Roche, (H.of Down- ton, p. 5). Patron of Whaddon 1420, Bur, at Sarum. Walter Hanger Knt. Of Farley Castle. Son of T. H. 30 Edward III. Ralph Greene. Son of Sir Henry Greene who married the heiress of Mauduit of Warminster, (Warm. p. 8). His monu- ment at Luffwick, Co. Northampton. Walter Beauchamp. See 4 Henry IV. Robert Corbett, Knt. Patron of Tholweston 1402, (W. 1.) -drms: Or, a rayen proper. , 2D 202 REGNAL YEAR. A.D. 10| 1408-9 11| 1409-10 12} 1410-11 13| 1411-12 | 14] 1419-18 1} 1418 2) 1414 3] 1415 4| 1416 5| 1417 6| 1418 7| 1419 8-9 | 1420-21 10 | 1421-22 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. William Cheyne, Knt. See 3 Henry IV. John Berkeley, Knt. Patron of West Grymstead 1339, 1418, (W.1I.) Thomas Bonham. Same as 19 Richard II. eeereeereeeeee ee Henry V. From 21st of March, 1413. Elias Delamere, Knt. Of Fisherton Delamere. -Arms: Gules, 2 lions passant gardant ar. Was at Agincourt. See 49 Edward ITI. Henry Thorpe. Q. of Newton Toney. Hist. of Amesb, 184, 196, Thomas Calstone. Q. of Littlecote and Upton Lovell. Heyts. 191, Robert Andrewe, Esq. Patron of Blunsdon St. Andrew 1417, (W. I.) William Finderne. Patron of Sutton Parva Chapel 1423, [W. I.] William Sturmy, Jun. Of Wolf Hall. On his death his sister and heiress married Roger Seymour. 4rms: Argent 3 demi-lions gules. Thomas Ringwood. Lord of Loveraz Coulesfield 1428, [W. I.] William Darell, Esq. Of Littlecote, by marriage with heiress of Thomas Calstone. Patron of Fitleton 1431, [W. I.] Henry VI. From 1st September, 1422, 1! 1422-3) William Darell. See year preceding. o @ 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 By the Rev. J. E. Fackson. 203 1423-4 | Robert Shotesbrook, Knt. 1424-5 1425-6 1426-7 1427-8 1428-9 1429-30 1430-1 1431-2 1432-8 1433-4 1434-5 1435-6 1436-7 1487-8 Patron of Lydiard Tregoz 1430. Mentioned as a Feoffee of the Stourton family 1435, [W. I.] William Finderne. See 5 Henry V. Walter Pauncefoot. Married a daughter of Joan [Hussey], Lady Hunger- ford, by her first husband John Whyton. John Stourton, Esq. Of Stourton; afterwards the first Baron Stourton, died 1462, William Darell, Esq. See 1 Henry VI. John Pawlet, Esq. Of Fisherton Delamere. Ancestor of the Dukes of Bolton. John Bayntun. OfFallersdon. Hist. of Downton, p.7. David Cervington. Of Longford Castle [Cawden 27]. One of this name was patron of a chantry in North Wraxhall 1432, W.1. John Seymour. Of Wolf Hall. Son of Roger St. Maur of Penhow, Co. Monmouth, by the heiress of Sturmy. Walter Strickland. John Stourton, Knt. Of Stourton; same asd Henry VI. Stephen Popham, Knt. Patron of Fisherton Aucher. B. and D. 193. Edward Hungerford. Probably Edmund, 2nd son of Walter, Lord Hunger- ford, There was no Edward in the family at this period. William Beauchamp. Afterwards Lord St. Amand. Son of Walter: (See 8 Henry IV.), and brother of Richard, Bishop of Sarum. John Stourton, Knt. Same as 12 Henry VI. 2Dd2 204 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. | YEAR. A.D. | 17| 1488-9} John Lisle, Knt. Arms: A fesse between 2 chevrons. Sir John Lisle is mentioned as one of the Feoffees of Sir Stephen Popham, (B. and D. 193); and of John Skilling of Cholderton. (Amesb. 158). There were Lisles of Holt near Bradford in later times. 18 | 1489-40 | John St. Loe. See 3 Edward II. This John must have been of a younger house of St. Loe, the heiress of the elder having married Sir W. Botreaux. For St. Loe of Knighton in Broad Chalk, see Chalk 143. 19} 1440-1} John Norris. . Feoffee of the Earl of Warwick for Winterslow 1458. [W.I.] In 1464 a family of this name were Patrons of Leigh Delamere. The arms of this Sheriff same as Norris of Speke, Co. Lane. 20| 1441-2) Richard Restwold. Arms: Argent 3 bends sable. 21| 1442-3! William Beauchamp. See 15 Henry VI. 22} 1443-4| John Bayntun. Of Falstone, and of Shaw near Melksham, [Hist. of Castle Combe, 219]. 23| 1444-5) John Basket! Q. of Lydiard Millicent [see W.I. 1477]. Arms: a chevron erm. bet. 3 leopards heads. 1 The following is from ‘‘ Fuller’s Worthies,” vol. III, p. 351, (8vo.)— ‘John Basket, Esq. is memorable on this account, that a solemn dispensation granted unto him from the Court of Rome acquainteth us with the form of those instruments in that age not unworthy our perusal. (Translation). ‘‘ Nicholas, by divine mercy, &c., Cardinal Priest of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, to our beloved in Christ the worshipful John Basket, Esq. and Alice his wife, of the Diocese of Sarum, greeting in the Lord. The See Apostolic useth to grant the pious desires and just requests of petitioners, especially when the health of souls requireth courteous favour to be bestowed upon them. Whereas ye have humbly sued unto us that for the comfort of your souls we would vouchsafe to grant you license to chuse for yourselves a Confessor: we favorably yielding to your request, by the authority of our Lord the Pope, the charge of whose Primary we bear, and by his special command herein verbally delivered to us, do grant to your pious wish, so far as permission may be granted, to chuse for your Confessor a fit and discreet Priest, who as touching the sins which ye shall confess unto him, {except they be such for which the said See is to be consulted with], may, by By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 205 REGNAL YEAR. A.D. 24| 1445-6] William Restwold. 25| 1446-7] William Stafford. Of the Dorsetshire family. Married Catharine Chedyok, coheiress of a moiety of the Payely estate in Westbury Hundred. 26) 1447-8] William Beauchamp. See 21 Henry VI. 27| 1448-9} John Norreys. See 19 Henry VI. 28 | 1449-50} Philip Baynard. Of Lackham: his ancestor having married the heiress of Bluet, c, 1349. 29| 1450-1] John Seymour, Knt. Same as 10 Henry VI. 30} 1451-2| John Nanfan. Feoftee of the Earl of Warwick for Winterslow 1440, 1458, and 1473. (W. I.) 31) 1452-3} Edward Stradling. Of Dauntesey: his father having obtained the estate by marriage with Joan, dau. of Sir John Dauntesey, Sheriff a.p. 1400. Arms: Paly of 6 arg. and az.; on a bend gules 3 cinque-foils or. 82| 1453-4| John Willoughby. Of Brooke Hall near Westbury, by marriage with the coheiress of Cheney. See vol. II, p. 183, note. Presented to Avon Chapel 1455. (W.I.) 33} 1454-5] George Darell. Of Littlecote, son of the Sheriff 6 H. VI. Died 1474. authority aforesaid, provide for you concerning the benefit of due absolution and wholesome penance so long as ye live, so often as there shall be occasion. But if ye have made any foreign vows of Pilgrimage and Abstinence which ye cannot conveniently keep, [vows to the blessed Peter and Paul, and James, apostles, only excepted], the same Confessor may commute them for you in other works of piety. Given at Florence, under the Seal of the Office of the Primary, 3rd April, 13 Eugenius IV., [1440].” Why it should be harder and higher to dispense with vows made to St. James than to St. John [his brother and Christ’s beloved disciple], some courtier of Rome must render the reason. “The posterity of this Master Basket in the next generation removed into Dorsetshire, where they continue at this day in a worshipful condition at Dayenish.” 36 10 1457-8 1458-9 1459-60 1460-1 1461 1462-3 1464 1465 1466 1470 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Reginald Stourton, Knt. Of Stourton, youngest son of the Sheriff 16 Henry VI. Henry Longe, Esq. Of South Wraxhall: eldest son of Robert Longe, M.P. for Wilts, and brother of John Longe, for whom Draycote was purchased by his father, see p. 179. John Seymour, Esq. Of Wolf Hall. Son of the Sheriff of 29 Henry VI.— died vita patris. Hugh Pilkenham or Pekenham. John Ferris, Esq. Of Blunsdon St. Andrews. eeeereeeeerzeee Epwarp IV. From 4th March, 1461. George Darell. Same as 33 Henry VI. Reginald Stourton, Knt. Same as 34 Henry VI. Roger Tocotes, Knt. Married Elizabeth (Braybrooke), widow of William Beauchamp, Lord St. Amand, of Bromham, Buried at Bromham. Executor to Margaret, Lady Hungerford 1476, (Heyts. 95). George Darell, Knt. Same as 1 Edward IV. Thomas Delamere. Q. of Aldermaston, Berks, who was engaged in a plot against Richard ITI, Christopher Wolsley. Richard Darell, Knt. George Darell, Knt. Same as 1 Edward IV. Was Sheriff in December, 1468-9, when Sir Thomas Hungerford and Henry Courtenay were arrested for high treason at Sarum. Laurence Raynsford, Knt. Married the Lady Ann (Perey), widow of Sir Thomas By the Rev. J. E. Fackson. 207 Hungerford of Rowdon, who was beheaded at Sarum in 1469, Roger Tocotes, Knt. See 4 Edward IV. Maurice Berkeley, Knt. The Berkeleys of Beverstone were connected with Mere by marriage with the heiress of John Bettisthorne. Berkeley of Uley had the Manor of Milston. John Willoughby, Knt. See 32 Henry VI. William Collingbourne. Aubrey connects this name with Bradfield in the Parish of Hullavington, and believed a Collingbourne of Bradfield to have been the William Collingbourne who lost his head for writing the satirical lines on R, II., ‘‘ The Rat, the Cat, and Lovell the Dog, &e.” Henry Longe, Esq. Same as 35 Henry VI. Walter Bonham, Esq. Descended from Sheriff 12 Henry IV. Edward Hartgill, Esq. M.P. for New Sarum. This name is memorable for the murder committed in 1556 by Charles Lord Stour- ton, at Kilmington near Mere. (Mere 153), John Mompesson. Of Bathampton Wyly. See Pedigree, Heyts. 219. Walter Hungerford. Of Farley Castle. Second son of Robert Lord Hunger- ford and Molines, and brother of Sir Thomas H. who was beheaded at Sarum 1469. This Walter H. turned against Richard III. at Bosworth. Charles Bulkeley. William Collingbourne, Esq. Sco 14 Edward IV. John Mompesson, Esq. Same as 18 Edward IV, 208 .| REGNAL YEAR. 11 12 ”» 1485 1486 1487 1488 1489 1490 1491 1492 14938 1494 1495 1496 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Ricuarp III. From 26th June, 1483. Henry Longe, Esq. Same as 15 Edward IV. Edward Hartgill, Esq. See 17 Edward IV. John Musgrave. Roger Tocotes, Knt. See 4 Edward IV. Henry VII. From 22nd August, 1485. Roger Tocotes, Knt. See 4 Edward IV. John Wroughton, Esq. Of Broad Hinton. John Turberville, Knt. Probably of Bere Regis, Dorset, (Hutch. I, 42), whose mother was heiress of Thomas Bonham, Co. Wilts. Arms: Ermine a lion ramp. gules crowned or. The name often shortened to Turville. Thomas Vinour. This name at Stanton St. Bernard 1565. Edward Darell, Knt. Of Littlecote, son of the Sheriff of 9 Edward IV. Constantius Darell. John Lye. Of Flamstone in Bishopstone. (Downton, p. 4). John Yorke. Of Helthrop near Ramsbury ? Edward Darell, Knt. See 5 Henry VII. Richard Puddesey, Esq. Constantius Darell. See 6 Henry VII. eae: Chaderton, Esq. . This name is found at Norton near Malmsbury 1535, Bradfield in Hullavington 1575, Oaksey ditto, Draycot Folliot 1568. _Edmund Chaderton had all the pos- sessions of William Collingbourne. (See 14 Edward IV). Harl. MS, 433, art, 1223. By the Rev. J. E. Fackson. 209 Edward Darell, Knt. See 9 Henry VII. George Seymour, Knt. Younger brother of the Sheriff 23 Henry VII. Uncle to the Protector Somerset. John Huddlestone, Knt. Patron of Codford St. Mary 1495, 1507; of Steeple Langford 1509, 1513, (W.I.) See B. and D, 181. Thomas Longe, Esq. Nephew of Sheriff 1 Richard IIT. Of South Wraxhall and Draycote. Mon, to him in Draycote Church. John Yorke, Esq. See 8 Henry VII. William Caleway, Esq. Of Titherton Kellaways near Chippenham ; of Whelpley (Alderbury); of Bapton, (Chalk 84); of Rockbourne Co, Hants. John Danvers, Knt. Of Dauntesey. John Ernle, Esq. Of Witham. John Gawayne, Esq. Of Norrington, (Chalk 85), See 16 Richard IT. Thomas Longe, Knt. Same as 16 Henry VII. John Seymour, Knt. Of Wolf Hall. Elder brother of Sheriff 14 Henry VIT. Father of the Protector. Died 1536. Buried at Easton Priory; removed to Great Bedwyn 1590. John Mompesson, Esq. Grandson of Sheriff 18 E, IV. Henry VIII. From 22nd April, 1509, Edward Darell, Knt. Same as 13 Henry VII. Walter Hungerford, Knt. Same as 19 Edward IV. Buried at Heytesbury 1516. Henry Longe, Esq. Of South Wraxhall and Draycote. Son of the Sheriff of 1507, 25 ~ 210 REGNAL YEAR, 4 13 14 15 16 1514 1515 1516 1517 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Christopher Wroughton, Knt. Of Broad Hinton. Son of the Sheriff of 2 Henry VII. John Danvers, Knt. The first of this family at Dauntsey. Married Joan the heiress of the Stradlings. Died 1514, Buried in Dauntsey Church. William Bonham, Esq. Of Bonham, at Stourton and Great Wishford, (B. and D. 45), (W.I. 1518). John Scrope, Knt. Of Castle Combe and Oxendon. Son of Stephen Scrope of Bentley, Co. York, and Castle Combe. Died 1516. Nicholas Wadham, Knt. Of Merefield near Ilminster; grandfather of the founder of Wadham Coll., Oxon, (Chalk 93). Edward Hungerford, Knt. Son of the Sheriff of 2 Henry VIII. Buried at Heytes- bury 1521. John Seymour, Knt. Same as 23 Henry VII. Edward Darell, Knt. Of Littlecote. Same as 1 Henry VIII. or his son. John Skilling, Esq. Of Lainston, Co. Hants; and Draycot Folliot, (Wilts Visitation 1623). A family also of Cholderton 1380, 1401, (W.I.) Of Rolston 1565. Nicholas Skilling Knight of the Shire 1361. John Erneley, Esq. Of Burton. Son of Chief Justice Ernle? Patron of Yatesbury 1522, (W.I.) Edward Bayntun, Knt. Of Bromham ; to which his father, John B. succeeded in 1508 as heir to Lord St. Amand. Died 1544, Thomas Yorke, Esq. Sce 8 Henry VII. John Seymour, Knt. Same as 10 Henry VIII., and 23 Henry VII. REGNAL YEAR. 5¥ 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 bl 1527 1528 1529 1530 1531 1532 1533 1534 1535 1536 1537 1538 1539 By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 211 Henry Longe, Esq. Same as 3 Henry VIII. John Bourchier, Knt. Probably eldest son of the 3rd Baron Fitzwarine, and husband of Isabella Hungerford, sister of the Sheriff of 9 Henry VIII. Anthony Hungerford, Knt. Of Down Amney. Builder of the large Gatehouse there. Commissioner in 1552 for the seizure of Church Goods. See also 1538 and 1557. John Erneley, Esq. See 13 Henry VIII. John Horsey, Esq. Of Martin, Co. Wilts, a branch of Horsey, Co, Somer- set and Dorset, (Chalk 56). Thomas Yorke, Esq. See 15 Henry VIII. Thomas Bonham, Esq. Of Great Wishford. See 6 Henry VIII. Perhaps of Haselbury House, Box. See vol. I, p. 144. John Ernley, Esq. Of Cannings. See 20 Hen. VIII. Walter Hungerford, Knt. Of Farley Castle. Son of the Sheriff 9 Henry VIII. Afterwards Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury: beheaded 1540, Robert Baynard, Esq. Of Lackham: great grandson of the Sheriff of 28 Henry VI. Thomas Yorke, Esq. Sce 22 Henry VIII. Henry Longe, Knt. Same as 17 Henry VIII. John Bruges or Bridges, Knt. Eldest son of Sir Giles Bruges of Coberley, Co. Glouc. Patron of Blunsdon St. Andrews 1546. Afterwards 1st Baron Chandos of Sudeley 1554. Anthony Hungerford, Knt. Same as 19 Henry VIII. John Erneley, Esq. Of Cannings. See 24 Henry VIII. 2E2 36 37 38 1540 1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546-7 1547 1547 1548 1549 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Edward Mompesson, Esq. Son of the Sheriff of 24 Henry VII. Henry Longe, Knt. Same as 17 Henry VIII. John Mervyn, Esq. Of Fonthill Giffard (Dunworth 20). John Erneley, Esq. Of Cannings. See 31 Henry VIII. Patron of Yates- bury 1545, (W.1.) Robert Hungerford, Esq. Of Cadenham. Married Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry Long of Draycote. Buried at Bremhill 1558. Charles Bulkeley, Esq. Richard Scrope, Esq. Of Castle Combe. Son of the Sheriff of 7 Henry VIII. Died 1572. Epwarp VI. From 28th January, 1547. Richard Scrope, Esq. Silvester Danvers, Esq. Of Dauntsey. Grandson of the Sheriff of 5 Henry VIII. Died 1552. Ambrose Dauntesey, Esq. Of West Lavington. John Bonham, Esq. See 23 Henry VIII. According to this list, Mr. Bon- ham would be Sheriff from 25th March, 1549, to 24th March, 1550. But in the History of Dunworth, p. 3, a writ signed by him as Sheriff is dated 13th August, 1550. Presented to Box 1550. John Mervyn, Esq. Same as 34 Henry VIII. James Stumpe, Knt. Of Charlton. Son of William Stumpe the rich clothier who purchased Malmsbury Abbey at the Dissolution. Sir James’s daughter and heir married Sir Henry Knyvett. By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 213 1552 William Sherington, Knt. Of Lacock Abbey, which he purchased at the Disso~ lution. 1553 | Edward Baynard, Esq. Of Lackham. Son of the Sheriff of 26 Henry VIII. (JANE). 1| 6 to17| Edward Baynard. July, In the Rolls Chapel Office is a signed Bill of the Lady 1553 Jane Grey, for the Patent appointing Edward Baynard 2&3 3&4 (of Lackham), Sheriff of Wilts, in the place of Sir W. Sherington, signed, ‘JANE THE QUENE,” without date: to which is prefixed a writ relating to the ap- pointment of the same Sheriff, signed, ‘‘ MARY THE QUENE,” dated at Framlingham, 6th July, 1553, the first day of her reign. [7th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, p. 9, 1845]. Mary. From 6th July, 1553. 1553 | Edward Baynard. John Erneley, Esq. Of Cannings. See 35 Hen. VIII. Puivie and Mary. From 25th July, 1554: the day of their marriage, 1554| Henry Hungerford, Esq. Q. of Latton. Son of Sir Anthony of Down Amney. 1555| John St. John, Esq. Of Lydiard Tregoz. 1556| Anthony Hungerford, Knt. Same as 30 Henry VIII. The Sheriff who refused to burn Hunt and White at Salisbury: (sce Fox’s Acts and Mon.): and who officially attended the execution of Lord Stourton, March, 1556-7, 1557 | Walter Hungerford, Esq. Sir Walter of Farley Castle; son of Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury. (Sheriff 25 Henry VIII.) Buried at Farley 1596. 1558 | Henry Brouncker, Esq. Of Melksham. 10 11 12 1562 1566 1567 1568 1569 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. ELIzABETH. From 17th November, 1558. John Zouche, Knt. Of Calstone near Calne; (of which Hundred the Zouches were Lords temp. Edward II.) Purchased the manor of Ansty, (Dunworth 62), James Stumpe, Knt. Same as 5 Edward VI. John Mervyn, Knt. Same as 4 Edward VI. Of Pertwood and Fonthill. George Penruddock, — Son of Edward Penruddock of Arkleby, Co. Cumb, Afterwards Knighted. Of Ivy Church, Laverstock, and Compton Chamberlain, His picture at Compton. John Erneley, Esq. See 1 Mary. No Michelmas Term being kept at Westminster, on account of a Plague, the queen for this turn appoints the Sheriff of her own authority. Thomas Button, Esq. Probably of the family at Alton Priors: but the name of Thomas, of this date, is not in the Pedigree, Wilts Visit. 1623. Arms: Erm., fess gules. John Eyre, Esq. Of Great Chalfield. Nicholas Snell, Esq. Of Kington St. Michel: where his father, Richard Snell, purchased the estate formerly belonging to Glastonbury Abbey, to whom this family had been Reeves for many years. N.S. was M.P. for Chippen- ham, for the County, and for Malmsbury. Buried at Kington 1577. He also held the Manor of Chesinbury. (Amesb. 170). Presented to Yatton Keynell 1560. Henry Sherington, Esq. Of Lacock Abbey. Brother of the Sheriff of 6 Edward VI. Died without issue male. George Ludlow, Esq. Of Hill Deverill. John Thynne, Esq. Sir John, the Secretary to the Protector Somerset, the purchaser of Longleat Priory, and builder of Longleat House. Died 1580, William Button, Esq. Of Alton Priors and Stowell. See 6 Elizabeth. REGNAL YEAR. - D. 13 1570 14 1571 15 1572 16 1573 17 1574 18 1575 19 1576 20 1577 yA 1578 22 1579 23 1580 24 1581 25 By the Rev. J. E. Fackson. 215 Edward Bayntun, Esq. Sir Edward of Rowdon. Second son of the Sheriff of 14 Henry VIII., and M.P. for Co. Wilts. John St. John, Esq. Of Lydiard Tregoz. Same as 2 Philip and Mary. Walter Hungerford, Knt. Sameas 4&5 P. and M, John Danvers, Knt. Of Dauntsey. Son of the Sheriff of 1 Edward VI. Had Danby, Co. York, in right of his wife Elizabeth Nevill, daughter of Lord Latimer. Bur. at Dauntsey 1594, Robert Long, Esq. Sir R. L. of Wraxhall and Draycote. Son of Sir Henry, Sheriff 33 Henry VIII. Died 1581. Thomas Wroughton, Knt. Of Broad Hinton. Married Anne, coheiress of John Barwick of Wilcot. Died 1597, John Hungerford, Knt. Of Down Amney. Son of the Sheriff of a.p. 1556. Henry Knyvett, Knt. Of Charlton: ie 5 Edward VI.) His daughter and heiress married the Earl of Suffolk. His monument in Charlton Church. Nicholas St. John, Esq. Of Lydiard Tregoz. Son of the Sheriff of 14 Elizabeth. Michael Erneley. Of Burton, in Cannings and Whetham. Son of the Sheriff of 5 Elizabeth. William Brouncker, Esq. Of Melksham. Son of the Sheriff of 1558, Patron of Great Cheverell 1582. Walter Hungerford, Esq. Same as 15 Elizabeth. 1582 Jasper Moore, Es Of Heytesbury, Tine manor having been forfeited by the Hungerfords temp. Henry VIII.) The Moores were from the Priory, Taunton, (Heyts. 118), 216 |REGNAL YEAR, | 26, 41 1583 1584 1585 1586 1587 1588 1589 e Or We) _ 1598 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. John Snell, Esq. Of Kington St. Michel. Son of Nicholas S., Sheriff 8 Elizabeth. John Danvers, Knt. Same as 16 Elizabeth. Edward Ludlow, Esq. Of Hill Deverill. See 10 Eliz. Richard Moody, Esq. Of Garsden is Mainibhitl Also of Foxley. Walter Hungerford, Knt. Same as 24 Elizabeth. Henry Willoughby, Esq. Of Knoyle Odierne or West Knoyle. John Warneford, Esq. Of Seyenhampton near Highworth. William Eyre, Esq. Of Great Chalfield. Son of the Sheriff 7 Elizabeth. John Hungerford, Knt. Same as 19 Elizabeth. John Thynne, Esq. Son of the Sheriff of 11 Elizabeth. John Hungerford, Esq. Of Stoke near Great Bedwyn. Grandson of Sir John 34 Elizabeth. Henry Sadler, Knt. Of Everley. Third son of Sir Ralph Sadler, the pur- chaser of that estate. John Dauntesey, Esq. Of West Lavington. James Mervyn, Knt. Of Fonthill. Son of the Sheriff of 3 Elizabeth. _ Edward Penruddock, Esq. Of Compton Chamberlain. Son of Sir George, Sheriff 4 Elizabeth. Afterwards Knighted. His portrait at Compton, where he built the present house. Walter Vaughan, Esq. Of Falstone, which his father Thos. V. had purchased. By the Rev. J. EB. Jackson. 217 A.D. 1599; Thomas Snell, Esq. Afterwards Sir Thomas: of Kington St. Michel. Son of the Sheriff 26 Elizabeth, Arms: Quarterly Gules and az.; a cross flory or. 1600] Henry Bayntun, Knt. Of Bromham. M.P. for Devizes, Son of the Sheriff 13 Elizabeth. 1601} Sir Walter Long, Knt. Of South Wraxhall and Draycote. Son of the Sheriff of 1574, and elder brother of Henry Long who was shot by Henry Danvers in 1594, (See vol. L., 305). 1602} Sir Jasper Moore. Of Heytesbury. Same ag 25 Elizabeth, James I. From 24th March, 1603. 1603} Sir Jasper Moore. 1604} Sir Alexander Tutt, Knt. Of Idmiston; and (Q.) of Tidcombe near Gt. Bedwyn, (Wilts Visitation 1623), 1605 | John Hungerford, Esq. Of Cadenham, or of Stoke near Great Bedwyn. 1606} Gabriel Pile, Esq. Buried at Collingbourne Kingston. 1607} Sir Thomas Thynne, Knt. Of Longleat. “ Son of the Sheriff of 35 Elizabeth, 1608| Richard Goddard, Esq. Of Standen Hussey. 1609} John Ayliffe, Esq. Of Brinkworth and Grittenham. 1610} Sir Giles Wroughton, Knt. Of Broad Hinton. Second Son of Sir Thomas W., Sheriff 18 Elizabeth, 1611) Sir William Button, Knt. Of Alton Priors and Tockenham in Lyneham. His house was plundered by the Parliamentary forces in 1644, Buried at North Wraxhall in 1654, QF 218 REGNAL YEAR. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 1613 1614 1615 1616 1617 1618 1619 1620 1621 1622 1623 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Francis Popham, Esq. Of Littlecote. Son of Sir John, the purchaser of that estate. See 12 Elizabeth. Sir William Pawlett, Knt. Of Edington. Eldest natural son of William, third Marquis of Winchester. Henry Mervyn, Esq. Of Pertwood. Sce 8 Elizabeth. Thomas Moore, Esq. Of Heytesbury. Nabhow and heir of Sir Jasper Moore, 1 James I, Sir Richard Grobham, Knt. Of Great Wishford, Berwick St. Leonard, and Nettle- ton. See plate of his monument, History of Branch and Dole, p. 49. Sir John Horton, Knt. Of Iford, Westwood, and Chalfield. Sir Henry Moody, Knt. Of Garsden. Baronet 1621. Sir Henry Poole, Knt. Of Oaksey. Sir Charles Pleydell, Knt. Of Midgehall, near Lydiard Tregoz. William Pawlett, Esq. Eldest son of Sir William, 11 James I. _ Sir John Lambe, Knt. Of Coulston. See Pedigree by Rev. E. Wilton, supra p. 104, Giffard Long, Esq. Of Rood rasa Son of Edward Long of Monkton, a younger branch of Long of Whaddon. Edward Reade, Esq. Of Corsham. | [The 23rd of James would be only three days; from the 24th to the 27th of March, The new Sheriff would enter on the 25th]. By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 219 REGNAL Cuartes I. From 27th March, 1625. [All the Sheriffs of Charles the First were chosen a few days before the Regnal year began]. 1 1625 | Sir Francis Seymour, Knt. Great grandson of the Protector Somerset : afterwards Baron Seymour of Trowbridge. 1626} Sir Giles Estcourt, Knt. OfNewnton. Baronet 1626. 1627 | Walter Longe, Esq.! Of Whaddon. Baronet 1661. 1628} John Duckett, Esq. Of Hartham near Corsham. 1629} Sir Robert Baynard, Knt. Of Lackham. Son of the Sheriff 1 Mary. 6 1630} John Topp, Esq. Of Stockton. Believed to have been the builder of Stockton house. [Heyts. 242]. 7 1631 | Sir Edward Hungerford, K.B. Of Corsham and Farley Castle. The Commander of the Parliamentary Forces in Wilts; against whom Wardour Castle was defended by Lady Arundel. 8]. 1632! Sir John St. John, Knt. Of Lydiard Tregoz. The second Baronet. Son of Oliver St. John, Esq. o fF CO WD 1 Walter Longe was one of those members of the House of Commons, who, in the third Parliament of Charles I., for ‘‘ undutiful carriage” on the question of Tonnage and Poundage, were committed to the Tower. All refused to find sureties except Walter Longe, who was bailed, but afterwards desired like the rest to be discharged from any recognizance, and so was committed to the King’s Bench. In Hilary Term the same year, 1628, an information of perjury and neglect of his office was exhibited in the Star Chamber against Longe, for that he, being Sheriff of Wilts, procured himself to be elected a Burgess for Bath in Somerset, whereas there was a clause in the writ that no Sheriff should be elected. He confessed himself to be Sheriff; had taken the oath; was elected and attended Parliament: that he had written two letters, unto two friends in Bath, and conferred with five others; but does not admit having laboured his election or against it. His Counsel argued that the writ did not forbid. But Longe was fined 2,000 marks, to be imprisoned at the pleasure of the king in the Tower, and to make his submission to the king with acknowledgement of his offence. Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, p, 60. 22 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 1635 1636 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 11642 1643 1644 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Sir Henry Ludlow, Knt. Of Maiden Bradley. Son of the Sheriff 28 Elizabeth. Francis Goddard, Esq. Of Standen Hussey and Cliff Pypard. Collector of the Shipmoney in Co. Wilts. Sir George Ayliffe, Knt. Of Foxley and Grittenham. Sir Nevil Poole, Knt. Of Oaksey. An Officer for the Parliament; defended Marlborough. (See Waylen’s Marlborough, p. 157). Sir Edward Bayntun, Knt. Of Bromham. Son of the Sheriff 43 Elizabeth. John Grubbe, Esq. Of Potterne and Cherhill. John Duke, Esq. Of Lake. Narrowly escaped execution after the Penruddocke rising, (see Amesb. 138). Giles Eyre, Esq. Of Brickworth. 2nd son of Thomas Eyre of New Sarum. Robert Chivers, Esq. Of Calne, Quemerford, and Leigh Delamere. ‘Chivers, a great clothier at Quemerford near Calne, where the rack doth yet remain, (1680); left an estate of at least £1,000 a year. They say they are derived from Chivers of the Mount in Ireland, whose coat they give.” (Aubrey’s MSS.) (Argent a cheyron engrailed gules). Sir George Vaughan, Knt. Of Fallersdon. Died from the blow of a poleaxe at the battle of Lansdown. Sir John Penruddock. Of Compton Chamberlayne. Son of the Sheriff of 1599, and father of Col. John Penruddock, Sir James Long, Bart. (By the King). Of Draycote. Col. of horse for the Crown. Aubrey’s friend and patron. ‘‘Tam Marti quam Mercurio,” (Natural History of Wilts, p. 33.) 1 Fuller gives no names for the four years from 1643, but accounts for the blank by the Civil War. ‘‘ Ingratum bello debemus inane.” 23 24 1651 By the Rev. J. E. Fackson. 221 Edmund Ludlow. (By the Parliament). Of Hill Deverill. The Parliamentary General. Son of Sir Henry, see 1633. Alexander Thistlethwaite, Esq. (By the Parlia- ment). Of Winterslow. A Parliament man: taken prisoner at Marlborough. (Waylen’s Marlborough, p. 232). Sir Henry Chalk. (? Choke). (By the King). Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Bart. (By the Parliament). Afterwards first Earl of Shaftesbury. Edward Tooker, Esq. Of Maddington. See pedigree B. and D. 37. Cuarues II. From 30th January, 1648-9. CoMMONWEALTH. William Calley, Esq. Of Burderop, (see Waylen’s Marlborough 247). Thomas Bond, Esq. Of Ogbourne St. George: afterwards Knighted. Se- cretary to Lord Chancellor Egerton. (See Burke’s Extinct Baronets). Lawrence Washington, Esq. Of Garsden near Malmsbury. Son of Sir Lawrence Washington purchaser of that estate. Pedigree in Baker’s Northamptonshire, p. 514. Sir Henry Clerk, Knt. Of Enford near Amesbury. Thomas Long, Esq. Of Little Cheverell. Buried there in 1665. Hugh Awdley, Esq. John Dove, Esq. Of Salisbury. The year of Penruddock and Grove’s execution. (Sce Sir K, C. Hoare’s Hundred of Everley, p. 17, and Amesbury 138). Robert Hippesley, Esq. Of Stanton Fitzwarren near Highworth. 222 REGNAL YEAR. 9 10 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 1659 1660 1661 1662 1663 1664 1665 1666 1667 1668 1669 1670 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. (? Robert) Hippesley, Esq. John Ernle, Esq. Of Bourton in Bishop’s Cannings, and of Whetham. Son of the Sheriff 22 Elizabeth. William Burgess, Esq. (? Isaac. Waylen’ s Marlborough, p. 282). Edward Horton, Esq. Of Great Chalifeld- near Bradford. END OF COMMONWEALTH. 29th May, 1660. Sir James Thynne, Knt. Of Longleat. Son of the Sheriff 5 James I. Father of Thomas Thynne who was murdered in 1682. Sir Walter Ernle, Bart. Of Etchilhampton. Nephew of the Sheriff of 1658, Sir Henry Coker, Knt. Of Hill Deverill. Married the heiress of Ludlow. His portrait in the History of Heytesbury, p. 30. Sir Edward Bayntun, K.B. Of Bromham. Son of the Sheriff of 1637. Married the daughter of Sir James Thynne. Thomas Mompesson, Esq. Of Corton in Boyton. (Pedigree Heyts. 219); sce also Coll. Top. et Gon, V. 347, note). Sir John Weld, Knt. Of Compton Basset; where he built the present house. Charles Willoughby, Esq. Of West Knoyle. John Long, Esq. Of Little Cheverell. Son of the Sheriff of 1653. Sir Richard Grobham Howe, Knt. Of Berwick St, Leonard. Grandson of the Sheriff 14 James I. John Hall, Esq. Of Bradford. Sce vol. I, pp. 271, 275. By the Rev. J. E. Fackson. 223 1671} Sir Robert Button, Bart. Of Tockenham Court. Second son of the Sheriff of 1611, 1672} Sir Walter Long, Bart. Of Whaddon. Son of the Sheriff of 1627. 1673 | Walter Smith. Of Shalbourn and Great Bedwyn. 1674| Bernard Pawlet, Esq. Of Cottles near Bradford. Probably son of Giles Pawlett of Cottles, who was fourth in descent from William, first Marquis of Winchester. See Wilts Visitation 1623, 1675 | Thomas Goddard, Esq. Of Swindon. 1676| Sir Matthew Andrews, Knt. Of Mere. (Hundred of Mere, p. 19). 1677 | (Giles Earl: altered to Richard Hart: and after- wards to) John Hawkins, Esq. Of Ashton Keynes. 1678| (John Hawkins, Esq.: altered to) Henry Chivers. Of Calne and Quemerford. See 17 Charles I. 1679 | John Hawkins, Esq. Of Ashton Keynes. 1680.| Giles Earl, Esq. 1681) (John Jacob, Esq.: altered to) Thomas Gore, Esq. The Jacobs were of Norton near Malmesbury, of Clap- cote in Grittleton, and the Rocks in Marshfield. | Mr. Gore of Aldrington, alias Alderton, was a writer of some short heraldic treatises. Having incurred some party animadversion during his shrievalty, he ublished a defence, called, ‘‘ Loyalty displayed, and alsehood unmasked, in a Letter to a Friend, 1681.” Died 1684, and buried at Alderton. 1682, Richard Lewis, Esq. Of Edington. Son of Sir Edward Lewis of the Van, Co. Glamorgan. Buried at Corsham 1706, 1683 Sir Edmund Warneford, Knt. Of Sevenhampton near Highworth. M.P. for Great Bedwyn 1688, 224 REGNAL YEAR, 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689 1689 1690 1691 1692 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. George Willoughby, Esq. Q. of West Knoyle. JAMES II. From 6th February, 1685. (John Davenant: altered to) William Chafyn, Esq. Of Zeals. John Davenant, Esq. Of Landford in Frustfield Hundred. Richard Chaundler, Esq. (? Of Idmiston.) Sir Jeremy Craye, Knt. A person of this name founded a Charity at Horn- ingsham in 1698; probably the Clothier there, who made a large fortune by the invention of an ingenious machine for beating wool. (Aubrey’s MSS.) Craye of Ibsley, Co. Southampton, presented in 1729 and 1737 to the Rectory of Sutton Mandeville. (W.L.) Sir William Pynsent, Bart. [By King James: altered by W. and Mary to John Wyndham]. The builder of Urchfont Manor House. Wr1aMm anp Mary. From 13th Feb., 1689, John Wyndham, Esq. Of Norrington. Dinton was purchased in this year by his family. (Dunworth 107). . (James Blatch: altered to) Stephen Blatch, Esq. Of Westbury; and in 1693 of Brooke House. Henry Wallis, Esq. Of Trowbridge. Henry Nourse, Esq.: (altered to Sir William Pyn- sent, Bart.; and again to H. Nourse). Of Woodlands in Mere. His daughter and heiress married Charles Finch, third Earl of Winchelsea, and was authoress of some poetry. 1693 | Sir Thomas Estcourt, Knt. Of Pinkney. Master in Chancery. 1694 | Sir William Pynsent, Bart. Of Urchfont. See 5 James II. By the Rev. J. E. Fackson. 225 Witham IIT. From 28th December, 1694. Gifford Yerbury, Esq. This family was of Trowbridge, Ramsbury, Coulston, and Chirton. Joseph Houlton, Esq. Of Trowbridge. John Benett, Esq. Of Norton Bavent. Thomas Baskerville, Esq. ? Of Richardston near Winterbourne Basset. (Walter Ernle: altered to) John Curll, Esq. Of Turley near Bradford. Probably the founder of Curll’s Charity, who died 1703. (Joseph Houlton: altered to) Francis Merewether, Esq. Of Easterton in Market Lavington. Richard Jones, Esq. Of Ramsbury. ANNE. From 8th March, 1702. Richard Jones, Esq. (William Willoughby: altered to) Christopher Willoughby, Esq. Of West Knoyle, alias Knoyle Odierne. (Hundred of Mere, p. 40). Richard Long, Esq. Of Collingbourne: who married Elizabeth Long, the heiress of Rood Ashton. Walter Long, Esq. Of South Wraxhall. Died 1731. John Flower, Esq. Of Grimstead, or of Worton near Devizes. (Thomas Blatch : altered to) Andrew Duke, Esq. Of Bulford. Sir James Ashe, Bart. M.P. for Downton in 1701, Francis Kenton, Esq. Sometime M.P. for New Sarum. 2a 10 1709 1710 1711 1712 17138 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 1719 1720 1721 1722 1723 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. (Oliver Calley: altered to) Walter Ernle, Esq. Of Conock. Son of the Sheriff of 14 Charles I. William Benson, Esq. Builder of Wilbury House, Newton Toney. Daniel Webb, Esq. Of Monkton Farley. His only daughter married the eighth Duke of Somerset. John Cox, Esq. Of Kemble near Malmsbury. John Smith, Esq. Of Alton Priors. Buried there. Richard Goddard, Esq. Of Swindon. Grorce. I. From 1st August, 1714. Richard Goddard, Esq. Matthew Pitts, Esq. Of Salisbury. John Eyles, Esq. Of Devizes. (Robert Houlton of Trowbridge: altered to Cal- thorpe Parker Long: and again to) Thomas Bennett, Esq. Of Steeple Ashton. Buried there in 1728. George Speke Petty, Esq. Of Cheney Court and Haselbury House, Box. Buried at Box 27th March, 1719. John Askew, Esq. Q. of Lydiard Millicent. (Caleb Bayley, Esq., of Berwick: altered to) John Vilett, Esq. Of Swindon. Henry Read, Esq. Of Crowood. Edward Hill, Esq, Of Wanborough. Ralph Freke, Esq. Of Hannington near Highworth, REGNAL YEAR. 11 12 18 14 De Siro “Or 11 1725 1726 1727 1728 1729 1730 1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1787 By the Rev. J. EB. Jackson. 227 Joseph Houlton, Esq. Of Farleigh Hungerford, Co. Somerset, which he pur- chased; and of Grittleton, Wilts, by marriage with the heiress of White. John Hippesley, Esq. Of Stanton Fitzwarren. (See 1656). Henry Long, Esq. Of Melksham. Grandson of the Sheriff of 1703. Buried at North Bradley 1727. John Mills, Esq. Of Cherhill, Calne. GrorcE IT. From 11th June, 1727. John Mills, Esq. Walter Hungerford, Esq. Of Studley, Calne. Son of Sir George Hungerford of Cadenham. Henry Hungerford, Esq. Of Fyfield in Milton Lislebonne. Son of Edmund Hungerford of Chisbury. Died 1780. Ezekiel Wallis, Esq. Of Lucknam. Buried at NorthWraxhall, Jan., 1736. Henry Skilling, Esq. Of Draycote Foliot. (See 1520). John Smith, Esq. Of Whitley, Calne. Job Polden, Esq. Of Imber. Buried there in 1750. Thomas Phipps, Esq. Of Westbury Leigh and Chalford. Died 1747. William Vilett, Esq. Of Swindon. Edward Mortimer, Esq. Of Trowbridge. William Hedges, Esq. Of Compton Basset; then of Alderton by marriage with the heiress of the Gores of that place. Buried there in 1757. > 9 aGnk 228 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. 12 1738} Isaac Warriner, Esq. Of Conock ; by marriage with the heiress of Ernle. 13 1739 | WilliamWyndham, Esq. Of Dinton. Son of the purchaser, Died 1762. 14 1740 | Edward Mortimer, Esq. Of Trowbridge. (See 1736). 15 1741} Anthony Guy, Esq.! Of Chippenham. 16 1742| William Batt, Esq. Of Salisbury. 17 1743] John Hippesley, Esq. Of Stanton Fitzwarren. (See 1725). 1 Tre SHERIFF OF WILTS ImpRISONED AT DEvizES.—This outrage was actually committed in 1741, by the partizans of Sir Edmund Thomas and EdwardBayntun Rolt, Esq., at a contested election for the borough of Chippenham; the object being to neutralize the hostile influence of Anthony Guy, Esq., not, of course, in his capacity of High Sheriff of the county, but as being the principal man in Chippenham, and the oldest of the twelve burgesses who claimed the manage- ment of the affairs of that town. The offence, however, was equally great, and it is surprising that no reprisals were made by the injured party. Mr. Guy having declared himself favorable to two other candidates, Alexander Hume and John Frederick, Esquires, it was resolved to get him out of the way, under pretence of an attachment for his Under-Sheriff’s omitting to make return of a writ against one Thomas Brown, for the small sum of £27, (an omission owing to the Under-Sheriff’s illness): and Richard Smith, a coroner of the county, actually proceeded to take Mr. Guy into custody, though that gentleman offered him £10,000 bail for his appearance. At the instigation of John Norris, Adam Tuck, and William Johnson the then bailiff or mayor, the coroner kept Mr. Guy all night in one of the Chippenham inns under a guard of armed men, and the next morning conveyed him with the same convoy to the town of Devizes, where he remained in custody till the election was over ; after which they had the courtesey to carry him back to his own house and set him at liberty. It is hardly necessary to add, that a petition from the unsuccessful candidates appealed against a return effected by such means; but though the Sheriff’s party were finally defeated by a small majority in the House, it does not appear that any attempt was made by their adversaries to disprove the above facts. They simply constitute an additional illustration of the numerous irregularities which, at the period in question, characterised the management of the boroughs and society in general in the provinces, arising out of the balance of the Hanoverian and Jacobite factions. J, WAYLEN. REGNAL YEAR. 1757 1758 By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 229 (John Walters of Titherley: altered to) Fulke Greville, Esq. Of Wilbury House, Newton Toney, 1740-1780. Walter Long, Esq. Of Salisbury and Preshaw, Hants. Godfrey Huckle Kneller, Esq. Illegitimate grandson of the Painter. Of Donhead Hall, Donhead St. Mary. William Phipps, Esq. Of Heywood. Thomas Phipps, Jun. Of Westbury Leigh. Son of the Sheriff of 1734, Receiver General. Thomas Cooper, Esq. Of Salisbury. James Bartlett, Esq. Of Salisbury. Charles Penruddocke, Esq. Of Compton Chamberlayne. Fourth in descent from the Sheriff of 1643. New Style, January 1st, 1752. Thomas Cooper, Esq. Of Cumberwell oa Bradford. Edward Polhill, Esq. Of Heale House, Woodford, near Salisbury. William Phipps, Esq. Of Westbury Leigh. Nephew of the Sheriff of 1734. Arthur Evans, Esq. Of the Close, Salisbury. John Jacob, Esq. Of Tockenham Wick House. Grandson of the Sheriff of 1681. Died s.p.1765. His sister and heiress married John Buxton, Esq., of Shadwell, Norfolk. William Coles, Esq. Of the Close, Salisbury, Thomas Benett, Esq. Of Pyt House. 1 The day of Nomination of Sherifl’s altered to November the 12th. ow om co Woe ols See) ee fen) 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. William Norris, Esq. Of Nonesuch House, Bromham. George Flower, Esq. Of Devizes. GeorcE III. From 25th of October, 1760. George Flower, Esq. Scroop Egerton, Esq. Of Salisbury. Prince Sutton, Esq. Of Devizes. John Talbot, Esq. Of Lacock Abbey. Walter Long, Esq. Of South Wraxhall: afterwards of Whaddon. Died 1807. Benjamin Adamson, Esq. Of Kemble. Edward Medlicott. Of Warminster. Edward Goddard, Esq. Of Cliff Pypard. Edmund Lambert, Esq. Of Boyton. William Talk, Esq. Alderman of Salisbury. Buried at Damerham 1797. Left £3,000 to the Parish of St. Martin, Sarum. Thomas Maundrell, Esq. Of Blacklands near Calne. William Langham, Esq. Of Ramsbury Manor, by marriage with the coheiress of W. Jones, Esq. Took the name of Jones. Baronet 1774. Died s.p. 1791. Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, Esq. Of the College, Salisbury. Edward Poore, Esq. Of Rushall, which he purchased, Thomas Estcourt, Esq. Of Newnton. Francis Dugdale Astley, Esq. Of Everley. Died 1818. REGNAL YEAR, 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 231 William Northey, Esq. Of the Ivy House, Chippenham. Joseph Colborne, Esq. Of Hardenhuish, Chippenham. William Beach, Esq. Of Nether Ayon House. Buried at Fittleton, June, 1790. Robert Cooper, Esq. Of Salisbury. (See 1749). Paul Cobb Methuen, Esq. Of Corsham House. M.P. for Great Bedwyn. Buried at North Wraxhall, September, 1816. William Hayter, Esq. Of Newton Toney. William Bowles, Esq. Of Heale House. Died 1826, Thomas Hussey, Esq. Of Salisbury. William Chafyn Grove, Esq. Of Zeals House, Mere. John Sutton, Esq. Of Roundway, Devizes. Seymour Wroughton, Esq. Of Eastcott. Isaac William Webb Horlock, Esq. Of Ashwick, Marshfield, Co. Gloucester. Robert Ashe, Esq. Of Langley Burrell. Thomas Grove, Esq. Of Ferne. Gifford Warriner, Esq. Of Conock. Grandson of the Sheriff of 1788. Died 1820. John Awdry, Esq. Of Notton, Lacock. Matthew ag ame Esq. Of the Ivy House, Chippenham. John Gaisford, Esq. Of Tford House near Bradford. Father of Dr. Thomas Gaisford, Dean of Christ Church. Buried at Westbury 1810, 232 REGNAL YEAR. 35 36 Ov 38 39 40 Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Richard Godolphin Long, Esq. Of Rood Ashton. M.P. for Wilts. Died 1835. James Montagu, Esq. Of Alderton and Lackham. Gilbert Trew Beckett Turner, Esq. Of Penley House, Westbury. Died 1809. Sir John Methuen Poore, Bart. Of Rushall. Second son of the Sheriff of 1773. Died s.p. 1820. John Benett, Esq. Of Pyt House. M.P. for Wilts from 1819 to 1852. Son of the Sheriff of 1758. Edward Hinxman, Esq. Of Little Durnford; purchased by him in 1795. George Yalden Forte, Esq. Of Alderbury. Thomas Bush, Esq. Of Bradford. Sir Andrew Bayntun, Bart. Of Spy Park. Died 1816. Thomas Henry Hele Phipps, Esq. Of Leighton House, Westbury. Grandson of the Sheriff of 1748. Wadham Locke, Esq. Of Rowde near Devizes. Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart. Of Stourhead. The Historian of South Wilts. Died 19th May, 1838, John Paul Paul, Esq. Of Ashton Keynes. Thomas Calley, Esq. Of Burderop Park. John Houlton, Esq. Of Grittleton, Wilts, and Farley Castle, Co. Somerset. Lt.-Col. of Somerset Militia. Died 1839, Sir Charles Warre Malet, Bart. Of Wilbury House. 59 60 I oar © DO & & 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 | By the Rev. J. E. Fackson. 233 Abraham Ludlow, Esq. Of Heywood House, Westbury. Died at Rouen 1822. Harry Biggs, Esq. Of Stockton. Died 1856. Sir William Pierce Ashe A’Court, Bart. Of Heytesbury House. William Fowle, Esq. Of Chute. William Wyndham, Esq. Of Dinton. Grandson of the Sheriff of 1739. George Eyre, Esq. Of Bramshaw. John Hussey, Esq. Of Salisbury. John Hungerford Penruddocke, Esq. Of Compton Chamberlayne, Grandson of the Sheriff of 1753. M.P. for Wilton. Alexander Powell, Esq. Of Hurdeott. John Long, Esq. Of Monkton Farleigh. Brother of the Sheriff of 1794. Died 1833. GxrorceE IV. From 29th January, 1820. John Long, Esq. Ambrose Goddard, Esq. Of Swindon. Ambrose Awdry, Esq. Of Seend near Devizes. Edward Phillips, Esq. Of Melksham. John Fuller, Esq. Of Neston Park in Corsham. Sir Edward Poore, Bart. Of Rushall. Ernle Warriner, Esq. Of Conock. See 12 George II, Thomas Clutterbuck, Esq. Of Hardenhuish. 2H 234 REGNAL YEAR. 8 10 11 oo F CO YO A.D. 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 Sheriffs of Wiitshire. Thomas Baskerville Mynors Baskerville, Esq. Of Rockley House near Marlborough. Took the name of Baskerville 1817. M.P. for Herefordshire. pects Wroughton Wroughton, Esq. O Wilcot House near Pewsey, peor Heneage Walker Heneage, Esq. Of Compton Basset. Edward William Leybourne Popham, Esq. Of Littlecote House, Wu1am IV. From 26th June, 1830. BW. b. Cee Esq. Paul Methuen, Esq. Of Corsham House. Sir Edmund William Antrobus, Bart. Of Amesbury. William Temple, Esq. Of Bishopstrow, Warminster. Thomas Bolton, Esq. Of Brickworth. Afterwards third Baron and second Earl Nelson. Henry Seymour, Esq. Of Knoyle. Sir John Dugdale Astley, Bart. Of Everley. Sir Frederick Hutchison Harvey Bathurst, Bart. Of Clarendon. VicroRIA. From 20th June, 1837. Sir F. H. H. Bathurst, Bart. Thomas Assheton Smith, Esq. Of Tidworth House near Ludgershall. Charles Lewis Phipps, Esq. Of Wans House. Brother to the Sheriff of 1803. William Henry Fox Talbot, Esq. Of Lacock Abbey. te ee o> 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 235 Ambrose Hussey, Esq. Of Salisbury. Frederick William Rooke, Esq. Of Lackham, by purchase from the Montagu family. Captain R.N. Died 1856. Henry Stephen Olivier, Esq. Of Potterne. George Edward Eyre, Esq. Of Warrens, Bramshaw. Wade Browne, Esq. Of Monkton Farleigh. The Honorable Jacob Pleydell Bouverie, Viscount Folkstone. Of Longford Castle. Wadham Locke, Esq. Of Ashton Giffard. Eldest son of the Sheriff of 1804. John Henry Campbell Wyndham, Esq. Of the Close, Salisbury. Robert Parry Nisbet, Esq. Of South Broom House, Devizes. M.P. for Chippenham 1856. Henry Gaisford Gibbs Ludlow, Esq. Of Heywood, Westbury. Son of the Sheriff of 1810. Graham Moore Michell Esmeade, Esq. Of Monkton, Chippenham. John Bird Fuller, Esq. Of Neston Park, Corsham. Son of the Sheriff of 1823, Francis Leybourne Popham, eel Of Littlecote. Second son of the Sheriff of 1830. Edmund Lewis Clutterbuck, Esq. Of Hardenhuish. Eldest son of the Sheriff of 1826. Simon Watson Taylor, Esq. Of Urchfont. Eldest son of the late George Watson Taylor, Esq. of Erlestoke. Charles William Miles, Esq. Of Burton Hill House, Malmsbury. 2H 2 Denies Seals. The annexed plate exhibits the ancient and present Seals of the Burgesses, and the Seal of the Mayor of Devizes. No. 1. This Seal is two-and-a-half inches in diameter, and appears to have been engraved in the fifteenth century. The device is a Castle, having in the outer wall a high portal or gateway between two small circular turrets, each surmounted with a conical capping: the gateway has a semicircular arch, and is defended by a portcullis. An embattled tower rising in the centre of the inner court represents the keep, and on either side of it is a star of six points. The legend is in black letter:—“*% Sigillum comune burgeium ni Regis vibisar.” No. 2. A Seal of much smaller proportions than that above described, but bearing the device of a Castle similarly represented. Its date may be referred to the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Legend :— “i SIGILL’ . OFFICII . MAIOR . BVRGI. DNE. REGI . DIVISAR.” No. 3. The present Seal of the Mayor and Burgesses of Devizes. It is of the same size as the earlier Seal, No. 1, but is far inferior to it in point of design. The form of the Castle also varies very considerably ; beneath is the date “1608” (6 James I.) Legend :— “ #. SIG’ COMVNE . MAIORIS . ET. BVRGENSI . BVRGI.DNI. REGIS. DE. DEVIZES. IN.COM. Wik’? The Rev. James Dallaway in “An attempt to describe the first Common Seal used by the Burgesses of Bristol,” printed in vol. Bevizex Sealy. Edw. Kite Py del e raeaetal _-—_—> Devizes Seals. 