eda dad i ay anes
aa 7 : itm, Redebatt? i 5 nt ye un, Peer eriny
a
Se ee ee ane
See ee Lan
we kei iy wh Seg iy,
THE
WILTSHIRE Arrhealageal ant Batural Wratary
MAGAZINE,
Published under the Birectton of the Soctety
FORMED IN THAT COUNTY, A.D. 1853.
DEVIZES : H. F. BULL, 4, Saint Joun STREET.
1882.
Tae Enprror of the Wiltshire Magazine desires that it should be distinctly understood that neither he nor the Committee of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society hold themselves in any way answerable for any statements or opinions expressed in the Magazine; for all of which the Authors of the several papers and communications are alone responsible.
CONTENTS OF VOL. XxX.
No. LVIII.
Account of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting, at Bradford-on-Avon The Ethnology of Wiltshire, as illustrated in the Place-Names: By J. EAMONN ISG 5 Hee mee. vetscacaddhsne thet viv anieh cadidccbeecdatacsreneseesaceess The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History”: By the Rev. Canon J. E. MPA GHBON) Hi Sule trcederevercsrcssicefasesercovee socuduaecscusbendnassesorsssnesces Notes on Wiltshire Geology and Paleontology: By CHartes Moors, PER Sicccodh rede nivalcens cases akpsdaaPica vacua ssSpuai ine gasoovitderdoncassingeuseese Some Notes on Gainsborough and his connection with Bradford : By WREDERICK SHUM, B.S.Ac....0.sccsesssssasccssonnsevsccesssssensececenessneses Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh: By Sir CHARLEs HEOBHOUSE,, Bart: o:ch...0ca-csccescvscnssorenssaccceouascnecvcsnsvesosnsseneees The Rising in the West, A.D. 1655: By W. W. RavEnuILL, Esq.......
No. LIX.
Some Early Features of Stockton Church, Wilts: By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A., Rector of Upton Scudamore, Wilts...............cecseeneeees On the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire: By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A., Rector of Upton Scudamore, Wilts...... “Sculptured Stone at Codford St. Peter, and Heraldic Stone at War- minster: By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A., Rector of Upton RMITGAINOVOs|. WALLS... Sc svenesardatame can eves sone soavccs dasapeeressntsicescdeee scene “arly Heraldry in Boyton Church, Wilts: Recovery of a Missing Link”: By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A., Rector of Upton Scuda- HATO AV VILUR Cs caieecncececs dart etettect ree caoae ace want idedsseiesvens@odweseacees On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds in the Neigh- bourhood of Salisbury (Continued) : By the Rev. AnTHUR P. MorREs, Beer asE ESPACE socsenncaistetdeweusavcnoregaivacicsescceasadccscasastaovoasnseusen Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh (Continued): By Sir CHARLES HOBHOUSE, Barte....sccccsecsesesesevecnenseeees seccncesatacusan
66 106
107
122
138
145
154
185
lv CONTENTS OF VOL. XX.
No. LX.
“Tetter from the Author of ‘ Nenia Britannica’ to Archdeacon Coxe, on the Original Design of Stonehenge and the Neighbouring Barrows”: Communicated by, WO. Ea Swawne, Hisqe .....<.....commasas.scsacsoeeane
Edingdon Monastery: By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. ......
A Stroll through Bradford-on-Avon: By Canon W. H. Jonzs, M.A., IHS SAG. VACHE: pay sete cet eren amid se Sak yogi ow ce Tapio ool eins ania a WoO eee
Extracts from the Records of the Wiltshire Quarter Sessions : Communi- cated by R. W. Merriman, Clerk of the Peace ..............60ccs0sccenes
Description of a Barrow recently opened on Overton Hill: By C. Pontine, TOEG Ee senor toa gaeeatee Coated Ook oae abr ie abeeBtne mommenaoeny cetee tamer dec AS iyo:
The Opening’of a Bazrow on Overton Hill. ......c.....cccssncopempveamemneel
Extracts from the Register in Christian Malford Church ...............46.
[llustrations.
237 241
Monkton Farleigh Priory, Fragment of the Priory, 73. Monkton Farleigh
Priory, Plan of a Portion of the Site, 74.
Interior of Stockton Church, Wilts, 107. Ground-plan of St. Peter’s Church, Manningford Bruce, Wilts, 123. Ground-plan of St. Edmund’s Church, Fritton, Suffolk, 125. Ground-plan of Church of St. Mellon, Rouen, 127. Ground-plan of Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire, 129. South doorway and chancel arch, Manningford Bruce Church, Wilts, 130. Sculptured Stone in Codford St. Peter Church, Wilts, 138. Sculptured Stone, Warminster Athene-
um, Wilts, 140,
Edingdon Church, Wilts (south side), 241. Edingdon Church, Wilts (west end),
295. Fac-simile of an entry by the Clerk of the Peace, 1579, 340.
Noes i
No. LVIII. DECEMBER, 1881, Vou, XX.
WILTSHIRE Arehwological ont Botwral Wistory MAGAZINE,
Published unver the Birection
OF THE
SOCIETY FORMED IN THAT COUNTY,
A.D, 1863.
f , DEVIZES: _ || Patnren and Sotp ror tHe Soctery sy H. F, Bort, Saint JoHN STREET.
Price 5s. 6d.—Members Gratis.
“the current year, are requested to remit the same forthwith to" he Financial Secretary, Mr. Wiit1am Nort, 15, High Street,
ae) OF Magazines" should be addressed, and of whom most of the oe es Numbers may be had.
1 other communications to be addressed to the Honorary Secre- taries: the Rev. A. C. Sura, car Rectory, Calne ; =.
t
ev. 52-0. Sure: will be ash obliged in obecrvars of bina all parts of the county, to forward to him notices of rare ij currences, early arrivals of migrants, or any remarkable facts _ ee
THE
WILTSHIRE Arrheological ant Botural Wistory MAGAZINE.
No. LVIII. DECEMBER, 1881. Vou. XX. ‘Contents, PAGE Account oF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING, aT Brap- FOBD-ON-AVON iicsecseseeeneeses Ralston Nas dus awe swale eps esesun ese ianasisaaert 1 Tue ETHNOLOGY OF WILTSHIRE, AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE PLACE- Wamwms: By J. Bicton, Hsq., B-ScA. oc iccsecscecocssscsusescvcsvetcocvascsees 16 “Tae Eminent Laprzes or WILTsHirE History”: By the Rev. Canon ephrOACKSONs WS Ae acwccicececetasascecdsd adel sovcaiaavsakoseueasedee 26 Nores on WILTSHIRE GEOLOGY AND Patzontotoay: By Charles Neato Neo Mami eta raretiacasmarcasitaaeelivatoaisves setuesvess soveecdvaenagvonsa cote 45 Some Notes oN GAINSBOROUGH AND HIS CONNECTION WITH BrapD- FORD: By Frederick Shum, F.S.A. ......cccsscsecsescceeeeeeceveuseevevensees 55 Some Account oF THE Parish oF Monxton Farueian: By Sir Wharlos HObMOUsAy DANG: vaccaareiseceuvesccusscasdceversscecenercetsceansecvenas 66
Tue Rising 1n THE West, A.D. 1655: By W. W. Ravenhill, Esq. 106
ILLUSTRATIONS. Monkton Farleigh Priory, Fragment of the Priory ... 73 Monkton Farleigh Priory, Plan of a Portion of the Site 74
DEVIZES : H. F. Bott, 4, Saint JOHN STREET.
78
WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE.
“ MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR ONUS.’—Ovid,
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING
OF THE Wiltshire Archeological & Patural History Society, HELD AT BRADFORD-ON-AVON, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, August 9th, 10th, and 11th, 1881]. PRESIDENT OF THE MEETING, Str Cuartes Hosuouse, Bart.
(E=ZHE Annual Meeting! of the Society was this year held at ‘ Bradford-on-Avon, an interval of twenty-four years having elapsed since its last visit to that town. The meeting was eminently successful, and the welcome and hospitality shown by the inhabitants of Bradford and its neighbourhood left nothing in that respect to be desired.
The proceedings were opened at the Town Hall, at Wels o’clock, by the Secretary, Rev. A. C. Suiru, who regretted to say that the President of the Society was not able to be with them as he had intended, owing to circumstances which had not been foreseen when the time for holding the meeting was fixed. The Irish Land Bill—they were aware—was to be considered by the House of Commons on its return from the Upper House, that very afternoon ; and, owing to the very active part which he had taken in the discussion of that measure, it was impossible for Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice to be absent from his place: he was therefore re-
luctantly compelled to forego the pleasure of presiding over the Society at Bradford. Mr. Smith read a letter from Lord Edmond
1In preparing the following account of the Bradford Meeting the Editor desires to acknowledge the assistance he has derived from the columns of the Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, The Trowbridge Chronicle, and the Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser.
VOL, XX.—NO. LVIII. H B
2 The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting.
explaining these circumstances, and added that though disappointed at the absence of the President of the Society, they had been happy in finding an excellent substitute as President of the Meeting in Sir Charles Hobhouse. No sooner was the dilemma in which the Society found itself explained to Sir Charles, when he at once— though at very short notice indeed—most kindly acceded to their request, and consented to occupy the chair and deliver an address : and consequently they were all very deeply indebted to him.
Sir Cuartes Hosnouse then took the chair, and at once called upon the Secretary to read the Report for the past year.
REPORT.
“The Committee of the Wiltshire Archexological and Natural History Society, in presenting a brief report of last year’s pro- ceedings, desires again to congratulate the Members on the continued prosperity of the Society, and on the general interest evinced throughout the county in its work.
“The Committee at the same time regrets to add that the past twelvemonth has been a year of heavy loss in old and valued Members of the Society. Of original Members we have to deplore the deaths of Mr. John Noyes, of Chippenham, who was a most constant at- tendant at our annual gatherings, and always took a lively interest in the proceedings; of Mr. John Spencer, of Buckhill, who was also an active supporter, and a contributor to the pages of the Magazine; of Mr. Stephen Moulton, the owner of the beautiful Kingston House, in this town; and very recently, of Mr. George Brown, of Abury, who has from the first shown a warm interest in the work of the Society, and in accordance with a promise to that effect which he made to the Dean of Hereford in 1849, has had a watchful eye for the preservation of the remaining stones in the great circle at Abury.! Of other old, though not original Members, whose loss within the past twelvemonths we regret, special mention should be made of Mr. Brackstone, of Bath, Mr. Joseph Parry, of Allington, Mr. Charles Phipps, of Chalcot, and the Rev.
1 See Proceedings of the Royal Archeological Institute of Great Britain, Salis- bury, 1849.
Report. 3
Henry Ward, all of whom joined the Society above twenty years ago; and there are other honoured names of some who have more
- recently been enrolled among our Subscribers. New Members have,
‘ a
however, been elected to supply the place of those we have lost, so that the number on our books is very nearly the same as last year, namely 387.
“ As regards the financial position of the Society, our balance in hand is slightly increased during the last year, from £133 14s. 9d, at its commencement to £176 5s. 4d. at its close, as will be seen by the balance-sheet just published, and placed in the hands of the members in the course of the last few days.
“Of the Magazine, two numbers have been published during the past year, of whose merits the Committee leaves the Society to judge. The last number, just now issued, completes the nineteenth volume.
“The Museum and Library have been slightly increased by the contributions of various donors; the museum more especially con- tinues to be enriched by further additions of Roman-British pottery, and metal vases and implements dug out at Westbury, and secured to the Society by the exertions of the obliging manager, Mr. Anderson.
“The attention of the Committee has been especially directed during the past year to the state of Stonehenge ; and in conjunction with the Secretary of the British Archzological Association a repre- sentation has been made to the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Archzological Institute of Great Britain, calling their im- mediate attention to the insecure condition of certain stones in the outer circle, and their imminent danger of falling, in the opinion of several of the officers of this Society, unless steps are speedily taken to re-adjust them. At the same time the question of re-erecting the great trilithon which fell in 1797, which has been so often ad- vocated by archeologists, was again pressed upon the consideration of the parent Societies. The result has been that the Society of Antiquaries appointed a Committee, consisting of H. S. Milman, Esq. (Director of that Society), G. T. Clark, Esq., J. T. Mickle- thwaite, Esq., Sir John Lubbock, Bart., and the Rev. W. C. Lukis, who visited Stonehenge during last month, and carefully examined
B 2
4 The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting.
the stones to which their attention had been directed ; and though their report has not yet been presented to the Society, and therefore cannot now be made public, the fact has been communicated to the Wiltshire Archeological Society that the whole question is to be submitted to a general meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in November next, with a view to such action as may then be deter- mined on. Your Committee earnestly hope that immediate steps will then be taken both to secure such stones as are now in danger of falling, and to raise the great trilithon which fell almost within the memory of living man, and whose original position can be exactly determined. Should such a course be pronounced advisable, it will then remain to approach the owner of Stonehenge, with the view of obtaining his sanction to carry out the work recommended in such a manner as to meet his wishes, and to obtain such help and the loan of such appliances from the dockyards or elsewhere as may be deemed most advisable.
“Tn conclusion, the Committee repeats the exhortation it has frequently addressed to its members scattered over the length and breadth of the county, and earnestly invites the co-operation of all who take any interest in the Antiquities or the Natural History of the County of Wilts, as by such co-operation alone can its best interests be promoted.”
The Rev. W. C. Luxts moved the adoption of the report, and said he did so with great pleasure, because two statements which it contained were very satisfactory, viz., that the financial position of the society remained good, and that the Members did not diminish. In some further remarks, Mr. Lukis alluded to the leaning stones at Stonehenge and the fallen trilithon mentioned in the report. The attention of the Committee of the Society of Antiquaries, of which he was a member, had been directed to two of the leaning stones of the outer circle, but they did not think they were sufficiently out of the perpendicular to make their position insecure. The trilithon had fallen, and could not fall further, and might there- fore be considered in a secure position, but the point to which the attention of the Committee was directed was the leaning stone, which was a remarkable feature in that monument. It was leaning
a a ee ee
The Inaugural Address. 5
at a considerable angle, 60 degrees he thought, and was evidently moving. If some effectual measure was not adopted to make it secure, it would fall and damage the building very much.
Mr. T. B. Saunpers said he had great pleasure in seconding the adoption of the report. He gathered from it that it was in- tended to do something at Stonehenge: but he ventured to express a hope that a complete restoration to its original condition was not in contemplation.
The report having been adopted, the President proposed the re- election of the officers of the Society, but said he was sorry to have to announce that amongst them they should not in future be able to reckon Mr. Charles Talbot as one of their General Secretaries ; for that gentleman had felt compelled from ill-health to resign the office he had s0 efficiently held. He need scarcely remind them of the great services which Mr. Talbot had rendered to the Society, more especially on the subject of architecture. His place would be very difficult to fill; but he had great satisfaction in proposing as his successor Mr. Henry Medlicott, a name well known and honoured in the county.
This motion having been unanimously agreed to, the President proceeded to deliver
THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
He remarked that though, owing to Lord Edmond’s absence, which they very much regretted, he had consented to make an address, he hoped it would not be said of him that “ fools rushed in where angels feared to tread,” or rather, where angels were not able to tread. Yet he was bound to say he had had extreme difficulty in accepting the responsible position of Chairman in Lord Edmond’s place. In the first place it was necessary for the Chairman to give an inaugural address. Well, to his innocent and unsophisticated, and perhaps ignorant mind, an inaugural address seemed a very solemn thing, and he must say, when, on the previous morning he sat down to the work he hardly knew where to begin, though he need hardly say he had no difficulty as to where he ought to end, for that came very soon indeed. However he had no doubt that having
6 The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting.
accepted a post which he admitted could have been so much more worthily filled, and having done so with very short notice, they would be kind enough to extend to him that indulgence which he believed’ was usually extended on such oceasions. Another special reason for asking their indulgence was because, as a matter of fact, he was almost an absolute tyro in archeology. He had spent the greater part of his life in India, and had come home only a few years ago, but had he not come into that neighbournood and come across such men as Canon Jones, Mr. Powell, formerly a Curate of Monkton Farleigh, Canon Jackson and others, he should never have had the hardihood to stand before them at that time. Having had many agreeable communications with those gentlemen the result was that he took it into his head that he would endeavour to find out something at all events of the archeology of his own particular parish and neighbourhood. The first thing, Sir Charles went on, after I have been poring over the parish registers or some old terriers of the days of Elizabeth, or the Monasticon or what not, I ask myself, and I am asked by others, Cui bono, what is the good of it all? Well, I suppose I need not argue that question before an assembly such as this, but still it seems to me that if the enemies of the study of archeology will consider a little, they will find out that, unconsciously, they themselves live a great part of their ex- istence in the midst of that very study which they affect to despise. Our life is obviously passed in three different worlds, as it were— the past, the present, and the future, and every hour that we spend in so much of the past as is not personal, especially in the more distant past, in history, biography, and the like, is, in fact, an hour spent in the study of archeology. How necessary also this study is to the daily wants of life we do not perhaps sufficiently consider. I will not suppose that any of us desire to build a house, because, as the saying is, “ Fools build houses that wise men may live in them,” but at least we all desire to have houses to live in. Of course if we live in a town we take the house that is most commodious, the least expensive, the best situated for our purposes, and have done with it. But if we live in the suburbs of a town or in the country, and have any choice of our own, we don’t choose the modern style of
The Inaugural Address. 7
house to dwell in. Let anyone go to Norwood, or Anerley, or Wimbledon, or Richmond, and inspect the modern style of house there and see what he will find. A square door in the centre, two square windows on either side of the door, and three square windows above, and, by way of ornamentation, a sort of curvature of different colored bricks, giving the outside of the house very much the ap- pearance of a man’s face, the nose quite flat and spectacles on the eyes. If you have any choice you don’t elect a house of this kind ; you rather go to the study of archeology for your model, and whilst you will have all the appliances of modern warmth and comfort in- side, you will go, say, to the days of the Tudors, or the earlier Hanoverians, for your outside’ building and architecture. So it is not to modern times, but to the times of comparative antiquity, that you resort for your domestic architecture, and it is the same in the matter of Church architecture, and it is, or ought to be, the same in the matter of public buildings. Put any average parish Church side by side with any average meeting-house of fifty years ago, and you see at once why, in the better development of public taste, there is (I do not mean to speak profanely) at least one worship in common between the meeting-house of to-day and the Church of England—the worship, namely, of archeology. Or compare some of our public buildings with similar buildings, the produce, it may be, of very remote antiquity, and see if we have not even yet very much to learn from the Ancients. Some years ago, when I was travelling in the South of India and in Ceylon, I was very much struck with the enormous stone tanks used for the storage of large bodies of water. In one place in particular I found that the sides of these tanks were made up of huge blocks of stone, laid one on the top of the other, without cement and without clamps. No repairs, I was informed, were ever needed. Yet these tanks had received into their bosoms for centuries floods of water such as we do not dream of in England, and had retained the rain for the necessities of large populations, dependent upon them for health and cleanliness and food—their very life in short. We constantly hear—I read only the other day, of the disastrous failure of modern _ reservoirs, and of the vast destruction of life and property which
8 The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting.
accompanies such failure. Why is it that we do not in such con- structions profit more thoroughly by the lessons of antiquity? And who that has visited the Pont du Gard would not take that as his ideal of what a conduit should be? Again, in India I visited the Mausoleum of the Taj Mahal at Agra, the Kutb Column and the Mosque at Delhi, some of the rock-cut temples of Western India, and the "site of the great Akbar’s Camp at Futtehpore-Sikri. The impressions made by these marvellous buildings are as fresh now as if I saw them before me. You approach the Taj through a garden with groves of trees on either side, and marble fountains running down its centre, and suddenly there break upon you the marble terraces, the white marble dome inlaid with precious stones, and set as it were in its turrets of red sandstone. It is by the way a debated point whether the design and the details of this mausoleum are of European or of native manufacture. There are in the Christian graveyard at Agra the tombstones of many Italians who lived and died at Akbar’s court, but my impression is that the whole is the work of native talent, a talent which has still numbers of living representatives. Then see what could be more emblematic of royalty than Akbar’s Camp at Futtehpore-Sikri? Windsor Castle indeed is a noble building, royally and proudly conspicuous, but it stands alone, whereas at Akbar’s Camp there were the whole paraphernalia of a king’s residence; the palace in which he himself dwelt, the hall in which he gave public audience, the place of private business, the Mosque in which he prayed, the minor palaces of his greater ministers, his gardens, his baths and his promenades. All these, thanks to a wonderful climate, are almost in as good preservation now as when Akbar dwelt in them, and although I do not say that we need in our day to imitate them, yet at least they give us lessons, not only in the science of architecture, but in that of good government also. Consider again the subject of some of the rock- cut temples of Western India—take that of Karli in the neighbour- hood of Bombay. The rocks there run north and south, and the temple, or crypt as you may call it, cut out of the solid rock, runs east and west, the entrance being at the west and the shrine at the east end. The interior is of great length and height, and is made
The Inaugural Address. 9
up of a nave and two aisles. The sole light is by an aperture con- cealed from the spectator without, and high up at the west end. It is not of any great size, but it is so constructed as, on the day I visited it at least, to light up the whole interior without the aid of any artificial means. This temple is supposed to have been in ex- istence many years before the Christian era, and though we do not in these peaceful times in quiet England need a crypt for our temple, nor one inaccessible and outwardly invisible light for such crypt, yet these are examples, if and when they are needed, and the ex- istence of crypts in our own churches shows that such needs there have been. I have ventured to dwell on these far distant structures because, after all, the consideration of them does, I think, appertain properly to my subject, and because, if you will allow me to say so, I find it easier to myself to dwell on matters which have formed the subjects of personal travel and inspection, rather than on such as are subjects of mere speculation to me. But I turn to things that are probably more familiar to us all, and I will dwell fora moment upon that very familiar thing, our roadways. They are serious matters to some of us, and especially to those of us who dwell in this immediate neighbourhood. We are blessed with a traffic in freestone which is profitable to a few outsiders, which gives an ex- cellent finish say to law courts some hundred miles away from us, but which, so far from being of any benefit to us, is the cause at once of a very heavy taxation, of very bad roads, and of much rough and expensive journeying. In the parish of Monkton Farleigh, in the very direction in which this traffic is principally earried on, there are still to be seen the traces of a Roman road. This was laid down some sixteen hundred years ago, and this, in spite of wind and weather, plough and neglect, is still in some parts almost perfect. The materials are slabs of stone and eoncrete. Is there no lesson to be learnt from the use of such materials which have, under adverse circumstances, endured so long, when the modern system of Macadam has proved such a complete failure? I pass on to a more speculative topic, and I will speak briefly of the archeology, call it the history, of any one of our rural parishes ; and I think I can show how, from its earliest traceable
10 The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting.
period, it is in miniature a history of the progress of the whole country. I have been ferretting out, with the aid of far more skilful workmen than I am myself, the history of my own parish, and I give it because it is the only such history I am acquainted with, and because I have no doubt it is in its way typical of other such histories. I find that we had neither a local habitation nor a name until the time of Domesday, A.D. 1086. Then we were the property of a King’s Thane, a Saxon nobleman, and we had a popu- lation made up of so many servi, dordarii, and villani, perhaps seventy souls in all, reckoning five to each family. I suppose that at this time the whole community was practically in a state of personal servitude to the lord, but still there were elements of freedom in the status of the v2//ani and the Jordarii, who held their lands and tenements subject only to certain customary services. Our Saxon nobleman, however, soon fell a victim to what we may now call the land-hunger of certain of the Conqueror’s barons and our lands passed to the trusted family of the Bohuns, and they, for the repose of their only too rapacious souls, transferred them to the Priory of St. Pancras at Lewes, who founded upon them the Clugniac Priory, which was long established amongst us. Then some two hundred years later, or in the year 1294, we hear once more of our progress, and under the evidently gentle and industrious rule of the Priory we have materially thriven. The Servi, or actual Slave element, have entirely disappeared, their places are now oc- cupied by families of libere tenentes, the villains are still flourishing, the population is about the same, but the number of acres under cultivation has greatly increased, especially in the matter of pasture lands. In 1535, or some two hundred and forty years later still, we hear of ourselves again, and there is happily the same tale of progress in freedom and prosperity. We have a chief house and curtilage, a garden and a pigeonry; we have an addition of no less than twenty-one coterelli or cottagers to our population, and our Priory is possessed, in a home farm, of herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, of horses, mules, pigs, wheat, barley, oats, hay, and other dead stock in the shape of agricultural implements. But our very progress rang the knell of our master’s ruin. By the returns of
The Inaugural Address. 11
their prosperity they signed their own death-warrant, and the family of the Somersets, the universal land-hungerers of this part of the country, ate us up, as the Zulus say. We were, before the Somersets devoured us, a community of customary tenants holding under one landlord, the Priory. We afterwards passed to the See of Salisbury, and were lorded over by a succession of tenants of that see, until about ten years ago, when our lands were converted into the freehold tenure on which they are now held. The customary tenants lingered on until quite recent times, and there is still just a trace of them ; but, speaking generally, the lands are all freehold and the cottagers tenants at will. This is shortly the history of eight hundred years of the existence of one particular parish, and surely there may be traced in it the history of all England. The comparative indepen- dence of the Saxon Thane, paying only his geld and his personal service—the rapacity, mixed with a certain religious superstition, of the followers of the Conqueror, taking without scruple on the one hand from the Saxon proprietor and giving without stint on the other hand to the Church for the benefit of their souls. The mild and industrious rule of the monks, turning the waste lands to profit, rearing flocks and herds, creating new industries, and gradually emancipating the agricultural tenant from a state of servitude to one of freedom and of even more substantiality than he enjoys at present. The spoliation of the industrious community of the monks, which in our case at least, had not even the allegation of corruption to justify it, and the absorption of their lands and goods for purposes of family and personal greed and aggrandisement. And finally the creation of the class of great landholders, absolutely free of their properties so long only as they are faithful subjects of the State. Surely here by the study of the archeology of one parish you find a type of the history of the country. Ladies and gentlemen, I have finished, and I trust that you will not have found the remarks I have made either inappropriate or too long. I have felt, I can assure you, throughout, very much in the position in which the celebrated Dr. Dodd once found himself. One day, at one of the universities, when he was innocently taking his walks abroad, he found himself pursued by a troop of undergraduates, who, to phrase
12 The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting.
it mildly, had been dining. He sought refuge up a tree, and from thence he was compelled, before he was released, to deliver a sermon. That, ladies and gentlemen, has been exactly my case. I was an innocent man, coming to day to enjoy, as we all shall shortly, the fruits of others’ learning, when I was captured by our Secretary here and others, was driven up this tree, and was compelled, as a condition of release, to deliver this address. The subject, if I may modestly so say has been some of the uses of antiquity, and, whatever you may think of my address, I am sure you will say with me, as has been said of adversity, that sweet are those uses.
The Rry. Canon Jackson did not think Sir Charles was such a tyro in archzology as he professed to be. On the contrary, he had given them a very good specimen of his ability, and he hoped he would in future years pursue it and give them some more of the results on another occasion. He hoped, should he ever go back to India, that he would take particular notice of the monuments which they were told existed, but which they never found anyone able to give them any information about. Some said those monuments were connected with that at Stonehenge. As to Stonehenge, if anybody proposed to meddle with any of the stones, except just to lift them up—if anybody attempted to restore it, as some people had restored parish Churches, he would be the first to take a hammer and knock him on the head. There was a great difference between restoring and merely hoisting up a stone and setting it where they knew it really ought to stand. He had great pleasure in moving a vote of thanks to Sir Charles Hobhouse for his able address.
The Rev. Canon Jones then proceeded to give a descriptive account of the principal objects of interest to be seen in the town of Bradford, and subsequently conducted a large party through the town, pointing out all that was most worthy of notice, beginning with the Parish Church ; then the Saxon Church; Church House; the Shambles; the Old Market Place; the site of St. Olave’s Chapel; Kingston House; Chapel on the Town Bridge; Chapel and Almshouses of St. Katharine ; Tithe Barn; St. Mary Chapel, Tory; and ending with Christ Church ; all of which we pass over
——
The Dinner. 13
now without farther comment, as we hope to print Canon Jones’ short description of each of them at a future page of this Magazine.
THE DINNER
took place at the Swan Hotel, the President of the Meeting in the chair; when the usual loyal and complimentary toasts were given.
The Rev. Canon Jonss, in returning thanks for the Bishop and Clergy, observed that it was twenty-four years ago since he first took part in the work of the Society, on the occasion of its first visit to Bradford, and he hoped he had contributed to its advancement ever since; he trusted, moreover, that those who came after the archeologists of the present day would .continue to carry on the study and promote the work of the Society.
The Ruy. A. C. Surry, in returning thanks for the General Secretaries, expressed his sincere regret that his colleague—Mr. Charles Talbot, had felt compelled from ill-health to resign office. All those who had taken part in our Annual Meetings of late years would recollect how much Mr. Talbot had contributed by his architectural and archeological knowledge to the edification of the Members, more especially by his judicious remarks on the various Churches they visited. Mr. Talbot had also been a contributor to the pages of the Magazine, and had taken an active part in the working of the Society. It was a source of satisfaction, however, to be assured (and Mr. Talbot had written to him to that effect) that he would still continue to take a warm interest in the work of the Society, and would gladly do all in his power to aid it. The Society was happy, too, in securing as Mr. Talbot’s successor a gentleman so highly esteemed throughout the county as Mr. Medlicott, one who had long been an active member of the Com- mittee, and for many years had evinced a keen interest in the antiquities of Wiltshire. .
The Local Secretary, Dr. Highmore, and his colleagues, Rev. F. Whitehead and Rev. W. N. C. Wheeler, were duly thanked for their indefatigable exertions in making preparations for the Meeting; and the toast of The Ladies was not forgotten by the President, a toast to which Sir Jon Hannaw replied in graceful terms.
14 The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting.
THE CONVERSAZIONE
was held at the Town Hall, the President of the Meeting in the chair: when Mr. Cuartes Moors, F.G.S., gave a very able ad- dress, entitled “ Notes on Wiltshire Paleontology ”; and then Canon Jackson, F.S.A., in his happiest vein, read an excellent paper on “The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.” As both these papers will appear in the Magazine, no farther mention need be here made of them, but to add that at their conclusion a vote of thanks was moved from the chair, and heartily responded to by the audience.
SECOND DAY, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1oru.
The archxologists, under the guidance of Canon Jonzs, left Bradford at ten o’clock in a long line of carriages, and first drove to Westwood Church and Manor House; then to Stowford Manor House, and then to Beckington Church, at all of which places Canon Jones pointed out the most noticeable features, and gave short epitomes of their respective histories, as will be seen in his notes farther on. At this point of the programme the Society was hospitably entertained by the Local Committee at a luncheon spread in the School-room. At its conclusion the Cuarrman (Sir C. Hobhouse) proposed the health of the Rev. 8. L. Sainsbury, the Rector of Beckington, and congratulated him on the very happy restoration of his Church, lately completed. The Rev. A. C. Smitu, on behalf of the Society, offered his best thanks to the Local Com- mittee of Bradford for the hospitable entertaimment given them that day. The Society had been very kindly received in many parts of the county, but in no place had they met with a warmer re- ception or a truer welcome than at Bradford. Dr. Hicumore having suitably responded, the company left the School-room, and turned their attention to the many interesting old houses of which Beckington seems full, more especially to the charming old buildings known as Beckington Castle, and the Grange. Thence to Seymour’s Court, Road Church, and North Bradley Church; all of which are merely enumerated here, as they will be severally described in Canon Jones’ notes, mentioned above.
Third Day, Thursday, August, 11th. 15
THE CONVERSAZIONE
took place at the Town Hall, at 8 o’clock, at which Sir Cuarizs Hosuovsz again presided. ‘The first paper was by the PresipEnt, entitled ‘Some account of Monkton Farleigh.” At its conclusion a vote of thanks to the author was moved by the Szcrzrary, and earried by acclamation. Then Mr. Freprricx Suu, F.S.A., read a paper, “ On Some notes of Gainsborough and his connection with Bradford,” for which the PresipEnT tendered him the thanks of the audience. Both of these interesting papers will appear in the Magazine in due course.
As this was the last occasion of the assembling of the Society at Bradford during its present Meeting, the Rnv. A. C. Smrra begged to express, on the part of the Society, towards the close of a most happy and successful Meeting, cordial thanks, first to the town and neighbourhood of Bradford for the hearty welcome given to it: then to the Local Secretaries for the labour they had undergone in its behalf, and the arrangements they had so happily made: and last, though not least, to Sir Charles Hobhouse, who so kindly and so admirably discharged the duties of President of the Meeting at almost a moment’s notice. Srr Cuaxxes, in reply, proposed a vote of thanks to Canon Jones for the large amount of information he had conveyed to them, and for the pains he had taken in pointing out all that was best worth notice.
THIRD DAY, THURSDAY, AUGUST llrn.
The excursionists assembled at the Town Hall, at ten o’clock, and again under the able guidance of Canon Jonxs, first visited Holt Church; then Monkton Manor House; then Broughton Gifford Church. From hence they drove to Great Chalfield Manor House, which, of all the many excellent specimens’ inspected during the three days’ meeting, was incomparably the finest domestic building they had seen: and here they wandered up and down, inside and outside the house, never tired of admiring this splendid specimen of fifteenth century work. Then, by invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Fuller, the archeologists—by this time numbering about one hun- dred and twenty-five—were most hospitably entertained at luncheon
16 The Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting.
in a large marquee. At its conclusion the PrusipenT expressed the hearty thanks of the Society to Mr. and Mrs. Fuller for the mag- nificent way in which they had entertained them ; while Mr. FutuEr, in reply, cordially welcomed the Society to Chalfield, and assured the company that he had been delighted so to receive them. Thence a drive to the old house at Wraxall; then to the Manor House and Chapel of St. Audoen: then to Chapel Plaister; and then to Monkton Farleigh, where tea and coffee were hospitably provided by the President, closed the excursion, and with it one of the most successful meetings which the Society has ever held.
The Ethnology of Giltshive, as illustrated in the Blace-alames.
By J. Picton, Esq., F.S.A.
(Read before the British Archeological Association, at Devizes, August, 1880.)
GAT the Congress of the British Archeological Association at Se Ky Yarmouth and Norwich last year I read a paper on “ Place Names in Norfolk,” which has since been published in the Journal.
The subject is full of interest both to the antiquary and the philologist. Each county has its own peculiarities as to the origin and application of its local nomenclature, and I propose in the few following pages to enquire, as far as the brief space will permit, what light can be thrown by the study of the place-names in Wiltshire on the condition of the district, and the races by whom it has been successively occupied.
These inquiries have always been attractive, but down to a very recent period they have been pursued in a very empirical fashion,
By J. Picton, Esq., PSA. 17
calculated rather to throw ridicule on the study, than to lead to any satisfactory conclusions. Chronology, race, and language have been set at nought, and the most astounding guesses have been indulged in to bring together from any source, names and words between which there appeared any likeness, however superficial. Thus the common Anglo-Saxon name of Brimham has been derived from Hebrew Beth-Rimmon; and the Saxon Barrow or Bury from Hebrew Barruo, pit of lamentation. It is only of very recent years that the subject has been taken up with any regard to the principles of systematic or scientific inquiry.
_ Camden published his “ Remaines concerning Britaine” in 1614. Verstegan’s “ Restitution of Decayed Intelligence” was issued in 1628. Both of these contain information of a very judicious character on English names. During the interval of more than two centuries, almost to the present day, little or nothing was added to our information, but more recently attention has been called to the subject by the publication of such works as “ Taylor’s Names and Places” (1864) ; Edmunds’s “ Traces of History in the Names of Places” (1869) ; Fergusson’s “Teutonic Name System” (1864) ; Joyce’s “Origin and History of Irish Names of Places” (1869) ; besides the works of Mr. Lower and Miss Young on Christian and Surnames indirectly bearing on the same subject. These works are of a general kind, and do not attempt to illustrate any particular district. There are also difficulties, to which I will presently allude, connected with the inquiry, which are hardly, if at all, noticed by the writers in question.
The names of places scattered over the surface of our country may be compared to the geological stratification of the same surface, one layer overlying another until we arrive at the primitive formation ; and the prevalence of one or other of these gives its character to the mame system in the one case as to the physical aspect in the other. Thus in Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Lincolnshire, a large pro- portion of the place-names are derived from a Danish source; in Durham and Cumberland a Scandinavian element is found, but most probably of Norwegian origin. In Cornwall the main element is formed by the Celtic of the old Cornish stock, In Wales and VOL. XX.—NO. LYIIL. c
18 The Bthnology of Wiltshire, as illnstrated in the Place-Names.
the counties bordering thereon the basis of the place-names may be expected to be Cymric, whilst in many, probably the most of the others, the Celtic and Norse elements almost entirely disappear, and are replaced by nearly pure Anglo-Saxon. Amongst these latter Wiltshire stands conspicuous.
Of course a large proportion of the place-names in every county are of comparatively modern origin, and present no difficulty. With these I do not propose to deal. My present subject is the names which are found in Domesday Book or a century or two later.
If we take even a cursory glance at a map of the county, we find most of the names composed of a prefix and suffix, such as Salis-bury, Winter-bourne, Brad-ford, &. Now these suffixes, which constitute the substance of the names, qualified by the prefix, are in the great majority of cases perfectly intelligible in modern English. on, Ford, Burn or Bourne, Cot, Ham (home), Bridge, Brook, &c., are part and parcel of our daily speech. Many others which are now somewhat obsolete are easily explicable from the old forms of our Language. Such are Holt, Hurst, Shaw, Don, Bury, Worth, &e. The qualifying portion of the name is the prefix. Many of these prefixes are pure Saxon and easy to understand, such as Nor-ion, Easton, Sutton, or south town, taken from their relative position. Some from the surroundings, such as Hazle-bury, Alder-bury, Wood- borough, Hill-marton, Mil-ton, and others from various circumstances to which I shall presently refer. When every allowance is made for these, there remain a large number which cannot be thus resolved, and the question is, where are we to look for the solution? Some of the writers on the subject—and there are not many who have entered upon it at all—make very short work of it. If there is any difficulty they have only to invent a personal name, and the thing is done. Thus Chat-ham and Chat-moss are supposed to be derived from a person bearing the name of Chat. Frensham from one Fren or Frene. In other cases circumstances of the most un- likely character are assumed if the name happens to fit. Thus Keele, in Staffordshire—nearly in the centre of England—has been held to be so called from Keel a north-country word for a barge or ship, with which the place could not have the slightest connexion.
By J. Picton, Esq., FSA. £9
Partney is said to be from pera-tun-ey, pear town by the water. It is scarcely worth while to waste time in examining absurdities of this kind. Where we cannot discover a clear and definite meaning within our reach, the best mode of solving the enigma is to confess our ignorance and seek for means of better information.
There cannot be much doubt that a large number of the prefixes in English place-names are of Celtic origin, most probably of the Cymric variety ; but the Janguage from which they are derived has greatly changed in the course of ages, and is only very imperfectly represented by the modern Welsh. It is very unlikely and would be contrary to all history to suppose that when the Saxons conquered England by degrees and effected the settlement of the country they exterminated all the inhabitants. Such a circumstance has hardly happened in the history of the world. There was no break of con- tinuity. The conquerors in taking possession would naturally adopt the native appellations, modifying them to suit their own purposes. This is precisely what the Romans had done before them. Venta Belgarum and Sorbidunum are simply Cymric names with Latin suffixes. Nay, we may go further back than this. What took place both at the Roman and Saxon conquests would equally occur at the previous Celtic invasion, We are not to suppose that those we call the ancient Britons were the aboriginal inhabitants of this island. The Belgz and Atrebates, who occupied the present Wiltshire and Hampshire, were immigrants of no long standing. Both Cesar and Tacitus bear testimony to this, Czsar says, * Britannia pars interior ab iis incolitur quos natos in insul4 memoria proditum est. Maritima pars ab lis, qui prede ac belli inferendi causa, ex Belgis transierant.” (De Bell. Gall., Lib. vy.)
Tacitus states “ Britanniam qui mortales initio coluerunt indigenz an advecti, parum compertum; in universum tamen estimanti, Gallos vicinum solum occupasse, credibile est.” (Vit Agricol.) ?
1 The interior of Britain is inhabited by native races as it is handed down by tradition ; the maritime parts by those who have passed over from Belgium for the sake of plunder or war.
2 Whether the people who first inhabited Britain were indigenous or immigrants, it-is hard to ascertain, but it is generally believed that the Gauls occupied the nearest coasts.
c 2
20 The Ethnology of Wiltshire, as illustrated in the Place-Names.
M. Littré, the great French philologist, speaking of the Celtic invasion of Western Europe, says “ parmi ces noms celtiques, il en est sans doute, qui n’ appartiennent pas a la langue des Celtes. Leur établissement dans la Gaule, si ancien 4 un point de vue, est moderne a un autre; ils y trouvérent des populations d’un developp- ment inférieur, et lon peut croire qu’ ils n’en expulsérent ni tous les hommes, ni tous les noms.” !
Modern investigation has pretty clearly established the fact that long preceding the Celtic immigration, the west of Europe was in- habited by a race of inferior development, probably of Euskarian or Esquimo affinity. The name of Britain, which is certainly not Celtic, has been traced to this source, and many names of places in Spain and the south of France bear testimony to the existence of a race which has, long ages ago, entirely passed away as a separate people. Let us now endeavour to apply these principles to the an- tiquities and nomenclature of Wiltshire. No county in the kingdom is richer, if so abundant, in prehistoric remains. They are dis- tributed over the surface, of all classes and periods, from the earliest rude attempts at habitations at Pen Pits, near Stourton, on the borders of Somerset, through the various descriptions of barrows, tumuli, ditches, and earthworks up to the noble relics of Avebury and Silbury and the magnificent structure of Stonehenge. The earliest pits and earthworks bear all the marks of an extremely rude and primitive people; that these people were conquered and driven westwards by the advancing Celt has every confirmation short of written records. Even at the present day the pits, the remains of primitive habitations which are found in abundance in Wales, bear traditionally the name of “ Cyttiau Gwyddelod,”’ the huts of the wild men or savages.
The description of the Fenni given to us by Tacitus exactly describes a people of this class, and the name Fenni may without much violence be applied to the occupants of the Pen Pits. He
1“ Amongst these Celtic names, without doubt there are some which do not belong to the Celtic language. Their establishment in Gaul, so ancient from one point of view, is modern from another. They found there a population of an inferior development, and it may be believed that they neither exterminated all the people nor all the names.”
By J. Picton, Esq., F.8.A. 21
says “Fennis mira feritas, faeda paupertas; non arma, non equi, non penates; victui herba, vestitui pelles, cubile humus; sola in sagittis spes, quas inopid ferri, ossibus asperant.”
“ Nothing can equal the ferocity of the Fenni, nor is there any thing so disgusting as their filth and poverty. Without arms, without horses, and without a fixed place of abode, they lead a vagrant life; their food the common herbage, the skins of beasts their only clothing; and the bare earth their resting-place. For their chief support they depend on their arrows; to which for want of iron, they prefix a pointed bone.”
This is an exact description of all savages of the stone age, whose relics are continually found under tumuli of the earliest construc- tion.
Now what I maintain is this: that taking all analogy and history for our guide, it is scarcely possible that there should not be some remains of the language of this primitive people embedded in the nomenclature of the country. This is a question which has attracted some notice, and future investigation may throw some light upon it.
The names of the prominent features of a country, the hills, valleys and rivers are usually the most ancient. We find most of them in Wiltshire may be referred to a Cymric origin. There are no high hills demanding to be specially noticed in the nomenclature. Ingpen, near the junction of the three counties of Wiltshire, Hamp- shire and Berkshire, 1011 feet high, is the most prominent. Its name in Cymric—“ the head of the narrow valley ”—is sufficiently explanatory. Hack Pen Hill may also be traced to a Celtic source. Combe, Cym, Cwm (a hollow), is the suffix to many place-names, Hall-combe, Hippens-combe, Stitch-combe, &c. Some of the rivers bear Cymric names: the Churn (swift), the two Avons (flowing water), the Frome (fuming), the Wiley, probably from Gwy (water). Some are Anglo-Saxon, such as the Bourne, Og-bourne Ald-bourne, Flagham Brook, Swill Brook. There are others of which the origin is at present insoluble, as Key, Cole, Kennet, or Chenete, Nadder, Stour. There are some names unmistakeably Celtic, such as Pen, Penridge, Penglewood, Calne (anciently Cawna), Cym. Cawn (reeds) ;
22 The Ethnology of Wiltshire, as illustrated in the Place-Names.
Huish (Domesday Hiwi), Cym. Hwch (swine) ; Chiltern (Domesday Cheltre), Cym. Cel-tre (a place of refuge).
To the Celts, whether Cymry or Belgas, succeeded the Romans, who have left their marks unmistakably on the surface of the land. That they conquered and colonized the district is certain, but they have not left behind them the magnificent works constructed in other quarters. There are no grand casfra such as Pevensey; in Sussex, Richborough, in Kent, and Burgh Castle, in Suffolk. The camps of Vespasian and Constantius Chlorus are merely earthen entrenchments. The Romans appear to have utilised the earthworks they found in the country, of which they were many, the land having been very populous before their arrival. The names they gave their stations were Cymric with Latin terminations Corinium (now Ciren- cester), probably from its circular form cér; Sorbiodunum, Sarum,or Salisbury (Saresbury) ; Cym. siriaw-din, the pleasant hill ; Durnovaria (Dorchester), Cym. Dwr-novion, the flowing water.
There were six Roman roads crossing the county. Ist, a road from Bath (Aqua Solis), along the western side to Cirencester (Corinium), forming part of the great Fossway extending across the island from the English Channel to the German Ocean; 2nd, a voad from Salisbury westward, to Wells (ad Aquas) ; 3rd, a road ealled Julian Street, running due east from Bath, passing the base _of Silbury Hill, and continuing by Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) by what is called the Devil’s Causeway, to the passage over the Thames at Staines ; 4th, two roads running eastward from Salisbury, one N.E, to. Silchester, the other S.W. to Winchester (Venta Belgarum), Cym. Caer-gwent; 5th, a road 8.W. from Salisbury to Dorchester; 6th, Ermin Street, running from Cirencester, S.E. to Spine (Speen) and Silchester.
The Roman roads (strata) were called by the Saxons streets from the fact of their being paved, and thus they can usually be traced by the names of the towns on their lines. In Wiltshire, several of the roads besides those mentioned have preserved the name of séreet, as Long Street, Short Street, Broad Street, High Street, &. There are several Strat-ford, Strat-ton, and several Stantons, but except the stations already mentioned the Roman camps seem to have been
By J. Picton, Esq., F.S.A. 23
mere earthworks. Old Sarum, which was no doubt occupied and strengthened by the Romans, was originally a British stronghold, as its formation indicates.
To the Romans in their influence on the nomenclature succeeded the Saxons. They arrived in Wiltshire about fifty years after the first landing in Kent, and founded the kingdom of the West Saxons by the victory of Cerdic, A,D. 508. Under his successors, Cynric and Ceawlin, this kingdom was greatly extended. Wiltshire is honoured hy having been the scene of the struggles of the great Alfred and of his final victory over the Danish invaders at Edington, The Danes never obtained a settlement in Wiltshire. There is an almost utter absence of Danish names. The termination Jy, so very numerous in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and wherever the Danes obtained a permanent footing, is here altogether wanting.
There are no tofts, thorpes, nesses, thwaites, hoes. The basis of the names is almost entirely Saxon. There is also another difference from the nomenclature of the eastern counties. When the Saxons first invaded England they came in tribes and families, headed by their patriarchal leaders. Each tribe was called by their leader’s name with the termination ing, signifying family ; and where they settled they gave their patriarchal name to the maré or central point round which they ‘clustered, frequently adding the suffix tom, or town. Hence the prevalence of such names as Billinge, Billington, Wellington, Darlington, Allington, &c. Now this class of names is not entirely wanting in Wiltshire, but it prevails only to a limited extent; the reason I apprehend is this, that during the time which had elapsed hefore they crossed the country and reached Wiltshire, the tribal organisation had been to a great extent lost.
One feature which would strike the invaders is the numerous earthworks which are scattered in such profusion over the surface of the county. These were very freely made use of and occupied for purposes of defence. The Saxon term durh was applied generally to any earthen entrenchments. Many of these had been thrown up previously, either by the Britons or their predecessors. Some had been constructed or adopted and improved by the Romans.
24 The Ethnology of Wiltshire, as illustrated in the Place-Names.
Some were no doubt formed by the Saxons themselves, but they were all included under the general term of Bury, of which the examples are very numerous as suffixes to the place-names. The prefixes are sometimes proper names not always of a prehistoric character. Malms-bury is said to take its name either from a British king Malmutius, or the Scottish monk Maidulph, who founded the monastic community afterwards developed into the celebrated abbey. Amesbury is supposed, with considerable show of reason, to have been the head-quarters of Ambre or Ambrosius, a British king who dis- played considerable gallantry in resisting the Saxon invaders. In Domesday Book it is called Ambresberie. Wan-borough and Wans- dyke are no doubt connected with the traditions of the hero Woden, or Odin, so celebrated in the Saxon and Norse legends. His name is connected with many localities in various parts of the kingdom, such as Wednesbury, Wednesfield, Wensley, &c.
The most frequent suffix in the place-names of Wiltshire is fon, indicating the thoroughly Saxon predominance in the county. Ton originally meant a simple enclosure, and in this sense it is still used dialectically in Scotland. It was then extended to a cluster of houses, and finally to a town in the modern sense. The Saxon towns usually stood at the intersection of cross-roads, or at the fork formed by the junction of three, The tons in Wiltshire are very numerous, with all sorts of prefixes, some Saxon, some Cymric, some of which the meaning is not obvious, some descriptive, others patronymic.
Ham is another Saxon suffix, common in the county, though not so numerous as the fons. The Saxon Ham, corresponding with Ger. Heim, primarily meant the homestead, the cluster of buildings constituting the farm and is the origin of the endearing associations connected with the English ome. The prefixes are, of course, various. Chippenham (in Domesday Chepeham) indicates that it was a market or trade-mart. J/e/késham has been explained to mean the milk or dairy farm, but it is more likely to have been adopted from a personal name.
The number of streams which water the county, sufficiently ex- plain the frequency of the suffixes Bourne and Ford. There were ‘several Winter-bournes; small streams, dry in summer, but forming
By J. Picton, Esq., PSA. 25
torrents by the winter rains. Swill-Brook, the main source of the Thames, takes its name from the abundance of its waters,
Don, which forms the termination of a few place-names, means an
undulating surface, in modern English, Downs. The suffix cot, in such names as Hilcot, Wilcot, Westcott, &c,, scarcely needs any explanation. . _ There are a few names terminating in Zow, such as Winterslow, Chedglow. This termination is very common in the Northern Mercian counties, and signifies a tumulus or Saxon barrow, usually thrown up on a low hill, but seeing that these /ows are given in Domesday as /ei or Jey, it does not appear that the word was ever so applied in Wiltshire.
Lade, an artificial watercourse, is found in Cricklade and Lechlade, the latter on the edge of Gloucestershire.
Worth, in Anglo-Saxon has several meanings, but is generally applied to a farm or land fronting a public way. The number of these in Wiltshire is small, Winkworth, Chelworth, Brinkworth, and one or two others.
Wick, as a village, is common in some counties, but is very sparse in Wiltshire. Barwick, Wadswick, and Berwick are almost the only instances.
There are many other Saxon terms used which are still quite familiar, such as Field, Mere, Hill, Head, Cliff, Ridge, Wood, Bridge, Brook, Edge, Well; and others, equally good English, but now somewhat obsolete, as Stead, still preserved in home-stead; Holt, a wood; Shaw, a grove; Stock, a wooden structure; Hurst, another term for a wood ; Cock, a diminutive—little.
There a few place-names which are somewhat Danish in their aspect, such as Neston, Costoe, Keynes, but these are not in Domes- day, and are of comparatively modern introduction. Near Cricklade
‘there is a stream called Dance or Danes Brook, and a locality near is called Godby Stalls. These may possibly have some traditional eonnection with the irruptions of the Danes.
The termination ey is attached to many names. It might have
been the Danish ey, for island, or the Saxon ea, water, but scarcely
any of them are found in Domesday, and are not of very ancient date.
26 The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.
The Norman conquest effected little in the introduction of new place-names, but it added further suffixes, in many cases derived from the Norman lords of the soil, such as Wootton Basset, Compton Basset, Shipton Moyne, Easton Grey, Yatton Keynell, Compton Chamberlain, Upton Scudamore. Devizes is supposed to have de- rived its name Devise from a supposed division of the manor between the Crown and the Bishop of Salisbury, but history does not bear out this statement. The first charter was granted by the Empress Matilda about 1136, under the name of “ De Divisis,” at a time when certainly no division had or could have taken place. It is called in ancient records, Divisis, Diyise, De Vies. Leland calls it The Vies. The true solution appears to be the fact that the castle was built at the exact point of division between the three manors of Rowde, Cannings, and Pottern. Hence the appellations Castrum de Divisis, or ad Divisis, or simply Divise.
The above short notes may serve to direct attention to a subject connected with the history of our country which will probably im- part additional interest to the topographical notices of the county and of the places visited,
The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History. By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.*
Say R. Thomas Fuller, the Church Historian, in one of his works SS i called “ England’s Worthies,” has preserved short memoirs of the. most remarkable individuals, or those whom he considered to be such, in English history generally. These are arranged under
* This paper was prepared for, and read at, an Evening Conversazione of the Wiltshire Archeo- logical Society, at Bradford-on-Avon, 9th of August, 1881.
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 27
the different counties. In most of the counties by far the greater number of his “ Worthies” are men: and in Wiltshire he appears to have been able to find only three ladies deserving of being noticed in his book. It was published in 1662. Time has made some additions to that very small number : and there are also a few names belonging to earlier periods which he might have mentioned, but did not.
There are several works that record the history of English ladies. We have Mrs. Green’s “ Lives of the most distinguished in rank, the Queens and Princesses.” There is also “ Ballard’s Memoirs of Learned Ladies”; also plenty of memoirs of, or by, others who have been conspicuous in Society. But the names selected for notice in the present paper will only be those of Wiltshire ladies who either were born in the county, or belonged to it by lifelong residence and connexion. Also, only those whose names are to be found here and there in different printed works relating to Wiltshire, and are therefore, so far as that goes, historical.
Of course there must have been at all times ladies who were ornaments to Society, clever, witty, and otherwise eminent in their day. But that is quitea different thing from being eminent after their day. If you wish to be, I will not say, eminent, but even named at all in time to come, you must bequeath to posterity somes thing more than merely your name. There is a story somewhere of a gentleman who was going on his travels to the Hast, whose friends loaded him with all sorts of commissions. For one he was to get this; for another that. Some supplied him with money for the purpose; others forgot to do so. As he was steaming along the Mediterranean, and near the end of his voyage, he began to think it time to put his commissions in order, and, if possible, reduce the number of them. So one day he took out all the papers and laid them in a row on the taffrail of the ship, On those papers that had come to him with money enclosed he laid the money ; but the unprepaid commissions, having nothing to keep them down, were blown away by the first breeze. That is very much the case with ourselves and our chances of future reputation. We may fill our part in life very creditably, be clever, popular, perhaps famous, in
28 The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.
our day; but if we have done nothing that shall, as it were, fasten our name and provide for its enduring; in short, if we are not weighted, we shall be, like those light papers, mercilessly and un- ceremoniously puffed away into oblivion.
Hamlet allows but a very short time even for a great man to be remembered ; and, even then, not without a certain expense on his own part. “QO heavens! dead two months and not forgotten yet! Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half-a- year. But, by our lady, he must build churches then; or else he shall suffer not thinking on.” So true it is that people whose names are in everybody’s mouth one year almost cease to be talked of in the next. “The present eye praises the present object.” “ After one well-graced actor leaves the stage, all eyes are bent on him that enters next.” The ladies must please to observe that this applies to them as well as to men, because “ All the world’s a stage, and all the men—and women—merely players.”
But now about this eminence we are speaking of, How is it to be obtained by the ladies? One of the Roman historians, commonly read at schools, tells us that eminence is to be acquired in two ways, either in Peace or in War. Two courses open to the ladies. Among those who have done us the honour of attending here this evening, there may possibly be some resolute and ambitious spirits who ad- mire, and not only admire, but would like to take part in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war. It is more likely that most of them would be quite satisfied to bind their brow with the olive of peace rather than the laurel of battle. But there have been times and may be again, when ladies have had to face great personal danger, and how they acquitted themselves in this county you shall hear in the course of my story.
Among the ways of Peace, none in former times helped more to bring ladies into an enduring celebrity, than works of Piety and Religion; not merely by their leading such lives themselves, but by providing Institutions for the maintenance of Religion for (as they fondly hoped) all time to come. Of this we have several cases in Wiltshire.
The Monastery of Wilton, for an Abbess and nuns, was founded
EE eGVOv—e— ee
By the Rev. Canon J. EB. Jackson, F.8.A. 29
through the influence of a lady, Atrripa, Dowager, Queen of the Anglo-Saxon King Edgar.
The Monastery for ladies at Ambresbury was founded and en- dowed by another Royal lady, AtBurea, sister of King Egbert.
The Monastery of Lacock, for an Abbess and nuns, was founded by Eta, Countess Dowager of Salisbury, who also founded another at Hinton Charterhouse. There were other Nunneries at Maiden Bradley and St. Mary’s, Kington St. Michael.
Now let me call attention to this. Wilton House and most of the lands there formerly the property of the Abbess, now belong to the Earl of Pembroke ; Ambresbury to Sir E. Antrobus; Lacock to Mr. Talbot. Whatever territorial influence now attaches to those gentle- men, attached in former times to the lady owners. These lady-heads of Religious Houses were landowners of many thousand acres. At this very place at which we are meeting, the Manor of Bradford, with a good deal of land, and the appointment to six or seven neighbouring Churches then included in it, belonged to the Abbess of Shaftesbury. But consider the true character of these places. These famous monasteries were not merely the abodes of a few contemplative nuns, as is often supposed, but they were first-class places of education, to which were sent, not only from the immediate neighbourhood, but from all parts, young ladies of the very first families, even of the Blood Royal, It is on record that Mary, sixth daughter of Edward I., Isabella of Lancaster, and others were brought up at Ambresbury ;
_ Matilda, Queen of Henry I., at Wilton. The lists that remain to --us show that most truly “ Kings’ daughters were among their honourable women.” There they and hundreds of young persons of good family were trained up to learn not merely female accomplish- ments, but various useful domestic arts, solid practical work. They were taught what so many young persons now-a-days, when their education is called finished, begin to learn for themselves, medicine, surgery, confectionery, cookery, the general management of house- holds, and the duties of the rich to the poor; all this under the orderly superintendence of piety and religion. Now when itis recol- lected that this training was undergone, not at a boarding-school in a _ town, but at the very houses of the richest and largest land-owners,
:
30 The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.
we must come to this conclusion: that these Lady Ahbbesses, being Mistresses of the soil, and having the control over the young female mind, were largely responsible for giving the right tone to the female character, and consequently for the result and effect upon English society, which depends so much upon that character. We have, fairly preserved, if not quite complete, lists of the names of the influential and important ladies who ruled these establishments, but whether their names had come down to us or not, speaking of them in a general way and as an order or class, I hold that it was one of real eminence, and well deserving not only the notice but the emphatic commendation of history.
Of one only among them, a few words. The Earldom of Salisbury (i.e., not of the present city, but the older Salisbury, Old Sarum) was a title held by two or three families in succession ; the first being that of Devernvx, in the reign of King Stephen. There had been two Earls, when the title fell to an only daughter, Ena. She married William Longespee, who in her right became Earl. Upon his death she reigned alone in her castle of Old Sarum ; and in fact ruled the county, for she filled the office of High Sheriff for seven or eight years. At last, being weary of feudal dignity and its burdens, she retired to one of the monasteries she had built, and became Abbess of Lacock, where she died, as it is said, at nearly 100 years of age. Of Wilton and Ambresbury monasteries no part even of the building remains; but Lacock Abbey still stands a witness to the memory and good deeds of this eminent lady of Wiltshire history.
So much of the land, so many of the parishes, having belonged to these ladies, we are no doubt indebted to them for some of our parish Churches; those, for instance, that stand on the estates for- | merly theirs. That spirit is by no means yet extinct. We have in our own day ladies still living who at their own sole cost have built or re-built Churches; and it is but just and fair to the ladies in general to say that in all good works of that kind they are almost always found to take the greatest interest and an active part.
Under the head of Religious Foundations we must include Alms- houses, places of refuge for the worn out and feeble. In the village
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A | 31
of Heytesbury, just beyond Warminster, there still stands, occupied and flourishing, a fine old house founded and very richly endowed in the reign of King Edward IV., by Marcarer Lapy HuncErrorp and BorrEavx, widow of Robert, second Lord Hungerford, of Farley Castle, near this town. She was the wealthy heiress of the old Cornish family, the Lords Botreaux. Her husband and son being, during the Wars of the Roses, on the Lancastrian, that is the losing side, her life was full of trouble. There is a great deal about her in Hoare’s History of South Wilts; and among other curious documents is one attached to her will, in which she very sorrowfully recapitulates all the ‘expense and loss with the causes and oceasions of the same which she had borne in this great season of adversities which have befallen in this land to herself, her children and her friends; especially in ransoming those who had been taken prisoners, and in redeeming: estates that had been forfeited. Also when she had been sent for safety by order of the King to the Abbey of Ambresbury, all her costly goods and furniture were destroyed by a fire.” In shorta very lamentable story. She left considerable estates for the endow- ment of the Hospital, which it has enjoyed for above five hundred years.
At Corsham there is another fine old Almshouse, close to the gates of Lord Methuen’s park, founded by another Margaret Lady Hun- gerford, three hundred years later than the first. She was by birth daughter and co-heiress of William Halliday, a wealthy Alderman of London, and Corsham estate was part of her share. Her husband was a Sir Edward Hungerford, also of Farley Castle.
To another lady this county is indebted for a much larger and more general gift, the almshouse at Froxfield, near Mar)borough, for fifty widows ; twenty of them being widows of clergymen, and thirty, of laymen. The foundress was Saran, Ducuess or Somerset, widow of John, 4th Duke, who died 1675. His family at that time were owners of Tottenham and Savernake. The Duchess’s own name had been Alston. She died in 1692, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. She also founded another charity called the “ Broad Town Charity”; under which a certain number of Wiltshire boys are ap- prenticed to trades. ‘There is a very fine full-length i of her in the dining-hall of Brasenose College, Oxford.
32 The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.
I had the curiosity, for the purpose of this paper, to go through a volume of Wiltshire charities, and it appears that beside these larger foundations just mentioned, there are about one hundred and forty charitable bequests, of various amounts, all made by ladies.
The next case to be mentioned is one which cannot be placed under any particular head, because it is of a peculiar kind, and in this county certainly unique. It is a charity very well known in the neighbourhood of Chippenham and Calne; a charity on a very good foundation, and known by the name of “ Maud Heath’s Causeway.” ! In the reign of King Edward IV. one Mrs. Marixpa or Mavp Heath, said by tradition to have begun life as a market-woman, being sore hindered from getting her eggs to market, left certain houses and lands, the rents of which were to make and maintain a pitched causeway across what was then a very swampy district, for about four miles, from Chippenham to Wick Hill, near Bremhill. A column on that hill was erected some years ago, by the Marquis of Lansdowne and Mr. Bowles, the poet, in memory of this usefully benevolent old dame. For surely this is a most useful and rational sort of benevolence. May it not be called a defect in our highway system, that, whilst the roads are maintained, as they are, in excellent condition for the more pleasant travelling of those who keep carriages and horses, footpaths are very much forgotten, and the poor market- wives of the present day are left, in bad winter weather, to struggle along through the mud as they best can? So far at least as North Wilts is concerned, where sometimes the soil is very wet and sticky, it is what the people call “ desperate bad travelling ” for humble folk who use their own legs for the purpose. And so, as in my winter’s walks I often sigh for Maud Heath’s Causeway, I take this opportunity of reckoning her among the eminent ladies in Wiltshire history ; which indeed, in one sense, she certainly is; for there she sits, a figure in stone, as large as life, with her basket on her lap, and in the costume of her period, 56 feet up in the air, on the top of the column alluded to.
Of the ladies next to be named, as having earned eminence in
1See Wilts Archeological Magazine, vol. i., p. 251.
ee
—— Ts =
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jachson, F-8.A. 83
the ways of Peace, some have been conspicuous by the accident of high birth and position, some by their literary merit, some for the rather romantic incidents of their career. It is most convenient to name them in chronological order ; and please to bear in mind that we are speaking only of those who belong to our county. We begin at the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Everybody has heard those celebrated verses (written, not by Ben Jonson, but by William Browne, author of the Pastorals) ' upon Mary Stpvzy, sister of Sir Philip Sidney, and by marriage CounrEss or Pemsroxsg, and mother of the Earl of Pembroke of that day :—
“Underneath this sable herse Lies the subject of all verse, Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother: Death, ere thou hast slain another
Learn’d and wise and fair as she, Time will throw a dart at thee.
Marble piles let no man raise
To her name; for, after days, Some kind woman, born as she, Reading this, like Niobe,
Shall turn marble, and become Both her mourner and her tomb.”
This lady is spoken of by contemporaries (by the poet Spenser among others) as a model of excellence, resembling in form and spirit her brother Philip; but as to her learning, it turns out that she was rather a patroness of poets and scholars than much of a performer herself in that line. She is said to have assisted her brother Philip in his Arcadia, a long wearisome kind of novel, such as novels then were, but nevertheless written in good wholesome sterling old English, and containing many beautiful ideas and passages. Some of the verses in it are said to have been written by her. If so, there is no particular reason for regretting that she did not write more. The epitaph just recited is very pretty, but without wishing to detract in the least from merit justly due, it may be observed that one rather mistrusts praise extravagantly bestowed ;
1The epitaph is found in the MS. volume of poems by W. Browne in the Lansdowne MS., No. 777.
VOL, XX.—=NO. LVIIL. D
34 Lhe Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.
and that this famous epitaph when sifted does seem rather extrava- gant, for the plain English of it is, that so long as the world shall last the like of her shall never again be seen, and that there was no oceasion to erect a stone memorial to her, because some other lady would, reading those lines, like Niobe, be so very accommodating as to turn into stone and so provide one.! The world has probably produced since this amiable Countess’s time many as “ learn’d and fair and wise as she,’ but the memory of them has perished for want of a few pretty lines.
QureEN Jane SEymour was born at Wulfhall, an old manor house (of which a portion still remains near the Savernake Station), the home of her father, Sir John Seymour. There you may also still see a very long and curious old barn in which the people danced at her wedding. The hooks from which the tapestry was hung are still in the walls. She was sister of the Protector Somerset.
The Protector’s second wife is next to be named, the Lapy ANNE SranuHore, not a native, but an adopted lady of the county, mistress for the time of the Seymour house at Savernake and Wulfhall. This lady was the cause of great domestic trouble and partly of her husband’s downfall. The Protector had a younger brother Thomas, Lord Sudeley, who married Katherine Parr, the Dowager Queen of Henry VIII. Here arose a difficulty. Anne Stanhope was wife of the elder brother, who was virtually King of England, and she refused to carry the train of the Queen Dowager, wife of the younger brother. -So from the ladies’ quarrel as to which should walk out first, the schism spread to the two husbands. Jealousies and dislike ensued ; and Thomas was sent to the block. In a very little time the Protector followed him : so, (as Dr. Fuller in his quaint way says) “ what with this jostling for precedence, and what between the train of the Queen and the long gown of the Duchess, they raised so much dust at the Court, as at last to put out the eyes of both husbands. Women’s brawls men’s thralls.”
Wulfhall supplies us with another lady who was rather remarkable,
? It is fair to add (what the writer was not aware of at the time of reading this paper) that Gifford the critic had pronounced the second stanza to be a “ paltry addition.” See Notes and Queries, 6th S., iv., 258.
eS SS ee
= SEE ror
——s- =
By the Rev. Canon J, HE. Jackson, F.S.A. 35
After the Protector’s death his son, the Earl of Hertford, married for his first wife poor Lady Catharine Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey. The marriage displeased Queen Elizabeth, who sent them to the Tower, where Lady Catharine very soon died. The Earl then married a widow, Frances Howard, of the Bindon Branch of that old aristocratic family.
The history of Frances Howard, before the Earl of Hertford met with her, is curious. Notwithstanding her fine pedigree, she had married first a vintner or wine seller’s son, one Mr. Prannell. This gentleman had been so awe-struck at marrying so grand a lady, that he actually wrote a letter to Secretary Walsingham, apologising for his own audacity. However this first husband died very early, and left her all his money. She then listened to the addresses of Sir George Rodney, of Somersetshire ; but before anything came of that, she had met with the Earl of Hertford, just a widower, where- upon she left Sir George Rodney out in the cold. Sir George was really in love with her: and not being able to bear up against his disappointment, he went to Ambresbury, where the Earl and Countess of Hertford then lived, stopped at the village inn, wrote to her a paper of verses in his own blood, and then ran himself through with his sword.
During her married life with the Earl of Hertford, Frances Howard used often to indulge in discourse about her own family, and talk in a rather ostentatious way about her two grandfathers, the Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Buckingham ; how the one had done this and the other that. Sometimes when she was in this humour, the Earl, her husband, would stop her with something of this kind—“ Ah, Frances, Frances, but how long is it since thou didst marry the vintner’s son?” The Earl died, leaving her a large jointure of £5,000 a year. She then married again, and, mounting a step higher in the world, became the wife of the Duke of Richmond and Lenox. He also died before her, when she determined to fly at still higher game. King James I. was then a widower, and she gave out in society, in order that it might reach the King’s ears, that she had made up her mind never to eat again at the table of a subject. But this bait did not catch the old King, so that she
D2
36 The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.
missed her aim; but she nevertheless kept her word, and observed her vow to the last. There is a fine portrait of this singularly eminent Duchess of Richmond, late Hertford, late Prannell, at Longleat—a full-length, in black dress with a starched ruff, and a long staff in her hand. Her air is somewhat domineering and imperious, quite corresponding with her biography.
Next, in our show, comes a very different personage, a native, I believe, of Fonthill, Lapy Erzanor Avp.ey, wife of Sir John Davizs, of Tisbury. She was simply a half-crazy enthusiast, who followed the dangerous business of prophesying. Her rank and connexion made her notorious, and her denunciations against men in power in the days of the Commonwealth created some confusion and brought her into trouble. The title of the first of her two printed books is, Eleanor Audley’s Prophesies. Amend, Amend, Amend. Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.” This is in verse and an extraordinary rhapsody. The other book is called “ Strange and Wonderful Prophecies by the Lady Eleanor Audley, who is yet alive and lodgeth in Whitehall : which she prophesied 16 years ago, for which she was confined in the Tower and Bedlam: with Notes on the prophecies and how far they are fulfilled concerning the late King’s Government, armies and people of England. 1649.” She suffered a rigorous imprison- ment, and died in 1652.!
She is followed, after a long interval of one hundred years, by another literary lady, but of a better stamp—the CountTEss oF Hertrorp, known by three volumes of correspondence with the Countess of Pomfret. She was by birth a Thynne of Longleat, granddaughter of Thomas, first Viscount Weymouth, and wife of Algernon Seymour, Earl of Hertford, who in 1748 became (the seventh) Duke of Somerset. They lived at the Castle at Marl- borough, afterwards the Inn, now the College. She patronized Thomson of the Seasons, and Shenstone, and is mentioned under certain fictitious names in the works of Dr. Watts and Mrs. Rowe.
1 The following letter to this lady, lately discovered, presents a rather ungentle
portrait of her, by some aggrieved contemporary :—
‘©1626, May. Brooke to Lady Eleanor Davies. Reproaches her for abuse of his wife aud inno- cent child. Declares she has abandoned all goodness and modesty, is mad, ugly, blinded with pride of birth, &c. Threatens to scratch a mince-pie out of her, and wishes her, as the most horrible of curses, to remain just what she is,’”’—(Domestic Calendar, State Papers, James I.)
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 87
It was through this Countess of Hertford’s influence with Queen Caroline, that the Poet Savage was saved from the gallows for having killed a man. Southey, in his book called ‘“ The Doctor,” has an interesting chapter upon this amiable lady, who died in 1754.
Another literary lady lived about the same time, Miss JANE Coutinr. She was one of the daughters of the Rev. Arthur Collier, Rector of Langford, near Salisbury, a clergyman of much celebrity in his day, whose life has been written in a separate volume. Miss Jane was a quick-witted observant young lady, and a good Latin and Greek scholar; and the use to which she turned her scholarship and shrewdness was to write a satirical little book called “ The Art of ingeniously Tormenting”; containing “ (1) Rules for the Husband, &e.; (2) Rules for the wife, &e.; and (3) General Rules, for plaguing a// your acquaintance.”
In 1777 died a lady of much celebrity in her day, the Ducnzss oF Qurensperry. She was, by birth, Lady Catharine Hyde, second daughter of Henry, Earl of Clarendon, and was born at their family: place, Purton, near Swindon. Her husband, the Duke of Queens- berry, was at that time owner of, and lived at, Ambresbury. Her beauty and wit are mentioned by some of the poets of the day, especially Gay and Prior, the latter of whom wrote a rather famous ballad about her, beginning “Fair Kitty, beautiful and young.” She corresponded with Horace Walpole and Dean Swift, and judging from some of her letters, she appears to have been rather an original. Gay passed much of his time at Ambresbury, before the Duchess of Queensberry was acquainted with Swift; but the Duchess wishing to know him desired Gay to write from her house an invitation to Swift, which Gay did. To this she added a postscript :— I would fain have you come to Ambresbury. I can’t say you'll be welcome, for I don’t know, and perhaps shall not like you; but if I do not, you shall know my thoughts as soon as I do myself.” Swift did not make his appearance, so Gay writes a more pressing invitation, in which he says :—“I think her so often in the right that you will have great difficulty in persuading me that she is in the wrong. The lady of the house is not given to show civility to those she does not like. She speaks her mind and loves truth. But I say no
38 The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.
more, till I know whether her Grace will fill up the rest of the paper.” Her Grace did fill it up, and in this way :—-“ Write I must, particularly now I have an opportunity to indulge my predominant spirit.of contradiction. I do in the first place contradict most things Mr. Gay says of me to deter you from coming here; which if you do, I hereby assure you that unless I like my way better, you shall have yours, and in all disputes you shall convince me, if you can. Pray come, that I may find out something wrong, for I, and I believe most women, have an inconceivable pleasure in finding out any fault, except their own.” It does not appear that Dean Swift ever ventured to encounter this lively antagonist. There is an engraved portrait of the Duchess of Queensberry in Sir Richard Hoare’s Modern Wilts,” which seems to have been taken when she fully deserved the description with which Prior’s ballad begins, “ Fair Kitty, beautiful and young.” She died in 1757.
In the following year, 1788, died another lady, a native of -of Devonshire, but by her marriage connected with this town of Bradford. This was the famous Miss CuuptEicH, whose career was a very extraordinary one, and the talk of the whole country. I do not exactly reckon her among the Worthies of Wilts, but she was certainly eminent in one sense. She had a place at Court as Maid of Honour to the then Princess of Wales, and when very young she married privately a Mr. Hervey, brother of the Earl of Bristol. From him she separated very soon, and after twenty-five years, still remaining at Court, and Mr. Hervey being still alive, she married the Duke of Kingston, from whom the fine old house in this town takes its name. The Duke dying, left her all his estates for her life; but all his money absolutely for her own. The relatives of the Duke of course did not like this, and contested it. They procured proof of her first marriage with Mr. Hervey, which had never been legally dissolved, and then brought against her an action for bigamy, intending to shew that she could not lawfully be the wife of the Duke, and so to defeat the will. The trial took place before the House of Lords, and for five days was the great sight in London, being attended by enormous crowds in-doors and out. She had been very beautiful, but by this time there was not much of
ee ee EEE EEE eee
es
LL UU mm
By the Rev. Canon J, E. Jackson, F.S.A. 39
that left. She came dressed in deep mourning, attended by four young ladies in white, as maids of honour. The end of it was that she was found guilty; but it so happened that, after all, this had no effect upon her fortune, for it was found that the Duke’s will had been so carefully worded that they could not disturb it. The magazines of the day record many of her doings, which do not at all appear to have been of a vicious kind, but rather those of a very wealthy lady, who was at the same time very eccentric and very fond of publicity.
The village of Box, about the end of the last century, was the home of the Bowptrr family. Thomas Bowdler, the father, was the editor of a work now out of print, but one that ought to be re- printed, “The Family Shakespeare,’ in which the vulgar rubbish stuffed in by the players or even by the author himself, to please the ears of the groundlings,” is cut out, and the work rendered more capable of being read out aloud in families. Mr. Bowdler had two daughters, Janz and Henrietta Maria, both of a literary turn. One of them wrote “ Poems,” which reached a sixteenth edition, the other some religious works and biography.
About the same time lived a lady of popular reputation, Mrs. Detany, born at Coulston, near Earlstoke. She was of the family of Granville, Lord Lansdown, and married Mr. Delany, an Irish clergyman. She was literary and accomplished, corresponded with Dean Swift, and was an intimate friend of Margaret Cavendish Harley, Duchess of Portland (celebrated by Prior as “ my noble, lovely little Peggy ”). Being left in very reduced circumstances, her case was mentioned to King George III. and Queen Charlotte, who not only invited her to reside near them at Windsor, but allowed her a pension of £300 a year. She was skilful in painting, em- broidery, and shell-work, but what she was most remarkable for was an invention called “ Paper Mosaic,” a mode of imitating the forms and colours of plants and flowers by means of variously-tinted papers. The description of the process is too long to be given now.! There is a good deal about this lady in the Memoirs of the Granville
1See Britton’s Beauties of Wilts, vol. iii., p. 320.
40 The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.
Family, published a few years ago ; particularly her letters, in which she gives an interesting description of the domestic ways of Windsor Castle in the time of George III. She died in 1788, at a great age and blind. There is a portrait of her in the collection at Hampton Court.
I come now to our own times in naming a scientific lady of this neighbourhood, who did good service in—a cause which ladies do not often undertake—the Science of Geology. I mean the late Miss ErHELRED Benet, of Norton Bavent, near Warminster. She studied Geology in its very early days, before it had been taken up and had reached the very important position which it occupies now.- She formed a very large and fine collection of the fossil organic remains of that neighbourhood, especially of what is called the Green Sand formation, a complete list of which is printed in Sir R. C. Hoare’s “ History of the Hundred of Warminster.” I believe her collection has been disposed of since her death. I used, when a student at Oxford, to attend the lectures of the well-known Dr. Buckland, who brought that science so prominently into notice, and I recollect very well his speaking most highly of this geological lady, and how her merits met with rather a curious reward. She had sent a set of Wiltshire fossils as a present to the Museum at St. Petersburg. The Emperor of Russia, wishing to acknowledge the gift by an Imperial compliment, supposing from the Anglo-Saxon name of Ethelred that the donor must be a gentleman, caused to be sent to her a very grand diploma, conferring on Miss Ethelred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Civil Law in the University of St. Petersburg.
There are a few other notices of ladies belonging to this county in modern times, who have indulged in the luxury of writing books; but I must quit these peaceful associations and pass to that other mode of obtaining eminence which is open to ladies—the Art of War.
What Heroines have we in Wiltshire history? If under this head we may include a case not precisely of military valour, but of courageous spirit in very horrible and tragic circumstances, it will enable me to mention a noble old lady, who lived some centuries ago indeed, but was born within three miles of Bradford, at Farley
=
By the Rev. Canon J. KE. Jackson, F.S.A. 41
Castle, I had occasion to mention before, that during the Wars of the Roses, the Hungerfords of that place being on the losing side, forfeited their estates. When King Edward IV. came to the throne he granted Farley Castle to his brother George, Duke of Clarence, of Malmesey butt celebrity. The Duke of Clarence had an only daughter, Maregaret PLANTAGENET, created Countess of Salisbury. She lived to old age, and became the last representative of the White Rose or Yorkist party. When Henry VIII was king, he was led to suspect that the White Rose party was hatching a conspiracy to renew a contest for the Succession to the throne. A charge, which she declared to be totally unfounded, was got up against her, and she was sentenced to be beheaded for treason. Being ordered to lie down and lay her head upon the block, the proud old lady declared that she was no traitor, and would never submit to prostrate herself as one; and that if the executioner wanted her head, he might fetch it off as he could. It is stated in the history that the man laid hold of her grey hairs and pursued her round the scaffold, till, by dint of chopping and mangling, he succeeded in despatching her.
But we come now to a real heroine in actual warfare, BLaNcHE Somerset, Lapy ARuUNDELL, the gallant defender of Wardour Castle against the Parliament army in 1643. Wardour is in South Wilts, near Fonthill. The old Castle is still to be seen in its battered state, and being surrounded by fine cedar trees is a very picturesque object well worth visiting. Wardour House, where the present Arundell family live, is a modern building about a mile from it.
Blanche Somerset was a daughter of the Earl of Worcester, an ancestor of the Duke of Beaufort. She marriéd Thomas, second Lord Arundell of Wardour. In 1643, Lord Arundell had left his castle in order to attend King Charles I. at Oxford. During his absence a body of thirteen hundred men, under command of two Parliamentary officers, Sir Edward Hungerford and Colonel Strode, came up to the castle with orders to seize it for the Parliament. The garrison consisted only of Blanche, Lady Arundell, and her ehildren, another lady, some maid-servants, and twenty-five men.
The enemy, thirteen hundred men and artillery, summoned her to
surrender. It is for you, ladies, to imagine yourselves in that very
42 The Eminent ladies of Wiltshire History.
disagreeable situation, and to determine what you would have done. You would have had various similar examples to enable you tc come to some conclusion. There was Blechington House, in Oxfordshire, commanded by Colonel Windebank, the governor, attacked by Cromwell. The governor’s wife, a young and beautiful bride, per- suaded her husband to give up at once without a blow, which he did: for which afterwards a council of war condemned him to lose his head. On the other hand, there was Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire, defended by Lavy Banxzs for several weeks successfully. There was Lathom House, in Lancashire, defended by the CounrgEss oF Dersy, who sent back by the summoner this intrepid reply, “ Vl neither give it up nor desert it. Ill set fire to it first and burn it and myself in it.” Then there is for further encouragement to the valiant, that fine old French General, who was besieged in the Castle of Vincennes, close to Paris, and who had lost a leg in the siege, One more chance was offered him, but his answer was, “ Je vous rendrai le fort, quand vous me rendrez ma jambe.”’ [I'll give you up the castle when you give me back my leg.] Well, our Wiltshire heroine’s reply, when summoned to give up Wardour, was this :— “T have a command from my husband to keep it, and I shall obey his command.” She stood out for five days most bravely; but having so few people, the very maid-servants being obliged to help in loading the guns, a great part of the castle having been blown up by a mine, and another mine being ready to blow up the rest, it was hopeless to continue the struggle, but she still refused to sur- render, unless upon written conditions, that all lives should be spared, and no damage done. The original document so written is still preserved at Wardour. The first condition was observed, but not the second. Lady Arundell was 60 years of age at the time of this event. There is a portrait of her at the Duke of Beaufort’s house at Badminton.
We have in this county a partial claim to another heroine, who has earned undying memory in the history of England, the lady who, as Miss Jane Lanz, risked her life in assisting King Charles II. in his escape from Boscobel, after the battle of Worcester. The king, in disguise as her servant, rode on horseback with Miss Janz
_
. . , :
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, P.8.A. 43
sitting behind him on a pillion, after the style of those days, all the way from Staffordshire to Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire. They had many very narrow escapes. She afterwards married Mr. Edward Nicholas, one of a very old Wilts family, and lived and died at Manningford Braose, beyond Devizes, where there is in that Church a@ monument with an inscription recording this event.
Akin to female bravery is female audacity ; and of this there are two or three cases on record, relating, as might be expected, to persons of a lower class of life than those which have been mentioned. But the spirit is the same; though the circumstances less dignified.
In military history there are several instances of women having
contrived to pass themselves as men and serve as soldiers in the
army. About one hundred years ago, a young Wiltshire woman, having dressed herself in man’s clothes, was taken by a press-gang at Salisbury to serve in the fleet, at the beginning of the American War. She remained in the service till August, 1780, when she was taken up for a street row as one of the principals in a pugilistic combat, and discovered. She had assumed the name of John Davis, alias something else. Now all this is low enough, but had this woman been born under a more fortunate star, Nature had qualified her to be a Joan of Are.
About the same date, one Mary ABranam, alias Mary SANDAL, of Baverstock, near Salisbury, actually assumed the dress and equip- ment of a mounted highwayman. She practised the “stand and deliver” business in that neighbourhood once too often, and was tried at the assizes in 1779. What rendered her daring the more remarkable was, that she took up the calling of a highway-woman
_ just after the execution of the notorious Thomas Boulter, of Poulshot,
who had been the terror of the county, and whose exploits are not quite forgotten yet.
A third instance of female audacity—or rather, this time, of impudence—is that of Annz Simms, of Studley Green, near Bremhill. She was a most noted poacher, and till past the age of a hundred years often used to boast of having sold at gentlemen’s kitchen- doors fish taken out of their own ponds. Almost to the last she would walk to and from Bowood, about three miles from Studley
44, The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History.
Green. Her coffin and shroud she had kept in her apartment for more than twenty years.
To these instances of audacity is to be added one of eccentricity.
In 1776 died Julian Pobjoy. She was born at Warminster, or the neighbourhood, and used to boast that she was related to the Beckfords of Fonthill. She was a woman of “ strong mind,” and, in the days of Beau Nash mingled in the fashionable and dissipated society of Bath. In later life she returned to Warminster, and lived—with a little dog—in a hollow tree! How that was managed, and how a lady who had moved in Bath drawing-rooms contrived to lodge in such a place, she only could tell. One would say it was a case of eminent insanity ; but it does not appear to have been so. She was always scrupulously clean and neatly dressed, and never went abroad without her dog under her arnt. She got her livelihood as general errand-bearer, and used to walk many miles a day col- lecting herbs for the apothecaries. She was the chief medium of communication between Longleat and Warminster.
Glancing back over the list of names that have been mentioned, I can only say that these are really all I have been able to meet with in books about Wiltshire; so that we have some eminent for their piety, some for their valour, and some—for their oddity.
You naturally say—Surely there must have been many more? About that there can be no doubt; but if you would know the reason why we do not hear of them, you shall have it in the words of the author of “ Curiosities of Literature,’ Mr. Isaac Disraeli, father of the late Lord Beaconsfield :—
“The nation has lost many a noble example of men and women acting a great part on great occasions; and we may be confident that many a name has not been inscribed on the roll of national glory, only from wanting a few drops of ink. Such domestic annals may yet be viewed in the family records at Appleby Castle, in Westmoreland. Awnneg, Countgss or PemBROKE”’ (a Wiltshire lady for a short time by residence) “ was a glorious woman, the descendant of two potent northern families, the Veteriponts and the Cliffords. She lived in a state of regal magnificence and independence, in- habiting five or seven castles; yet though her magnificent spirit
eo
SS ee
——
——
<< =
Notes on Wiltshire Geology and Palaontolgy. 45
poured itself out in her extended charities, and though her indepen- dence equalled that of monarchs, yet she herself, in her domestic habits, lived as a hermit in her own castles. Though only acquainted with her native language, she had cultivated her mind in many parts of learning; and as Dr. Donne, in his way, observes, she knew how to converse of every thing; from predestination down to slea-silk. Her favourite design was to have materials collected for the history of those two potent northern families to whom she was allied ; and at a considerable expense she employed learned persons to make collections for this purpose from the records in the Tower, the Rolls and other depositories of manuscripts. She had three large volumes fairly transcribed. Anecdotes of a great variety of characters, who had exerted themselves on very important occasions, compose these family records, and induce one to wish that the public were in pos- session of such annals of the domestic life of heroes and of sages who have only failed in obtaining an historian.”
Alotes on Wiltshire Geology and Palwontology.
By Caries Moozz, F.G:S.
HAVE selected the above as a suitable title for my address
to you at this meeting, not that I am a Wiltshire geologist, or that my experience of the district is sufficient to make me master of the subject; but now that there is such a multiplicity of kindred societies, papers should, as far as possible, have a local bearing upon their respective areas. But if anyone may be permitted to break through this reservation it may be allowed to the geologist, as he _ has a wide field of observation ; and physical conditions but feebly represented in one locality may necessitate references to similar phenomena in which they may be more devoloped in others by which it is surrounded.
46 Notes on Wiltshire Geology and Palaeontology.
I have had more than forty years’ experience in my native county of Somerset, and still doubt if another lifetime would exhaust the marvellous history which, when minutely studied, is to be read within its borders; for, with few exceptions, there are to be found the representatives of almost every geological formation. Occasional rambles’across its borders into Wiltshire have, however, enabled me to refer to a few points that may be of interest.
Meeting your Society in the town of Bradford-on-Avon, I ought not to forget making a reference to a former townsman, the Jate Mr. Channing Pearce. He was one who as a geologist was far in advance of his time, and blessed as he was, in addition to acute geological observation, with ample means to forward his tastes, had assembled before his death one of the most interesting geological collections out of London ; and, had he lived, would probably have been the historian of Wiltshire geology and paleontology. He was my first geological friend, and for some time we corresponded without having had a meeting. When it came it was a curious one. The little town of Ilminster—where I lived—before the advent of railways, was the high road for travellers into the West of England. Without any notice or introduction an individual, throwing open the doors of the room where I was sitting, rushed in, out of breath and bespattered with mud, asking hurriedly, “ Are you Charles Moore?” My first conviction was that he was an escaped lunatic, but the explanation came that he was Channing Pearce, of Bradford, who, whilst the coach-horses were being changed, had found his way to me, but had lost his equilibrium in turning a corner on the way.
The great variety found in Somersetshire geology, and many of its peculiar physical characters are chiefly due to the uplift of the Mendip range. There is no doubt that the paleozoic rocks of which these hills are composed where they disappear, near Frome, pass beneath the secondary beds of Wiltshire, and continuing under London, where their presence has been proved by a boring of 1050 feet, come again to the surface on the other side of the channel ; the carboniferous limestone and the coal measures being found in the Boulonnais, and there is, therefore, every reason to believe that the
By Charles Moore, F.G.S8. 47
rocks forming the eastern edge of the Somersetshire coal basin in its passage to the north lie under the secondary rocks of this district. _ The basement limestone beds, but without any superimposed coal, _ were found in a sinking at Batheaston, and they reach the surface in a small uplift, under Lansdowne, and at Wick, clearly indicating the eastern outline of the basin; it is therefore quite possible that in the foldings of these beds, the coal measures may be somewhere present under Wiltshire. Within my recollection several ill-advised
_ and abortive attempts to find coal have been made. In two instances shafts were commenced in the Oxford Clay, one of the upper beds of the oolites, and were all the beds between it and the carboniferous series present in their normal thicknesses, it is probable several thousand feet would have to be passed through before the latter could have been reached. The experimental boring put down at _ Netherfield, near Battle, Sussex, proved that at that spot the q Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays were nearly 2000 feet in thickness, _ though this was probably an exceptional thickness. At Kimmeridge the latter are about 600 feet thick.
The palzozoic rocks under Wiltshire are hidden by a wide-spread development of secondary formations, which, in ascending order, include the following :—
Upper Lias é Kimmeridge Clay Inferior Oolite Portland Oolite Fuller’s Earth Purbeck Beds Stonesfield Slate? Lower Green Sand Great Oolite Gault Bradford Clay Upper Green Sand Forest Marble Chalk
Cornbrash Tertiary Beds
a Oxford Clay Post Pliocene Drifts and Coral Rag Brick Earth.
s. Some of these, especially the Bradford Clay, the Cornbrash, and Forest Marble, are but thin and local, and though useful as divisions, do not exercise the same influence on the general physical characters
of the county as the bold escarpments of the chalk, or the level plains of the Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays. This may be said
48 Notes on Wiltshire Geology and Paleontology.
also of the Inferior Oolite and the Upper Lias, which, in this part of the county, are only seen at Limpley Stoke and Freshford.