237 xxi of the “Archzologia,” and also in the “Antiquities of Bristow,” 1834, has the following remarks relative to the device of a castle, as borne on each of the Devizes Seals. ‘‘Upon an inspection of the more ancient Borough Seals, I believe it will be found that the device of a Castle is peculiar, in a great degree, to those which were under the jurisdiction of a feudal lord, from whom they derived all their municipal privileges, and that the representation of a Castle was retained upon those seals, as evidence of their original dependance, long after their liberties were confirmed.” The device thus borne by the early Burgesses of Devizes on their common seal, (in reference to the fortress of that place, erected, or rather re-edified, by Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, temp. Henry I.), was afterwards adopted as the armorial bearing of the town, and confirmed to the Mayor and Burgesses by the Heralds at their several Visitations of the County. The following memorandum, copied from the Wilts Visitation of 1565 in the Library of the British Museum, (MS. Harl. No. 1443), accompanies a sketch of the arms of Devizes. ‘* These Armes are apperteining and belonging to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the Towne and Borough of the Deuises, in the County of Wilts. Which Armes I Clarenceux, King of Armes, haue not oneley Ratified and Con- firmed to the said Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgisses, and their successors, but also recorded the same in thisVisitacon, made in the Countie of Wilton. At which tyme Edward Haynes was Mayor; Thomas Hull, Coroner; Richard Bayle, Robert Lewyn, John Blanford, Henry Morrys, Anthony Cley, John Burd, and JohnWytts, Aldermen; Henry Grubb and Nicholas Alleyne, Constables; Richard Gifford and Henry Smith, Bayleiffs; John Hodnett, Recorder and Townclark ; Christopher Jones and William Smith, Vnder Aldermen of the said Towne and Borough.” Another memorandum which follows, is taken from the Wilts Visitation of 1623, (MS. Harl. No. 1165). ‘These are the Armes and comon Seale of the Towne and Borough of the Devises in the Countie of Wilts, which hath bene incorporated by the auncient Kings of this Land, as, namely, by Maude the Empresse, and confirmed by the succeedinge Kings, as Hen. 2, Kinge John, Hen. 3, Edw. 3, Richard 2, Henr. 5, Hen. 6, Hen. 8, Edw. 6, Queene Elizabeth, with divers Privilidges and greate Imunities, by the name of Major and Burgesses of the Borough of the Deyises, all which privilidges and Imunities were ratified and confirmed by our Soveraigne Lord King James, the 10 day of Julie, in the 3 yeare of his Highness Raigne, And at this present Visitacon the 4 daye of October, 1623, was John Allen, 1A drawing and description of the Seal of 1608, with this memorandum annexed, will be found in the British Museum, Additional MS§,, No, 5832, p.171. 238 Devizes Seals. Major; Robert Drew, Esq., and John Kent, Towne Clarke, all 3 Justices of the Peace within the saide Borough; Sir Edw. Bainton, Sir Hen. Ley, Knighte ; Rich. Fflower, Thos. Whitacre, Nicholas Barret, John Nicholas, Edw. Northey, Edw. Lewes, John Thurman, Robt. Fflower, Edw. Hope, Thomas Lewen, Christopher Clarke, Richard Dernford, Stephen Fflower, and Thomas Potter, Cheiffe Burgesses and Councellots of the sayd Borough; Edward Northey and Thomas Lewen, Chamberlins; George Morris and Nicholas Sanford, Constables; John Watts and Richard Peirse, Baileiffes of the said Towne and Borough.” A question may arise whether the building delineated on the earlier seal is merely an invention, or intended to represent the original fabric of Devizes Castle, as extant at the period when the seal was engraved. The semicircular arch of the gateway seems certainly to be suggestive of a building of Norman date; and as the castle, for instance, engraved upon the early seal of Norwich will be found to bear a striking resemblance in its outline to the ancient and still remaining fortress of that city, so it may, perhaps, be reasonably inferred, in the absence of any positive proof, that a similar representation of the Castle of Devizes was intended by the engraver of the ancient Seal of that borough. The Seals, Nos. 2 and 3, both appear to be of a date subsequent to the existence of Devizes Castle in its original state, the former is an exact copy of No. 1, and the latter, although it retains the principal features of the castle as represented on the earlier seals, must necessarily be regarded as displaying a certain amount of more recent invention. One of the occasional uses of Borough Seals may be seen in the following mandate, issued 14th Richard II. [1390], abbreviated. ‘‘The King to the Sheriff of Wilts, Greeting :—Whereas by the statute lately made at Cambridge, it was ordained, among other things, that no servant or labourer, whether man or woman, should quit the hundred, rape, or wapentake where he dwells, before the end of his term, to serve or abide elsewhere, unless he carry with him a letter-patent under our seal, stating the cause of his going and the time of his return :—We command you with all the authority we possess, that, all excuses set aside, you cause that our seal for this purpose shall be forthwith made for each hundred, wapentake, rape, city and borough within your bailiwick, and delivered into the hands of such person in each place as the local Justice of the peace shall deem fit and trustworthy :—such seal to be executed in latten metal, and to have the name of your county engrayen round its edge, and the name of the hundred or town across its field, Zeste Rege apud Westm. VIII die Marci. Epwarp Kire. Devizes, October 1st, 1856. * Slont . Bt George, Preshute, Uilts. SL e— 239 Fout in the Church of St. Grarge, Presbute, Wilts, The Font represented in the annexed plate has been for several centuries preserved in the Church of Preshute near Marlborough, and is, perhaps, more generally known in connection with an ancient and somewhat common tradition, than as an architectural relic, affording an interesting example of early art. Camden has described it as being in his day one of the principal boasts of the Inhabitants of Marlborough. “They brag of nothing more than of the Font, probably of touch-stone, (Lapis obsidianus) in the neighbouring Church of Preshut, in which, as the tradition goes, several Princes were heretofore baptised.’ Camden is, however, incorrect in his conjecture as to its material, which will be found upon inspection to be black marble, and, unlike touch-stone, easily acted upon by the application of an acid. The tradition which he alludes to is, that either King John, or some members of his family, were baptized in the Font; and that this story is not without probability, may, perhaps, appear from the following circumstances. The Font is of Norman date, and may be referred to the early half of the 12th century. Mr. Waylen, in his “ History of Marl- borough,” p. 31, expresses an opinion that it originally stood in the Chapel of St. Nicholas, within the walls of Marlborough Castle, and, that on the dismantling of that fortress in after years, was bankfepred to the neighbouring Church of Preshute, in which parish the greater portion of the Castle grounds lay. From the same work, p. 30, it also appears that Henry II., soon after his accession to the throne, granted to his son John, Earl of 1 Gough, in his ‘‘ Additions to Camden’s Britannia” remarks that ‘the _ present Inhabitants seem to have forgot the tradition that prevailed in Camden’s time about their Font, which is a plain bason of dark grey marble, two feet and a half diameter at top, ending in an inyerted cone,” 240 Font in the Church of St. George, Preshute, Wilts. Mortagne, (afterwards King John), the Castle and Manor of Marl- borough, the former of which was selected by the Prince at a later date (1189), as the scene of his marriage with the heiress of the Earl of Gloucester. It seems, therefore, very probable, in accordance with the tradition, that the rite of Baptism may have been administered to some member, or members, of his family, at the Font in the Castle Chapel. About two years ago, when the Church of Preshute was partially rebuilt, the Font was repaired. It is proposed, therefore, briefly to notice some of its more remarkable features, as well as the steps which were at that time taken for its preservation. Its form, as will be seen from the drawing, is circular; the shaft is quite plain, the bowl and base exhibit various mouldings of the Norman style, consisting chiefly of rounds, hollows, and fillets. The following are some of its principal measurements :— ftses thls ftin: Height of Bowhiiiee. MOVs ei. 1 aa Me bin Spahate sia aiefal aah deveate 0 73 2 92 y, ay OP pscod coe. vance 0 7 Greatest diameter of Bowl................ 3 6 5 5 SHattyy. MSie. ee... 70 pS dj IBaBe of. Ads saydetet (et oa 3 OF Diameter of interior of Bowl.............. 2 92 epg Gl OWE cocci eco mes Mee as capie as sie io The size of the bowl, as will be seen by its measurement, con- siderably exceeds that of an ordinary Font. It was, together with the shaft, originally polished within as well as without, and does not appear to have been lined with lead, this, owing to the hardness of the material, not being required. In the centre is a drain. The edges bear some traces of the staples by means of which the cover was formerly fastened. ~ The bowl, owing to the partial decay of its material, had become cracked and divided into two or three separate portions. This was remedied by affixing a narrow band of brass, about an inch in width, around the circumference of the bowl, on a flat surface between the mouldings, near its upper edge. A considerable quantity of the base had also been chipped off, and, no doubt carried away by persons anxious to possess some memento of their visit. The whole Pilgrims to Rome from Co. Wilts and Diocese of Sarum. 241 has now been firmly fastened together, the decayed and broken portions filled in with cement, containing a sufficient quantity of finely powdered black marble to give it the exact appearance of the Font itself; a flat cover of oak, ornamented with iron-work, has been substituted for a former one, long since lost or destroyed, and the entire surface of the exterior, as well as the interior, re-polished, thus preserving it as nearly as possible in its original state. E. K. Devizes, October 1st, 1856. Pilgrims ta Rome from the County of Wilts and Diocese uf Sarum, IN THE YEARS 1504-1507, 1581-1587. The following names have been selected from a list printed in “Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,” vol. V., p. 62, and extracted from the Records of the English College at Rome. The Hospital of the English at Rome, now the English College, _ is said to have been founded in 1531, by John Shepherd, and the _ letters of Gregory XIII., by which he authorized the change, both in the name and character of the building, are dated Ist May, 1579. On the 29th December, 1580, the College took possession of the Hospital and its property, charged, however, with the duty of continuing to entertain the English coming to the Holy City, the poor for eight, and the gentry for three days. The list above-mentioned, (which is written in Latin), contains the names of 579 English Pilgrims entertained at the Hospital from November 4th, 1504, to May 4th, 1507, of which number the nine individuals only whose names are annexed, belonged either to the County of Wilts or Diocese of Sarum. From November 4th, 1504, to May 4th, 1505 :— Gentry. None. Poor. Thomas Williams of Stipleaston in the County of Wilts, came on the 20th of April, and died in the 21 pr emote 242 The Office of Awakener. Hospital on the 24th following: having been, before his admission, brought to Death’s door by an incurable dysentery. From May 4th, 1505, to May 4th, 1506 :— Gentry. January 4th. Sir Richard Hilley, Treasurer of Sarum.! April 5th. Sir Thomas Luddam, Vicar of Wulle,’ in the Diocese of Sarum. Poor. None. From May 4th, 1506, to May 4th, 1507:— Gentry. None. Poor. Richard Alway of Colorne near Bath, came on 8th May, and was in the Hospital from illness 24 days. John Ruthbey, of Malmysbury in Co. Wilts, came on 24th May. October 23rd. Lionel Holden, a monk of Malmysbury. Henry Wulley of Amysbury in the Diocese of Sarum. April 28th. Robert Bocbery of Sarum, glover. 29th. John Marys of Heytisbury in the Dioc. of Sarum. In a second list of nearly three hundred Pilgrims who visited the College between 1581 and 1587, the two following names only of Wiltshire persons occur. 1583. 21st September. William Staverton of Salisbury. 1585. 19th September. Daniel Gages of Salisbury. E. K. Che Ofice of Swakener. I find that in two instances the office of Awakener (during divine service) was held together with the office of Dog-rapper, and it appears from the following extracts from the reports of the Charity Commissioners, that in these instances the joint office had an endowment. 1 Richard Hilley was Treasurer of Sarum from 1505 to 1533. See the list in Dodsworth’s ‘Salisbury Cathedral,” Appendix ITI, p. 235. 2 Perhaps the Chapelry of Wool in Combe Keynes, Co. Dorset. The Office of Awakener. 243 ** Parish of Claverly, County of Salop :— **Richard Dovey of Farmeote in this Parish, by feoffment dated 23rd August, 1659, gave a house and land situate at Claverly and Alverley, to John Saunders and others their heirs and assigns in trust (inter alia), ‘to pay yearly the sum of eight shillings to a poor man of the said parish, who should undertake to awaken sleepers, and to whip the dogs from the Church of Claverley during divine service.’ ”’ Char. Com. Rep. IV., p. 248. ** Parish of Trysull, County of Stafford :— ‘John Rudge, by his will dated 17th April, 1725, charges his lands at Seisdon with an Annuity of £7 10s.: viz. 30s. to each of three alms houses; £2 to the poor; and the further sum of 20s., being the remainder of the said Annuity, he gaye, payable at five shillings a quarter, to a poor man to go about the Parish Church of Trysull during sermon, to keep people awake and to keep the dogs out of the Church. ‘The present owner is Cornelius Cartwright, Esq., by whom the Annuity is duly paid, in sums of 30s. each to the three alms houses; £1 to a poor man for awakening sleepers in the church and keeping out dogs; and £2 to the Trustees for the use of the Poor.” Id.V., p. 634, It should not be forgotten, that in the time of the Puritans the sermons were of much greater length than at present, and from the Reformation, and in particular during the Commonwealth, an hour-glass was placed in a frame near the pulpit, which the clergy- man set running at the commencement of his sermon, and when it had run the hour, turned it for a second hour. In many places these hour-glasses, or at least their stands, remain to this day. In the Churchwardens accounts of Ogbourne St. George in this county, (which have been recently mis-laid), there are, between the years 1622 and 1657, several entries of £6 Paid. for & howar-Glass . < «ji sf-,<'s «0/0192 i010 x4., is» or viiid- ” Mr. Rushworth, the Secretary of the Lord General Fairfax, in his Collections, (vol. VII, p. 772), gives the following statement as to two Puritanical sermons being preached before the House of Commons, one immediately after the other. 1647, August 11th. Ordered by both Houses, that the two Sermons to be preached before the Houses to-morrow, being Thanksgiving Day, should be immediately one after the other without intermission,” Here the services of an awakener might possibly have been required. Did such an office ever exist in Wiltshire, or in the Diocese of Sarum ? F. A. Carrineton. Piggy, 244 Foster of Marlborough. As a somewhat inaccurate account of Sir Michael Foster’s family was published in Mr. Waylen’s “ History of Marlborough,” page 392, the following pedigree has been compiled from authentic sources, and may, perhaps, be sufficiently interesting to deserve a place in the Wiltshire Magazine. Little else is required to complete Mr. Waylen’s account except that the following letter, written to one of Sir Michael’s executors by Hugh, Earl of Northumberland, at that time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, will corroborate the historian’s testimony as to the Judge’s eminence in public life, and his general uprightness of character. It had been announced to the Earl, that Sir Michael had left him a legacy of one hundred guineas in these terms: “I desire the Right Honourable, The Earl of Northumberland, to accept of a Legacy of One Hundred Guineas, which I give him as a Testimony of the high Honour I have for him, and the most Noble House to which he is happily allied.” Dublin Castle, March 6th, 1764, Sr. It was a very sincere concern to me to hear of the death of Mr. Justice Foster; a man of his Abilities and Integrity is as great a loss to the Public as to his Family and Friends. The obliging mark he has left me of his kind Remem- brance I set a true and sincere value upon, as being a Testimony of the Regard of so worthy a man, whose character and person I truly reyer’d. I sincerely condole with you for the loss of so estimable a Relation and Friend, and at the same time return you my best thanks for your obliging Expressions of Attach- ment to me, which I should have done much sooner, but that a severe fit of the Gout has deprived me of the use of my right hand for near two months. I am, with great truth and Esteem, Sr Your most faithfull Humble Servant, NORTHUMBERLAND. Mr. Waylen has mentioned an engraved portrait of the Judge by James Basire, at page 397. There are three excellent paintings, ee St. Peter’s 26th January, 1691-2. ae di bap, Curistorner, Karnarine, J aes. oh oe uly, born 25th Jan. bap. 11 Apr. buried th April,ir, ‘at 1668-9, bur. 1673, bur.at at St. “they Jans 16 at St. Peter’s St.Peter’s26 Peter's a atj67, 2Jan.,1683-4. Oct., 1692. 5 Jan., ecember, 1674.5. JouN Fost:py Dopson et ome Farringdon, sigie, DWA., married St. Peter’s st. Peter's August, 1}, June,1729, 17th April, 5, aged 65, ied at St. ry’s. married & ob. 1761, Han NAH=WIt1L1AM HAWKES FostER, born 1694, died 2nd May, 1768 buried at St.Peter’s. of Marlborough, Clerk of the Peace for the County of Wilts, son of Sam. Hawkes, buried at St. Peter’s 4 Feb., 1742-3, MicHart Saran and ELizaABetH Foster, died in infancy. cel, Mary, marr. 12 June, Merriman of Marlbo- rough, enjamin ELIZABETH, mar. John Rogers of London, Banker. TANNAD, marr. John Davies of Calne. all, Co. Stafford, and Ogbourn St. Andrew, of the Rey, Francis ford, Co. Notts., born od 18th April, 1829, farlborough. PEDIGREE OF FOSTER OF MARLBOROUGH. Anws.—Ermine, on a Chevron, Vert, between three Bugles stringed, Sable, an Escallop, Or. Micuazt Foster of Marlborough, buried at St. Peter’s 4th May, Saar + +++... daughter of.... rae Fosrer of Marlborough, an attorney, buried at St. Peter’s 1st January, ee daughter of ........ buried at St. Peter's 26th January, 1691-2 3 4601-2, nea kowrarl sr ttt. - James, bur. Jamzs, bapt. Roserr, bapt. Tuomas, bap. ; an. of Richard=MrcHaEt FostrR=AnNN. widow of Simon, Samvet, bap, Cuntsr 2 Aer See ana Hern of Marlborough, Robert Butcher, 18th July, 19th March, 30 September, 5th August, baptized 17th of July, born O5th Jar ee anes Jou, 5th April, 1657; married | an attorney, born jun., married at 1659. 1660-61,bur. 1662, bur. at 1664, bur. at 29May, 1667, bur. at 1668-9, bur, na SEES buried 26th January, 1679-80, | 8th Nov., 1658, Preshute, 6th A child not at St. Peter's St. Peter's, $0 St. Peter's 19 1666." St. Peter's 16 at St. Peters StPotewese ties buried at St. Peter’s 26 | died in 1720. June, 1699,bur. named, bur. 23May,1661. October, 1683. August, 1664, Sept., 1667, 2Jan., 1683-4. Oct ae rol December, 1697. at St. Mary’s 12 26 January, " . peulsy Tate May, 1713, sp. 1657-8. 1674.9. | ; Foster, Srr Mrcwarn Fostrr—Manrna, dau. Roger Ewun—Saran Fostrr,—=Rey. WILLIAM Jones, Karnarme Exrizanrru—Josrrn Dopson Ha = pales of Stanton Drew, Co. and coheiress of Draycot | born 1683, died 2nd husband, s.p. Foster, brn Fosrer, brn | of Farringdon, Gate: 4 Merete ee single, bur. at Somerset, Knt., born of James Lyde Foliot near | 22nd February, 1686, died 1692, bur.) M.A., married born 1694, | Clerk of the Pate St. Peter’s 9th 16th December, 1689. ofStantonwick Swindon,mar. | 1779, buried at single, bur. atSt.Mary’s| at St. Peter’s died 2nd Fee Geen August, 1717. Of Exeter Coll.,Oxon, Co. Somerset, at Ogbourn | Milton Lislebon at St.Peter’s 24th Sept., | 30thJune,1729, May, 1768 | Wilts, son of Beant Rati of Sel a ee eee ae Sifomaaey, 11To, | di Ave ue | n,n 735, Serjeant-at-la H ept., 22-3, 755, ed 65 Peter's. 3 ) " 1736, Penne Judge of May, 1758, died 17 Oct., EAT St. sais nore 4 Feb, the Court of King’s aged 57 years, 1722,aged 55, Mary’s. Bench 22 April,1745, bur. at Stan- bur. at Swin- died s.p. 7th Noy., ton Drew. don. 1763, bur. at Stanton Drew. Will & Codicil dated 16 and 27 May, 17638, proved in Lon- | don 7th Jan., 1764. : | le saat ales RooEr Ewen, MICHAEL Ewen of Draycot=Pniscrita, dau. Micwart Dopsoy,=EnizanetH, MartHA Samurn Hawkes=Enmanrra, WItLtAM, MIcHAErL Sanam and Enizapern ob. June, 1724 — Foliot and of Milton Lisle- and ecoheiress of Barrister-at-Law, daughter & Dopson, of Ogbourn St. | dau.ofEdw. born1727, FosrEr, died in infancy. aged 5 years, bon, Co, Wilts, Clerk of the John Smith of Com.ofBankrupts, coheiress of ob. sin- Andrew and of Grinfield, married & ob. col. Many, marr. Benjamin Peace for the Counties of Alton Priors,Co. born 21st of Sept., Samuel gle, 23rd Marlborough, born 21st, had issue 12 June, Merriman of Marlbo- Wilts and Somerset, died Wilts,Esq.,born 1732, married at Hawkes, Novem. born 2nd March, | Sept. 1727, 2daurs. 1761. rough, without issue 5th October, 3rd June, 1720, St. Peter’s 31st_of 1794, et. 1726-7, married | ob. 23 July, Enizapern, mar, John ied and was buried at mar. at Alton,6 December, 1778, GO years. at Overton, Co. | 1794, bur, Rogers of London, Milton. Dec., 1744, bur. at Milton, 31st March, 1766. died 13th of Noy., 1799, s.p. Wilts, 2 August, 1753, died 17th February, 1785, bur. at St. Peter's. atSt.Peter’s Banker. Hannan, marr. John Davies of Calne. Exnmasern Hawkes, daughter and coheiress, born 15th Noy., 1756, mar, her cousin Michael Dodson, 31st December, 1778, died in London 11th August, 1811, s.p. Mary Hawkes, died an infant in 1761, buried at St. Peter's 8 February. Hannan Hawxes, eventually sole heir—Jonun Waxp of Stramshall, Co. Stafford, and to Sir Michacl Foster, Michael Ewen, | of Drayeot Foliot and Ogbourn St. Andrew, and Samuel Hawkes, born 3 January, | Co. Wilts, eldest son of the Rey. Francis 1764, married at St. Peter’s 14 January, | Ward, Rector of Stanford, Co. Notts., born 1784, died 24th April, 1843, buried at 30th June, 1756, died 13th April, 1829, St. Mary’s, Marlborough. | buried at St. Mary’s, Marlborough. m™m * The Despencers’ Estates in Wilts. 245 all of which have been engraved. The earliest is a beautiful min- iature in enamel, used by Lady Foster as an ornament, and supposed. to have been painted about the time of their marriage in 1725. A private plate of this was executed in 1831, by E. Scriven, in his best manner. A three-quarter length painting of Sir Michael, in his judicial robes, with a companion picture of Lady Foster, was taken by T. Wills, between the years 1745 and 1748. There is a very good mezzotint of the former, executed by Faber in 1748, and another engraving of the same by an inferior artist. Another excellent portrait, a half-length, painted in after life, probably by Wills. This is the picture engraved by James Basire in 1811, but the plate is not held in much estimation, either as a work of art, or as expressing the extreme benevolence of the Judge’s features, depicted in the original. These portraits are now in the possession of Thomas Rawdon Ward, Esq. Joun Warp. Che Despencers’ Extater in Wilts. Without inflicting on our readers the long story of the rule of the two Despencers in the Court of Edward II.; of their short banishment and recall; how Queen Isabella took the affair into her own hands, and, with the assistance of her favorite knights, drove the King into Wales, and his advisers into other places of refuge; how she stormed the city of Bristol and hung up the elder Despen- cer in his coat of armour; how she pursued the younger Despencer to Hereford, and in like manner suspended him upon a gibbet fifty feet high; how she procured the abdication of her husband and the accession of her youthful son Edward III.; all which belongs to the general history of England: we may, nevertheless, regard the traces left by the belligerent parties in this county, as falling within our legitimate limits, and discover in them additional evidence of the despotism which a court favourite could exercise in the Plan- tagenet age. Edward IIT. being now placed on the throne, the Queen Mother, Isabella, wielded for a brief period an empire almost equal to that 246 The Despencers’ Estates in Wilts. of her son. In conjunction with her paramour, Roger Mortimer, she maintained in Nottingham Castle a retinue (so Speed tells us), of a hundred and fourscore knights beside esquires and gentlemen. To give one example of her power:—it must have been through her influence that the unjust detention of Sir William de la Zouch and Eleanor his wife in Devizes Castle occurred, even while the King and his council were sitting at Windsor. From this harassing duresse, Roger Mortimer threatened the captives that they should purchase deliverance only by the surrender of their lands in Gla- morganshire, of the Manor of Tewkesbury, and of other their lands in Wales, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire. ‘(For the salvation of their lives, and for doubt of death,” they did indeed make over the Castle of Halle, and the chaces of Malvern and Cors, but of course petitioned for restitution as soon as Mortimer in his turn was slain, and Devizes Castle taken out of Isabella’s hands. [See the Zouch petition, on the Rolls 4th Edward III.] To return now to the Despencers :— Though the estates of the elder Hugh le Despencer lay in several counties, the greater part were in Wilts, and his favorite residence appears to have been in the Manor of Fasterne, a spot still distin- guished by the remains of a mansion, where the Englefields, in a subsequent age, lived and died, and where Dryden no doubt spent many a holiday with the Howards. (It is now the property of Lord Clarendon). In addition to his various Wiltshire manors, the names of which will occur in the following memoranda, the elder Despencer was also warden of the forests of Clarendon and Braden, and Constable of the Castles of Devizes and Marlborough, with their valuable appendages. The title of the elder Despencer was Earl of Winchester, that of his son was Earl of Gloucester. The fall of the two favorites was, as might be expected, imme- diately followed by the cry for reparation issuing from the victims of their oppression. The first audible utterances from this county emanate from the Abbat and Convent of Stanley, touching the Manor of Berwick Basser. The Abbat reminds the King and council that in the previous year, 1327, he, and his brethren, had sought ies By Mr. J. Wayjlen. 247 by petition the recovery of Berwick Basset and the presentation to the church there, ravished from them by Hugh le Despencer the elder; but, though the petition was duly enrolled, no one would move in the affair, because the manor in question was in the Queen’s hands. Response: Let the Inquisition come into Chancery. Five years later, unable to obtain justice, the Abbat makes a more lengthy appeal, detailing all his efforts and their fruitless results. The Response this time is an order to Master Geoffrey Serope, who it appears held the record and process in his hand, to surrender the same, in order that the affair might receive a renewed hearing before the Court. Rolls of Parliament, 2nd and 7th Edward III. SHerRincton. Juliana, Isabella, and Emma, heiresses of John Ken of Sherrington, come before the King and council and make the following appeal :—That, whereas their ancestors were seised of a messuage and forty acres of land with appurtenances at Sher- rington, yet Hugh le Despencer, Earl of Winchester, by his great lordliness and power had dispossessed the petitioners, so that neither by law nor by favor could they approach their possessions. There- fore they pray remedy, in consideration of their poverty and long disinherison. Response: Let the muniments of Sir Hugh be searched, and if nothing appear to bar the petition, the King will grant them right. Ibid anno incerto. Braven Foresr. The Guardians and Brethren of the Hospital of St. John at Cricklade, aver that by royal charter they have ever enjoyed free cheminage, going or coming, in Braden Forest, for the transport of firewood, charcoal, or sand; which right Hugh le Despencer has disturbed. Granted. bid. Leprarp Trecoz. Henry at Hok having purchased a messuage and plough-land at Lediard Tregoz, and two rent-charges (southe de rente) in Cricklade, Master Hugh le Despencer the elder came, with force and arms to his residence, and on no other plea than that the lands so purchased were contiguous to his (Despencer’s) Manor of Fasterne, took the petitioner prisoner, tied his hands behind him, and caused him to be led to his prison at Fasterne, where he kept him a whole week, till he induced him to make a 248 The Despencers’ Estates in Wiits. quit-claim of the said property. Response’: If the fact was before the exile of the Despencers, let the process sue according to statute. Ibid. [‘* Henry at Hok,” means Henry who lived at Hook farm near Lediard Tregoz. | Morton Mrysry. John of Meysey complains that Hugh le Despencer took from him his Manor of Morton Meysey, simply because it was adjoining to the said Hugh’s Manor of Fasterne. Response: Let certain persons be assigned in the Chancery to enquire. Ibid. This case, which is the only one in our list couched in English, ends thus.—There are many petitions of this nature for wrongs done by Hugh Spencer father and son.” CutseLpon. John le Ferrour, (iron-smith), of Chiseldon, having lain long in the Marshalsea prison, prays deliverance on the ground that judgment was never given on the alleged felonies and tres- passes for which his enemies indicted him before the itinerant Justices in Wilts. Response: The Marshall and Seneschalls are directed by Chancery brief to take bail if the case be bailable. Ibid. Sueperucce. John, son of Ralph Berd of Sheperugge, prays recovery of a pasture called Forlesse, a meadow called Westmead, and a fishery in the river Loddon there, leased to the elder Despencer, but now in the King’s hands by forfeiture. Ibid a.v. 1347. Sir John Blount makes a similar claim in respect of other lands at Sheperugge. [Sheperugge or Sheep-ridge, now spelt Sheep Bridge, lay in a detached part of the county, between Reading and Strathfieldsaye, and is now included in the County of Berks. | Many years afterwards, when parties were altogether changed, and Thomas le Despencer, the heir, petitioned for a reversal of attainder, in 1397, 21st Richard II., various documents were put in evidence before the King and council, to illustrate on the other hand, the oppressions practised by Queen Isabella’s adherents, while the Despencers were in exile. As some of these point to Wiltshire, we must needs make a further extract. It was now remembered, among other things, how the Earl of Hereford, Roger Mortimer the nephew, Roger Mortimer the uncle, Roger Damory, John de Mowbray, Hugh Audley the father, Hugh Wiltshire Notes and Queries. 249 Audley the son, Roger Clifford of Brimsfeld, Maurice Berkeley, Henry Tyeis, and John Mautravers, with their adherents, came, on a certain occasion, with force and arms, to the Manor of Fasterne, belonging to the said Hugh le Despencer the elder, and notoriously entered upon not only this manor, but all these following in Wilts: Wotton Basset, Tockenham, Brotetoune (Braden), Compton, Win- terbourne, Berwick, Send-Uphaven, Nether-Uphaven, Mershton, Chelesworth, Marden, Somerford, Hampton, Eton Beaumys (now in Berks), with their members and appurtenances; the said persons possessing themselves of the entire live and dead stock there found; taking from the houses furniture, arms, armour, and lead; rifling and pillaging the inmates; taking the rents and debts of the tenants; destroying the parks, hedges, and fishponds, and hunting the deer: and at Compton and some other places, even burning the houses, to the damage to the said Hugh (including ravages in other parts), of at least £30,000. On the same occasion the said persons entered the Abbey of Stanley in Wilts, and there breaking open the said Hugh’s coffers, carried off one thousand pounds in money, together with his charters and other muniments, letters obligatory, cups of gold and silver, a vessel of silver, and other jewels, to the value of one thousand pounds. They then entered into our lord the King’s Castle of Marlborough with force and arms, and there possessed themselves of the following articles belonging to the said Hugh ; that is to say, thirty-six sacks of wool, six pair of rich vestments, a library, a cup of gold for containing the body of our Lord (the Host), a cross of gold, a cross of ivory and ebony, and other ornaments appendant to his chapel there: to wit, cloth of gold, tapestry, coverlids, and other articles of the wardrobe, altogether amounting to £6,000. . J. WAYLEN. Wiltshire Motes and Queries. NOTE ON “CARDUUS TUBEROSUS.”—Linn. By Tuomas Bruaus Frower, M.R.C.S., F.L.S., &e. At the General Meeting of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society, held at Warminster in August last, a 2k 250 Wiltshire Notes and Queries. considerable degree of interest was manifested by the exhibition in the temporary museum, of a living plant of the rare “ Carduus tuberosus,” (Linn), which had been presented to Mr. Wheeler many years since by the late Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq., who origi- nally discovered it in August, 1818, growing profusely in a truly wild thicket of brush-wood, called Great Ridge, on the Wiltshire downs, between Boyton House and Fonthill, as a species new to the British Flora. This thistle not having been found for some years in the above locality, which is the only one at present known for it in England, induces me to draw up a short description of this species, in order that it may not escape the observation of those Botanists resident in the county, who may feel desirous of visiting its locality during the ensuing summer. The “ Carduus tuberosus.” Circium of Koch and Decandolle. Tuberosus Plume Thistle, or Boyton Thistle as it is more frequently called in the neighbourhood, may readily be known by its woody creeping root, sending down perpendicularly many elliptical, taper- ing, fleshy knobs, externally blackish. Stem about two feet high, erect straight, nearly solid, round furrowed, hairy, leafy, not at all winged, either quite simple and single flowered, or dividing with a branch or two near the top. Leaves green, and downy above, pale and cottony beneath; all deeply pinnatified with divided spinous pointed lobes, fringed with fine prickles, the lower ones on long, slightly winged footstalks, upper nearly sessile; none decurrent. Flowers solitary at the summit of the stem or branch, erect, bright purple, twice the size of “Carduus palustris” or arvensis, and more resembling “‘heferophyllus,” but smaller; Calyx ovate, with spreading leafy scales, a little cottony, several of the outermost tipped with small spines. Seeds short, obovate, with long, slender, feathery down. It is Perennial, flowering in August. Such is the excellent description drawn up for this species, by my late valued friend Professor Don, who gathered the plant in company with Mr. Lambert, for many succsssive seasons. Two other localities were published some few years since, for this supposed species, one by Mr. Westcombe, in the first volume of the “ Phytologist,” p. 780, between S¢. Donat’s and Dunraven, Wiltshire Notes and Queries. 251 Glamorganshire: the other by Mr. 8. P. Woodward, on the farm of Mr. Thomas Arkell at Penhill, about two miles from Swindon. From both these stations I have been favoured with specimens, which are now considered to be referable to very luxuriant examples of “©. pratensis” rather than “C. tuberosus.” I may add that luxuriant states of “CO. pratensis” differs from the ordinary form by its much more pinnatified and lobed leaves, and its heads of flowers often two or three, almost close together, but each one single on a long peduncle, the root has fleshy fusiform fibres or tubers, and is also stoloniferous. Thus it will be seen, that as yet no other habitat is certainly known for this very local plant, which has been found by so few English Botanists, besides the original one in this County, (Wilts). Should this slight sketch afford any gratification to those who may’be pursuing their botanical researches in the county, or lead any to visit the locality and explore it for them- selves, it will have fulfilled one object which I have had in view; the other being to express my gratification at the distinguished success which the ‘“ Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society ” has met with since its formation. September 26th, 1856. Famity or Noyrs.—A gentleman who has made considerable collections towards the illustration of the Genealogy of the Family of Noyes, which was settled at Erchfont, and intermarried with many of the oldest county families, the Erneleys, Eyres, Longs, Duckets, Kellaways, &c., early in the 16th century; and possessed considerable estates there and elsewhere in the county, from which it spread into the adjoining counties of Hants and Berks, would be extremely obliged by a communication from any members of the Wilts Society, who may be able to favour him with any information from early court rolls of manors, title deeds, or parish registers. The neighbourhood of All Cannings, Erchfont, Calne, Chal- field, Marlborough, Manningford, Devizes, Long Parish, Chute, Chesingbury, and Ramsbury in Wilts, and Andover in Hants, must possess information which would be of great value to the Subscriber. A Member of the Sussex Archwological Society. 2K 2 252 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MUSEUM AND LIBRARY. The Committee feel great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of the following articles, presented to the Society :— By Ray. Canon Jackson, Leigh Delamere.—The History and Description of St. George’s Chureh, Doncaster, destroyed by fire February the 28th, 1853, 1 vol., Imperial quarto, illustrated with numerous woodcuts and lithographs. By the cee —Nichols and Sons, London, 1855. By J. Y. Axerman, Esa., F.S.A.—A Fine between Richard and Henry Rutter, and Daniel Ghgernces and Mary his wife, of lands and tenements in Cricklade, 34 Elizabeth. By Rey. James Henry Hvueues, M.A., Chaplain H.E.I.C.S. at Surat.— Laing’s descriptive catalogue of Impressions from ancient Scottish Seals. Quarto numerous woodcuts and engrayings.—Edinburgh, 1850. By Proressor Buckman, Cirencester.—Stone Celt, found near Stonehenge. Pamphlet on the removal and re-laying of Roman Tesselated floors, By tHE AssocraTeD ARCHITECTURAL SocrETIES oF NorTHAMPTON, YORK, Lixcotn, WorcESTER, AND BEDFORSHIRE.—Reports and Papers read at their Meetings during the years 1854-5. By Wim GatsrorD, Ese., Worton.—Medal struck to commemorate the capture of Porto Bello by Admiral Vernon in 1739—found at Worton. By R. Brornernoon, Ese., Chippenham.—Fossil Mammalian Remains from the neighbourhood of Chippenham. By Rey. G. AsHE Gopparp, Clyffe Pypard.—Fossil Bones from the Kim- meridge Clay. By Mr. Cunnineton, F.G.S., Devizes.—Fossil Bones from the Drift and Alluvial Deposits near Chippenham. By tHe Essex ARcHOLoGIcAL Socrery.—Their proceedings for the years 1852-3-4. By Atrrep J. Dunxty, Ese., Dartford, Kent.—The works of Ralph, Abbot of Coggeshal, edited by the donor. 1 vol., octavo, 1856. Sundry numbers of the Archeological Mine, containing a History of Kent by the donor. By Mr. W. F. Parsons, Wotton Basset.—Specimens of Romanised British Pottery, from a Pottery at Wotton Basset. Drawing of a Chimney Piece at ’ Fasterne House. Engraving of Wotton Basset Church. By Miss Wickens, Salisbury.—Drawing of the Seal of the Weavers of the city of New Sarum. By Lovett Rerye, Esa., Walia: th, Surrey.—The Literary Gazette (New Series) from the commencement to the present time, published by the donor. By R. Cowarp, Esa., Rowndway.—Two bone ornaments, a pointed instrument of deer’s horn, a flint arrow-head, two grooved whetstones, a larger whetstone, flint knife and quartz, pebble, found with an interment of burnt bones in the long barrow on Roundway Hill, September, 1856. By Mr. Howrrr, Devizes.—Model of the Font in Preshute Church. By Mr. Eytes, Winterbourne Monkton.—Ring, and two ornaments of jet, flint knife, portions of four urns, curiously wrought pebble, and disc of pottery, from an interment beneath a large sarsen stone at Winterbourne Monkton; also a large whetstone from another similar interment. H. Buu, Printer, St. John’s Strect, Devizes. WILTSHIRE Arebwological ont Batneal Wrstary MAGAZINE, © No. IX. FEBRUARY, 1857. Vou. TEE. Contents. PAGE AccounT OF THE FourtH GENERAL MEETING, AT WARMINSTER, PBR O LD ALL hl! AUR LOY sercteera oa talanmtirc.s Siferd sc Ge tels.eieie 253 Articles exhibited at the Temporary Museum................ 266 An Address on Archeology: By the Rey. J. O. Prcron ............ 271-280 Draycot Foliot Church, (Destroyed:) By F. A. Carrineron, Esq.... 280 The History of Longleat: By the Rev. J. E. JacKson.............. 281-312 On the Music of the Middle Ages: By Joun Lampert, Esq. ........ 313-336 On the Ornithology of Wilts (Falconide): By the Rev. A. ©. SmirH 337-357 -An Account of Colerne Church: By E. W. Gopwin, Esq. .......... 358-366 Notice of the Botany of Wiltshire: By T. B. Fitower, Esq. ........ 366 Mysterious Death of a Lord-Lieutenant of Wilts: By J. WayiEn, Esq. 367-376 Wirtsaire Norzs and QueErtes: By J. WaYLen, Esq. :— Wiltshire during the Civil Wars; Accident to Charles Dryden at Biarian Lark, tigar Malmesbury 26.5.2... .00snces cee ere cee cne 376 Senmrmrnacieses tangy EteBEy VLE is ars 5 dere ise ag dielaie wdime: are niniacece 378 Birthplace of W. Pitt, First Earl of Chatham .................. 379 MRUREMOEATELTLY Pars see ce RON Ce a eee ape Se loye ere ec tok 380 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Lorigisat: House. 28 02 fete. os deles vac Pa Niles ite Hainia'nd 3 281 Seal of the Priory of Longleat ..... .......+.+. OSE 283 Murder of Thos. Thynne, Esq., in Pall-Mall.............. 298 Illustrations of Medizeval Music .............s.eeeee cece 336 Colerne Church, 1,:Ground Plans, .. secs cs s+ 00s 0 x sieiere +> O00 ——_——_—— 2, Fast End, exterior.................... do. 3, Section through Chancel looking North © (OBLONG) Ete cstelh arib/etitac clots vials dei aye oR do. ——_—_—_—_—_——- 4, Sedilia in Chancel................005- do. Accident to Charles Dryden at Charlton Park ............ 377 DEVIZES: Henry Burr, Sarnt Jonn Street. - LONDON: Bett & Darpy, 186, Freer Street; J. R. Surry, 36, Somo Saquarn. DEVIZES: PRINTED BY HENRY BULL, SAINT JOBN STREET. nil sre: ts a WENN i 4 ys Te a - = . WP Teter picerron oor aga be 1s} ae a9 i 4 #. 4 i nT . 1 z < ed - £ 2 Od! Gai g itd) v's | g - Rtas 7 '¢ ’ , & ~— r wate) Tin's btttial: 3 rw © Waleitt Sigee Ree veeoonte rihanad § Ae Aes ee if, . Puvlitareds, oe re oat ional sali cP alee Tos lnght a0 Me ty Sate st -! + givigtt f Love pyihre: blvd Seal Bacioa up AY wide ele pee rea ny my ee a | of ar oe} nie hath 65 j y eta choad i a) Male ge 7 aie Atal cee x mod se onic iy Twteiedientio’ tin (art ty everet RA 1S S178 Lat aa ugiot vats aah ees ‘vei Tag t Ladle THE WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. *‘ MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR ONUS.”—Ovid. THE FOURTH GENERAL MEETING Wiltshire Archeological and Natural Pistory Society, HELD AT WARMINSTER, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 5th, 6th, and 7th of August, 1856. PRESIDENT OF THE MEETING, Tue Most HonovrasLe tHE Marauis or Batu. Tue Fourth Anniversary Meeting of the Society commenced at one o’clock on Tuesday, 5th August, with a public assembly in the Town Hall, Warminster; the chair being taken, in the temporary absence of the President, the Marquis of Bath, by the vicar, the Rey. Presenpary Fane, who opened the proceedings with the following address :—Ladies and gentlemen: I feel considerable difficulty in assuming the chair upon this occasion ; but my apology is that it is the wish of the Council, and particularly of the noble President, that I should do so in his absence. The occupations which almost ceaselessly devolve upon me, render me, however, unfit for such a post; but, if an earnest and hearty desire to promote the objects of the Society, and the satisfaction which I feel in seeing the members of it assembled in my parish—if this be any claim to my occupying the chair, as deputy, all I can say is, that it gives me sincere pleasure to do so. The custom has hitherto ‘been—and it is a custom which I am now desired to continue—for the President or Vice-President, for the time being, to explain to VOL. I1l.—NO. IX. 2.1 254 Fourth General Meeting. the members who may be present what the real objects of these meetings are, and what the chief object of the Society is, in visiting different parts of the county—first one corner, then another. First of all, then, the principal purpose of the Wiltshire Archzological Society, is to preserve objects of local curiosity—whether ecclesias- tical, domestic, or of remote antiquity—by a sort of fostering hand, a superintending care, an eye in fact which shall overlook every kind of curiosity in this county : to preserve the interesting remains of ecclesiastical and of domestic architecture—in fact, to promote a taste for ecclesiastical and domestic archeology. But we felt, when the Society was established, that we required more than this, and we added—and in my opinion added wisely—the study of Natural History. Therefore you are not to look upon us as mere seekers after dry bones, as men whose only purpose is to dig among bricks and mortar, and endeavour to ferret out of old hills objects of curiosity ; but you are to regard us as persons whose endeavour is to promote, to the utmost of our power, a taste, not only for Ar- cheeology, but a taste for Natural History. There is another object which, I confess, influences me very largely in undertaking as I have, a considerable share in the troubles and labours attendant upon the present meeting—and it is this. There is always a difficulty in this country, in drawing together all classes of people for one common object, without what are called in geology the “faults” and “breaks,” which so frequently occur in the peculiar social condition of society in England. It is therefore, in my opinion, a great thing to intro- duce any object like the present in which a common interest may be excited—any object in which all classes may combine, as we see them combined on this occasion, from the noble Marquis who has so kindly undertaken to act as our President, down to those who labour in the sweat of their brow—and who I may truly say have laboured in the sweat of their brow, in adorning the room in which I hope we shall all of us presently eat a good dinner. It is, I repeat, this object especially—viz.: the uniting of all classes in mutual harmony and goodwill—so that Devizes may have a day’s honey- moon with Warminster, and Warminster may have a day’s honey- moon with Salisbury—and Devizes and Salisbury and Warminster The Rev. Prebendary Fane’s Address. 