For this reason, although the latter are, when well exposed, crowded with organic remains, some of them of much interest, no reference is needed to them here, and the same may be said of the Fuller’s Earth,
The Great Oolite above has the first claim to our attention, more especially as its freestone forms one of the staple trades of Bradford and its neighbourhood. Its beds are composed either of minute calcareous egg-like non-organic concretions, or of comminuted shells, reunited by a calcareous paste; included in which are various forms of contemporary mollusca, occasional teeth of fishes, whose carti- lagenous skeletons have altogether perished, with a mixture of corals, bryozoa, &e. Although these remains are repeatedly to be observed in the beds of this district, they are not to be compared in richness with those of the Gloucestershire Cotteswolds, which have yielded more than four hundred species. But the paleontological character of the Great Oolite at Bradford is redeemed by one most interesting organism, the Apiocrinus rotundus, or Pear Encrinite. Whilst the Great Oolite was being deposited, or rather at a period of rest after deposition, there lived at Bradford a colony of these interesting creatures. They are chiefly confined to the upper surface of the beds, to which they were attached by a broad or sucker-like base ; from this sprang a stem composed of a number of disc-like plates, on which the pear-shaped body was superimposed, and in the centre of which the mouth of the animal was placed. On its outer edge a series of flexible many-jointed arms was arranged, ever ready to seize and convey to its mouth any unwary creatures that came within their reach. This colony of gracefully-waving organisms would have been an interesting one, when living, for a naturalist to have looked down upon, especially as very few of the family now exist. After living as I have described, a change came and they were all destroyed by an irruption of mud into the sea, the deposit being geologically known as the Bradford Clay. It is very local, and scarcely to be recognized elsewhere, even at Hampton Down, near Bath, although a few scattered encrinital plates are found, the
a
By Charles Moore, F.G.8. 49
clay deposit is wanting, and in its stead succeed the Great Oolite ragey beds, composed almost entirely of corals and sponges, whilst clustering amongst them were many interesting forms of Oolitic Brachiopoda. These are to be met with—though not so abundantly —at Box, and in the quarry openings at Monkton Farleigh and elsewhere. They have yielded to myself a rich harvest, including many forms new to science. This important family has in past geological time yielded in the aggregate many thousand species, whilst in the present seas only about one hundred species are known. Some of them contain in their interiors a wonderfully delicate spire or loop, which served during the life of the animal to support its softer parts. All genera have their special animal forms and the processes differing internally in each genus—though in the same species they are usually alike. A curious variation from this law, however, occurs in the Zerebratella Buckmani. In dissecting this shell, which occurs in the Great Oolite of this district, for its in- ternal structure, I found that the calcareous processes differed materially, apparently altering in form, during its several stages of growth, a fact not hitherto noticed in any other member of this family. Another of this group—the Zhecidium—was a few years back only represented by two species, one in the Green Sand, and another in the chalk, whilst only one species was known in our recent seas—recently, however, increased to two or three. It had its largest life development in the secondary deposits of which I am speaking, and I have been fortunate enough to obtain from our Oolitic beds alone as many as twelve new species.
The Forest Marble, which succeeds the Bradford Clay, was for- merly raised at Wormwood and Atford for roofing tiles, but has since been almost superseded by lighter material. For palonto- logical reasons this seems a pity, for they yielded the enamelled tecth of many fishes whose cartilagenous skeletons have perished, and with them occasionally the teeth of reptilia, including Teleosaurus and Megalosaurus.
The Cornbrash is usually a persistent rock-bed in succession, and has its characteristic fossils. It is found atCorsham and near Malmesbury. The Kelloway Rock, which follows, occurs at the village of that name, _ VOL, XX,—NO. LVIII. E
50 Notes on Wiltshire Geology and Palaontology.
The Oxford Clay, next in order, is continuous from the Dorsetshire coast all the way to Scarborough ; and extended through Wiltshire as a level belt, occasionally five or six miles broad, and having a thick- ness of about 600 feet. It consists chiefly of thinly laminated marls, which are seldom opened up, except in pits for brick-making. Owing to this much is lost to the paleontologist, as the beds are crowded with organic remains, many of which are of high interest, and include Ichthyosaurus, Pliosaurus, and Steneosaurus, many of large size. But the harvest times as regarded this formation were in the days of my friend Pearce, for then the Great Western Railway was in course of construction, and on either side of the line between Chippenham and Wootton Bassett pits may be seen—now mostly filled with water—from which the laminated marls were extracted be- low a covering of mammal drift gravels. These marls were crowded with Ammonites, the shells of which still possessed their perfect terminations, a feature rarely seen in other formations. Belemnites —the internal shells of an animal allied to the cuttle fish—abounded, and the cuttle fish also, so perfect that its cuttle bone remains, its original fluid ink is preserved, and on its extended arms are still arrayed the horny hooks and suckers used in capturing its prey. Another unique specimen, from Christian Malford, was a colony of barnacles, that still remained attached to its stalk. Crustacex of peculiar form and fish were also plentiful. Had I been a landowner on the Oxford Clay I should long since have been tempted to open some pits for the ancient natural history they would have revealed.
In most of the beds containing Ammonites a curious triangular bivalve body is found called Trigonellites. It occurs in the Oxford Clay, but more plentifully in the Kimmeridge beds. They are more often found free, but occasionally in the outer chamber of the Am- monite itself. No organism, probably, has been a greater puzzle to palzontologists. By some authors they have been supposed to be bivalve shells, and named Aptychus, Munsteria, and Cirripedes—by others the gizzards of the Ammonite, or the operculum of that shell, the last view being that now generally adopted, though I have some reasons for believing that eventually this will not be found correct.
By Charles Moore, F.G.S. 51
Between the Oxford and the Kimmeridge Clays there are inter- posed beds of lower and upper calcareous grits, separated by a deposit known as the Coral Rag, typical examples of which are to be found near Farringdon, and at Lyneham, Wootton Bassett, and Steeple Ashton. The latter represents a true coral reef of the secondary period. Some of the corals are in beautiful preservation. At Steeple Ashton good collecting ground may be found in the arable fields, the plough sometimes touching the surface of the reef, and thereby bringing the corals to light. Calne, which is on this formativn, was formerly a celebrated locality for Echini. It is not usual for the long spines of this family to be still found in a fossil state attached to their shells, but this used to be the case at Calne, and indicated that they had a very quiet entombment. Examples in this condition are now more rarely found. Lyneham has been to myself an interesting locality, as I have found there three species of Thecidide, the 7. ornatum, Moore, and the TZ. pygmaeum, Moore, being hitherto confined to that locality. There are also examples of the minute but exceedingly beautiful shells of Foraminifera, one of which, an Jnvolutina, is probably a new species. Carpenteria, another of the family, is worth notice. Until lately it was only known as a recent marine organism. I have recently found it in the Green Sand brought up from the Meux well boring, 1000 feet under London, and since then at Lyneham, but its life-history has yet to be traced through intervening deposits to the present time. Like others of this family it obtained its food by means of minute openings in its shell, through which its pseudopodia were projected, which appear to have seized everything within their reach. In some recent specimens minute silicious spines, which must have proved very indigestible morsels, have been found in their chambers.
The Kimmeridge Clays which follow are interesting in connection with Wiltshire geology. They extend throughout the county to
the hamlet of Kimmeridge, on the Dorsetshire coast, whence they take their name. I have before remarked on their great thickness
im the Sussex boring. Some beds are so mineralized and bituminous
as to be used by the villagers on the coast for fuel. They contain
large quantities of oil, which it has been hoped might eventually be } E2
52 Notes on Wiltshire Geology and Paleontology.
extracted, and more than one company has been formed for utilizing it for gas manufacture and for paraffine. Hitherto one difficulty is insuperable, arising from the fetid odour it emits when heated. Ship-loads of it were sent to some London gas works, and to France, the stench soon made itself perceptible in the neighbourhood of the works, and the proprietors were compelled to cease using it and would have been only too glad to have paid return freights to have got rid of the material. Could this difficulty be overcome its commercial value may be seen when it is stated that whilst New- castle coal gives 8,000 feet of gas per ton, with an illuminating power equal to twelve candles, Kimmeridge Shale gives 12,000 cubic feet of gas per ton, with an illuminating power of eighteen candles. At Swindon these clays are used for brick-making. They contain an abundance of organic remains, though of but few species and those usually much crushed and distorted. The shells of the Ammonites still retain all the nacreous colours of the rainbow. The liassic period has usually been called the “age of reptiles,” but if the Kimmeridge Clays were as extensively worked they would vie with it for this designation. Some of the genera living at the period must have been formidable creatures. Not long since remains of a new genus, named by Professor Owen, Omosaurus armatus were found at Swindon. Great care was exercised in the removal of the septarian-like stone in which they lay and in their after development. It contained the pelvic portion of the animal with limb bones and some of its vertebra, and so far as it goes it is a grand specimen, the femur alone is 34 feet in length. The lower jaw of another genus, Pliosaurus, was for a long time stowed away undeveloped at the Swindon works, until stumbled upon by Mr. Cunnington. I have found part of a jaw near Melksham, and the genus is found also at Kimmeridge. A tooth of this creature has been found a foot long. Bothriospondylus, Cetiosaurus, Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Teleo- saurus, and Steneosaurus also occur in this formation.
The Portland and Purbeck beds, which overlie the Kimmeridge Clay, are the upper members of the Oolitic series, and present a re- markable contrast with the latter. The physical conditions under which they were deposited must have been very different, for the
By Charles Moore, F.G.S. 53
Kimmeridge Clay is almost entirely argillaceous, whilst the Portland Sands are as distinctly arenaceous. These pass into the limestones
of the series, and all are marine. But the Purbeck beds above are
’ either brackish or have been deposited by fresh water. The con- sequence of this has been an almost entire change in organic life, which could only have been brought about by a great lapse of time in their formation. They have but small development in Wiltshire, occurring as outliers at Bourton and Swindon, and again at Chicks- grove and Tisbury. At Portland, and on the coast at Swanage, they have their chief development, the Purbeck beds alone—which at Swindon are but about 10 feet thick—being there estimated at 300 feet. These beds, including those of the Wealden above, with which they are intimately associated, have in their full development
a thickness of 2500 feet, and Professor Ramsay suggests that they are the lagoon or delta of an immense river then continuous through a continent as large as Asia, rivalling in size the Ganges or the Mississippi. That it was bounded by dry land, which now seems to have entirely disappeared, is evidenced by the fact that its in- significant representative at Swindon has yielded to me the remains of terrestrial marsupial mammals, reptiles, insects, and vegetation, that were caught up and re-deposited by its waters. On the Dorsetshire coasts the Purbeck beds have yielded not less than ten genera and and twenty-five species of land animals. How interesting it would be if we could go back and stand upon the banks of this mighty river and realize all the physical changes it would indicate ! I need scarcely say that crowded as are the Chalk beds of this country with organic remains, there is still good work to be done with them. Warminster and its neighbourhood has always repaid examination. As I have not worked in these beds I must pass on and shall only refer to conditions immediately preceding or contem- poraneous with the dawn of our own era. At this time, though no 4 doubt there have been some modifications in the outlines of our hills and valleys, their forms were generally what they now present. But their climatic conditions were altogether different; periods of ex- _ treme cold, with alternating intervals of higher temperature. These are included in the Glacial Period, within which were deposited our
54 Notes on Wiltshire Geology and Palaontology.
river gravels, and cave earths, and the brick clays and loams, in all of which are found abundantly the remains of mammalia, now ex- tinct. Within a mile-and-a-half of Bradford T have found in the gravels near the railway Hlephas primigenius, Ovibos moschatus, now known only within the Arctic circle, Rhinoceros, &c., whilst in the illustrative Blackmore Museum, at Salisbury, Reindeer, Marmot, Lemming, and other Arctic genera may be seen. The works of man indicate his advent at this period, but we still desire a fuller know- ledge of early man himself. This will, without doubt, come. But I have detained you too long, and will conclude by saying that the Oolitic table-lands of this district indicate the very latest periods of intense cold which this county experienced. Fresh water deposits oc- cupied the summits of the hills around. This is only to be accounted for by periodic accumulations of frozen snow in the long winters. As these melted the water passed down through the numerous fissures to be found in the great Oolite, filling them, as is often the case, with an ochreous muddy deposit, carrying with it the bones of animals of a more recent period than those previously referred to, whilst large glaciers were also detached from the sides of the valleys to melt in the lower levels, carrying with them moraine materials derived from the higher grounds. The fissures referred to often contain the bones of animals of this later period. Thus at least 200 feet above our present rivers I have repeatedly found Arvico/a or Water Rat. At Monkton Farleigh at one spot I found about half a cart-load of the dismembered bones of Frogs. At Combe Down I found the entire skeleton of two horses, and at Box, 60 feet below the surface, the limb bones and vertebre of Bison, which, though now extinct, lived on to these later times.
55
Some Alotes on Gainsborough and his connection | - with Bradford.
By Freperick Suvm, F.S.A.
T was not until the year 1829, in the city of Rome, that the
\ first archeological institute was formed. Since then nearly
every country in Europe has followed suit, and in England almost
every county has a society, the main object of which is the study of antiquity in connection with local researches.
These provincial associations have directly and indirectly accom- plished much good, not only in giving a zest to archeological pursuits, and in promoting topographical inquiries, but by recording the relics of the past in accurate memoirs and faithful drawings, as well as by affording pecuniary assistance to preserve these relics from material decay, and in some instances offering friendly remon- strances to save them from ruthless destruction.
: Foremost among these is the Wiltshire Archeological Society. _ This county is rich in the possession of antiquarian objects of pre- ° eminent interest, and is equally celebrated for a succession of distinguished antiquaries, who, since the days of Aubrey, have been connected with it. Many localities in England, formerly unnoticed, and apparently devoid of interest, have become famous, and, in not a few of them, remains of great value have been discovered, and
secured for the interest and instruction of future generations.
The stimulus thus given may, in some cases, have been abused ; the zealous archzologist is sometimes wont to invest his own par- ticular neighbourhood with fictitious interest and exaggerated im- portance. Visitors’ guides and strangers’ handbooks afford abundant evidence of what I mean—to read them is often a trial of great patience; what little interest there may be in the natural history, geology, or antiquity of the place is so magnified, and the reference to any historical incidents or personages connected with it so far- fetched, as to excite only ridicule and contempt. Fortunately, there
56 Some Notes on Gainsborough and his connection with Bradford.
is no visitors’ guide-book to Bradford-on-Avon, and so long as Canon Jones remains the vicar it will be unnecessary ; every stranger may find in him, not only a safe and accurate guide, but one always ready to impart information relating to objects of interest in this quaint and picturesque town.
It may, however, be objected] that in occupying your time and attention with a paper on recollections of Gainsborough in Bradford, I am myself guilty of claiming for this locality an interest in the great modern artist to which it is not entitled. The question may be asked, “‘ What connection is there between Bradford and Gainsborough,a man of mark, who was neither born nor buried here?” The few notes now submitted will be my answer, and if it can be shown that there resided in Bradford a man whose force of character and remarkable physiognomy attracted the notice and secured the friendship of Gainsborough, and that in this place he executed a work that has ever since been regarded as an example of the highest style of portraiture, and is still considered by the best judges to be Gainsborough’s masterpiece—if, moreover, it is found that the singular beauty of this valley brought Gainsborough from time to time to Bradford, to make sketches for some of his most charming landscapes, I think this town may not unfairly claim some connection with the great master—a connection more noteworthy than the circumstance, even if it could be affirmed, that he was either born or buried here.
The memoirs of Gainsborough are full of interest, on account of his residence in Bath when that city was in the heyday of its prosperity, and from the fact that he was—apart from his works— a notable character, a musician as well as an artist, possessing many admirable qualities with not a few eccentricities. But it is not my present purpose to give a recital of his life, only to refer you to a few passages in his history.
It will be in your recollection that Gainsborough was a native of Sudbury, in Suffolk, a town about the size of Bradford-on-Avon, and somewhat similar in character; memorable for its antiquity and early ecclesiastical remains, rich in picturesque old buildings, and surrounded by scenery of more than ordinary beauty. Both places
By Frederick Shum, F.8.A. 57
were celebrated for the manufacture of woollen cloth, before its in- troduction into other parts of England; Sudbury, however, has ceased to be a manufacturing town, while Bradford maintains, to some extent, its wonted reputation.
He was born in 1727, thirty years after Hogarth, who is entitled to rank as the first great English artist ; for—unlike his predecessors and contemporaries—Hogarth ignored and despised the convention- alities of foreign art; thoroughly original and independent, he was free from all trammells, and, in theory and practice, he persistently resisted a servile imitation of the “Black Masters.” In the characters of these two distinguished masters there was little in common, still less in their works. Englishmen were only just be- ginning to know something about art and to appreciate its value. Hogarth and Gainsborough were both pioneers in the struggle for the emancipation of art from the thraldom of an artificial and debased foreign style. Their one aim and endeavour was to depict objects as they really appear, and to portray Nature simply and truthfully.
Strange to say, the lapse of one hundred and fifty years has brought us to the opposite extreme; and just as Foote, in his comedy of “Taste,” performed at Drury Lane in 1752, ridiculed the affected mannerism and artificialities of art then prevalent; so now, at the present time, the play-writers of the day, Burnand and Gilbert, are satirising, with merciless severity, the aestheticism now in fashion, which treats the simplest object in Nature as almost divine and worthy of devout admiration ; introducing into the very dress and conversation of everyday life, a style and jargon that every manly intellect cannot but despise as repugnant alike to common sense and good taste. It is a source of consolation, however, that there is this difference between the past and the present. Jn the former, all the patrons and professors of art were under the baneful influence; whereas, now that the knowledge and culture of art is so widely ex- tended, the number of those who render themselves and their works grotesque, by caricaturing the simplicity of Nature, is limited to a few morbid and conceited artists, who, hankering after notoriety, are bringing true art into contempt, by apeing simplicity and distorting - truth, under the pretence of realism, Of course they have their
58 Some Notes on Gainsborough and his connection with Bradford.
following—young men about town, assuming the function of art- critics—strong minded ladies, with ample courage to pose in very little or in any, even the most fantastic costume, who “ soulfully intense,” converse in words and phrases too “ unutterably utter” to describe; and last, although not the least important, the newly- created professors of the nineteenth century—the art decorators.
Early in life Gainsborough manifested a genius for drawing, and of him, as of many other precocious painters, well-known anecdotes are current. Perhaps the most characteristic, and the only one I need repeat, is connected with his school-life, showing, that his love of Nature at an early age was stronger than his reverence for truth. When a boy he loved to sketch from Nature, and one bright morning his anxiety to go sketching tempted him to forge a note from his father, in the customary form, to his school-master, ‘ Please give Tom a holiday.” The request was granted, and young Gainsborough, rejoicing in the glorious sunshine, fled to the fields and lanes with his drawing-book, but, on returning, found that his father having required his services at home had sent for him, when the forgery was detected. His father angrily exclaimed, “Tom will one day be hanged,” but no sooner had his mother exhibited the clever sketches of her truant son than old Gainsborough, with mollified tone, declared that “'Tom would one day be a genius.”
In his fifteenth year he was sent to London, and we learn from his biographer, in the Gentleman’s Magazine, that he received in- structions from Gravelot, the engraver, who procured his admission to the academy in St. Martin’s Lane. He afterwards studied under Hayman, and at the end of three years ventured upon a studio for himself, in Hatton Garden, where he painted landscapes and portraits for the dealers. The deplorable state of art in the schools at that period exercised its pernicious influence upon him, and his earliest works showed little genius or skill. Fortunately for his future reputation the London studio was not a success. After twelve months’ trial he returned to his native county, and for fifteen years carefully, conscientiously, and devotedly, studied Nature amid the pleasant scenery of Suffolk, under every possible variety of aspect ; realising a moderate income without gaining more than a provincial
By Frederick Shum, P.8.A. 59
reputation. Shortly after his return from London, in 1745, at the early age of eighteen, he married a young lady scarcely sixteen.
Allan Cunningham, in his pleasant stories of the English painters, gives a romantic account of their first acquaintance, which Fulcher, in his biography, cruelly mars by a prosaic explanation. After careful inquiries, I believe the more poetical version to be equally accurate. However, the union wasa happy one. Miss Margaret Burr, in addition to her beauty and £200 a year, possessed many estimable qualities, and among them caution, forbearance, and judg- ment: characteristics of inestimable value in after life, for Gains- borough lacked them all. She was of Scottish extraction, and is generally believed to have been the natural daughter of an English prince ; this was admitted by Mrs. Gainsborough, after her husband had attained fame and position.
An enthusiastic lover of Nature, a clever musician, warm-hearted and impulsive, full of wit and humour, with intelligence and con- siderable conversational powers, handsome presence, genial manners and unaffected simplicity, he was welcomed in all circles. He became a general favourite with his fellow-townsmen in Ipswich, as well as with the neighbouring gentry. But he was a student and a lover of his art; conscious of his power and determined to excel, for he had much to learn and not a little of his London art to unlearn.
Towards the close of his residence in Ipswich he made the ac- quaintance of an extraordinary character, Ralph Thicknesse, Governor of Landguard Fort, who, on the title-page of his singular production styled himself late Lieutenant-Governor of Landguard Fort, “ un- fortunately,” father of George Touchet, Baron Audley. During the winter season Thicknesse resided in Bath at St. Catherine’s Hermitage, in a picturesque dell, facetiously named by his friend, ‘Lord Thurlow, Gully Hall. Here in his garden, where Saxon and Roman remains have been found, he erected a monument in memory of Chatterton, and beneath it interred the remains of his own daughter; hard by, with strange incongruity, he placed the body of his old travelling carriage, in which he had traversed the continent of Europe. There it remained many years, a curious memento of his vagaries and eccentricity. He was a man of great notoriety
60 Some Notes on Gainsborough and his connection with Bradford.
in his day; descended from an ancient family, and with high con- nections, he had a wide circle of acquaintances in every part of England, to a great number of whom he introduced his friend and protegé, Gainsborough. With much of the Napier eccentricity he lacked the Napier ability; in his slandering propensities he resembled Walter Savage Landor in his dotage, but compared with him in intellect he was an ignorant coxcomb. He was a great traveller but a scurrilous author; cacoethes scribendi his besetting weak- ness. He toadied to the rich and patronised the poor. He was insufferably egotistical, vain, ambitious, poor and proud, affected, fussy, and quarrelsome ; with a commanding presence and good natural abilities, he was cursed with so evil a temper, that, bereft of friends, beloved by none, and detested by not a few, he died a miserable and disappointed man.
This was the singular character under whose early auspices Gainsborough became celebrated. Enough has been said of Gains- borough’s history to show, not only that he had appreciative friends, but that he had confidence in his own powers ; having thrown aside the conventional ideas and practice of his contemporaries, he painted in a style peculiarly his own. So far his life had not been un- successful, and although he had not realised high prices for his works, he had secured a fair income and made great proficiency in his drawing, color, and execution. Thicknesse, however, gave him good advice when he recommended him to migrate to the “ Queen of the West,” and Gainsborough’s acquiescence was wise and politic. If he had declined, and contented himself with the position of an artist in a quiet country town, the name of Gainsborough would never have ranked as one of the great modern painters.
His landscapes would undoubtedly have secured for him the reputation of a true English artist, but he would never have produced those marvellous portraits that worthily compare with the greatest works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1760 Gainsborough arrived in Bath, where he spent the next fourteen years of his life. During this period the celebrity of Bath reached its acmé. Rank and fashion, wealth and royalty assembled there as in no other place; except the metropolis, and since those days no other fashionable resort
By Frederick Shum, F.8.A. 61
has ever acquired such a monoply of distinguished and aristocratic
visitors.
Through the introduction of Thicknesse, Gainsborough soon ob- tained commissions, and the comparatively unknown Suffolk painter at once became famous; his studio was the centre of attraction ; there, might be seen dukes, generals, philosophers, and statesmen: He had more than he could do, and rapidly advanced his prices from five guineas to a hundred guineas.
In an account of Gainsborough, recently published in the series of “Small Books on the Great Artists,” written by Mr. Brock- Arnold in an appreciative spirit, with great judgment and discrimi- nation, it is stated that on his arrival in Bath he rented a house in
the Cireus. This, however, is incorrect ; his first residence was in the centre of the city, afterwards he. lived in Ainslie’s Belvedere, where he had a studio commanding a beautiful view of Hampton
Rocks, and subsequently he occupied a house in the Circus, not
many doors from the Earl of Chatham ; here his rooms were crowded with unsold landscapes, which the fashionable visitors at Bath could not appreciate. Numerous are the anecdotes recorded of Gains- borough in Bath—of the rebuffs he administered to the vain and wealthy people who came to him for their portraits, and desired to be decked out in all their finery ; of his quarrels with the irascible
Governor of Landguard Fort, of his friendship and association with
the actors and musical celebrities, of his passion for music, and of
his versatile genius in playing all sorts of musical instruments,
Bath at that time was noted for its love of music, and its patronage
of the stage. The first musicians of the day were constantly. there,
and as Gainsborough loved music no less’passionately than painting, he invited them to his house, painted their portraits, and treated them with the most genial hospitality. Among them was Fischer, the hautboy player, who married his daughter, and whose portrait is in Hampton Court; Mrs. Siddons, whose portrait is now in the
National Gallery; Abel, Miss Linley, Quin, and Garrick, who
again and again refused to sit until one morning Mr. Wiltshire
beguiled him into his house at Bath, and there held guard over him while Gainsborough commenced a sketch for that noble picture,
62 Some Notes on Gainsborough and his connection with Bradford.
which is generally admitted to be superior to Reynolds’ far-famed portrait of the inimitable mimic and actor.
Of all the portraits Gainsborough painted, whether in Bath or elsewhere, there is not one of greater power and excellence than that of Orpen, the parish clerk of Bradford ; and lest I should detain you too long, I must quit the gay scenes at Bath. Notwithstanding his popularity in the artistic circles of Bath, and the extraordinary “number of commissions for portraits pressed on him by wealthy visitors, landscape painting was his delight; his passion for Nature revived, and the varied scenery of hill and dale around Bath and Bradford became as familiar to him as the Suffolk woods.
I just now mentioned that his house in Ainslie’s Belvedere com- manded a view of Hampton Rocks, which are situated at the entrance of the beautiful valley down which the Avon winds its sluggish course from Bradford, flowing through the charming meadows lying at the base of the Hampton Cliff. This valley had a rare fascination for Gainsborough. On the heights above he was often seen sketching, and one of the crags yet bears the name of “ Gainsborough’s Pallett.” From the opposite side of the valley he could see the mansion of his friend, Mr. Wiltshire, the great London carrier to the West of England, whose name will always be remem- bered in connection with Gainsborough, who spent many pleasant days at his beautiful country seat, and often walked from thence with his drawing materials to Bradford, or rode the grey pony Mr. Wiltshire had given him, through the interesting village of Monkton Farleigh to Bradford.
Wiltshire’s appreciation of his painting, and regard for the man, would not allow him to receive payment for the carriage of his pictures to and from the London exhibitions. Gainsborough handsomely reciprocated his friend’s kindness by presenting him with examples of his finest works, now of inestimable value. The one best known, from its being the property of the nation, and placed in the National Gallery, is the portrait of “ The Parish Clerk.’’ This picture was the result of Gainsborough’s pilgrimages to the picturesque and flourishing little town of Bradford, whither he wandered after leaving his sketching ground on Hampton Down,
By Frederick Shum, F.8.A. 63
or when he rode over from Mr. Wiltshire’s seat at Shockerwick.
Weary of the excitement of Bath Society, and impatient of the jealous and exacting patronage of Thicknesse, he was only too glad of an excuse to come to Bradford ; whether it was to have a chat and another sitting from Orpen, or to sketch the romantic dells at Beleombe and Farleigh, mattered little. In Orpen, he had a capital study ; intelligence, reverence, and simplicity were there, and nobly has he depicted these qualities. It was a labour of love, he reckoned not on the prestige or the pecuniary reward that he derived when painting the portraits of statesmen, or country squires, at Bath. Upon this old man’s head he bestowed as much labour and care as on the Lord Chancellor or Royalty itself. It is exquisitely and carefully painted, the color perfect, the light and shade equal to Rembrandt, while the force and character in the features and ex- pression is not excelled in any of Velasquez’s charming portraits. No one can look upon this admirable likeness without the conviction that the subject was a man of singular ability ; but he was more than this, he was a man of generous instincts, for although by no means rich, he bequeathed his house in perpetuity to his successors in office. The family of Orpen was humble but respectable, and in an old map, now extant, is represented a row of cottages that stood near the centre of the town, called after their name, showing that they were here in the sixteenth century ; they were also owners of some land in the neighbourhood of Farley Castle.
Within a stone’s throw of that interesting and unique relic of Saxon architecture, of which Bradford is not a little proud, may be seen this house in which Orpen lived, and where Gainsborough
_ painted his portrait ; although small, it has some architectural
pretension. It was built by Orpen, but has been somewhat increased in size by the present Vicar; a singular feature marks the front wall of the cottage; two nearly square lights of glass, about 12 inches by 18, are to be seen on either side of the centre window in the first story. What can be the meaning of them? Canon Jones not infrequently puzzles his visitors with this riddle, but they invariably
-“oive it up,” and wait for his solution. It will be remembered
that in the early part of the present century, when England’s
64 Some Notes on Gainsborough and his connection with Bradford.
necessities had well-nigh exhausted the ingenuity of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Pitt, a grievous tax was laid on our windows. Now, as there were all sorts and sizes of window-lights, disputes arose as to what a window really was ; finally it was decided that all lights at a certain distance from each other were liable to be taxed as separate windows. Orpen was equal to the occasion, and by placing these two small loop-hole lights on either side of the centre window, thus reducing the distance, he was rated for one window instead of three; in reality having five lights and paying for one. The cottage overlooks the parish churchyard, and immedi- ately in front of it, underneath a plain stone slab, lie the remains of him whose memory has been long cherished for his intelligence, generosity,and moral worth,and who will still be remembered formany generations yet to come, through the genius and skill of his friend, who has left to posterity so true a likeness of his manly features,
In the National Gallery this picture is named “ The Parish Clerk.” Now, as there are parish clerks and parish clerks, I must take ex- ception to this slight on Orpen, which ignores his identity, and I would suggest a friendly remonstrance be tendered to the trustees from this Association, with a request that Gainsborough’s portrait may be catalogued “ Orpen, the Parish Clerk.”
For one moment I must call your attention to another picture, presented by Gainsborough to Mr. Wiltshire, and said to have been painted from a sketch made in this neighbourhood. Of this painting Gainsborough said, that “it pleased him more than any he had ever executed.” It is called “ The Return from Harvest,” and represents a picturesque-looking waggon, with its driver, returning home at the close of the day. Two of the figures are portraits of his daughters, and one of the horses is a drawing of the grey pony given to the artist by Mr. Wiltshire. This picture is a charming bit of Nature, beautiful in color, and one of Gainsborough’s most characteristic works. At the death of Mr. Wiltshire’s grandson, about twenty years ago, it was purchased for Her Majesty at £3500,
The circumstances, however, that led to the purchase are not generally known. The Queen, when visiting Bath as Princess Victoria, on the occasion of her opening the Royal Victoria Park in
By Frederick Shum, F.8.A. 65
that city, was taken by her mother, the Duchess of Kent, to view the pictures at Shockerwick. Here it was Her Majesty first saw the picture now in her possession. In recording this fact I am only paying a just tribute to the Queen’s good taste and discrimination, in selecting for purchase a work of so much excellence, seen by her when only a girl many years before.
Necessarily imperfect and fragmentary as these notes have proved, for the reasons, first, that the information sought has been difficult to obtain ; secondly, because I considered it undesirable to reproduce —however interesting—incidents concerning Gainsborough, which it is presumed you are familiar with, especially, those details of his later life—of his successful career at Schomberg House, Pall Mall, whither he removed from Bath in 1774, of the singular and melan- choly premonition of his decease, and of that last touching scene, when, anxious to die at peace with all, he sent for Reynolds, with whom he had quarrelled, and who generously came, and bending over him listened to his last whispers, “ We are all going to Heaven
-and Vandyck is one of the party”; nevertheless, it has also been my aim to gather a few local remembrances of a notable man in humble life, the subject of one of our finest national portraits, as — well as to claim for the painter the position of an English artist, second to none of his predecessors or contemporaries, either in portrait or landscape painting, while in the practice of both he was unequalled. In support of this view let me cite two or three sen- tences from the writings of the greatest art-critic of ancient or modern times :—‘ Gainsborough’s power of colour is capable of taking rank beside that of Rubens, he is the purest colourist, Sir Joshua Reynolds not excepted, of the whole English school; with him, in fact, the art of painting did in great part die, and exists not now in Europe. . . . I hesitate not to say that in the management and quality of single and particular tints, in the purely technical part of painting, Turner is a child to Gainsborough. Gainsboroagh’s hand is light as the sweep of a cloud—as swift as the flash of a
beam. Gainsborough’s masses are as broad as the first division in heaven of light from darkness. Gainsborough’s forms are grand, ‘simple, and ideal. In a word Gainsborough is an immortal painter.” VOL, XX.—NO. LYIII. F
66
Some Account of the Parish of Atoukton faurleigh.
By Siz Cuarrtes Hosyovssz, Bart.
CHAPTER I.
SrtuaTIon—CLimaTE—PRODUCTIONS.
=<HE parish is situated on the extreme north-western bend of a) an isolated chain of hills. At the one end of this is the town of Bradford and at the other that of Chippenham. The ground on which the village stands is from 6 to 700 feet in height, the tower on the down being, at its summit, 733 feet above the level of the sea.
G S: (
The village is six miles from Bath, four from Bradford, seven from Melksham, ten from Chippenham, and two-and-a-half from Box; and, standing on Farleigh Down, the landmarks are as follows :—east, the Church tower at Derry Hill, Lord Lansdowne’s ~ tower and the White Horse above Calne, Roundway Down, Devizes, and Etchilhampton Hill; south, Salisbury Plain, Stourton Tower, and the Mendip range by Cranmore and Mells; west, Beckford’s Tower, on Lansdowne, and the hills that descend to the Bristol Channel by Bristol, Clevedon, and Weston-Super-Mare ; north, the high ground towards Malmesbury.
The River Avon and the Box Brook, or Weaver, encircle the hills, at one end of which our village stands, and probably in all Wiltshire there is no place where the combination of scenery—hill and valley, wood and stream, distance and home views—is more varied and beautiful.
“ Perhaps the most striking feature of Monkton Farleigh,” says — Canon Jackson, “ is its geological situation—standing on the down and looking round, the view on all sides is not only beautiful but —
Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh. 67
curious. From the south [east ?] the whole country slopes gradually
upwards from the level of the Avon at Melksham, forming one side
of the basin, along the bottom of which that river flows through
North Wilts. Here the rising ground stops, checked by two deep
valleys, one on the north, the other on the west. Beyond are other
deep valleys, all radiating from one centre—the city of Bath.
“ When the steep sides of the different hills, through which these valleys have been excavated, are examined, their construction and the succession of their strata are found to be the same inall. Just as if you were to scoop out several grooves in a sage cheese, each would shew the same alternations of green and white and the same rind at the top.
“From this conformity there is but one conclusion to be drawn, namely that time was when these valleys did not exist; when the hills, now detached and known by the several names of Farleigh Down, Bathampton Down, Lansdown, Little Solsbury, and Banner- down,! presented one continuous surface. By what process, or at what period of the earth’s history, these enormous cavities were made upon its face, the earth’s own record can best explain, for these were changes that took place before quills and fingers were
invented. Some vast subterranean furnace, still continuing to _ supply Bath with its hot springs, probably raised and cracked the whole of this district, and the waters of the sea, under which it lay,? widened the cracks and formed the valleys.
“The result, so far as Monkton Farleigh is concerned, is that it stands upon the extreme edge of the upper side of the basin of the Avon, on a ridge of high ground, from one side of which springs flow into the Box stream, from the other backwards towards the Avon at Melksham. That ridge or ledge of the basin may be traced for many miles, and between the feeders of the Box stream and the
1The scene of the battle of Badon Hill, where Alfred defeated the Saxons. Camden, v.i., p. 62. _ #T have found many fine specimens of fossilized sea-shells and other fossils of a flinty substance and circular form, such as Britton (p. 61, Wiltshire) describes as found at Swindon and Grittleton, and Mr. Moore, of Bath, has, I understand, made a rich geological harvest out of our soil.
KF 2
68 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
Avon a person may ride from Littleton Drew by Yatton Keynell, Biddeston, Hartham, Rudlow, Chappel-Plaster, Kingsdown, Far- leigh- Beeches, Conkwell, and Winsley, to Bradford, without crossing a brook.”
The rainfall in our parish is considerable, and this and the short distance—not twenty miles as the crow flies—from the sea give a softness to the atmosphere and, occasionally, some days together of thick mist and piercing wind, but there is ever a fresh breeze even in the hottest weather, and usually the climate is bracing and not too cold.
We have sand and clay in the parish, but speaking generally the soil is, I believe, what is known as the stone-brash, and the quarries of freestone are a peculiar feature in the substrata in the upper or west end of the parish.
The earliest mention of these quarries that I know of occurs in the year 1439, when the following entry in regard to them appears in the account No. 26 of the parish of St. Michael, without the north gate, Bath :—et de vij? pro cariagio lapidum ad predictam domum et de iiij4in expensas apud Farley pro meremio.”! But the quarries must have been in work long before that period. Mr. Newman, an experienced builder of Bathford, has examined care- fully the foundation and the interior stone-work of the Priory, which date from the early part of the thirteenth century, and pronounces the whole to be of Farleigh Down stone, quarried out of the now disused quarries.
There are at present no less than ten different quarries at work in the parish, and the outcome of marketable stone is very considerable. This stone has not now, although in earlier days there was an upper stratum which had, the durability of the Box stone, but it is easy to work and is very valuable for use in the interior of buildings. It is sometimes used for exteriors also, but is apt to yield to the frost.
1Mr. Tooke kindly furnished the above extract from the late Mr. Pearson’s accounts of the parish of St. Michael, Bath, page 48, and Mr. Pearson, he says, explains that under the word “meremium’’ was comprehended stone fetched from Farley and other quarries for building purposes.
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 69 CHAPTER II.
ANTIQUITIES.
I shall begin with the days of the Romans, and there is undoubted evidence that our parish was known to and frequented by them.
We abut upon Kingsdown Common, and are only one mile from Bathford, two from Box, and four from Bath, as the crow flies.
That the Romans occupied Bath is, of course, well known, but it may not be so well remembered that a Roman camp existed on Kingsdown, and that Roman villas have been discovered at Bath- ford and Box.!
Thsse facts would lead us to expect to find Roman remains in our parish, and accordingly at the north west angle of it and forming the boundary-line between it and Box parish, are traces of the Roman road from Bath to Marlborough.
“ Across the parish,” says Canon Jackson, “a little northward of the manor house, runs from west to east a certain line which many of our antiquarians consider to have been part of a celebrated boun- dary, called the Wansdyke. Its traces are not very distinct here, but in those places in which it has never been disturbed by the plough, and where it may still be seen (as on the Marlborough Down) in its original perfection, the Wansdyke consists of a high earthen bank with a deep trench running below it on the northern side.
«The name appears to have been of Saxon origin; Wodensdyke, the ditch of Woden, the Saxon name for Mercury, a deity whom there is also no doubt our Saxon forefathers held in the first honor. The name of Wodensdyke is found applied to this ancient line in numerous Saxon charters, so that, so far as the name goes, 1t would seem to be a work of that nation and therefore not older than A.D. 450, the earliest date of the arrival in this country of any wor- shipper of Woden.”
The learned Canon then enters into a discussion as to the antiquity _ of the Wansdyke, and as to the purposes for which it was made, and concludes that, whether the work traceable in our parish be a part
Skrine’s Bathford, p. 23. Aubrey, p. 55.
70 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
of the Wansdyke or no, yet “as a Roman road we may safely ac- knowledge it and as such Sir Richard Hoare has carefully described it.
“In 1819 he employed a party of antiquaries and surveyors to examine, field by field, the Roman road from Bath to Marlborough. It is well known that there were two Roman roads from Bath on the eastern side—one to Cirencester, the other to Marlborough. The former, to Cirencester, came along the present turnpike road to Batheaston, and then continued on by the Foss Lane, as it is still called, to Colerne. But it is not known whether the lower road, to Marlborough, issued from Bath distinctly by itself, or whether for the first two miles one and the same road did not serve for both and forked off at Batheaston.
“ Tf the Roman road to Marlborough issued from Bath distinctly by itself, then it must have come by Sydney Gardens to Bathford, where it must have crossed the Avon by a ford or bridge. The first object of Sir Richard’s exploring party, accordingly, was to try and find any trace of the Marlborough road near the Avon at Bathford. But they found none, nor any signs of Roman road up the side of Bathford Hill, until they came to the top of Ashley Wood, from which point they got upon the scent of their game.*
“ Here, says their report, its elevated ridge becomes visible, having a stone quarry on each side of it,” and forming a boundary between the parishes of Box and Monkton Farleigh. Above this wood the line continues apparent, having an ash tree growing upon it, and a
1 Whether the Roman road and the Wansdyke are one and the same work I do not pretend to say, but a portion of the Wansdyke can still, Mr. Skrine says, be traced in the [Bathford?] meadows “as the landmark of Warleigh manor against Forde in a field called Ash-Hayes,”’ and although Mr. Skrine would, I am sure, be the last person to pit his authority against that of an authority such as Sir Richard Hoare, yet as a resident on the spot and as a gentleman of re- search he is entitled to be heard, and he says “I believe that the old road to Marlborough went straight up the hill, along Court Lane, and through Captain Pickwick’s fields, to the foot of the Common, thence winding up the Farleigh Down. I remember having seen the old road myself, many feet below the path- way and so dangerous to foot passengers that it was filled up by the late Major Pickwick.” Bathford, pages 7 and 10.
2One of these is called “The Shamble Pits,’ and never could have formed any part of a stone quarry.—[C. P. H.]
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 71
wall upon a gentle rise, forming the north boundary of some arable fields for nearly half-a-mile, in the last of which we perceived a barrow, not elevated high above the surface, but of a considerable circumference; it is situated in Charclose” [Chalklease, or Charclays, No. 112, M. F. Tythe Map] “to the south of the road, and distant from it about fifty yards. A stone stile, where heretofore a gateway to Monkton Farleigh House was placed, now stands at the bottom of this field and on the line of road, also some recent plantations ” [No. 140, Tythe Map], “ which continue on the ridge for about one hundred yards. The rise is nearly lost as we entered a large arable field beyond the plantations” [Box parish, piece No. 758, Tythe Map], “it having been lowered by the plough, but still not totally destroyed, and the line corresponding with its ascent to Spye Park at a distance. The road shortly afterwards crosses the present approach to Farley House (Link Lane), near a clump of oak and ash trees” [now gone, but No. 750, Tythe Map], “and enters another large arable field” [Mary’s croft, No. 144, Tythe Map], “leaving Wraxall Copse about fifty yards to the right, but it is searcely discernible, the ridge having been much levelled by the plough. Ata short distance beyond this field it traverses the turn- pike road between Bath and South Wraxall and the swell of road is very evident. Having passed the turnpike road it enters the narrow part of a small enclosure” [Hancock’s piece, No. 145, Tythe Map], “now planted with camomile, and is clearly to be traced at the north end of Wraxhall Copse, the ridge being nearly twelve feet high and having a wall upon it. There was a tradition amongst _ the country people that the Roman causeway was passable through _ the fields, and admitted loads of corn to have been carried upon 4 vine So far Sir Richard Hoare. Canon Jackson goes on :—“ It then continues along a hollow, known by the name of Buleot Lane, and is now beyond the parish of Monkton Farleigh. The Roman roads near Bath have been found to have been constructed, first by a layer of large flat stones, then a foot-and-a-half of earth and rubble, and afterwards a course of small stones, with pavement or pitching stones upon the surface.”
72 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
I have followed the line of this road in accordance with the des- eription above given of it, and I find that it is still traceable, especially in Chalkleaze and at Wraxall Copse (now called Chalk- lands). The pavement or pitching-stones that may have formed the surface of the road are not now perceptible, but the flat-stones that must have formed the foundation are to be traced plentifully, and above them was not simply “ earth and rubble” but a thick layer of good concrete, the mortar as fresh and the concrete in some places as hard as ever.
It is not only here, however, in the extreme north of the parish, that traces of Roman occupation are to be found, but at the extreme south of the parish have been found other traces not less unmis- takeable.
Here, in the hamlet of Farley Wick, is a plantation called In- woods. This is situated on a high cliff, on the road to the hamlet of Conkwell, overhanging the valley of the Avon and commanding a view of Bath. Here are still to be seen large blocks of hewn- stone, the remains evidently of buildings, and here were dug up some Roman coins of the time of the Antonines'—A.D. 142—52.
Canon Jones is of opinion that it was not until eighty or ninety years after the subjugation of Britain by Claudius that the Romans began to visit this part of it. This conjecture, curiously enough, would bring them here exactly in the time of those Antonines whose coins were here discovered.
I may, perhaps, mention that it was circa 1826 that the coins were discovered, and that my informant’s father, who found them, described them as of brass, in an earthen jar, which was broken in the finding, and about “a peck’s weight.”
So the Romans lived and travelled and camped in our midst.
There is a tradition, also, supported by a certain non-natural formation of the ground, which would indicate the site of a British settlement.
East of Link Lane, and commencing in an orchard called Stallard’s Close, is a deep diagonal indentation in the ground,
1 Mr. Powell had some of these in his possession.
MONKTON FARLEIGH. 4PACMENT OF THE PRIORY.
Lind As a pe Weenies
rw ifn i, jets
j jl y aan 1 llr ae 0 OITA OPEC: SOT CATT: THON FL PET el Mai va ull (7 ee MN A OR re WL in tt
om Hi soni : : i i : me ae A) I am 10 ed 2 Ai peer in) z On Tee) 0) Cam wpe ll yy ld
mot wf is mul Ye ay Ne
7 i Ly ; ! TKN oT Ai ue Usa i! uy
ya 2 WH iKTT V zn na tity Yl
an . 71) Np pit ad y “ :
Whiteman &Bass, Atho London
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 73
This stops at a long mound, which meets it at an acute angle in a field called Lower Park Mead. This mound runs east and west; at right angles to it is another mound running north and south, and inside is a hollow of distinct shape and regularity. At the north- east angle of the two mounds are two large upright stones, facing one another, and with eyelets in them as if for the insertion of posts. Corresponding to these stones are exactly similar ones in the ad- joining field called Shepherd’s Leaze.