255 may spend a day’s honeymoon together—town with town, village with village, exchanging what I take to be a high part of our office—viz.: those offices of hospitality and good-will which, believe me, are an integral part of our system, and without which I am convinced the social frame can never hold securely together. It is this, I repeat, which especially commends the Society to my feelings and which induces me, and will continue to induce me, to give it my warmest and most cordial support. And now having set before you the class of objects which the Society has in view, it will be my duty (for the information of those who have never attended one of these meetings before), to explain the causes of the Society being instituted in this county. It was felt, then, from the first, that very few counties in England ought to have a stronger and more abiding claim upon archeologists than Wiltshire ; because there are few counties which present so complete a series of antiquities from more remote to later periods of our history. For instance, within a short distance of this town where we are met, we have on one of our hill-tops—which I hope some of you will inspect before you leave—the first encampment of the ancient Belgic warriors, where from their fastnesses they looked down on the valley beneath. Again, hard by, we have the more finished—the more accomplished, if I may call it so—fortifications of Battlesbury, where the emblems of that military power which so long possessed our land may still be traced. And, still again within easy reach, we have our full share of later antiquities. We may find, for instance, in our churches, many signs of medieval times—of those times when the crusader went forth, carrying with him the love of his God (however mistaken his notions may have been according to our more modern views). Thus, our cathedral contains the noble Longespee ; and in some of our parish churches close by—in one of which I have myself a strong interest—may be seen the still-existing effigies of the crusaders of the middle ages. Again, coming down to yet later times, may be found various remains of extreme interest. Need I remind you that Wiltshire contains that magnificent house, which represents a sort of dark interval between the middle ages and the later times. When I 2142 256 Fourth General Meeting. speak of Littlecote—the representative of which house is here to-day, in the person of Mr. Prebendary Popham—and recollect the various incidents and romances connected with it, and which give it such an abiding interest—I say, when I refer to Littlecote—a house which Macaulay has perpetuated in his pages—I feel that I am not wrong in selecting it as one of the great points of Wiltshire archeological attraction. Again, need I—standing under the picture which hangs over my head'—remind you that close in the vicinity of this town stands the most splendid specimen of the later Tudor times that is perhaps to be found in England—a man- sion which, in the days of Camden, was remarkable in its way, but which is now far more remarkable, and will be more remarkable still before we leave this neighbourhood.—That house is thus described by Camden :— “The west limit of this shire goeth down directly from hence southward, by Longleat, the dwelling-place of the Thins, a very faire, neate, and elegante house, in a foule soile, which although once or twice it hath been burnt, hath risen eftsones more faire.” I will at once say that, much as I respect Camden, I believe that “the foule soile” which he describes as surrounding this “neate and elegante”’ house, and which brought upon it the sharp asperity of our friend, consisted of nothing more than a pond, which has long since been emptied. As to the house itself a more interesting specimen of the later Tudor times, as I have before said, does not perhaps exist. It was here, (as Macaulay, I think, mentions) that Monmouth entertained the peasantry of those periods, who met in admiration of his person—here that he gathered together “the hearts and loves of this western part of England.” Here again it was, in later times, that the venerable Ken sighed out his weary pilgrimage, submitting with perfect contentment of soul to the cross he had to bear—yes, here, beneath the shades of Longleat, it was that he whose memory will live as long as the English tongue remains, and as long as the praises of God are sung in morning and evening hymns—here it was that Ken found a rest 1 Thomas, Marquis of Bath, grandfather of the present Marquis. The Rev. Prebendary Fane’s Address. 257 from the disturbances of his times, and amidst the hospitable repose of Longleat was enabled gradually to prepare himself for that passage to another world, which was so easy and so holy, that it seemed, I may say, more like the shifting from one scene to another, than like the rapid shock of a passage from time to eternity! Again I might remind you that in this part of Wiltshire is collected together the finest collection of ancient British remains that is to be found in the world. I allude to the collection at Stourhead, in the possession of the present Sir Hugh Hoare. After stating that the Bishop of the diocese would be presently among them, and that nothing but illness prevented the Dean also from being present, the Rev. Chairman proceeded :—I was last week privileged to see the completion of the greatest work in ecclesiology that this county has presented within the recollection of any human being. That magnificent building, the Chapter-house at Salisbury— which was left, as it were, mouldering away under the neglect and contempt of past ages—I have lived to see restored, not only to its pristine, but something more than its pristine beauty, by the energy of the cathedral body—by the energy of the Bishop and the Dean, acting upon the laity and the clergy, on the strongest of all grounds on which they could base their appeal—viz., that of respect to the memory of our late diocesan. I say, I have seen that magnificent building restored to its pristine beauty; and if this Society had done no other work than this—if its members had done no more than call the attention of the clergy and laity—as at the meeting at Salisbury was especially the case—to that most interesting building, I should feel perfectly satisfied, and amply rewarded for any exertion that I have ever made in its behalf. Perhaps a better contrast between the times which are past and the times which are present could hardly be found than in this restoration of the Chapter-house. In times past—say 150 years ago—the Chapter- house at Salisbury might have been seen very much in the position— I say it without irreverence—of a man who is intoxicated. It was reeling on its legs, and the wind had blown it round to a position from which a little more would have blown it over altogether. What did they do? You may suppose that they all assembled, 258 Fourth General Meeting. and subscribed largely to put the building to rights. But no; I’ll tell you what they did. They found the middle pillar in a most uncertain and tottering position—in such a state that it was indeed a mercy it did not fall; and—what do you suppose they did? They got together all the blacksmiths in Salisbury, if not all the blacksmiths in the county, and they welded together a number of things, something like the splints which are used to mend mens’ legs when they are broken, and with these they tied and buckled all the loose members of the Chapter-house to the loosest member of all—the pillar in the middle; so that when you entered the building it gave you the idea of a spider’s web of iron. That was their idea of restoration! But a fresh spirit came over the land; archeology, directed by religion, and warmed by a right sense of the honour due to the temples of God, revived, and the result has been, that you cannot now see in all England—and I know some- thing of the majesty of York, and of the elegance of Lincoln— I say, as an adopted Wiltshireman, that you cannot now see throughout the length and breadth of our land, a building so peculiar in its character, and at the same time so beautiful, as the restored Chapter-house of our glorious Cathedral. The rev. gentleman in conclusion said, the Society, he thought, might safely appeal to the sympathies of the clergy in reference to the restoration of ecclesiastical edifices. He referred to the clergy because they were, by their office, the guardians of these ancient magnificent temples of God. How grateful ought they to be when a Society like this came forward, and, drawing together the energy, muscle, and strength of different members of society, all thrown into one common stock, said—‘ Let us guard these buildings—let us promote their restoration as a society—let us kindle in the minds of the public a reverence for these monuments of our forefathers. Up to the present time, the meetings of this Society had been most successful.—The first was held at Devizes, but that was only of a preliminary character. There were, however, plain indications of the way in which this Society would take root in the county. They saw the Noble Marquis of Lansdowne taking a large and active interest in the subject. They saw, again, one The Rev. Prebendary Fane’s Address. 259 whose absence he particularly regretted, Mr. Poulett Scrope, giving all the energies of his cultivated mind to carry out their views.— But he must be allowed to say that the gentlemen who formed the backbone of the Society—the real vertebra—were present. The first of these was his reverend friend, Mr. Lukis, who, if there were a barrow to be opened, a Roman pillar to be picked out, or a bell to be rung, was present ready to proceed. Next in order came an old school-fellow of his, the Rev. Canon Jackson, who, when there was an old parchment which nobody could make out, or a musty record of an old farm house which nobody could decipher, was ready at once to unfold its contents. The third gentleman was his reverend friend, Mr. Smith, who identified himself with the winged creation. The fourth gentleman he should describe was the resurrection-man of the Mammoth and the Boar—a man who, leaving the ancient Briton and his ancestors to repose in peace, devoted himself to the primeval records of the world, and thereby rendered himself a kind of absolute peer in Archzeology—he meant Mr. Cunnington of Devizes. If the members of the Society thought that the Noble Marquis of Lansdowne, the Noble Marquis of Bath, Mr. Poulett Scrope, or any other gentleman, had a higher claim to their gratitude than the gentlemen whose names he had mentioned, he would tell them that they made a mistake precisely similar to that which would suppose that the legs, arms, eyes, or ears, could do their office without the spinal marrow which passed through the back bone, represented by the vertebra he had referred to. Having announced in detail the various proceedings which had been arranged for the present meeting, the Chairman, in conclusion, expressed, on behalf of his fellow-townsmen, the great pleasure they expe- rienced at the meeting of the Society in Warminster. Mr. Ravenuttx said he believed it had been arranged that the Bishop of the diocese should preside at the CONVERSAZIONE in the evening. He was sorry therefore to be the unwelcome informant that his lordship, who had come into the neighbourhood the previous evening, had been taken so unwell in the middle of the night that he had been obliged to return to Salisbury. With respect to the Dean, he was glad to say that the cause which prevented him from 260 Fourth General Meeting. being present, was not indisposition, but an engagement in London, which he was obliged to keep. At the request of the Chairman, the Rev. Mr. Luxis (one of the Secretaries), then read THE REPORT. The Committee of the Wilts Archeological and Natural History Society have little to add to their Report of last year. They are happy in being able to state that many new members have been added to the list; and that the Society is making that gradual and steady progress in the county which was anticipated. We have to regret the loss by decease of two life members, Joseph Neeld, Esq., Thomas Poynder, Esq.: and of one annual subscriber, Mr. Woodman; and the withdrawal, or removal from the county, of nine members. The cash account of the Society, up to the end of the year 1855, has been published in the latest number issued (No. VII). of the Society’s Magazine. It need not therefore be further adverted to now, except to state the gratifying fact that there then remained in the hands of the Treasurer and Local Secretaries, a balance of £287 2s. 103d., of which £200 has been invested in exchequer bills, bearing interest. The Committee are sorry that the publication of the Report of last year’s General Meeting at Chippenham should have been so long delayed; but it was owing to several unavoidable circumstances. At the period of that Meeting the previous number of the Magazine (No. VI). had only just been placed in the hands of the printer, and was not completed so speedily as the Committee had wished. Another reason may be found in the long and serious illness of our printer. But we would especially desire to be understood by the members of the Society that no inconsiderable part of the delay arises from their own diffident and retiring dispositions which so long continue to withhold those valuable original communications, which our Magazine especially courts. In default, however, of a regular supply of such original communication, other resources are available to which it may be desirable to call your attention. Society’s Report. 261 It will be in your recollection that the Society was formed “for the promotion of all objects connected with the elucidation and study of the general Topography of the county of Wilts,” or in other words, “to collect materials for a County History.” It has been suggested by Mr. Scrope, and others, that the Com- mittee should issue, from time to time, in the Magazine, reprints, either literally or in abstract, of parts of large, expensive, and inaccessible works already published on Wiltshire, as well as curious pamphlets relating to the county, which may be out of print. These would be found most useful by all who desire to furnish the Society with communications respecting their own localities, but who have no means of reference to many of these expensive and comparatively scarce works. By way of explaining their meaning your Committee would particularize the kind of auxiliary publications to which they allude. ABSTRACTS OR EXTRACTS: 1. From Sir R. C. Hoare’s Ancient and Modern Wilts. 2. » The Wiltshire Institutions, from the Salisbury Registers. 3. » The account of Religious Houses in the County, in Dug- dale’s Monasticon, Tanner’s Notitia, and the Monas- ticon Wiltonense. 4. », Aubrey’s unpublished works. The Heralds’ Visitations of Wilts. 6. » The large volumes of Public Records, as:—The Valor Ecclesiasticus, The Inquisitions Post Mortem, Hun- dred Rolls, &e. * y: » Curious notes from Parish Registers, copies of Monu- mental Inscriptions in Churches. 8. » Miscellaneous Collections or Notices about Wilts, in various Archeological and Topographical works, such as:—The Collectanea Topographica, Brayley’s Graphic Illustrator, Collinson, Penruddock Wynd- ham, Waagen’s Account of Wiltshire Pictures, The Archeological Journals, &c. 2M 262 Fourth General Meeting. 9. From Manuscripts in the British Museum and other Public Libraries, College Libraries, The Collections alluded to in the Stourhead Catalogue, Copies of Curious Deeds or Charters in private hands, Charters of Forests, &c. 10. ,, Biographies of Eminent Wiltshire Men, Local Mono- graphs, or descriptions of particular objects, houses, churches, and the like, which may have appeared in other publications. The general object of the Society is, in short, to bring together, and to one point if possible, whatever bears upon, or is likely to illustrate Wiltshire History. The Committee have not been altogether unmindful of the other interesting and important branch of the Society’s pursuits, viz. : Natural History. A series of papers on Ornithology have been published in the Magazine, and we are to be favoured with another on the “Flora” of the county, scientifically arranged, by a gentleman who has been for some years engaged in preparing them. And the subject of Wiltshire Geology will, we hope, receive some elucidation at our present meeting. Another subject which has occupied the attention of your Com- mittee has been the propriety of taking some steps for the more permanent establishment of a County Museum, but they are not at this moment prepared to lay any distinct project before you.” The Report was ordered to be printed. The CHarrman then moved that the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert be requested to accept the office of President of the Society for the next three years, in the place of Mr. Poulett Scrope, which was unanimously agreed to. The Rey. J. O. Picron, curate of Rowde, then delivered an address on “Archeology,” which will be found in a subsequent page. The Dinner took place in the large National School-room in West-street, which under the superintendence of the Rey. A. Fane, had been decorated with an endless variety of illustrations bearing upon Archzology, interspersed with appropriate scriptural texts in Fourth General Meeting. 263 illuminated characters, and with mottoes inculcating piety, patriot- ism, and good fellowship. The chair was occupied by the Marquis of Bath, and the company numbered about 230, including a large proportion of ladies. An evening meeting was held at the Town Hall, under the presidency of Archdeacon Macdonald. The papers read were “On the Fossil Mammalia of Wiltshire,” by Mr. Wir11am Cunnincton; and a lecture by Mr. Lamsert, of Salisbury, on “ Ancient Music,” with vocal illustrations by the lecturer to a piano-forte accompaniment. SECOND DAY—WEDNESDAY. In the morning an Excursion party, under the direction of the Rey. J. Baron, Rector of Upton Scudamore, visited the camps of Battlebury and Scratchbury, two of the most celebrated ancient military positions in Wiltshire, and immediately commanding the town of Warminster. In the afternoon the Society was received at Longleat, by the noble President of the meeting. About 600 persons were present, including his lordship and several members of his family, the principal gentry and clergy of the neighbourhood, both in Wilts and Somerset. The company were welcomed by the noble Marquis at the entrance to the gardens, with a courteous attention which was unremittingly continued throughout the day, and added largely to the gratification of his numerous visitors. The weather was of the finest. The house was liberally thrown open to inspection ; and about half-past three o’clock the summons was given to an enter- tainment in the Great Hall. This, it will be scarcely necessary to say, was provided upon a scale of the most generous and princely hospitality, involving, it is to be feared, a much greater amount of trouble and cost in the needful arrangements than the Society would at all desire to impose upon those noblemen and gentlemen who are disposed to honour them with encouragement. In this particular kind of reception, it has had to acknowledge upon former occasions, at Bowood, Wilton house, the Episcopal Palace at Salisbury, and elsewhere, similar marks of attention. It will be very long before 2m 2 264 Fourth General Meeting. its members forget the day and manner of their welcome to Longleat. The festivities in the hall being over, the company adjourned to the flower-garden, to listen to an “open air” address from the Rey. Canon Jackson, of Leigh Delamere, upon the history of the house, and the family of Thynne. It was delivered from the terrace, the audience finding places, some on seats, others on the lawn. At its conclusion, Captain Gladstone, of Bowden-park, called upon the company to thank the noble Marquis for his hospi- tality, and the Rev. Canon for his history ; after which the evening was pleasantly spent in various ways, until their return to War- minster. On the route back, Woodhouse Castle and Horningsham Church were visited. A paper on the history of the Castle, by W. Wansry, Esq., will be found in the present number of the Magazine. At a conversazione, held at a later hour at the Town Hall, lectures were given:—by the Rev. J. Baron, “On Anglo-Saxon Derivations” ; by the Rev. D. Matcotm CuErx, of Kingston Deverill, on “Coins”; and by the Rev. A. C. Smiru, of Yatesbury, on that long-lost but lately recovered inhabitant of Wiltshire, “The Bustard.” Mr. Fane concluded by an address on the subject of «St. Lawrence’s Chapel,’ at Warminster, now in course of restoration. THIRD DAY—THURSDAY. The proceedings began with a Public Breakfast at the Bath Arms, Warminster; after which Mr. Cunntneton read, at the Town Hall, a paper on some Barrows recently opened on Roundway down. Excursions were then made; one to Crockerton and the Deverills, the Rev. W. Barnes kindly acting as guide, the Rev. W. D. Morrice as caterer: another, to Heytesbury, Upton-Lovell, Stockton house, and Boyton. Boyton Church was examined under the direction of the pro- prietor of the estate, the Rev. Prebendary Fane: whose account of its ancient owner, the Giffards, and their interesting chapel on the south side, will be found in vol. I., page 233, of this publication. Fourth General Meeting. 265 The Rey. Prebendary then entertained the company with a luncheon under a marquee, in a meadow near Boyton house; after which they walked to Sherrington, about a mile off, to examine the site of its ancient castle, and to hear an interesting account of it, likewise kindly given by Mr. Fane. Sherrington church was then visited, and the day’s proceedings closed with further hospitality supplied at the rectory, by the Rey. M. Anderson. Under the directions of Dr. Tuurnam of Devizes, a Barrow was opened this afternoon on Boyton Down; but without yielding any thing of material novelty. During the excursion to Boyton, a botanical party found one of the rarest British plants, the cyperus longus. Specimens of the carduus tuberosus were also exhibited at Warminster. These plants are only to be found in this neighbourhood. Among the latter party was Mr. T. B. Flower, of Bath, who is preparing a Flora of the county of Wilts, at the request of the Society. H. A. Merewether, Esq. and Mr. Sergeant Wrangham were added to the list of Vice-Presidents, in the place of the late Joseph Neeld, Esq. and W. Salmon, Esq. The Society is under great obligation to the Rev. the Vicar of Warminster, the Rev. Cuartes Pau, and Mr. J. C. Fussext, of the same place, for their assiduity in making the arrangements for this agreeable anniversary. THE MUSEUM. The large room on the ground floor of the Town Hall was used for this purpose: containing specimens of geology, ornithology, and medizyal relics. Subjoined is a list of the articles exhibited. It is to be hoped that all who have the means of forwarding this object of the Society will not hesitate to do so, year after year ; the museum being one of the most interesting and instructive adjuncts to the anniversary meeting, and presenting the real and visible history of times and manners. 266 @ List of Articles GCxbhthiter IN THE TEMPORARY MUSEUM AT THE TOWN HALL, WARMINSTER, August 5th, 1856. [Those marked with an Asterisk have been presented to the Society. ] By Str Cwartes BARRY :— Part of an ancient Lachrymatory, or tear bottle, and sixteen Roman coins, found in excavating for the new Houses of Parliament at Westminster. By J. Y. Axerman, Esa., F.S.A., London :— *Silver Penny of William the Conqueror, struck at Cricklade, By W. Waysey, Esa., F.S.A.:— A parchment scroll inscribed with the ‘‘ Passio Christi,” in old English quaint verse, and adorned with many drawings, coloured and gilt—supposed date: 15th century. Twelve Clay Moulds for Roman Coins (the coin in one of them) found at Lingwell Gate, near Wakefield. By J. Britton, Ese., Burton Street. London :— Drawings of Longleat House and Gardens, Charlton House, Corsham House, Font in Stanton Fitz-Warren Church, &c. By J. B. Nicuots, Esa., F.S.A., Parliament Street, London :— Copy of Sir R. C. Hoare’s ‘“‘ Modern Wiltshire,” (Hundred of Westbury), and plates from ‘‘ Ancient Wiltshire,” by the same author. By F. A. Carrtneton, Ese., Ogbourne St. George :— Officer’s Helmet and Gauntlet, temp. Civil Wars; Pikeman’s Helmet, Officer’s Half Pike, 1745; Sword of Marlborough Yeomanry, 1794; Gry- phite from North Wilts; Photographs from an Anglo-Saxon MS.; an Indulgence, date 1479, and note of H. Pollock, Esq.; Book of Antiquities in the Royal Museum of Copenhagen, &c., &c. By Mrs. SrrmMovur, Knoyle House :— Two specimens from the Tombs of the Caliphs, (Cairo). Two ancient Athenian Mirrors. Piece of a Tomb from Thebes, with Paintings and Hieroglyphics. Model of Tomb with figures fitting into it, (Thebes). Ancient Mirror, (Cairo). Two Abyssinian War Clubs. Mummy Snake and Ibis. Tile dug up at Glastonbury. Byzantine Picture, representing SS. Peter and Paul, taken from Sebastopol, 1855. Block of Malachite from Siberia. The Museum. 267 By H. J. F. Swayne, Esq., Netherhampton House :— A circular Silver Seal, of decorated date, with the arms of Giffard—three lions passant in pale, borne on a lozenge in the centre, legend ‘‘*S, Mar- GARETI GyFFARD”; found at Codford. By G. Atexanver, Esa., Westrop House, Highworth :— A large Map of the neighbourhood of Warminster, showing the Churches, Encampments, and other objects of interest proposed to be visited by the members of the Society during the Meeting. By Miss BenNeEtr :— A round Shield, apparently of Norman date, discovered at Berwick St. Leonard. Roman Urn, found at Norton. By Rev. J. Baron, Upton Scudamore :— Models of York Minster, Canterbury Cathedral, and Salisbury Cathedral. By Rev. G. T. Marsx, Sutton Benger :— Male specimen of the Great Bustard, captured near Hungerford in January, 1856. See ‘‘ Wilts Magazine,” vol. III. p. 139. By Rey. E. Witton, West Lavington:— Saxon Knife, found with skeletons at Elston ; Fibula, from West Laving- ton Downs; Spring of Romano British Lock; and Gutta Percha impression of Secretum of William of Edington, Bishop of Winchester. By Rey. W. Brunton, Warminster :— A series of rubbings from Monumental Brasses, many of them belonging to the county of Wilts. By Rey. J. Kyieut, Heytesbury:— Impressions from the two Seals of Heytesbury Hospital, in use before and since the year 1633. The former bears a cross bottonée, with the legend “We Siem.’ Dom. rLim0. Watt. & Roz. DD. Hyne. & Dr. HEITSBERI’’; the latter a female figure, crowned, holding in her right hand a sword, and in the left a spiked wheel, legend ‘of Srcrttvm . Hosprraris . I] DE. HayrtesBeri.” Both are engraved in Hoare’s ‘‘ Modern Wilts,’’ Hundred of Heytesbury, p. 128. By Rey. G. Powxr1, Sutton Veney :— Thirty-two cases of stuffed birds, including many Wiltshire specimens. By Rev. D. Matcotm Crerx, Kingston Deverell :— A large collection of Coins, containing examples of all ages, from the most ancient mintages of Aigina, Persia, and Lydia, to the milled money of Charles II. of England. Among the number was included the famous Petition Crown, produced by Simon, the celebrated die-sinker, as a trial- piece against an artist who was employed by Charles. The obverse has a bust of the King of most exquisite workmanship, and round the edge of the coin is the following petition in two lines :— ‘‘THomas . Simon . most humbly prays your Mayesty to compare this, his tryal piece, with the Dutch, and, if more truly drawn, and embossed, more gracefully ordered, and more accurately engraven, to relieve him.” The whole of these examples were referred to and explained by the exhibitor, in a short notice of the monies of Great Britain, read by him during the meeting. 268 The Museum. By Rev. H. Mayo Guny, Warminster :— Box containing a variety of Minerals. By Rey. C. Pav, Warminster :— A white damask cloth, of foreign manufacture, with ecclesiastical figures and inscription.—date 17th century. By Mr. Vernon W. Anwnotp, Architect, Duke Street, Adelphi, London ;— A series of seventeen drawings of the Collegiate Church of Edington, comprising exterior and interior views, plans, elevations, sections, and details, accurately drawn to scale, and intended for publication, by sub- scription, in imperial folio. By Mr. Cunnineron, F.G.S., Devizes :— Fossils from the Upper Green Sand of Wiltshire, including specimens of Nautilus simplex, of very large size, and a series of smaller individuals. Nautilus elegans. Seventeen species of Pecten. Large specimens of Dian- chora. Seven species of Lima-Astacus (from Potterne), Cidaris insignis. Cidaris velifer, with spines. Turrilites from the Chalk Marl of North Wilts, Elephants’ grinders and bones. Teeth of Rhinoceros tichorhinus (from Bulford and Bradford). Bones of Bos primigenius, Cervus elephas, and other Wiltshire Mammals. By Mayor Grove, Zeals :— An interesting collection of personal objects connected with the history of the Grove family during the civil wars. A more full account of these articles will be found in vol. II. p. 29—30. By T. N. Lewis, Ese., Wedhampton :— Pass granted by Oliver Cromwell to Sir William Godolphin, with the Protector’s Autograph. By Mr. W. SNELGRovE, Corsley :— Two cases of Fossils, and Fossil Horn of Deer, from the Chalk. By Mr. W. Sreacram, Warminster :— Specimen of Polypothecia expansa, var. 2., from the Green Sand of Warminster. By Mr. G. Vicary, Warminster :— An ancient Seal of lead, found on Battlesbury. It is of circular form, and bears a fleur-de-lis, the central leaf of which terminates in a star, legend :—‘‘*S’ Toms Srrwarp.” Also several specimens of Irish Marbles, polished and unpolished. By Mr. R. E. Varpy, Warminster :— Roman Urn, found at Orcheston, Wilts; with fragments of two others of a similar kind. Portions of the hair of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, from the vault beneath his monument in St. Alban’s Abbey, opened in the year 1703. By THE WARMINSTER LITERARY AND ScreNTIFIC INSTITUTION :— A large collection of Shells, Minerals, and Fossils, the latter from the various strata of the neighbourhood, A fine preserved specimen of the Great Bustard, captured on Salisbury Plain. A piece of Carved Oak, of Perpendicular date, from the Chapel of St. Lawrence. The Musewn. 269 By Mr. Howirr, Devizes :— Chart Compass, engraved with name of ‘‘ Cap, Jxo Kempthorne”; also his Arms and Crest. Supposed to be the Rear Admiral Sir John Kempthorne of 1665. By Mr. Wueeter, Warminster :— A living plant of the ‘ Carduus tuberosus,” or Boyton Thistle. See “Wilts Magazine,” vol. III, p. 249. By Mr. Baxer, Warminster :-— A collection of Fossils, from the Upper Green Sand and Chalk of the neighbourhood. In addition to the above list, many other articles of considerable interest were contributed by the Society from the Museum at Devizes. Amongst these a a series of casts and impressions from the Seals of the various Monastic and other bodies, formerly existing in the county, of which a list is here appended, deserves especial notice. Many of these casts are from the collection of the late John Caley, Esq., and were presented to the Society by the Rev. John Ward, rector of Wath, Yorkshire. Seal of Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Sarum, from a deed of A.p. 1470, by which the Vicar of Steeple Ashton is to have the Tythes of Semyngton. Seal of the Vicar-General of Sarum, in red wax. Seal of the Cathedral Church of St. Mary, Sarum, in red wax. Seal of the Vicars Choral of Sarum. Seal of the Treasurer of Sarum, from an impression attached to a deed of 4.D. 1274.—Chapter House, Westminster. Seal and Counterseal of Robert Bingham, Bishop of Sarum, [1228—46] from an impression in the Duchy of Lancaster Office. Counterseal of the Dean and Chapter of Sarum, from the same. Seals of Robt de Doryngton, Rector * of Lacock, and of Richard de Bello, Canon of Sarum, from impressions in the Chapter House, Westminster. Seal of the Hospital of St. Nicholas, Sarum, from an impression in the Duchy of Lancaster Office. Seal of the College of St. Edmund, Sarum, from a Matrix on red wax in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Seal of the Weavers of the City of New Sarum. Seal of the Official of the Archdeacon of Wilts, 4.p. 1466. Probate. Chapter House, Westminster. Seal of the office of Alnager Co. Wilts, 17 Edw. III.: ‘8.’ Suns: Pannorum rn Com: Wir1s.” Seal of the Priory of Bradenstoke, Wilts, from an impression attached to the Surrender, dated Jan, 8, 1539, [30 Hen. VIII.] in the Augmentation Office. Seal and Counterseal of the Priory of Bradenstoke, from the Augmentation. Office. *This name does not occur in the list of Lacock incumbents, printed in Bowles and Nichols’ “ History of Lacock Abbey,” p. 299—301, which includes only the Vicars commencing a.p, 1220, 2N 270 The Museum. Seal of the Priory of Pulton, Wilts, from the Surrender in the Aug- mentation Office. Seal of the Priory of Longleat, Wilts, from the Archives of the Marquis of Bath. Seal of the Priory of Ederose,* Wilts, from the Augmentation Office— date 1 Hen. VI. Seal of the Priory of Wilton, from the Surrender in the Augmentation Office. Seal of the Nunnery of Wilton, from a Conventual Lease, 29 Hen. VIII., in the Augmentation Office. Seal of William, Abbot of Kingswood, Wilts, from the Augmentation Office. Seal of the Abbey of Kingswood, from the Surrender in the Augmentation Office. . Counterseal of Kingswood Abbey. Another impression of the same, from the Tower of London, Seal of the Abbot of Kingswood, from the Tower. Seal and Counterseal of the Priory of Kingswood, from a Conyventual Lease, temp. Hen. VIII., in the Augmentation Office. Seal of the Hospital at Heytesbury, Wilts, in use since A.D. 1633. Seal of the Prior of the Carmelites at Marlborough, from a Matrix in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Seal of Frampton, Abbot of Malmesbury, temp. Hen. VIII. Seal of the Abbey of Lacock, from the Chapter House, Westminster. ._ Another impression of the same, from ditto. Seal and Counterseal of Lacock, from ditto. Seal of Lacock Abbey—an original impression, in red wax. Seal of Stanlegh Abbey, from the Chapter House, Westminster. Two other impressions of the same, from the Augmentation Office. Seal of Stanley Abbey (Abbot William) from the Augmentation Office, date 28 Edw. III. Seal of the Priory of Edingdon, Wilts, from the Augmentation Office, 30 Hen. VIII. An impression of the same in red wax. Seal of the Priory of Maiden Bradley, from the Augmentation Office. Another Seal of the Priory of Maiden Bradley, from the Augmentation Office. An impression of the same in yellow wax. Ancient Seal of the Borough of Marlborough—an original impression in red wax. * Or Ivy-Church, a Priory of Black Canons, founded by King Henry II., and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. See Tanner’s Not. Mon. 271 An Address on Archeology. By the Rev. J. O. Picton. I wave been requested by your Committee to make some general observations on Archeological pursuits. In complying with that request I cannot hold out a hope that I shall be able to bring forward any original matter in reference to a subject which may be considered to be well nigh exhausted, and which of late years has been investigated and discussed, both directly and incidentally, with a fullness and a freedom, which would seem to leave no room for adducing anything further to interest or instruct. There is, however, a remark of Coleridge’s to this effect: that many truths have but little weight owing to the circumstance of their universal admission, and in this particular instance the same may be affirmed. And although novelty of treatment be not to be expected in hand- ling topics which have commanded the widest and most careful attention, yet as none can make peculiarly his own and enunciate the conclusions which have been arrived at by others, without at the same time imparting to them somewhat of a modifying hue, so I trust that what I shall now lay before you, if deficient in imagi- nation and force, may at least possess, in some degree, the freshness of individual character. Premising this, I will at once apply myself to my task. I need scarcely remark at the outset, how important it is when a number of persons combine to prosecute any mental enquiry, that they should have a clear understanding of the object of their pursuit. Of almost every branch of intellectual study there is a popular view, which while it expresses some one or other of its aims, still fails to define the strict and legitimate purport. The temptation to acquiesce in such inaccurate estimates is very powerful, inasmuch as we are thereby spared the effort of thought, and we are ever ready to take our notions of things from what Lord Bacon terms the ido/a fori, or those loose acceptations of 2Nn 2 272 An Address on Archeology. words, which are current in society. Hence it arises that erroneous judgments are often formed of a science, and many imputations thrown upon it, which in reality are attributable to the onesided and partial conceptions of those who regard it from a popular view. Tn like manner has it fared with Archeology. The ordinary notion of an antiquary is that of an easy, goodnatured it may be, yet certainly of an eccentric and credulous personage, who is little interested about the present, and expends all his energies in an extravagant admiration of the past. Not only is he supposed to partake of that incapacity for practical life, which is alleged against men of studious habits, but the utility of his labours is questioned, and they are looked upon as conducive to hardly any other end than the satisfaction of mere curiosity. It cannot be denied, that in many cases the charge has been deservedly made, I mean where antiquarian efforts have been limited to an unin- telligent collecting of relics, or where the enquirer, in an overweening respect for his own occupations, has been betrayed into expressions of contempt or indifference with regard to those of his contempo- raries. But such men are of a kindred nature to those, in whose opinion history is a bare chronological record, nothing but an old almanack; they cannot with justice challenge to themselves the title they assume, nor is their claim to be ranked as archeological students much better founded than that of the ignorant, noisy declaimer on liberty, taxes, and education, to a credit for political knowledge and insight. They are either worthy to be placed in the same category with those of whom Horace Walpole is the appro- priate type, and whose intellectual standard is so sarcastically described by Macaulay. Some of you may remember his words. They are as follows :—“ After the labours of the auction room and the print shop, he unbent his mind in the House of Commons, and having indulged in the recreation of making laws and voting millions, he returned to more important pursuits, to researches after Queen Mary’s cowl, Wolsey’s red hat, the pipe with which Van Tromp smoked in his last sea fight, and the spur which King William struck into the flank of Sorrel.” Or if they can demand an exemption from this class, they are possessed by a spirit of what By the Rev. J. O. Picton. 273 an eminent writer has called antiquarianism, or the spirit which leads men to investigate what has gone by without any reference to what is in being. I contend that the true archeologist is actuated by a wholly different impulse—that he is neither a mere constructor of curiosity shops, nor a self-complacent despiser of the problems and questions which agitate his own age. His is a more catholic and liberal spirit, for what is Archeology? It is the study of the past in the most comprehensive sense, implying thereby an examination of all existing remains, whether in the shape of architectural erections, written records, spoken dialects, and the implements of warlike, civil and domestic use. And it is the rigid examination of these, with the one purpose of furnishing accredited materials for history. We are not to gaze on the wrecks of time in gaping wonderment, as if, to use Carlyle’s words, “all the Titans had written upon them, dry rubbish shot here.” No! the medieval temple and the ruined fortress, the dusty charter and the defaced coin, obsolete words and ancient customs, are all to be interrogated as to their several meanings—are all to be compelled to put in evidence, as to how far they are significant symbols of the wants, the habits and institutions which characterised preceding genera- tions. In fine, the ultimate aim of this science is to supply such data as will enable us to draw fair inferences as to the state of those who have gone before us, to present us with a vantage ground from which we may discern, as in a bright and well defined prospect, the complexity of life and action which signalised those who are no longer upon earth. And, I would ask, is it possible for a man to enter on such studies aright, who is dead to what is being trans- acted in hisown day? There cannot be an intelligent apprehension of the past, unless in some way or other a comparison can be instituted, and an analogy sought for, in antecedent and existing conditions. It is difficult to separate a book from the writer—the present is but the ever increasing past,—and no book that was ever written about the past was worth the reading, if it did not exhibit a manifest sympathy with living actors and present interests. In this view Dr. Arnold has well observed, that one of the falsest and and most inaccurate histories of Greece, that of Mitford, is never- 274 An Address on Archeology. theless a very readable and instructive one, simply because it was written with all the strong party feelings and prejudices of an English country gentleman in the reign of George the third. This consideration too meets the objection, that this kind of study indisposes men to the active duties of life; for how can that be said to impair energy, or to superinduce any mental or social infirmity, which requires for its successful cultivation all the lessons of experience, the keenest observation, the strictest reasoning, and the most impartial accuracy? Take as an example Dr. Arnold himself, whose mind was intrinsically archeological in its cast, and who than he has exercised in this country a more lasting and moral influence? I may cite more appropriate instances and nearer home. We do not find that the acquisitions in this science of Mr. Poulett Scrope have at all lessened the sense of the responsibility which attaches to him as a landowner and magistrate, or have detracted from his efficiency as a member of the legislature. I am sure that the painstaking, the diligence and assiduity in this department of my friend Mr. Jackson have been perfectly com- patible with the scrupulous fulfilment of his duties, as parish priest and adviser of his Diocesan. I repeat, therefore, that there is no valid ground for the supposition that the study of the past, if pursued under the direction of rational principles, is likely to be attended by any incapacitating results. Having striven to remove these misconceptions, I would now contract my remarks within a narrower sphere, and beg your forbearance, whilst I endeavour to point out how Archzology, viewed as an educational means, is adapted to further moral and intellectual advancement. Of course in speaking of it as an educational means, I do not refer to any degree in which it may become an appliance of rudimentary instruction, but only to its tendencies to elevate and improve. In an intellectual aspect, whatever mental discipline can be brought about by inductive habits, holds good of Archeology. Safe conclu- sions on this head can no more be deduced, if unsupported by a well ordered array of facts, than in geology or any other cognate science. Hasty assumptions, and superficial generalisations, are are alike alien from its proper spirit and fatal to its progress. It By the Rev. J. O. Picton. 275 will not give up the truth on the first demand, but must be patiently and unceasingly questioned, ere it will return a satisfying answer. Perhaps, in some respects, the training it ensures is severer than any which is to be attained elsewhere, since the evidence on which it rests is often fragmentary and detached, offering but little of what is congrous or systematic. Not that the objects with which it is conversant are not suggestive, but the recurrence in them of certain common types, testifying to their ends, is less frequent than in the natural sciences. A single bone may discover for the com- parative anatomist the entire skeleton to which it belonged; and thus he may mount up to a consideration of the habits of the animal itself. But the archeologist has rarely this advantage. The round tower and rude tumulus may be referred to others of the same class, but beyond this they are seldom explanatory, and the knowledge of their specific purpose must be gained from remoter sources, by the industrious collection of shreds and scraps of information, not obviously bearing on each other. It would be superfluous to remark how exacting in its requirements is such a mental process. Call to mind, too, how all-embracing in their range, how encyclopzedic, as it were, are these pursuits. The mature student of Archeology must of all men be the most accomplished, for what province of knowledge is there into which it is not requi- site for him to descend ? Whatever reflections he has garnered out of his professional life, whatever penetration he has acquired into the springs and motives of action, whatever powers of critical analysis or zesthetic skill, here there is need of all. He must have an intimate acquaintance with ancient literature, and physical science. He must be no stranger to the history of the fine, the useful, and the destructive arts, to the several facts which are yielded by political and jurisprudential inquiries, by geography, ethnology, and numismatics. Nor will this suffice. He must not overlook old traditions, philosophic systems, and the numerous forms in which, from time to time, the religious idea has been embodied, in short, nothing that tends to elucidate the constituent factions of nationality. Surely then, here there is scope for the employment of the most vigorous mind—every facility for unfolding, 276 An Address on Archeology. correcting, and invigorating all the faculties of perception and thought. Surely here every capacity is tested and called into action, which may fit a man to succeed in life—which may prepare him for a career of usefulness and honour. But I will now pass on to the moral side of the question ; and if I mistake not, the position I have already laid down will be seen to be as plain and incontrover- tible in this, as in the former case. Whenever a want is universally felt to exist in human nature, it will not be denied that it was the design of creative wisdom that it should be fully satisfied. Now the wish to know something of those who have passed away is as instinctive in us as the desire to be acquainted with that which is daily happening. Weare antiquaries by nature. We are connected with the past, and however we may disavow that connection, or strive to put it out of sight, we cannot ged rid of the fact. Asso- ciations of our earliest homes, of our childhood, companions and friends, firmly cling to us, and, amidst the the turmoils of business and strife, while all romantic impressions are being gradually effaced, will occasionally flash across our minds, redolent of joy and youth, and bringing with them a gladdening sense of refreshment. I believe that the oftener these associations recur, the better men are we likely to be. I believe that he who is altogether estranged from them, is living without purpose or aim. We are not ignorant how these reminiscences are apt to be evoked at the sight of a common-place object,—a tree, a cottage, a stream, or of some other- wise worthless relic, or even at the sound of a familiar strain. Merge this individual in the general past ; extend these associations to musings on the whole cycle of human action, as previously existing, and Archeology starts up at once. Still the same principle is at work, the same law of suggestion prevails. The ruins of time require an explanation: we cannot stop short at the records of time, but long to have them identified with that which is tangible and real. It is not enough for us to know “ves geste regumque ducumque”; we would also behold “ monumenta regis, templaque.” What the human body is to the quickening spirit, such are outward forms in reference to antiquity—that which causes it to assume for us an objective existence. ‘A Gothic cathedral,” says Coleridge, — By the Rev. J. O. Picton. 277 “is the petrifaction of our religion.” “ A collection of antiquities,” says Mr. Scrope, “is history made palpable to the senses.” It is the substantial expression of our imperfect conceptions—the ma- chinery by which we essay to dramatise, and to array in life and shape, and a befitting vesture, the agents of the antique world. As, therefore, the area for reflection is wider, and the associations num- berless by which we are surrounded, if we extend our vision to the distant expanse which lies buried in death, so a healthier tone is thereby imparted to our moral life, and we have a greater accession of warmth, as well as of light. ‘The man is little to be envied,” exclaims Dr. Johnson, “ whose patriotism would not gain force on the plains of Marathon, and whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.” We cannot tread on an empire’s dust without a solemn thought about those, who were once buoyant with hope and strength, who plotted and schemed and indulged in the wildest dreams, and whose plots and dreams have all followed their owners into the silent night, leaving behind them but a shadow “to point a moral and adorn a tale.” We cannot wander over the spots consecrated to freedom, without feeling a generous emotion— without sharing in the poet’s sentiment— ‘Standing on the Persians’ grave, I could not deem myself a slave.’ The grassy hillock, thrown up to commemorate a victory or a chief- tain’s death ; the sacrificial altar, with its bloody rites; the grim castle, an emblem of rapacity and lawless domination; the hallowed sanctuary, with storied windows richly dight; the stately mansion of the baron, and the yeoman’s picturesque abode, are fraught with lessons, from the attentive perusal of which we cannot fail to rise up chastened, elevated, and subdued. I do not see how any man, of average reading and acquirements, can walk through the rooms at Wilton House without peopling it in imagination with that star of serenest brilliance of the constellation of Elizabeth’s court, Sir Philip Sidney, and the host of chivalrous worthies to whom that age gave birth. Can we assemble to-morrow at Longleat, without reverting in thought to the saintly Ken, whose life glided gently away under its hospitable roof, soothed by the kind attentions of 20 278 An Address on Archeology. the illustrious family, whose noble representative presides over our deliberations. Thus, in every way, may the contemplation of that which bears witness to past transactions, conduce to the formation of the heroic sentiment, the lofty thought, and the high resolve. A few days ago, in an account of the proceedings of the British Archeological Society in the North of England, I read a report of a happily conceived speech, in which, with much humour and feli- citous turn, the speaker sought to show that we might have been spared many of the late Crimean disasters, had her Majesty’s ministers enjoyed but an inkling of antiquarian knowledge. I would not undertake to prove quite so much, but I would cheerfully hazard the assertion, that a reflective and discriminate participation in archeological research, will be of no small service to us for good, whatever our callings may be. I will advert to one instance as an exemplification. A modern poet, whose utterances have found an echo in the hearts of thousands, has these lines— ‘In the elder days of art Builders wrought with greatest care, Each minute and unseen part, For the gods are everywhere.” Now this is strictly true; it is an archeological fact. Hxamine any one of our cathedrals, and you will find that those parts of it which are removed from sight, have been as elaborately constructed and as carefully finished as the rest. Does not this indicate that the central idea in the minds of those who erected it was, that purity of life and manners ought to be as predicable of us in private as well as in public? And may not the constant meeting with this, and other facts of the same description, beneficially affect us, whether we know it or not? We are creatures of habit; we are easily susceptible of impressions, whether for good or evil; and if our converse be commonly with that which is ennobling and in- structive, it is not unreasonable to expect that the bent of our inclinations may be towards that which is lovely and of good report. On these grounds I maintain that Archeology claims to be ranked as a science of the highest order, seeing that it investigates the past conditions of humanity with an intelligent aim and a worthy purpose, ™ = t2 By the Rev. J. O. Picton. 279 It does not come before us as merely a pursuit which may be taken up by way of amusement, or to gratify a temporary curiosity ; but is rather a mine which, if skilfully explored, will surrender up the richest treasures, and is a never failing source of interest to every one who seeks to trace on the widest scale the operation of the laws which relate to his kind. It is not a mere subject for the exercise of frivolous dilettantism, or only a graceful accomplishment of the man of letters, but is a department of knowledge, of which none who aspires to be deemed an educated person, can affect with im- punity to be wholly ignorant; nay, I would venture to add, that without some intimacy with its leading results, it is not practicable to entertain sound views in reference to the changes which are rendered indispensable by modifying circumstances and the lapse of time. It speaks to us of nations which have long since disap- peared from the face of the earth, some of which have left scarcely a vestige behind them, whilst others have extended their influence to our own day; and of nations which, having achieved the work they were destined to perform, gave way in their turn to others, who were to develope to higher extent those elements of civilization which they had received from their forerunners. With all its wearisome researches it yet has power to elevate the mind, expand the intellect, and purify the heart. Under its cheering guidance, to us it is permitted to dwell with sober delight on the past, to travel far back into the remote ages of mankind, and to realize the truth that the mighty spirits of old were not a different class of beings, but partakers of the same flesh and blood with ourselves, toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, swayed by passions, hopes, and desires, by whatever stirs this mortal frame, in like manner as we are. In the prosecution of our efforts we must neither be so destitute of manly convictions as to value any thing that is old, simply because it is old, and not for its intrinsic worth and meaning; neither on the other hand, must we wrap up ourselves in the shallow conceit of the immeasurable superiority in every respect of the present age to all previous conditions. He would read antiquity rightly must have a heart as well as head; social feelings as well as critical acu- men; feed on the past and live in the present; and thus will he 202 280 An Address on Archeology. engender hopes of real progress, real advancement ; hopes, as it has been beautifully said, plucked like wild flowers from the ruined tombs which border the highways of antiquity, to make garlands for living foreheads. Then will he have studied profitably, then will his experience of the present be illumitied by the sparkling light shed upon it from ancient precedents, and he will be strength- ened to act his part, by the conciousness that he is not an isolated fragment of humanity, but a member of the one great family of man, with high endowments, grave responsibilities, and formed for the noblest destinies. Droyeat Foliat Church; (Destr pian ) 20 feet is feet 15 feet Ww. E. This Church was demolished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by order of Edmund Gheast, who became Bishop of Salisbury in 1571, and gave the order for demolishing it in the first year of his translation. The order still remains in the Registry of the Diocese of Salisbury, and at some times of the year the site of the Church can be accurately traced. It appears to have been about 75 feet long, by 20 broad, the chancel somewhat narrower. In the Book of the Church goods of Wilts seized by the Crown, under a Commission dated March 3rd, 1553; and which Book bears the signatures of ‘¢ Antony Hungerford and Wyllyam Wroughton,” two of the Commissioners, there is the following entry as to Draycot Foliot :— * Dreycott { delirved to Thomas Weke and to Thomas Weke j ae xiiij ovne 20 feet 15 feet Foliat or challis by Indentur. of xijij ovnc, & ij belles. bells ij In plate to the Kings vse vy ovnce”’ A few of the early Incumbents’ names are preseryed:— A.B, PATRON, RECTOR. 1563. | E. Dreycot Foliat. | Elizabeth R. Aristotle Webb, on death of Thomas Parram. 1568. < Thomas Chaderton, Esq. | Thomas Jones, by el) vation of A. Webb 1570, 55 Das. hr RIN Gate shi Meredith Morgan: onre- signation of T. Jones. 1581. | Chiselden & Draycot | Robert Stevens........ John Gallimore. 1611. | E, Dreycot Foliot | The King, by lapse ....| John Gallimore. 1664, Ne DO verter ets yatvviy'e ose et Thomas Twittie. F, A. CArRINnGTON, hl TOUT Panypad of ot meh pit bed * ney Ci kk a 281 Che Bistary of Longleat. By the Rey. J. E. Jackson, Rector of Leigh-Delamere.1 BrrorE reading to you what I have been able, at rather short notice, to collect upon the subject of Longleat, I beg most respect- fully, on the part of this Association, to thank the Noble Marquis for the opportunity he has so kindly given us of hearing its history on the spot. To myself the opportunity appears to be singularly favourable, since, after his Lordship’s munificent hospitality, I may venture to presume that you will all be disposed to receive less critically the imperfections of this paper. Being a Topographical Society, it is our first duty to know exactly where weare. Weare in Wiltshire certainly; otherwise, we should have no excuse for being here. But though the house stands within this county, the woods and grounds lie partially in Somerset, which begins about three-quarters of a mile off on the way to Frome. As to the Hundred; so long as we followed the high road hither from Warminster we were within that Hundred; but from the moment of entering Longleat Park, we have been, and now are, in the Hundred of Heytesbury. With respect to Parish, a much greater nicety of distinction is necessary, for I believe the case to be that the library, and the south front of the house, are in one parish, and the rest in another. When the Noble Marquis writes his morning letters he is in Horningsham; when he goes to dinner, he is in Longbridge Deverill. Having taken our bearings, the next question is, what is the proper meaning of the name of Longleat? It is a very peculiar one, perhaps unique. Sir Richard Hoare suggests that it may be derived from Jonga and lata, two Latin adjectives signifying 1 This Paper was read from the garden terrace at Longleat, after the enter- tainment given by the Marquis of Bath to the members of the Wiltshire Archwological Society, on Wednesday, August 6th, 1856. 282 The History of Longleat. long and broad, as descriptive of the valley in which the house is situated. But to this explanation there are fair objections. First; adjectives, as we have been always taught to believe, are feeble parts of speech which cannot stand by themselves, but require something to lean upon. In the name of a place you always expect to find a noun substantive, either simple or in composition: as Warminster, anciently Wereminster, (the church on the Were rivulet), Bradford, Trowbridge, and the like. In the next place, if “Zongalata’”’ was the proper Latin name, how does it happen that it never occurs in any of the old Latin documents connected with Longleat? On the contrary, whenever the Latin name is used, as in a deed of 25 Edw. I.! the word is Longa-/eta: and the derivation which to myself appears, without any doubt, the true one, is this. The word /eat is an old noun, from the Saxon verb to lead, and signifies a watercourse or aqueduct. There is near Plymouth an artificial channel of this kind, a cele- brated piece of engineering made by Sir Francis Drake for supplying that town with water, which bears the name of The Leat. The word also occurs in old Acts of Parliament: In Scotland a mill-stream used to be called a mill-/eat?. The changes here haye been so great that it is of course difficult to say what may have been in ancient times, but it is most likely that the stream from Hornings- ham, which supplies the present lake, was originally used by some channel, for turning a mill. The late Mr. Davis, steward of this property, used to say that he believed there had once been a mill near the site of the house. [The Marquis of Bath here stated that this was the case; and that it stood near the old stables, close to the house}. His lordship’s testimony came in very happily for the purpose: corroborating, without further question, this origin of the name.’ 1 Prynne, p. 710, 2 Lade is a Scotch word for a mill-race or trench: and Baillie gives mzllead and milleat as used in the same sense. ade also signified the mouth of a stream. At Lechlade, in Gloucestershire, the little stream called the Leach, discharges itself into the Isis. So also Crick-lade. Near Nismes in France there is the Mill of Langlade: a close approximation to the Mill of Long-leat. 3 The Mill is marked upon an old folio plan of the gardens and plantations by H. Hulsbergh. e it ae ~~ : a nll ve » Sala aff wer |’ Yur werent Ui » 2 i+ rf phe ‘ 4 idl a ie: cae we S| 2 é ym, i Ge stolen 1 & nes, i SY re ° » ‘¢, a f < yy > “1 Pe y. ey Dis * cae Ug v1 HUTA Use beikikleh % aul u)) sh oh ye "Al lh ij! Wyn “ SIGILL’ SANTE RADEGUNDIS DE LONGALETA.” Bdw.ittte del F Seal of S* Radegund of Long-Lete AD. 1354 [8 Edw BE) By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 283 The oldest document in which the name occurs is in Latin, dated A.D. 1280, (9 Edw. I.), near 600 years ago, in which the tithes of the church of Lullington near Frome, were granted to the Priory of “Lange-lete.” Here therefore its regular history begins. It is quite certain that upon the very site of this house once stood a Priory of Black Canons of the Order of St. Augustine. It was founded about the year 1270 by Sir John Vernon, then Lord of the Manor of Horningsham. Very little is known about it: but it was dedicated to St. Radegund, a canonized French Queen, and was a very small establishment, consisting only of a Prior and some four or five brethren, maintained out of lands lying near or in adjoining parishes. There was a church on the spot, and in one part of it called the Chapel of the B.V.M., an altar was endowed in the year 1408, by Sir Walter Hungerford, of Farley Castle, with the Rectory of Rusthall (commonly called Rushall), near Pewsey, for daily masses for the souls of his family. That document is still preserved at this house. There were other altars in the Church, to St. Cyriac and St. Juliana, martyrs. The names of several Priors are on record. They had an official seal, of which an impression is attached to a deed, and an engraving is published in Sir R. C. Hoare’s history. [See Copy annewed|. We have also a Latin inventory of their plate, Service books of various kinds, and certain vestments, of patterns, which, considering the profession of the wearers, seem remarkable enough. Amongst them is a robe of light red, figured over with birds in darker red; a gown of white silk, worked in with birds in gold; a third is a cowl of scarlet, powdered over with stags in gold; and lastly a cape of green velvet, covered with griffins. These devices may have been taken from the coats of arms of the donors: but though we often find altar-cloths and frontals bearing such figures, I do not immediately recollect having ever read any where of priest’s dresses so adorned. The Priory stood here about 250 years. In 1529 the establishment was reported to have fallen into decay, partly from improvident waste of its means, partly from the diminishing number of its small Society. So by Letters Patent, dated 20 June, granted to Lawrence Campeggio, Cardinal Bishop of Sarum, and Peter Stanter, Esq., of Horningsham, 284 The History of Longleat. it was dissolved: and its revenue, or the little that remained, trans- ferred to another religious Society, the Abbey of Charterhouse Henton, about twelve miles off, on the road to Bath. During the short time that it was attached to Henton, it was called the Cell of the Priory of Longleat. Ten years afterwards, in 1539, Henton Abbey itself was dissolved, its property was dispersed, and the site of this Cell of Longleat was sold by the Crown to Sir John Horsey, of Clifton Maubank, Co. Dorset; who in the following year, 1540, sold it to Sir John Thynne. That the Priory stood upon this identical spot is proved by the discovery a few years ago, during some alterations in the interior of this house, of an old wall that had formed part of it and that had been worked up into the frame of the present house. At the same time several coffins of rude workmanship, containing skeletons, were found under the floor near the foot of the grand staircase. These were removed into Horningsham churchyard. Until Sir John Thynne, in the year 1540, bought the old Priory, he was not in any way connected by property with the county of Wilts. His family came from Shropshire, and their name had anciently been Botteville. And here I may observe, as not impertinent to this occasion, that the house of Thynne, Patrons of Archeology in the 19th century, were in the 16th, working archeologists themselves. William Thynne, uncle to Sir John, published one of the earliest printed editions in folio, of our old Geoffrey Chaucer: and Francis Thynne, son of William, was not only Lancaster Herald and a great col- lector of English historical antiquities, but also a writer: though, as often is the case, he laboured for others to reap where he had sown. ‘ Whosoever,” (says Fuller) “shall peruse the voluminous works of Ralph Holinshed (the chronicler) will find how much he was assisted therein by the help of Mr. Francis Thynne, seeing the shoulders of Atlas himself may be weary, if not sometimes beholden to Hercules, to relieve him.” Sir John turned his own abilities in a different direction, and one a great deal more profitable than Archeology. One of his uncles had been Master of the Household to King Henry VII., and . By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 285 Sir John haying thus some introduction to Court, rose to fill the office of Secretary to the Earl of Hertford, who was afterwards Duke of Somerset, and Protector of the realm. In protecting the realm the Duke certainly did not forget to take care of himself. He had, it is well known, enormous grants of confiscated church lands in this county, and having satisfied himself, he rewarded with a few crumbs the gentleman who had the good luck to be his Secretary. A volume is, I believe, preserved in this house, which contains an account of all the estates successively acquired by Sir John Thynne. By comparing the several dates of the purchases, as they are given in Sir Richard Hoare’s printed abstract of the deeds, I - find that the very first purchase Sir John Thynne made in this county was the actual site on which we are assembled. It was then a very humble bargain, consisting only of the old mansion house with the offices of the priory, an orchard, a garden, and a few fields about it, not much above 100 acres in the whole. In the following year, 1541, he bought the outlying lands in other parishes that had also belonged to the ex-canons of the Cell of Longleat: and during the ten years following, ending a.p. 1550, he had succeeded in forming the greater part of this estate. He was knighted in 1547, after the battle of Musselburgh against the Scots; and in 1548 further improved his worldly circumstances by marrying the only daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Gresham,’ one of the prince merchants of the day, a lady with a very handsome fortune in possession, and a great deal more in prospect as soon as the said prince merchant should have no longer use for it. During the reign of Queen Mary Sir John was made by her sister, the Lady Elizabeth (afterwards Queen), chief Comptroller of her household; but the times being awkward, and the air of courts not good for his health, he quitted the eminence of public life and retired into the country. His good 1 With some part of the Glastonbury estates: to which grant the old local distich refers; ‘Horner, Popham, Wyndham, and Thynne, When the Abbot came out, then they came in.” 2 The picture at Longleat commonly called that of Sir Thomas Gresham, (which it certainly is not) is probably that of Sir Richard. 2P 286 The History of Longleat. fortune created considerable jealousy: and was more particularly an object of discomfort to the mind of one of his neighbours (whose name is not given), a great Earl and a Privy Counsellor, which ill-conditioned gentleman actually caused Sir John to be brought up before the Council Table, to show how he became so rich in so short atime. Some expected to hear that he had found a treasure, others were sure that he could never have got it honestly. But the knight quickly made answer that his wife’s large fortune accounted for the chief part of it; the rest he had gained by industry and frugality: and he ended his statement by a sharp home-thrust at his accuser, saying, that ‘as that Lord, and others beside him, were now finding a good mistress in the Queen, so he had formerly had a good master in the Duke of Somerset”; which words appearing to be very much to the purpose, and nobody having any more remarks to make, Sir John made his bow to the Council, and retired without further trouble. The country into which he retired was his newly purchased estate in this neighbourhood: and here towards the latter part of his life, after providing for two families, together amounting to sixteen children, he began to play with house building. A fire having furnished him with an excuse, in or about 1566 he sent for his architect, and gave the order for Longleat. But who was the architect that he sent for? I am not aware that there is any positive written evidence of any kind, to show who he was. The accounts of the building, with all items of payment, are carefully preserved; but singularly enough, no architect’s name appears in them. Tradition, it is true, names the man, and as that tradition has been consistent and uniform, I see no reason why it should be doubted. But before we try to settle that point, or rather, for the very purpose of helping to settle it, it may be useful to enquire for a few moments what style of house architecture had hitherto prevailed in England; and if the new house at Longleat was totally unlike the country houses that had preceded it, how came it to be unlike? how came this novelty of style to be adopted here? Now the domestic architecture of any country in ancient times would take its character very much from the condition in which By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 287 that country might be, especially with regard to the personal safety of the inhabitants. When England was torn in pieces by baronial jealousies, and one noble lord went to make a morning call upon another, not to leave a card and ask him to dinner, but to batter his house down about his ears; in such precarious circumstances, the thicker the walls of the house were, the better for the gentleman on whom the call was made. A man’s house is still his castle, de jure, in the eye of the law; but in those days his house was a castle, de facto. The houses of the nobility were nothing else than fortified dungeons, of which you have some very good examples at no great distance, in the ruins at Wardour, and at Nunney near Frome. The necessity of providing for self defence became less and less, but the fashion lingered long after the necessity had ceased. Houses were next built in the form, and with much of the appear- ance, but without much of the real strength of castles. They had tower and gateway, battlement and moat; very feudal to look at, but not very strong, and certainly confined and dull to live in. One of the most complete specimens of this kind in England, is Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. In the reign of Henry VII. these castellated houses were chiefly built with high ornamented gateways, and large projecting windows. I do not recollect any example near us; but the front of St. James’s Palace in London, and of Eton College, may be familiar, and will give an idea of the kind of house alluded to. This style may be described as having been, in the main, what is commonly called the Gothic; namely, the pointed architecture of churches, applied to that of houses, in order to take off the prison-like look of the old English Castle. We have in Wiltshire the remains of several private houses of gentry, which will give a fair notion of what they generally were previous to the time of Sir John Thynne in 1540. There is, first of all, South Wraxhall House, near Bradford, the property of Mr. Long, of which the oldest parts are thoroughly ecclesiastical. The gateway is of Henry 8th’s reign; and other parts are of the reign of Elizabeth and James, with modern alterations. Place House, Tisbury, a grange of the Abbess of Shaftesbury, of the 14th and 2r2 288 The History of Longleat. 15th centuries—ecclesiastical of course—most of the building gone—a gate-house left—the rest now a granary and dairy. Norrington, in the Hundred of Chalk, an old house belonging now to the Wyndhams, built by the Gawens in the reign of Henry IV., has ecclesiastical windows. At Woodlands, near Mere, and at Potterne (the latter once the occasional residence of the Bishops of Sarum) there are, I understand, vestiges of houses of this class. The Bishop’s Palace at Salisbury has some very ancient portions, but it has been so frequently altered by successive prelates, that it is not easy to distinguish which they are. Great Chalfield House, near Bradford, built in the 15th century, about 1490, is as good a specimen as we have of the old English manor house; very collegiate in its appearance, yet having a vestige of the castle style in its moat and gate-house. The prevailing tone of house archi- tecture before the reign of Henry VIII. was certainly ecclesiastical. And this explains in some degree why it is that one is so often told by. the farmer’s wife at an old house, “they do say it was once a nunnery, or kind of abbey like.” Not that there were such estab- lishments in one half the places in which they are thus supposed to have been, but the style of building, corresponding with that of nunneries and abbeys, often leads to the idea that they could have been nothing else. Henry VIII., who turned over many new leaves in England, introduced, amongst other changes, a novel style of house building. The style which he patronized, (and a more liberal or accomplished patron of the arts never existed in this country), was the ancient classic architecture of Greece, then lately revived in Italy. Upon the ecclesiastical or Gothic style, now beginning to expire, was engrafted the Corinthian, Jonic, or Tuscan. This is the way in which this kind of architecture is generally described : but it is considered by some, to be, after all, a distinct and inde- pendent style of itself, of which we have as yet no proper history. Of this novel mixture, Longleat is one of the purest examples. The house has also this peculiarity, that whereas we have upon the whole, very few examples remaining of any old English mansion, in its entire original state, this may be regarded, externally, as a complete specimen of its period. Most houses have been added to By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 289 and altered: but Longleat, with very slight exception, is the same, as to the exterior, as when it was designed. The balustrades, the cupolas, and statues on the top are not original, but rather later ; the present hall-door is also later; but, I believe, with these ex- ceptions, the house has undergone, externally, no material change from the day it was first built. There are the large mullioned windows of the earlier period of Henry VII.; and of the three stories, the pilasters in the lower one are of Doric character, in the middle Ionic, in the highest Corinthian ; the chimnies also are in the form of columns. Though from its pilasters and entablatures, the architecture of the house, when examined, would be pronounced Grecian, or Italian; still, its general effect and appearance are after all very much that of the old English ecclesiastical. It is not really ecclesiastical, because there is neither pointed window, nor tracery here; all is square: but the house has the old look, owing to the bold projection of the windows, and the varied outline of the roof, produced by the turrets and lofty chimnies. Observe, by the way, that the eight turrets on the roof are not placed at regular intervals, but in some kind of disorder. Perhaps this was done on purpose; the effect being to increase in the mind the idea of magnitude. For where every thing is in exact symmetry, and all parts correspond, the eye takes in the whole object, and measures the plan at once, but irregularity leaves the eye perplexed, and more is left to imagination. This new Italian fashion of Henry 8th’s reign was, upon the whole, adhered to in the reign of Edward VI., and the early part of Elizabeth. We have of this period, in Wiltshire, Littlecote, which retains much of its old character, though altered, and the South front of Corsham House, built in 1583; Longford is also of this date, but it is upon a somewhat eccentric model borrowed from an Island in Denmark. The Longleat style began to decline towards the reign of James I., much fantastic ornament and un- meaning device being introduced; still, during the decline, some very beautiful houses were built, of which we have good specimens in Wiltshire, in the Duke’s House at Bradford, Charlton Park, and Stockton House. 290 The History of Longleat. Having described to you in a few words the kind of house that prevailed in England, down to the time of Sir John Thynne, and having shown that he was one of the first to adopt the new fashion, we have now to answer, if possible, the question, who was the architect employed by him? The tradition before alluded to, is, that it was built from the design of John of Padua. That has been the constant belief, and if nothing can be produced to the contrary, there is every reason for adopting it. In favour of it we certainly have these facts; Holbein the painter, and John of Padua are the two foreigners generally understood to have been employed by Henry 8th, in introducing the new kind of architecture. Of Holbein’s taste in that direction, we have a specimen in Wiltshire, in the very pretty Porch, formerly attached to the house, but now erected apart in the gardens at Wilton. But the misfortune is, that about this John of Padua no one is able to tell us anything at all. To use a term now growing much into use, John of Padua is a Myth. Who he really was, what his family name was, whether he was born or only educated at Padua, what his works were before he came to England, we have, I believe, not a morsel of information. The little that is at present known upon the subject is merely this, that a person of the name was sent for by Henry, was appointed on his arrival in 1544 to an office, the very title of which was entirely novel, “the deviser of his Majesty’s buildings,” and, that by a deed dated in that year, the King assigned to him a certain daily stipend for his services. About three years afterwards, (1547,) Henry died. But the pension was renewed under Edward VI., by the Duke of Somerset, Protector, who took the Italian by the hand. In 1549, the Duke employed him to design his great palace, in the Strand, called Somerset House; not the present building of that name, but the original one. Now old Somerset House, built by John of Padua, is always described as having abounded in ornaments of Roman architecture, and as having greatly resembled Longleat.! This 1 Of the original Somerset House, as left by the Protector, (and before the alterations made by Inigo Jones, when preparing it as a residence for Queen Henrietta Maria,) there is an engraying, but not a very effective one, in Wilkinson’s ‘‘ Londina Illustrata.” SF ~ ae By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 291 being so, does it not in some degree strengthen the ancient tradi- tion as to thishouse? We find the Italian, architect to the Protector; Sir John Thynne, Secretary to the Protector. The Duke builds a palace in the Strand; the Secretary, a few years afterwards, another near Warminster. Both palaces are in the newly introduced, and therefore highly fashionable Italian style. The ornaments of the one, strongly resemble those of the other. Now, in the absence of all positive proof upon the subject, yet with this old tradition asserting the fact, and with these points of coincidence to support it, I think it may be fairly put to you as an Archeological jury, sitting as it were on the very body, does not the circumstantial evidence favour the tradition, that Longleat was designed by John of Padua? There is another nobleman’s house in England still remaining, of about the same date as Longleat, and very strongly resembling it—Wollaton House, near Nottingham, built for Sir Francis Wil- loughby, and now the property of his descendant, Lord Middleton. Mr. Britton, in the 2nd vol. of his Architectural Antiquities, published in 1809, (p. 108,) observes of Wollaton, that though the name of its architect is not positively recorded, yet when the general design, in composition and detail, is carefully compared with Longleat, there can be no hesitation in attributing the two buildings to the same artist. Indeed, he adds, “The uniformity of proportion in the pilasters, windows, and architectural ornaments, would lead us to suppose that these parts of the two houses were executed from the same working drawings.” ‘The resemblance here spoken of is certainly considerable, not only in the outside, but within: the two halls being very much upon the same model, corresponding very closely in arrangement, construction of roof, and style of screen. At Wollaton House, two architects are believed to have been concerned. ‘The first was John Thorpe, a person much employed in palatial edifices at that time. The second, his successor, John Smithson, as appears by a monument in Wollaton Church. From the resemblance between Wollaton and Longleat, some have fancied John Thorpe and John of Padua may have been one and the same 292 The History of Longleat. person. It was not uncommon for English patrons of art to fit out young men for study abroad ; and it is not impossible that one who trudged away from his native village with a knapsack on his back as plain John Thorpe, may, after serving his apprenticeship to the Muses under the genial sun of Italy, have applied revival principles to his own name, and have come back to Old England a fine gen- tleman, to be thenceforth called Giovanni di Padova. But I am not aware of the slightest ground for supposing that such was the case in this instance. Thorpe is said to have been a native of Norfolk, and seems to have been always called by his English name. Some of his plans have been lately published by Mr. C. J. Richardson, in a work on Old English Mansions. He designed amongst others the following houses: Theobald’s, Burghley, Wim- bledon, Holdenby, Kirby, and Old Buckhurst. In the meantime whilst we have been settling what style and what architect Sir John Thynne shall choose for his new house, we have left him waiting to begin it. I will therefore only add upon this point one thing more, which is, that finding no mention of name or payment, or any notice of any kind of any architect what- ever, some have said, that after all Sir John was his own architect. It is hardly probable that this should have been the case in the proper sense of the word: it is not unlikely that having been fur- nished with designs he worked them out himself, and was his own clerk of the works. His accounts of the building are still preserved here. They commence 21st January, 1567, (which according to modern reckoning would be called January, 1568,) and continue to 29th March, 1578, during which time rather more than £8000 had been spent: a sum which, of course, requires to be multiplied con- siderably to give any approximate notion of the cost in money of our own day. With so many workmen about, one would fancy that Sir John would not be over well pleased to hear that Queen Eiizabeth was coming to pay him a visit. Yet she came, for it is mentioned in the account of her progress in 1575, that she favoured him with her company on her way from Bristol. From Longleat she passed on to pay the like honour to Sir William Sharington of Lacock Abbey, By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 293 and subsequently went to Wilton. Queen Elizabeth was no builder of palaces herself; she had no occasion, having inherited a suffi- cient number from her father. It answered her purpose a great deal better to encourage her Ministers to build large houses in which she might go to visit, and half ruin them by the compliment. Sir John Thynne died in 1580, leaving the larger portion of the outside finished, and from the Hall to the Chapel Court inside: no part of the western side seems to have been finished in his time: As to grounds, nothing seems to have been provided, mention being made only of a garden, hop-yard, and orchard, which were probably the old ones of the Priory. The outer shell of a large house, 220 feet long, by 180 deep, is certainly something, but by no means all. It is a skeleton, which, to look comely, and to serve life’s uses and luxuries, requires to be filled up, fattened, clothed, and adorned. These operations Sir John left to his successors. I believe that the building accounts were not continued after the founder’s death; but there is a short descriptive summary of the progress and changes which took place under the various succeeding owners. The oak screen and wains- cot of the hall were amongst the additions by his son, Sir John. Sir James, the fourth owner, employed Sir Christopher Wren, by whom a principal staircase was made; and a hall door, which, how- ever, was afterwards removed to a school-house at Warminster. The old priory barn, which stood near the south-west corner of the house, was converted into stabling; and the Priory kitchen garden was walled and planted. In 1663, King Charles II., accompanied by the Queen and Duke of York, visited Sir James Thynne. I have not seen any account of their reception, but they left London on 26th of August; were entertained by Lord Seymour at Marl- borough Castle; walked up Silbury Hill with John Aubrey as cicerone, dined at Lacock, and so to Bath. It was probably in the following month they came here, as I remember seeing some years ago a memorandum in the register of the neighbouring parish of Beckington, that on 10th Sept. (in that year) “Charles Il., King of England, rode through that village, and Katherine, his Queen, whom God bless.” 2aQ 294 The History of Longleat. In 1670 Sir James Thynne died, leaving no children; and the house, then ninety years old, came with the estates to his nephew, Thomas Thynne, Esq., commonly called by his familiars, from the presumed estimate of his annual value, “ Tom of Ten Thousand.” This gentleman resided at Longleat, and laid out a new road to Frome, planting trees and making a hard way, an unusual benefit in those days. Amongst other apartments in the house described as having been finished in his time, was a new dining-room ; and the “hospitable treats’’ given here by him have found a place in history which they will only lose whenever Dryden’s poetry ceases to be read. How Mr. Thynne’s hospitality came to be alluded to in so con- spicuous a poem as the celebrated political satire, called ‘ Absalom and Achitophel,”’ must now be explained, as it is connected with a very important chapter in the annals of this house. Under the names of Absalom and Achitophel, Dryden, as is well known, in- tended the Duke of Monmouth and Lord Shaftesbury, the leaders of the Protestant party, which, towards the end of the reign of Charles II., raised the feeling of the country against the succession of the King’s brother, James, Duke of York. The reason why Dryden selected those names is obvious, because the two characters in Scriptural History form a singular parallel to those of Mon- mouth and Shaftesbury; the one a favourite but rebellious son, who stole the hearts of Israel and stirred up rebellion against his father; the other a deep designing veteran statesman, who em- ployed the younger man as an instrument for purposes of his own. I ought, perhaps, to apologize for referring to a story so familiar as that of the unfortunate James Stuart, Duke of Monmouth, but without doing so for a few moments I could not properly set before you the precise occasion of his last visits to Longleat. The Duke was a very handsome, accomplished, and high-spirited young man, exceedingly popular, and utterly spoiled by the fond- ness of his father. King Charles loaded him with every kind of lucrative and honourable office; the natural result of all which, was, that his head was turned, and he fell into the snare of covet- ing the succession to the throne, from which, by irregularity of By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 295 birth, he was lawfully debarred. A private quarrel between him- self and his uncle, James Duke of York, laid the foundation of a difference which embittered the latter years of King Charles II’s. reign, and finally brought ruin on Monmouth himself. At Shaftes- bury’s instigation, he took the lead of the party opposed to the Court. The Duke of York was banished; a bill for excluding him from the succession had all but passed; Charles fell ill, and had he died, Monmouth was in a very fair position to agitate his title to the Crown. But the King suddenly recovering, by an unaccount- able revolution of mind, and to everybody’s utter amazement, sent for James back again, stripped Monmouth of his honours, and banished him to Holland. From Holland, under Shaftesbury’s advice, the young man came back to England, without the King’s leave, and commencing various progresses through the kingdom, gained the whole population to his side. It was in August, 1680, that he rode through the West, visiting the houses of the principal gentry who were mostly of his party. Coming first into Wiltshire he staid some days at Longleat. Crowds flocked to see and to escort him, scattering flowers in his path, and shouting for the King and the Protestant Duke. After having proceeded in a perfect triumph as far as Exeter, he returned by Longleat. His visits here would be, not of that ceremonious kind where nobody is very comfortable, but easy and familiar, for Mr. Thynne was one of his warmest partizans and personal friends. From him the Duke re- ceived his fine set of Oldenburg coach-horses. It was owing to this intimacy that Mr. Thynne was removed from the command of a Regiment of Horse of the Wilts Militia, Nov. 19th, 1681. We shall find them together once more under circumstances little anti- cipated by either party. And here, in lightly sketching the history of this house, I pause for one moment, to refer somewhat more emphatically to the re- markable meeting under this roof, of two men, to whose names a deep tragic interest belongs. The incident would of itself supply no bad material for a chapter of historical romance, presenting as it does a double example of that strange vicissitude in human things which sometimes makes history as marvellous as fiction. 2a2 296 The History of Longleat. You can easily picture to your minds the scene which Longleat must have presented when its owner, attended by the chief gentry of his neighbourhood, welcomed in this very hall, the gay caval- cade of courtiers, headed by the popular Duke, a young host and young guest, to both of whom the lot seemed to have fallen on the fairest of grounds, both at the summit of fortune, with every prospect at that time before them, of continuing for years to come, to gather the roses without being vexed by the thorns of life. Yet at the banquet, and amidst the revelry of that evening, there hung over the head of each, the very sword of Damocles, its weight and edge withheld by the single hair; that hair now strained to the uttermost, and on the point of giving way. The danger was in- visible, but it was instant: for soon after their leave-taking at this door, both fell by a violent and cruel death; the host under an assassin, the guest on the scaffold. The Duke of Monmouth’s fate does not belong to our subject, but we legitimately pursue that of Mr. Thynne. At the time of this visit he was unmarried, but was beginning to prepare Longleat for the reception of a bride. This we learn from the document to which I have already referred, the chronicle of the works done at the house. It goes on to say that besides the dining- room, Mr. Thynne also prepared the drawing-room, the alcove chamber and others, “all which he did when he married the Lady Ogle, as apartments for her and her servants when he thought she would come to live at Longleat.” But, alas! “there’s many a slip *twixt the cup and the lip:” the Lady Ogle never did come to Longleat, and now you shall hear the reason why. She was by birth the Lady Elizabeth Percy, surviving daughter and sole heiress of Jocelyn, 11th Earl of Northumberland, and was only four years old at her father’s death in May, 1670. Her mother marrying again, she was removed to the care of her grand- mother the Dowager Countess of Northumberland, one of the most tenacious and despotic of dowagers or grandmothers. The young Lady Elizabeth was the greatest match in the kingdom, the jewel of an ancient house, dazzling to the eyes of beholders. Many were the solicitors; but the lips that were to pronounce the decisive By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 297 monosyllable, aye or no, were by no manner of means to be those of the jewel herself. Lady Elizabeth could not yet boast of being quite thirteen when she found herself legally and irrevocably betrothed, with all she possessed, to Henry Earl of Ogle, heir apparent to the Duke of Newcastle. This was about the latter end of the year 1679. Lord Ogle died in November following, 1680. The juvenile widow was again at the disposal of the old Countess, who seems to have lost not a moment in securing for her one of the wealthiest in the land. The Duke of Monmouth interested himself for Mr. Thynne, and to Mr. Thynne she was betrothed, being not yet fifteen. Something seems to have occurred at this period (what it was will perhaps never now be known) to set her mind against this new marriage. Whether, as some said, she had been deceived by her grandmother and a coadjutor of her’s, one Colonel Brett, or whether her own feelings had never been properly consulted ; whatever the real cause was, it is admitted that after the ceremony of marriage she obtained consent to spend a year abroad with the Lady Temple, wife of the celebrated Sir William, Ambassador to Holland; and that her sudden departure became the talk of the town. There is reason to believe that proceedings were set on foot by her for dissolving the marriage. Another version of the story is that she had already seen some one whom she really preferred to either of the two to whom she had given her hand. One certainly there was, who, whatever ground he had on which to build it, did at this time con- ceive the hope of calling her his own. This was Charles John, Count Konigsmark, the head of an old and noble Swedish family, whose name was in those days one of renown in Europe. The Count was only eight years older than the Lady Percy: but he had already distinguished himself with the fearless valour of his family, both by sea and land, and was a person of great accomplishment, dexterity in exercises, and address. He came to the Court of England with the highest personal introduction, took up his resi- dence in London, and lived in great style. It is believed that he followed the Lady Perey to the continent, and that he there came 298 The History of Longleat. to the determination of gaining his end by the assassination of Mr. Thynne. For this purpose he engaged abroad a German oflicer, a gentleman of good family, one Capt. Vratz, who was given to un- derstand that Konigsmark had been insulted, and even assaulted by Mr. Thynne, and that chastisement only was intended. Captain Vratz hired a Lieutenant Stern, who again enlisted a further sub- ordinate, a common Polish soldier of the line, called Borosky. This man was to do the deed, and though he does not appear to have exactly known beforehand what he was to do, yet he professed himself ready for anything, on being assured that, happen what might, no harm could come to him, being merely a private soldier obeying orders. Count Konigsmark came over from the continent to superintend the operations, though he took no actual part in them. The three subordinates being in London, and having horses ready saddled, kept on the look out for Mr. Thynne from the win- dow of a house; and on the night of Sunday, Feb. 12, 1682, about 8 o’clock, having received information that he was likely to pass in his coach along Pall-mall, they immediately mounted and waylaid him. He was returning from the Countess of Northumberland’s house, in St. James’s Street, and the night being dark, the coach was preceded by links. Pall-mall at that time was not a regular street as now, but the whole of the lower side was open to St. James’s Park, with here and there a house on the upper side. On reaching what is now the Opera Arcade, but then a continuation of St. Alban’s Place, Stern galloped up in front of the horses, Capt. Vratz rode alongside the carriage, and calling out “ Hold’’! pointed to the gentleman inside. Borosky, the Polander, immediately fired and shot four or five bullets into the body of Mr. Thynne. He was not killed on the spot, but lingered till the next morning. The Duke of Monmouth had been riding with him round Hyde Park, and only left the carriage an hour before. He remained all night by the side of his dying friend, and put every instrument in motion, for furthering the pursuit of the murderers. His own narrow escape and his exertions for his friend, are alluded to in a Grub Street ballad written upon the event :— “SS9l “Sl “asta “TIVIN TIVa NT ‘OSH ANNAHL SVWOHT 410 YACYAW FHL By the Rev. J. BE. Jackson. 