I state facts, and I venture no comment. It may be a case of * Pretorian here, Pretorian there,” as old Edie Ochiltree has it, but at least there is no one in the parish who, like the said Edie, “ minds the bigging 0’t.”
Although the term antiquity cannot in strict propriety be applied to the events of the twelfth century, yet this seems to me the most suitable place in which to dwell on certain architectural remains in our parish that appertain to that and to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
In his History of the Priory of Monkton Farleigh, published at Devizes, in 1857, Canon Jackson has dealt, I need hardly say in a
most exhaustive manner, with so much of the annals of our parish as are made up of the history of the Priory, and for that history I refer my readers to the learned canon’s book.
But I shall venture to add a few words to his description of “ the Remains of the Priory.” He speaks of a wall which contains “ two very good lancet windows with bold mouldings.”
Of this wall, Mr. Talbot says that “it is of the very earliest pointed work, certainly older than any part of Salisbury Cathedral.” The outer part of it now forms the inner wall of a carpenter’s shop,
_ and I have traced to some extent the foundation of what must have been the interior of the building, of which this wall was a part. From the width and length of these foundations, and from the height of the wall, the building must have been of considerable size. From its position in relation to the manor house and to the ruins of _ the ecclesiastical part of the priory, I am persuaded it formed a part _ of the domestic buildings of the priory—was it the hostelry ?
West of this wall, perhaps a quarter-of-a-mile from it, and in a
74 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
field on a level with the top of the manor house, called Conduit Piece (No. 125 in the Tythe Map) is the stone building called by Canon Jackson “the Monks’ Conduit.” “ From its general ap- pearance, and the great steepness of the roof,’ Mr. Talbot’s im- pression of this is, “that it is a fourteenth century building, with the roof re-constructed.” ?
This covered, no doubt, as Canon Jackson says, “‘ the spring which supplied the convent” of former days, and this still covers the spring which supplies the manor house.
North and east of the manor house I have lately uncovered some foundations and pavements, of which I give a brief account for the purpose of record—Drawing F.
There is first of all a pavement, made partly of encaustic and partly of freestone tiles, which runs east and west. This is bounded on the west and south, and partly perhaps on the north by walls and on the east is discontinued, having been apparently there broken up. This pavement is 7 feet broad, and up to the point at which it now ends is 45 feet long.
Towards the east end and on the north side of this pavement is a space as if for a doorway, and therein js a similar pavement of the same width and 25 feet long. Foundation walls close in this pavement on all sides save at a very narrow space at the south-east corner.
At this corner there was apparently an entrance which led into a chamber 25 feet long and 21-8 feet broad. In this chamber there were no signs of pavement within the space marked @ to 4 on the plan, but north and south of it were foundation stones of a semi- circular form, attached to stone platforms; and at the south-west corner, about 2 feet above the foundation walls, were sills of blue stone returned in the angle. One of the semicircular stones had holes drilled into or through it, as if there had been some fixture on it.
From out the excavations generally were dug the frames of a door and window; some stained or painted glass; many loose tiles, of various patterns; interior mouldings of the twelfth to the fifteenth
1A witness to a Kingston House document of date 1274 signs himself “William deputeo de Farlege ”—William of the Well.
d DOF aXe > Ke
>
BX RBXQRaxar REGS BXSprEX<ShG 7 SZ / SZ y
osedto have fromA
Stone out of postion ‘supp come B
mI (i int
il 8
ee,
S
b> > 2
q
WHE,
OF SITE.
A PORTION
OF
PLAN
———————s ee le
= ,
10 FEET
don
Whiteman&Bass, Atho Ion
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 75
centuries in date; and slabs, one with part of an inscription on it, as of tombstones or screens.
It is well known that certain excavations were made round and about the manor house by Lord Webb Seymour in 1744, and certain others by Mr. Wade Browne in 1844, but I have ascertained, from persons present in 1$44, that the excavations then made were on a different site to those I have described, and neither do these latter at all correspond with those made in 1744,
But there can, I think, be no sort of doubt that the foundations now uncovered appertained to some one part or other of the ecclesi- astical buildings of the Priory. It was, we know, by the monks of St. Pancras, Lewes, that our Priory was built. It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude, that in building they would follow the lines of their mother Priory. It is, I believe the fact, that the various orders of monks usually built on plans peculiar to the particular order. I have a plan of the Lewes buildings, and I find that the ecclesiastical buildings stood to the north, that directly east of these was the churchyard and that west and at a right angle to them stood the domestic buildings.
I have explained in another part of my paper by what means I have discovered the exact sites of the churchyard and of the domestic buildings of the Priory and, these sites ascertained, I should have expected to find the ecclesiastical buildings exactly where the ex- cavations now open would shew them to be. My judgment is that the foundations I have uncovered are cloisters, leading either to the chapter house, of which Layton, in his letter to Cromwell, speaks, or to a mortuary chapel, but I hardly like to venture on any con- jecture, and I submit the various plans which Mr. Adye has kindly drawn of the excavations, and his note thereon, for the consideration of persons better able to judge.
CHAPTER III. Tur History or our Manor.
Our first appearance as a manor is in Domesday,! where I find the following entries :—
Jones’s Domesday for Wiltshire p. 231.
76 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
“Terra Odonis et aliorum Tainorum Regis.” (Land of Odo and other of the King’s Thanes.)
Brictric tenet Farlege et frater Brictric holds Farlege and his ejus de eo, Tempore Regi Ed- brother holds it of him. In the wardi geldabat pro 5 hidis. time of King Edward it paid Terra est 4 carucate. In do- geld for 5 hides. The land is 4 minio est 1 carucata et 4 servi; carucates. In demesne is one et 5 villani, et 3 bordariicum 3 carucate and 4 serfs, and there carucatis. Ibi 20 acre pasture are 5 villans and 3 bordars and et 3 acre silvee. Valet 70 solidos. 3 carucates. There are 20 acres
of pasture and 3 acres of wood. It is worth 70 shillings.
The first recorded ancestor of Brictric was one Alyward, or Aylward Mere, or Meau, a Saxon nobleman of royal lineage, who founded the monastery of Cranbourne in Dorset. To him succeeded filfghar, or Algar, who completed the foundation and Brictric is mentioned as his grandson and a benefactor.
According to Domesday Brictric’s father held upwards of five thousand acres of land in Wiltshire only, whilst Brictric himself held upwards of six thousand eight hundred acres under the Con- queror besides some five thousand three hundred acres more, which he had held under Edward the Confessor. He is said to have had manors also in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucester, and Worces- ter.
He was one of the king’s thanes, 7.e., he served the king in some place ‘of eminency either in the Court or Commonwealth,”? and was a possessor of land in this capacity, and for these services.
He was so far, however, more fortunate than his co-temporary thanes in that he had his “‘ Vates sacer.”
According to this authority, he was sent by Edward the Confessor to the Court of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, in the matter of Earl Godwin. Here he had the misfortune to please the eye of Matilda,
1 Jones’s Domesday, p. 41. * Jones’s Domesday, p. 4.
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 17
Baldwin’s daughter, and the following quaint ballad thus records the disastrous result of the lady’s wooing :—
“A lui la pucele envela messager
Pur sa amur a lui procurer ;
Meis Brictrich Maude refusa,
Dunt elle mult se coruga;
Hastivement mer passa E 4 William Bastard se maria.”
So Matilda woo’d and was refused, and thereafter, when she became Queen of England, smarting, no doubt, under the “ sprete injuria forme,” she is said to have appropriated Brictric’s possessions, and to have thrown him into prison.’
One of his possessions, still called after him, Brixton (or Bricticis- ton)-Deverel, passed undoubtedly to Matilda, but inasmuch as she died before Domesday was compiled, and inasmuch as we still find him, according to Domesday, described as a king’s thane, in pos- session of the largest part at least of the Wiltshire manors which he had held before the Conquest, it cannot be true that Matilda absolutely despoiled him or that she deprived him permanently of either his liberty or his position.
What were the further fcrtunes of Brictric and his family I do not know, but I imagine that he and they were eaten up, as the Zulus say, by that great land-hungerer—Edward of Salisbury. Certainly this individual, whether in his capacity of sheriff of the county, or by private purchase, had in A.D. 1100—or only fourteen years after the record in Domesday—eaten up Brictric’s manor of Trowbridge and Staverton,’ and as certainly, in the year 1125, our manor had passed first into the hands of Humphrey Bohun the second, and from him into those of Humphrey Bohun the third, and had by them been conveyed to the Priory of St. Pancras, Lewes, for the purpose of founding a daughter Cluniac priory in our parish.’
1 Sussex Archeological Coll., v. 28, p. 121. Jones’s Annals of Trowbridge, pp. 5, 6. 2 Jones’s Annals of Trowbridge, pp. 6, 7. 3 Monasticon. Jones’s Annals of Trowbridge, p. 7. Jackson’s History of the Priory and Wiltshire Domesday, p. 64.
78 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
Now the first Humphrey Bohun married Matilda, sole daughter of Edward of Salisbury, and she, on her father’s death, shared his estates with her only brother. Thereafter the manors of Trowbridge and Staverton, as well as that of Farley, pass through her to the priory. It is only, therefore, reasonable to conjecture that they all passed from Brictrie to Edward of Salisbury, and so to our Priory.
There has been a difference of opinion as to whether it was the second or the third Humphrey Bohun who founded our Priory, but my judgment is that the first commenced and the second concluded the foundation.
The charter is styled “Carta Humfridi de Bohun, Regis Dapi- feri, de fundatione Prioratus de Farleighe.” This is evidently the third Humphry Bohun, for the second was never “‘ Regis Dapifer,” but the charter goes on, sometimes absolutely to give and sometimes only to confirm, the gift of properties, and in the case of our parish the gift is only confirmed ; confirmed therefore, I conclude, as the previous gift of the father, Humphrey the second.
There is something very characteristic of the times in this charter, a terseness, brevity and precision, appropriate to the military life of the grantor, and in marked contrast to our manorial deeds of later date and quieter times.
Humphrey and his wife (Margaret, daughter of’ Milo of Gloucester, Earl of Hereford), with consent of their barons and men, give, concede, and confirm (donamus et concedimus et confirmamus) to God and the Holy Mary Magdalen and the monks at Monkton Farleigh, certain properties, for the salvation of their souls and of the souls of those belonging to them. Then follows a concise enu- meration, as thus in the case of our parish :—“ The whole manor of Farley with the Park and every other thing belonging to the same village [villam], save one hide of land which William de IIe holds.” (This hide, by the way, was conveyed in a subsequent charter.)
Contrast this with the conveyance of messuages, hereditaments, tenements, and so on, which I shall have to refer to later on, as made some four hundred years afterwards, and we shall have to
-~
at Se
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 79
conclude that the advantage, except to the scribe! is not with the more modern deed.
Our manor, thus conveyed to the monks, remained in their possession until the dissolution of the Priory, in 1535—a period of four hundred years.
The first spelling of the name is Farlege, then Farley, Farleigh, Monketon-Farley (Leland, 1538), and (valuation of Henry VIII.) Farleigh-Monachorium, a name still given to it in the parish register of October, 5th, 1679.
The affix of Monkton was, no doubt, given by the monks, partly perhaps to distinguish it from the neighbouring parish of Farley- Hungerford, and from that other Farley in Wiltshire, near Salisbury, but principally, no doubt, to mark their proprietorship—as at Monketon in Broughton-Gifford, Chippenham, and other places.
Our monks were large farmers, and our manor was their home farm. There they kept a goodly stock of cattle, sheep, pigs, mules, asses, horses, pigeons, carts, ploughs, wheat, barley, oats, hay, &c., and were served by a considerable number of cottagers, free and customary tenants, and so on.
I have the means of comparing the state of our manor at four distinct periods, viz., in 1086, 1294, 1535, and at the present time, respectively, and I think that such comparison is not without its lessons. :
In 1086 the manor is assessed at five hides, and these, at 160 acres ! to the hide, I will take at 800 acres.
To these are to be added, wood 3 ,,
and pasture 20 ,,
In all 823 ,,
The valuation was seventy solidi, equivalent in weight to about two hundred and ten shillings of our standard.
Attached to these lands were four servi, five villani, and three bordarii, or twelve families in addition to that of the lord, making
1 Canon Jackson’s estimate, Aubrey.
80 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
up, at five to each family of tenants, and ten to the lord, a popu- lation of perhaps seventy souls.
The servi, or serfs, were little, if at all, better than slaves, towards whom the lord’s only obligation was to provide food.
The villani were customary tenants, of the nature of copyholders, paying rent for their lands, but also supplying the Lord with a certain amount of food and labor.
The bordarii were cottagers, whose cottages, furniture, and im- plements were found by the lord, and were resumable on the tenant’s death, and who held a certain quantity of land of the lord, paying rent in kind, in the shape of food for his table.
Our community, therefore, in A.D. 1086 was made up of the lord, as sole proprietor, paying a geld or quit rent to the king; of certain families absolutely slaves to the lord, and of certain other families practically dependent upon him but with a leaven of freedom in the villani, who held subject only to certain customary services.
The second period of which I have any record is the twenty-second Edward I.—A.D, 1294—when I find the following detailed descrip-
tion of the manor, viz. :—
Jardino et Columbas, valued at 20/- 6 Liberi tenentes [freehold] 64/4 3 Villani, who pay per annum, 8/- and whose labor, festivals excluded, is worth 13/- 7724 acres of arable land at 34 Vie On ka 364 ,, of meadow-prati at 2/- 73/- 384 ,, of woodlands valued at 40)-
Total 847 acres and the above items valued at £20.11.5.
This valuation was made when Edward I. was casting about for money, and when he was absorbing alien Priories, such as our own, on the pretext of their paying substantial allegiance to foreign houses in countries with which he was at war.
1 Jones’s Domesday, introduction, p. 1x1.
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 81
It was the king’s commissioners who made the valuation, and on this account and from its approximation in many respects to the valuation of Domesday, it was most probably sufficiently accurate.
It is remarkable that, after a lapse of over two hundred years, there should have been so little variation in the arable cultivation and in the population of the manor and parish.
The arable land is somewhere about twenty-eight acres less in extent than it was. The number of families is three less, but as a community of thirteen monks would probably be within itself a larger family than that of the lord of a manor, the population would still be about equal to the seventy souls of 1086.
On the other hand the pasture land has risen from three to thirty- six acres, and the woodlands from twenty to thirty-cight acres, whilst the status of the population has materially altered for the better.
The servi have entirely disappeared, absorbed perhaps in the domestic servants of the priory; and the bordarii and villani have become, probably under the peculiarly beneficent rule of the monks, practically freeholders, paying rent in money or in labor for the lands and tenements they hold.
Of any oppressive feudal tenure there is no sign, and on the con- trary there is every sign of industry and progress in the improved social position of the population, and in the addition, in so compara- tively short an interval, of a considerable acreage of land to the cultivated area.
The third period is A.D. 1535, when a return of assets and out- goings was made by the last Prior, just before and in order to the dissolution, and we can imagine the feelings of the worthy com- munity, for worthy they had proved to be, when made to sign, as it were, their own death-warrant.
The following are the particulars :— Curia, with garden, pigeonry, and curtilage,
valued at£1.0. 0. 6 Libere tenentium As 38.4.4, 21 Coterelli ps Ay. ohn Se, 8 Villani and their labor, festivals excluded 1.0. 0.
VOL, XX.—NO. LVIII, G
82 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
762 acres of arable land at 34 an acre 9°. LO0P 8: 364 =, of pasture ,, at2/ ,, 8 18 70: 38 _,, of woodland valued at 2. Oe
Total 8364 acres of land and the above is £24 .16 . 0.
Here the interval is two hundred and forty years, and the fol- lowing changes are to be remarked, viz., a small decrease in the area of cultivated land, a small increase in the value of the income, and a very large increase in the population and in the nature of it, the twenty-one coterelli, or cottagers, being a new element.
I imagine that in 1294 the limits of cultivable lands in the manor had been reached, and I conjecture that the ten acres less of arable land in 1535 had been swallowed up in the gardens and cottages of the twenty-one coterelli. The creation of this new and considerable body of villagers was due principally to these facts, that our manor, together with the (then) hamlet of Wraxhall (two hundred:and twelve acres), was the home farm of the Priory, and that the monks had become large proprietors of live and dead stock.'
1Tt is appropriate to our parish history, and it may interest some to know something of the number, the value, and the kind of stock that was in use upon
a farm of about 1049 acres in those days—two hundred and fifty years ago—and I therefore append a tabular statement of it :—
Description. Number or Quantity. Value ofeach. £ 8s. d. £s. 4d, Oxen 69 6/8 23 6 8 Cows 17 5/- 4 5 0 Bulls 1 5/- 0 5 0 Yearlings 11 3/- 113 0 Calves 9 1/- 09 0 Mules 9 5/- 25 0 Asses 5 2/- 010 0 Ewes 100 [6 210 0 Lambs 24 /6 012 0 Porkers 36 [6 018 O Pigs 30 1/- 110 0 * Horses 4 3.8 4
315 41 12 0 Carts 1 3/- 0 3 0 Ploughs 6 6/8 2 0 0 Wheat 69 quarters 5]- 17 5 0 Barley 59 p 3/- 817 0 Oats 100 op 1/4 613 4
—— eee ee
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 83
Assuming the community at the Priory to be perhaps twenty souls in all, and the thirty families in the village to be made up of about five souls to each family, I take the population in 1535 to have been about two hundred and seventy souls, and the cottages to have been about thirty in number, or one to each family.
We now make another leap of two hundred and fifty years and find ourselves in the present day.
The parish is now made up as follows :—
ra Sir Charles Parry Hobhouse, the manor house, &. 685 3 21 Henry Spackman, Esq., lands and quarries 602 1 26 Henry Hancock, Esq., lands 549 1 26 Glebe of the Rector (The Rev, T. H. Tooke) 22 0 8 H. D. Skrine, Esq. (Warleigh, Somerset) 6 0 22 H. Batten, Esq. 4 3 24 Messrs. Antrobus, & Co., brewers 8 0 29 Mr. James Cottle, yeoman, of Farley Wick 2 38 27 Mrs. Whyatt Cottle, widow of Whyatt 0 115 Life-renters under H. Hancock, Esq. 0 2 26
Total acreage 1877 3 24
Whether the lands which in 1535 were situated in (the then hamlet
of) South Wraxall became permanently attached to that or to our
own parish respectively, I do not know; but it is noteworthy, that, whereas in 1535 there were one thousand and forty-nine acres which were in dominio (in demesne) of the Priory in that year, there is
EI-F—E——————— ESS an
Hay a 4-8
—— 38 6 0 Total valuation of “ Bonis et Catallis ” £79 18 O
£s. d
* Chestnut 110 0
Bay 100
Black 013 4
White 0 0
5 N.B.—The mark was 63. 8d,, and was evidently the standard of valuation in large transactions,
T imagine that the novices, at least, and some of the monks, and all the villagers,
assisted in the manual labor, and the total number of laborers would therefore be
about forty. G2
84 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
still very nearly that acreage computed as in demesne or tithe-free. !
This is, as briefly as possible, the history of our parish, extending over a period of eight hundred years, and this it seems to me is very much the history of many such parishes in England.
The comparative independence of the Saxon thane, paying only his geld and his personal services to the sovereign; the state of servitude, almost amounting to slavery, of the villagers, with yet some elements of freedom to be worked out in the future.
The rapacity, mixed with a certain religious superstition, of the followers of the Conqueror, taking without scruple, on the one hand, from the Saxon proprietor, and giving without stint, on the other hand, to the Church, for the benefit of the souls, that, even to their perverted consciences, seemed so urgently to require some expiation.
The mild and industrious rule of the monks, turning the waste lands to profit, rearing flocks and herds, creating new industries, promoting learning and charitable deeds, and gradually emancipating the agricultural laborer from his state of servitude and ignorance to a state of freedom and comparative knowledge.
The spoliation of the industrious community of the monks, with- out sometimes—as in our case—even the allegation of corruption to justify it, and the absorption of their lands and goods for purposes of family and personal greed and aggrandisement.?
1T am unable to account for the difference plus, but I am bound to remark that, this acreage does not correspond with that made for the purpose of the tithe-rent charge commutation on the 26th January, 1842. According to this computation the total acreage was as follows :—
Demesne lands (tithe free) 1034 1 25 Glebe (tithe free if in hand) 25 3 10 Subject to tithes 750 1 25
Total 1810 2 20
2T think it would be useful, as evidence of the motives which led to the dissolution of the monasteries, if enquiry were to be made, perhaps it has been made, into the number of charitable trusts that were absorbed and discontinued when the monasteries were dissolved. The following is the list in our own case :— Distributed to the poor on the anniversary of Humphrey de la Bound £2 0 0 Distributed to the poor, four days in the year, on the foundation and gift of Barthei Bygote, per annum 013 4
Total 213 4
Not an insignificant sum 350 years ago.
eee ee
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 85
And, finally, the disappearance not only of the small freeholder but even of the customary tenant, and the creation of the class of great landowners, absolutely free of their properties, subject only to the burdens deemed requisite for the maintenance of the general commonwealth.
Before quitting this subject of the comparative status of the manor at the various periods mentioned, I cannot pass over one most remarkable fact, viz., the great increase in the acreage of pasture as compared with arable lands. I take it that the eight hundred and thirty-six acres of land that composed the home farm in 1535 in our parish, were all within a ring-fence of the Priory, very much as are now the lands which are attached to the manor house.
Yet in 1535, notwithstanding that the monks had a goodly stock of beasts, sheep, and pigs, the pasture lands were in proportion of only thirty-eight to seven hundred and sixty-two acres of arable.
At the present time, in the manor house division of six hundred and eighty-six acres, the proportion is two hundred and forty-one acres of pasture to two hundred and eighty-seven‘acres of arable land.
I presume that the small quantity of hay and the few acres of pasture were kept for the use of the monks’ horses, mules, &c., and
that the rest of their live-stock was maintained upon the produce of the arable land. :
But as labor became dearer, and arable produce of more value, this must have been found to be an extravagant practice ; and when to this was added the obvious fact, that the capriciousness of the climate rendered it more suitable to the profitable culture of pasture rather than of arable lands, the process of conversion from arable
:
into pasture must have proceeded in an ever increasing ratio.
That this process should at this moment be proceeding more rapidly than ever is natural enough, a decrease in the value of cereals having been superadded to the other motive causes above-mentioned, but it seems to me to be obvious that it is mainly to the capricious- ness of the climate, rather than to any outside competition for prices, that we owe the so great conversion of arable into pasture land.
_ To return to the year 1535-6. It was in this year that the dissolution of our Priory was brought about. The monks were
86 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
dispersed, their ecclesiastical buildings were pulled down, their manor, their farmsteads, and probably their domestic buildings, were made over to the Earl of Hertford, afterwards the Protector Somerset.
The history of the manor thereafter merges into that of the manor house, and this will form the subject of my next chapter.
In appendices A. to F. will be found some further details of the manor and its people in Clugniac times which perhaps may be of interest.
CHAPTER IV. Tue Manor Hovsz.
Our manor house, like most other buildings of equal antiquity, bears, upon the face of it, the signs of various ages and many changes, but I am persuaded that it stands upon the exact site and to some extent upon the very foundations of the domestic buildings of the Priory.
The stone of which it is built was brought, I have ascertained, out of the now disused quarries on Farleigh Down, and corresponds in that respect with the stone of which the Priory was built. Fur- thermore the position of the house relatively to what was the position of the ecclesiastical buildings of the Priory, places it, as I have elsewhere explained, exactly where the domestic buildings of the Priory might be expected to be.
And, again, the west side of the main body of the house belongs, according to Mr. Talbot, undoubtedly to the Elizabethan period.
These facts would not, of course, be at all conclusive, nor would they take us necessarily to the Priory times, but, through the kind- ness of Mr. Henry Hancock, I have had access to the records of the manor, and amongst them is a lease of A.D. 1638, which recites in detail a previous lease of the year 1547-48.
By this deed the then Bishop of Salisbury leased our manor house to one Henry Breton, styling it “the house, sight, circuit, premises and grounds of the late dissolved monastery of Monkton Farleigh.”
Now it was in 1535-36 that the bill for the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, 7.¢., of monasteries where “ the congregation of
+ 33
relygyous persones is under the number of xij,” and where the
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 87
properties are not above the clere yerely value of two hundredth poundes,” passed the Houses of Parliament, and that the properties of the said monasteries were “ gyven to the King’s Highnes, his heires and successores.”’*
And it was not until St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1535, that Dr. Layton, Cromwell’s Commissary, held his enquiry at our Priory. Therefore at that time the Priory and all its buildings were still standing in their integrity. But five years later Leland speaks of it in the past tense. Here, he says, “ by the village there was a priorie, standinge on a little hille, sumtyme having blak monkes, a prior and a convent of 12,” and further on he adds that “‘ Monke- ton Farley was a late gyven to the Erle of Hertford.’ ?
So the Priory and all its buildings were in existence in the latter end of the year 1535, but in 1540 the Priory itself was gone.
It does not follow, however, that all its buildings, secular as well as ecclesiastical, were gone, for the custom of the king’s commission- ers was only to destroy the ecclesiastical or so-called useless buildings, and to sell or give away the estates with the secular part of the buildings intact.
Thus, in the case of the mother Priory of St. Pancras, John Portinari writes to Cromwell, 24th March, 1537, describing how he took with him from London no less than thirty-four artizans of various trades, and in a few days utterly pulled down and destroyed all the ecclesiastical buildings, leaving the secular buildings standing.
Obviously too, the objects being on the one hand dstensibly the suppression of useless and corrupt religious bodies, and on the other hand lust of property, the ecclesiastical buildings would go, as no ‘longer wanted, and the secular buildings would stand to maintain the value of the secular property.
Thus, amongst the records “of the manner of suppressing the monasteries after they were surrendered,” I find in the list of “ Houses and Buildings assigned to remain undefaced,” “ the abbots
127, Henry VIII., cap. 28. The clear value of our Priory was £153, and the number of monks twelve and a prior.—Monastican and Leland.
? Leland’s Itinerary. Jackson, p. 14. 5 Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries. Camden Society, 1843.
88 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
lodgings with buttery, pantry, cellar, kitching, larder and pantry thereto attached,” also “ the hostelry, the great gate entering into the court with the lodging over the same, the abbot’s stable, bake- house, brew-house, and slaughter-house, the almry, barn, dairy- house, the great barn, the malting-house, the ox-house, the barton- gate.”
And, on the other hand, amongst “ buildings deemed to be super- fluous,” I find “the church, with chappels, cloister, chapter-house, misericord, the two dormitories, the infirmary, with chappells and lodgings within the same, the convent-kitching, the library, the old hostelry, the chamberer’s lodging, the new hall, the old parlor, the cellarer’s lodging, the poultry-house, and all other houses not re- served,” 1
So, whatever other buildings might or might not be reserved, all ecclesiastical buildings were at least condemned to destruction.
Following “this manner of suppression” our ecclesiastical buil- dings would be, and were, I think, totally uprooted, whilst the secular buildings were retained and, judging by the description in the lease of 1548, they must have been numerous, and, in the case of the house, of considerable size.
The manor was, as we have seen, bestowed in the first instance upon the Earl of Hertford, afterwards the Protector Somerset, but it would seem that he very soon found other manors, those of Rams- bury, Baydon, &e., more to his liking, and so, not without some degree of gentle violence it would seem, he gave our manor house and property in exchange to John Salcot, a/ias Capon, then Bishop of Salisbury.?
I have already quoted so much of the deed of A.D. 1638, as was material for establishing the site of the manor house, but there are other parts of the deed which are worthy of preservation, because they shew the size of the house, and the exact properties of which within ten years of the dissolution the manor was made up, and. are curious as evidence of the monkish verbiage, which had taken the
1 Burnet’s Records, No. 5, Pt. I, Book IIL, p. lxvii.. 2 Fasti Ecclesie Sarisberiensis——Jones, p. 107.
: ; . : ;
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 89
place of Humphrey de Bohun’s terseness and brevity, since the first conveyance in A.D. 1125.
The recital of the lease of 1548 is to be found in a subsequent lease “‘ of the last day of December, 1638,” and runs thus : Whereas “John sumtyme Bishop of Sarum did demyse, grant and to farm lett to Henry Breton of Monkton-ffarleigh in the county of Wiltes, gent, all that his mannor or lordship of Monkton-ffarleigh and Comerwell with the appurtenances within the said county and all and singular messuages, lands, tenements, buildings, barns, stables, heaths, marishes, woods, underwoods, rents, reversions, services, views of frankpledge, waistes, strayes, warrens, and other the rights, jurisdictions, privileges, liberties, profits, commodities, emoluments and hereditaments whatsoever to the manner aforesaid appertaining to have and to hold to the said Henry Breton his heirs, adminis- trators and assigns, from the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel then last past [1547] unto the end and term of fourscore and nine- teen years [ninety-nine] then next ensueing and under the yerely rent of £38 16s. 2d. payable at the Feast of the Annunciation of Our Blessed Lady St. Mary the Virgin and of St. Michael.”
Therefore, the indenture goes on to say, by reason of the surrender of the said lease, and also in consideration of a certain sum of money paid, the then bishop (Davenant) leases to Thomas Cornwallis, of Wandsworth, in the county of Surrey, and William Lynsey, the above manors, &c., “ from the Feast Day of our Lord God last past {Christmas Day, 1638] to the full end and time of one and twentie years yielding the yerely rent of four and forty pounds.”
And then follows this curious condition, that “if the Bishop or any of his successors shal! be willing to live and abide in the said house of Monkton-Farleigh for the space of three months together during the said tenure hereby demysed, he and his suite shall have within the said house one hall or parlor, one buttery, one pantry, one cellar, one kitchen, one larder, one stable and ten convenient lodging chambers,” and ‘“ may also fell, cut down, take and carry away yerely so many trees or wood as are or may be growing upon
- any of the said premises as the said Lord Bishop or his successors
shall or may conveniently expend in fuel in three months in any
90 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
one year when any of them may be abiding in the said house.” The house which in 1547 could provide so great accommodation, suitable to the bishop of the diocese, in addition to the accommodation re- quired by the family of the lessee, must have been a considerable and large house, and this particular condition is not only curious but it is probably unique in the annals of episcopacy, and it explains how it was that Bishop Jewel, in 1570, when taken ill at Lacock, did not there remain, but came to our manor house and there died, as is in his life recorded.
The Bretons, and after them the Cornwallises, had, by the con- ditions of their respective leases, the presentation to the rectory, which vests now, as from 1548, in the Bishops of Salisbury, but, from the time of William Watson (1661), at least, the bishops re- served to themselves “ the donation, advowson and patronage of the rectory and parsonage.”
At first, also, the bishops were acquitted by the leases, “‘ from all quitt rents, pensions, portions and other charges leviable for the said premises,” “the tenths and subsidies only excepted”; but as time rolled on they relieved their tenants of “ all leases, grants, rents, rent-charges, annuities, fees, tithes, troubles, and incumbrances whatever made or done by them,” and further agreed to leave “ sufficient timber trees standing or growing for the necessary repairs of the premises,” and for “ Fire-boot, Hedge-boot, Plough-boot, and Cart-boot, according to the custom of the country.”*
On the other hand the rent was raised from £38 16s. 2d., in 1548, to £44, in 1638, and to £50, in 1697, in which was included a sum of £10 “as an augmentation to the parsonage of Monkton Farleigh”; “the customary tenants” were to be allowed by the lessee sufficient timber for the reparation and maintenance of their customary tene- ments,” the same to be growing on their premises. The bishops were to have the right of “cutting down and carrying away such timber trees as according to the custom of the country were fit to
1 Fire-boot, wood for house-firing ; Plough- and Cart-boot, wood for repairing implements of husbandry ; Hedge-boot, wood for hedge and fence repairs.— Stephens’ Commentaries, v. i., p. 254, Ed. viii. Boot or bote, synonymous with “estovers’’ from estoffer to furnish.—Jones’s Domesday Introduction.
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, bart. 91
be cut and felled (pollard trees excepted) ” [1792] ; the lessees were prohibited from making any assignment of the premises, “ otherwise than by mortgage, or marriage settlement, or will,” and even then previous intimation was to be given to the bishops (1805) and the leases, though ostensibly made to run for twenty-one years, were practically renewed, on considerations made, every seven years. The lessees of the manor house were :— The Bretons, 1547 to 1638—with sub-tenants in William Bromfield, d. 1582, and the Cornwallises. The Cornwallises and William Whitwell 1638—1654.
William Watson 1654—1695. Daniel Webb 1695—1731. John Thresher 1731—1737.
Sir Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset 1737—1757. Lord Webb Seymour, 10th Duke of Somerset 1758—1792. Anna Maria, Dowager Duchess of Somerset
and her heirs 1799—1804. William Cass, of the Poultry, London 1805—1812. John Long, the Elder 1812—1838.
John Long, the Younger The Rev. Walter Long, Kelloes House 1835—1842. Catherine Elizabeth Mary Long Wade Browne and his heirs 1842—57,. Mrs. Wade Browne and her lessees—Edward
Pennefather and the Rev. E. R. Eardly
Wilmot 1857—1863. H. B. Caldwell, Esq. 1864—1870.
It is probable that the Bretons, or Brittons, were connected with the manor before they came to reside here, for I find a certain William Britton recorded as auditor to the Priory, in the return of the temporalia in 1535, on a yearly fee of 40s.
Thereafter in 1570 (twelfth of Elizabeth), a Henry Britten, probably the lessee of 1547—48, pays a quit rent of 46s. 8d. to the crown for the manor, and presents to the rectory ; and in 1576—77, respectively, are baptized Henry and George, the sons of George Britton.
92 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
In 1595 Henry Brittaine again presents to the rectory, but in 1606 the Lady Catharine Cornwallis so presents, by permission of Henry Brittaine and by assignment of George Brittaine, grandsons of the first Henry.
The family perhaps originally had a settlement in the parish of Batheaston, or else migrated there.
There was a strip of land called “ Briton’s land under Banner- down,” in 1605; one Thomas Britton is recorded as customary tenant of thirty-three acres in Bathford Manor in the same year ; one George Britton, temp. Elizabeth, sued W. Cavel for surrender of part of the manors of Shockerwick and Batheaston, and Collinson records that the manor of Shockerwick descended to the Briens (Brittons ?), and that they were also lords of Batheaston.
If “ William Bromfeld, late of Lewisham, in the county of Kent, Esquire, who deceased—as his tablet in the chancel of our Church records—“ thé twentie day of November, 1582,” was their sub- tenant, they must have left the manor house before that date, and perhaps it was because the Cornwallises had succeeded Bromfeld as sub-tenants that they presented to the living in 1606.
The next lessee of whom I have any record is “ Mr. William Watson, Esquire,” and the following is the account of the family, as given in the parish registers :—
William em d. 1695.
] Mr. Rowland,=Mrs. Elizabeth, Francis, b. 1654. d. 27 Feb., 1700. b. 1656.
William, b. 1682.
The tenancy died out with William, the Elder, and Mrs. Elizabeth, his son’s wife, died at Whitcomb, in Somerset.
To him succeeded Daniel Webb, described as of Seend, in the county of Wilts, gentleman, He it was who is said to have planted the manor generally, and especially that avenue in front of the house, a mile-and-a-quarter in length, which is the chief beauty of the place.
By Sir Charies Hobhouse, Bart. 93
The name, at least, was of some consequence in the neighbour- hood. There was a Webb, a freeholder, holding (curiously enough) under Sir Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, at Great Sherston, in 1585. Thomas Webbe, of Clyford, Beckington, Somerset, bought the manor of St. Maur from that family in 1604—5. (Hoare’s Wilts, p. 39.) A Webb of Ashwick, near Marshfield, who presented to Box rectory in 1613, and another who presented to Rudlow, in Box parish, in 1720. The parish register would appear to assign the death of our Webb to the year 1731, but the entry is torn and interpolated, and for 1731 I would read 1730, as the year in which the manor was transferred to the Threshers.
The John Thresher. who was our lessee from 1730 to 1737 was, perhaps, that John who is entered on the pedigree of the Long family in Walker’s History of the manor house at South Wraxall.
If so, the following is his pedigree :-—
-
Edward.=Dyonisia, second daughter of Richard Long, of Collingbourne, ec. 1680.
John.=Ellen d. of Henry Long, of Melksham, died at Bradford, 1741, xt. 52.
If it was by the exercise of violence that the Seymour family rid themselves of our manor in 1547, there was a Nemesis in the fact of their returning to live here, in the inferior position of tenants only, from 1737 to 1805.
In the year 1716 Edward Seymour, of Weide Bradley, Esquire, is recorded as marrying Mrs. Mary Webb, sole child and heiress of our Daniel Webb. Burke gives an incomplete pedigree, and is, I think, in error when he states that this Seymour succeeded to our manor in right of his wife.
When Daniel Webb’s lease was up, in 1730, the see of Salisbury was quite at liberty to seek, and did seek and obtain, a tenant outside the Webb family, and when the Seymours took the lease in 1737 they must have done so out of love, either for the place, or for the profits of it.
The family pedigree, as it appears partly in Burke and partly in our registers, is as follows :—
94 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh,
Edward Seymour, of Maiden Bradley, =Mrs. Mary Webb, 1716. (eighth Duke of Somerset, d. 1757.) |
Webb, second son,=Anna Maria, d. and sole heiress of b. 1718; 4.1793. John Bennell, Esq., of Stanton
Tenth Duke. Harcourt, Oxford, d. August 6th, 1802. | | | | Edward, b. Webb, b. Edward Adolphus. Webb John, 1771; d. 1772; d. Eleventh Duke, b. 1777. 1774. 1774. b. 1775 ; d. 1793. Edward Adolphus.
Twelfth and pre- sent Duke, b. 1804.
The marriage of the eighth duke, the births of all the tenth duke’s sons, and the burial of the Duchess Anna Maria, are all re- corded in our registers, and so, no doubt, the family of the tenth duke resided here permanently, but as his own death is not so recorded I suppose, that, on his succession to the title in 1792, he left us.
The initials W.S., and the date, 1764, would seem to shew that it was he who in that year added to the house at its extreme southern end. If so it was probably he also who re-faced the whole front of the house. The work is evidently of one and the same date, and is of the style of the Georges. It was, probably, he too who built the tower which, up to 1873, stood in the southern angle of the house-front. This went by the name of “ the Duke’s Tower,” and it was here that tradition has it the Duke, who is handed down as a precise and hard man, collected his rents to the last farthing.
The dowager duchess, Anna Maria, certainly resided here from at least 1799 to her death, in 1802. It is known that she was buried exactly 20 feet each way from the extreme south-east corner of the churchyard, and 15 feet deep in the earth. By her own directions no monument was put up to her memory, she having lived in mortal fear that the French should invade England and disturb the bones of the dead. But the exact spot in which she was buried was marked by Rector Cozens (1824) by shrubs.
Service, it is said, was never commenced in the parish Church
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 95
until she arrived, and at its conclusion all stood up in their places until she had left the Church. She planted the clump of trees still known as “The Duchess’s Clump,” and the villagers paid a humble tribute to her sway by christening their children Anna Maria after her—a name which then appears for the first time on the register.
To the duchess succeeded as lessee Mr. William Cass, of the Poultry, London, but beyond the lease from 1805 to 1512 I can find no record of this family.
To them succeeded Mr. John Long, the elder, and the following is, I believe, a correct pedigree, so far as it relates to our manor :—
RichardjLong, Hsq., of Rood Ashton.
John Long, the elder, =Lucy Anne Warneford. second son, b. 1768; d. 20th October, 1833.
|
John Long, the younger,=Mary, d. of Edward Daniel, b. 1793; d. April 30th, Barrister, d. May 22nd, 1849. 1861.
| John, Walker Chatles Daniel Catharina Edvard Two ae b.1822; Henry,b. Daniel,b. Edwin,b. Eugenia,b. Morton,b. Francis Stan- d.1840. 1823;d. &d.1825. 1827; d. & d. 1830. 1833; d. hope,b.1835. 1857. 1830. 1835.
There is some confusion amongst the elders of the parish as to the residence of the Longs. Old Thomas Sweetland (b. 1801) says that Mr. John Long, the elder, did not remain here uninterruptedly. He came from 1812 to 1818, or thereabouts. There was then an interim during which Mr. Daniel Jones afterwards called Mr. Jones Long, hailing from Farley Castle, in Somerset, lived here. He died in 1824, and was buried at Whaddon. Then Mr. John Long, the elder, returned, and he and his descendants resided here until 1542 ?
It was one of the Longs who planted what is now known as the “ Kingsdown Plantation” (described by Sir Richard Hoare in 1819 as newly-planted), and the Yew or Primrose Walk, to the south of and parallel with the Monks’ Walk. In their time the lawn sloped away from the east front of the house, to the hedge which divides
96 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
the Italian Garden from the Conigree. The carriage-drive from Kingsdown in those days entered just below Ford’s Farm from the Bath and Melksham road. It then passed by the stone stile above the Kingsdown Plantation, along the present drive, through the gates by the gardener’s cottage, turned thence to the left, and passed round to the front of the house by the Rockery, the Italian Garden and the Wilderness. The fountain stood under the group of trees south of the house and north of the orchard.
The Long family, like that of the Seymours, were connected with our manor centuries before they came to live here. South Wraxall, where the family originally set up, was, we have seen, originally a hamlet of our parish, and up to the dissolution of the Priory was a part of its home farm.
The first Sir Henry Long, 1st May, 1490, bequeathed certain money legacies to our prior and each priest and novice of the Priory. The second Sir Henry, 1520, presented Ludovick Brecknock, Prior of Farleigh, to the living of Biddeston St. Peter’s, “ per concess’ Prioris de Farleigh” (an awkward-looking transaction), and this same Sir Henry is recorded as senior steward of the Priory in 15385, ata fee of 40s. a year.
To the Longs succeeded the late Mr. Wade Browne. The family was originally of Chapel Allerton, Co. York, and Mr. Wade Browne was grandson of John Browne by the heiress of Wade of Moor Town, and son of Wade Browne by Rhoda, daughter and sole heiress of Jacob Smith, of Horsington, Co. Worcester.
The tablet to him in the aisle, for once in a way truthful, des- cribes his life as one “ of active benevolence and conscientious dis- charge of Christian duty.”
He improved the parish roads, making especially the straight road by Farley Wick Green to the villa. He utilized for the villagers the bountiful supply of spring water, which, issuing out of Ash Well, above the King’s Arms inn, is conducted by pipes to the village pump, and thence from one end of the street to the other. He built (1848) the observatory on Farleigh Down. He established a school and left, under conditions which have since un- fortunaely lapsed, an endowment for it. He presented in 1841 to
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 97
the Church the barrel-organ, which now (1881), however, stands neglected and useless in the gallery.
He also beautified and planted the house and grounds. He level- led the slope in front into the present lawn. He placed the fountain on its present site, and he laid out the French, now called the Italian Garden.
It was in laying out this garden that, as the villagers say, “a terrible sight”? of human bones was carted away and buried in the ehurehyard. It was no doubt, as the situation of two stone coffins, lately unearthed, shows, somewhere in this direction that the Priory churchyard was situated, but from the great quantity of bones un- eovered, and from the way in which they were found heaped to- gether, it was conjectured at the time that they were the remains, not of ordinary churchyard burial, but of human bodies heaped. together, as after some great fight or pestilence.
Mr. Wade Browne married first, Ann, daughter of the Rt. Hon. Edward Pennefather, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. She died in 1837, and Mr. Browne married secondly, Selina Matilda Caroline, daughter of Sir John Eardley Wilmot, of Berkswell Hall, Co. Warwick.
On Mr. Wade Browne’s death, in 1851, his widow continued to live on in the house. She is now Mrs. Abbott, of Wrentham Rectory, Wangford, Suffolk, and has been good enough to give me many particulars of the place, of which I now make use.
The slips (or cupboards as they now are), in the older part of house are supposed to have been servants’ bed-rooms. They are vile holes, and Mrs. Wade Browne worthily supplied their places by building the upper bed-rooms over the east front.
The pigeon house, by the side of the Monks’ Walk, used to pro- duce in former days a rent in kind of so many pigeons to the manor house. This was, no doubt, a remnant of the old Columbaria of the Priory.
The sun-dial in the Italian Garden was erected in memory of a younger brother of Mr. Wade Browne, who was killed in the Caffre War. The inscription runs thus :—
“To vado et vengo ogni giorno
Ma tu andrai senza ritorno.”
VOL. XX.—NO,. LYVIII. H
98 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
After Mr. Wade Browne left, first Mr. Hume and afterwards Mr. Smith occupied the house, and it then fell in hand to Bishop Hamilton, who let it to Mr. H. B. Caldwell. Thereafter the Ec- clesiastical Commissioners made a freehold of the whole manor, and on Mr. Caldwell’s death, in 1873, that part which was attached to the manor house and the house itself passed to the present proprietor, Sir Charles Parry Hobhouse.
He has made many alterations in the old house, one, alas! the removal of the Duke’s tower, made under a misconception, and an irreparable loss.
What are now a passage, the master’s room, and the lower school-room, were before the kitchens and the housekeeper’s room. The present kitchen was part ofa stable and coal cellar. The offices adjoining are new. ‘The back staircase was opened out after so many years of seclusion that its very existence was unknown. The present library was the dining room. The present dining room was created out of the old library and a part of the chief staircase, and so the dressing room overhead. The front corridor was raised, and the staircase and upper landing are new. The billiard room was made up partly of an entrance hall and partly of what was formerly the master’s room—part of the cellars being lowered.
The parish is now pretty equally divided between Sir Charles Hobhouse and Henry Hancock and Henry Spackman, Esquires.
The names of Hancock and Spackman are not new to the parish.
There is a Hancock first mentioned in 1777, and there is still in the parish a piece of land called “ Hancock’s Piece.” A curious token of the family was also found by me in a garden, where was once a cottage, immediately opposite the lodge gates. It is a copper coin of date A.D. 1610. On one side is a hand out-spread, and the words “in Westbury 1610”—on the other is a cock exultant, and the name “Thomas Handcock.” It is very well cut.