299 ‘‘But Heaven did presently find out What with great care he could not do; ’T was well he was the coach gone out, Or he might have been murdered too: For they who did this ’squire kill Would fear the blood of none to spill.” Sir John Reresby, the chief officer at the time of the London police, gives us in his Memoirs, a long account of this murder. He says that until all circumstances were fully known, it was be- lieved by many that the assault upon Mr. Thynne had been really intended for the Duke of Monmouth, and that it was a scheme of the Court party to put him out of the way. There was, however, no foundation for this; though Reresby does admit that the King (Charles II.) was very anxious that Count Konigsmark should, if possible, get away out of the country. A reward of £200 was offered for his arrest, and he was taken by one Gibbons, an attend- ant of the Duke of Monmouth, as he was stepping in disguise aboard ship. Gibbons charged him with the murder, and added, that he had liked to have killed his master, the Duke. “No,” answered the Count, “they would not have killed Aim.” All four were put upon their trial, but by management the Count was ac- quitted. The Judges, Pemberton and North, would not allow the depositions previously taken before the Magistrate, to be read. Had this been done, the evidence would have directly criminated him. The other three were convicted, and executed in Pall Mall, the Duke of Monmouth attending the execution. Lieut. Stern protested that his was a hard case: that he had been deceived throughout ; and that now he was going to die for the sake of a man (Count Konigsmark) whom he had never spoken to; for a lady whom he had never seen, and for a dead man whom he never had a view of! The Polander declared he only did what, as a sol- dier, he was bound to do; and as to Capt. Vratz, he treated it all very cavalierly. Evelyn mentions in his Memoirs (1.541) under date of 10th March, that Vratz went to execution like an un- daunted hero, as one that had done a friendly office for that base coward, Konigsmark: he had only behaved like a gentleman, and did not value dying, of a rush. On the 24th March Evelyn went 300 The History of Longleat. to see the corpse “of that obstinate creature, Vratz,” the King having permitted that his body should be transported to his own country, he being of good family, and one of the first embalmed by a particular art invented by one William Russell. The flesh was florid as if the person was sleeping. He had been dead now nearly fifteen days, and lay exposed in a very rich coffin lined with lead, too magnificent (says Evelyn) for so horrid a murderer. In this affair, therefore, the most guilty was acquitted, the next most guilty (Vratz) was honourably interred, and the least offenders were hanged in chains; something like the New England law in Hudibras, where an useless innocent weaver is executed instead’ of an useful guilty cobbler. The Count had the worst cause, but the most money. His subsequent history was for a long time con- founded with that of his brother Philip Christopher, who, on sus- picion of being the lover of Sophia of Zell (afterwards Queen of George I.), was assassinated in 1694 in the palace at Hanover, and whose remains were found under the floor of the passage in which he had been despatched. But of Charles John Konigsmark, the murderer of Mr. Thynne, the end was this :—He entered the Ve- netian service, was sent into Greece as second in command of an expedition, and fell at the siege of Argos, August 29th, 1686, four years anda half after the murder. His position in society had suffered by that act, and he probably courted danger to redeem it; for at the time of the murder he had acknowledged that “it was a stain upon his blood, yet such as a good action in the wars, or a lodg- ment on the counterscarp, would easily wash out.” And now, what became of the fair Helen of this quarrel, the Lady Percy? In less than four months after Mr. Thynne’s death she married a third husband, Charles Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset. She rose to great political importance at Court, and was the greatest favourite Queen Anne had. The Tories hated her. Dean Swift regarded her as his worst enemy, and in one of his fits of unscru- pulous rage, was rash enough to circulate in the highest society some verses in which he more than insinuated that in her youth, she had been a party to the murder of Mr. Thynne. This he ven- tured to do in some severe lines called “The Windsor Prophecy,” a By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 301 written in ancient style, and pretending to have been found in a grave at Windsor. Swift’s offensive sarcasm was not lessened by his allusion to the colour of her Ladyship’s hair, which happened to be red. After a few introductory lines the “ Prophecy” pro- ceeded thus: “ And, dear England, if ought I understand, Beware of carrots from Northumberland. Carrots sown Thynn a deep root may get, If so they be in Somer-set: Their Cunnings—mark thou: for I have been told, They assassin when young, and poison when old.” These lines were never forgiven or forgotten, as Swift found to his cost. The Bishoprick of Hereford becoming vacant, his friends made every effort for him. The Duchess of Somerset flew to Court; and down upon her knees in an agony of tears, prayed the Queen to refuse. The Dean remained at St. Patrick’s. On Mr. Thynne’s monument in the South aisle of the Choir of Westminster Abbey Church, there is a bas relief in white marble, representing the murder. It is engraved in Dart’s history of Westminster Abbey.!. The monument was erected by Mr. Thynne’s brother-in-law and executor, Thomas Hall, Esq., of Bradford.? Mr. Thynne having died without children, Longleat passed (in 1682) to his second cousin, Thomas Thynne, of Kempsford, in 1 Vol II. pp. 84 and 245, 2 The marriage of Mr. Thynne with the Lady Ogle has been questioned by some writers, who imagined that a Contract for a marriage only existed at the time of his death. The marriage, however, did take place, as is proved by reference to a curious legal report of the case in Parliament: Thomas Hall, of Bradford, and others, Executors of Mr. Thynne, against Mrs. Jane Potter. It appears that Mrs. Potter had been instrumental in promoting the marriage, and that during the courtship, Mr. Thynne had given her a bond, under penalty of £1000, to pay her £500 within ten days after his marriage with the Lady Ogle. Six years after Mr. Thynne’s death, the Potters brought their action against the Exeecutors, and, having proved the marriage, obtained a verdict for the £1000 penalty. However, after being carried about by lawyers from one court to another, the original verdict was set aside, on the ground that the bond had been for an unlawful consideration. (See ‘Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,” vol. VI., p. 282. Cases in Parliament, Shower, fol. 76.) The history of the Lady Elizabeth Percy is given at considerable length in Craik’s ‘‘ Romance of the Peerage,” vol, IV., p. 327, from which some of the above particulars have been taken, QR 302 The History of Longleat. Gloucestershire, who was immediately created Baron Thynne of Warminster, and first Viscount Weymouth. This nobleman held the property for thirty-two years, from 1682 to 1714; and from the chronicle of the alterations in the house, it appears that he had a considerable share in them. The domestic chapel was now finished. It was consecrated 19th August, 1684: the sermon (from 2 Chron. vii. 16.) being preached by Richard Roderick, B.D., of Christ Church, Oxford, and Vicar of Blandford Forum, Dorset; after- wards printed, with a dedication to his Lordship. Large improvements, in the taste of the age, seem to have been made in the gardens. Indeed it would almost appear as if the first ornamental garden of any size was made at this time. The style adopted was the Dutch, introduced into England by William and Mary. Lord Weymouth laid out his ground according to the plan shown in the old engraving of the house by Kip: groves and long avenues, with vistas and artificial mounds, were planted; the original /eat was widened at intervals into fish-ponds, all rigorously angular; flower beds were described in chequered and geometric figures; the very gooseberry and currant bushes in the kitchen garden drilled to grow in squares or parallelograms, trimmed up as stiff and stately as lords and ladies at the court of the Hague. From the front door of the house, a long raised terrace, on a level with the highest step, projected forward to the entrance gates. Lord Weymouth had been, (about 1657) at a time when he had no prospect of succeeding to this estate, a student of Christ Church, Oxford, under Dr. Hammond and Dr. Fell. A biographical notice in the peerage speaks of him as a person of strict piety, honour, and integrity. Good qualities are unfortunately so indiscriminately bestowed in biographies, that the eye is apt to pass over them as matters of course. But we have the best ground for believing that in this instance the eulogy was well deserved. For, though we had no other and corroborative testimony to show what manner of spirit he was of, still we should perhaps be able to form a not very erro- neous opinion, recollecting this one only thing. At the early age of eighteen or so, in the little world ever found within the precincts of an university, Mr. Thynne was the friend and companion of By the Rev. J. E. JTackson. 303 Thomas Ken. This solitary fact gives at once complexion to the whole. If George Hooper, Francis Turner, (afterwards bishops,) and the chosen few of their college set, are known in English Church history as highly accomplished, resolute, simple-minded men; it is but natural to conclude that Mr. Thynne resembled them. He and Ken had gone up to Oxford about the year 1656; Ken probably, as poor students were wont to do, on foot; the other, it may be presumed, by some more aristocratic mode of conveyance. They found Oxford in a state of disorder. This sounds strange to modern ears, but it was the new reign of liberty of conscience. The Book of Common Prayer forbidden, Cromwell Chancellor, Dr. Owen the Vice-Chancellor, (a dignitary usually looked upon as the model of propriety,) “ walking about like a young scholar, with his hair powdered, snake-bone band-strings,” (whatever were they ?) “ with very large tassels, a huge set of ribbons pointed at his knees, Spanish leather boots with lawn tops, and his hat mostly cocked!” The Proctor, the very guardian of decorum, “was a boisterous fellow at cudgelling and foot-ball playing.’ I mention these things not for their own sake, but merely to enable you to conclude what the general state of affairs must have been, in the midst of which religious principle and sobriety of mind were left to find such nourishment as they could. No wonder that good men were amazed, and spake of these things one to another. It does not appear what degree of intimacy was kept up between Ken and Thynne after leaving college. Interruptions even of closest friendship are not uncommon at a time of life when the paths of duty lead in different directions. Ken’s professional occu- pations called him to Essex, Winchester, or the Isle of Wight. He was for some time a traveller in Italy; then became fixed as a chaplain to the Court in Holland; and in the very year in which Mr. Thynne unexpectedly succeeded to Longleat (1682), Ken was tossing about on the Morocco Seas as chaplain to the Tangiers fleet. In 1683 he was appointed to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells. I need not recite at any length particulars from a biography now so well known through the labours of many admirers. It will be enough merely to remind you, and is in more immediate connexion 2R2 304 The History of Longleat. with this place, that he was one of the seven prelates who, after James II. succeeded to the throne, opposed the Declaration of Indulgence, for which they were committed to the Tower. Notwith- standing this resistance to the Crown, Ken was afterwards, when the throne was declared vacant, one of those who refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, for which, by Act of parliament, he was deprived of his Bishoprick. The late Mr. Bowles of Bremhill was one of those who took in hand the life of Ken, and succeeded in producing a book, of which the Quarterly Review has said that it is about every thing else but Bishop Ken. There is, however, one passage to the point, and fortunately to our point. It is that in which Mr. Bowles has drawn the picture of the Bishop’s departure from the palace at Wells. ‘We can easily conceive with what prayers of the poor, and how beloved and regretted, Ken bade farewell to the diocese and flock so dear to him, to the palace, the retired garden, and the silent ‘water that surrounded them, to the towers, and to the devotional harmonies of his cathedral. Surely it would be no stretch of imagination to conceive, that, on the drawbridge as he passed, on leaving the abode of independence and peace, a crowd of old and young would be assembled with clasped hands and blessings, to bid him farewell. Perhaps his eye might have rested on the pale faces of some of the poor old men and women who had partaken their Sunday dinner so often, and heard his discourse, in the old hall. Then, and not before, we may conceive, ‘‘ Some natural tears he dropp’d, but wiped them soon; The world was all before him, where to seek His place of rest, and Providence his guide.” * Providence guided him to this house, “He,” says a later bio- grapher, “put it into the heart of Viscount Weymouth to bear to the good man a message of comfort—the offer of a home in his noble mansion of Longleat.” Part of the domain is within the diocese of Wells, and Lord Weymouth had the happiness to persuade his deprived bishop to make this his final resting-place. Doubtless he felt that his presence would bring a blessing on his * Life of Ken, Vol. Il. p, 174. By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 305 household; and Ken, whose heart was wounded with him, could not refuse the solace of such an asylum. Here, for twenty years, he experienced his lordship’s untiring kindness. Towards the close of his life he gave expression to his affectionate gratitude in dedi- cating to him two volumes of poetry. «When I, my lord, crush’d by prevailing might, No cottage had where to direct my flight, Kind Heay’n me with a friend illustrious blest, Who gives me shelter, affluence, and rest.” Ken’s library followed him from Wells. The rooms which he occupied are at the top of the house; and in that retirement he lived, wrote hymns, sang them to his viol, prayed, and died. His principal companion was probably Mr. Harbin, the family chaplain, of whom he often makes mention in his letters. This was the Rev. George Harbin, a Cambridge man, some time chaplain to Ken’s friend, Dr. Turner, Bishop of Ely. He is mentioned by Anthony Wood as a non-juror, and as using a lay habit. “Tt is,” continues the Layman who has last written Ken’s life, “allowable to those who love Ken’s memory to say, this upper chamber, and the walks and gardens, woods and glades, which he frequented, give a hallowed character to Longleat. He made occasional visits to his nephew, Isaac Walton, jun., the Rector of Poulshot, and other friends. Now and then he was in London, sometimes at Winchester, Bath, Bristol, &c.; but Longleat was the principal witness of his future trials, his temptations, aud his disquietudes. These last were to follow him wherever he might go; for what refuge of peace, what stillness or solitude, what shades of retirement can screen us from the companionship of our cares?” He died here on the 19th of March, 1711, and by his own desire was buried in the churchyard of the nearest parish within his diocese. This was Frome; Horningsham Church being within the diocese of Sarum. And in Frome churchyard, under the east window of the chancel, his ashes rest, guarded by a very singular monument, supposed to have been placed there by Lord Weymouth; an iron grating, coflin-shaped, surmounted by a mitre and pastoral 306 The History of Longleat. staff. His library continues to be carefully preserved in this house, his portrait in the gallery: the odour of his name is still fragrant at Longleat, but Ken belongs to his country. It is to be lamented that we have not some more particular knowledge of his friend and patron, the first Lord Weymouth, than is to be gleaned from a few notices left of him in letters from Ken and others. Not only was he, as those letters describe him, a deeply religious and amiable man; but it would seem that Long- leat must have been, during his time, a home of accomplished and cultivated minds. He had only one son, the Hon. Henry Thynne, who never came to the title, dying in his father’s lifetime, in the year 1708, aged 33. He was of a literary turn of mind, and en- couraged it in others. There was living at this time, retired upon his own property at Frome, a Mr. Walter Singer, formerly a non- conformist minister at Ilchester. He was the father of Elizabeth Singer, afterwards and now better known as Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe. Already at the age of twelve she showed a taste for music, painting, and poetry; and being of a devout and simple mind, attracted the notice of Bishop Ken. Longleat then became open to her, and Mr. Thynne himself instructed her in French and Italian. Mr. Thynne had two daughters, the elder of whom, Frances, afterwards became Countess of Hertford, of Marlborough Castle. She was an enthusiastic patroness of literature, especially poetry; and is known by her three volumes of correspondence with the Countess of Pomfret. Lady Hertford encouraged every aspirant to Parnassus, from Pope down to the Wiltshire Thresher, Stephen Duck. Mr. Waylen, in his History of Marlborough,’ has described the poetical coteries that used to assemble at Marlborough Castle, including Thomson of the Seasons, (who, nevertheless, very much preferred the aroma of Lord Hertford’s port, to scribbling verses in her ladyship’s grotto :) but to follow them thither would take us from our point, which is only to show that this literary taste of the Countess was fostered under her father’s roof. Mr. Harbin, the chaplain, was wont to amuse himself in a way that entitles him to our respect; if at least he is the person of that name, a volume of whose extracts, from the evidences in the 1p, 383, By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 307 muniment room of Longleat, is mentioned among Sir Thomas Phillipps’s Wiltshire Manuscripts. ' The Rey. Isaac Walton, of Poulshot, Ken’s nephew, and a frequent visitor at this time, was the son of the “ Father of anglers.” These were some of the more familiar guests during Bishop Ken’s residence here; but the house is described in all the bio- graphies of the bishop, as having been the scene of old English hospitality, its festivities open to all comers of fashion and quality. In its turn this pleasant scene dissolves, and is succeeded by another wholly different. The first Lord Weymouth died in 1714. His only son was already dead, leaving no son; and the estate passed to his second cousin, Thomas Thynne, of Kempsford, in Gloucestershire, an infant at the time, of only four years old. From dates, and other circumstances, it would appear that the House at Longleat must now have remained without a resident proprietor for forty years. There was the minority of seventeen years, to May, 1731; and then, on coming, or soon after coming, of age, the second Lord Weymouth appears to have forsaken it, and to have lived in an old manor house in the village of Horn- ingsham. He died at the early age of forty, in 1751, and was buried in Horningsham churchyard. He was Ranger of Hyde Park and St. James’s Park. His son, the 3rd Lord Weymouth, was eighteen years old at his father’s death. On coming of age, in 1754, he found plenty to do, the garden and ornamental grounds in the Dutch style (as introduced by the first Lord, and as seen in the old print) having fallen, not only into disorder, but wholly out of fashion. The taste for foreign gardens had gone by. For the work of restoration he called in the celebrated landscape gardener of the day, who, from his invariable habit of pointing out 1 This Mr. George Harbin was the real author of a book called ‘* The Hered- itary right of the Crown of England asserted; the history of the Succession since the Conquest cleared, and the true English Constitution vindicated from the misrepresentations of Dr, Higden’s View and Defence.” Folio, London, 1713. A work for which Hilkiah Bedford, (as the alleged author,) was prosecuted in the King’s Bench, fined 1000 marks, and imprisoned three years, On account of his sufferings Lord Weymouth (probably at the instigation of Mr. Harbin, whom Bedford’s friendship thus screened,) gave him £100: without however knowing that the real author all the time was his own Chaplain. See Chalmers’ Biog. Dict., Article Bedford.” 308 The History of Longleat. to his employers the great capability of their grounds, earned for himself the name of Capability Brown. So great a personage de- serves a stately introduction: let Cowper marshal him in :— ‘Lo! he comes: The omnipotent magician Brown appears. He speaks: the lawn in front becomes a lake; Woods vanish! hills subside, and valleys rise; And streams—as if created for his use, Pursue the track of his directing wand; Sinuous or straight, now rapid and now slow, Now murmuring soft, now roaring in cascades, F’en as he bids. Th’ enraptured owner smiles. ’Tis finished: and yet, finished as it seems, Still wants—a mine to satisfy the cost!” Obedient to this magical wand, the Dutch formalities disappeared ; plants and trees, released from regimental discipline, were ordered to stand at ease, or to take up new positions more agreeable to the principles of English liberty. The great difficulty appears to have been how to manage the water; the natural stream was by no means commensurate with the grandeur of Longleat. I do not bestow that epithet on this place without sufficient reason: because the impression produced upon most minds, when the whole view of this house, gardens and demesne, lies under the eye, surveying it from a height, certainly is, that taking it altogether it is the very beau ideal of an English baronial residence. John Aubrey (not unhappily) calls it “the most august house in England.” The na- tural hills and valleys, the great masses of wood with which the hills have been clothed, the extensive range of park, the command of prospect, and the style of the house itself, produce, altogether, a character of grandeur, which is, in this county at least, peculiar to Longleat. Mr. Repton justly observes that there is a vast difference between the grand and the great. For example—four thousand acres with a paling round them and a cotton factory in the centre, all in the middle of Salisbury plain, might be great; but nobody would think of calling them grand. Greatness of dimension is one thing—greatness of character is quite another. The two are often confounded ; but though the difference may not, perhaps, be so easy to describe, the eye detects it in a moment. Therefore, to bring the water forward into proportion with all the other features By the Rev. J. EB. JTackson. 309 of Longleat was absolutely necessary. The stream itself was nothing but a watercourse, large enough for driving the old Priory mill, but insignificant in appearance, when passing through spacious grounds close to a spacious mansion. In the artificial Dutch garden the brook had been enlarged a little into a straight canal and fish- ponds, as seen in Kip’s view; but when these were abolished, the problem was how to give greater expansion to the water. Various plans were considered, and the one adopted, (at a prodigious ex- pense, as Cowper’s introduction prognosticates,) was to produce the idea of a large river flowing through the demesne, widened by serpentine lines into a lake. The Viscount Weymouth, by whom this alteration was made, was a Lord of the Bedchamber to George III. (1760), Master of the Horse to Queen Charlotte (1764), and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1765). In 1789 he was created Marquis of Bath, and in September of that year he had the honour of receiving as guests, at Longleat, the King, Queen, and Princesses, with a suite of forty persons. Their Majesties arrived here on Monday 14th, and departed Wednesday the 16th; there is a minute ac- count of their reception in the appendix to Sir R. C. Hoare’s history of Warminster. The King was just recovering from one of his dangerous illnesses, and was on his return to London from sea-bathing at Weymouth. Upon this occasion 125 persons slept in the house; nine dinners or luncheons were provided every day, besides the grand one; three oxen, six fat bucks, and seventeen fat sheep, game, poultry, fish, fruit, and all the good things that could be thought of, formed the bill of fare. 30,000 people crowded into the park to wave their hats and shout. His Majesty went up to the top of the house, and remarked of the view, that notwithstanding the trite description of the grandeur and beauty of Longleat it very far exceeded any idea he could possibly have formed of it. The first Marquis of Bath died in 1796. The nobleman who then succeeded, was the late Lord Lieutenant of the county of Somerset, the grandfather of our noble host. Before speaking of any changes and improvements in house and grounds, or elsewhere, on the property over which he presided for forty-one years, it will yar ~ 310 The History of Longleat. not, I trust, be considered unbecoming if I take the liberty of saying a few words about himself. He died in the year 1837, nineteen years ago, but his memory is still fresh amongst us, and well may it be so, for few men in his position of life lived less for themselves, and more for others. In the funeral sermon, preached in the parish church of Frome, upon the occasion of his death,’ he was pro- nounced to have been not only a titled but a Christian gentleman. Where lay the proof? It lay in these things. To any scheme of public benefit he lent ready assistance: one instance of which may suffice, as a sample of the rest. A certain improvement in the neighbourhood was on foot, but before it could be completed, it was necessary to consult him, as the proposed line of road was to pass through his estate. The application was made with some natural apprehension as to the result. The answer was to this effect, “You may cut through my estate in any direction which will be most for the public advantage. I will give you my aid in Parliament, and I have directed my steward to send you £500.” Upon his liberality to churches, charities, and the like, I will not dwell, for happily such bounty is not unusual amongst men of fortune; but two or three other features of his character, considering the circumstances of rank and position, are necessarily more rare, and will account in great measure for the peculiar respect with which he was regarded. One was his consideration for those in a lower rank of life: an example of which he showed not long before his death, when upon the decease of a faithful servant, he closed Longleat house for three days. Another was the free access which he afforded to all; the poorest person who considered himself agerieved was welcome here to tell his tale, and then to partake of hospitality. The noble Lord invariably enquired personally into the truth of the statement, and saw justice done. ‘Thus was hea father to the poor, and the cause which he knew not he searched out.” He was naturally silent, and the poor who were acquainted with his habit, when they made an application, were accustomed to place themselves before the steps of the house, with their request in writing: and their case being attested by some known signature, 1 By the Rey. Hill Wickham, M.A., now rector of Horsington, county of Somerset. By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 311 the petitioner was soon observed, visited, and relieved. In the course of his frequent rides and walks through the villages adjoining his demesne it was his custom to lift the cottage latch, enter and look about him, and many a new thatched roof, and ancient wall repaired, were owing to these quiet visits. ‘ When the ear heard him, it blessed him; when the eye saw him, it gave witness to him.” I trust this passing allusion will not be considered irrelevant to our subject. For though we are here to-day to inspect by kind per- mission the grounds and mansion of Longleat, you will, I am sure, feel with myself, that, after all, the noblest ornaments of a house are the good names that belong to it. You will feel, that in the review we are now taking of the various handy-works of liberality and taste, with which its former owners have embellished this place, it would have been ungraceful to omit all reference to the amiable qualities that may have adorned those owners themselves. The noble Marquis to whom I have just alluded, about the year 1808, employed Mr. Wyatt, (afterwards Sir Jeffrey Wyatville,) in certain alterations within the house, principally in the construction of the present grand staircase and galleries. Into further details it is needless to enter. So many plans and accounts have been published of this as of other large mansions, that the very number and dimensions of the rooms are almost as well known to the public, as they are to the proprietor himself. It was during the repairs made by Mr. Wyatt, as appears from a memorandum in his writing, that the discovery already mentioned at the beginning of this paper was made in excavating the ground under the staircase; of a number of coffins containing the presumed skeletons of the ancient Priors and Canons of Longleat,—the wearers during life of those strange clerical costumes which were described. A second and rather smgular discovery was made at the same time, showing that those reverend gentlemen, whether living or dead, were never allowed to have the Priory all to themselves. There is a bird who by his coat, And by the hoarseness of his note Might be supposed a crow: A great frequenter of the church, Where canon-like he finds a perch, And dormitory too. to na ~ 312 The History of Longleat. When Mr. Wyatt was erecting the north side of the house, which had been for many years in ruins, he found in the present kitchen chimney an old flue, containing 100 skeletons of jackdaws, and nine of some other bird, supposed to have fallen down the chimney, to the depth of sixty feet. I believe that since Sir Jeffrey Wyatyille’s time nothing whatever has been done to the house. Of the general demesnes it is quite needless to speak. Even those who have never seen them before, have to-day, by the owner’s liberal permission, a kind of free warren to examine for themselves. The beauty of the arboretum in the walk to Horningsham, the prospect from “ Heaven’s gate,” and the variety of scenery included within a park which measures its distances by milestones; of such things the best description is the sight. But the archeology of the plantations must not be overlooked. It consists, I believe, in sundry venerable oaks that escaped being sawn up into wainscot when the house was built; and in a remnant of an original “Weymouth Pine,” one of the first trees of that sort, (the New England Larch, or white pine, of good quality as timber, but disrespectfully called by Mr. Gilpin, “the most formal of its bro- therhood,”) naturalized in these woods from North America by the first Lord Weymouth, about the year 1705. Its head was blown off by a hurricane many years ago, but the rest of this curiosity has not yet wholly disappeared. I now bring to a conclusion this sketch of the History of the House to which we have been so hospitably invited to-day; and in doing so, I will venture to use the words of Mr. Repton, speaking in 1803, for they happily apply with equal propriety to 1856. * This magnificent estate, so far from being locked up to exclude mankind from partaking of its scenery, is always open, and visitors are allowed freely to amuse themselves; which circumstance tends to enliven the scene; to extend a more general knowledge of its beauty to strangers; and to mark the liberality of the noble pro- prietor, in thus deigning to share with others the good he enjoys.” J. EJ. sail 313 A Lecture on the Music of the Middle Ages, ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO ITS RYTHM AND MODE OF EXECUTION. Delivered at the Meeting at Chippenham, September, 1855. By Joun Lampert, Ese. Member of the Academy of St. Cecilia, at Rome. _Amonest the various objects of antiquarian research there is one which has hitherto received but little attention from the Archx- ologists of this country, viz: the Music of the Middle Ages, and its mode of execution. The manners and customs of our ancestors—their costume, whether ecclesiastical, civil, or military—the various implements used by them in the pursuits of war and of peace—their buildings, especially their religious edifices, have all in turn formed the subject of minute inquiry and investigation. Their Sculpture and Painting too, have not only been carefully studied, but admirably illustrated, and it cannot therefore, I think, be considered out of place if I venture to lay before you the result of some investigations with reference to the sister art of Music, associated as it was with the Choral institutions of our Cathedrals, and entering so largely as it did into the religious services of the Medieval period. On the Continent the Music of the Middle Ages has largely attracted the attention of Archwologists, and in France it may be said to form a leading branch of antiquarian research. In the able and voluminous Annales Archeologiques of M. Didron there are several very interesting papers on the subject, and the admirable Revue de la Musique of M. Danjou, unhappily discontinued during the last Revolution, was devoted almost entirely to an elucidation of the various questions connected with it. Still more recently we have the elaborate work of M. Coussemaker, “Sur LZ’ Harmonie au 314 On the Music of the Middle Ages. Moyen Age,’ a work honoured with the special approbation of the Academy of Belles Lettres, and no less remarkable for its great research, than the beauty of the fac-simile engravings with which it is illustrated: but peculiarly interesting to us as containing a previously unpublished treatise on Music, by John Hothby, an Englishman, who lived at the end of the fourteenth century; and during the present year M. L’Abbé Petit, of Verdun, has put forth a most learned treatise on the Psalmody and other parts of the Gregorian Chant, in their relation to Latin accentuation.? Besides new works there has issued from the French press a re-print of Jumilliac’s celebrated treatise, “Sur la Science et Pratique du Plain Chant,” which was first published in 1673;? and it is only a short time ago that I was invited to subscribe to a publication in Paris, which was to contain all the Proses and Sequences of the Sarum Gradual. In Germany, where many of the Chorales are founded entirely upon the Scales of the Medieval Music, there is also a growing interest in this subject: and in 1849, I found the superintendant of a large training school at Brihl, near Cologne, a native of Silesia, and not only an accomplished musician, but a composer of con- siderable merit, engaged in harmonizing the old melodies, upon principles similar in many respects to those which, by an entirely independent course of study, I myself had been led to adopt. From Italy I have received various recent publications connected with the subject; and probably the most interesting disquisition on Gregorian Music that has ever appeared, is that by Baini, late Maestro di Capella of the Sistine Chapel, in his celebrated Life of Palestrina. But it is in Belgium that we find the most practical efforts in elucidation of the several moot points connected with the Musical text of the old Liturgical books. I do not allude to the labours of M. Fetis, the Director of the Conservatoire at Brussels, whose celebrated “ Biographie des Musiciens” displays such vast researches 1 Paris: Didron, 1852. Quarto. 2 Dissertation sur La Psalmodie, Paris: Didron, 1855. 3 Paris: 1847, By John Lambert, Esq. 315 into the numerous musical systems of antiquity, so much as to the works which have emanated from the Commission instituted by the Archbishop of Malines, and assisted by the Belgian Government. It is always difficult to estimate with impartiality the merits of one’s friend; but, I cannot help saying, that if I were asked to name the person who, in addition to a perfect knowledge of Modern Music, possesses the most profound appreciation of the tonality and sentiment of the Gregorian Chant, I should at once fix upon M. Edmond Duval, of Enghien, the principal editor of the great Liturgical works which have just issued from M. Hanicq’s well- known press, at Malines. It may however be said that it is not to be wondered that, in the countries I have named, where Medizval Music still forms part of their religious services, such questions as those which I propose to lay before you on this occasion, should have an interest which they do not possess here, but I need not prove to you that the Archeologist is not a mere utilitarian; and if he were I should remind you that the Responses and some of the Chants of our Cathedrals are still the same as they always were, and that the great contrapuntal com- positions of our best masters, such as Tallis and Byrd are frequently founded upon the Gregorian Scales. What then is this Music of which I am about to treat, and what are its characteristics ? In order to answer these questions it will be necessary for me to say something: 1. Of its History, 2. Its Tonality, 3. Its Notation, And 4thly, its mode of Execution. In the short space allotted to me it would be quite impossible to enter fully into either the principles or details of a subject so com- prehensive as that of the Music of antiquity. All I can hope to do is to excite your interest, and endeavour to induce you to enter upon a study, not only promising new discoveries and pleasures to the Archeologist, but offering to the modern musician a key to 316 On the Music of the Middle Ages. innumerable combinations of sounds, of which he has no idea at present. Of the secular Music of the Middle Ages we have but very few examples; and such as we have only shew that it was founded upon the principles of the Church Chant; the latter having the ad- vantage over it in every respect, just as we find our parish Churches and Cathedrals to be more beautiful and magnificent than the secular buildings of the same period. That Music was introduced very early into the Christian Church every well read person is aware. The Hymn sung on the Mount of Olives; the testimony of Pliny as to the practices of the primitive Christians; and the distinct statement of Eusebius, “that those whom St. Mark the Evangelist instructed, were occupied day and night in singing Psalms,” leave no doubt that the first period of Christian Worship was not destitute of the powerful aid of Mu- sical Art. Of the sources from which this Music was derived we are almost equally certain. The early Christians were not the inventors of any new system of Music, but they adopted the art in the state in which they found it, transferring probably some of the Melodies of the Temple itself to their own religious assemblies. Indeed it has been stated by more than one ancient author that the Gregorian Tone, peculiar to the Psalm, ‘In exitu Israel,” is the same as that chanted by the Hebrews when they celebrated their Passover. We know but little, however, of the actual state and condition of the Christian Music of the first four centuries. No doubt it gradually assumed a more important and more regular form in the Services of the Church, up to the fifth century, when St. Ambrose estab- lished the Chant known as the Ambrosian Chant, in his Cathedral Church of Milan. Considerable discussion has arisen as to the origin of the Am- brosian Chant, M. Fetis contending that it was then newly introduced from the East, and was more elaborate and more rythmical than that in use in the West; but all are agreed that the main principles By John Lambert, Esq. 317 of the two were the same, both being based upon the diatonic Scale, common to the Greeks, and other nations of classical antiquity. Two centuries after St. Ambrose we come to the time of Pope Gregory the Great, from whom the Gregorian Chant takes its name, not because it was invented by him, as is commonly supposed, but because he reduced the Church Music to a more regular system, collecting and correcting the musical phrases then in use, and extending them to other parts of the Liturgy. But St. Gregory was not content with merely arranging the Music of the Church. He well knew that without living voices to execute it, it would remain a dead letter; and accordingly he instituted and endowed two Academies or training schools for singers, under his own immediate direction, giving lessons there himself, even when he was so feeble as to be unable to stand or sit; and a writer in the ninth century tells us, that at that time, the couch upon which the old man reclined, as well as the rod with which he kept his pupils in awe, were still preserved in Rome. It would be well for the cause of Ecclesiastical Music, whether of the ancient or modern school, if those in authority made themselves acquainted with it, after the example of St. Gregory; and I am not quite sure that some of our Choirs, even at the present day, might not be benefitted by the threat, if not by the application of the chastisement which he found so efficacious. From his position Pope Gregory was enabled to diffuse his Music throughout Christendom; and up to the period when modern Harmony became generally adopted, the Gregorian Chant was the only Music deserving that name in Europe. The secular Music of the Middle Ages was composed upon its principles, and I could adduce instances of Songs being adapted to some of the Melodies of the Hymnal. Of course it must not be supposed that the musical text of the liturgical books preserved a constant uniformity. At some periods the Music was more elaborate than at others, and moreover it became modified by national peculiarities; but whether in the more simple forms of its first composition, or the more complicated phrases of its later developement, it was essentially the same in its Scales and 27 318 On the Music of the Middle Ages. musical progressions, resembling in this respect the various styles of Gothic Architecture, some of which are more elaborate than others, but all based on the same principles, and differing only in their ornamental details. And if the question be put, as it often is, which is the most correct text of any given piece of Music in the Liturgical books, I answer, by asking whether you prefer the style of the Cathedral at Salisbury, or that of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel at Westminster ? The Musical Scale of the Greeks, from which that of the Middle Ages was taken, was founded upon certain sequences of four notes each, called Tetracords; each Tetracord being composed of two whole tones and one semitone, the extreme notes forming the in- terval of a fourth. These Tetracords were either joined together, or separated; in the former case, the last note of one Tetracord formed the first note of the next; and in the other, the succeeding Tetracord commenced on the note above the last of the preceding one. The entire Scale was composed of four of these Tetracords, with the addition of anote at the bottom, termed Proslambenomenon, which was the first note of the system, but did not form part of any Tetracord; so that the whole compass of the Scale was limited to two octaves, commencing with the A in the first space of the Bass Clef, and terminating with the A in the second space of the Treble Clef. Fae uaila Wak AtEE OF THE GREEKS. aa. Tetracord g hyperboleon, f united, e d d c Tetracord , ee b natural synnemenon. at Tetracord meson. united, Tetracord diezeugmenon. Tetracord ( hypaton. ( Proslambenomenon. Gamma. a G F E D C B A it By John Lambert, Esq. 319 The intervals of the Diatonic Scale, whether subdivided into Tetracords, according to the earlier system of the Greeks; into Hexacords, as afterwards was the case; or into Octaves, as at the present day, are all founded upon certain laws of vibration, known to the Greeks no less than to the Musicians of the Middle Age; and the only difference between the Scales of the two consisted in this: that the latter added another note to the Scale below the A, which they designated by the Greek I’, or Gamma, from which the Scale came to be termed Gamut, just as the word Alphabet is derived from the two first Greek letters, Alpha and Beta. Nothing can be clearer than the description of the Scale given by Guido d’ Arrezzo, the great Musician of the eleventh century, in his celebrated treatise, the Micrologus.' It is to be found in his third chapter, ‘‘ On the disposition of the notes on the Monochord;” the Monochord being an instrument, consisting of a single string stretched over a piece of wood. He says, “the Gamma, or starting point, being in the first place fixed upon, then divide the inter- mediate space between it and the end of the string into nine equal parts, and at the termination of the first division place the letter A, from which all the ancients began their Scale. Then from A to the end, calculate the ninth part, in the same manner, and place at that point the letter B. After this, returning to the Gamma, divide the string into four equal parts, and at the end of the first part you will find the note C. By a similar division by four, as with the Gamma, is found C; so in relation with A, you will find D; with B, E; with C, F; with D, G; and with E, aabove; which process being worked out, all the intermediate intervals will be discovered in due order: so that, for example, if you divide the string from B to the end into two equal parts, you will find the Octave b above; a similar division from C will give the ¢ above: and so you may go on, almost without limit, either above or below.” The Scale, thus constructed, is, as you will perceive, purely Diatonic, without accidentals. There was, however, one accidental admitted, viz., b flat, which was introduced in order to obviate what the ancients considered the false relation between F and b natural, 1 Scriptores Musicw. Gerbert. Vol. I. “oa 212 8320 On the Music of the Middle Ages. when those two notes formed the extreme notes of a musical phrase. It has been a subject of very keen controversy whether the F sharp and C sharp were not also used; but it is quite clear to me that they were unknown to the best periods of Gregorian Music, and owe their introduction chiefly to the organists of the 14th and 15th centuries, who made their final cadences on the Chord of the Dominant. I shall not lead you through the labyrinth of this vexed question, but I cannot help referring to a posthumous work of the Peré Lambillotte, recently published at Paris, in which the authority of Guido, which would be quite conclusive on the point, is attempted to be introduced in proof of the use of these two additional accidentals. Now having, on previous occasions, had some experience of the lengths to which even the best disposed persons will sometimes go in support of a darling theory, I have been induced to examine the passage quoted with the original text, and so far from Guido’s meaning being that which is attributed to him, I found that it is the very reverse. These are his words:! «When you have divided the Monochord into nine parts, and have found out a, then divide the string from that point into seven parts, and at the end of the first division you will find the first Diesis;’’ (which word is improperly translated by Lambillotte as sharp,) “between d natural andc. In like manner if you divide the string from the d into seven parts, in the same order, you will find the second Diesis between e and f.” So that in point of fact instead of the notes spoken of by Guido, being C sharp and F sharp, or notes between C and D, and F and G, they are intervals between ¢ and }, and / and e, and would be more properly described as ¢ flat and / flat. An instance such as this ought not to be lost upon Archeologists, who if they really desire to find out what our ancestors thought, said, and did, will seek for it in the works and monuments of the past, and not rely with too much confidence upon quotations, even when given by authors of celebrity, especially when an opponent has to be silenced, or a favorite theory defended. From the Scale, as given above, were constructed the Modes of the medieval Music, each Mode commencing on a different note, 1 Micrologus, c. 10. | ~~ e By John Lambert, Esq. 321 and consisting of a perfect fifth and a perfect fourth, forming to- gether an Octave. In this manner the relative positions of the tones and semitones, or of the whole notes and half-notes, differ in almost every one of the Modes, whilst in modern Music the Melody is confined to one Major and one Minor Scale, which are the same in every Key. It was this variety in the disposition of sounds which constituted the peculiar character of the Greek Modes; and the four strings of the Lyre were tuned according to the Mode in which the Music was composed; thus in the first, or Dorian Mode, commencing on D, the strings represented the notes D E F G; in the second, or Phrygian, E F G a; and in the third, or Lydian, F G a 6 flat. Each one of these successions of notes forming a Tetracord, with a different disposition of notes, and deriving its distinctive name from the people or country where it was in most general use. It seems almost incredible that Music, so simple in its construction as that of the Greeks, could have produced such great effects, as those of which we read; but, when we remember that the whole musical Scale consists of a few different sounds only, we shall have less difficulty in understanding the varied sensations arising from the disposition of the four notes of the Tetracord. The Dorian Mode, with its plaintive minor third, sweet and soothing. The Phrygian, with its minor second and minor third, so decided and combative, that the Spartans excluded it from the education of their young men. And the Lydian, with its major second and major third, of which our own Poet so justly speaks, when he sings, ‘« And ever against eating cares Lap me in soft Lydian Airs, Married to immortal verse. Such as the melting soul may pierce In notes, with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out. With wanton heed and giddy cunning The melting voice through mazes running, Untwisting all the chains, that tie The hidden soul of Harmony.” The Greek Modes, first consisting of Tetracords, were afterwards extended by Terpandre, who added three notes to each Tetracord, thus giving to each Mode seven notes. 