The name of Spackman is associated with the parish at a still earlier period, John Spakeman, senior and junior, being mentioned as churchwardens in 1372,
Of the family of Hobhouse it does not beseem me to make any record beyond what may be said to be already public property.
i —_—
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 99
They came originally from either Devon or Somerset, and there
~ are at Drewsteighnton, near Exeter, two hamlets or farms which still
bear their name. They were settled at Minehead, in Somerset, and a lease of A.D. 1706, given by the Luttrells, of Dunster Castle, is still called Hobhouse’s Lease. It is for land with wharfage, and was perhaps taken up with the view to engaging in the Irish fishery business, which was then a stirring trade.
From Minehead the family migrated to Bristol, and there set up as merchants on a more extensive and general scale, purchasing and for some time residing at Westbury Cottage, Westbury-on-Trym, and afterwards at Redlands.
Thereafter the family divided, and one branch settled at Hadspen House, Castle Carey, Somerset, where it has been ever since, and is still worthily represented by a succession of Henrys of the name.
The other branch shot out in the person of Sir Benjamin, created
- first baronet in 1812. His first marriage was with a daughter of
Mr. Cam, a clothier of Bradford-on-Avon, in Wiltshire, and through her he succeeded to Chantry House, Barton Farm, and other farms and lands near that town, whilst in 1777 he purchased the manor and certain lands in Broughton Gifford.
He never, however, acquired a local habitation of his own, but lived at Hartham Park and Cottles, in this neighbourhood, and at Whitton Park, near Hounslow (since pulled down), renting at the same time a house in London.
_ He was a friend of the then Lord Sidmouth, was Under Secretary
of State at the India House, and obtained his baronetcy for services
rendered in the settlement of the debts of the Nawab of Arcot. He was president of the first friendly society that was established in Wiltshire, and life-president of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, in whose rooms at Bath an admirable bust of him, by Chantry, may still be seen.
His eldest son was Sir John Cam Hobhouse, Baron Broughton de Gyfford. It was he who was imprisoned in the Fleet for words spoken against the Constitution, which perhaps in these days might be watchwords of Toryism.
Thereafter he was for the rest of his life a member of one or other
H 2
100 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
House of Parliament, and for many years a Cabinet Minister under the Whig party.
But, if remembered at all by posterity, it will probably be rather in connection with literature than with politics, as the friend and fellow-traveller of the poet Byron, and the spirited annotator of that poet’s best work.
To him in the baronetcy succeeded (1869) Sir Charles Parry Hobhouse, the present proprietor of our manor house and lands. He was for twenty-six years in the Civil Service, first of the East India Company, and then of the Crown in India, and after holding various offices of some importance there—the last as a judge of Her Majesty’s High Court of Judicature at Calcutta, he devotes such leisure and health as he has left to the ordinary duties of a country gentleman and magistrate.
CHAPTER V. ParisH NOTABLES.
Here terminates the history of the manor house and of the families connected therewith, but we have had other notable families in the parish, and I proceed to give some account of the most remarkable amongst them.
I begin with the Cottles, and although I cannot attempt to con- nect our parish with the early founders of the family yet I shall put together, for the benefit of any future writer, something like an historical account of them.
The first mention that I find is of one Beranger Cotel, who, ac- cording to the Exon Domesday (c. 1086), held one hide of land at Fontel, now Fonthill Gifford, in Dunworth Hundred.
Then appears a certain Sir Richard Cotell, who (ce. 1100) is settled by the then Abbot of Glastonbury on a manor at Camerton, in Somerset.
This manor, on Sir Richard’s death (¢. 1120), reverted to Glaston- bury, and a serics of Cottels remained in tenancy, viz., Richard (ec. 1166); after him, Sir William; and after him, Sir Elias, or Elleys. He, A.D. 1289, seventeenth Edward I., is entered in the list of © Chevaliers et Homme du Mark,” in Co. Somerset, and in 1336 he presented to the living of Camerton.
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 101
Then the scene changes to Wiltshire, and a member of the same family, I would presume, because still under the egis of the Abbot of Glastonbury, one Jordan Cotele (c. 1251—61) is found to be Rector of Kington St. Michael, covenanting with the abbot and convent of Glastonbury, that certain lands in that parish are feud
_ of the abbey and that therefore neither he nor his heirs will ever
part with an acre of them.
Thereafter, c. 1275, a Sir Roger de Cotele, Knight, is named in an inquisition held at Melksham.
‘The transition to Atworth is easy, and one Richard Cotell is found to be Lord of Cotels-Atworth. His daughter, Isande (1267—80) married Philip, son of Henry Tropenell of Chalfield. He is probably that Cotell mentioned by Aubrey as having had an estate at Biddes- ton St. Peter, for this estate passed to the Tropenells, and through them, it may be mentioned, to our Priory. These Cotels continued to present to Atworth Chapel, until A.D. 1809, when the presentation passed to the Selymans.
There are notices too of a Richard Cotel, his wife Isabel and children, 1307; of a William Cotel, owner of fifty acres of land in Chelworth, 1327 ; of a family of Cotel dying out at Frampton Cot- terel (or Cotel), about the same period; of a Stephen Cotele, Rector of Castle Combe, 1397; and lastly of a Mark Cottell who (c. 1500) built a house at North Tawton, Devon; of a Cottle, of Samford Peverell, who registered the same arms as Sir Elias in 1580 ;,and_of a Cottle, of Cricklade, registering arms, 1623,
From the above facts it is clear that the Cottle family was one of very ancient descent and weight in the counties of Wilts and Somerset, but that they passed away from our neighbourhood at Atworth, as persons of eminence, many centuries back (perhaps in 1309) is clear from Aubrey’s statement, that “ Atworth called Cotels Atward or Coteles Atworth antiently belonged to Coteles who had great possessions in these parts but now there are only some few people left of this name in the county.”
This statement was made circa 1660, but Atworth is only two miles from us, and the William Cottle who was born in our parish in 1659 is described as ‘‘Gentleman,” and so was a descendant,
102 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
Jeremiah, in 1785, and the family tree shews that this title has, in fact, never left the family, and still abides in it.
The passage from gentleman to yeoman carries with it no degra- dation, and the representative of the family, James Jeremiah Cottle, still in the parish, is a fitting type of the straightforward independent yeoman of the period, cultivating and living upon his own freehold at Farley-Wick. Curiously enough his wife was a Selman, perhaps a descendant of those very Selymans who succeeded the Cotels at Atworth.
The manor house at Cottles-Atworth is still called after the family.
Next in order of date is the family of the Grants. They were yeomen, and from the Christian names and the proximity of the place I think they must have come from Bradford. There in 1585, 1596, and 1600 were certain Daniel, Walter and Francis Grants, , who were considerable copyholders and freeholders.
The following is the family tree, as appearing in our own registers. There were apparently three families, and several offshoots :—
Famity I. J pat oan, who d. a widow, 1639. George, b. 1577.
| | ‘Walter, Ann, George, gis tap Catharine, Edmund, b b b
i . - I b. b. 1619 1610. 1613. 1616. 1616. 1617. d. 1644. Cybill, Ann Baker, J oan, d.
d. 1622. 1649. widow, 1669.
| . | | ; |
Henry, d. 1665. Joan,=Mr. William Edmund, George, Richmond, of Prior of Bradford, d.
Stanton, 1651. b. 1641. 1726.
Famity II.
ik Ve d. 1609.
| Walt, b. 1586. i id b. 1609. Joan, b, 1628. Francis, d. 1669.
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 103
Famity III. John, yeoman, d. 1662.
| | George, b. 1653. John, b. 1662. |
| Hannah, d. 1701. George, b. 1686. Ellinor, d. 1688.
Ellinor,=George Fry, 1611.
Mary, of Bradford Liegh, d. 1680.
Mr. Edward, of Trowbridge, clothier,=Mrs. John Randell, of Beckington, 1698. Martha, of Bath,=Richard Thomas, yeoman, 1699.
Mrs. Deborah, of Trowbridge,=Mr. Abel, of Bristol, 1709.
Frances,=James Poyner, both of Hinton Charterhouse, 1744.
Mrs. Sara Grant, the heroine of the family, is not recorded in the registers, but a tablet to her memory is still to be found in the chancel of our parish Church. It runs thus :—
“Hore lieth buried the body of Sara Grant deceased xxvii. die Novembris Anno Domini 1602.
Five pounds she gave unto the poore William King gave so much more Imploy the increase keep stocke in store.”
This tablet was, of cource, not put up until after the death of William King, and the Latinity, terseness, and general ring of it, point to some clerkly person as the author of it—probably the rector. - There was a William King in the parish who, in 1611, is recorded as of sufficient substance to have lent £20 to King James by way of Privy Seal. He died in 1650, and I take this to be the date of the tablet, and Parson Allambrigge, perhaps, to have been the author of it.
A gentleman learned in the law once affirmed in my hearing that the inscription contained the most complete legal bequest in the fewest lines that were possible, directing, of course, the £10 of
eapital to be funded and the interest accruing thereon to be paid to
the poor. The benefaction, however, has entirely disappeared, but it is re- membered that some sixty years ago, in the days of Clerk Tutton,
104 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
bread was distributed from the chancel to the poor at Easter, “the people being always thankful to the good lady who gave it.”
The family of the Kings stood probably upon about the same footing as that of the Grants and the following is the parish record of them :—
William, d. oem d. 1667.
| | | | | | Sarah, Arnold, Mr. Robert, George, Mr. John, Francis,
b. 1621. b. 1624; b. 1626. b. 1627. b. 1627. b. 1629 ;
d. 1697. d. ate
| | Mary, Harmond,
George, b. 1651. Joan, b. 1656. Elizabeth, b. 1652; —b. 1662. d. 1669. d. 1684.
The name, at least, was still perpetuated in the parish up to 1880 in the person of Mr. John King, of “ The Villa.”
The Butler family may next be mentioned. The name was, per- haps, at one time a badge of servitude at the Priory. Tempore Edward I. (1272—1307), one John le Botyler is witness to a deed securing certain privileges to the said Prior and convent of Farley. Then (1372) a William le Boteler appears as churchwarden, taking oath to the yearly value of the rectory. Later on, first Henry V. (1418), William Botyler (the article dropped) figures as a clerk in holy orders, confirming to one Richard Slade certain rents in land in Farleyghes-Wyke (called in Ed. II., 1321, the Bailliage of the Bedeley Court of Farleigh), and thereafter we have a succession of John Butlers, churchwardens in the parish, till the family dies out in the person of Thomas Butler, yeoman (1713).
The name is still in the parish in the person of Mr. Hancock’s bailiff.
Roger Huggitt was also, Mr. Powell eonsiders, one of our notables. A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine, August, 4th, 1800, signing himself A. S. (absit omen!) mentions that he copied the following inscription from a square stone in the aisle of the parish Church of Farley in Wiltshire :-—
Rogerus Huggitt.
Qui eximo statu ad summos honores emergens.
Natus Pastor-Miles obiit. Ait.
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 105
Hic situsest Huggitt qui numquam prelia fugit. Hune agris natum, perduxit in atria fatum. Linquens pastores magnos acquirit honores. Impavidus miles solitus contemnere viles
Multa manu sorti dedit acer copia decrat
Quem miseris dando Salvatoremque precando
Ut careat avo vivebat purus in xvo
Dives, Honoratus, magn& cum.stirpe beatus Humilis in pectus tandem est per sidera vectus.
“The above leonine verses,” says the writer, “ are written in old English characters, and were made out with some difficulty, owing to the ravages of time. It is remarkable that it was not possible by any trace that is left to form the slightest conjecture as to the. antiquity of the monument.”
Mr. Powell ascertained that the monument did not belong to the other Wiltshire Farley, and old Mrs. Moore, of the “ Dry Arch Cottage,” since dead, informed him (and old Thomas Sweetland confirms this) that she remembered the monument, and thought that it had either been destroyed or else placed in a vault under the Church with other monuments at the re-building of the Church. Mr. Powell adds, on the authority of the Edinburgh Review, April, 1861, p. 400, that about the year 1750 there was a Roger Huggit, Chaplain or Conduct of the College at Eton, an antiquarian whose collections, in nine vols., were in 1769 bequeathed to the British Museum.
The Blinman family must not be forgotten. Joseph, the first of the name, is mentioned in the tablet in the chancel as “ Gentleman of this parish.” He died in 1811, aged eighty-four. Joseph, the younger, also “of this parish, gentleman,” died 24th June, 1843, aged seventy-two. He it was who, as recorded on the tablet over the Church doorway, left two sums of £300 and £250 respectively for the benefit of the poor. These sums are now invested in consols, in the name of the Charity Commissioners, and the dividends are paid every year to the parish churchwardens at the Capital and Counties Bank, Bradford-on-Avon. They remain at interest in de- posit until St. Thomas’s Day, and then the dividend on £300 is expended on-coal for distribution amongst the deserving poor of the
106 The Rising in the West, A.D. 1655.
parish generally, and that on £250 is distributed in cash amongst forty of the deserving poor.
It is remarkable that all that is remembered of this family is that they lived at what is now Mr. Sydney Hancock’s farm, at Farley- Wick, and that the younger kept a pack of beagles.
It has to be admitted that, although we have been connected with the Bohuns, the De I’ Isles, the Dunstanvilles, the Seymours, the Longs, and others, yet, unless it be the mysterious Roger Huggitt, we have not produced persons of any other than of village note ; on the other hand we present a remarkable instance of a purely village community, unchanging and little affected by the times, the names and families still abiding amongst us being those that have so abided from the earliest recorded times.
[Zo be continued.]
The Bising in the West, B.D. 1655.
To the Editor of the Wiltshire Archeological Magazine.
Dear Sir,
To-day, for the first time, my attention has been directed to a paper by Sir George Duckett, in the 55th Number of the Wilts Archeological Magazine, on the Rising in the West, A.D. 1655. Whilst thanking him for his, I fear, too complimentary observations, I would beg to observe that he is in error in assuming that I omitted to notice the informations (excipe Richard Rowe) which he gives in detail.
If reference be made to Wiltshire Archeological Magazine, vol. xiii., pp. 173, 178, and 186, it will be found that substantially they are utilised.
As I mentioned in Wiltshire Archeological Magazine, vol. xv. p. 236, Mr. Birch’s edition of the Thurloe Papers was constantly with me; and there all the papers mentioned by Sir George Duckett will be found. Rowe’s and Batchelor’s information, vol. 3, p. 630; Carter's p. 634; Hely’s, p. 655, and the rest, p. 648 of the same volume.
I am, Your’s faithfully, W. W. RAVENHILL.
The Temple, London, E.C., August 15th, 1881.
H. F, BULL, Printer and Publisher, 4, Saint John Street, Devizes,
TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE SUMMER OF. 1882.
MAP OF A HUNDRED SQUARE MILES ROUND ABURY:
With a Key to the British and Roman Antiquities occurring there.
BY: THE “REV. A. O.-SMERE
Rector of Yatesbury, and Hon. Secretary of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society.
HIS work, the materials of which have been accumulating for twenty-five years, is the result of innumerable rides and rambles over the Downs of North Wilts; and deals with one of the most important archeological Districts
:
‘
in Europe. It will be published and issued to subscribers by the Marlborough ks *
College Natural History Society, and it will consist of two parts :—
First—The Great Map—78 inches by 48 inches, on the scale'of 6 linear
inches, or 36 square inches, to the mile; it comprises 100 square miles round
Abury, and includes the great plateau of the Downs of North Wilts, extending
from Oliver's Camp, on Roundway Hill, on the west, to Mildenhall on the east; and from Broad Hinton on the north, to the Pewsey Vale on the south. The
district thus mapped measures 13 miles from west to east, and 8 miles from north __
to south. Every square mile, marked off with faint lines, lettered with a capital letter and numbered, will show the Barrows, Camps, Roads, Dykes, Enclosures, Cromlechs, Circles, and other British and Roman Stone- and Earth-works of that district ; every such relic, being lettered with a small letter in its own square, is readily found and easily referred to. The Map will be printed in six colours, viz., the Antiquities in red, the Roads in brown, the Lanes and Down Tracks in green, the Sarsen Stones in yellow, and the Streams and Ponds in blue.
Second.—The Key to the Great Map,—which is by far the most important part of the work and will form a general “ Guide to the British and Roman An-—
tiquities of North Wilts,”—will be a volume of large quarto size, and will contain
the whole of the large Map in fifteen sections, measuring 18 inches by 12, and four supplementary sections, each measuring 6 inches by 12. The Letterpress will contain some account of each of the Antiquities, with references to and extracts from the best authorities, as well as figures of various Urns and other ~
objects found in the Barrows, views of the Cromlechs, plans of the Camps, &c. ~
An Index Map, on the scale of 1 inch to the mile, coloured, numbered, lettered, and divided like the Great Map, will accompany the volume ; and the whole will . be a general account of the Antiquities of North Wilts, inasmuch as the district thus delineated embraces nearly all the remains of earliest times which exist in the northern portion of the County.
Subscribers’ names and addresses (a list of which will be published with the
_ Index) will be received by the Rev. T. A. Preston, The Green, Marlborough. _ The cost of the Large Map and Key complete will be, to Subscribers, One Guinea.
Any copies which remain (after all the Subscribers have been served) will be _ offered to the public at an advanced price, viz., for the sheets of the Great Map ~ only, 10s.; for the Key only, 20s.; or, for the whole, 28s.
ve
ie
EA IS Seg tm Hee é PO Fs SO eee
ray A
aur “ty
ms : Gee et oN r
AGENTS
FOR THE SALE OP THR
WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE,
LO Se SES oe R. E. Pzacu, Bridge Street. Bradford-on-Avon. G. J, Farrinetoy, Old Market Place. i Es ee James Fawn & Son., 18, Queen’s Road, PR cathe civax C. T, Jerrertes & Sons, Redcliffe Street, TIE day atrgin ance A. Heata & Son, Market Place. Chippenham ,..... R. F. Hovtston, High Street. Cirencester ...,..... Keyworth & Everarp, Stamp Office. MIOUBZGE: cacccxyssves H. F. Butt, St. John Street. Marlborough ...... E. & R. A. Lucy, Post Office. Melksham ......0+ A. Cocurane, Bank Street. a Jas. Parker & Co., Broad St. Salisbury ....00.+ Brown & Co., Canal. Warminster ...... B, W. Coatss, Market Place.
H. F. BULL, PRINTER, DEVIZES.
r= Sey
WORD
JUNE, 1882,
THE
WILTSHIRE Archeological ont Batueal Wistacy
MAGAZINE,
Publighed unter the Birection
OF THE
SOCIETY FORMED IN THAT COUNTY,
A.D. 1858.
, DEVIZES: | p PRINTED AND SoLp For THE Socrery sy H. F. Burt, Satnr Joun Sreeer.
-Price 5s. 6d.—Members Gratis.
NOTICE TO MEMBERS.
THE ANNUAL MEETING for 1882 will be held at MALmEsBury, on August 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Lorp Epmunp Fitzmaurice, M.P., President.
\
Members who have not paid their Subscriptions to the Society for the current year, are requested to remit the same forthwith to the Financial Secretary, Mr. Witt1am Nort, 15, High Street, Devizes, to whom also all communications as to the supply of Magazines should be addressed, and of whom most of the
’ back Numbers may be had.
The Numbers of this Magazine will not be delivered, as issued, to Members who are in arrear of their Annual Subscriptions, and who on being applied to for payment of such arrears, have taken no notice of the application.
All other communications to be addressed to the Honorary Secre- taries: the Rev. A. C. Smrru, Yatesbury Rectory, Calne; and H. E. Mepricorr, Esq., Sandfield, Potterne, Devizes.
The Rev. A. ©. Smirn will be much obliged to observers of birds in all parts of the county, to forward to him notices of rare occurrences, early arrivals of migrants, or any remarkable facts connected with birds, which may come under their notice.
To be published by the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society, by Subscription.
fat FLORA OF WILTS
BY THE REV. T. A. PRESTON, M.A;
Ge Farther particulars will shortly be sent by circular to Members of the Society.
The Author will be glad if any who could assist him with a list of plants in their several localities would kindly communicate with him. As the Flea will probably be published at the end of this year, early information is par- ticularly desired. Address—Rev. T. A. Preston, Lhe Green, Marlborough.
P «
WILTSHIRE
Archeological ant Batural Wistory
MAGAZINE.
No. LIX. JUNE, 1882. Vout. XX. Contents, PAGE Some Earty Features oF Stockton Cuurcy, Wits: By the Rev. j J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A., Rector of Upton Scudamore, Wilts ............ 107 On THE CuuURCH oF St. Perer, MANNINGFORD Bruce, WILTSHIRE: By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A., Rector of Upton Scudamore, Wilts 122 “ScuLPrureD Stone at CopForD St. PETER, AND HERALDIC STonE at Warminster”: By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A., Rector of PROT SHUM AM OLE MANVALGS: hats ee ose sVastonasea sce da sesvties cevieeaiveouswese peau ; 138 “HaktyY HeRaLpRy IN Boyton CuurcH, Witts: RECOVERY OF A Missine Link”: By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A., Rector of Pea CHO AIMNOT A VWALES s,s Sac snniccsdasteassedseits icdtanasencaacccnscisoureaces 145 On THE OccURRENCE OF SOME OF THE RareER SPECIES oF BIRDS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF SALIsBURY (Continued) : By the Rev. Arnau, Morres® Vicar of Britford .....5..i...ss0ccceccsseccavesaverecesseos 154 Some Account oF THE ParisH oF MongToNn Farueren (Continued): Bp isin Charles -EOUROMRE;, BIG... ciicssescccesscatnavveseuvedevessessessaceees ; 185 ILLUSTRATIONS. Interior of Stockton Church, Wilts ...........c.ccseeseenes 107 Ground-plan of St. Peter’s Church, Manningford Bruce,
SAV Lisih, ana aS MR TS ico ooh cv cata ate cela nantondmanoeaceomeGasnans 123 Ground-plan of St. Edmund’s Church, Fritton, Suffolk 125 Ground-plan of Church of St. Mellon, Rouen ............ 127 Ground-plan of Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire............ 129 South doorway and chancel arch, Manningford Bruce
MELTING: \VVINGRY Meme Reese oun « deeknuciecuecaancnsnvescsolelses’ 130 Sculptured Stone in Codford St. Peter Church, Wilts ... 138 Sculptured Stone, Warminster Atheneum, Wilts......... 140
DEVIZES :
H. F. Bunt, 4, Saint JoHn STREET.
ain is bene ISOM”
THe t STV MCE e & ise, biesit fo 6
o =. a ta ~ 45 : ed sf ; a a= * ee | ; : f i 3 _* : fa? ? f = Ln F : . * Pr.
‘SITIM ‘HOUNHD NOLMOOLS 40 HOIHAINI
“MOpUoy OYPT ‘ss¥gry Ue MAITY Tr ipo.
Rg
—
WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE
“ MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR oNUS.”—Ovid.
Some Early featuees of Stockton Church, Wilts.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A,, Rector of Upton Scudamore, Wilts.
=<THE very name of restoration is a sound of alarm to the antiquary, as being often another word for meddlesome change, fanciful improvement, or even reckless and ruthless destruc- tion. Nevertheless, even destructions and demolitions are sometimes imperatively demanded by altered circumstances and true progress, and some restorations are necessary, and, if carried out in a con- servative spirit, praiseworthy, while to many we owe the revelation or illustration of interesting features which would otherwise have remained hidden or unobserved. Among necessary conservative and instructive restorations I trust may be reckoned that of the parish Church of the little secluded village of Stockton, Wilts, completed in 1880,
The first feature to be noted is what has been called, for want of a better name, a “horizontal vesica piscis,’” over the middle and tallest of the three lancet lights of the east window.
This is, alas, only a shadow of the past: for the window was restored in 1840, but we have a trustworthy record that the new window was intended to be a careful reproduction of the old one. The very peculiarity of this feature nearly caused its destruction at the beginning of the recent restoration of the Church. ‘ Who ever heard of such a thing as ‘a horizontal vesica piscis’??” “It could not be original.” I pointed out, in the Benedictional of St. Ethel- wold, a “‘vesica piscis ” leaning to the right,! although usually re- presented vertical in the same tenth century MS..,? and pleaded that
: 1 Archzologia, vol. xxiv., pp. 53, 62. 2 Thid, pp. 57, 80, 85, 86, 87. VOL. XxX.—NO. LIX. : T
108 Some Early Features of Stockton Church, Wilts.
if the oval pointed figure called by Albert Diirer “ vesica piscis,” has any relation to the early Christian symbol /y@vs, a fish, it was only natural that this rude outline of a fish, as some assert it to be, should occasionally be shown in a horizontal—the usual swimming —position. All this might have been in vain if I had not been enabled by the suggestion of a kind and valued friend, the Rev. G. F. Saxby, to refer to a passage in Archeologia Cantiana, where a “ horizontal vesica piscis,” in combination with round arches, is figured and described as unique.! This settled the question as to a horizontal “vesica piscis” being a genuine feature of Early English architecture, but I should be much interested by hearing of other examples.
On the south side of the little chancel are two lancets. The westernmost of them is brought down lower than the other, but the sill is, nevertheless, 5ft. 6in. above the floor of the chancel. The height of this window is 6ft. 3in., and the width lft. 7in. It is fitted at the lower end with a casement not very recent. The upper part of this window has a groove on each side in the stone-work, as if a shutter or compartment of the window sliding upwards like a sash, had preceded the casement, or co-existed with it, for the pur- pose of distributing doles to lepers or other applicants from without. It is clear that this arrangement must have been made for some special purpose, but what that may have been is a matter of specu- lation.
The next feature I have to notice, the eastern wall of the nave, appears to me of great interest as illustrating, when compared with similar examples in England and with Greek and Latin Churches, the whole history of chancels, choirs, and chancel screens, and shew- ing the influence of Greek ritual and tradition in the far west at a very early date.
In this remarkable east end of the nave there is a doorway with folding gates, where we should have expected a chancel arch, and on each side there is a hagioscope, having the base 3ft. 7in. above the floor. These hagioscopes have pointed arches, converge accurately
1 Vol. vii, p. 82, 83; London, printed for Kent Arch. Soc., by Taylor & Co., 1868.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.8.A. 109
towards the altar, and measure at the base 2ft. 5in., from base to apex, 2ft. 1lin.
At the beginning of the recent restoration, many said, “ How strange and inconvenient!” ‘A good chancel arch ought to be substituted.”
Fortunately I was able to remember and look up a paper by Mr. John Henry Parker, in the Archeological Journal for December, 1844, “On some Perforations in the Walls of Churches.” In illus- tration of the said paper two similar examples are engraved, one at Ashley Church, Hampshire, as rude as that at Stockton, but with round arches, the other in the old Church of Otterbourne, Hamp- shire, with pointed arches and distinct thirteenth-century ornament. These two examples were sufficient to prove that such an arrange- ment as the east wall of the nave of Stockton Church prevailed, more or less, in the south-west of England from about the time of the Conquest, or much earlier, till the thirteenth century. It is worthy of note that Ashley and Otterbourne are both in the diocese of Winchester. The manor of Stockton was given to the monks of St. Swithun at Winchester,.7.e., to the Cathedral there, before the Conquest, and is so recorded in Domesday Survey. The patronage of the Rectory of Stockton remained with the Bishop of Winchester till our own time, and has only recently been transferred to the Bishop of Oxford.
The little Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts, has not a chancel arch, in the usual sense of the term, but a doorway instead. Possibly such a doorway, with or without a perforation on each side, may have been common elsewhere, though now obliterated by chancel arch and restoration, as at Yatesbury, Wilts.
The Rector of that Church, in the Wilts Archeological Magazine
for November, 1879, says: “ When the Church was restored in
‘ ; 3 } 4
1854, it was found necessary to pull down and re-build the chancel
arch, which was effected by shoring up the whole of the east end of
the nave roof by means of props from below. Though the chancel
arch was so small and narrow as to be inconvenient for service, and
showed such signs of settlement as to necessitate its removal, it was
not without considerable regret that it was taken down; as it was 12
110 Some Early Features of Stockton Church, Wilts.
unmistakably of a peculiar horse-shoe form, contracted at the base, and bulging out in the centre; and that regret was not diminished when, on removing the adjoining walls on either side, there were found, though concealed by the plaster, on the north side a rude hagioscope or squint, and on the south side what appeared to be the remains of an ambry, though some supposed this too to be a hagio- scope.”
This statement of Rev. A. C. Smith enables us to see that the _ Yatesbury arrangement resembled that at Stockton. It also sug- gests the sad inference that what was done at Yatesbury has been done elsewhere by less sympathising hands, and with no antiquary near to remonstrate or record.
When a high and wide chancel arch was introduced in early times a screen became almost a necessity, according to the notions then prevailing. In the Church of Upton Scudamore, Wilts, which was restored in 1859 under the care of Mr. Street, there is reason to believe that a great part of a massive wall at the east end of the nave was knocked out in the fifteenth century to make way for a chancel arch and screen.
In order to shew how the massive east wall of the nave in some early churches in England, pierced by a doorway into the chancel, with or without a perforation on each side, illustrates the whole question of chancels, choirs, and chancel screens, let us take two simple intelligible and typical Churches, one of the Greek and the other of the Latin communion. Let the Greek example be St. Theodore, at Athens, of which a ground-plan and exterior are given by Dr. Neale in his Holy Eastern Church, vol. i., p. 171.1
We see in this plan that, however complicated a large Church or Cathedral may be in the East or in the West, the essential divisions are few and intelligible, viz., four :—i. the bema or sanctuary; il. the choros or choir, for clergy and singers; iii. the naos or nave, for faithful worshippers; iv. the narthex, for catechumens and penitents.
On the bema stands the dyla tpdmefa, or Holy Table, with the prothesis, or place of preparing the bread and wine, on the north,
1 Also Ibid, p. 271. The plan is also given in Translations of Primitive — Liturgies by Neale, introd., p. xiv.; London, Hayes, 1859.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.8.A. 111
and the diaconicon, or vestry, on the south. But the chief detail on which we have to dwell, for our present purpose, is the iconostasis or screen with three openings, at the top of the steps of the bema. This screen is commonly called iconostasis, because upon it are placed the icons or sacred pictures, but the earlier and more proper name is Kdéyxexa. Ducange, in his Greek Glossary, gives KdyxeXos pl. Kdyxeror, and Kdéyxenor, pl. Kdyeena. For convenience I adhere to the neuter plural Kdyxeda, which is the form most commonly used by Greeks in the present day to designate an open fence of iron or wood, in Church or elsewhere.
It is curious that Du Cange, with his stupendous learning in Eastern as well as Western lore, after giving an admirable historical account of this screen under the word Kdéyxedos, or KaéyxeXor, in his Greek Glossary, gives a faltering and puzzled account under éixovoctaavov, apparently because, drawing his knowledge chiefly from books and documents, he was not aware that évcovocracis is merely a later name, which has come into use to mean the same thing as Kdyxeda, which also dates back to a time when probably there were no icons or pictures on the screen, which was in early times a mere lattice or network of wood, as Eusebius calls it in describing the splendid Church built by Bishop Paulinus at Tyre, A.D. 315.
We were told, many years ago, in Mr. Parker’s Glossary and else- where, that our English word chancel is derived from the Latin word “ cancelli,” @ /attice, but this is only part of the truth.
The word was used in good classic Latin to mean Jattice, or generally a fence, in the days of Cicero, who uses these words, “ Me facilé vestra existimatione revocabitis si extra hos cancellos egredi conabor quos mihi ipse circumdedi.”? But the rudiments of the word were in Greek four hundred years before Cicero. Kuryxd ides is used in the Knights and Wasps of Aristophanes to mean the lattice gates
MEQ’ draci re 1d Tov dylov dywov IJvotacrhpiov ev péo@ Fels, adOis Kieu rdde as dy cin Tos modhéis bara, Tos dmd Evrov mepiedparte SiKrvos eis Gixpov éevréxvov Aerroupyias eEnoknuévois, @s IJavpdowoy Tos Spaor wapéxew THY Séav. Huseb., X. 4, vol. i., p. 474, ed. Reading, Cambridge, 1720. Cf. Bingham, .Antiq. Chr., Bk. viii., Ch. vi., Sect. 6.
2 Pro. P. Quinctio.
112 Some Early Features of Stockton Church, Wilts.
In a court of justice, and the scholiast explains it by Kdyxedov.! Without pausing to determine whether the word belongs more truly .to the Greek or the Latin language in the classic period, we may note that it is used so frequently by early ecclesiastic writers in Greek, before the introduction of pictures, to mean the screen on the western edge of the bema that it is unnecessary to specify any of the quotations. A goodly number are given in Du Cange’s Greek Glossary, and in Suicer’s Thesaurus of Greek Fathers.
Upon comparing the very early Latin Church of San Clemente, at Rome, we see exactly how the original Greek idea of a Church was developed and adapted to Italian circumstances and requirements.
Plans and views are given by Gally Knight? and Dr. Rock. But these plans require correction by the further researches of Father Mullooly and others.4
In the Greek Church the yopds for clergy and singers was placed immediately west of the steps of the bema, without any separation from the nave. In the much larger Italian Churches it was found convenient to fence off a space for clergy and singers in the nave by a low screen, described as no higher than for a person to lean upon.®
This space, so fenced off, was not called “ cancelli ” or “ cancellus,” but “ chorus cantorum.”
But the high screen on the edge of the bema having disappeared as not convenient for the Latin rite, what provision was made for the seclusion and dignity of the sacred mystery? The answer is, the canopy with costly curtains placed on the bema or sanctuary
1Qf. Liddell & Scott, Lex., KdykxeAos, Keyxdis. N.B.—The latter form is frequently used as a synonym for the screen. Cf. Bingham, wt supra.
2 Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy from the time of Constantine to the fifteenth century, by Henry Gally Knight, Esq., F.R.S. F.S.A., vol. i, plates 1 and 2; Bohn, London, 1842.
3 Ch. of our Fathers, by Daniel Rock, D.D., vol. i., p. 193 ; Dolman, London, 1849.
4 See comparative ground-plan in Basilica of S. Clement, Mullooly ; Rome, Barbera, 1873.
5JIn primitiva Ecclesia peribolus, id est, paries, qui circuit chorum, non eleva- batur, nisi usque ad appodiationem, quod adhuc in quibusdam Kcclesiis observatur, quod ideo fiebat, ut populus videns clerum psallentem, inde bonum sumeret ex- emplum. Durandus, Rationale, Lib. i., cap. iii., n. 35, Lugd. 1672.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., FSA. 113
over the altar, and called in Greek Kiێevor, in Latin umbraculum, and in Italian, baldacchino, became the substitute for the Greek Kayxera, with its doors and curtains.
This canopy was used before A.D. 500 in Eastern Churches, being found depicted in the mosaics in the dome of St. George of Thessa- lonica.! The primary meaning of the Greek word Ku6eecov is the cup-like seed-vessel of the Egyptian water-lily.2 The name and thing were, therefore, probably in secular use in Egypt long before the Christian era. It is curious that our word canopy is derived from Keverretov, the canopied bed, with curtains, used in Egypt to keep off Keévwzres, mosquitos.2 A common synonym at this day in the East for K:6cgvor, in the ecclesiastical sense, is KouBov«nuor, @ canopy, apparently akin to the Latin eudicudum. Dr. Rock sup- poses the Anglosaxon Churches to have followed the type of San Clemente. This, surely, could only be true of some of the largest and grandest Churches. A good example of this type, adapted to the services of the Church of England, is St. Barnabas, at Oxford, built in the middle of the present century, for a dense population, where it is very successful. The baldacchino looks very well, but is destitute of the curtains which gave it its Italian name and were originally its chief raison d’ étre as in some measure a substitute for the Greek screen. But although the San Clemente type, with its baldacchino, chorus cantorum, and other details was unsuitable in any fulness for small villages and missionary stations in England, it may be observed in confirmation of Dr. Rock’s view that its in- fluence may be traced in many of our small Churches which have an apse. Such Churches are known to have existed in the West seven hundred years before the Norman Conquest of England. The Church of St. Gervais, at Rouen, where William the Conqueror went to die, is a bright new restoration, in Transition Norman style, but through a trap-door in the floor is reached a crypt, where there
1 Cf. Texier, Byzantine Architecture, plate 33; London, Day & Son, 1864.
2 Cf. Student’s Ecclesiastical History, by Philip Smith, p. 426, note 4, and engraving, p. 427.
8 Cf. Herodotus, ii, 95. Trommius, Concord. iu Sept., art. Kavaméiov et Koveoroy. Also Liddell and Scott, Lex. Ki€apiov ; Kavwrrévor.
114 Some Early Features of Stockton Church, Wiits.
is a very small Church, admitted to be as old as the third century. It is said to be the oldest Church in France, and a tradition of the Greek rite. It has a semi-circular apse, and the remains of a hook are shown at each side of the apse, about 10ft. high, which is said to have been used for a curtain which could be drawn or undrawn or lowered as required. The winch and pulley for such a curtain, in the Presbytery of Salisbury Cathedral, remain to this day.
By comparing these two Churches of St. Theodore, at Athens, and San Clemente, at Rome, with the ordinary type of the simplest and smallest village Churches of England, in early times, we shall see how this latter type was developed by blending the architecture of Greek and Latin Churches, and how natural it was that some of our Anglosaxon clergy, who were conversant with the East, and were accomplished Greek scholars as well as Church builders, should make the east wall of the nave, before the introduction of high and wide chancel arches, subserve the purpose of the Greek Kdyxena, so far as was consistent with the Latin rite.
In St. Theodore the choir is screened off from the bema or sanctu- ary and blended with the naos or nave.
In San Clemente the choir is fenced off from the nave and blended with the sanctuary.
In course of time it was found convenient in the West to improve further upon the plan of San Clemente by a further blending of the two types, and, instead of screening off a part of the nave fora chorus cantorum, to make room for the choir on the other side of the Kdyxedxa, by forming what we call a chancel. For this ar- rangement it was necessary to make the screen more open than in Greek Churches. In present English, choir and chancel are used as almost synonymous. ‘The usual distinction in the last generation was to use choir when speaking of a Cathedral with regular choristers and trained singers, and chancel when speaking of a smaller Church where the singing was of a different character, often in a west gallery; but it will be clear, upon reflection, that a chancel, except those that are very small, contains two divisions, viz., the sanctuary —on which stands the holy table, usually fenced off by altar rails, and west of these the space properly called a choir, for clergy and
ee ee
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 115
official singers. Some chancels are so very small, as at Stockton, that they can hardly be said to have any choir space at all. Cer- tainly no singers, however well trained, could sing to good effect through a massive wall, with a mere doorway and two small per- forations. In such small villages it seems highly probable that our forefathers were recurring to the Greek type, like St. Theodore, as more suitable for a sparse population in those times than the San Clemente and Basilican type, which, doubtless, for grand Churches, has had great influence throughout the world, and in some degree for small ones.
It seems probable that in these small chancels the intention was to provide room merely for the altar, credence, vestry, the officiating priests with his assistants, and perhaps for the communion of the faithful. The singers, if any, would be placed outside the screen, north and south, so as to give antiphonal effect, as in the Greek Church; not, as indicated by Dr. Neale, under the centre of the dome. :
The blending of the Latin rite with Greek Churches was abun-
-dantly exemplified in Italy itself long before the Norman Conquest
of England. Very notably in St. Mark’s, Venice, which was built from designs of the best architects of Constantinople, A.D. 976, apd took about one hundred years for its completion. The present screen, which divides the sanctuary of St. Mark’s from the body of the Church, was constructed in 1394 by two brothers, who were natives of Venice. An excellent view is given by Gally Knight. It is very instructive as showing how the Kdyxena of the Greek Church was modified to suit the Latin rite. It consists of twelve pillars, each surmounted by the statue of an apostle, with curtains that can be drawn or undrawn between the pillars. On the north side is a pulpit, pleasingly combined with the screen, and on the south side an ambon or reading desk. It is curious that “ Kanzel” in German means a pulpit, and a rood-loft was called in French ‘jubé,” from the “jube domne benedicere,” or solemn asking for blessing at the reading of the holy gospel therefrom.
In the Pontifical celebration of the liturgy by the Archbishop of Corfu, at the consecration of the Orthodox Greek Church of St.
116 Some Early Features of Stockton Church, Wilts.
Sophia, Bayswater, London, 5th February, 1882, the evangelist, or gospeller, after receiving benediction, as in the Latin Church, ascen- ded the lofty pulpit and read therefrom most beautifully and dis- tinetly in Greek the holy Gospel for the Sunday, the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
On the east wall of the nave of Stockton Church one poor corbel remains on the north side of the doorway, in the place of an impost. It is clear that there was another corbel on the south side of the doorway, but it was cut away in a former generation, for the fixing of a pulpit. <A third corbe] is remembered on the north side of the north hagioscope, but it was inadvertently removed during the recent restoration. Of course there was a fourth corbel on the south side of the south hagioscope.
The term rood screen is misleading, because it seems to imply that a chancel screen is necessarily connected with a rood.
The Greek screen is usually surmounted by a cross, on which are painted or incised, but not sculptured in relief, the figures, Our Lord on the cross, the Blessed Virgin standing on one side and St. John the Evangelist on the other. In the West these figures were sculptured, and came to be called the rood. A distinct rood beam was sometimes added, to carry these figures. Rood lofts were some- times connected with chancel screens, but were not introduced till about the fourteenth century.
We have some medieval chancel screens so light and open that they only veil the altar and east window, without obscuring them, as the rood screen at Mere, Wilts. Many beautiful screens of the same character have been constructed of late years for the Cathedrals of Ely, Hereford, Salisbury, and for many smaller Churches.
The gates of the Salisbury screen are made to open westward into the nave, as do those at Stockton, which are shown in the drawing annexed.
No one in the Church ‘of England is likely to re-produce the Stockton arrangement, except, perhaps, for missionary purposes. We are greatly indebted to the Rector, Squire, and Churchwardens of the parish; I must add, also to the architects, Mr. Benjamin Ferrey, F.S,A., and Mr. Edmund Benjamin Ferrey, for preserving,
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.8.A. 117
in spite of much obloquy, so precious an historical monument, or “lamp of memory,” to use a Ruskin phrase. I am also told that the Marquis of Bath, F.S.A., visited the Church and expressed a strong opinion in favour of preserving the very peculiar features of the east end of the nave.
In the case of a small Church or chancel the arrangement is not so inconvenient as might be supposed for the services of the Church of England. In the communion service at Stockton the clergyman’s voice is well heard throughout the buildmg. Nor is it necessarily un- sightly. Before the recent restoration the large space of wall over the doorway and hagioscopes was encrusted with eighteenth and nine- teenth century monuments. These have been moved to more suitable situations, but the wall in the meantime is left blank. It is to be hoped that, in due course of time, by study of archeological and artistic lore, some subjects will be chosen to decorate this space, so that this historic east wall—without detriment to its archaic features —may become an iconostasis as well as Kayxeda. There can be no doubt that it was so decorated in olden time, in conformity with both Greek and Latin examples.!
In order to appreciate the great wisdom of the Stockton arrange- ment in very early times, it is desirable to ascertain approximately when it was devised. Iam not aware of any known examples which are older than the Norman Conquest, if so old, but the arrangement was probably devised long before.?
The most Greek period in England before the conquest dates from A.D. 668, when Theodore of Tarsus became Archbishop of Canter- bury. He was very energetic in his duties and occupied the see twenty-two years. He deceased A.D. 690. His primacy naturally gave a great stimulus to the study of Greek, and intercourse with the Greek Church.? At this time there was no actual schism be- tween East and West.
1Cf. Texier, Byzantine Architecture, and the sculptured angels at Bradford- on-Avon.
2 Cf. Church of Reculvers, Arch. Cant., vol. xii. * Cf. Dr. Hook, Lives of Archbishops, vol. i., pp. 145, 164.
118 Some Early Features of Stockton Church, Wilts.
In A.D. 705 Aldhelm became Bishop of Sherborn, and remained in that see till his decease in 709. Although the manor of Stockton belonged to the Cathedral of Winchester, and the Bishop of that see was patron of the rectory, the Church and parish were in the bishopric or diocese of Sherborn, as now of Salisbury.
Bishop Aldhelm had studied much at Canterbury, under Adrian, a follower of Archbishop Theodore. He had travelled much in the East, and was an accomplished Greek as well as Hebrew scholar. During the four years of his episcopate, although about seventy years old, he was very diligent in the discharge of his duties, travelling about his diocese mostly on foot. He built a Church at Bradford- on-Avon, Wilts, and another at Frome Selwood; the latter dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the same dedication as Stockton, which was most appropriate for these places, which were, at that time, in regard to Christianity, out-posts in the wilderness. It is expressly recorded that he came and preached at Bishopstrow, about seven miles from Stockton, and the Church built there, after his visit, is dedicated to him. He laboured much for the union of Christendom in his day, and was very successful in reconciling Britons and Saxons. He was then, in all respects, the man to introduce such a Greekish arrangement as that at Stockton, and through his influence, it may reasonably be supposed, to have spread into the parent and very friendly diocese of Winchester, and elsewhere. But there were other students of Greek among the Anglosaxon clergy who might have devised this arrangement, or, being so very suitable for missionary stations, it may have been expressly authorised from Rome, as was the appointment of Theodore of Tarsus to be Archbishop of Canter- bury. There is a prevailing learned error that little or no Greek was known in this country till the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1454; this is at variance with facts. Greek was always known at Rome, and there is abundant evidence that Greek—both sacred and secular—was studied during the Anglosaxon period both in England and France, and, moreover, that it was pronounced as the Greeks of to-day pronounce it.
Dr. Hicks gives extracts from a Frank MS. of this period, pre- served at the Public Library at Cambridge, which has the Lord’s
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.8.A. 119
Prayer, Gloria in Excelsis, and Nicene Creed, all in Greek, but transliterated into the Frank character of that date.
He also gives, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, extracts from the Septuagint of passages from Genesis and Isaiah in Greek, but transliterated into the Anglosaxon character. By reference to Wanley’s catalogue we find that there is a mine of such documents yet unexplored. Mr. Cockayne, in his Saxon Leechdoms, edited for the Master of the Rolls, shows that the Anglosaxons were acquainted with Greek medical treatises.
So much for the learned error.
There is also a popular error very prevalent, which interferes with the due appreciation of the wisdom of the Stockton arrangement for missionary stations in early times. It seems to be supposed that a great part of the worship of early times consisted in gazing at
the officiating priest and his assistants while performing the liturgy,
and that all, whether faithful, catechumens, penitents, or unbelievers, were invited to gaze. This is contrary to the whole spirit and practice, both of East and West, in early ages. That spirit is set forth with much learning in Tract 90 of the Oxford Tracts, “On Reserve in Communicating Religious Knowledge.” I have, in this paper, nothing to do with the writer’s deductions, applications, or religious reflexions, but with the question of an intentional reserve, except to the initiated, and prepared, which is the key to many of the arrangements of early Church architecture, in the East and West. This is recognised in the Eastern liturgy by the dismissal of the eatechumens, and the ejaculation, Ta ayia Trois ayiow.s It is pointedly expressed by a medieval poet :—
“Infra Cancellum Laicos compelle morari, Ne videant vinum cum sacro Pane sacrari.”
Poeta MS. aevi infimi: apud Du Cange, Gloss. Lat., art Cancellus.
Those who are interested by parallels will find them in the Jewish religion, and in the Eleusinian and other heathen mysteries diffusely treated by Bishop Warburton.?
1’Evxoddyiov, pp. 55, 69; Venice, 1862. 2Divine Legation.
120 Some Early Features of Stockton Church, Wilts.
In the Greek Church a most elaborate ritual of the preparation, &c., is performed out of sight of the assembly of worshippers, many prayers are said by the priest behind the screen, some of them in- deed éxdodvas aloud, but many protixds in silence, without the utterance of a sound, and the Latin Church has also secreta.
Why then are the doors ever opened, and the curtains undrawn, and why were the hagioscopes made ?
The answer is, for the faithful, but not necessarily for all at one time. Gazing was not a matter of religious, still less of legal obligation. Those of the faithful were invited to look who were inclined to do so and felt the looking to be a help to their devotion.
This is well expressed in Elfric’s canons, which—speaking of the fraction and elevation of the host—say, ‘‘ Loca hwa wille,” “ Look who will.”+ The easternmost arch, on each side of the nave of Stockton Church, filled up with masonry to the height of 2ft. 10in. above the floor, seems to have been intended for a backing to the misereres or singers’ stalls, placed immediately westward of the Kdyxeda, north and south, for antiphonal singing, as in Greek Churches, at this day. Possibly each of these arches may have been occupied and ornamented by a recumbent effigy, in the attitude of prayer, respecting the altar through the adjacent hagioscope, a usage exemplified by an effigy still remaining in the south aisle.
In the early services I find some resemblances to the Greek ser- vices, particularly in the Anglosaxon ceremonial for the Dedication of Churches published in the Archzologia,? but probably they are not more Greek than the services of the Latin Church elsewhere at that date.
Any indications of the use of the Greek rite in the Anglosaxon Church I have not found. In very early times, the See of Rome, after the example of Pope Gregory the Great, was very tolerant of small variations of ritual. I note two subordinate variations of the Anglosaxon Church, in an eastward direction, from the general
1 See Elfric’s Canons, A.D. 957, c. 37, in Johnson’s Ecclesiastical Laws, Canons, &c., Editor’s corrections and quotations in note *, vol. i., p. 404; Oxford, J. H.
Parker, 1850. , 2 Vol. xxv.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 121
practice of the Western Church of the present day :—1. a fuller and more frequent use of incense; i. the distribution of blessed-bread at the close of the liturgy.
In the parish books of St. Stephen’s, Coleman Street, exhibited by Edwin Freshfield, Esq., F.S.A.,at an ordinary meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, London, in 1879, one item of some accounts, A.D. 1382, was, “Salt and cutting the Holy Loaf.” This was certainly not bread for the sacrament—which was always in this country, before the Reformation, of wafer form, and needed no cutting—but Blessed Bread, a tradition of the avridweor, still distributed in the Greek Church, and identical with the Pain Beni distributed at the end of mass in the Churches of France.!
There is one other early feature. It is a beautiful but sadly- mutilated effigy, in the south aisle, of a lady, supposed to be a benefactress. It reminds me in its costume and elegance of the effigy of Eleanor, Queen of King Edward I., in Westminster Abbey, but possibly it may be much later. The peculiarity is that the lady is represented recumbent on the left side, and in the attitude of prayer, apparently respecting the altar in the same south aisle. Tradition says that it formerly occupied a position about the middle of the south wali of the same aisle, under a recess which was des- troyed to make way for a glaring monument, and that being found out of place in the restoration of 1840, a new recess was made for it where it now lies.
I trust I have now fairly illustrated these points, which appear to me as facts :—
1. That the chancel and nave arrangement of our Churches has arisen from an amalgamation of Eastern and Western types.
2. That our English word chancel is derived from Kayxena, the original name of the Greek screen, through Latin.
3, That some of our smallest chancels were not intended to ac- commodate a choir, much less an organ.
1Cf. Laws of K. Ethelred, as quoted below, p. 182, in a paper on the Church
"of St. Peter, Manningford.
eal oe
122 On the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire.
4. That chancel screens are in accordance with both Eastern and Western usage, and are not necessarily connected with roods, rood beams, or rood lofts.
5. That the influence of Greek ritual, theology, language, and Church arrangement was considerable in this country in the Anglo- saxon period.
6. That the Stockton arrangement, though not likely to find favour in this country, since the introduction of chancel arches and light open screens, is, nevertheless, worthy of consideration for missionary stations, for the seclusion and security of chancels.
7. The importance of having any restoration or demolition watched, if possible, by some experienced antiquary.
[N.B.—Part of the foregoing paper was read by the author before an ordinary meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 15th January, 1880, and an abstract is printed in the Proceedings, N.S., vol. viii., No. lii., p. 230. About the same time, in restoring and re-fixing an interesting Perpendicular rood screen in Poltimore Church, near Exeter, it was discovered that the central part of the east wall of the nave had been cut away, apparently in the fifteenth century, from
floor to roof, leaving an opening about 7ft. wide, and a hagioscope was found on each side, filled up with masonry, and plastered over. |
On the Charch of St. Aetec, Alanningtord Hruce, Cerltshire : With Mlustrations from other Early Churches.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A.,
Rector of Upton Scudamore, Wilts.
(A2HE parish is called Manningford St. Peter in the Taxation of ¢ WA Pope Nicholas, A.D. 1291, and received its later surname from. the family of Braose, or Brewes, who were lords of the manor in the fourteenth century.
“wOpUDy oYNT ‘svg EME TTIY,
"SLTIM'N ‘JONYS‘AGHOSONINNVW “HOUNHD SYWALdd aS
OY MA 1 YH wel 700g
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.8.A. 123
The early features of this little Romanesque Church may be con- veniently ranged under the following heads :-— 1. The ground-plan. 2. The herring-bone arrangement of the flints of the external masonry, with very coarse joints. 3. The great height of the wall and doors in proportion to the smallness of the building. 4. The smallness of the original round-headed windows, and the height at which they are placed above the floor-level. Of these three remain fairly perfect, with indications of a fourth on the south side of the nave. 5. The absence of ornament. 6. The space at the east end devoid of windows, but lighted by a window on each side, apparently arranged for a painting of the Majesty, or some other devotional subject. 7. Three consecration crosses at the east end. 8. Some slight remains of a painting over the north door, ap- parently similar in style to some of the pictures in the Utrecht Psalter.
1. The ground-plan. The walls are about 3ft. 6in. thick, without buttresses or aisles. The Church has three well-defined portions, which may be conveniently designated by the Greek names, bema, choros, and naos; or we may apply English names which are more familiar, but less definite, ¢.g.,sanctuary, presbytery or choir, and nave.
Popularly the Church would be described as consisting of apse, chancel, and nave; or simply of chancel and nave, the apse being looked upon as an exceptional termination. And there is great danger that when an apsidal Church is being pulled about and. altered in the process of what is called restoration it may have its three-fold partition more or less obliterated, and be conformed to the modern notion of chancel and nave.
_ The inexactness of the above English descriptions will appear if we consider how vague and still fluctuating are some of the terms used.
Choir is often used as a sori of synonym for chancel, though it properly means a place for clergy and singers.
VOL. XX.—NO. LIX. K
124 On the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire.
Presbytery is an expressive word, but not much used except in our English Cathedrals to denote the space between the sanctuary, or altar-place, and the choir proper.!
Chancel, as I have shewn in a paper which I had the honour of reading before the Society of Antiquaries, 15th January, 1880,” though popularly used to denote the part of a Church eastward of the nave, is a Greek word which was originally the name of the screen, called in later times iconostasis, which has always stood at the top of the three steps on the western side of the bema. There- fore historically, the apse might be reasonably called the chancel or place screened off for liturgical rites. In this paper desiring to — speak with exactness, without being pedantically archaic, I will | either use the Greek names, bema, choros and naos; or the English words apse, chancel and nave. One of the most striking peculiarities of this Church which may be considered under the head of ground- plan is that there is no east window. Of course there is an outcry among some Church restorers that ‘a good east window of suitable character” ought to be inserted. Iam glad to think that there is no intention of such an alteration being here made. To my mind the absence of an east window is a very persuasive argument for the early date of this Church.
About the year 1845 I was permitted, in company with Mr. Joseph Clarke, now a much-valued Fellow of the Society of Anti- quaries, to examine archeologically the little apsidal Church of Swyncumbe in Oxfordshire. The apse in that case had no east window apparent. We set to work to shell off carefully with thin old table knives the whitewash, and we made the curious discovery’ of a large archaic painting of a figure of Our Lord between two angels, with a liberal supply on their wings of eyes like those on a
1 The name presbytery, like basilica, to be mentioned below, though of Greek derivation, did not prevail in the East, but in the West. The usual name for the seats for Bishop and clergy round the inside of the apse of an Eastern Church is Synthronon. Dr. J. M. Neale makes the word masculine, apparently through inadvertence, or for the sake of uniformity with the uncompounded word. Cf. Bulgari, Catechesis Hiera, p. 56; Corfu, 1852. Rompotes, Liturg. p. 43 ; Athens, 1869. Also Ducange, Greek Glossary.
2 An abstract is published in the Proceedings, vol. viii., No. iii., Second Series, pp. 2838—7. Cf above, p. 111.
WOpuoy OY?NT 'sSegrp Ue USIIy
400 D 07 YOULL y, Gl ‘FYPOS
‘MW1044NS‘NOLLIYS ‘HOHUYNHOD S,ANNWGS 'S
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S8.A. 125
peacock’s tail. This painting had been cut into and partly des- troyed by the insertion of three little round-headed windows, after- wards plastered over. We therefore came to the conclusion that at Swyncumbe the apse and the archaic painting were much older than the Conquest and the so-called Norman Period. Westward of the apse at Swyncumbe was a chancel with thirteenth-century details. A reference to the little apsidal Church of Fritton, Suffolk, seems to shew that an east window was thought necessary in the so-called Norman Period. In that case there was one very small round- headed east window, with chevron moulding; and restorers, in the present century, have added a similar window on each side of it, as may be seen by comparing a photograph of the present interior of the Church with the ground-plan, perspective view, and interior, in Suckling’s History of Suffolk It is a noteworthy fact that the original Church dedicated to St. Aldhelm, at Bishopstrow, Wilts, a place which he is recorded to have visited as a missionary bishop, was apsidal, and—like Manningford Bruce—had no east window ; but the eastern part of the apse was an unbroken space of wall with a window on each side. This space, doubtless occupied by a de- votional picture in early times, was utilized by the rector and parishi- oners in the last century as an advantageous position in respect of light and acoustic effect for the pulpit. A ground-plan of the original Church of 8. Aldhelm, Bishopstrow, is given by Sir R. C. Hoare,> showing the position of the pulpit as it existed in his day, and the two windows of the the apse placed N.E. and S.E., instead of due N. and S, as in the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, where the easternmost part of the apse was seized upon as a com- manding position, not for a pulpit, but for a monument to Mary Lane, wife of Edward Nicholas, lord of the manor of Manningford
1Tn the Anglosaxon MS. of Caedmon, tenth century, the seraphs attendant on Deity are represented with eyes on their wings. See Archzxologia, vol. xxiv., p- 340, plates lii., liv., lxxxix. For a figure of Our Lord between two angels, see Utrecht Psalter, ps. xix., (xviii. Vulgate).
? History of Suffolk, by Rev. A. Suckling, L.L.B., vol. i., p.p. 357—8 ; London, 1846.
3 History of Modern Wilts, Hundred of Warminster, p. 74. K2
126 On the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire.
Bruce, and sister of Jane Lane, who assisted in the escape of King Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester. This monument is now removed and placed on the north wall of the chancel.
The original chancel of the Church of St. Aldhelm, Bishopstrow, was demolished at the beginning of this century, and a square-ended chancel substituted. In the course of a re-construction of the Church, about six years ago, the foundations of the apsidal chancel were discovered, but the designs for a square-ended chancel were adhered to. As a ground-work on which to rest the illustration of early Romanesque apsidal Churches, I must beg to quote some re- markable words of Dean Milman in his Latin Christianity :— For some considerable (it cannot but be an indefinable) part of the three first centuries, the Church of Rome, and most if not all the Churches of the West, were, if we may so speak, Greek religious colonies ; their language was Greek, their organisation Greek, their writers Greek, their Scriptures Greek, and many vestiges and traditions show that their ritual, their liturgy, was Greek.” * In the great work of Gally Knight, on the early Churches of Italy, depicting grand dromical Churches, with a rowof pillars on each side, and an apse at one or both ends, the resemblance of these to Basilicas or Halls of Justice may seem complete. But we have now pushed our researches further and deeper than Gally Knight. We have since his day brought more fully into view Byzantine and Eastern Church archi- tecture, and have dug down beneath his “ primitive Church,” San Clemente, at Rome, till we have discovered a more primitive Church, which is fully described by Father Mullooly in his work on the recent discoveries by excavation under San Clemente. ?
The study of the ground-plans of primitive Churches is very instructive for the illustration of early Romanesque Churches in England as shewing that there was a traditional type of Church, antecedent to the ambries and piscinas of the middle ages, and coeval with Basilicas or Halls of Justice, rather than derived from
1 Milman’s Latin Christianity, b. i., ch. i., vol. i, p. 27, quoted in Scudamore’s Notitia Eucharistica, ch. vi. part ii., p. 207, note 5 ; Rivington, London, 1872. 2 See ground-plan of Subterranean Basilica, in S. Clement P. & M., and his Basilica in Rome; by Joseph Mullooly, O.P.,facing page 167 ; Rome, Barbera, 1873.
\ ‘ i A, ' r ” ' ' i oe lL ; = . ' atk
‘204 D 07 YrergBl Tago yLOG
PARTICULARS OF CHURCH OF STMELLON, A.D.250,IN CRYPT OF STGERVAIS, ROUEN, OBTAINED BY PERSONAL SURVEY OF REV. J.BARON,D.D.,F.S.A.,22 SEP. 1881. b. Seat for Bishop on North Side. _D. Tomb of S*Mellon 1Archbishop of Rowen. d. do. for assistants §. Side. — E Tomb of StAvitus, 2" Archbishop. a. Medieval altar slab modern legs. C. Chancel 8:2'416:8. cc.lron crooks 10:2:haghtromtloor = N. Nave 19/910: BB. Large square recesses ,— C. Present staars,& atrarce.
width3.6. height 2:11'depth 2:10" h. Stone seat rarsung row N.5.4&W.sides.
Whiteman&Bass, tho. london
ee
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 127
them. In Bingham’s Antiquities is the “ Plan of an Ancient Church as described by Eusebius and other writers.” Here we have not a triple apse, as in later times for grand Churches both in the east and west, but a single apse, with mere recesses on the north and south, as at Manningford Bruce, for prothesis and diaconicon, with Kéynera or Kuyxrides subtending the bema or apse.!
It is clear from the comparative ground-plan given by Father Mullooly, and from plans and explanations kindly communicated to me by John Henry Parker, Esq., C.B., F.S.A., that although the modern Church of San Clemente has a triple apse, the really primi- tive Church had a single apse.
The triplication of the apse, which began early in the east as well as in the west, prevailed more generally afterwards, in large Churches, and is indicated in historical ground-plans of Canterbury, York,? and other English Churches, clearly arose from a desire to do honour to the prothesis and diaconicon in subordination to the holy table, or the high altar, as it came to be called in the West. For con- venience I use north to indicate the gospel side, and south the epistle side, not forgetting the variations as to orientation.
In the Church of St. George, at Thessalonica, which is known to be as old as A.D. 500, and believed to be much older, the apse is single with a mere recess on the north and south sides for prothesis and diaconicon.?
But to come much nearer home, to a Church even older than that of St. George, of Thessalonica, and smaller than that of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce. In the erypt under the restored Church of St. Gervais, in Rouen, is the Church of St. Mellon, believed by French antiquaries to be about A.D. 250, and allowed by Gally Knight on a personal inspection to be of about that date.* I visited
1 Compare Bingham’s Antiquities, Bk. viil., ch. iii., sec. 3 and 1, vol. ii., pp. 400 and 396; London, Straker, 1843.
2 See Professor Willis on Canterbury Cathedral, p. 39; London, Longmans, 1845. Also Proceedings of Archeological Institute, York volume, plate giving five historical block plans of York Cathedral; Oxford, J. H. Parker, 1848.
3 Texier, Byzantine Architecture. 4 Tour in Normandy, Gally Knight, pp. 32, 33; London, Murray, 1836.
128 On the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire.
this Church some years ago, and mentioned it in my Paper, on Stockton Church, read before the Society of Antiquaries, London, 15th January, 1880. I re-visited it on the 22nd of September, 1881, and made careful measurements and observations from which I have had drawn out a plan which is a remarkable illustration of Man- ningford Bruce, and other small apsidal Churches of early date. Here the bema, choros, and naos are well defined. The bema or apse is semi-circular, the diameter being 10ft. At present the floor of the bema is lft. higher than the floor of choros and naos. At the height of 10ft. 2in. on each side is an iron crook, said to have been used for the suspension of a curtain in those early times, in the place of Kéyxeda or é:Kovdcracits. On the north side is a seat for the Bishop, and on the south side a seat for his assistants. It is possible that these seats were continued round the apse, and cut away to make room for the medieval stone mensa with five crosses, which is now fixed against the east wall, and supported on modern legs of the epoch of Louis XIV., or later. Just outside the apse, in what may be called the choros or chancel, in the modern sense of chancel, is on each side a large square deep recess, clearly corres- ponding to the prothesis and diaconicon of early and simple Churches in the East.
The dimensions of the square recess on the north side are, width, oft. Gin.; height, 2ft. ]lin.; depth, 2ft. 10in.; and of that on the south side the same. The dimensions of the round arched recess on the north side of Manningford Bruce chancel,for prothesis orcredence are, curiously, 2lin. throughout, for width, heght from base to apex, and depth. It almost seems as if there were some intentional reference to the multiples 3 and 7. There is no rebate or mark of its ever having had a door. The dimensions are the same of the round arched recess on the south side for diaconicon, skeuophylakion, or locker, for the safe keeping of the sacred vessels, &c., and this recess has a rebate of 2in. width, and the marks of a bolt for folding doors.
The only further features of the ground-plan of St. Mellon to be mentioned are the architectural definition of the choros or chancel by a massive pier on each side; the stone seat running round the
MOpuoy oY2I7 'SS¥G>R METI TTY,
“JOCIUGWHOM HLIM OT3H SI MoadtiM aN
"NOXO‘FAIWOINAMS 40 HOYNHI TYAISdv FHL OSTY FYVIWO0D
AUN) 7. 29:07. wasoddns ‘sswpbmoy 40 209 297 DY HN PULL, UOSDG sus NINnOP 7QwenoW “wD “2/100 Y7M AUN ‘WDM JO ssnnpNp np sassee. aconhs abioT QQ SG itl *.0:kl ToUOU) F 1908".B1E ay ¥ (96'2 6281 OVW 'LN39 Ni GHOSIYTH ‘HOUNHIURLId AYVdWOd } ‘P6E'd ‘| LUYd ECS! OVW 'LNAD WOUd ‘GHYO4TYFH'HOYNHO MO3dTIN 40 SHVINOILYYd
Scale about 16%mch to a foot.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., FSA. 129
Church, as at Salisbury Cathedral and in many other English Churches; and the recesses towards the west end for the tombs of St. Mellon, the first Bishop of Rouen, and of St. Avitus, his suc- cessor.
The small apsidal Norman Church of Kilpeck, in Herefordshire, presents an interesting variety of arrangements for prothesis and diaconicon, as may be seen on the plan.
This arrangement in the Church of St. Mellon, Rouen, St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, and Kilpeck, is not strietly Greek, because the recesses are outside the bema, but it registers an early variation of the Latin Church from the Greek usage which prevailed throughout the West till some way on in the third century.” If we could be assured that a screen or curtain was used westward of the recesses, so as to include in the sanctuary what now appears to be choros, these Churches would be in close conformity with Greek usage.®
Before leaving the consideration of the ground-plan, it should be noted that the piers of the chancel arch in Manningford Bruce Church are similar in massiveness to those in the erypt Church of St. Mellon, but much more lofty, the height from the nave floor to the top of the abacus being 9ft. 7in. The chancel at Manningford is defined on the west by these massive piers and on the east by ashlar irregular quoins, internally and externally, at the springing of the curve of the apse. It is difficult to assign a date to the Manningford chancel arch, which is semi-circular, the diameter being 12ft., and formed on the west side by dressed stones like bricks, with gable-shaped ends, curiously fitted together. On the east side the joints are laid in the ordinary way.
2. The herring-bone arrangement of the flints of the external masonry, with very coarse joints, is remarkable. Taken alone it
'See plan and description, Gents’ Mag., 1833, parti. p. 393. See plan and perspective view in Fosbroke’s Encyclopedia of Antiquities. Compare plan of Peterchurch, Herefordshire, Gents’ Mag., 1829, part ii., p. 496.
? See Milman’s Latin Christianity, Bk. i., ch. i., quoted above, p. 126.
3 Durandus, Bishop of Mende, in France, A.D. 1286, mentions three veils. “Notandum est, quod triplex genus veli suspenditur in ecclesia, videlicet, quod sacra operit, quod sacrarium a clero dividit, et quod clerum & populo secernit. Durandi Rationale, Lib. i., cap. 3, p. 17; Lyons, 1672.
180 On the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire.
cannot be relied upon as a proof of early date. It seems to indicate a tradition of occasional herring-boning in Roman masonry, but it is found to linger on in post-Conquestal Norman.! An inspection of the masonry, or a photograph of some part of it will be better than description. It was, as well as the chancel arch, covered with plaster, which has now been removed. It seems possible that this herring-boning was done for constructional convenience, as explained in Parker’s Glossary, and not for ornament. It may, perhaps, have been the intention of the original builders that it should he covered with plaster, as a preservative and finish.
3. We now come to the third point, viz., the height of the walls and doors in proportion to the smallness of the building.
The bema or apse is, as already stated, a semi-circle, the diameter being 16ft. 14in. The choros or chancel is, including the piers of the arch, 15ft. from west to east, and 16ft. 24in. wide, at the arch or western end. The nave is 33ft. 6in, X 18ft. 6in.
In combination with these dimensions the height of the doors and walls is remarkable. The height of the south doorway, now the only entrance to the Church, is 10ft. 2in. from the floor to the constructional arch, and the width is 4ft. This opening is reduced by plate arch and jambs to 8ft. 7in x 3ft. 5in. The height of the north door, now, is L0ft. 7in., and the width 4ft. Lin.
Doubtless curtains were intended to be used with these tall doors, as now in some places in England, and still more in foreign countries. At Upton Scudamore Church, Wilts, there is a curious instance of a high and wide north doorway, the main entrance, with chevron mouldings, which has been reduced, in the fourteenth century, by inserting a much smaller doorway, with mouldings and a niche over it of the period.
The south door of Manningford Bruce Church looks tall and narrow in comparison with other Church doors, and is singularly like the door of a Church figured in a Saxon Pontifical, MS. 362, Public Library, Rouen, and engraved for Mr. Gage’s paper on the
1 Compare Parker’s Glossary, article “ Herring-bone Work.”
MANNINGFORD BRUCE CHURCH.
% an iS
|] TAO
ated Bales RR a a es 0
South Do orway.
a Lnner Arch, 6 Outer Arch.
ito a ! MU,
STH HLT altabe
ws \) a FH TH
SS TI a IL [|
Chancel Arch.
Lavars, Lith, Bristol.
‘ . — va
= eee
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 131
Saxon ceremonial for the dedication of a Church, in Archeologia, vol. xxv., p. 251.
The height of the walls is also remarkable. In the bema or apse the height from floor to wall plate is 15ft. 5in. In the choros or chancel, 15ft. 9in. In the nave, 18ft. 74in. Smallness and loftiness are characteristics of many Eastern Churches of early date, and also of the little Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts, which has external ornament resembling some Eastern Churches.
It should be noted that the square east end of the little Saxon Church at Bradford is no proof of a later date, nor is the apsidal end of Manningford Bruce in itself a proof of earlier date. Both types co-existed from the earliest ages of Christianity.
Texier, in his Byzantine Church Architecture, points out that the Christian Church formed out of the Temple of Rome and Augustus at Ancyra, the capital of Galatia, in Asia Minor, is the earliest known example of a square east end, and that this type was common at a very early date in Britain and France, both which countries had a special connection with Galatia, but not in Italy, where the Basilican and apsidal type generally prevailed. 'The Churches de- picted in the Utrecht Psalter have square east ends.
Texier’s words are: “The usual custom in Greek Churches was to make the apse circular on plan. Since the reign of Justinian this rule had been departed from but little. This apse was generally lighted by three wiadows, in honour of the Holy Trinity.!' Here, however, the chancel has a square instead of a semi-circular termi- nation, and this is the most ancient example known of the square east end, of which it is difficult to cite a single example in Italy, but which became common in Normandy and England in the eleventh and twelrth centuries.” ?
Paradoxical as the statement may seem, the small and lofty Churches of Manningford Bruce, Bradford, and the East, were able to accommodate as many worshippers as modern Churches of twice their size, and for this reason, that the very early Churches were
1Codimus. Description of Saint Sophia. - ? Texier, Byzantine Architecture, p. 91; London, Day & Son, 1864.
132 On the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire.
not encumbered with pues, and no space or accommodation was re- quired for sitting or kneeling in the full congregations of the Lord’s Day, because it was the custom in England, as in the east, to stand during the liturgy and other prayers.
Dean Stanley, in his History of the Eastern Church, notes it as remarkable that the Scotch agree with the East in standing to pray, and in abhorring instruments for religious worship. This coinci- dence is easily accounted for when we realise that the whole Western Church was Eastern and Greek before it was Latin. Of the custom of standing to pray in England I will allege a proof which I dis- covered for myself. In the laws of King Ethelred, A.D. 978—1016, is the following passage. I will give my own translation first, and then quote the Anglosaxon words :—
“27. Or with what thought can any man ever think in his mind that he inclines head to priests, and desires blessing, and stands during their masses in Church, and at going up for bread kisses their hand, and soon afterwards should readily injure or revile them by word or deed.”
“XXVIII. Oththon hwilean gethance maeg aenig man aefre gethencan on his mode, thaet he to sacerdan heofod ahylde, and bletsinge gyrne, and heora maessan on circan gestande, and aet hlaf gange heora hand cysse, and sona thaer-aefter hi hraedlice sith than scyrde oththe scynde, mid worde oththe weorce.”’1
This passage has been misunderstood, both by Mr. Benjamin Thorpe and by Dr. Reinhold Schmidt. They have both mistaken “hlaf gang,” going up for the holy loaf—antidoron, eulogia, in Greek, pain beni, in the Gallican Church, for “ huselgang,” going to Holy Communion.
4. The fourth point is the smallness of the original round-headed windows, and the height at which they are placed above the floor line.
The two original windows in the apse are externally 4ft. x 1ft. 9in.,
1 Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, ed. Thorpe, 8vo, vol. i., p. 334; Record Commissioners, 1840. Compare die Gesetse der Angelsachsen, Dr.
Reinhold Schmid, p. 386, Anhang, iv., 27 ; Leipzig, 1858. Cf. N.B., p. 137.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 133
and the sill is 11ft. 3in. above the floor line. Internally they are deeply splayed, and the base of the splay of the one is 8ft. above the floor line, and of the other 8ft. Gin. The original window on the north side of the nave is externally also 4ft. x lft. 9in., and the height of the base of the splay above the floor internally is 10ft. 7in.
I remember having heard Mr. Street, about twenty-five years ago, enunciate in conversation the maxim, that Church windows ought to be well elevated, in order that the worshippers may look heavenward rather than be distracted by terrestrial objects. This practice has material as well as devotional advantages, e.g., in diffusion of light, moderation of temperature, and economy of sound, but the elevation of the original Norman windows in the Manning- ford Bruce Church is greatly in excess of the usual medizval or modern practice. These windows, in size, shape, and elevation, singularly coincide with those depicted in the illustration of a Church in course of consecration in the Saxon Pontifical referred to above, p. 130, in Archzologia, vol. xxv., p. 251.
The windows were probably so placed partly for security, and to lessen the effect of draught. It is evident that window is a Danish word, meaning wind-eye: the Anglosaxon equivalent is “ ehthirl,’” eyehole.’
5. The fifth early feature is the absence of ornament. In many of the smallest village Churches of the so-called Norman period we find, not only the chevron moulding, but a profusion of ornament, as in Iffley Church, Oxfordshire. The term Norman, as applied to round-headed windows and doors is misleading. The term Saxon is not much better, because it is difficult to name any features which are distinctively Saxon, unless the long and short quoins and the baluster pillars, insisted on by Rickman and Parker, be such. I therefore much prefer, at least for the earlier specimens of the round _ arch style the term Romanesque, advocated long ago by Mr. Freeman.
1 Cf, Windauga, Cleasby’s Icelandic Dict. Windue, Gen. xvi., 6. Danish Bible; Bhthirl, Gen. xvi., 6. Anglo-Saxon Tr. ed. Grein.
\
134 On the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire.
6. The sixth point, the space at the east end devoid of window, has been already treated under the head of ground-plan.
7. The three consecration crosses, discovered under whitewash, at the east end, on the concave wall of the apse, about 7ft. 5in. above the floor, are very interesting. At Salisbury Cathedral, dedicated A.D. 1225, and at Edington Church, dedicated A.D. 1361, there are remains of external consecration crosses on their east walls. These are formed by a cross pattée bounded by a circle and have formerly been inlaid with metal.!
It would appear that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was customary to make internal consecration crosses of the same form as those remaining on the outside of Salisbury Cathedral and other Churches. Mr. Street has described the finding of a painted cross pattée enclosed within a circle on the inside of the east wall of the Church of St. Mary, Stowe, near Dartford. It was red ona white ground, and outlined with black.*
The internal crosses at Manningford Bruce are formed by strokes of red colour about 5in long, and of a uniform breadth of jin., crossing each other at right angles. These primitive-looking crosses are inclosed, with a proportionate intervening space, by a quatrefoil bounded by a double circle.
Quatrefoils, and circles, sometimes double, were used artistically as pictorial decorations in the tenth century, as may be seen by a reference to the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold in the Archzologia,* and Professor Westwood’s Facsimiles.*
They are also found in early Byzantine architecture.?
1 Also at Uffington Church, Berks, Pugin’s Glossary, article “ Consecration Crosses.” Also at Potterne, Wilts, and Shoreham, Sussex.
2 Some account of the Church of St. Mary, Stowe, near Dartford, by George Edmund Street, F.S.A., Archologia Cantiana, vol. iii., p. 126; London, J. EH. Taylor, 1866.
3 For double circles with cross, see Archzologia, vol. xxiv., plate xxv., p. 102.
4 Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS., plate xv. ; London, Quaritch, 1868. For quatre- foils with crosses, ‘and for circles, see Palographia sacra, Gospels of Canute, No. 23; London, Bohn, 1845.
5 Texier, plates xxv. and lxiii; London, Day & Son, 1864.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 135
Notwithstanding these early examples I cannot venture to assume that the remains of decorative painting within the apse of Manning- ford Bruce Church are so early as the tenth century or the shell of the Church. It seems just possible that the primitive-looking red crosses may be coeval with the consecration, marking the spots touched with chrism by the officiating bishop, and that the de- corative quatrefoils, circles, &c., may have been added at a later date.
The consecration or dedication of Churches was a most elaborate and prolonged process, even at a very early date, both in the Greek and Latin branches of the Church, as may be seen in the Euchologion and the Pontificals.
The Greck and Latin services are not identical, but there are many points of similarity between them. Much information re- specting this ceremony is given in Mr. Gage’s paper on “The Anglo-Saxon Ceremonial and Consecration of Churches illustrated from a Pontifical in the Public Library at Rouen,” in the twenty- fifth volume of Archeologia.
The MS. is numbered 362, and is believed to be of the tenth century.
In the Greek service it is directed that one of the priests or arch- priests shall make crosses with {he ointment on each pillar and pier of the Church, and in Byzantine architecture we find a cross sculptured above the capital or abacus, apparently to receive this - unction and to be a memorial of it.’
In the Rouen Pontifical is this rubric : “ Deinde in cireuitu ecclesia per parietes a dextro et a sinistro faciens crucem cum pollice de ipso crismate, dicens,” &c. From the context it appears that these crosses, made by the Bishop with his thumb dipped in chrism, were inside the Church. From Durandus, writing in the fifteenth century, we learn that the number of crosses was twelve. We may, therefore, suppose that three crosses were made on the eastern wall, as at ~Manningford Bruce; three on the north wall; three on the south wall; and three on the west wall.
ceumeeen onan) eg ee
1 Buchologion, p. 321; Venice, 1862. Cf. below, N.B., p. 137. 2 Of. Texier, three plates of St. Demetrius, Thessalonica, following p. 128,
136 On the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire.
The twenty-fifth volume of the Archeologia, already referred to contains in a letter from Sidney Smirke, Esq., F.S.A., to Sir Henry Ellis, secretary, as an appendage to Mr. Gage’s dissertation, an illustration from the Chureh of St. John, Syracuse, giving an engraving of the interior of this ancient Church, showing conse- eration crosses sculptured on the walls. In a note to this letter Mr. Smirke says :—
“* Since the above was written Mr. Gage has done me the favour to refer me to a Pontifical printed at Rome in 1595, and now preserved in the British Museum, where the ceremony of consecrating a Church is set forth at length : the Bishop is enjoined to mark with his thumb dipped in the chrism, twelve crosses on the walls of the Church, and others on the door, altar, etc., etc. The prints embellishing this Pontifical show the Bishop so engaged, mounted on a moveable stage six steps high, the rubric requiring that the said crosses shall be ten palms (7f{t. 5in. English measure) above the floor.” *
It is curious that this is the height of the consecration crosses at Manningford Bruce above the floor.
From the following words of Mr. Gage, and the text of the rubric on which he comments, it seems clear that the chancel veil, either instead of a screen, as apparently in the Church of St. Mellon, or with a screen, as in the Greek Church, was used ordinarily in the Anglosaxon Church, and not only in Lent. “ During the time the Bishop was depositing the relics in the altar, the veil, out of reverence, was drawn, extenso velo inter eos et populum. ‘The veil here spoken of was the curtain that anciently hung on the cancedii, or lattice of the choir, and was drawn during the more solemn parts of the service.” ?
_ 8. Over the north door are some tantalising remains of an archaic painting, apparently similar in style to some in the Utrecht Psalter. Besides the wear and tear of time it has been ruthlessly pecked and indented in some former generation to receive a coat of plaster.
* Archeologia, vol, xxv., p. 277,
4 Jbid, pp. 243, 272. See also Pontifical of Egbert, p. 45, Surtees Society. Compare on veils, paper by Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A., on some early features of Stockton Church, Wilts, Proceedings of Soc. Antiq., Lond., Second Series, vol. viii., No. iii., p. 286. Also above, p. 114, and p. 129, note *.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 137
There seems to have been a group of figures on the left; a nimbed — figure with seraphs in the upper part of the centre; and a large sitting figure on the right.
I have thought the early features enumerated sufficient ground for supposing that this Church was built before the Norman Con- quest, but I have met with no proof that it is older than the tenth century, although preserving the traditionary type of very primitive Churches. In Wiltshire we are naturally inclined to try and connect early Church work with the personal effort or influence of St. Aldhelm, who died Bishop of Sherborne, A.D. 709, but there is no mention in his diffuse biographies of any visit to Manningford. It seems more reasonable to conjecture that the building of this Church was owing to the influence of the Bishops of Ramsbury, twelve miles distant, of whom three became Archbishops of Canterbury, vizZ., St. Odo, Siric, and Aelfric. St. Odo, the Dane, in particular, was a proficient in Greek and Latin, became Bishop of Ramsbury A.D. 926, and Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 942, over which see he pre- _ sided seventeen years.” He is recorded, among other works, to have
raised the walls of his Cathedral at Canterbury,> which shows that, he was an admirer of loftiness in Church building.
Attention has been attracted to the Church of St. Peter, Man- ningford Bruce, by the restoration now in progress. The architect is J. L. Pearson, Esq., R.A., F.S.A.
1 Qsbernus de Vita Odonis Arch. Cant., Wharton Anglia Sacra, vol. 1, p. 79; : London, 1691. 2(C£ Fasti Eccl., Sarisb. W. H. Jones, M.A. F.S.A., part 1., pp. 36, 76; Salisbury, Brown, 1879. 3 Canterbury Cathedral, Willis, p. 3; London, Longman, 1846.
[N.B.—At the close of the Pontifical celebration which followed the consecra- tion of the Orthodox Greek Church of St. Sophia, London, 5th February, 1882, the antidoron was distributed, with eulogia, by the Archbishop of Corfu, standing in front of the throne, holding in his left hand a staff similar to the cambutta of a Saxon bishop, and each recipient kissed the right hand of the archbishop. Cf. Laws of King Ethelred, quoted above, p. 132. In the consecration service the chrism crosses were made at a great height by means of a long rod. See Illus- ~ trated London News, llth February, 1882. Part of the foregoing paper was read by the author at an ordinary meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 8th December, 1881, and an abstract was supplied for the Proceedings. ]
138
“ Sculptued Stone at Codford St. Peter, any Heraldic Stone at Carminster.” By the Rey. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A.*
=< HIS stone, represented in an autotype plate annexed, was
found during the restoration of St. Peter’s Church, Codford,
Wilts, in 1864, under the care of T. H. Wyatt, Esq., F.S.A., built
in as old material on the north and nave side of the fifteenth century
chancel arch, about 2ft. above the floor, and it is now fixed against the north wall of the chancel for preservation.
The dimensions are as follows :—front elevation—height, 4ft. lin.; width at base, lft. lin.; width at top, 6in. Side elevation (7.e. pro- jection from the face of the wall against which the stone is now fixed)—at base, 5fin.; at top, 5$in.
The subject has never been satisfactorily explained, and is still open to investigation. Probably, if its date could be approximately fixed, it might by a comparison of contemporary documents be found to be a conventional way of representing some religious incident, e.g., Noah as the builder of the ark, and as a husbandman, or the return of one of the spies from the promised land. In the front elevation is seen the figure of a man holding in his right hand, over his head, a branch of an apple or other fruit tree, and looking up at it in a very awkward manner; in his left hand he holds a mallet, or it may bea wallet. Huis short smock and his slipper-shaped shoes agree with Anglosaxon costume. The bamboo-formed moulding or leaning pillars with which the figure is enclosed appear also to belong 1o the same period, 7.e., the tenth or eleventh century, say about A.D. 1000. Compare Strutt’s Horda, vol. 1., pp. 37, 107, and plate viii, fig. 1; London, 1774; Westwood’s Palaeographia Sacra, p.
*The Committee desires to express its cordial thanks to Dr. Baron for his kind presentation of the two plates of remarkable sculptured stones at Codford and Warminster. They are autotypes from careful drawings by Miss Baron and Miss A. Baron. [Ep.]
AUTOTYFE
SAWHE FRONT
SCULPTURED STONE IN CODFORD St PETER CHURCH, WILTS.
SCALE OF FEET. 2 > a
pees. i )
Sculptured Stone at Codford St. Peter,” §e. 139
145; London, Bohn, 1845. Compare also the bamboo frame on the organ depicted in the illustration of Psalm exlviii. (149), in the Utrecht Psalter, copied in Westwood’s Facsimiles; London, - Quaritch, 1868. In the illustrations of the Bodleian MS. of Caed- mon, as re-produced in Archeologia, vol. xxiv., there are no traces of bamboo or baluster-form in the pillars, but in the illustrations of the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, reproduced in the same volume,
there is some resemblance to this form in plates xiv. and xvi. The slipper-shaped shoe is well illustrated, Jéid, plates, xvi., xxvill., -xxix., xxx. For bamboo form of pillars compare also the window in tower, Earls’ Barton Church, Northamptonshire, engraved in Rickman’s Architecture, App., p. xix.; London, J. H. Parker, 1848. In the side elevation the foliage ornament is carved with much skill and freedom.
The foregoing notes are nearly the same as those which I read when I exhibited full-sized drawings of the front and side elevations at an ordinary meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 20th June, 1878. Those notes were printed in the Proceedings, 2nd S., vol. vii.. No. v., pp. 429, 430, but without any illustrative engraving. I now submit a reduced autotype plate of the two elevations to the Wilts Archzological Society, in the hope that the subject of the sculpture may yet be identified, sooner or later. The persistence and wide-spread prevalence of certain treatments of religious subjects ‘im early times are remarkable. Moderns commonly ascribe this to poverty of invention and want of drawing skill. The truth seems to be that early Christian artists preferred to be orthodox and gene- rally intelligible rather than original. About the year 1845 I was permitted to copy some painted glass in the tracery of a fourteenth century window in Great Milton Church, Oxfordshire, representing two angels with a dead body wrapped in a cere-cloth, looking much like a mummy, except that the place of the eyes and nose was marked so as to form across. The subject was a great puzzle at the time. It was conjectured to represent angels discoursing over the body of Lazarus, &e. More than ten years afterwards, in pe-
140 “ Sculptured Stone at Codford St. Peter, of Moses, as in “ Bible de Noailles,” A.D. 1000.1 This picture, which
puzzled many industrious antiquaries in the nineteenth century, was doubtless, from its conventionality, well understood in the fourteenth, even by the unlearned worshipper and the eatechumen. Apart from all questions of originality or skill in the artist, it would be a token and reminder that the doctrine of the resurrection was revealed to Moses, and that the bodies as well as the spirits of the faithful are in Divine keeping.
The treatment of the Majesty, which prevailed during the middle ages, in manuscripts, in sculpture, and in painted glass, is found in Anglosaxon manuscripts of the tenth century, and on Byzantine coins of the ninth. Mr. Birch has shewn how a good idea in the Utrecht Psalter has been successively re-produced in the Harleian and Eadwine.? If I am right in assigning the Codford sculpture to A.D. 1000, the paucity of the remains of Anglosaxon art renders it very precious, and it is possible that the design, which now appears grotesque and unintelligible, may, in its own time, have been well understood as the received and orthodox expression of some point in Scriptural or legendary lore, and may have lived on in later times.
Although the sculpture has remained a puzzle in its own locality during the eighteen years of its re-appearance, the solution may yet be found in some Church, or manuscript, or in one of the many archeological publications of the present day.
Many of the quaint little sculptures round the inside of the Chapter House at Salisbury, forming a sort of memoria technica of Scripture History, would be inexplicable, but from their position in the series. One of these represents Noah as a husbandman with a vine, but does not bear any close resemblance to the Codfcrd sculpture.
The stone with heraldic devices, represented in the autotype plate annexed, was found in the year 1857, in pulling down the London
1 Compare Guide to Architectural Antiquities, p. 306; Oxford, J. H. Parker, 1846; and Hist. of Our Lord, by Mrs. Jameson and Lady Eastlake, vol.i., p. 185, illustration, 74; London, Longman, 1864.
2 Hist., &e., of Utrecht Psalter, by W. De Gray Birch, F.R.S.A., plates 1, 2, 3, p. 211, 213, 214; London, Bagster & Sons, 1876.
° 4334 30 3795
SLTIM "WOYNSHLY YILSNINYYM ANOLS G3SYNLdINDS \
BéALOLiy
- ines it<\*
ayy maine
and Heraldic Stone at Warminster.” 141
Inn, Warminster, Wiltshire—not a very old building—to make room for the Atheneum which now occupies the same site. It was in two pieces, built into the walls as old material in two different places, the carved side being turned inwards. The two pieces were fitted together and built into the wall of the court-yard of the Atheneum, Warminster, for preservation. The line of fracture may easily be traced at the beginning of the third and central compart- ment.
Attention was re-called to this stone by the meeting of the Wilt- shire Archzological Society at Warminster, in August, 1877, but the heraldic bearings have not yet been satisfactorily identified. It appears to be good work of the fourteenth century. The length is 6ft. 4in.; the height, 2ft. My own attention was first drawn to it during the said meeting, by C. H. Talbot, Esq., of Lacock Abbey, Wilts, and I have also consulted respecting it the Rev. Canon Jackson, F.S.A., who very kindly sent me his notes made upon in- spection of the stone; and I have referred to John de Havilland, Esq., F.S.A., York Herald, who, upon receipt of a photograph I had had taken, expressed an opinion that the heraldry was the work of a good herald, and gave me some valuable hints towards the identification of the coats. The great difficulty is the absence of tinctures.
The details of the compartments, beginning at the left of the spectator, are as follows :—
No. 1. A tilting helmet, with drapery behind terminating in a tassel, surmounted by a chapeau or cap of estate, and thereon a lion statant gardant. The cross indicated in front is not merely devotional, but constructional. Beneath is a small shield hung obliquely, obliterated.
For the form of the tilting helmet and appendages compare the illustration from the brass of Sir John Harsyck, Southacre Church, Norfolk, A.D. 1384, given in Boutell’s Heraldry, plate i., facing p- 16 (third edition). Compare also a beautiful coloured drawing of the effigy of Giinther, of Schwarzburg, King of the Romans, 1349, in Frankfort Cathedral, given in Hefner’s Costume du Moyen Age Chrétien, vol. ii., plate xxvii., p. 37. A reduced engraving of this
L2
142 ** Sculptured Stone at Codford St. Peter,
drawing is given in the Archeological Journal, vol, ii., p. 219.