322 On the Music of the Middle Ages. The musical system of the Greeks was complete at the intro- duction of Christianity. The Romans adopted it, and by them, and with them, it was extended to all nations, wherever the Latin language was spoken. The Gregorian Modes, as ordinarily understood, consist in number of eight, but in reality they amount to twelve; the four last being usually transposed in the text, by the introduction of the 6 flat. In the time of Charlemagne a discussion arose as to the number of Modes, and upon being appealed to he decided that eight were enough for all practical purposes; but as Canute could not command the waves of the sea, neither was Charlemagne able to control the limits of the musical Scale: and in spite of the mandate of the great Christian Emperor, the Eolien and Ionian Modes still held their ground in the musical system of that and every succeeding age. The Church Modes are of two kinds, authentic and plagal; each authentic Mode having its corresponding plagal, and differing from it only in the disposition of the fifth and fourth of which each is composed. The following is a Table of the Eight Modes. 5th. 4th. First Mode, authentic... . . . DEF Gabed 4th. oth. SS SS Second Mode, plagal.... ABCDEFGa... bth. 4th. —_ Third Mode, authentic... . . . EF G@abede 4th. oth. ee ee Fourth Mode, plagal.... BC DE FGab... oth. 4th. ace ae Fifth Mode, authentic... . . . F Gabede f 4th, oth. SASS Sixth Mode, plagal..... CDE F Gabe... 5th. 4th. SS Seventh Mode, authentic... . . Ga bedefg 4th. oth. . ; : Eighth Mode, plagal.... DE FGabed By John Lambert, Esq. 323 The Scale of the first Mode, as will be seen, embraces the octave from D to d, having its fifth from D to a, and its fourth from a tod above. The second Mode reverses its fourth, placing it in the first part of its Scale, which commences on A, and extends to its octave, having its fourth from A to D, and its fifth from D to A above. The Tonic, or final note, of each of these two Modes is precisely the same, and all compositions in both always end on the first note of the authentic Mode, viz., D. The third Mode commences on F, having its fifth E to } natural, and its fourth from } natural to e. In like manner, as in the first Mode, the plagal of the second is formed by reversing its fourth, commencing on the lower B, its fourth being B to E, and its fifth the same as that of the authentic, viz., Eto d natural. By asimilar progression, ascending note by note up the Scale, the various Modes are constructed, except that no Mode has 4 natural for its Tonic, because its fifth f and the fourth above are both imperfect: so that by commencing on the note D, and taking each following note in succession, viz., E, F, G, a and c, (with the exception of 6 natural,) in all six, the number of Modes, (each authentic Mode having its corresponding plagal,) may be increased to twelve: and each of these Modes will be found to vary from the others, either in the distribution of its tones and semitones, or in the position of its fourth and fifth; and thus every Mode has a sentiment peculiar to itself, and is quite distinct in character from any other. In the words of the old writers:— ‘‘ The first is grave, the second sad, Impetuous the third, the fourth is bland, Joyful the fifth, the sixth devout, The seventh angelic, and the eighth most sweet.” The Notation of the Greek Music was by letters, and sometimes by numbers, placed under or above the words; and the same system was continued by the Romans, from whom it was adopted by the Church Musicians. There are few examples extant of this kind of Notation, but it seems to have prevailed until the seventh or eighth century, when the system known as the Saxon and Lombardic Notation was intro- 324 On the Music of the Middle Ages. duced. This consists of various signs or marks, termed newmes, resembling somewhat in appearance the characters of short-hand. These newmes were not always uniform, but varied considerably from each other, and although many of them can be deciphered with tolerable accuracy, still the exact nature and value of them has yet to be discovered; and to a person haying leisure, I know of no more interesting object of antiquarian investigation than this one branch. The task of unravelling the secrets of Egyptian Hiero- glyphics was infinitely more hopeless than the one I have suggested, and who knows that there may not be a Rosetta Stone in store for some future student of Saxon and Lombardic Notation? As it is, we know the exact meaning of several of the signs: we can dis- tinguish the ascending from the descending passages, and tell the precise number of notes in each; but our difficulty lies in ascer- taining the relative position of the whole tones from the half-tones, because there is no Key or Clef, shewing either on what note the Music commences or terminates, so that even Guido, living in the eleventh century, when this Notation was in use, compares it to water in a well, which we see, but are unable to reach, for want of a bucket. ‘Quasi funem dum non habet puteus, Cujus aque, quamvis multe, nil prosunt videntibus.” Independently, however, of these newmes merely designating certain notes, it has been recently suggested by M. Coussemaker, that they indicated also the value of each note in point of duration, just as the grave and acute accents marked the measure and beat in classic poetry; a suggestion which must not be lost sight of in future investigations of this interesting subject. We may easily imagine the difficulties in the way of the singer, during the existence of this system of Notation, and of the immense facilities imparted to musical art by Guido’s invention of lines and spaces, in the eleventh century. These lines consisted of four: one being coloured red, to mark the note F, and the other green, to mark the note C; the other lines were not coloured, but at their commencement he put two other letters of the Scale, so that each one of these lines having its letter or its clef mark, the notes which were placed, either on the lines or in the spaces, were at first sight so By John Lambert, Esq. 325 easily discovered, that in a short time there was no necessity either to continue to distinguish the lines by colours, or to multiply letters, or Clefs; and for many centuries past it has been found sufficient to mark one line only with the Clef. The Stave of Guido, consisting of four lines, which continues to be used in the Gregorian Chant at the present time, was also intro- duced into the secular Music of the period; but within two centuries afterwards we find the number of lines increased, sometimes to five, and sometimes even to six or more, according to the compass of the piece, as at that time they had no idea of writing above or below the Stave, as we do now. But whilst the system of Guido gave a clear idea of each note, as regarded its position in the Scale, still it was deficient in indi- cating either the rhythm or measure of the Music; and this remark brings me to the principal object of this Lecture, which is to endeavour to throw some new light on its mode of execution. At the outset I must mention to you, that the ancient Music was neither divided into Bars, nor indicated by a particular measure, nor did the formation of the notes mark their exact relative pro- portions, as is the case in our modern musical compositions. It is quite true that in what was termed measured Music, in the 13th and two subsequent centuries, the Long, the Breve, and the Semi- breve, had a distinct value attached to them; but this was confined chiefly to secular Music, such as Canons, and other Music sung in parts; and from this circumstance, almost all the writers on the subject, from the 16th century to the present time, have treated the Plain Chant as if it were destitute of rhythm or measure, and con- sisted entirely of notes of equal duration. Glarien says of it: “The Plain Chant, as regards the notes, is simple and uniform.” “The old and Plain Gregorian Music,” I quote the words of Alstedius, ‘‘ preserves an equal measure in its notes.” Franchinus tells us that “ Musicians have disposed the notes of Plain Chant by an equal measure of time.” Cardinal Bona, in his great work, “De Divina Psalmodia,” in the 16th century, says that “St. Gregory instituted the Plain Chant, 2 uU 326 On the Music of the Middle Ages. which proceeding as from a plain surface is measured by equal notes of short time.”’ And after him comes Jumilliac, who asserts, that the essence of this Music consists “in the equality of its notes and sounds.” I could multiply quotations to the same effect, without limit, but to my mind there is no proof of the opinion of the musicians of the 15th and 16th centuries so strong, as the fact that Palestrina, and the great ecclesiastical Harmonists of that period, invariably treat the text of the Plain Chant on which they have founded their unrivalled Harmonies, as consisting of notes of equal length. Indeed every musician knows that the Canto Fermo, as it is termed, is invariably used by the great contrapuntal masters as a mere peg whereon to display all the ingenious and mazy devices of modern harmony. Now I have long thought that even these great authorities could not be absolutely relied upon: because, by analogy with language, no less than by reference to the Scale itself, I felt satisfied that to execute Music without rhythm, (by which I mean a mixture of notes of long and short measure,) would not only be intolerable to the hearer, but impossible to the performer. Everybody knows that each sentence we speak is more or less rhythmical; that we could not, even if we would, make every syllable of equal duration; and that one of the greatest charms of oratory consists, less in the nicely balanced sentences, and well modulated voice of the speaker, than in the matter of the oration itself. Nay so universal is this rhythmical sentiment, that it is not confined to mere sounds; but it extends to every motion of our frame, from the pulsations of the heart to the graceful steps of the most accomplished dancer. As a further presumptive proof of the artistic character of me- dizeval Music, I may refer to the place it held in our university courses: for whilst Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectics constituted the studies of the Trivium or lower school, Music was associated with Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy, in the Quadrivium or higher form; not constituting an isolated branch of study, or separated from the fundamental principles of the other sciences, but embracing a knowledge of the philosophy of language, of Oratory, of Poetry, of numbers, and the laws of vibration. How superior must have By John Lambert, Esq. 327 been the knowledge of a well-educated musician of those days to the accomplishment of being able to play a Jullien Polka, or sing a modern sentimental song! But setting aside mere presumption, and turning to the authors of antiquity, what do we find ? Aristides Quintilian, one of the seven Greek authors whose works are published by Meibomius,! states that vocal Music consists of three things, viz., Melody, Rhythm, and Words, and he defines Rhythm to consist of various times or beats joined together in a certain order. Again, he tells us that by simple time he means an interval so short as to be indivisible, just as the Geometricians define a point to be something without parts. Compound time is that which is capable of division: of which one is double, another treble, another quadruple the length of the first, and soon. And the same author afterwards states that sometimes musical Rhythm is merely prosaic, and not depending upon a regular return of the same measure, as in Poetry. To the same effect are all the Greek authors, and we find Plato affirming that none can be a Poet or Musician to whom the nature of Rhythm is unknown. Amongst the Romans, Cicero and Quintilian are equally clear as to the nature and importance of Rhythm. Indeed it would be impossible to find an opposite sentiment in a single writer of classical antiquity. Amongst the early Christian writers the most important is St. Augustine, who felt so keenly the importance of Rhythm as the basis of Music, that he devotes the whole of his six books on Music to that one point alone; and he tells us, that in the necessary ad- mixture of long and short words, of accented and unaccented syllables, accompanied with an appropriate elevation or depression of the voice, as in ordinary conversation, we daily practice the principles which guide the Poet and Musician in the cultivation of their respective arts. But of all those who have written on this subject, there is no one who has thrown so much light on the construction of the Music 1 Antique Musicw Auctores. Amsterdam: 1752. 202 328 On the Music of the Middle Ages. of the Middle Ages as Guido himself, living at the very time, and profoundly skilled in the art. The fifteenth chapter of the Micrologus is devoted entirely to this branch of the subject, and the following are the most important passages in it: “In like manner as in Poetry there are letters and syllables, words, feet, and verses; so in Music there are Phthongi, or sounds, of which one, two, or three are adapted to a syllable; and these, either separately or in duplicate, constitute a neume, that is a part of the strain; and one or more of these parts make a phrase, or a convenient place to take breath.” “Tt is necessary that the Melody should be marked by a beat, as is the case in metrical feet.” “Some notes derive a slight pause from the circumstance that others are doubly longer, or doubly shorter, or of different duration; and great care must be taken to avoid such a division of newmes, that when they are formed of the same note repeated, or of two or three different notes; nevertheless they should correspond to each other, either in the number of the notes, or duration of the tones.” “ Let then the Musician propose to himself of what sequences of notes he will compose his Melody, as the Poet determines of what feet he will make his Poetry; except that it is not necessary that the Musician should bind himself by the same strict rules, because this art admits of a considerable latitude in the disposition of its measures.” : “Tt is necessary, however, that the musical phrases should be of equal length, like the verses in Poetry, and sometimes that the same should be repeated, or varied with a slight change.” “Again each respective phrase should return the same way, and by the same steps as those by which it advances; and if one phrase makes.a circuit or line in descending from the higher notes, another one should oppose to it a similar inclination in answering from the lower notes: as is the case when we look into a well, and have our face reflected back from the water, Moreover, sometimes one syllable may have one or more musical phrases associated with it, and at others one phrase is distributed over several syllables.” By John Lambert, Esq. 329 “There are also certain prosaic Chants which adhere less to the foregoing rules, and in which we find the newmes and phrases some greater, and some less throughout, without any fixed order, as is the case in prose compositions.” “TJ call certain Music metrical, because we often sing it as if we were scanning the feet in Poetry; but we must be careful not to use too many neumes of two notes only, without a due admixture of others containing three and four. For there is a great resem- blance between Poetry and Music, since the neumes stand in the place of feet, and phrases in the place of verses: so that one newme runs in dactylic, another in spondaic, and a third in iambic meter; and you at the same time perceive that the whole phrase, or dis- tinction, is either tetrameter, pentameter, or hexameter, or some other kind of measure.” “We also frequently impart to certain notes the grave or the acute accent; sometimes they require to be more strongly marked than at others.” I think it would be impossible to have more conclusive or satis- factory testimony as to the character of the Music of the Middle Ages, or indeed a more profound estimate of the various elements required in the composition of a Melody, than in these few extracts from a monk of the eleventh century, written at a time when Musical Notation was very imperfect, and the various appliances of modern Harmony almost unknown. Such testimony leaves no doubt whatever that Time and Rhythm were perfectly understood; and that even those compositions which were not strictly metrical consisted of melodious phrases, containing a due admixture of long and short notes. But if any doubt should still exist on this point, after the quota- tions from Guido, it would be removed by the Treatise of Aribo the scholar: who, a century afterwards, illustrated those very pas- sages which I have quoted by examples, adding that in the more ancient antiphonaries the letters C, T, M, were placed over the Music,—which letters represented the words Celeritas, Tarditas, and Mediocritas, and indicated whether the passage was to be quick, slow, or in moderate time. 330 On the Music of the Middle Ages. He also remarks that singers were as careful to execute, as authors were to compose their Music, according to rhythmical principles; but that even in his time the practice had sadly fallen off: ‘Que consideratio jamdudum obiit, imo sepulta est.” There can be no doubt that in those days, as at the present time, Music was often deplorably mangled through the ignorance, or perhaps what is still more common, the conceit of those who were entrusted with its execution; and towards the end of the 15th cen- tury, the fine old melodious and rhythmical Chant of St. Gregory had in many places degenerated into a slow drawling movement, perfectly intolerable to the cultivated ear. Of the ignorance of many of the singers, even in his day, Guido speaks with the hearty indignation of a real musician. ‘¢ Musicorum et cantorum magna est distantia. Isti dicunt, illi sciunt que componit musica. Nam qui facit quod non sapit, diffinitur bestia.” Which I have attempted to translate, as follows: Twixt those who sing and who compose The space can’t be increased, The one prepare, the other serve, The sweets for Music’s Feast; And he who serves, but knows not what, Is aptly termed a beast. But besides the ignorance of some there was another abuse, arising from the conceit of others, described in the following quaint extract from an English writer of the time of Richard the Second. ‘‘When there been fourty or fifty in a queer, three or four proud and lecherous Lords shullen knack the most devout service, that no man shall hear the sentence, and all others shallen be dumb, and look on them as fools: And then strumpets and thieves praisen Sire Jack or Hobb, and William the proud Clerk, how smallen they knacken their notes, and seyn they serven well God and holy Church, when they despisen God in his face, and letten (hinder) other men of their devotion and compunction, and stirren them to worldly vanity.” MS. of Prelates, apud. Lewis. 134. Quoted by Lingard. WYCLIFFE. Vol. ii. 266. The abuses, however, in the mode of performance do not affect the principles upon which the Music was composed, and having established that it was essentially rhythmical in its nature, I must By John Lambert, Esq. 331 add a word to explain somewhat more clearly the exact meaning which I wish to attach to the word Rhythm itself. Rhythm then, as applied to Music, is nothing more than a certain well-proportioned series of sounds, arising from slow and quick move- ments,and when metre is joined to Rhythm, as in Poetry, it may be termed the measure of Rhythm itself; and hence, when speaking of Poetry, the term Rhythm is often used as including metre also. It is manifest, however, that they have distinct significations, as the following quotation from St. Augustine willshew: “‘ Yousee,”’says he, “how correctly both terms, viz., Rhythm and Measure, have been applied to these things; for since the one moves on by certain feet it is rightly called rhythmus or number, but inasmuch as its progress or movement is not systematic, nor does it determine on what foot it should end, it ought not to be called measure, because there is no measure of continuation; when, however, both rhythm and metre are united, they run in given feet, and terminate at a certain point.” The Music, therefore, of the Middle Ages, when in its perfection, was principally of two kinds, viz., (1.) Rhythmical Chant, and (2.) Metrical Chant, each of which is susceptible of further divisions. The first in its more simple form was Psalmodic, consisting of a chief note of recitation, with modulated cadences at the middle or end of each verse, and regulated in its execution by the accent of language; whilst in its more elaborate pieces it had no reciting note, and was composed of a series of melodious phrases, more or less charged with notes depending for their proper effect upon a due attention to the Musical accent. The Metrical Music was subdivided into two parts: Ist. That which was purely syllabic, and depended upon the measure of the words; and 2nd. That which contained more than one note to all or some of the syllables, and required that the Rhythm of the Music should be taken into account, as well as the measure and accent of the words. In illustration of what I have advanced, I propose to give you some examples of the foregoing kinds of Music, under the following heads; 332 On the Music of the Middle Ages. Rhythmical Chant in its simple or Psalmodic form. Metrical Chant in its syllabic form. Rhythmical Chant in its most elaborate form. Metrical and Rhythmical Chant united.! oe I. The most simple form of the Psalmodic Chant is to be found in the eight tones for the Psalms, which in some form or another are well known to most musicians of the present day. These tones all con- sist of four parts, viz., the intonation,—the reciting note,—the media- tion,—and the termination. In the recitation the accent of language is the only thing to be attended to; but at the mediation and ter- mination each accented syllable of the text must be made to fall upon an accented note of the Music. The first illustration is the Doxology in the eighth Mode, with the second ending; and the second is in the first Mode, with the first ending. The Chant of the Te Deum is of very high antiquity, and has been subjected to scarcely any variation from its first introduction. II. With regard to the Metrical Music of antiquity, there is no doubt whatever that the ancient Poets composed the Music to which their verses were chanted. ‘J sing,’’ were the words with which they commenced their subject, and it would have been well for vocal Music if the unhappy divorce between Poet and Musician had never taken place. The object of the Poet being to add force to his language by uniting it with Music, he of course took care that the beat of the Music should be entirely subservient to the accent of the verse; and it is quite clear that the same principle guided the com- posers of the earliest Church Hymns; so that in all cases where they are purely syllabic there is no difficulty whatever in discovering the tune. 1 For the sake of convenience the several Musical illustrations have been placed together at the end of this Lecture. By John Lambert, Esq. . 333 The Classical metres of antiquity were governed by two accents, the Tonic and the Metrical. The former, being the accent of language, was always observed according to the rules of Prosody, and by the latter an emphasis was imparted to certain syllables, which otherwise would have been destitute of any accent. Many of the Christian Hymns were constructed in these metres; but others were written in what is called natural measure, consisting merely of successions of similar feet, and depending upon the ac- cent of language only. The second of the following examples, both of which are taken from the Sarum Hymnal, published at Cologne in 1525, is one of the finest specimens of the more simple Hymns. It is in the fourth Mode; and although syllabic, the Melody is so stately in its construction that a secular or frivolous movement cannot easily be imparted to it. III. I now come to a consideration of the mode of executing the Rhythmical Chant of the more florid kind, and it is here that the great difficulty exists. I have before shewn that Rhythm existed in all the Music of the Middle Ages; but how this Rhythm was to be brought out, when the Music was not associated with Poetry, has yet to be ascertained. M. Coussemaker, in the work already quoted by me, says, that “its Rhythm was neither founded on measure, nor on a return of phrases of the same duration.” And Baini, whilst admitting that it is at present quite lost, says, that “like the Rhythm of Oratory, it must have been more free, more varied, more complicated, and more diversified than the Rhythm of modern Music; but it was at the same time well defined, easily distinguishable, and quite neces- sary.” ‘It was,” to use the happy expression of the same author, “the very soul of the Gregorian Chant.” How then is this lost art to be regained? We have seen that the Music consisted of certain nicely balanced phrases, composed of notes varying in du- ration; but how are we to know the long notes from the short ones? 2x 304 On the Musie of the Middle Ages. Because if this question be answered, we have a key to the whole enigma. It is curious to observe how the mere suggestion, or suspicion of a difficulty, disturbs the exercise of well-directed inves- tigation. Instead of seeking for a solution of it in simple principles, or obvious facts, we fly off at once to the most improbable conjectures, sometimes even abandoning the inquiry altogether as hopeless. We all recollect how graphically Dickens, in his Pickwick Papers, describes the discovery of the stone on which Bill Stumps had carved his immortal name; and, as a matter of fact, there are probably none of us who have not searched for a lost object in every conceivable place except the one where it was most likely to be found. Such I imagine to have been the case with those who have tried to discover the rules which guided the singer in the execution of the Music now under consideration; and who seem to haye quite disregarded the following obvious considerations. In the first place, the organs of the human voice have always been the same, and the laws on which its various sounds depend are not susceptible of any change. Moreover some sounds are produced with less effort than others, and the motion from one sound to another is more or less difficult, according to the extent of the interval which separates them. Again when, in speaking, we wish to mark any particular word with peculiar emphasis we elevate our voice to a higher sound, dwelling longer on it than on others, and in the various inflexions we make we invariably find that the intermediate sounds are passed over rapidly. Independently of the final cadence at the end of the sentence, we have subordinate ones in its various members, accompanied by pauses more or less protracted. These simple principles, when applied to medieval Music, appear to me to solve the chief difficulties connected with it; because having established that it was rhythmical, consisting of a mixture of long and short notes, the only point we have to clear up is to show how the long and how the short notes are to be distinguished, and this is to be done, as I believe, by accenting them as we should the various inflexions in Oratory, making the highest note of each ascending or descending passage emphatic; treating the intermediate notes By John Lambert, Esq. 335 of all ornamental phrases as unaccented or short, and giving full value to the notes which constitute the several cadences, whether subordinate or final. Of course these rules, like all others, are liable to various modi- fications, and all I can expect to do on such an occasion is to give you a general idea on the subject. Indeed it would be impossible to lay down such exact rules as would lead to uniformity in every little detail; as much must be left to the taste and skill of the singer: just as in modern Music, where even with the most exact division into regular Bars, with all the aid of crotchets, quavers, and semiquavers, one singer is found to impart to a certain song a peculiar character or charm, making it, according to the phrase, his own. Of the four examples which I have given of this kind of Music, the two Antiphons will be found the most elaborate and difficult. The phrases of each require to be very carefully studied, and a well- trained voice is essential to the due execution of them. The Hee dies, which is the more florid composition of the two, contains no less than 241 notes to 19 words, and in several parts of it will be noticed an ornament in frequent use at the present day. I mean the peculiar effect produced by the repetition, or repercussion as the ancient authors termed it, of the same note two or three times in succession upon the same syllable. It will be obvious, on the most cursory glance, that the long divisions of notes contained in these examples were intended to be sung with considerable flexibility of voice; and that such was the practice of the musicians of the Middle Ages we may learn from Guido, who expressly says that each musical phrase or newme is to be sung in one breath. Ty. In addition to that portion of the Metrical Music of the Middle Ages, which is merely syllabic, there are Hymns, the Music of which is of a more elaborate character, containing often several notes to a single syllable, and it has been confidently asserted by at least one writer of great authority (M. Fetis) that in intro- ducing this form of treatment the Church composers have sacrificed 2x2 336 On the Music of the Middle Ages. the poetic metre; but so far from this being true of them, I should say that by prolonging and extending the musical measure, they have imparted a solemn and majestic movement to the Hymns, which the mere syllabic form is quite inadequate to supply. In these Hymns the metrical and the tonic accent are never to be sacrificed, whilst the musical phrases themselves must be regulated by the principles of musical Rhythm already explained. It has formed no part of my plan either to explain the mode of harmonizing medizval Music, or to describe the gradual introduc- tion of modern measured Music, as indicated by the various forms of notes which we find gradually growing into use between the 13th and 16th centuries. The former I have shown, not only theoretically but practically, in publications of some years’ standing; and with regard to the latter the examples are so few, and so ex- ceptional, that I should scarcely be justified in detaining you with them. With these remarks I bring my long and probably uninteresting Paper to a conclusion. Independently of the pleasure of complying with the request of your Committee, I should have felt it to be my duty, asa native of this County, to lay before its Archeological Society the first-fruits of my researches into an art which, if not emanating from, at least was matured by the same genius as that to which we owe all the glories of Christian Architecture; and, although many may feel that my subject is not interesting, or that it has been unskil- fully treated, still I must remind them that at the best garnished banquet there are, of necessity, some dishes of a less savoury kind than others, and even those may not always display the genius of a Soyer or a Francatelli. But there is one fault, perhaps, of which all may complain, viz:, the length of my Paper, for which I have no other apology to offer than that of Pascal, who excused a long letter by saying that he had no time to make it shorter. J. L. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PRECEDING LECTURE i Rhvthmical Music in its Simple or Psalmovic Form. THE EIGHTH PSALM TONE. SECOND ENDING. Intonation. Reciting note. Mediation. es acre: enw 27 Toots Ca) BL =, ali 70; Reciting note. Termination. == THE FIRST PSALM TONE. FIRST ENDING. Intonation. Reciting note. Mediation. —= —_=—_ = —_a—4— s— by a = eRe ee ee ee Si-cut e- rat in prin-ci-pi-o, et nune, et sem- per, Reciting note. Termination, = ees Ss —— et im se -cu- la ae Sede lo- rum. A - men. From the Directoriwm Chori of Guidetti. TE DEUM. IV. Move. Te De-um lau - da - mus: te Do - mi-num con - fi- a— $$ $$ SS te - mur. Te «#-ter-num Pa-trem, om-nis ter-ra ve- S = 11 CORBET bri = nus : a A “Ss ee a a eee RE Aad ote ee ie i ee ae, ee sna tas aaa FS lum : ‘ : 2 mi- se --ri- cor - ——_— = — Ses a f= = a =e ————— ae a- a ie - jus. From the same, "Tye fHetrical and Whothmical Music united. a TURE. VIII. Mover. A A A —— Se ee aes O ve - ra,Chris-te, cha - ri-tas! Tu nos- tra pur- Oh Christ, thou ve- ry love it-self! Blest hope of man, A ——— Fs _. ela = oo, a © eee Ses ga cri-mi-na, Tu cor-da re-ple gra - ti-a, through thee forgiv’n! Oh touch our spi-rits from a - bove, a a ee ee ——— — __waes ee s Tu red-de ce -li pre - mi-a. A - men. And pu-ri- fy our souls for heaven. From the Mechlin Vesperale. ANOTHER HYMN TUNE. \ (FOR CHRISTMAS DAY.» L Mopr. Se eee eee Ponca sl ee Je - su, Re-deem-er of the world! Who, ere the ear - liest A OS _. ares ee. ae Se a eae ri - ginem Pa-rem pa-ter - ne glo - ri- & dawn of light, Wast from e - ter - nal a - ges born, a ao eel ore Pa-ter su-pre- mus e - di-dit. A - men, Im-mense in glo- ry as_ in might. From the same. NOTE. Tue preceding illustrations are not facsimiles, but they are given in the notation used for Gregorian music at the present time, in order that they may be more generally understood. The adaptation of the syllables to the musical text has not been altered from the originals, and this will account for some of the short syllables in the two Antiphons being overcharged with notes, as was frequently the case at the period when the prosody of the Latin language came to be neglected. The two clefs used are the Do clef -\8- and the Fa clef - the line through the former indicating the position of the note C, and the latter of the note F. The Long (™) always bears an accent, and the other notes which require poral emphasis in a greater or less degree are marked with the accent (A) over them. The Breve (gg), which is the note most commonly used, must not be supposed to possess always one uniform length. In music purely syllabic it is governed 4 the accent of the poetry, or the words; but its musical accent depends upon the character of the phrase in which it is used; and in the more elaborate pas- sages it requires to be executed with greater rapidity than in those which consist of a few notes only. The Semibreve (¢) when used singly is invariably short, but when found in a series, especially in cadences, it often requires a retarded movement. A musical ear will very soon detect and adjust the rhythm of each successive phrase, but it is extremely difficult to describe in writing the various modifica- tions to which each is liable; and Guido d’Arezzo himself was quite sensible of this when, in treating of the same subject in the eleventh century, he used these words, “Sed hae et hujusmodi melius colloquendo quam conscribendo monstran- tur."—Miorologus, c, 15, > - a. . MA it J v7 = 7 “ 3» AMY - t TP 2 enwe ; ‘ , 7 . ae ae é 4 7 acne ? if , pit i fA eS 73 er hosnee eeQnt 4? a 5 iwy ; : sjevboos i oa ; i anialenel Aa ity Ee pele oo sath sie ay 2 4 ’ : = ; , : ; is aot : ; | y eae r » [ Ps ; we : : ‘4 sau 243 Sod wv edi Ww Fos Pie tie : aan ey 7 iit dalte of erg oft Reseis { ‘ ; | , geviy dhiw Delis? od orn” > drasiiw on ni me i wis i mc a7 4 ¥ » RARaR ee sof drach ( @) avon ‘ + ood L Pion teeu0i at Veen Deer teniw Cg) ee t Malet autho tl aos 1 oar «atom , ; : Pe . 4 of. { “ ‘ .y iw ju o tine * siz od) iat bets cat Hoe WT)T I rene : - ’ rie wi ooh bs 4 (29 ae 7 ' mil ceedehte diet) 804 sido af ei : " ; Z Pearee ; : al 1 dasrral« odd me Peigua oo > W) GM “he { f .* + bes goo meng Ohguigediie: teilhan. vf lua se viet Doig ie ' : 4 ah -d.ePGeee Ven ‘ ead 337 On the Ornithalagy of Wilts. No. 6.—FALCONIDA. § (Falcons.) *¢So when a Falcon skims the airy way, Stoops from the clouds, and pounces on his prey; Dash’d on the earth the feather’d victim lies, Expands its feeble wings, and flutt’ring dies.” P. WuHitenesaD. The Gymnasiad, book 3. My previous papers on the Ornithology of Wilts having treated of the general structure and the classification of birds, and the particular characteristics of the various orders and tribes, with especial reference to the beaks and feet, which generally point out with sufficient clearness their habits and consequent position, I come now without further preface to describe in order the families into which those orders and tribes are subdivided, and to give some short account of each individual species, which, as a resident, a periodical or an occasional visitant in our county, has come under my observation.’ I have already shewn that the first order, “ Birds of Prey,” con- sists of three families, the Vultures, Falcons, and Owls: of the first of these no member has ever occurred in this county, and indeed it is only from the very rare occurrence of a straggler or two on our shores, probably driven out of their course by strong and adverse winds, that the Vultures have of late obtained a place amongst British birds: their habits bespeak them as denizens of tropical climates, for their food consists of carrion and putrid substances, and very useful as scavengers do they prove in their native coun- tries, and very wisely are they protected as such by the inhabitants; for as the storks in Holland, and the dogs in Constantinople and 1A reference to the table of classification in vol. I., facing page 114, will show the order in which these families come. 22 338 On the Ornithology of Wilts | Falconide]. the East, so in Egypt and South America the Vultures arriving in vast numbers from all parts of the heayens, may be seen clearing away the offal and garbage, to which they are in some mysterious manner attracted, and which would otherwise poison the atmosphere. The second family, ‘ Falconide,’ embraces the Eagles, Falcons, Buzzards, Harriers and Hawks, of all descriptions. In common with all other birds of prey, (and in this again they resemble the carnivorous quadrupeds,) they are monogamous or live in pairs; they seldom drink, but during the heat of summer delight to wash themselves: they usually swallow part of the fur and feathers of their victims with their food, but this and all other indigestible parts, as bones &c., they afterwards disgorge in large pellets, or castings by the mouth, and they will often skin animals and pluck birds with the greatest dexterity. In the whole family of Falcons there is a very remarkable difference in size between the male and female, the latter being (contrary to what we see in other kinds) by far the largest and strongest; and from the fact of the male being usually a third less in size than its mate, it always received the name of Tiercelet or Tiercel, as a Tiercel Peregrine, a Tiercelet Sparrow- hawk, meaning the males of those species.!. They are divided into the long-winged or ‘noble,’ and the short-winged or ‘ignoble,’ as they were respectively denominated in the good old days of hawking: the long-winged, or true Falcons, were those most highly prized, and most frequently reclaimed; and there are a few plain points of difference by which they may be easily distinguished from their more ignoble brethren. Thus, in the beak of the true Falcon we shall find a prominent tooth in the upper mandible, and a corresponding notch in the lower one; while in the short-winged genera we shall see instead of the notch a small festoon, or mar- ginal lobe, as it is styled. Again, in the true Falcons, the wis, or coloured circle surrounding the pupil of the eye, will be always seen to be dark; while in the ignoble birds the irides are universally 1Shakspeare uses the word, corrupted into Tassel, in the famous balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet :— ‘“‘O, for a faleoner’s voice, To lure this tassel-gentle back again !””