It is said that King Edward III. was the first who introduced the crest of the lion statant gardant into the royal arms, and it is borne, so placed on a cap of estate, by himself, and by his sons Edward the Black Prince and Thomas of Gloucester; but the royal erest lion is crowned. See Sandford’s Genealogical History, pp. 124, 125; and for the like crest, borne by Henry of Lancaster, afterwards King Henry IV., see Boutell’s Heraldry, plate lxxix., facing p. 258.
No. 2. Party per pale, three lions, passant to sinister, two and one, counterchanged. ‘The charges on this coat appear to be turned to the left, in order to look towards the central coat. Compare en- gravings in Sandford’s Genealogical History, pp. 122, 123, 124. The vertical line in pale of this coat is jin. in breadth, and it seems clearly to be the proper way of indicating, by sculpture, Party per pale and counterchanged.
No. 3. On achevron between three leopard’s faces, three mullets. This is probably the coat of the principal person commemorated by the sculpture. Iu Papworth’s Ordinary the following names are given as belonging to coats with these charges, but with tinctures that vary: Pormort, Brickleton, Davers, and Perell or Pearle, Co. Salop.
No. 4. A coat of which the blazon is not quite certain, but it looks like a cross between four lions rampant. Many names might be suggested for a cross between four lions rampant; but it seems worthy of note how closely this coat corresponds with that of Philippa of Hainault, Queen of King Edward III. Boutell states that the coat of Queen Philippa ought to be divided quarterly, 1st and 4th, Or, a lion rampant sable, for Flanders, 2nd and 38rd, Or, a lion rampant gules, for Holland. Vredius gives the following blazon :—“ Hainau- moderne; d’or, a quatre lions cantonnez; le premier et dernier de sable, qui est de Flandres; le 2 et 3 de gueulles, qui est de Hol- lande.”
No. 5. A tilting helmet surmounted by a coronet, and a leopard’s face as crest, very similar to the faces on the central coat. Small — shield defaced, asin No, 1. Caps of estate and coronets were more
and Heraldic Stone at Warminster”? - 143
indicative of rank in the fourteenth century than in later times. Lions are, as we all know, very frequent in coat-armour, but it seems curious that all five compartments of this sculptured stone are leonine in their heraldry. Lions were borne by the Kings of Eng- land before King Edward III., and even before Richard Cceur de Lion, but King Edward III. seems to have given a stimulus to leonine bearings, not only from his natural character and exploits— in allusion to which he is called “ Invictus Pardus,” on his monument in Westminster Abbey—but also from his intercourse with Fleming and Germans, who greatly affected lions in their coat-armour. Upon the reading of these notes (at an ordinary meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London), opinions were expressed to the effect that, notwithstanding the similarity of bearing, the coats of four lions could have no reference to Queen Philippa. A. W. Franks, Esq., Director, remarked that, judging from the excellent drawing exhibited, the sculpture must: have formed an architectural decoration at some elevation, the shields and bearings being too large for the sides or front of a monument placed on the floor of a Church. This conjecture has now been curiously verified. The wall into which this sculptured stone was built for a rough kind of preserva- ‘tion in 1857, was pulled down on the Ist of March, 1879. It then became clear, from the shaping of the back of the stone, and from marks of smoke, that it had originally formed the front or lintel of a chimney-piece, being probably the last vestige of a family mansion _ which tradition assigns to the same site. Petit, one of the local _ families, bore a chevron between three lions’ faces. The stone is _ now built into the wall over one of the main entrances of the Bleeck Memorial Hall, at the Atheneum, Warminster, Wilts. The above notes were read when a full-size drawing was exhibited at an ordinary meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 23rd January, 1879, and are reported as above in the Proceedings, but without any illustrative engraving. The annexed reduced autotype plate is here submitted to the readers of the Wiltshire Archeological _ Magazine, with a reprint of the notes, in the hope that the arms, from some local source, may yet be more fully identified and illus- trated by documentary evidence.
144 ‘ Sculptured Stone at Codford St. Peter,’ Sc.
It seems humiliating that three combined, well-sculptured, four- teenth century coats, even without tinctnres, should remain enveloped in the mists of conjecture.
I am informed by an old inhabitant of Warminster that the London Inn was built about 1818, upon the site of a former small inn called “Search Hope,” which was burnt down and had been insured in the Sun Fire Office. Under the heading “The Searce hoop Inn,” I find that a lease was granted by Sir Edward Hungerford the Ist of June, 1678, to Jeffery, Eyton, of a messuage or tenement on the north part of High Street, and a close of meadow or pasture adjoining there, &. This would appear to be a long time after the disappearance of the above-mentioned mansion.
It is said that the stone was found when “ The Searce hoop Inn ” was pulled down, that is, when the ruins were being removed after the fire.'
It may be well to recapitulate the points which have now been ascertained in the history of this heraldic stone :—
1. From the heraldic devices sculptured on the front, and the shaping of the back, it is clear that in the fourteenth century it was the lintel of a high chimney-piece in a lordly mansion.
2. In 1818 it is found in the debris of “ The Searce Hoop Inn,” and is built into the London Inn in two pieces as old material.
3. In 1857 it is found in pulling down the London Inn, and built into the boundary wall of the Atheneum for preservation.
4, In 1877 attention is called to it by the meeting of the Wilts Archeological Society at Warminster.
5. In 1879, upon the pulling down of the said boundary wall, it is built into the wall over one of the main entrances of the Bleeck Memorial Hall, then in the course of erection at the Warminster Atheneum.
I commend the name, “ The Searce hoop Inn,” to the students of signs.
J. Baron.
1 Cf. Hist. of Warminster, by Rev. J. J. Daniell, ch. xviii., p.48; Warminster ~ Coates, 1879.
“Carly Heraldry in Boyton Church, CAilts” : Aecobery of w Missing Pink, By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A.
N the Church of Boyton, Wilts, are still preserved two in- teresting coats of arms of about A.D. 1300, which, from
some general points of resemblance, have always been supposed to be identical, but are, when inspected with heraldic caution, indis- putably distinct, and the achievements of families very different in name and lineage, although connected in history and the feudal tenure of Boyton. One of these coats, displayed on the shield of the effigy which reposes in the easternmost bay of the south or _ Giffard Chapel, has always been rightly understood to be Giffard. The three lions passant in pale, borne by that distinguished and historic family, are sculptured in bold relief with much skill and spirit on the large convex and well-pointed shield. A label of five points, a mark of cadency usually distinguishing the eldest son, but _ sometimes the elder house or branch of a family, is here rendered ; very instructively, as noted long ago by Sir R. C. Hoare, indicating _ the original method of wearing the label, which in this case was evidently nothing more than a cord or string of silk tied round near the upper part of the shield, and five ends of ribbon depending from it. This feature has been very imperfectly shown in otherwise pleasing and correct drawings which have been made of this re- markable effigy. The string, or cord, or piece of rolled silk which passes across the neck of the uppermost lion, and which is in the sculpture about gin. thick, is in the drawings shown as a band about din. broad. The undulations of the sculpture intended to indicate the five points or depending ends of ribbon probably presented ‘difficulties which could be only overcome by special skill in drawing, p and from a partieular (pom of view. Sir R. Cc. Hoare thinks the
146 “ Karly Heraldry in Boyton Church, Wilts.”
being the younger house, compared with the Giffards of Brimsfield, Gloucestershire. Although this sculptured coat certainly belongs to the Giffard family, for many generations lords of Boyton, there has been much difficulty in ascertaining who of that family is the “particular individual commemorated by this effigy. Sir R. C. Hoare timidly and tentatively suggests that it may be Sir Alexander Giffard,! fourth son of Hugh Giffard, Constable of the Tower of London, brother of Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York, who died lord of Boyton in 1279, and also brother of Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester, who died lord of Boyton in 1301, holding it of John Giffard, then a minor.
Mr. Fane has most persuasively elaborated the aforesaid suggestion with references to contemporary documents, shewing that, “ accor- ding to the strict laws of feudal tenancy, Sir Alexander Giffard left his native home at Boyton, and followed his liege lord, the gallant Longespee, to the war.” This was the crusade under St. Louis, of France, A.D. 1250, and the chief scene of the exploits of lord and vassal was the assault of Massoura, in Egypt.
When Longespee, hardly bested by the Saracens, scorned to fly, and resolved to die fighting, he thus laid his commands as liege lord upon Sir Alexander Giffard: “If you can escape, you, who have the care of my goods, and are my knight, distribute my goods among my people in this manner,” ete. “ Giffard instantly obeyed his lord’s command, and dashing with his unwounded war-horse against the host of Saracens, he passed through, as Paris asserts, graviter vulneratus, he swam the river, reached the coast, and re- turning to England, probably died at Boyton in early manhood.” ?
The arms still preserved in a lancet window on the north side of
the chancel are certainly not the coat of Giffard, but of Thomas Plantagenet, Harl of Lancaster, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, and Salisbury, who, from his consanguinity with the royal families of
1 Sir R. C. Hoare, Hundred of Heytesbury, Boyton, p. 198. In plate xi., 2bid, the label is not well shown, and the name is thus given at the bottom of the engraving :—“ Effigy of Elias Giffard in Boyton Church.”
2 Cf. Wilts Mag., No. iv., April, 1855, vol. ii., pp. 105-6.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 147
England and France, bore the royal arms of England differenced with a label of France.
Any one visiting the Church can satisfy himself as to the differ- ence of the two coats. On the sculptured stone shield of the effigy the three lions are merely passant, that is, walking along looking straight before them, following their noses; the label is of five points, which are waved, apparently in imitation of ribbon, but bear no traces of fleurs de ls."
On the other hand the coat depicted in the painted glass of the window has three lions passant gardant, 7.e., walking along, but looking towards the spectator, and of gold; the label of five points is azure, and has two flewrs de lis of gold distinctly marked on each point.2 The sculptured shield of the effigy bears, indeed, no marks of colour, but the arms of Giffard, with or without a label, are perfectly well known, and so also are those borne by Thomas Plan- taganet, Earl of Lancaster from the decease of his father, Edmund (Crouchback), A.D. 1296, till his own decease in 1322.
The blazons, or proper heraldic descriptions of the two coats in question, are :—
Giffard. Gules, three lions passant Argent, with a label azure.*
Thomas Plantaganet, Earl of Lancaster, &c. Gules, three lions,
1Cf. Anastatic drawing of the Giffard effigy at Boyton, in Wilts Mag., vol.i., facing p. 237. The label presented special difficulties, and is not successfully
shewn. Also seal of Thomas Giffard, showing label of three points, Zdzd, vol, ii.,
p- 387. ? Usually three flewrs de lis on each point,
3 The blazon, Gules, three lions passant Argent, is given for Giffard in Glover’s Ordinary, p. 22; and in Edmondson’s Alphabet of Arms, art. Gifford, Gloucester- shire, &c., both in Edmondson’s Body of Heraldry.
The following blazons are of special value as being nearly contemporary : Sire Johan Giffard, de goules, a iij lyons passaunz dargent, p. 3.
OXSENFORDESCHIRE. Sir Johan Giffard le boef, de goules, a iij lions passanz
de argent, e un label de azure, p. 29.
GLOUCESTRESCHIRE. Sire Esmoun Giffard, de goulis, a iij lyonz passaunz.
-dargent, e un lable de sable [in another but apparently an early hand], p. 76.
A Roll of Arms of the Reign of Edward the Second, ed. Sir N. H. Nicolas ;. London, Pickering, 1829. For Earl of Lancaster, cf. Zid, p. 1.
148 “ Karly Heraldry in Boyton Church, Wilts.”
passant gardant Or, with a label of five points Azure, each charged with three flewrs de lis Or.1
If it be asked, “ How did the above-mentioned mistake creep into a work of such authority and general accuracy as the History of Modern Wilts?” we may reply in the words of Sir R. C. Hoare himself, in the preface to the Hundred of Warminster : “ The Topographer, if advanced in age (as I am), cannot depend solely upon his own exertions ; he cannot be hie et ubique, but must employ several agents to complete his undertaking.”
If it be further asked, “ How is it that this inadvertency is not corrected in Mr. Fane’s interesting and valuable papers on Boyton Church,” and the family of Giffard ?”’? it may be replied that, although any one may appreciate the difference of the two coats when pointed out, probably no ordinary observer, unacquainted with early heraldry, and who was not already familiar with the coat of Thomas Plan- tagenet, Earl of Lancaster, would have thought of challenging the statement of Sir R. C. Hoare.
If an apology for the oversight on the part of Mr. Fane be needed, it may be given likewise in his own words: “I trust my brother archeologists will accept this my hastily-compiled memoir. Your Secretary will tell you how unwillingly I undertook a task that others could so much better have performed. I will hope another year there will be no possible crevice of our archeology to be filled by the overtasked and very humble Vicar of a large parish.” §
It would be out of place here to enter upon any discussion as to the merits or demerits of the said Earl, who was a conspicuous figure in the history of England during a very troublous and critical
1 Compare Sandford’s Genealogical History, pp. 102, 3, 7. The number of the points of the label are varied from five to three, according to space.
2 Wilts Mag., vol.i. p.p. 237, 8. Mr. Fane not only adopts, unhesitatingly, the confusion of the two coats, but boldly transfers the tinctures and fleurs de lis from the window to his description of the sculptured coat of the effigy.
3 Tbid, vol. ii., pp, 100-8.
4 The same coat is preserved, in painted glass of about A.D. 1300, at Dorchester, Oxon. See engraving, fig. 6, and description, p. 46, Dorchester Abbey Church ; Oxford, Parker, 1860.
5 Wilts Mag., vol. ii., p. 108.
=
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., P.8.A. 149
period,’ but it falls properly within the scope of the topographer and antiquary to note some points of his special relation to Boyton and the Giffards, and the result of this will be to illustrate and confirm some of the most interesting particulars supplied to the Wilts Magazine, twenty-eight years ago, by Mr. Fane.
A.D. 1296. Upon the decease of Edmond, Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, Derby, Steward of England, &c., surnamed Crouch-Back, his eldest son Thomas succeeded him in all his honours and estate, being then about twenty-one years of age, and having previously betrothed or married Alice, daughter and eventually sole heiress of Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who was also Earl of Salisbury in right of his wife, Margaret, then deceased, heiress of William Longespee, and granddaughter of William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury.
A.D. 1300. Thomas, Earl of Laneaster, was with King Edward the First, and the English army at the siege of Carlaverock, in Scotland. He was then about twenty-five years old. It is related that his arms were “ those of England with a label of France, and
he did not wish to display any others.”? His brother Henry at the "game siege bore the arms of England, “ with a blue baton, without the label.”
A.D. 1310. Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln and Salisbury, being about sixty, dies, having solemnly charged his son-in-law, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, to stand up boldly in defence of the Church and nation, and to take counsel with Guy, Earl of Warwick.
1 For a critical review of the character, position, and actions, of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, see Constitutional History of England, by Professor Stubbs, vol. ii., pp. 322, 349; Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1875. One sentence may be quoted : “The cause was better than the man or the principles on which he maintained it.”
2 Siege of Carlaverock, p. 46. Cf. Sir N. H. Nicolas ; London. Nichols, 1828. The words of the original French text of the contemporary poem are very re- markable and full of meaning, which is somewhat missed in the above-quoted translation :—
“* De Engleterre au label de France Et ne veul plus mettre en souffrance.”’
Souffrance”’ is here a word of heraldic and feudal import. These arms declared his nearness to the English throne, and his affinity to the royal family of France. This was his paternal coat, than which nothing could be more honourable, and he did not wish to obtain recognition for his many additional achievements.
150 ** Karly Heraldry in Boyton Church, Wilts.”
Alice, the wife of the said Thomas, was certified at this time to be of the age of twenty-eight years.! The age of her husband would be about thirty-five. Thus the said Thomas came into the possession of the earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury, in addition to those of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, inherited from his father.?
The parish of Boyton was included in the property of the earldom of Salisbury, and we find at a very early period after the Conquest that this estate was subinfeuded to the Giffards, who were already tenants iz capite, of the adjoining parish of Sherrington.” 3
It was, therefore most natural that the Giffards of Boyton should insert in a window of their parish Church the arms of their superior lord, to whom they were closely and devotedly attached by feudal and social ties, and the preservation of this Plantaganet coat in painted glass is a much more precious historical link and token than a mere repetition of the Giffard arms would have been.
A.D. 1317. On the Monday before Ascension Day, Alice, wife of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at Caneford, in Dorsetshire, was violently taken away by a certain knight of the family of John, Earl of Warren, there being many in the conspiracy ; and (as was said) by the King’s consent she was carried in triumph, and in contempt of the Earl, her husband, to the Earl of Warren’s Castle of Reigate. In their passages among the hedges and woods between Haulton and Farnham, those that conveyed her saw several banners and streamers (the priests and people being then in a solemn procession round the fields), upon which they were struck with a sudden terror ; thinking that the Earl or some of his retinue were come to rescue the lady, and revenge the affront, they left her and fled away; but when sensible of their mistake, they returned, and with them a person of a very mean stature, lame, and crook-backed, called Richard de St. Martin, who, with wonderful impudence, challenged the countess thus miserably insnared for his wife, openly alleging his
1 Bishop Kennett, sub an. 1310, Par. Ant., vol. i. pp. 515-6.
2 Cf. Chronicon Walteri De Hemingburgh, swb ann. 1311, p. 285. In note! Chester, instead of Derby, is said to be one of the five earldoms. Eng. Hist. Soc., London, 1849.
3 Family of Giffard, of Boyton, by Rev. A. Fane; Wilts Mazg., vol. ii., p. 101.
Sen.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.8.A. 151
intimacy with her before she was married to the said earl, which she likewise freely acknowledged to be true: so as this lady, who, through the whole course of her life, had been reputed chaste and honourable, on a sudden change of fortune must be proclaimed through the whole world for a lewd and infamous woman. The wretch who had thus got possession of her grew so insolent as to presume, in his pretended wife’s name, to claim in the King’s court the earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury, but with no effect.! This occasioned the divorce between the earl and his countess, which historians menticn to have been some time before his death.?
It is curious that in a previous generation John, Lord Giffard, of _ Brimsfield, is said to have carried off, from her castle at Canford, A.D. 1271, Matilda, the widow of the third Longespee, and that the marriage was excused upon his paying the King 300 marks.’
A.D. 1822. Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, after being formally pardoned for his share in the illegal putting to death of Piers de Gaveston, being again in arms with associated barons against King Edward II. and his favourites, was taken prisoner at Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, carried to Pontefract, his own castle, to the King and the two Spencers; and three days after was, in implacable haste, condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered; but in honour to his great birth the sentence was mitigated into the loss of his head ; and on the 22nd of March “this noble patriot,” being carried to a hill without the town on a lean white jade without a bridle, was made there to kneel, and when he directed his face to the east was compelled to turn toward Scotland, while a villain of London cut off his head. Of the death of this great peer the King himself did soon repent. Many miracles were reported to be done in the place where he was buried, and a beautiful Church was there erected to the honour of his memory.*
+ Cf. Walsingham, sub an., quoted in Bp. Kennett’s Par. Ant., vol.i., p. 539; Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1818.
a
2 [bid, p. 540. 4 3 Wilts Mag., vol. ii., p. 102.
4 Bp. Kennett, who quotes Pakington, Walsingham, Dugdale, Barnes; Par. Ant., vol. i., pp. 556, 7.
152 “ Karly Heraldry in Boyton Church, Wilts.’
John Giffard, of Boyton, surnamed “The Rich,” as inheriting also the Brimsfield estates, naturally and perhaps almost necessarily followed the fortunes of bis superior lord.! The histories commonly say that he was hanged at Gloucester, but it seems possible that, from his local influence in that neighbourhood, decapitation may, in this case also, have been substituted for the more ignominious death ordered by the actual sentence.
Mr. Fane states that John Giffard, of Boyton, surnamed le Rych, was beheaded at Gloucester, and mentions that, having occasion, in the course of repairs, during the year 1853, to move a very large slab of Purbeck marble in the centre of the north chapel of Boyton Church, he found beneath it, in a stone grave (not coffin), a skeleton with the skull placed on the left side of the skeleton, as if on the interment this position had been originally established.’
In the same year that Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, was beheaded, Alice, who had been his wife, resigned to the King the manors of Ambresbury, Winterbourn, Troubrigges, Wilts; of Caneford, Dorset; and of Hengisterigge and Cherleton, Somerset, which were of her inheritance.
Each of the two husbands she afterwards married claimed to be Earl of Lincoln, in her right, but no mention is made of the earldom of Salisbury. She died in 1349, without issue.
Henry, the younger brother of Thomas, became Earl of Tanbaster, Leicester, and Derby, and died, leaving issue, in 1345; but in 1337 King Edward III. created William de Montacute Earl of Salisbury.
The painted glass in Boyton Church, depicting England with a label of France, is very early, and the shape of the shield is very pointed, in the style of the thirteenth rather than of the fourteenth century, but Thomas, Earl of Lancaster from 1296 to 1321, is the only one of his family who held the earldom of Salisbury, and so
1JIn a former generation, A.D, 1250, “according to the strict laws of feudal tenancy,” a Giffard, of Boyton, had followed a Longespee in the Crusades. Wilts Mag., vol. ii., p. 103. 2 [bid, p. 107. 3 Dugdale, Bar. i., 782; Bp. Kennet, Par. Ant., swb anno.
By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A. 153
was brought into special connexion with Boyton and the Giffards.
It is quite time that a correction of the long standing mistake respecting these two historical coats should be supplied, for I observe that, in Boutell’s Heraldry, Historical and Popular, it is stated that Sir Alexander Giffard, of Boyton, bears, gu., three lions pass. in pale arg., a label of five points az., charged on each point with two fleurs de lis or. An engraving is given of this supposed coat.' These flewrs de lis never existed on the sculptured coat, except in the imagination of those who, from want of due heraldic and
antiquarian caution, transferred to it the tinctures and details of the painted coat. A smaller mistake has been current respecting the . animal at the feet of the knight. This has been otiosely described as an animal which may be either a wild cat ora lion.’ It is cer- tainly not a lion, or a eat, or a dog, either heraldic, conventional or zoological, but anyone who will observe it attentively, particularly the head, the flat-shaped beaver-like tail, and the wide-spreading aquatic paws, must allow that it is a very realistic representation of an otter. The river Wily flows through the village of Boyton, not far from the Church, and its fisheries are important, even at this day. In former days they were, doubtless, still more considerable. _ Where fresh-water fish abound there is likely to be found the poaching otter. The heraldic representation of the otter on the monument may have been assumed by the Giffards from the fisheries on their estate, but it also seems probable that the otter, in place of the usual lion or dog, may have been specially represented at the feet of Sir Alexander Giffard, in remembrance of his gallant swim- ming through the river at Massoura, like an otter, not to escape from the enemy, but to make his way to England, to execute the _ dying commands of his liege lord, William Longespee.
1 Compare Boutell’s Heraldry, p. 225, and No. 503 A.., plate Ixxx, facing p. 149, 8rd ed. ; London, Bentley, 1864.
2 Wilts Mag., No. iii., Nov. 1854, vol. i. p. 237. In a subsequent paper on the Giffards of Boyton, the Rev. Arthur Fane describes the samefanimal as “ an heraldic beast which has given rise to a strange local,tradition.” bid, vol. ii, Pp 106.
a
q
154 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
The contemporary poem thus describes the exploit :—
“Sir Alexander Giffard escaped with the gold and silver which was delivered to him. He got the horses together and loaded them, and took the road towards the city of Damont. He leaped into the long and wide river ; he wished to arrive at Diote, as he had promised his liege lord, the good Longespee, for the purpose of distributing his property according to his commands. As soon as they entered the river, the perfidious Saracens observed them, and cast the Greek fire, which was intensely hot, upon them; but they would have been burnt to dust rather than have moved back a foot.” *
R. H. Collins, Esq., C.B., when at Boyton House, first called my attention to the shield in the window as a curious old coat, said to be Giffard. I easily identified it as appertaining to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, from having traced and illustrated the same arms in Dorchester Church, Oxon.! Mr. Collins, on the same occasion, pointed out to me that the animal at the knight’s feet is an otter.
J. Baron.
ON THE Occurrence of some of the Aaver Species of Hirds in the Aleighbourhood of Salisbury. By the Rev. Artuur P. Mornzs, Vicar of Britford. (Continued from Vol. xviii., page 318.) PART IV.—RASORES.
O7TASN resuming my papers on “ The Rarer Species of Birds in V0) the Neighbourhood of Salisbury,” I fear J shall justly lay myself open to the charge of not keeping to the subject-matter in
* See text and translation of A Contemporary Poem describing the Assault on Massoura, in February, 1250, pp. 80-1, lines 346—355. In an earlier part of the poem, line 136, is the expression “*la flume tot avalant,” the all swallowing river. Excerpta Historica ; London, Bentley, 1831.
1 Compare Dorchester Abbey Church, xvi., plate following p. 44, fig. 6; and pp: 45-6; Oxford, Parker, 1860.
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 155
hand, as I cannot find it in my heart to omit the mention of some of our commonest ornithological friends, to whom the description rarer certainly cannot be applied. Yet, kind reader, pardon me; for if of human beings this is true, so also is it of other bipeds, that if we know the faults best of those we associate witn the most, so ought we also to be more intimately acquainted with their virtues— and these may not be omitted, although such qualities, in bird as well as in our human friends, are often wont to be overlooked, if : their existence be not altogether denied, owing to the blind un- charitableness of our fallen nature. Now of all our ornithological acquaintances, I am bold to say that there are no truer friends to the human race than this oft-abused trio, “the Rook, the Sparrow, and the Woodpigeon.” Does not | the intuition of common sense tell us, that the commoner any bird is, the greater function it must necessarily have to fulfil in this world | of ours? For in creation nothing is too small or insignificant to have escaped the minutest calculation and inscrutable wisdom of its Almighty Creator, who orders all things in “ measure and number and weight”; and woe be to the presumptuous hand which rashly interferes with the finely ordered balance of Nature, and thinks to better by its own short-sighted management the nicely adjusted proportions of the Creator’s handiwork. Doubtless that balance, which once was perfect, has been rudely interfered with by the Fall of Creation, through man’s sin; so that even as the ground has to be tilled, ere it yields its perfect fruit, and cleared of thorn and
brier, so also in the animate races of creation, the good they were originally formed to carry out, is counterbalanced by a certain pro- portion of baneful influence as well, which has undesignedly (as far as their original purpose in creation is concerned) crept in; and this has to be provided against hy man’s forethought and care. But yet even as the ground is capable of administering, and does administer, to man’s blessing, under his careful tillage, and honest endeavour, sO may the irregularities of the bird-world be regulated and held in check by the same qualities in creation’s Lord and Master; so that the evil they occasionally do may be largely counterbalanced by the
156 -On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
simple fact remained sadly unrealized ; though, fortunately long ere this, that most true regulator of an Englishman’s actions, his pocket, has caused the inveterate persecution to cease that was ruthlessly waged against many of our commonest quadrupeds and birds.
An example of this I happily find in the first page of an old parish account book, in which the following items appear for the churchwardens’ account of the year 1827 :—
Ss. ds For 41 Hedgehogs 13 8 For 14 Crows { “2 For 2 Stoats 1 0 For 141 dozen, and 9 sparrows 7 Joes ba
£3 3 1 making a total which might well have been applied to some far nobler purpose; but I am delighted to find my grandfather’s name appearing at the end of this first annual account, attached to a pro- test against any further charge for Hedgehogs and Stoats (though ceteris paribus, I really think he began at the wrong end of the condemned list, as our little feathered friends are uudoubtedly en- titled to our truest sympathy) neither am I in a position to state, from obvious reasons, whether it was true friendship for his four- footed friends, or rather sound principles of economy, that moved him to stand up in their defence. While in 1835 I find the still more laudable protest of R. H. Hill, the Curate-in-charge, and my father- in-law, against any further charge for Sparrows’ heads; though the eight years’ delay between the abolition of the persecution of the quadrupeds and the bipeds cost the Sparrow tribe the loss of no less than eight thousand eight hundred and ninety-two of its members, and the parish the sum of £12 5s. 3d.; the fury of the persecution — ranging from seven dozen Sparrows, in 1832 (which partial cessation is apparently accounted for by a change in the regime, as manifested by a different handwriting appearing in the accounts), to as many as one hundred and sixty dozen, one hundred and sixty-three dozen, and one hundred and seventy-nine dozen respectively, in the three succeeding years (when the old familiar handwriting re-appears). After this, as twenty-four out of thirty entries in the annual balance- sheet were taken up with various items of Sparrow slaughter, the
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 157
utilitarian mania would seem to have come to the rescue, and the massacre ceases. And here let me remind my readers, that in some districts where the persecution has raged with greater fury than usual, man has found it necessary to re-import their much-maligned friends, to do that for them which they could not do for themselves, - 4,é., to reduce the number of that mighty army, “ the palmer-worm,
” which, in the absence of the
the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, consumer, were quickly over-mastering their crops.
Another deeply-merited punishment, which often accrues from man’s avaricious temperament, and his undue interference with the balance of Nature, may be seen in the oft-recurring paroxysms of
disease, which play as much havoc amongst the Grouse as the pesti- lence amongst human beings. ‘The cause is not far to seek. The grouse-moor, over which the Peregrine, and at times the Moor Buz- zard, and Harrier, were accustomed from time immemorial to exercise their clerical right, then undisputed, and ungrudged, of taking tithe in kind, no more resounds to their sharp shrill ery of delight, or warning, as mate calling to mate, spake to each other of the coming
sa
feast, or toyed around in ever ascending circles, over the scene of some successful chase; and the Grouse, undisturbed by their aerial and hereditary foes, increase in such undue proportion that the land will not rightly bear them; while the sickly produce of a late hatch, or weakly parents, propagate their inherited maladies, till they spread as a dire scourge over whole districts at a time. Whereas, had there been, perhaps, a single pair of Peregrines to act as keepers
u=-_-*
over the moor, not one of those weakly birds would have had a
chance of propagating the mischief, as they would have been the first birds marked out for the Falcon’s meal. “ Why,” do you ask ? For the same reason that you, good reader, would take hold of the nearest tool to hand that answered your purpose, or the short cut. across the common, instead of going round by the road. For the Same reason that the cowardly bully at school intuitively picks out the shrinking sensitive boy, on whom to work his baneful will, avoiding the stronger pluckier mind, that would anyhow make a fight for it, ere he gave in. Yes! as in the school, as in the world at large, so on the moor, “might is right,” “the weaker goes to M 2
158 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
the wall”; and so, when the pack is sprung, it is the sickly one the weak one, the “lag-last,” which, with a ery of impending and unavoidable fate, yields up its life to the unerring swoop of its re- lentless foe.
But I must hasten on to my mention of the first family of the Rasores (literally scratchers), or Ground Birds, which consists of the Doves, of which there are four well-known species, indigenous to our islands, all common, though some more local than others.
Of these the first to come to the front would naturally be Columba Palumbus, ‘The Woodpigeon ” : also called the Ring-Dove, Cushat, Quest, Quisty, &e. This is a bird dear to every juvenile sportsman, on whose memory will be indelibly impressed his first successful stalk after so coveted a prize. I shall never forget the eager clutch I made at a crippled specimen of the above, as he was shuffling as fast as he could to the shelter of some friendly brambles, which he reached just before I could overtake him; the result of which was that he left his entire tail in my hand, spoiling altogether the ap- pearance of my prize, which, to my vexation, did not look afterwards half as big as it ought to have done.
This is one of our abused friends at times ; though, like a sensible bird as he is, he does not take much notice of it, and goes on his way without giving heed to the calumnies heaped upon him. I need not introduce him personally to the reader, as he is admitted into bird society generally, and, when got up in his best dress, is a well-to-do comely-looking bird; and though not showy, reads a lesson to some of us in taste as to the pleasing effect of judiciously blending cognate colours, and avoiding strong contrasts. Our friend’s reiterated song (or that, rather, which he means for one) need not be dwelt upon either, though here; again, his character has been maligned, should the old tradition be indeed trae, that it was he who induced the Welshman to think that he might as well be hung for a cow as a sheep, or rather steal ¢wo cows while he was about it, instead of one, for which, perchance in punishment, he is still constrained to utter the same refrain “ Zwo cows Taffy-take,” laying the most unmistakable stress on the number to be appropri- ated.
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 159
This bird in winter at times assembles in vast flocks, and then is the time that, if not watched, it is likely to do considerable damage, though not so much, I think, as is generally supposed, It feeds at such times voraciously on turnip-greens, though not on the turnips themselves, unless they find perchance an unsound root, into which they may be induced to insert their bill. But as an example of the mischief they will at times do, I can quote an instance from my own parish, in which a farmer having planted a field with very promising young cabbage plants, which had cost him fifteen guineas, had the pleasure one fine morning of finding that the entire plant
had disappeared; a large flock of some thousand pigeons or more having settled down upon them, and simply cleared away every vestige of them. This was certainly rather provoking, but the question is, knowing well, as he did, that this large flock was about, ought he not to have kept a better look-out, until they had left the neighbourhood? Most certain it is, however, that although now and then they do such mischief as this, or thresh considerably a piece of laid corn, or lay a heavyish tax on an over-ripe field of peas, yet they do incalculable good at other times of the year, from the quantity of noxious seeds they consume, such as the charlock, dock, and rag-weed. Thus Mr. Stevenson, in his “ Birds of Norfolk,” mentions a quotation from Mr.St. John to this effect: —“ Although,” says he, “ There is a great extent of new-sown wheat (Nov. 23rd) in every direction, I shoot Wood Pigeons with their crops full of the } seed of the dock, and without a single grain of corn. They also have in their crops a great deal of the rag-weed, and small potatoes as large as marbles.”
I remember once myself taking out of the crop of a Woodpigeon I had just shot, twelve large acorns, each a good inch in length, - forming a veritable handful, which you would scarcely have thought the bird’s crop could have held, though from the pace the bird was flying when I killed it you would not have gathered it was in any way incommoded by its meal. ‘Talking of the flight of this bird, ‘I once noticed a manceuvre on their part I could not at the time account for. In the autumn of 1876 I was standing talking to one of my parishioners when we were both startled by hearing a sudden
160 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
rushing sound over our head as of an engine blowing off steam. On looking up we found it proceeded from a large flock of some seventy or eighty pigeons which were in the act of shooting down perpendicularly from a high elevation in the air, with closed wings, at a most unusual velocity, which made my friend exclaim, “ They’re going at their best pace.” At the time it gave me the idea that they were avoiding the swoop of a falcon, or some bird of prey. But this was evidently not the case, for on my way home I saw, and heard, the same manceuvre repeated by a smaller flock of some twenty birds, which went through exactly the same evolution as the others, descending in the shape of a wedge, the thin edge down- wards, with no apparent cause whatever—and maintaining after- wards the same rapid flight in a south-easterly direction, which I had observed them taking before. There was certainly no hawk near them, and I can only conjecture that they did it to avoid, per- chance some adverse current of wind they were encountering in the higher regions of air where they were.
It is not often that any variation in colour takes place in this species, but I remember coming across a pair of local specimens which were of a light cream colour; the light bars on the wings and the patches round the neck being indistinctly visible through the light-coloured plumage with which they were surrounded. There is, fortunately, but little chance of the Woodpigeon ever decreasing amongst us to any great extent. It is one of our most attractive sylvan birds; and no one can listen to its plaintive notes, or watch it in the breeding season soaring upwards in the air, rising with loud clapping of the wings to a considerable elevation, and then descending gracefully with out-stretched pinions to its former level, without eye and ear being captivated by its motions, or yielding one’s self up to those thoughts of peace and contentment, to which the actions of the bird itself seem so plainly to testify.
Columba Anas. The next species that comes before our notice is the “ Stock Dove,” which in this immediate neighbourhood is almost as numerous as the preceding one, and is very similar to it in many of its habits, though it can be at once distinguished from it by its shorter tail, more compact shape, and the absence of the white ring
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 161.
on the neck and the white bar on the wing. It leaves us in the depth of winter, returning early in the spring. One of these birds was well nigh the origin of my present collection, for on shooting _ one out of a large flock of a hundred or more, in the middle of February, in our water meadows, the beautiful gloss on the neck so captivated my fancy that I could not help having it preserved, and I have gone on collecting ever since. I generally have two pairs of these birds breeding annually in the vicarage garden, choosing for their nesting place the thick ivy that covers some very large and fine poplar stems. One of these pairs had certainly three, if not four, broods during the same season, though from certain untoward circumstances only two of the broods came to maturity. These birds are often called, about here, Blue Rocks, which name is more _ properly applied to their first cousin, the Rock Dove; while their - general name Stock Dove is also more or less a misnomer, having { been given to them from a common but mistaken idea that they : were the original source from which our tame Pigeons were des- _ cended; whereas the Rock Dove is undoubtedly their progenitor ; this species being a truly wild bird, and never mating with any other kind than its own. Neither can you derive its name duly from the kind of places it often chooses for nesting purposes, 7.¢., the: stocks, or bolls of trees, for where such resorts are not at hand, it is _ in no way dependent on them, but commonly breeds in the mouths of _ deserted rabbit burrows, or under some thick furze bush on the ground. _ It is a quick lively bird in its motions; clapping its wings to- gether smartly once or twice when it takes its flight, and doing the ‘same when it alights. This bird is a very close sitter, allowing ‘itself at times to be almost lifted from its eggs ; and uttering during
the breeding season a rumbling grunting kind of coo, quite different from its congener, the Woodpigeon. Common as it is about here, it would seem to be a bird much overlooked, and unnoticed by many people.
— Columba Livia. “TheRock Dove.” This is the true parent of our tame Pigeons, at once to be distinguished from the last-named species by the patch of white on the upper tail coverts, and the two com- pleted dark bars across the wing. I have never noticed this bird
162 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
anywhere in our immediate neighbourhood, nor do I think it ever occurs here; its natural home being more to the northward, where — it breeds in large numbers in the holes and crevices of the cliffs on the coast. Its place, however, is well supplied by its descendants, the semi-domesticated Pigeons that lead an Arab and nomad life, owning no master, and building securely in some carefully-selected spot that well represents its natural habitat, such as the more ancient of our belfry towers, or loftier public buildings, where they rear their young in safety year by year.
As a proof of the fecundity of the tame species, which are des- cended from the Rock Dove, I remember once having a tame pigeon of almost precisely the same plumage as the wild sort, which mated with a carrier; and these birds brought up thirteeen broods in one year, the old birds all through the spring sitting on eggs and feeding the former pair of nestlings at the same time with most laudable energy, another nest being generally made close to the old one where the nestlings were. I had various kinds of pigeons at the time, Carriers, Almond Tumblers, Jacobins, Fantails, and other sorts ; but this was the only pair that bred in this most extraordinary manner.
Columba Turtur. “The Turtle Dove.” This is by far the most beautiful and elegant variety of all our British Doves, with its softly blended colouring, and delicate mottling on the back. From its very appearance it declares itself a lover of fair and sunny climes, only condescending to visit us for about four months in the year, appearing generally about the beginning of May, seldom before, and leaving us again at the end of August, or early in September. It has a short and rapid flight, being of slender proportions, and having much more pointed wings than any other of the Doves. This bird is very generally, if not universally, held up as a pattern of conjugal affection and faithfulness ; an idea which is doubtless strengthened by its peculiarly plaintive, and soothing notes. Indeed there is no note of any other bird that strikes one more forcibly with the idea of loving and peaceful contentment than the voice of the Turtur. But I have always heard, and very much fear, that this character after all is but ill-deserved by it, for this species is said to differ from all the other Pigeons in its attachment to its mate. “The _ ‘
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 163
males arriving some time before the females, and pairing only for the season.” (Meyer.) It is also said to be spiteful and quarrelsome in the extreme when in captivity, ruling the roast over birds much stronger or larger than itself, allowing them but little peace, pur- suing and harrassing them incessantly. Let me, in conclusion, advise no inexperienced bird-stuffer to select one of these birds on which to try his prentice hand, the skin being unusually tender,, and the feathers loosening themselves from the skin with but little handling.
Columba Migratoria. “The Passenger Pigeon.” I am afraid I shall be considered a bold speculator if I endeavour to claim this species as having occurred in our more immediate neighbourhood. All I can say is that Mr. King, of Warminster, a knowing and experienced stuffer, assured me that one of these birds was brought to him for preservation about the year 1862-3. It was in the flesh, and had no sign of captivity whatever about it. He told me he kept it for some time without its being enquired after, and then he had sold it. This must go for what it is worth. But there seems no reason why it should not more frequently occur in this country than it does, especially when we remember the amazing rapidity of its flight, and the countless myriads that throng the American forests, which would seem to be vast beyond conception, and which is so graphically described in Wood’s Natural History of Birds, from the descriptions of Wilson and Audubon, pp. 577—580. He there records how this species will fly hundreds of miles for its daily food, pigeons having “been killed with rice still undigested in their crops, though the nearest rice plantation was distant several hundred miles.” It isa curious fact that this species never lays more than one eg¢; a pro-- vidential ordering, by which their marvellous numbers are somewhat:
held in check.
PHASIANIDE.
Phasianus Colchicus. ‘The Pheasant.” Of all birds not strictly indigenous to our country the Pheasant is the one which may justly claim to have acclimatised itself the most thoroughly. Uncertain as the period is when it was first introduced amongst us, it is now.
164 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
to be found in every corner of almost every county, and that not simply in a semi-domesticated state, but oft-times in a state of Nature, in which it is well able to look after itself; and though its presence amongst us may not be the cause of un-mixed good, yet most people surely will allow that the good it is the author of far outweighs the evil. Huis plumage is pleasant to the eye. His flesh pleases the palate. His rearing and preservation affords employment to hundreds of people. His presence is the occasion of many a re- union of friends. His slaughter, true recreation, and keen pleasure to scores of sportsmen—not the pleasure, my sentimental friend, of taking life, but that arising from the manly exercise of keen eye, and true hand ; and that satisfaction, stigmatise it as you will, which does accrue from the successful outwitting, through the use of reason and intelligence, of the keenly-developed instinct inherent in the animal creation. Nor must we fail to add to the category of good which this bird gives rise to, the true gratitude awakened in the mind of the recipient, when an unexpected brace of Pheasants is brought to his door, and the genuine pleasure also experienced by the unselfish donor. This is a long list of benefits to be mentioned as accruing from the presence of this noble bird amongst us, and are all these to be counterbalanced and outweighed by this one drawback, 7.¢., that he is sometimes the innocent cause of illustrating the truth of this homely couplet :—
“He that takes what isn’t his’n, When he’s caught must go to prison.”
I fail to see it; and while I should be always a strong advocate for dealing leniently with the ordinary poacher, from the remembrance how deeply the innate love of sport is ingrained in the British con- stitution, and that it is only the accident of birth or wealth that enables one man lawfully to follow out the passion of his heart, while the lack of it forbids the other to do so; yet there can be no excuse whatever for the organised midnight attack on the preserves, where far more than the life of bird or animal is at stake, and which arouses the direst passions of our human nature. A man might just as well empty his neighbour’s poultry yard, as his Pheasant preserve,
: : 7
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 165
neither of which can be maintained without much care and expendi- ture, while of the two the Pheasant often costs more per head to rear and bring to hand than his more humble relation—and if the Pheasant should be extirpated from amongst us, from overstrained notions of philanthrophy, not only would a great delicacy, and abundant supply of wholesome and nutritious food, be withdrawn, but, also acres upon acres of wood and waste land would be rendered unprofitable to the owner, while a healthy and legitimate source of recreation would be also put a stop to. And here, again, it is a common thing to hear Pheasant shooting decried as a thing requiring but little skill and practice. But never was there a greater mistake. It must not be forgotten that, in one way, the larger the game is that has to be brought to bag, the more accurate must be the shooting, if you would kill and not merely hit—for you must not only hit it, but hit it in the right spot—and few things can be more vexing to the owner of a good cover than to see Pheasant after Pheasant go off riddled with shot by an inexperienced hand, and yet not stopped, or killed outright. No! Let anyone who has never tried it, be posted at some hot corner, where some score or so of birds are constantly rising at once, with a noise that is simply deafening, and if he does not, when placed in such a situation for the first time, miss with both barrels, it will be very greatly to the credit of his nerves. There are many combinations required to make a good Pheasant shot—coolness of nerve, quickness of aim, decision in at once picking your shot, accurate judging of distance, which practice, and practice alone, can acquire; whereas if any one, while standing in the ride, can knock over some half dozen “ Rocketers” in succession, going at their best pace, and aided, perchance, with the wind in their favour, that man may justly claim to be able to kill a Pheasant as he ought, but scarcely before.
But whether a person be an advocate or not of dattwe shooting and big bags (and many a one, methinks, may be induced to speak against such things partly on account of the sourness of the grapes which he cannot reach, and partly, perchance, because he has but little taste for sport, and therefore, if so, is an unqualified judge of the matter), yet few will be found to deny the pleasure of
166 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
circumventing some crafty old cock, who has wandered far from his original domain, and knows full well how to use all the wits with which Nature has so liberally endowed him. I shall never forget the pleasure that such an occurrence gave me personally, when, in the dead of winter, I was Snipe shooting in our water meadows. It was on a keen cold day, the herbage affording but scant shelter for any bird, when coming suddenly.to the edge of one of our “carriages ’” (as the watercourses are called which “carry” the water into the meadows from the main stream), I surprised two fine old ring-necks at their afternoon draught; and which, separating in grand circles to the right and left, returned to their mother earth, in a quicker way than either of them had intended; though I am bound to say I missed a third cock bird directly after, from making too sure of my prize, after my former unexpected luck.
The craft of an old cock Pheasant is really something surprising ; and if you are unaware of his dodges, he will surely outwit you, generally making such use of his legs that you find him yards from the spot where you confidently expected to discover him ; or at other times flattening himself against the ground in stubble or fallow, so that you literally walk over him, although from a little distance off you may have satisfied yourself’ that you have marked to an inch where he is. No! long may Phasianus Colchicus and his allies, the Ring-necked and other varieties, find a home in our preserves and hedgerows, or at times be found paying an unexpected visit to our farmyards and gardens—as, for example, on the Sunday before last, when a fine old cock stalked out of my front gates, seeming to depend on the security the Sunday gave him, and perhaps knowing that he would have been safe in my domain even on a week-day.