—Act ii, scene 2. a By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 339 bright yellow. And again, in flight, the true Falcon soars to a great height, and descends with a swoop upon its prey, while the short- winged pursue it in a direct line near the earth; but both display con- siderable strength, boldness, and activity, and of both I am proud to enumerate a goodly list as belonging to this county. Doubtless in olden time, when every gentleman and lady also, had a cast or two of hawks, our wide open Wiltshire downs were much resorted to for the noble sport of Falconry, and called forth such commen- dations for remarkable suitability for the sport, as were bestowed on it a few years since by the only genuine Falconer remaining in the kingdom, Mr. Pells, when he exercised on the downs above Lavington the royal Falcons, six magnificent Peregrines, the pro- perty of the hereditary grand Falconer, the Duke of St. Albans. Hawking has long since gone by, and the hound has usurped the place of the Falcon; but it must have been a goodly sight to see a hawking-party equipped for the field, prancing steeds bearing gallant knights, and palfreys carrying ladies fair; the Falconer with his stand of hawks, and each Falcon bearing a silver bell on his foot, and capped with a gay hood, surmounted by a plume. Then when the open down was reached, and the game was flushed, what excitement to watch the unhooded Hawks start in pursuit, the rapidity of their flight, their graceful soaring in circles above their victim, the sudden pounce, the deadly swoop, the terrific blow; what galloping, (and that somewhat blindly and dangerously, with eyes directed upwards) to come up with the Falcon, which has ‘bound’ to its victim, and fluttered with it to the earth; what en- ticing with the lure, what caressing it when recovered and safely hooded once more. But these days have gone by, and though our downs remain inviting to the sport, and the Falcons and Hawks range over them in considerable numbers, they are looked upon no longer with favour, but are persecuted, hunted, and destroyed by every gamekeeper and sportsman; no longer the honoured, the petted, and the prized, but the special objects of vengeance, the marked victims of the gun and the snare. And yet, though no longer trained for the chace, but hunted down by the preserver of game as his most deadly foes, who can forbear to admire the sym- 2242 340 On the Ornithology of Wilts [Falconide]. metry and strength of body, the boldness, the courage, the sagacity of this whole family? Who can withold admiration at their noble bearing, their velocity of flight, the keenness of their sight, the gracefulness of their evolutions in the air? But as I am not writing a panegyric on Falcons, but only a plain history of them, I will proceed at once to enumerate the species which have occurred in this county. “The White-tailed Eagle,” (Haliwetus albicilia.) First and foremost in the ranks of the Falconide stands the lordly Eagle, no less the king of birds, than the lion is allowed to rank monarch of quadrupeds: the strength and courage of this genus so commended it to the heathen poets, that they made it the attendant of Jupiter, and declared that alone of the feathered tribes it could brave the thunderbolt, or gaze with fixed eye at the sun’s dazzling orb; for the same reasons the Romans, Assyrians, and Persians adopted it as their standard in ancient times, and it forms the crest or emblem of monarchy in Russia, Prussia, Austria, France, and other empires of modern days. Its longevity too, (for it has been proved to live above a hundred years,) and its love of solitude, combine to give it dignity and majesty; so that in appearance and habits, as well as by general consent, it is allowed to be a “right royal bird.” In Great Britain the cliffs of Scotland and Ireland, and the wildest parts of our sea-coast are the abode of the Eagles; and there, on the most inaccessible rocks, and on the edges of the most dizzy precipices, they place their eyries, and from thence they sally forth in quest of prey, and goodly and ample and of great variety is the stock of game, in addition to an occasional lamb or fawn, with which they supply their young, as the rocks adjoining their nest have often testified, converted during the breeding season by these in- satiable marauders into a well-filled larder. Of the different species of Eagles, the ‘Golden’ one, (Aquila chrysaétos,) is generally considered the first, as it is the boldest and most active, as well as the largest; and I had hoped to have enu- merated it among the birds of Wilts, in consequence of a notice which appeared in the Berkshire Chronicle and the Zoologist, in January, 1847, to the effect that a fine specimen of this species had itis 0 ae By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 341 been killed by the gamekeeper at Littlecote, who discovered it feeding on a dead doe, and so gorged with venison as to be unable to fly off; on enquiry, however, I learn from Mr. Popham that the species was mistaken, and that it was the ‘Cinereous,’ or ‘ White- tailed’ (not the Golden) Eagle, which was killed in his park; the confusion seems to have arisen from the unwonted size of the specimen killed, its length being 37 inches, and its breadth from tip to tip of the extended wings eight feet, a very unusual magni- tude for this species. There is, however, in addition to the fulvous or golden plumage of the one, and the white tail of the other, (whence their specific names,) an unfailing mark of distinction by which these two species of Eagles may be distinguished at all ages, which I will give in the words of Mr. Yarrell: “In the foot of the Golden Eagle each toe is covered with small reticulations as far as the last phalanx, then with three broad scales. In the foot of the White-tailed Eagle the reticulations are confined to the tarsus, the whole length of each toe being covered with broad scales.” But the Golden Eagle is a very much rarer bird so far south, and indeed is almost unknown in these latitudes; and I am inclined with Mr. Knox, the amusing author of “Ornithological Rambles in Sussex,” to regard with considerable suspicion the announcement in local papers, which of late have frequently caught my eye, of the occurrence of the Golden Eagle in the neighbouring counties of Somerset and Berks. In addition to the example of the White- tailed Eagle, or Erne, given above, I am informed by the Rev. G. Marsh, of Sutton Benger, (whose thorough knowledge of birds, and ready kindness in imparting information have been most ser- viceable to me,) that a splendid specimen of this species was caught in a trap, in May, 1841, by Lord Suffolk’s gamekeeper in Braydon forest; it had previously been observed by the keeper soaring very high in the air, and it committed great devastations amongst the game: consequently a gin was set for it, and in this it was caught, and when first found by the keeper was alive, and but little injured; its fierceness, however, prevented its being taken alive, for the man dared not remove it from the trap, till he had killed it: it is now preserved in his Lordship’s house at Charlton. In ad- 342 On the Ornithology of Wilts [Falconide}. dition to these I have but one other record of the occurrence of the Eagle in Wiltshire, and that is an extract from the Salisbury Journal, bearing date as long ago as the middle of the last century, kindly sent me by Mr. Waylen: it is to the effect that “one summer evening an Eagle was observed sailing towards the summit of Salisbury Cathedral; he reposed there all night and early in the morning set sail northwards.” “The Osprey,” (Pandion haliwetus.) This fine species generally lives altogether on fish, and to seize its slippery prey with its powerful talons it hesitates not to plunge into rivers and lakes, on the borders of which it may therefore be looked for. I have described its remarkable conformation of foot, so exactly fitted to this purpose, in my paper on the Feet of Birds, (vol. IT., p. 298.) So its plumage too, and especially on the under parts of the body, is not composed of long feathers, such as we generally see in the other members of this family, but is close and firm, like that of the waterfowl. Hovering over the waters, with an undulatory motion of wing, no sooner has its eagle glance discovered a fish near the surface, than down it dashes with the velocity of an arrow, and bearing its quivering and slippery but firmly-clutched victim away in its feet, retires to some secluded rock, where, unmolested, it can devour it at leisure: so deep are its talons embedded in the fish, that it seldom cares to relax its hold till the fish is almost consumed, picking out the flesh from between its toes with great dexterity. Frequently, however, the poor Osprey is not suffered to enjoy its hardly-earned prize in peace, for the last-named species, the White tailed Eagle, not fitted itself for plunging into the sea, but liking to vary its diet of flesh and fowl with an occasional fish, sits on some rock or bough a patient but interested spectator of the sport, watching the Osprey’s manceuvres and eager for its success: then, no sooner has it made a successful pounce, and risen from the waters, rejoicing in its prey, than down comes the Eagle in pursuit, and gives instant chase: its superior strength and speed usually bring success, and though the poor “Fish-hawk” will not sur- render its booty without an effort, but rises in circles higher and higher, yet encumbered with its burden, it is no match for its 9 ES a aS eee By the Rev. A. C. Smith. . 848 assailant, and is at last compelled to drop the fish, which the Erne with astonishing quickness manages to seize before it falls into the water, and bears off with a scream of victory and triumph. The Osprey has a very wide range, but America seems to be its strong- hold, and there it congregates for breeding in vast numbers, just as rooks do in this country; and of which the American ornithologist, Wilson, gives many interesting particulars: its general colour is brown above, and white below, with a white crown to its head; legs pale blue. In allusion to the rapidity with which it darts upon fish, it is called by the Italians “‘ Aquila Piombino,” or Leaden Eagle. Notwithstanding the scarcity of large sheets of water in this county, this bird has been often killed in different parts of it, and not unfrequently within the last few years. Mr. Rowland shot a very fine specimen at Ramsbury, near the river Kennet, about two years since, at a piece of water in the occupation of Sir R. Burdett ; and at the adjoining fishery belonging to Mr. Popham, that gentleman informs me he has also met with and killed it. The Rey. G. Marsh has one in his collection which the keeper ob- tained in Draycot Park in 1830, and was, when seen, preying on a rabbit, (contrary to its usual habits,) and was very poor; and another, a very fine one, was killed at Brinkworth, near Malmes- bury, in August, 1852. In addition to these, I learn from Mr. Stratton that two were killed some years ago in the neighbourhood of Warminster; and as recently as last summer, a fine male bird was caught at Longleat, being accidentally trapped in a pole-trap, with a trout of two lbs. in its talons, which it never dropped. “The Gyr-Falcon,” (Falco gyrfalco,) nearly approaching to the Eagles in size, and by far the most rare, as well as the strongest and most valuable of the Falcons trained for the chase, is the Ice- land or Gyr-Falcon; for these I cannot but consider to be one and the same bird in different stages of plumage, though for many years they were presumed to be distinct, and even now are declared to be so by some, and those no mean Naturalists. Their prevailing colour is white, spotted with brown, but each year diminishes the dark spots, so that in very old specimens, the bird assumes a plumage of almost perfect whiteness; from which constant variations in 344 On the Ornithology of Wilts [Falconide}. colour have arisen the many conflicting opinions as to the identity of the (so-called) two species. They are natives of the most northern latitudes, and though nowhere numerous, have, from their excessive value, often tempted falconers to their capture on the in- hospitable shores of Greenland, Iceland, Lapland, and Norway: so highly were they prized in bygone days, that the king of Denmark reserved for his own use all that were found in his dominions, and sent his falconer annually to Iceland to obtain a fresh supply ; and so rigid was this game law, that the penalty of death was the result of an infringement of it, by destroying one of the royal birds. In this country, and in more modern days, no less than £1000 have been given for a well-trained cast (or couple) of these Falcons, which were used for flying at the larger kinds of game— herons, cranes, wild geese, &e. Much doubt has existed as to the origin of the specific appellation “Gyr;” it is by some said to be derived from the German word “ geyer,” a vulture, from a sup- posed resemblance in this splendid Falcon to that ignoble bird, or from its being of a Vulture size; but others, apparently with more reason, attribute it to the wide gyrations which this species, above all others, makes before its stoop, which on all hands is allowed to be remarkably grand, rapid, and daring. It is very seldom that the Gyr-Faleon makes its appearance in England, though in Scotland it is not very infrequent: but I place it among the birds that have occurred in Wiltshire without the least hesi- tation, on the authority of Mr. Benjamin Hayward, of Easterton, than whom no one in the county has devoted more attention to, or has had greater experience of, the whole family Falconide, as an out-door observer and accurate Naturalist. From him I learn that he saw this fine and, when once known, unmistakeable species in the immediate neighbourhood of Cliffe Hall, at a place called Ramscliffe, on the 9th December, 1842, but at the time, having never seen or heard of the Gyr-Falcon, he mistook it for an albino variety of the Peregrine, and marvelled at its beauty and size; farther enquiry, however, proved to him beyond a doubt that it was a genuine Icelander. “Peregrine Falcon,” (Fulco peregrinus.) Hitherto I have re- By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 345 corded the occurrence of species, all of which have been only occasional and very rare stragglers in the county; now I come to one which is comparatively abundant, and may be met with quite as much, if not more, in Wiltshire, than in any other part of England; our wide open downs being, as I before remarked, so admirably adapted to its habits. From its greater abundance, as well as from its size and strength, the Peregrine has been princi- pally trained for Falconry, and among the few who still pursue that noble sport, this is the species usually kept for the purpose: it is, moreover, a docile tractable bird, and repays the trainer’s care and attention by its remarkable courage, strength, and activity in the chase, and no less peculiar teachableness and obedience to his call. It received the specific name of ‘ Peregrine’ on account of its immense geographical range; its wonderful powers of flight, both as regards speed and endurance, enabling it to traverse vast dis- tances in an extremely short space of time, and scarcely a country in the world exists in which the Peregrine has not been noticed by Naturalists. In this county we may almost call it abundant; and where it is so frequently seen, it seems scarcely necessary to parti- cularize localities of its capture or occurrence. I have frequently seen it on the Roundway downs, and on the downs between Mar!l- borough and Devizes: notices have been sent me of its occurrence in almost all parts of the county, and Mr. Withers, the able bird- stuffer of Devizes, has usually one in his hands. Mr. Stratton, of Gore Cross Farm, above Lavington, (who is a great lover of Fal- cons, and watches them keenly,) assures me that his farm is seldom without one, and that no sooner is one shot or trapped, than another makes her appearance in its place; and as a proof of their abundance, I extract the following interesting notes of his success with these birds, from a register kept by Mr. B. Hayward :— Jan. 1, 1836, Peregrine (a Falcon) caught at Ramscliffe. March 28, 1842, Another (a Falcon) caught at ditto. Dec. 30, 1842. Another (a Falcon) at Ramscliffe. Dec. 8, 1849, Another (a male) weight 11b. Goz. Nov. 9, 1850, Another (a male) weight 141b. Jan. 22,1853. Another (a Faleon) weight 2 jlbs. The above extract proves two interesting facts—the plentifulness OA 346 On the Ornithology of Wilts | Falconide}. of the species in that locality, and the difference in size between the female, (called par excellence the Falcon,) and the male, (called the Tiercel, as above described.) The boldness of the Peregrine is so great, that it will wait upon the sportsman, and no sooner has he sprung a covey of birds, than down comes the Falcon, despite the shooter and his dogs, singles out a partridge for herself, fells it to the earth with one deadly stroke, and bears it off in triumph ; a manceuvre which she will repeat day after day, and frequently more than once in a day. Mr. Stratton tells me that he has him- self witnessed this, and Mr. Selby gives a pleasing account of it in his Illustrations of British Ornithology, as does Mr. Knox very fully in his interesting work on “Game Birds and Wild Fowl.” I learn from Mr. Marsh that in the south of the county the keepers call the Peregrine by the provincial name of ‘ Trammel Hawk.’ “The Hobby,” (Falco subbuteo.) This beautiful little Falcon is in every respect like a diminutive Peregrine; and in proportion to its size (which seldom exceeds a foot in length) vies with its con- gener in strength, speed, activity, and endurance: it is a periodical summer visitant to this country, arriving in April, and departing again in October, and I believe is rarely seen in the northern counties of England: it loves thick plantations and woods, and at the time of incubation usually takes possession of the deserted nest of the Magpie or Crow: its food consists of insects as well as small birds, in taking which it displays great adroitness: it was formerly trained to fly at larks and snipes, the former of which constitute its favourite game in its wild state; hence arose one of its old specific names ‘alaudarius:’ with less apparent reason, I am told that its provincial name in Wiltshire is the “ Rook Hawk.” It has been taken in many parts of the county, and [ believe it to be somewhat sparingly distributed annually throughout our enclosed districts. I have also received many instances of its nesting and rearing its young in various localities; thus Mr. Hayward has taken two young ones from a deserted crow’s nest, in August, 1839; and from the same tree in which the Hobbies had reared their young the previous year: this was in the neighbourhood of Lavington, where he has subsequently seen them almost annually. Mr. By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 347 Stratton says they return regularly every summer to the enclosures in the vale below him: Mr. Marsh speaks of them as not un- common in the woods of Wilts, and has repeatedly had the young brought to him both in the neighbourhood of Chippenham, and at Winterslow, near Salisbury, and they have bred in the woods at Christian Malford ; moreover, I am aware of two separate localities to which these birds now return annually to breed, though, for obvious reasons, I think it better not to describe them too minutely. “ Red-footed Falcon,” (Fulco rufipes.) Very similar to the last species both in appearance and habits is the Red-footed or Red- legged Falcon, or Orange-legged Hobby, as it is variously called ; the principal distinguishing characteristics being the red colour of the legs and feet, (as its specific name implies,) and this distinction exists in both sexes and at all ages, though, in almost all other respects, the male and the female, the young and the adult differ widely from one another: like its congener described above, it prefers wooded and enclosed districts, and feeds on beetles and other insects as well as small birds, and has the same length of wing, and consequent rapidity and endurance of flight ; it is, how- ever, extremely rare in this country, its native haunts being the steppes of Russia, and the eastern portions of the Austrian domi- nions. Scarcely a dozen instances are recorded of its appearance in Britain, but of these, one is described in the Zoologist for 1848, as having occurred at Littlecote Park, near Hungerford, in 1825: it was seen by a countryman to be pursued and struck down by a raven, when he went up to it and caught it on the ground before it recovered ; and, according to his account, it laid an egg after its fall, which was broken. The peculiar markings of the hawk struck the author of the communication, who bought the bird of the countryman, and not being able to identify it with any of the English hawks which he knew, he made a drawing of it, suffi- ciently accurate to recognize it by: it was fortunate he did so, for the bird, which was very wild and untameable, escaped after a few days’ captivity, and was probably killed, as it had one wing clipped: subsequently, his memory being aided by the drawing, he recog- nized it as an Orange-legged Hobby, when he saw that bird at the 342 348 On the Ornithology of Wilts {Falconide}. Zoological Gardens. This is the only instance which has come to my knowledge of the occurrence of this very rare Faleon in Wiltshire. “The Merlin,” (Fulco wsalon.) This beautiful little Faleon, not much bigger than a blackbird, is so bold, so active, and so strong, that it has been known to strike down a partridge at a blow, though twice its own size and weight. It was formerly much es- teemed for Falconry, and was trained to fly at woodcocks, snipes, and larks. In speaking of the Peregrine, I have shewn how that bird would accompany the sportsman to the field, and select a victim from the coveys when sprung, neither terrified by man, dog, or gun, as described by Mr. Knox and others: that same amusing writer gives a similar very interesting account of a Merlin which regularly attended him when he was out snipe shooting in Ireland, in order to get a share of the game. It seemed to have no fear of his gun, but would follow him at a little distance and watch the birds that he fired at; if they were killed by the shot the Merlin never meddled with them, but seemed to consider them the lawful share of the sportsman; if, however, any bird was wounded and partially disabled, it instantly pursued and caught it, and carried it off. At first there was but one, but subsequently a second—a female—joined it, and they regularly made their ap- pearance as long as the sportsman continued in the neighbourhood. Sometimes, at the very commencement of the day’s sport, the merlins might not be there, but the first report of the gun was generally sufficient to summon one or both of them to the scene of action, and a wounded snipe, however slightly touched by the shot, had no chance of escape from their united efforts. First, one would rise above it in a succession of circular gyrations, (for he was unable to ascend in such a direct line as the snipe,) then he would make a swoop, and if he missed, his companion, who in the meantime had been working upwards in a similar manner, would next try her luck, and in this manner they would pursue the quarry, until the persecuted bird, unable to ascend higher, or any longer avoid the fatal stroke, was at last clutched by one of the little faleons, when the other would hasten to “bind to it,” and all —_———_ = By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 349 three descend together into the bog. After a performance of this sort an hour would occasionally elapse before the return of either of the merlins, sometimes more, sometimes less, but they never seemed willing to give up the sport until at least three snipes had fallen to their own share. The Merlin is often called the Stone Falcon, from its habit of perching on a large stone in the open country, which it frequents: for the same reason it is called in France Le Rochier, and Faucon de Roche, and in Germany Stein Falke. Bewick supposed it did not breed here, but Selby, Yarrell, and others prove that it does so, at any rate in the northern and midland counties. With us it is a winter visitant, arriving in October, and leaving us in the spring. I have myself seen it at Yatesbury, where it frequented a splendid old yew tree in the churchyard, and I have notices of its occurrence in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, 1837; Chippenham, 1840; Devizes and Warminster 1850; while Mr. Stratton tells me it is a constant visitor on the downs at Gore Cross; and that he caught no less than three specimens from one stump on his farm: he tells me also, that he has been astonished at its amazing boldness and dexterity in pursuit of starlings, chasing them, singling one out, and as certainly bearing it off in triumph. “The Kestrel,” (Fulco tinnunculus.) The most common, the most harmless, and the most persecuted of all the Falconide is the elegant Kestrel : it abounds in vast numbers throughout the county, and one can scarcely cross the downs in any direction without seeing it hovering in the air, with wings rapidly quivering and tail outstretched, and with head invariably turned to the wind: from this habit it has derived the two provincial names of ‘ Windhover’ and ‘Stonegall,’ or ‘Standgale.’ It may easily be distinguished from the other members of the family by the prevailing rufous fawn colour, which is common to the plumage of both sexes. It ‘preys almost exclusively on mice, of which it destroys an incredible quantity, dropping upon them suddenly from above; but occasion- ally varies this diet with coleopterous insects, reptiles, and small birds ; but I think it has very rarely been known to molest a young partridge or pheasant, or commit the smallest trespass on game: 350 On the Ornithology of Wilts [ Falconide]. nevertheless it is a hawk, and as such is the enemy of the indiscri- minating gamekeeper, who can see no difference in the Kestrel and Sparrow-hawk, but looks upon both as his mortal foes, and traps and destroys them accordingly. There can, however, be no ques- tion that the Kestrel, far from being injurious, confers the greatest benefit on man, ridding him of thousands of field mice, which are destructive alike to the farm, the garden, the orchard, and the plantation. Like many other species of the true Falcons, it prefers adopting the deserted nest of the magpie, or other large bird, to building a nursery for itself. Though some may always be seen, Mr. Waterton (who has a great liking for this hawk, and has defended it most perseveringly in his charming Essays on Natural History) expresses his conviction that by far the greater part migrate in autumn to more southern lands; and in this he is fully supported by Mr. Knox, who has bestowed much attention to the point, and, dwelling on the coast of Sussex, has admirable oppor- tunities for observing the migration of birds. This closes the list of the true Falcons, which have always been considered as more “noble” than the others. We now come to other genera, and we shall see that their habits, as well as their make, differ in many respects from the above. “Sparrow Hawk,” (Accipiter nisus.) The short-winged hawks (of which this is our commonest species) take their prey in a different manner from the long-winged or true Falcons; instead of rising above it in circles, and then stooping with wonderful velocity and force, they pursue them on the wing, as a greyhound would a hare, gliding after them at great speed for a short distance, even dashing after them through woods and thick plantations: but should they fail to come up with their quarry, they are unable to prolong the chase, and so abandon it and await another chance. Of all the short-winged hawks, none is more bold, active, and destructive, especially in the breeding season, than the Sparrow Hawk. There are many interesting accounts of its wholesale plunder and insa- tiability in destroying young birds and game at that time, but the most extraordinary that has come under my notice, is that lately » published by Mr. Knox, who counted the following victims laid up By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 351 in store in their nest for the half-fledged young,—“ Fifteen young pheasants, four young partridges, five chickens, a bullfinch, two meadow pipits, and two larks, all in a fresh state.” From such well-known voracity and penchant for game, I can scarcely hope that the Sparrow Hawk will be spared by the gamekeeper, though at the same time he deserves our respect and admiration for his bravery and skill: but at any rate let his sins be visited on his own head, and not on the inoffensive insectivorous kestrel, which is so often made to suffer for the misdemeanors of another. The Sparrow Hawk prefers birds to quadrupeds, and thus we see it furnished with long and slender legs, and toes (especially the middle one) remarkably elongated, and these are admirably adapted for grasping and penetrating the dense plumage of its victim. The female, flying low, and skimming over the ground with great swiftness, often seizes the partridge or the pigeon, with no gentle stroke, while her diminutive partner is content to pick off the sparrow or the finch from the hedge, or even the rickyard, whither his boldness will lead him undismayed. In none of the whole family is the difference in size between the male and female so ‘conspicuous as in this species, and as the difference in colour is also great, no wonder that they should often be mistaken for distinct species. In this country it is sparingly met with throughout, oe nowhere very numerous, and nowhere entirely wanting, though the more wooded and enclosed parts are its favourite haunts. “The Kite,” (Zulco Milvus). Though once the terror of the poultry yard, and the admiration of the Naturalist, this graceful bird is now, alas! almost (I fear I must say quite) extinct in this country, and I much doubt whether many individuals, unless stragglers, are to be found south of the Tweed or east of Wales; and yet but a very few years since they were not uncommon in our homesteads and woods. Mr. Marsh has seen them at Winterslow, and once possessed a tame bird which was taken young in Clarendon Woods. Mr. Hayward, when a boy, sawa nest of them at Lavington. Mr. Stratton tells me that two nests have been taken, to his knowledge, by people now living in his neighbourhood, one at Fiddington Down, the other at West 352 On the Ornithology of Wilts (Fualconide]. Lavington. At Lydiard Millicent, the seat of Lord Bolingbroke, there was a tree, which very probably still exists, called the Kite tree, and here Kites bred from time immemorial, and here they were always to be seen in the spring a few years ago, and most old people can recollect something of the “forky tailed” Kite or Glead. It was very easy to be distinguished from all others of the Fal- conide, by its long and much-forked tail, and by its graceful gliding motion, whence its provincial name Glead ; and it delighted to soar in circles, and to sail on almost motionless wing. Though it would occasionally seize a chicken or a duckling (as the hen- wife knew to her cost) rats, mice, leverets and other small qua- drupeds, composed its principal prey, and when it did take a bird it was generally one of the gallinaceous order, for the mode of seizing its victim, by pouncing upon it on the ground, differed from that of most of the preceding species. But though so elegant and graceful, the Kite was not remarkable for courage; a hen has been often known to beat off the intruder from her chickens, and indeed it was selected as the quarry at which to fly large falcons in olden times, and from the sport it thus often afforded to royalty, are derived the continental names it still bears, “Milvus regalis,” “Milan royal.” Though small in bulk and light in weight, the Kite is, in reality, a large bird, exceeding two feet in length, and five from tip to tip of the extended wings. “Common Buzzard,” (Buteo Vulgaris.) Like the species last described, the Buzzard is not now the common bird it once was, and which its specific name implies. At one time it abounded in our woodland districts, but now it is rarely to be met with. Mr. Marsh speaks of one which was brought to him from Draycot Park, in 1840. Mr. Stratton has occasionally seen the bird as it passed over or rested in his locality, but states that it does not remain there. Mr. Hayward had often observed it on Fiddington Common some years since, but now seldom sees it. Like all the other species of this genus, it has a slow flight, an indolent, lazy, heavy aspect, and a timid disposition. It preys upon small birds, quad- rupeds and reptiles, which it will strike upon the ground, but which it does not care to pursue, and often it will stand motionless for By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 353 hours on the bare limb of some decayed tree, watching the acci- dental arrival of a victim. Its legs and feet are comparatively short and strong, as we generally find to be the case with those genera or species which prey on quadrupeds in preference to birds. “Rough legged Buzzard,” (Buteo Lagopus.) Though rarer as a species than the last, this has been occasionally met with in various parts of the county. The last occurrence was in 1854, when two were seen in the neighbourhood of Ogborne, one of which was killed by Mr. Godwin, of Brimslade. Mr. Marsh possesses one which was taken in the parish of Brinkworth, at Somerford Common, in 1839, and reports it as very rare there, indeed that is the only specimen which has come under his notice; and I have a note of another killed near Wroughton. In habits, food, and mode of obtaining it, this species much resembles the preceding, but may easily be distinguished from its congeners by the feathering of its legs down to the toes, whence its specific names, both English and scientific, dagopus signifying “footed like a hare.” “ Honey Buzzard,” (Pernis apivorus.) Very different from all other members of the Falconid, both in habits and the prey it seeks is this elegant bird. Though universally styled the Honey Buzzard, honey forms no portion of its food, and it is not for this that it searches out the nests of bees and wasps, scratches away the bank in which they are placed, and tears out the comb; the larvee or immature young, are the objects of its diligent search, and these it devours with great greediness, picking them out and demolishing them without any regard to the anger or the stings of their owners. The scientific name it bears declares this habit clearly enough, and it would be well was the English specific name exchanged for the ‘Gentle’ Falcon (as has been suggested), the word gentle signifying the nymphz of wasps, bees, &c., as the readers of honest old Isaac Walton well know: the present name of Honey Buzzard is apt to mislead. But though so partial to young bees and wasps, thesedo not form the entire food of this large bird, indeed it would be difficult to satisfy a voracious appetite with such delicacies: rats, mice, frogs, and small birds, all go to fill its capacious craw. However, it makes its appearance in this country only in the summer, when 3 2B 354 On the Ornithology of Wilts | Falconide]. its favourite food is to be found. In order to defend its head from the stings of the insects it robs, all the vulnerable parts between the beak and eyes are clothed with close-set, scale-like feathers, and these seem to act as a helmet of mail, proof against the weapons of its innumerable assailants, whose vengeance its wholesale attacks are sure to excite. In addition to this generic character, wherein it differs from all others of the same family, the tarsi are reticulated and the claws only partially curved. These are plain marks of distinction, but in plumage it presents a more extraordinary variety, scarcely two specimens being found to resemble each other. Mr. Fisher, of Yarmouth, has taken great pains to compare different individuals which have occurred, and to trace the remarkable change of plumage to which this species is liable ; and he shows, with consi- derable probability of correctness, which the subsequent observations of others have amply corroborated, that the younger the bird the darker its plumage, which every year increases in whiteness from the almost uniform dark clove brown of the immature bird, to the almost perfect whiteness of the adult. When it has the ash grey plumage on the head, it has often been called the ‘ capped’ Buzzard. It is of a gentle, kind, and amiable disposition, and may easily be domesticated, and soon becomes attached to its owner: Mr. Knox (who had a good opportunity of observing it) says, it has a humble subdued look about it, quite sufficient to distinguish it from the more martial members of the family, and that its gait was different also; instead of the hop of the sparrow-hawk or the leap of the falcon, and the erect attitude of those birds, its mode of progression was a rapid run, after the fashion of a lapwing, the head being at the time partially depressed; this confirms the statement of Willoughby, which has been copied by Buffon and Veillot, that the Honey Buzzard “runs very swiftly, like a hen,” as was shewn by Mr. Gurney in the Zoologist for 1844, page 492. I have but two authentic instances on which I can rely, of the occurrence of this rare bird in Wiltshire; one of these was seen at Roundway Park about ten years since, and was shot by the keeper in the act of destroying a wasp’s nest: Mr. Withers, who preserved it, tells me that he took about a dozen wasps and larvae from its stomach. CT ee By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 355 Another, a young one, at about the same date, was killed at West Lavington, at Mr. Beckett’s, and is now in the possession of Mr. Hayward, at Easterton. “‘ Marsh Harrier,” (Circus eruginosus.) The Harriers differ from the Buzzards in their more slender and elegant form, their longer and more naked legs, and especially in the distinct ruff of close-set feathers, which surrounds their face ; their flight, though not swift, is light and buoyant, and they are able to continue it for a considerable time: from their habit of sweeping over the surface of the ground, at no great elevation above it, and in this manner hunting for game like dogs, they have derived the generic name “ Harrier:” their prey consists chiefly of small quadrupeds and reptiles, but occasionally they will take birds as well. Yarrell adds that a remarkable trait in the whole genus is, that the males, when adult, are all more or less ash grey in colour, while the females retain their original tints of red or brown. The Marsh Harrier is the largest of our three British species, being about 22 inches in length: Bewick, who places it erroneously among the Buzzards, gives it the provincial name of Harpy, though why it was so styled I cannot discover. Though formerly not by any means uncommon, I have not heard of the recent capture or occurrence of one of these birds in Wilts. It loves marshy districts and moors, from which it derives the specific name “ Marsh” Harrier, and the provincial one of “ Moor” Buzzard, and here in a tuft of grass or rushes it makes its nest. In the fenny districts of England and Wales it was formerly very abundant, but now even in its favourite haunts it is becoming scarcer every day, and will doubtless soon be extermi- nated, owing to the draining and reclaiming of waste lands, which however profitable to the agriculturist, is annually destroying many of our most interesting birds. “Hen Harrier,” (Circus cyaneus.) Far more common than the ° last, at any rate in this part of England, is the Hen Harrier or Ringtail, for Montagu in this country, and Mr. Temminck on the continent, have both clearly proved, what is now universally acknowledged by ornithologists, that these two titles apply to the same bird, though to the two sexes, which when adult differ 3 B2 856 On the Ornithology of Wiits (Falconide]. very widely both in size and colour: the male, to which alone the title of Hen Harrier was originally given, was so named from its supposed liking for fowls ; it was also called the “ Blue Hawk,” and “‘ Dove Hawk,” from its pearl-grey colour: the female bore the title of Ringtail, from the bars of dark and light brown so conspi- cuous in her tail: in habits and haunts this species very much resembles the last, but it oftener leaves the marshes and fens in which it delights, for commons and moors, and breeds in the thick furze covers on the open wastes. Itissaid to bea great destroyer of game, and to beat its hunting grounds with great regularity and at stated intervals, crossing them in various directions, day after day, and at the same hour of the day. It is still to be met with in Wilts, though like its congener yearly becoming scarcer. Mr. Marsh has a pair in his collection, which were killed in Clarendon Park in 1823, and states that though not uncommon near Salisbury, he never sees them in the neighbourhood of Chippenham. Mr. Stratton often sees them on the downs above Lavington, and thinks it probable they breed every year in the gorse near him, but as the gorse is being taken up, the bird will soon be driven away. On the same downs Mr. B. Hayward has shot three specimens in ‘one day, at a clump of trees, called Ashington Pennings, and another was killed at Market Lavington by Mr. Stage. “ Montagu’s Harrier,” (Cirews Montagui.) So called from the worthy ornithologist whose residence in this county we are proud to boast, who did so much for Natural History, and who devoted so much attention to the genus we are now considering. In gratitude for his indefatigable researches, and in compliment to his acute discrimination, which unravelled the confusion prevailing among the Harriers, and ranged them under three species, which the diligent investigation of half a century has since proved to be correct, the ash-coloured Harrier (as he himself named this species, which he first discovered to be distinct from the two others,) has been named by all the continental authors “ Circus Montagui” and “Te Busard de Montagu, ” and by our own “ Montague’s Harrier.” It may be distinguished from its congener, the Hen Harrier, with which it had hitherto been confused, and to which it bears a great By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 357 resemblance, by its comparative lightness, though at the same time greater dimensions, both in length and stretch of wing; by its more distinct ruff of feathers encircling the head, and by its greater elegance and slimness of form. In all other respects, as regards its habits, haunts, food, &c., it is quite similar to the last-named species; but of late years it has been proved by several naturalists, that it occasionally varies its diet with the eggs of small birds, those of the thrush, sky-lark and willow wren, having been dis- covered in its stomach. Two instances have reached me of its recent capture in this county; one (now in Mr. Marsh’s collection,) was killed by Mr. Wightwick’s keeper in 1841, at Somerford Common, described as a very wooded district; the other was caught in a gin at Wans, about two years since, and (in confirmation of what I have stated above respecting its occasional food,) I learn from Mr. C. Wyndham, that it was attracted to the trap by an egg set there for a magpie. I will now bring this long paper on the Falcons to a close, with one more extract from the register of Mr. Hayward, who has dis- covered the following interesting facts from personal observation. “Hawks do not moult their wing and tail feathers as do other birds, and this is a wise provision of Nature, otherwise during the season of moulting, they must starve; but now they moult but one feather on each wing at a time, and when afeather drops from one wing, the corresponding feather on the other wing drops out within seven hours; this is, without doubt for the sake of equilibrium; then as the new feathers come up and are grown, another pair in like manner falls out, and so with the tail.” Mr. Hayward also observes that “ hawks, in fighting, would score one another’s backs with their talons at a swoop, to avoid which catastrophe the one attacked invariably turns over and presents her feet to the assailant.” ALFRED CHARLES SMITH. Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, January 2, 1857. 358 Colerne Church. AN ACCOUNT OF THE Church of St. Sahn the Baptist, Calerne. By E, W. Gopwi, Esq. This Church, as will be seen by the accompanying plan, (plate 1) consists of a nave, with aisles, chancel, north chapel, south porch, and tower at the west end. EXTERIOR. The Tower (of the 15th century) is a bold, lofty structure of three stages, with good projecting buttresses at three of its angles, and an octagonal staircase turret at the north-east. The lower story contains in the west wall a small four-centred arched doorway, over which is a four-light window, originally of good design, but now sadly mutilated. The north and south walls of this story are enriched with deeply recessed pannelling of the same character as the west window, but elongated to the basemold and in a much better state of preservation ; the tracery in the head is sub- arcuated, and the lights throughout cinquefoliated. The walls above the stringcourse in the second stage are ornamented on all four sides by a series of long cinquefoliated pannels, the centre one on the north, south, and west sides being occupied by an elegant canopied niche, which is as usual, void. The belfry windows are in pairs, double lighted, transomed, and with deeply recessed jambs; the lights are filled with “‘ashlare,” solid below the transoms, but perforated above; the parapet is pierced with trefoliated triangles, surmounted by four pinnacles, which are evidently too small for the height of the tower; this becomes more evident when viewed from the north-east, where the pinnacle over the turret appears rather to sink into than rise out of it. The present appearance of the south aisle is “ perpendicular,” though remnants of earlier date still exist. It has a square-headed >, ye Uy AA.comdows blocked up. B. low chapel c. pigcina ¥ wedilia. 0.0 easter wepulehreg. Ec. ol) windows. Littilipii [eo pro. {20 _—o. Hunt Plan. 4q EW Godwin, C{olerne O(burch Wilts. Baw Tite y = wi he a = _—_ a Or f ‘ i} a MM aa eS Mh hi STM Gaanlf}p suaayo [gaxoys a4] en #88) UIMP OP MA By E. W. Godwin, Esq. 359 * decorated” window of two lights, a two-light “ perpendicular” window, and a large one of four lights, the tracery of which has been destroyed. The porch has an elegant niche over the outer doorway deserving notice, and the angle buttresses are of rather an uncommon form, rising in one continuous set-off from the ground. There is a south clerestory of early date, but the windows, except the outline of the centre one, have been destroyed ; the eave-string, (or molding immediately under the lower course of slabs,) is almost the only evidence of its age. The Chancel, from the insertion of square-headed windows of late date, and the almost total annihila- tion of its early lancet ones, has lost nearly all its original character and beauty. There is, however, enough left to form some approxi- mation as to its former appearance. In the south wall the outlines of two lancet windows, and in the east the boundaries of a triple lancet may yet be seen. At the south-east angle, and rising not more than three feet six inches from the present level of the ground are two buttresses, (if such they may be termed,) the use of which seems, however, somewhat obscure. The present east window is of debased character, with semi-circular-headed lights. The east end of the Chapel is in a line with the chancel, but the junction of the earlier and later masonry is clearly marked ; the east window is an elegantly proportioned, yet simple specimen of its class; the hood molding is remarkably delicate and consists of the “roll” and “bead,” the terminations to which represent female heads that to the south has the chin cloth and other characteristics of the head of a “religicuse ;” the buttresses at the north-east angle are good early decorated examples of two stages with returned strings below each set off. The rest of the Chapel has been entirely rebuilt—an old two-light window, the corbel-table, and some internal portions have been preserved in the new erection, though the destruction of one of the windows and the insertion of a doorway is not altogether pleasing. The east gables of the nave, chancel, and chapel, as well as the west gable of the latter are, with the exception of the crosses, in their original state, although the roof of the chancel and chapel are entirely modern and covered with sate. Continuing our pro- gress round the building we arrive at the north aisle, which is 360 Colerne Church. almost straight with the chapel; it is of the same age as the tower, and is divided into four bays by buttresses of two stages; the first, third, and fourth bays (reckoning from the west) contain good three-light windows, the remaining bay being left blank—a pro- vision, doubtless, for a north porch or doorway, which some cause prevented being carried out. This aisle has a base-mold of a bold form, and is surmounted by a plain parapet, which returns along a very depressed gable at the west end; the roof is covered with lead and nearly flat. The interior effect of the tower—the lower story of which is vaulted with good ribbed groining—has been destroyed by boarding up the lofty, well-moulded arch, and inserting a floor midway, with a far projecting gallery. INTERIOR. It is only on entering the body of; the Church we become aware of remains, the leading features of which at once proclaim them to be Norman. The Nave is of four bays, the pillars are cylindrical with circular bases, the three arches (reckoning from the east) on the south side with the intermediate piers, respond, and half of the western pier are the oldest portions of the church, and though presenting some points reconcileable to the “early English” style, possess yet so many more characteristic of the Norman period, that I consider them to belong rather to the close of the latter than the commencement of the former era. The arches are pointed with plain soffits, recessed, however, on the nave side, and surmounted by a hood-mold with trefoil terminations; the abaci are square and of the usual Norman section, and the capitals though designed upon what is commonly called the “cushion shaped,” have each a different appearance, presenting an interesting exemplification of the power of form, even in the most common and simple detail ; the bases rest on low square sub-plinths, the upper edge of which is chamfered. The three opposite arches on the north side are of a later date, they are of two chamfered orders, and spring from octagonal abaci with foliaged capitals, each of which also differs in design and degree of beauty. The piers are much smaller in cir- cumference than those on the south side, but of the same height. The westernmost arch on either side yet remains to be described: =)? 1 ae eS © ep WW. Sedilia ete.in Chancel. Cholenne Chaweely Wilts. SS Fl Zz = Bdw. kite. EW. Godwin. ee i. By E. W. Godwin, Esq. 361 they are coeval with the tower, the western part abutting against the buttresses, and the eastern side being supported by inserted semi-piers of the same date. The South Aisle retains its original width and general proportions, the masonry in the foundations being left undisturbed. In the walls of the North Aisle are corbel heads which supported the principal timbers of the roof, the second from the east is the head of a bishop or abbot, with a mitre, bear- ing on its front an elegant Greek cross in relief, (see plate 2.) The other heads are those of a saint, a queen, and some “ religieuse.” The Chancel floor is slightly raised above the nave, and the entrance arch is crossed by an oak screen of perpendicular character, with the doors, fastenings, and handles remaining. The arch itself is of two orders chamfered, the outer chamfer is carried to within a few inches of the floor, and the inner order rests on short pillar brackets with molded capitals; the shafts are detached, and are supported by corbel heads of a knight on the north, (see plate 2,) and a saint on the south, the latter is immediately under the neck molding of the capital. The arches communicating with the chapel are blocked up on this (the chancel) side, the hood molds being the only part visible. But the most interesting point in the chancel, and indeed the attraction of the church are the accompaniments of the high altar. They present us with admirable examples of the work of three different periods in conjunction with each other, producing an anomaly as beautiful asit issingular. The elevation (plate 3), will more clearly explain the arrangement. The sacrarium is raised 24 inches above the floor of the chancel, and, together with the south wall of the latter, is skirted by a base molding of bold character.!_ The Chapel is entered from the chancel by a doorway in the eastern arch, and the floor is nearly on a level with the sacrarium. The arches on this side are comparatively free. The piers are cylindrical, but of smaller proportions than those in the nave, they have octagonal abaci and bases, and the capitals, which differ materially from each other in the adaptation of the foliage, are similar in character to, though perhaps some- what more effective than, those already described; that of the 1 A modern continuation of an old fragment, 362 Colerne Church. eastern respond (shown in plate 2) is remarkably rich in light and shade, and shows that even at this period the form of the cushion shape was not lost sight of. The arches are of two orders, cham- fered with returned hoodmolds on either side. The arch which led into the north aisle is blocked up in the upper part by a wooden partition supported by an old stone screen, the former being a portion of a private gallery. The scoinson arches of the windows of the chapel are segmental pointed, chamfered, and finished with good bold hoodmolds. The terminations to the north window are the heads of a queen and ecclesiastic, and those to the east represent the heads of some religious ladies; the one to the south having the chin-cloth, and other appurtenances of the dress, of a professed nun. In the north wall, below the window, is a recess nearly the whole thickness of the wall; the arch, which is segmental pointed, springs from within a few inches of the floor, and is molded with a series of quarter rounds and fillets ; at the back of this recess is the oldest monumental record in the church. It is a small rough stone, built in the wall, upon which is cut in Roman letters “ ARTER COSLET WAS HERE BYRED IN THE YERE 1625.” The font, which is octagonal, is a very poor example of the 15th century—the lead lining and drain remains. The roofs of the chancel and chapel are new, that on the nave is concealed by a plaster ceiling, the removal of which, together with the obstructions in the tower arch, the reparation of the west window, the opening of the chapel arches, and the annihilation of the gallery in the north aisle, are objects greatly to be desired. This latter encroachment hides the upper part of one of the aisle windows, having remnants of stained glass, amongst which the head of a young queen (with long light auburn hair, and a richly foliated crown) is still preserved. In the absence of all documentary evidence relative to the history of this church, we are obliged to refer to the character of the archi- tecture for the dates of the several portions. As has already been intimated, the three easternmost arches and piers on the south side of the nave, as well as the foundations of the south and east walls of the south aisle, belong to the first church, and must have been erected about the year 1190. The chancel was built in the 13th MaaImpoo MA 0 ‘SW pany suaaqo)o “O21 MPT ay} o 3 = = SF s = a A E 3. a & z a , z & s a cae Sao aoe = | cs: a i > ~ CT. = a a. eo ‘Be ry 4 Ce, Pa” 0 A aR eee ' he aor By E. W. Godwin, Esq. 363 century (c. 1240) at which period the church appears to have consisted only of a nave, south aisle and chancel, the existence of a tower beingdoubtful. It was not long, however, before the increased population of the parish made it requisite to enlarge the structure, and consequently we find that early in the reign of Edward I (1280) a chapel of the same size as the chancel,' a north aisle, and a cleres- tory to the nave were added. ‘This addition of a chapel involved the almost total destruction of the original north wall of the chancel, in order to admit the arches of communication ; it is, therefore, more than probable that the Easter Sepulchre was destroyed in taking down the old wall, for not many years after the date of these alter- ations, the masonry in the south wall was disturbed and a new sepulchre inserted. Late in the 14th century the mason’s hand appears to have been again busy; alterations were made in the south aisle, a clerestory and new roof to the nave constructed, whilst in the chancel the old “‘ Early English” sedilia, and portions of the piscina and sepulchre were cut away to make room for three new sedilia. From this time the church remained unaltered till towards the middle of the 15th century, about which time (c 1450) the old north aisle was taken down and the present one erected ; the arch leading from the aisle into the chapel considerably altered, a stair- case to the roodloft and screens to the chapel and chancel constructed, the south aisle lengthened, and a parapet and a new roof added, and the present tower with adjoining nave arches erected. From this last alteration it appears that the nave, prior to the 15th cen- tury, extended only as far westward as the third pier from the east. This is evinced by more than one circumstance, and principally by the fact of the hoodmolding on the north side, returning over the western pier, or what was originally the respond, and being abruptly cut off at the line of junction. It is not improbable that a church existed here in the time of the Saxons, for the manor of Colerne is mentioned in Domesday, as one of the “vills” held directly of the King by Humphrey de I’'Isle. 1 The junction of the later with the earlier masonry, is clearly defined by a fissure in the wall, and by the old ashlar quoin stones. 3c2 364 Colerne Church. The history of Colerne is so united with that of Castle Combe, the lords of the manor being either Barons of Combe or mesne lords holding of them, that we may consider them indirectly if not directly, as the builders and founders of the earlier portions of the church. The semi-Norman, or transitional features which belong to the first church of which we have any substantial record, must have been built during the life of Walter de Dunstanville, the first baron of Castle Combe. Upon his marriage his father-in-law gave him only half the lordship of Colerne, and it was not until 1190 that he obtained full possession.1_ From this I would infer that the oldest part of the present church was built by Walter de Dunstanville, between this date and the year of his death, 1195. The chancel, which I presume to have been built soon after 1240, would conse- quently be the work of Walter, the third baron, who died in 1270. It appears from the “Testa de Nevill,” that one knight’s fee in Colerne was held of the king by this Walter de Dunstanville, and he it was who first obtained the grant of a market for Colerne.? Those portions of the church to which I have affixed the date 1280, must have been erected during the tenancy of Sir John Delamere, who died in 1313. I have not been able to look into the “ Acts of William de Colerne, Abbot of Malmsbury,” (MS. penes Sir Thos. Phillipps, Bart.,) but the well-known fondness of the Abbot for building and enlarging churches, his very name, and the constant occurrence in this part of the building of heads, bearing testimony of a convent life, seem to point to him as the author of the work. The “Perpendicular” additions and alterations were doubtless effected soon after the manor and church came into the possession of New College, Oxford, which took place in the year 1389. It appears from the Colerne muniments, in the possession of New College, that the manor passed from Henry de Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln, to Bartholomew de Burghersh, his nephew, who married for his second wife, Margaret, sister of Bartholomew, Lord Badlesmere, and that William of Wykeham purchased the 1 History of Castle Combe by G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., p. 32. 2 History of Castle Combe, p. 37. ee ae i en eee By E. W. Godwin, Esq. 365 reversion of the estate from Elizabeth, his daughter, wife of Edward le Despenser, for the sum of 700 marks, in the 11th year of Richard IT., and conveyed it to the College in the following year. Henry VI. granted to the warden and scholars of New College (A.D. 1447), a market at Colerne every Friday, and a fair for three days, on the vigil-day, and morrow of the decollation of St. John the Baptist (August 28, 29, 30.) P.S.—Since the above account was written, sundry alterations and reparations have been effected. The boundary of the Early English triplet in the chancel can no longer be discerned, for the east wall has been rebuilt, and a new “ Geometrical’’ window takes the place of its debased predecessor. The chancel has been cleared of its “‘boxed-up pews,” and open seats with returned ends against the screen substituted. The chancel screen has been deprived of the numerous coats of paint with which it was attired, and the old pulpit and reading-desk, than which nothing could have been more cum- bersome, has given place to a new arrangement, for a portion of which an ancient precedent was found. The stone screen between the chapel and the north aisle, and which tends to support the gallery, used as a private pew, has been partially exposed. In the south aisle the head of a “ Decorated” two-light window has been discovered ; it is similar to the one east of the porch, and must have been blocked up when the porch was added. Amongst the stones used in filling up this window were fragments of the jambs of a semi-Norman doorway. A new roof has been put over this aisle of the same dimensions as the old one, differing only in the quantity of molded work. The large four-light window has been furnished with new tracery, and together with the east window of the chancel, is filled with stained glass by Bell, of Bristol. The central window of the clerestory has had its cusps and mullion re- paired, and windows of similar character, but of three lights, have been inserted in the place of large, unsightly dormer windows. In doing this it was seen that the clerestory had formerly but two “ Decorated” windows, each of two lights, consequently the west- ernmost window is an insertion altogether without authority, but which can scarcely be deemed a deception, as it actually pierces 366 the “ Perpendicular” wall which was added when the tower and western nave arches were erected. In the course of these repairs, and alterations, it became evident that the church had once been literally covered with polychromatic decorations, but this it was not thought advisable to retain. Such, then, is the present state of a church which, at one time, must have been one of the most beautiful in the deanery, and which may still be made to rival in beauty, as it does in Archeological interest, any in the neigh- bourhood. Epwarp W. Gopwin. Bristol, August, 1855. i THE BOTANY OF WILTSHIRE. Ihave much pleasure in announcing that the ‘‘ Flora of Wiltshire” is in a forward state of preparation; that during the past summer many interesting additions have been made, so that there are now between 600 and 700 species of Flowering Plants, natives of the county. In order, therefore, to render the Flora still more complete, it has been considered advisable to direct the atten- tion of all Botanists, resident in the county, to the following heads of enquiry, viz. :-— 1st.—Lists of the species, and more remarkable varieties of the plants, (rare or common,) growing wild in any portion of the county; the general distribu- tion of the commoner species, and the exact localities in which the rarer ones may be found, 2nd.—The relative degree of scarcity, or abundance of species, in particular districts. 3rd.—The periods of their flowering. 4th.—The dates (if carefully noted) of the first flowering of any of the more generally diffused wild plants. 5th.—The soils and situations affected by each species. 6th.—The possible, or probable introduction, of particular species by human agency. 7th.—Changes that have occurred in the comparative scarcity or abundance of species. 8th.—Alterations in character, size, or general habit and appearance, result- ing from differences in situations, soil, season, or botanical cultivation. 9th.—The wild, or apparently wild, localities of our native trees, wioh anec- dotes, and memoranda of any remarkable for size, beauty, or connexion with the real or legendary history of the neighbourhood. 10th.—The results of examination of the woody concentric zones of trees, with a view to ascertain their probable age. 11th.—The highest and lowest places at which species occur, whether in ab- solute height, in comparison with the appearance or cessation of other species, or in relation to the parts of particular hills, as at the base, middle, or summit, 12th.—Any other information of an historical, ceconomical, and philosophical nature, tending to illustrate the Flora of Wiltshire, or the Science of Botany. Tuos. BrucEs FLOWER. 367 Mysterious Death of a Lorh-Lientenant of Wilts; OR, THE STORY OF THE MARLBOROUGH PIN-MAKER, 13tH Jury, 1683. [Being an Episode in the History of Wiltshire during the Civil Wars. ] The following narrative refers to the closing period of the reign of Charles II., when the voluntary confessions of two of the con- spirators in what was called “the Rye-House Plot,” had occasioned the arrest of some of the more distinguished opponents of the Duke of York’s succession to the crown. Of these the principal were Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex and Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Lord William Russa, and the Hon. Algernon Sydney. Without mentioning all the names concerned, that of Dr. Gilbert Burnet, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, may hardly be omitted, since, though himself neither suspected, nor in any sense inculpated, he remained throughout the painful scene the unabashed friend and adviser of the accused lords, and his name is mixed up with the following events. It was while the trial of Lord William Russell was in actual course of procedure, that news arrived from the Tower that the Earl of Essex had cut his own throat, and the event was imme- diately urged by the Judges as a proof of conscious guilt in the conspirators. But beyond the reach of the Lord Chief Justice’s terrible voice, the muttering of public discontent became louder and louder. Thousands refused to believe that Capel’s death was an act of felo-de-se; and as soon as the other two noblemen were sacrificed, enquiries were set on foot by a barrister of the Temple, named Lawrence Braddon, Esq., with a view to implicate the Earl’s keepers in the crime of murder. It seems pretty certain that, by some means or other, a report of his death was in circulation in 368 Mysterious Death of a Lord-Lieutenant of Wilts ; Wiltshire and Somerset, and other places at a distance from London, on or before the day of its occurrence, giving birth to the suspicion . that it was a premeditated act. Of this there was no direct proof; but a letter to that effect from the turbulent town of Marlborough was quite enough to set Mr. Braddon in motion, and was the cir- cumstance which introduces us to his adventures in this county in search of further evidence. He had first taken down the testimony of divers persons, principally children, who had heard cries pro- ceeding from the Earl’s chamber in the Tower, and had seen a bloody razor thrown from the window, a feat which it was na- turally supposed the sufferer himself could not have performed after using the instrument. Braddon’s next step was to visit Tun- bridge, after which he repaired into Wiltshire in order to make the acquaintance of Mr. Nehemiah Burgess, a pin-maker of Marl- borough, who was reported to be in possession of valuable informa- tion. But, preparatory to starting, he called, late in the evening, on his friend, Mr. Hugh Speke, to get an introduction to another Protestant partisan, Sir Robert Atkyns, of Stow-on-the- Wold, in Gloucestershire; and the unfortunate letter then written by Mr. Speke (under the influence, so he afterwards pleaded, of liquor) involved him also in Braddon’s misfortunes, Mr. Hugh Speke, it may here be remarked, was a member of the wealthy Somersetshire family who soon after engaged in Monmouth’s rebellion. His letter on the present occasion was as follows :— ‘* For the ever-honoured Sir Robert Atkyns, Knight of the Bath, at his house at Netherswell, near Stow-on-the- Wold, in Glostershire. ‘‘HonourEeD Srr,—The bearer hereof is one Mr. Braddon, a very honest gentleman, whose father has at least £800 per annum in Cornwall. It seems it is his fate to be the only person that follows and prosecutes the murder of the Earl of Essex, and he has made a very considerable discovery already of it, not- withstanding the hard stream he rows against, as things stand and are carried at present. But indeed I think it could never have fallen on so fit a man, for he has been a very hard student, is a person of a very good reputation, life, and conversation; and has a great deal of prudence, and as much courage as any one living whatsoever. He went away on a sudden hence post towards Marl- borough to make some further discovery, and what he has discovered he will give you a full account, and of all the transactions hitherto about it. I lent him my man to go with him, for fear he should come to any mischief, for most here fear he will either be stabbed or knocked on the head if he do not take or, the Story of the Marlborough Pin-Maker. 369 great care of himself. Seeing he came into these parts, I thought it not amiss _ to go and advise with you how he had best proceed in it, and I did charge him not to let any body know who he was, that it might not be known he had been with you: for I would not for the whole world that you should come to any pre- judice in the least for your kindness towards us. For we labour under many difficulties as the tide runs at present. ‘Pray call Mr. Braddon by the name of Johnson when he is with you. I have given him the same item. We hope we can bring the Earl of Essex’s murder on the stage before they can any of those in the Tower toa trial. He being in great haste, I have not time to write more, but to assure you that Mr. Braddon is a person of that integrity and courage that nobody need fear to trust him. I was very willing that he should take your advice in this case which is of so great moment, sceing he came within twenty or thirty miles or thereabouts of your house. He will give you a full and clear relation of every- thing in that affair, and how hard they have been upon him. Sir Henry Capel [brother to the deceased Earl] told him that it was a thing too great for him, &e. All which, Mr. Braddon (that you are to call Johnson whilst he is with you at your house) will give you a true relation of. Mr. Braddon hath been at a great trouble and charge already about it. I know few that would have ven- tured to undertake this affair besides himself, as times go. “‘T received yours this day, with the great pains you took; and the letter to the Lady Russel, which finding unsealed, I sealed without looking into it and carried it myself. She returns you ten thousand thanks, and says she knows not what return to make you for your most extraordinary kindness. I have not time to write any more at present, by reason that Mr. Braddon, alias John- son, stays only for this my letter. I am, Sir, your most obliged friend and most humble servant, “‘Huen SPexe.” « Lincoln’s Inn, 15 August, 1683, Wednesday night, ten o’clock.”’ Having possessed himself of the above document, Mr. Braddon may as well describe, in his own language, his progress into the West. At the time of calling on Speke he had just been down to Tunbridge to verify a report similar to those circulated in Wiltshire, but the witness, it appears, was shy and unwilling to be made con- spicuous. “I had no sooner returned” he says “ to London, but I was told the same report was at Marlborough, in Wiltshire, about 70 miles from London on the very morning of the Earl’s death. Whereupon I rode to Marlborough resolving to trace the report as near as I could to the author. When I came to Marlborough I met with one Jeremiah Burgess, whom before this I never to my remembrance saw or heard of; who declared,—that, the very morning my Lord died, he was at Frome, in Somersetshire, about 3D 370 Mysterious Death of a Lord-Lieutenant of Wiits ; thirty miles distant from Marlborough, and an hundred miles from London, and, being there at The Dolphin, he was informed that the Earl of Essex had cut his throat in the Tower. I did desire Burgess to write me a letter to the master of the house at Frome, to inform me if he could remember who it was that reported this at his house. I did at Marlborough likewise speak with one Lewis, who informed me, that about two o’clock the day the Earl died, as he was riding up Husband’s Hill, not far from Andover, he overtook a gentleman riding a very easy traveller’s pace, and as they were discoursing of the news in the country, the gentleman said he had heard a report of the Earl of Essex that he had cut his throat in the Tower; but the gentleman was altogether a stranger to him, and therefore he could not inform me how or where to find him. With Burgess’s letter I was riding to Frome, but when I came within six miles of the place, at a town called Bradford, I stopped at an inn-door to drink a glass of cider; upon which, one Beach, ! an attorney notorious in his country and generation, informed a Justice of Peace [Colonel William Eyre] then there, that I looked like a disaffected person, by wearing band and cuffs, and, therefore, in that dangerous time, I ought to be examined. Upon which the Justice came out [of the inn] to examine me; and there came with him one who knew me, so that the Justice seemed well satisfied. But Beach taking the Justice aside, tells him that he ought to be more strict and search me, for by my wearing band and cuffs it was plain I was disaffected to the Government. Of this I have been often told by some then there. Upon this the Justice told me he must search me. When I perceived this, I thought it proper to give the Justice a particular account of the occasion of my being in the country, as also of what papers I had about me; which papers being read, after some debate and advising with Beach, he made a warrant for my commitment, the form whereof in the con- clusion was the most illegal I ever saw. It ran in these words :— 1 Thomas Beach, of West Ashton and Bradford, Steward under the Crown, for the Manor of Steeple Ashton, and of the Manor of Trowbridge for the Seymour Family. He married Anne Martyn, of East Town; died 1729, aged 92, and was buried at Steeple Ashton. He is mentioned by Aubrey, Nat. His., of Wilts, p. 41. or, the Story of the Marlborough Pin-Maker. O71 ‘*Wixts.—To the Keeper of His Majesty’s Gaol of Fisherton Anger, in this county, or his sufficient deputy,—These. I send you herewithal the body of Lawrence Braddon, apprehended in the town of Bradford, in the county afore- said, this present two and twentieth day of August, taken upon suspicion of being a dangerous and ill-affected person to the government, and for refusing to give an account of his business in these parts, and for having letters of dan- gerous consequence about him. These are therefore in the King’s Majesty’s name to will and require you that upon sight thereof you receive him the said Lawrence Braddon into your gaol, and him there safely keep, not permitting him to have pen, ink, or paper, or person to converse or speak with him, until you shall receive further orders from His Majesty and Privy Council. Hereof you are not to fail at your peril. Given under my hand and seal at Bradford, this 22nd day of August aforesaid, anno regni Caroli secundi Angl. 35, a.p., 1683.” Mr. Braddon having, with some difficulty, got a sight of this instrument, expostulated with Colonel Eyre as to the construction of the final clause, urging that by virtue of such wording he might lie in prison for ever without conviction or trial, for that all such warrants ought to conclude “till he be discharged by due course of law.’ Colonel Eyre, fortified by the presence of several attor- neys who had collected in the inn, told him he would maintain the legality of the warrant, and forthwith despatched him to Fisherton, some 30 miles distant ; where, as Braddon says, he found the keeper possessed of more sense and honesty than either his worship or his cabal, for the gaoler immediately assured him that he might con- verse with and write to whomsoever he would, himself being by. Taking advantage of which civility, he at once demanded a copy of his commitment, and wrote to London for his Habeas corpus thereon ; whither he was shortly after removed, and in the following month was, together with Hugh Speke, tried before Lord Jeffereys for a misdemeanor in suborning witnesses to prove that the Earl of Essex was murdered by his keepers. They were both found guilty and fined, Braddon in £2000, Speke in £1000. Braddon lay in prison for five years, that is to say till the close of James II’s. reign. Speke and his father paid first and last £5000 to the King, but the young man seems to have been finally won over to act as James’s spy on William of Orange. But we have not yet done with Braddon’s trial. He, himself, asserts that the authorised printed report repressed much of the 38D2 372 Mysterious Death of a Lord-Lieutenant of Wilts ; vituperation with which he was assailed, yet it still retains a fair average of the commingled drollery and abuse characteristic of the Lord Chief Justice. Twice he flew out at Wallop, the prisoner’s counsel, and the next minute he could be as merry as ever about “the famous pin-maker of Marlborough.” Jeffereys probably knew better than most present that the Presbyterians or “ populars” of that town were old hands at the theory and practice of mar-popery. But if the humour of the Judge be occasionally permitted to relieve the narrative of these (happily long past) scenes, we shall seek in vain for any such sentiment as prompting the witnesses for the pro- secution. Beach, the Bradford attorney, was evidently as hungry a hound as his masters could desire. Catching scent before any of his neighbours, he had posted off to Frome the moment Braddon was arrested, in order to obtain from Compton, the post-master, and his family, a refutation of Jeremiah Burgess’s statement as to the early circulation of the report in that town. From Frome he passed with all speed to Longleat, and obtained from Lord Wey- mouth the like assurance, to the effect, viz., that his lordship had ° heard of Essex’s death, by letter, on Sunday 15 July, two days after the event; and that such he believed was the earliest intelligence of the fact in that part of the country. Beach’s evidence also was designed to show that Braddon had adopted a very circuitous route from London to Marlborough, taking Oakingham and Salisbury in his way, and occupying an entire week, in order to spread evil reports, as the Attorney General suggested. Colonel Eyre, the Justice who committed the prisoner, had died almost immediately after, so that Beach was the only witness at this stage of the pro- ceedings. The trial was principally sustained by witnesses brought forward to prove Braddon’s officiousness in getting up evidence touching the events in the Tower of London; but as our object is rather to dis- cover the state of feeling in the provinces, the Marlborough wit- nesses must suffice to conclude this affair. Evidence of Jeremiah Burgess, (examined by the Lord Chief Justice. —Was a pin-maker, and resided at Marlborough ; was at work in his trade on the 21st of August, 1683, when his friend, Mr, or, the Story of the Marlborough Pin-Maker. 378 Butcher, also of Marlborough, and a grazier by trade, called upon him and told him there was a gentleman [Braddon] come from London about the Earl of Essex’s affair, and desired his attendance at the White Hart Inn (the principal posting house in Marlborough) to state what he had heard at The Dolphin, at Frome. He accord- ingly waited upon the stranger, and at his request wrote the fol- lowing letter to Mr. Compton, of Frome, to induce him to recall to remembrance the conversation said to have taken place at his (Compton’s) house on the 13th July, the very day of Essex’s death. ‘Mr. Compton, ‘‘My kind love to you. These are to desire you to call to mind that I was in Frome the 6th of July, being Friday, where I heard the report that the Earl of Essex had cut his own throat. I would desire you to enquire into it, to know who first reported it, and give this gentleman the truth of it. And in so doing you will oblige me who am your friend, ‘¢ JEREMIAH BurczEss.” ‘* Marlborough, 21 August, 1683.” Burgess’s Examination continued.—In this letter he had inadver- tently written 6th of July for 18th of July, which Braddon per- ceiving, requested him to correct on the spot.—He could not say for certain whom he had heard utter the report at Frome. Mr. Compton was certainly not present himself, yet might, very possibly, remember the company in his house speak of it. Mr. Braddon did not dictate the letter to him, but perused it at his house after it was written, and having caused the erroneous date to be corrected, put it in his pocket and departed for Frome.—Had never sent a letter to Braddon directing him to come to Marlborough.—Did not know that his friend Butcher had sent for him either :—Or that a non- conformist parson had been the means of his coming. Mr. Butcher does not appear to have been examined. Mr. Fielder, of Andover, proved that the Earl of Essex’s suicide was the town talk at his residence on the Wednesday and Thursday before the Friday on which it happened; and another Marlborough witness, named Lewis, was then brought forward for a similar purpose; but he was no friend to the accused, as the following dialogue will shew : Crier : Lay your hand on the book. Lewis : My lord, I desire my charges may be paid before I swear. 374 Mysterious Death of a Lord-Lieutenant of Wiits ; Lord Chief Justice: Prithee, what have I to do with thy charges ? I won’t make bargains between you. If you have any evidence to give and will give it, do ;—if not, let it alone. Lewis: My lord, I shall not give any evidence till I have my charges. L. C. J.: Mr. Braddon, if you will have your witnesses swear, you must pay them their charges. Braddon : My lord, I am ready to pay it: I never refused it; but what shall I give him ? L. C. J.: Nay, I am not to make bargains between you. Agree ag you can. Mr. Thompson, counsel for prisoner: My lord, we are willing to do what is reasonable. You, Lewis, what do you demand ? Lewis: He can’t give me less than six shillings a day. L. C. J.: Why, where dost thou live ? Lewis: At Marlborough. L. C. J.: Why, canst thou earn six shillings a day by thy own labour at Marlborough ? Lewis : My lord, I am at forty shillings or three pounds a week charge with my family and servants. L. C. J.: What trade art thou? Lewis: A Stapler. I. C. J.: And does your trade stand still while you are here in town ? Lewis: Yes, to be sure, it can’t go well on. L. C. J. : Well, I say that for you, you value your labour high enough. I know not what your evidence may be [worth]. But, Mr. Braddon, you must pay your witness if you will have him. Braddon : I will, my lord, very readily —What will you have? I have paid you something already. Lewis : Give me twenty shillingsmore then. You can’t give me less. (Then Mr. Braddon paid him twenty shillings and he was sworn.) L. C. J.: Well, what do you ask him, Mr. Thompson ? Thompson : We ask him what report he heard of the Earl of Essex’s death, and when ? or, the Story of the Marlborough Pin-Maker. 375 [ Lewis’s testimony then simply declared that as he was riding up Husband’s Hill, four miles from Andover, and fifty-two from London, though he could remember neither the day of the month nor the name of the month, and only knew it was on a Friday during the summer, a stranger asked him if he had heard of the Earl of Essex’s death. On the next day he went home to Marl- borough, and on recounting to his neighbours the report of the previous day, they remarked “why, how could you have heard of it yesterday, when the deed was done but yesterday ?” | Mr. Williams: By the best conjecture you can make, was it that very day the Earl of Essex cut his throat ? Lewis : I do not know that ever any such man cut his throat, but this I heard, and I tell you the time as well as I can. Mr. Wiiliams : Then, pray, let us have our money again. Lord Chief Justice : Thou art well paid, I will say that for thee. The result of the trial has been already stated above. It only remains to notice what was the belief which finally prevailed out of Court as to the real cause of Essex’s death. The testimony of children in a court of Justice, so long as they are really children, always carries great consideration. So it was in the present case, with reference to the story of the razor thrown from the Tower window. Not only were the public much in doubt about the matter, but Lady Essex very naturally was induced to collect all the facts which had been sworn to, and to lay them before her confidential adviser, Gilbert Burnet. But the sagacious Doctor, haying given the affair his best attention, could not re- commend her ladyship to prosecute the enquiry ; and it was pro- bably through his means that the Earl’s surviving relatives generally came to acquiesce in the verdict of a felo-de-se. In the Bishop’s History of his own times he adds sundry reasons for his decision ; attributing the fatal event, in fact, to temporary derangement as the result of excitement operating upon a diseased frame ; and the Bishop’s well-known political bias naturally tending to a conclusion opposite to that which he expressed, secures his opinion from the charge of prejudice. 376 Wilts Notes and Queries. Master Jeremiah Burgess, on rejoining his fellow townsmen, must, we cannot but think, have trodden the streets of Marlborough with a sense of more conscious dignity than neighbour Lewis. And long afterwards, when King James’s flight had left his subjects in peace, we may imagine how often the scenes before the judgment seat of the terrible Jeffereys were the theme of conversation around the Presbyterian hearths of Marlborough. In the municipal records of that town, Burgess’s name may be traced, associated with those of Gough, Merriman, Hawkes, Foster, and others, as the supporters of the Whig interest, far into the 18th century. The present representatives of the old family of Burgess, now generally write their name “Bruges.” J. WAYLEN. Wiltshire Mater and Queries, Wixtsuire During THE Civ, Wars; or, a Political, Military, and Domestic History of this County, during the Stuart controversy, embracing a period of one hundred years, that is to say, commen- cing with the outbreak of the war in 1640, and terminating with the rebellion of 1745. This, which has already, in part, appeared in the Wiltshire Independent, J. Waylen proposes to re-publish in a thick imperial octavo, with additions, and illustrated with numerous engravings; price not to exceed a guinea. Subscribers’ names to be sent to Mr. N. B. Randle, or Mr. H. Bull, of Devizes. In fur- therance of such a scheme, the loan of, or privilege of access to, original documents, such as warrants, inquisitions, parish entries, and private letters, will be esteemed a favour, and will be duly acknowledged. As the work will contain an elaborate account of the estates of the royalists in the county on the one hand, and lists of the Par- liament’s friends on the other ; it is conceived that the genealogist will here find many an unexplored field. The engrayings to be principally historical groups. ea rae » Dene & - Ae ¥- Fah 4 jen rea = aa a ‘ aly Pare Wee ee 3 teen 43: Sa . ny eb teeta hyntstoig C.7WOe ae ohn ae fy AL aie “ id | ; “ AAAS ob iat S sreeteedtie aes ’ le ay ster ahah ard Tore PRT al * , Rae BT IT rt sr Af VT LE AT ‘ THE ACCIDENT WHICH BEFEL CHARLES DRYDEN AT CHARLTON PARK IN WILTS. Wilts Notes and Queries. 377 The accompanying illustration, being one of the series, represents a catastrophe which befel Charles, the son of the poet Dryden, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Howard, first Earl of Berkshire, of Charlton Park, near Malmesbury. The occurrence arose out of the following remarkable circumstances :— Soon after the birth of his second son Charles, Dryden took occasion to inform his wife, the Lady Elizabeth, that he had been calculating the child’s nativity, and was grieved to discover that he was born in an evil hour, “ Jupiter, Venus, and the Sun, being all under the Earth, and the lord of his ascendant being afflicted with a hateful square of Mars and Saturn.” The poet thereupon proceeded to address the afflicted mother, who sat petrified with dismay, after the following manner :—“ If he live to arrive at his eighth year,” said he, “he will go near to die a violent death on his very birthday: but should he escape this calamity, of which I see but small hopes, he will, in his twenty-third year, lie under the very same evil influence. And should he, which seems almost impossible, escape this crisis also, the thirty-third or thirty-fourth year is, I fear” Here the convulsive grief of the Lady checked at once the predictions of the seer, and appealed to the sympathy of the husband. Dryden did his best to comfort her, and even to disabuse her mind of the prejudice ; but the anticipated catastrophe, already a reality to himself, had taken equal possession of her own imagination ; and when the inauspicious month of August, in which their little son was to enter his eighth year, arrived, the mutual fears of the parents revealed themselves. The Court being just then “ in progress,” and the poet-laureate at leisure, he was invited by his brother-in-law, the young Earl of Berkshire, to keep the long va- cation at Charlton in Wilts; the lady Elizabeth being invited, at the same time, to her uncle Mordaunt’s. It was agreed that each parent should take one of the two surviving children, John and Charles ; but each was anxious to secure Charles. The husband was peremptory, and the parting wasin anger. The long-expected day soon after arrived; and the absent mother, unable to control her anxiety, became herself almost the victim of a violent fever. She was assured, in a letter by Dryden, of the child’s preservation, but 3 E 378 Wilts Notes and Queries. it was not until six more weeks had elapsed, that it was conceived safe to divulge to her the following narrative :— The hazardous anniversary day, every moment of which Dryden was anxious to pass with his son, had unfortunately been chosen by the young lord as the occasion of a great stag-hunting match, to which all the neighbouring gentry were invited. Dryden, having no wish to be thought an astrologer, joined the party with apparent good will as to himself, but determined if possible to keep the child out of harm’s way. With this view he gave him a long Latin lesson, with strict injunctions not to stir out of the room till his return. Butthough Charles might not look after the stag, fate drove the stag, after a long chase, back to Charlton. The affrighted animal, after standing some time at bay near the Court-gate, took to the wall and cleared it, just where little Charles was standing with a servant to see the sport. The dogs followed in a body, and the wall being very ruinous, ten yards of it fell down and covered the child with debris. He was immediately dug out; and, though considerably injured, at last recovered after six weeks languishing. Thus far the oracle seemed to be ratified. In the twenty-third year of his age, Charles fell from the top of an old tower attached to the Vatican in Rome, the heat of the day having occasioned a swimming in his head. He again recovered, but was ever after- wards in a sickly state of health; and in the thirty-third year of his age he was drowned near Windsor. He had, with a companion, twice crossed the river, but at the third attempt was, it is supposed, seized with cramp ; as he called for help, though too late. Such was the story of his doomed career, as taken from his mother the lady Elizabeth’s own mouth, and preserved in Charles Wilson’s Life of William Congreve. J. WAYLEN. Croru-Maxine, True or Henry VIII., 1516.—“ Charges brought against the Alnager-seals and Surveyor of Seals, within the counties of Wilts, Somerset, and Gloucester, ready to be approved” [ proved on oath]. “ Note.—They be not expert in cloth-making, according to the statute; [that is, the alnagers are not themselves acquainted with Wilts Notes and Queries. 379 the art and mystery of cloth-making, which by statute they ought to be,] but, contrary to the laws, do let the seal to farm unto clothiers that have mills, in their own hands; whereby infinite abuses and deceits in cloth-making are committed.” “The Alnager and Sealer neglect the execution of their office, in that they do not make due search of every cloth made, to be measured both length and breadth, being wet from the mill, and before they be set upon the rack to be dried ; but suffer the clothiers, having the seal at farm and in their own custody, to set to the seal before the cloths be measured accordingly. And thereby great defect in cloth making encreaseth. “The Alnager executeth not his office, in that he causeth [not ?] every clothier to set to his seal of lead unto every of their cloths and kerseys, in which seal the true and just length of every cloth and kersey should be contained ; but suffereth the clothier to put the Alnager’s seal without controlment, or survey that the cloth be ordered accordingly to the intent of the laws. Whereby such letting of the seals to farm, deceit in clothmaking aboundeth, and the Alnager forfeiteth his office.” “Therefore,—Peter Blackborough deferreth [proposeth] in recompence of all his charge, time, and travail, to be Alnager and Sealer in the said three counties; who, being expert [acquainted with the trade] will not only execute the office duly, but also pay £20 more yearly for every county than heretofore hath been paid.” [About the period in question, or at any rate a little previously, Devizes and Beckington had a name for blankets, termed in medieval Latin, blanchetti, from their whiteness, in the same manner as blue and scarlet cloths bore the epithets of bluetti and cochinelli.] J. WAYLEN. Brrraprace or Prrr.—William Pitt first Earl of Chatham was long supposed to have been born at Old Sarum, and in this belief the editor of Seward’s Anecdotes published an engraved view of the old Manor house! there, as the spot signalised by that occurrence. 1 Mawarden Court, the Manor House of Stratford sub Castro, a house which (as suggested by Mr. H. J. F. Swayne) very probably takes its name from the Mawardyn family, one of whom appears as Sheriff in 1389 and 1394, It has long been the property of the Deans of Salisbury, frequently held on lease by different . - 380 Wilts Notes. and Queries. But from Mr. Peter Cunningham’s researches among the London parish registers it appears most likely that Pitt’s birth took place in St. James’s parish, Piccadilly, on the 15th of November, 1708, his christening being recorded there on the 13th of December following, as “the son of Robert and Henrietta Pitt.” J. WayYLEN. Noyrs.—This name occurs copiously in the Registers at Great Bedwyn, and also in those at Burbage, both in this county. The Rey. Adam Noyes was presented to the vicarage of Great Bedwyn by Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1595. The benefice was again yacant in 1598, but whether by death, cession, or resignation is not known. There is no genealogical mention of Adam Noyes in the Registers at Great Bedwyn. These books are indexed, as well alphabetically, as according to the rites entered in each volume. The entries of burials commence in 1538, of marriages in 1539, and of baptisms in 1533. Christian wife of Robert Noyes, gent., was buried there 27 June, 1701. At Burbage is the following entry :— “1679-80. The 7th Feb. was buried Francis, ye son of Francis Noyes and Elizabeth his wife. He dyed in Oxford in ye 9th year of his age, and was interred in New Colledge Chappel.” In 1589-90. John Noyes witnesses a marriage, at Burbage, on the 15th of Feb. between “ Mr. Andrew Arnold, batchelawre of Divinity, and pcher in St. Pawles church, in London, and Sicely Pelling, of Burbage, by Mr. John Pelling, of Magdalen Colledge, in Oxford.” Mr. Edward Nois was buried at Shalbourne, near Hungerford, 12th October, 1708. J. Warp. From CoitincsournE Ducis RezcisTER. 1654, ‘‘Joun, Son of John Noyes, and Margaret, his wife, born 31 March, 1654, and baptized April 23rd.” 1655, RicHarp, son of John and eae Noyes, born 22 Sept., and baptized 21st Oct., 1655.” ° Wt, Caeke persons: among others i: “‘ Governor” Pitt who new cased the back of it when he rebuilt the church about the year 1711. Lord Chatham certainly passed much of his early youth at this house.—{ Zd.] H. 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