TETRAONIDE.
Tetrao Urogallus. “The Capercaillie.” Although I cannot by any ingenuity include this magnificent bird as even an occasional strag- gler into our neighbourhood (though I see the Rev. A. C. Smith mentions an instance as having occurred in the parish of Winter- slow in 1841, which must have been a veritable straggler indeed), yet I cannot help referring to it from an amusing incident that this
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 167
bird unwittingly gave rise to. I have a very fine old cock bird in my collection, that came from Scotland about 1865. It weighed between ten and eleven pounds, and was in its finest breeding plumage, having come to its untimely end in the middle of the May month, when I discovered it in the flesh in a well-known bird stuffer’s shop in London. There was an old man in my parish who had spent all his life, and that a long one, in our water meadows, and who had a keen eye for natural history specimens, always ob- serving, and telling me of any uncommon bird that he came across. But a specimen of the Capercaille he had never seen before. Now my old parishioner had a son, of whom he was very proud, being one of the first pupil teachers from this district who had entered the training college at Winchester. His admiration for this pupil teacher (or, as he called him in his own vernacular, “ Bugle-Tatur”) knew no bounds, and from him, during his vacation, spent under the paternal roof, he picked up many a word, which was as new to him as was Zetrao Urogallus himself. These words, of course, he was accustomed to introduce into his conversation as frequently as pos- sible, to show, doubtless, how subtil was the leaven of the training college over all that it came in contact with. One of these words was “apropds.” One day he was looking over my collection, and when he came before the Capercaillie he stopped in astonishment, never having seen such a bird before; and after being silent for some time, during which he was taking in the bird’s general ap- pearance, and being evidently much struck with the strong curved beak of the conifer cracker, he touched me on the shoulder, and with that peculiar twinkle in the eye which tells that a man feels he is treading on uncertain ground, he said “ J should consider, Sir, that that ere sird was W apropos to a h’ eagle” ; about as bad a shot as any school-boy could make, who, putting a bold face upon it,
endeavours desperately to flounder through some passage of the §Satires of Juvenal,” or “The Georgics,” which he has never once looked at, or, as we should say at Winchester, has taken up “ ex-
trumps.” The poor old man has gone to his rest, but I never look
at the case without smiling at his mal-apropdés suggestion.
Tetrao Tetrix. “The Black Grouse.” This bird can far more justly
168 = On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
claim a local habitation and a place amongst us than the last-named species; though at the present time it only occurs as an occasional visitor. They used to be met with on the downs around Ebbesborne and Sutton, and also, I believe, on Teffont Common and elsewhere. This is not surprising when we remember that in the adjacent counties of Hants and Somerset, on either side of us, they are not infrequent. I have sprung them several times in the New Forest, round Rufus’s stone; and on one occasion near Verwood I noticed a fine old cock bird on the bank of the railway, which in no way showed any fear of the passing train, but held up his head as a bird who was in no way ashamed of showing himself. On the other side of us, in Somerset, they are numerous on some of the ranges of hills. On the Quantocks, ranging from the district of Taunton to St. Audries on the coast, they are found in considerable numbers. I remember one day in the woods above Bagborough, when I was anxious to obtain a good cock of my own shooting for my collection, I sprung some eight or ten brace of grey hens, mostly single birds, but only three cocks put in an appearance, and that at such a discreet distance that I could not secure one, my only chance being at one that got out of the lower branches of a thick spruce fir, and which took me so by surprise that I was not quick enough for a snap shot through the boughs. The old cocks get very cunning, und give one the slip much in the same way as a cock Pheasant will. The specimen I have was one out of eight cock birds that had congre- gated together, as they will, in the early part of December. Mr. Wyndham, of Dinton, has a good pair of local specimens in his collection. The cock bird having been killed, to the best of his belief, on December 15th, 1820, just where the parishes of Ebbes- borne and Sutton Mandeville meet; while the grey hen was killed at Langford on December 5th, 1819. Even now they are oc- casionally to be met with in their old haunts, as the Rev. T, Wyndham informs me that a grey hen was killed by Robert Way, one of his brother’s gamekeepers, as recently as November 11th of last year (1880). This bird, no doubt, may have been a straggler; but it is extraordinary how birds will continually re-visit their old haunts, led by that unerring instinct which
~~
eS eee ee eee ee
a
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 169
causes them to pitch upon the right spot, just as in a still more extraordinary way the seed of some rare plant will often find out a patch of soil suited to its growth, though it be severed by many an intervening mile from the common habitat of its tribe. It is not uncommon to see hybrids between this bird and the Pheasant, some of them being handsome specimens. Mr. F. J. Strange, writing to me on November 7th, 1881, from Fritham, mentions a peculiar instance of this kind, saying, “ There is in the village a bird, a cross between (I should say) the Black Cock and a common fowl, a very peculiar bird, and, if so, extraordinarily uncommon,” but he does not mention the peculiar features of this specimen. Occasionally the hen bird will assume, in a lesser degree, the curved tail of the cock, just as is similarly observed in mule Pheasants, when the hen will don, and that sometimes in a very perfect degree, the more gorgeous colouring of the cock bird.
Tetrao Scoticus. ‘The Red Grouse.” Wecome now toa bird, the Red Grouse, in whom every Briton should take a lively interest, in- asmuch as he is a “ Briton of the Britons,” and has never been known to wander from his native shores. It is a very noteworthy thing that this bird is purely British, and is found nowhere else in the world except within the range of our own islands. Truly he sets us a good example of staying at home and minding our own business. He practically reads us the same lesson as “ Gaarge Ridler and his Dog,” as exemplified in the following verse of that old west-country song, known well, doubtless, by all my readers, but which, however, I will quote for the edification of anyone who may not have come across it :—
“Droo’ all the world, owld Gaarge would bwoast, Commend me to merry owld England mwoast,
While vools gwoes scamblin’ vur and nigh We bides at whoam, my dog and I.”
For, although “ Zetrao Scoticus ’ favours Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as England, and so extends his peregrinations rather beyond our above-named friends, yet he shows a wholesome appre- ciation of his native shores, beyond which he takes no interest.
‘This species has just occurred often enough in Wilts to include it
170 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
in our county list. Among other instances, Mr. E. Baker, of Mere, informs me that one of these birds was killed at West Knoyle, on a farm in the occupation of Mr. J. Romsey. It was shot by a party of sportsmen while out Partridge shooting, in 1848, and was sent to Sir Hugh Hoare, at Stourton.
These birds, though infinitely more numerous than the Black Game, are, unlike it, monogamous, neither are they ever known to perch or roost in trees, as the Black Grouse does. The numbers that are annually killed are something enormous, and the prices given for a Grouse moor become higher and higher as time goes on. Tn fact the presence of this bird turns land which would be otherwise utterly worthless into a substantial source of income. Now that all vermin is so narrowly looked after, the way the Red Grouse increases is truly marvellous, and though the price realised for a moor makes it, perhaps, imperative that the owner should stock it as well as possible, by keeping down all causes antagonistic to its increase, yet one would fain see more of some of our birds of prey about than are now visible, and which, as long as they were not allowed to get too numerous, would do as much good as harm, by keeping down the weak and sickly birds. It has, indeed, been computed that “a single nest of Peregrines would destroy, in a single season, nearly three hundred brace of Grouse alone ”’—truly a startling number, and one which would seem to justify the preserver in extirpating it altogether from his moor; while the following extract, as quoted by Mr. Wood, in his Natural History of Birds, p. 72, also testifies to the game-destroying propensities of the Peregrine. “ Mr.Sinclair,” he says, “while exercising his dogs on the Belfast mountains, pre- paratory to Grouse shooting, saw them point, and coming up, startled a male Peregrine off a Grouse, just killed by him, and very near the same place came upon the female bird, also upon a Grouse. Although my friend lifted both the dead birds, the Hawks continued flying about, and on the remainder of the pack, which lay near, being sprung, either three or four more Grouse were struck down by them—thus two-and-a-half or three brace were obtained by means of these wild birds, being more than had ever been procured out of a pack of Grouse by my friend’s trained Falcons.” This
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 171
certainly shows the capabilities of the Peregrine, but still, if the old mottoe, “ Live and let live,” were more the order of the day, I don’t think any very great or sensible diminution of the Grouse would be apparent, and there would be a greater chance of seeing oftener such a grand flight as that mentioned above.
This bird demands a very extensive range of heather for its home, not remaining satisfied with a partial range, as is the Black Grouse. It has been tried more than once to introduce them on the Quantock Hills, in Somerset, but though the range is some miles long, it is not broad or varied enough for the Red Grouse ; and when imported there, they very soon re-crossed the Bristol Channel into some of the Welsh mountains. I was surprised in turn to find that there are no Black Game on the Welsh Hills round Crickhowell and Aber-. gavenny, where I was staying the past summer, as I should have thought the situation well suited to their habits.
Syrrhaptes Paradoxus. Pallas’s Sand Grouse. I cannot find any other instance of this rare straggler to our county, except the specimen mentioned by the Rev. A. C. Smith, which was shot in - the year of their irruption into Europe (1863), by Mr. Joseph Dean, of Imber. It was a most extraordinary migration, and the number altogether killed in this country was something considerable. There is a most interesting account in Mr. Stevenson’s Birds of Norfolk of their appearance in Norfolk and Suffolk in that year, which would well repay any ornithologist’s reading. Those were naturally the counties wherein most might be expected to have been secured ; and he records the total number of specimens obtained in those counties as being in all seventy-five; thirty males and thirty females in Norfolk, and eight males and seven females in Suffolk. The first being picked up dead on Yarmouth beach on May 28rd, the last, a male, said to have been shot near Lynn, in the last week of November.
_ Perdix Cinerea. “The Partridge.” The bird, par excellence, of all others in a sportsman’s eye, as is proved in common sporting parlance by the usual soubriquet of “Birds ” being used to designate them, instead of the proper name which distinguishes the species, for few would talk of having bagged so many Partridges, but rather so VOL. XX,—NO, LIX. N
172 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
many “ Brace of Birds.” I am bold to say that this homely little bird attracts more notice, and affords a more general topic of conver- sation, year by year, than any other bird, I was going to say, almost any other ¢hzmg, in our islands. There is no need to speak at any length of it, as every lover of Nature has his own store of anecdotes and bird-lore connected with it, yet I cannot pass over my old friend altogether without a recognition. This bird is not always very careful as to the situation it selects for its nest; oftentimes choosing a place where there is very little probability of its ever hatching out its young in safety. An instance of this I cannot help recording. I was once playing in a village cricket match in the field just in front of the vicarage. Through this field a footpath runs: and on this occasion it lay between the wickets and the post usually called “ Point,’ which was not more than two or three yards _ from the pathway. We had not been playing long when the at- tention of the fieldsman at “Point” was attracted to a tuft of rather thicker and darker herbage than the rest (our village grounds, dear reader, are not, as a rule, quite equal to “ Lords” or “ The Oval”), and, on stooping down to examine it more closely, he ex- claimed, ‘“ Why, here’s a Partridge’s nest with seven eggs.” This was latish in the summer, and yet there that nest had remained undiscovered to that very moment, although then, of course, for a long time deserted. No passer by had ever seen it, and it was close by the Church path, constantly used. The mowers had mown over it without noticing it; the haymakers had made hay over it, and yet had neither seen nor trodden upon it; and, more curious still, no prying Jackdaw or Rook had found it out, or plundered it; and it was reserved for my friend to discover it in this most unique way— a way in which I much doubt whether Partridge’s nest was ever found before—+.e., by a fieldsman at “ Point” in the midst of a cricket match. ;
But though not always over careful about the situation of its nest, this bird is a very close sitter, and will defend its eggs and young to the last. Over and over again is the sitting bird killed by the mowers in the long grass; whereas, if it is near hatching, it has often been known to remove its eggs, to the nearest hedge, or
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 173
similar place of safety, in an incredibly short space of time ;- and if the young are hatched will entice the intruder away by the most cunningly practised devices. Most people, I dare say, have seen an instance of this, and how the parent bird will shuffle and tumble about upon the ground, as though it had not a leg to stand‘upon, or rather a wing to fly with—a manceuvre, however, which is com- mon to many other birds, and one which I myself have seen practised most eraftily by the Plover, Wild Duck, Land Rail, and also by the little black-headed or Reed Bunting, and that quite as cleverly as by the Partridge. Indeed the little Bunting almost effected its purpose. I was at the time hunting for its nest in an osier bed (as my boys wanted some eggs of this species for their collection), when out flew this little bird from the very osier stump over which I was _ bending, and began to tumble about on the ground in such a comical manner that I could not help following it for a yard or two, and had much difficulty to find the nest again, which was so deeply embedded in the stump that I never should have found it at all had it not been for the antics that the bird played.
I had an interesting anecdote of the maternal instinct of the Partridge related to me the other day. The Rev. R. 8S. Woodyates, Vicar of Pembury, Tunbridge Wells, wrote to me thus :—* An in- cident of instinct in Partridges, I saw the other day. A brood was caught in the mowing grass, and placed in a coop under a Bantam hen, some distance from where they were found, and in a garden. The old birds came fearlessly and took away each of the nine birds in the brood, by laying down flat; the little one mounted the back, and off flew the old bird. The young one must have dug its feet ' into the plumage of the old one’s back, and so got a hold.”
Though so bold when affection for their young demands it, these birds would seem to be of a nervous temperament, and are at times _ given over to a kind of panic, which seemingly destroys their powers _ of self-preservation. A whole covey a little time ago settled in one _ of the streets of the suburbs of Salisbury, and allowed themselves to be caught one after another, being apparently paralysed by the strangeness of their position; and not long after I myself saw one captured on the line, by the porters, in the middle of the Salisbury - N 2
174 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
Station. It had nothing the matter with it, but ran right down the line into the middle of the station, as though it were impelled to its fate, never attempting to use its wings; and so it continued running backwards and forwards on the line just under the platform until it was caught and pocketed. It is astonishing at times how many of these birds are killed by the telegraph wires at the side of our railways, especially when first newly-erected; though in time they seem to become aware of the danger, and avoid it. I was told by the late Mr. Norwood, one of the officials on the South Western line, that a man who had charge of six miles of line be- tween Porton and Grateley picked up no fewer than eighty-four Partridges killed in this way on his part of the line during the first year after the wires had been erected, though in succeeding years there were only one or two occasionally found. This seems a large number, but the narrator assured me he spoke from personal knowledge of the facts, and I had no reason whatever to doubt his assertion.
At times very rare birds are found killed in this way. Not long ago a friend of mine brought me the wing of a bird he had picked up on the line, which had evidently been thus severed by the bird flying against the wires, and which he could not distinguish. It proved to be the wing of a “Spotted Crake,” which—although I expect commoner than is generally thought—is by no means of frequent occurrence amongst us. I once shot a very peculiarly- marked Partridge, which I have always regretted was not preserved, as I have never seen one like it since. The back was a very dark mottled brown, not unlike the plumage of some Red Grouse, while all the under parts were almost of a creamy white, affording a wonderfully strong contrast. It was a hen bird, without the horse- shoe. Pied varieties of this bird, or white ones, are not infrequently met with.
Perdix Rufa. “The French or Red-legged Partridge.” If hand- some plumage and superior size were the chief qualities to be re- garded our friend ‘The Frenchman” would certainly take precedence of his English relative. But these things pale before the greater and more essential qualities in a game bird of good flavour to the
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 175
palate, and sport in the field—our English Partridge must certainly be awarded the prize in both the two last-named points; and if one of the two species had to be expatriated the French bird would certainly be the one to be sent into exile. Indeed many a sportsman has regretted its introduction from across the Channel, and has done his best to exterminate them from off his property. The great drawback in connection with this bird is its well-known habit of running before the dogs or beaters, topping the further hedge of the field almost as soon as you are in it yourself, and by its restless- ness disturbing other birds as well. Notwithstanding, the plumage of this species is so exceedingly pleasing, that one cannot help being glad that it has become domesticated amongst us. They are in no way numerous in this district; in fact it is rather an unusual thing to meet with them, though a pair crop up here and there in un- expected places. There was a pair seen in the parish in 1876, one of which was killed, but this is the only instance of its occurring here, as far as I am aware of, for the last thirteen years since I have been here. There was another killed during the same year in the neighbourhood of Warminster; though there also they are but little known. A single bird was caught at Mere, in the yard of the Ship Inn, by Mr. J. Coward, on April 11th, 1874, having apparently taken refuge there from a Hawk; but the cases of its occurrence round here seem isolated and infrequent. A year or two ago the keepers were driving in the game into the Clarendon Woods, pre- vious to a day’s shooting, and a pair of these birds commenced running before the beaters, as run they will, until they were run down, and caught alive. It was a drenching day, and their plumage apparently got so soaked that at last they lost the opportunity of using their wings at all, one stretch of which might have landed them in safety, thus affording an illustration of the old adage :-— “He that will not when he may, When he will he shall have nay,”
for at last they could not rise, and are now perpetuated in the _ keeper’s cottage. A curious incident connected with these birds Occurred near Bath not long ago. A few years back my brother was shooting at Holt, near Bradford, when he sprang an old cock
176 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
bird by the side of some standing barley, and killed it. This was on September 9th, 1874. He saw no more of the kind for the next five or six years, when on September 20th, 1880, he shot a hen—a solitary bird—in the very same field where he had killed the cock six years before. Should this have been a pair, (and from the cir- cumstance of finding them in the very same field, and although shooting over the same ground regularly year by year, from never seeing or hearing of any other instances of the occurrence of the species, it would certainly appear to have been the ease,) it shows how tenaciously at times birds will stick to the spot that they have once chosen as their home, notwithstanding many an adverse cir- cumstance. The eggs of these birds are considerably larger than those of the common Partridge, and are freckled and mottled with a dull red colour. They differ also from the English bird im their arboreal habits, often flying up into trees, or perching occasionally on the hedge-row, or the corn stack, in which latter place they not infrequently make their nests.
Perdiz Virginiana. ‘The Virginian Partridge,” or “ Colin.” This also is an imported species, but one which apparently cannot hold its own amongst us as well as the last-named species, the ‘‘ Red- Leg,” can, and when turned down is apt to wander far from its intended home, and thus gets slaughtered inadvertently. In the season of 1875-6 Mr. W. Hart informs me that he came across sundry specimens of this bird in the neighbourhood of Christ- church. There was a covey of fourteen of them, besides two or three single birds. He killed three single birds whilst out Partridge shooting, and has them now in his collection. I have not heard of any others nearer home than that, and doubtless those mentioned must have been turned down in the neighbourhood at some previous period, though the covey bears testimony to their having bred in the wild state, and that most successfully. Meyer mentions, I see, that this bird differs from other cognate species by building a nest for the reception of the eggs, in shape resembling that of a Willow Wren with a hood to it, and that the eggs are ten or twelve in number, which accurately corresponds with the number of the covey above-mentioned.
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 177
Perdix Coturnix. ‘The Quail.” This pretty little bird is not anything like so numerous with us as it used to be some years back. In fact it adds considerably to the excitement of a day’s Partridge shooting when a bevy of these little stragglers can be found. I have shot them at New Farm, in the parish of Stratford Tony, near here, and have also seen them at West Harnham, close to Salisbury ; and I have no doubt that they are more frequent than is generally supposed, as, owing to their skulking habits, they are very hard to rise, and when risen are so small that some people might not notice them. I have also killed them at Marshfield, just outside this county on the borders of Gloucestershire, and have also met with them at Holt, near Bradford, where my brother killed several when I was out with him. On this occasion it was extraordinary the difficulty we had in rising them. We knew that they were in a certain stubble field, and that not a large one, and therefore tried it very closely ; but we certainly should not have seen anything of them on that day had we not known their whereabouts, and been determined to find them. They are sometimes met with very late in this country, and it would seem to be a question whether some of them may not possibly stay with us now and then through the winter. But more probably, perhaps, they are but hapless indi- viduals, which may have been slightly wounded during the previous season, or some that, having been hatched out later than usual, were not strong enough at the normal time of migration to set forth on their arduous journey. On one occasion, not long ago, in our parish, Mr. F. M. E. Jervoise told me he had sprung a Quail in the middle of the December month, while I have a note by me that another was killed on Christmas Day, at Mere, by Mr. James Jesse, as communicated to me by Mr. E. Baker, of that place. I have heard also of several other instances of this bird having been observed in
_ this neighbourhood as late as December; on one occasion several
being seen at the same time. This bird cannot but be surrounded with unusual interest to all readers when they remember the inspired testimony we have as to the enormous numbers in which they appeared in the peninsula of Sinai in the time of the Israelites, “‘ He rained flesh upon them as thick as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand
178 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
of the sea”—a testimony which, if it needed any corroboration, could find it still in the inexhaustible multitudes which are seen at times in the south of Europe and other places around the Mediterra- nean coast. Their egg is very prettily mottled, and very similar to that of the Spotted Crake, the latter only having rather larger splotches upon it, and not being quite so rounded at the upper end.
- STRUTHIONIDE.
Otis Tarda. “The Great Bustard.” Had I been writing this paper but a few years previously to the present time, it must have consisted only of past reminiscences and bygone memories, as far as the Bustard was concerned, with an apparently useless regret that our celebrated “ Plain ” was to know it no more, although onee it had been one of this noble bird’s chief strongholds amongst us. But more recently, as most of my readers will be aware, the Great Bustard has once more re-visited its old haunts on Salisbury Plain, and has also been procured during the winter of 1879-80 from no less than seven different places within the range of our islands.
As is well known through tradition, Salisbury Plain was one of the strongholds of this bird in former years: the large, open undulating reaches of down, varied with patches at that day, of cultivated land, affording it exactly the kind of haunt necessary to its existence; the very grandeur of the appearance of the bird declaring that it cannot brook to be “cribbed, cabined, and confined” within enclosures, however spacious, which, besides being distasteful to it in themselves, afford that vantage ground to its enemies to creep upon it unobserved, of which it would seem intuitively afraid. Of late years, indeed by the present generation you may say, the Bustard has been looked upon as an extinct local species, surviving amongst us only by tradition—as exemplified, for instance, in the sign of the inn, in the middle of the plain, which bore a Bustard on its escutcheon, thus testifying to its quondam frequency amongst us—or as having been seen by one or two octogenarians possibly still living, who having had an ornithological taste early developed within them, might by some remote chance have actually remembered, as boys, having once themselves caught sight of the great bird,
ie
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 179
which, even then, was too notable a thing to allow it to pass by uncommemorated. But even this source of testimony would very soon (if it has not already) passed away, while in turn we should have been dependent only on the memories of those who, not being eye-witnesses themselves, were still able to speak of the records of _ the occurrence of the Bustard, as detailed to them by their fathers, or fathers’ fathers. Of such memories the following instances would | have then been our only source of information. The Rev. T. Wyndham, in a letter received on the 10th instant, says, “ In an entry in my grandfather’s game book, dated 1801, he speaks of seeing a hen Bustard for the first time on the wing, whilst riding to Upavon. This my brother (W. Wyndham, Esq., of Dinton House) thinks will be of interest to you.” Again, Mr. John Waters, of Salishury, kindly writes me, “I well remember having
: | :
heard my father say, on many occasions, that his elder brother, Mr. John Waters, who, somewhere about 1803, 1804, was living at and renting Normanton Farm, some two miles this [or, the Salisbury] ‘side of Amesbury, in the valley, killed from a cart the last of the Bustards seen about at that date. I have also a recollection of hearing that there were several killed about and previous to that date.” This bird was sent to the then owner of the Amesbury estate—the Duke of Queensberry—who, it would appear, could not have been a very ardent ornithologist, as the sender never even received any thanks for it, and it must be left to the reader’s
imagination to decide whether His Grace’s memory or ornithological taste was in fault. This would seem to have been, as far as I can ascertain, the last Bustard recorded as having been seen on our plain during that generation.
We must not, however, imagine that this was veritably the last of the Mohicans that still found refuge in our inhospitable island. Long after 1804, Norfolk and Suffolk were strongholds of the Bustard. About the year 1812, as recorded by Mr. Stevenson, in his “ Birds of Norfolk,” there was a fine drove of some forty birds in that county, while for nearly two decades still further on there ‘were two recognised droves that frequented stated. parts in the two counties, consisting of eighteen or a score each, which manfully held
180 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
their own for a considerable period; though year by year growing still beautifully less, until in 1832 the last specimen is recorded in Suffolk, while in the sister county they lingered on certainly until 1838—while indistinct rumours asserted that one had been seen, now in this place, and now in that, as late as the year 18143, or even 1345. In fact, in 1833 five eggs—two pairs and a single one—had been taken on Massingham Heath, from the belief that they would prove barren, as all the remaining birds in the drove had for some time been observed to be females only. From that time, however (1845), for a long stretch of years_the list would seem to have been as blank in Norfolk, as that referring to our own plain in Wilts.
After having premised thus much, therefore, imagine my surprise on receiving a kind note from Mr. Henry Blackmore, late of this city, during January, 1871, asking me to lunch with him ona certain day, as he thought, being interested in birds, I should like to say that I had partaken of a Salisbury Bustard ; for that a female bird had been killed on January 23rd, the skin of which had been sent for preservation to King, of Warminster, while the body would be sent up to table on the appointed day. I need not say I gladly accepted the invitation, and am able to plume myself on having done, what few of my cotemporaries have had a chance of doing, 2.¢., dined off a Salisbury Bustard.
The capture of this bird was recorded thus in our local journal: “A Great Bustard was shot on Monday last on the Maddington Manor Farm, by a bird-keeper named Stephen Smith, in the em- ployment of Mr. E. Lywood. The gun was loaded with a ‘ marble,’ and the shot was a long one—132 yards. The bird, which was in company with two [?] others, had its wing broken, and fell in an oblique direction with great violence to the ground a distance of about 20 yards. One of the survivors shortly afterwards wheeled round the spot, passing within 15 yards of Smith, evidently looking for its companion. Mr. Lywood brought the bird to Salisbury on Tuesday last, and very kindly presented it to the Salisbury and South Wilts Museum; it is a female weighing seven-and-a-quarter pounds only. The crop was quite empty, and the bird was not in good condition, although in excellent plumage. It measures 31in.
ate
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 181
from the beak to the end of the tail, and 62in. from tip to tip of the wings.”
This bird would appear to have been one of a small drove of eight, which had some weeks previously appeared in Devonshire, and which, when it had arrived on our plain, had dwindled down to four. Two out of the four that had thus previously disappeared had been shot in the counties further west, and came into the possession of the Rev. Murray Matthews, then Vicar of Bishop’s Lydeard, and of Mr. Cecil Smith, the squire of the same parish, both of whom have large and very perfect collections of our British birds. There were now three birds still remaining, one of which, for certain, was a cock bird; and this bird soon shared the same fate as its predecessors, as on the Thursday following the slaughter of the hen, a cock bird was killed with a bullet on Mr. Pinckney’s ground at Berwick St James. The birds were then exceedingly wary, and the only way by which they could be approached was by forming four or five different parties, and drawing in upon them simultaneously in a large circle. This bird weighed fifteen pounds, and measured 7ft. 2in. in expanse of wing, and 3ft. 4in. from beak to tail. This, again, was but a little weight for a male Bustard, for sometimes under favourable circumstances, they reach a very large size—the Rev. A. C. Smith, of Yatesbury, for instance, having a remarkably fine specimen in his collection, which came from Portugal, and which weighed no less than thirty pounds and a-half.
The pair of birds which were thus eventually left out of this persecuted drove were never shot; and there was an effort made on the part of some to respite them from the untimely end of their comrades, as is evidenced by the following letter, which was ad- dressed to the editor of our local journal, “ A Plea for the Bustards.” “ Sir—may I request your valuable assistance by inserting a plea for the lives of the beautiful pair of Bustards which are still walking over the lands of this and the parishes adjoining, as doubtless they would breed, the close time being so very near, and thus pleasantly add to the unexpected novelty of their re-appearance in our gene- ration.” They soon, however, disappeared from amongst us, and as far as I know were traced no further. There was a rumour of a
182 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
pair of Bustards having been once more seen on the plain in 1877, a declaration to that effect having appeared in the /e/d, and been copied from thence into our local journal. But proof was wanting, I believe, to substantiate the assertion, although of course there is no reason why the report may not have been true. But as few lovers of birds, perhaps, ever cross our plain without thinking of the Bustard, and doubtless also longing to see them once more in their old haunts, it is quite possible that the wish may at times become father to the thought, and birds of lesser celebrity, as seen through the distorted mirage of fond imagination, assume the more portly carriage and proportions of this stately bird.
Since that date, however, there have been seven or eight undoubted occurrences of the Great Bustard within the range of our own islands, a list of which has been kindly forwarded to me by Mr. W. Hart. On December 5th, 1879, one at Woodham Ferres, Essex ; December 8th, two specimens at St. Clement, Jersey ; December — in the same month, one in Romney Marsh, Kent; 1880, one at Great Chard, near Ashford; January 10th, one on Cranborne Downs, Dorset; January — in the same month one from Wye; February 6th, one at West Wickham, Cambridgeshire.
This finishes the notices I have been able to gather concerning this, the grandest of all our British game birds. Would that there was once more a chance of their staying and breeding with us. Of this, however, there would seem to be but little hope, as the increase of population and of agriculture leave them now but few spots where such a thing would be practicable; while their size renders their escaping notice next to an impossibility. There are now two pairs of these grand birds in our Salisbury and South Wilts Museum, one pair coming from Yorkshire, killed in 1825, and the pair from our own plain, procured as above-stated, in 1871.
Otis Tetraxz. ‘The Little Bustard.” This is quite a rare bird amongst us, never having been known to breed with us as the last species, and only appearing as a straggler late in the autumn or during the winter months—a male in summer plumage never having been killed, as I believe, in our islands. On coming to talk of local occurrences of this bird in our neighbourhood, I have but little to
SEE
In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 183
communicate. The following notice, however, was kindly sent to me from the local paper, and if it could have been duly substantiated might have enabled us to claim it as a county visitor. The paragraph referred to was the following, whieh I have still by me :—“ Bustards on Salisbury Plain.” “ Sir—riding on the old drift-way which leads from Salisbury to Everleigh, when near the latter place, at the back of Sidbury Hill, on the open down, I came suddenly on a pair of Bustards. I know the birds perfectly, having seen them on the plains near Casa Viechen, half way between Cadiz and Gibraltar, in the South of Spain. There are two sorts, the Greater and Lesser. It was a pair of the Lesser Bustards I saw this day. Meeting an old man shortly after, I enquired if he had ever seen such a thing. His answer was, ‘J am seventy-two, and never have, but I have heard my father speak of them as having been quite common in his youth,’ I hope no sportsman or naturalist will think it necessary to shoot them, as they may breed. Yours, &c., Viator. April 4th, 1867.” I am much afraid, however, this account carries in itself its own condemnation. First of all I cannot hear of any instance of this bird occurring so late as April 4th in our islands, just before the breeding time: almost all the specimens being procured between the end of October and beginning of February. Though I have noticed one mentioned as having been shot as late as March 4th. But there is certainly a jumble made in “ Viator’s ” account between the Greater and Lesser varieties—or, if not in his own mind, most certainly in the old man’s, whom he is represented as interrogating. This old man of seventy-two declares that he had heard his father
_ say that they “were common in his youth.” Undoubtedly the
Great Bustard was; but the Little Bustard as certainly was xot; and the old man’s assertion clearly referred to Otis Tarda, and not to Otis Tetrax. “ Viator” certainly, from his pronounced experience, ought not to have been mistaken, but we cannot help remembering
_the presence on the plain of the Stone Curlew, or Norfolk Plover,
a fine bird in itself, and something of the same tint in general
plumage as the Little Bustard, and which by an uninitiated eye, orex-
citable imagination, might be mistaken occasionally for the rarer bird.
However the paragraph is too interesting to be omitted, such as it is.
184 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds
On coming to authenticated instances Mr. W. Hart informs me that a Little Bustard was killed some years ago at Heron Court, in a turnip or swede field; and that it is now in Lord Malmesbury’s collection—while there was another specimen procured from Fossie Common, Winforth, in Dorsetshire, on December 26th, 1853. These are the only two instances he knows of as having occurred anywhere in our neighbourhood.
With this bird we come to an end of the Rasores, or Game Birds ; and I must warn my kind readers that if their interest in ornithology is sufficient to cause them to peruse another paper of this series,
” with me deeper into the waters of
they must be prepared to “‘ wade ornithology, and associate themselves with the “ Grallatores,” which come next in order. I must also ask the reader not to criticise this, or any other of these papers, with too captious or scientific an eye, inasmuch as the writer is neither a professor of ornithology nor a scientific naturalist, but only one who takes a supreme interest in the “ Fowls of the air,’ and to whom it is a real pleasure to turn from severer studies, however tired he may be, and spend a half-hour amongst his feathered friends. The object of these papers, therefore, is not so much to describe accurately the bird itself, nor to dive too deeply into its ways or habitat; but simply to jot down whatever occurences can be discovered, that others also may keep their eyes open, and their ears attentive, to ornithological news, of which there is always so much more to be picked up than is generally thought, if only a pertinent question is now and then put. And further, to describe what has interested the writer himself, in the hopes that it may possibly interest others also. And I may say in conclusion that I shall be always grateful for any bird news that anyone may be able to send me, and still more for any specimen out of the common, which the possessor for the time being may not know what to do with, and such as is often thrown away, from not knowing what to do with it, or where to send it. Ifa rare bird zs shot, and generally it would be far better to leave it unharmed, it is a thousand pities not to perpetuate it in some collection, and so let it tell its own tale—whereas, to kill it first, and then throw it on one side, is acting but like the thoughtless schoolboy, who, attracted by the
Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh. 185
gorgeous colouring of the butterfly, eagerly pursues it, and when caught, idly treads it under foot. Nay! kind reader, although man has doubtless been made lord of a// God’s works, and so is justified in freely using the inferior creation in any way that may either tend to his lawful profit, or minister harmlessly to his recreation, yet all must feel there is a point at which his licence must stop, and that point surely is the taking away, without due cause, the life he can never restore.
Artuur P. Mores. Britford Vicarage, December 1st, 1881.
Some Account of the Parish of Alowkton farleigh. By Srz Cuartes Hosnovss, Bart.
(Continued from page 106.) CHAPTER VI.
EcciestasticaL History.
bZT™NS UR living is a rectory, and partly from a paper collated from Wo) the Wilts Institutions, and partly from a careful search of the registers I have put together a list of our rectors and of the patrons of the living. Appendix B. a. Up to A.D. 1834 there are no presentations recorded, although the Church was certainly in existence in 1291, but practically from that year to 1533 the patronage was with the Priors of Farleigh, _ and thereafter with the see of Salisbury. There were interregnums _ —viz., 1334 to 1348 and 1639 to 1660—when the King, or (1660) the Commonwealth, presented, but these were accidents. Circa 1334, William Falshaw, the Prior of Farleigh, deserted his post,
186 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
and then the King—not unwillingly no doubt—presented. Again, John Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury 1621—41, incurred the Court’s displeasure,’ and so, perhaps on that account, the King again pre- sented.
But practically the patronage has not varied and we were and are a Church presentation. As little, too, has our glebe varied. In the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of Pope Nicholas (A.D. 1291) Appendix C., the assessment only is mentioned. That was £5, and the tenth was 10s. But temp. Edward III., c. 1372, the jurors gave a more par- ticular valuation. It runs thus :—
9th of corn, wool, and lambs of the ecclesiastical
parish, due to the King 53/3 And ditto ditto Prior de Farlega ditto 13/ Rector’s messuage and garden 26/- And 26 acres of land and pasture, valued at 26/8 Tenth of the milk, ferri, lini, canabis, casei lactis,
&c., valued at 20/-
Total £6 18 11
In the Valor Ecclesiasticus of Henry VIII. (1533) :— John Davys, rector, the gross valuation was £8 1 2 Less annual pension to the Prior of Farle 1/-
Less archidiaconal dues 9/1)
Net value £7 10 3
At the tithe commutation, 22nd February, 1847 :—
aol amy The acreage of the parish is found tobe 1810 2 20 Less demesne, exempted from tithes by pre-
scription, as held under the Bishop 1034 1 2 776 0 35
Less glebe, when in occupation of the Rector 25 3 10
And the acreage liable to tithes is (50. J 2 1 Jones, Fasti Ecclesiz, p. 112.
ae
>
on
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 187
So, though the lands themselves have, I believe, been chopped about, yet the glebe acreage in 1881 is to a fraction what it was in 1372, or five hundred years ago.
The tithe rent charge is assessed at £192 per annum, inclusive of £7 assessed on the glebe, but receiving an addition of £10 per annum from the occupant of the manor house and estate, and the usual corm averages.
_ The land liable to tithe rent charge is :—
et ee Arable land 356 3 7 Homesteads, gardens, and orchards 2 il 6 Woodland 25 3 26 Pasture land 354 1 26
Acres 760 1 25
THe Parish REGISTERS.
They commence thus :—“The Book of Weddings and Baptisms and Burials of ye Parish of Monkton Farley made in ye year of our Lord God 1570 and day of August by John Williams Rector eidem.”
The following analysis represents their value and condition, but not the omissions and losses, which must, I am convinced, have been much more considerable than would appear :—
1570—1608. Well-written. One handwriting, perhaps Parson
-Bragge, and partly at least copied in all at once.
1608—41. Generally ill-written, probably by the churchwardens, John Butler and Walter Grant; with an entry, “Good reader,
pardon.”
~1641—53. Well-written by Parson Allambrigge. 1653—67. With difficulty deciphered. 1677—1788. Well-written and well kept as to baptisms and
weddings, but burials deficient. Parchment disused for a time
after 1699.
1780—81. Well kept and written.
There are various entries in these registers, not strictly proper to VOL. XX.—NO. LIX, o
188 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
the subjects of them, which it may yet be interesting or amusing to record :—
“Memorandum. In the year of our Lord 1626. John Walter and William Baker, Churchwardens for the said year, did place in the second seat of the south side of the Church of Mounkton-Farleigh the wife of the said John Walter and gave sixpence to the Church. Item they placed in the said seat the wife of Robert Baker and she gave sixpence.”
Then follow the solemn witness and signs of the two churchwardens.
Here evidently the two dames had had a quarrel for precedence, and we can readily picture the stately manner in which on that Sunday in 1626 it must have been solemnly adjusted.
Parsons Bridges, Allambrigge, Medlicott and Gunner record their - several inductions, and that by Allambrigge is as follows :—
“Memorandum. That at the time of my induction, John Butler the elder being then (and many years after in the time of troubles) [he was inducted Jan. 30th. 1641] Churchwarden, kept on paper a register of Christenings, Burialls and Weddings, the parchment book being full; which papers since his death can not yet be found; I therefore (no Churchwarden taking care or notice) begin from the said Butler’s death; what is lost ego nescio nec ego curo it being ever the Churchwarden’s office.”
So up to this time it had been tne Churchwarden’s office to keep up the registers, and it was only because no churchwarden cared to prevent him that the parson undertook the duty.
He kept his registers well, too, but there must ever have been a spice of the “non ego curo” in his disposition, for he could not resist the following entry :—
“March 7th, 1656. Christopher Morris his Cocke was killed by John Allam- brigge his Cocke.”
Then occur some apparently charitable donations :—
“1664. Given to the Breife for the City of Oxford 1/- and to the Inhabitants of the Parish of St. Dunstanes, West London 6%, and to the Briefe for Fordingbridge in the County of Southampton 1/2, and paid 1/- to the Bailiff of the same Towne.”
And, to come down to modern times, we have this entry, August
21st, 1830 :—
* Received by the hand of Thomas Gardiner one penny as a fine for permission to pass through the Rectory field to the Churchyard, paid by Captain Long at the funeral of his son, D. W. E. Long.”
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 189
I am at a loss to know why Captain Long should have desired to pass through this field, but the fine was no doubt paid to save the right of way whenever a funeral had passed unchallenged.
The first marriage by licence is that of Edward Seymour, in 1716, and between that year and 1752 there are no less than twenty-seven such marriages, and they then cease until quite recent times.
In 1724 begins a series of marriages by certificate. Between that year and 1753 there are no less than twenty-nine such marriages, and then they cease. They are always between non-parishioners.
From 1701 to 1710, and again from 1720 to 1736, there are a great number of marriages between non-parishioners and from neighbouring parishes. Is there any connection between this fact and the tax on marriages imposed in 1695 ?
In 1592 I find a marriage thus curiously attested :—
“ Witness. John Butler his hands and God’s. Amen.”
In the matter of deaths and burials there are only two deaths recorded as the effects of accident. The age is seldom recorded until quite in modern times. From the year 1813 to 1829 in one out of every eight deaths the age exceeded eighty years. In 1795 as many as twenty deaths are mentioned, and amongst these the deaths of no less than four of the children of R. Holland, curate. In 1832 are recorded five deaths from Asiatic cholera. In 1697 is mentioned the burial of one Bollen “amongst the Quakers.” This is the first note of dissent, and I am happy to be able to add that it was also the last, for although there are evidences of the existence of Quaker families amongst us, yet they did not remain, nor is there any trace of any edifice of worship save the Parish Church. We have a few Dissenters with us now, but they attend the Church and send their children to the school.
During 1683-88-90-95-96 many persons are “buried in woolling.” This of course refers to the period (1677) when British woollens were prohibited in France, and when, consequently (29th Charles II., 1678) all persons were obliged to be buried in woollen under a _ penalty of £50. So conservative is our retired community that the custom still lingers in the burying in flannel of all persons in a sufficiently good position.
02
190 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
There are only five adult and one private baptisms recorded. In 1786-87-88-91-92 baptismal entries marked with a cross are noted as “exempt from the tax,” on the ground that the parents were receiving relief from the parish. So we evidently passed through that evil time when baptismal fees were the rule. The entries of
?? children commence in 1651
“‘ Base-born, spurious or illegitimate and close in 1831. They are fifty-four within the one hundred and eighty years. The custom was apparently to baptise under any circumstances, so I imagine that these figures fairly represent our moral character in this respect, but I note that in one series of years, when there was no resident rector, the evil was peculiarly rampant, and thus much of our immorality had no doubt its root in the neglect of spiritual oversight.
The analysis of Christian names is, in a small way, quite a history ‘in itself. The earliest names, both of men and women, are pure Norman or Saxon :—Chrystopher, Edward, Giles, Henry, John, Perigord, Robert, Richard, Thomas, William, Walter, or Alice, Agnes, Avice, Bridget, Cybil, Gyllyan, Joan, Maude, Margaret, Marion, and so on. ‘Then certain names only come in with the Sovereigns, as Charles (1656), and Elizabeth (1585), and Mary 1578). Then comes a flood of old Scripture names with the Commonwealth :— Abigail, Deborah, Dinah, Esther, Hannah, Judith, Kezia, Leah, Miriam, Ruth, Rebecca, Rachel, or Abraham, Aaron, Benjamin, David, Daniel, Ephraim, Enoch, Elisha, Jacob, Joshua, Joseph, Jonathan, Joel, Jeremiah, Isaac, Mary, Mordecai, Obadiah, Solomon, Samuel. Interspersed are the Quaker names of Timothy, Betty, Joyce, Martha, Prudence, Pleasant, Patience, and so on. Later on are the Charlottes and Georges of Hanover, and occasioaally are names in honor of the manor house—as the Anna-Maria of the Somersets.
The surnames over a period of three hundred years are compara- tively few, and amongst them are many like those of the Bolwells, the Deverells, the Ganes, and the Godwins, where the same family is lineally traceable throughout, and there is scarcely one family in the parish now which has not, in name at least, been in the parish always. I give particulars in Appendix E.
Oe
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 191
It is to be regretted that the occupations of our parishioners have so seldom been recorded. From 1700 to 1713, and again from 1781 to the present day, there are such records. The community in the earlier of these periods was made up principally of farm laborers, but we had clothiers, weavers, masons, bakers, maltsters, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, a shearer, grocers, thatchers, and even a fiddler resident. So we were a community in- dependent of all the world. We made our own clothes, baked our own bread, sheared our sheep, brewed our beer, built and thatched our houses, and fiddled at our village festivals.
But in later times and at the present day it is with difficulty that we preserve a baker, a carpenter and a blacksmith amongst us for our most pressing daily necessities, and for every other want we have to resort to the nearest town. The small trader must always have a hard time of it, he therefore ends by throwing up or by migrating to the next town. ‘There the country villager must follow him, and whilst good roads and cheap railways make it easy for him to do so, the credit he can obtain by flitting from shop to shop is another inducement. Here, it seems to me, is one of the reasons for the marked decrease in the rural populations and the comparatively marked increase in the populations of the towns.
But “revenons a nos moutons” and from our registers let me pass to
“Our CuurcH” AND CHURCHYARD.
Our Church was re-built under a faculty of date the 30th June, 1843.
The tower, the entrance porch, and the font are parts of the old structure; the windows in the nave are five in number, and are exact re-productions of three that before existed ; but the rest of the building is new. Such ancient architecture as we have in it is ‘pronounced not later than John, 1199—1216 ; but the doorway to my mind is earlier, corresponding in its circular ornamentation, its shafts and capitals with the fragments in existence of our Priory ~ Church.
The Church is dedicated to St. Peter, and a figure in the east
192 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
window, aud the historical old cock on the tower, preserve the memory of this dedication.
The following was the approximate expenditure on the rebuilding, Viz. :—
6h
Outer walls and roof 300 0 0 Chancel, desk, and lectern 212" oe Seventy-five free seats at the west end Wb 0-0 Cost of the faculty ae le Total £626 17 0
Of this sum the Rev. E. Brown, the Rector, gave £317 8s. 3d., and Rector Cozens £20.
In 1874 a series of high family pews still stood in unsightly contrast with the seventy-five free seats; the seats in the chancel were ill-placed and rickety, and the pavement throughout the Church was old and imperfect.
So a second faculty was obtained. The nave is now furnished throughout with open seats of oak of an uniform pattern, and the pavement is of encaustic tiles. The chancel was raised two feet and the altar one foot higher still. The altar railing of oak, which existed in 1843, was given away to do duty (as it still does) as staircase railings in the house of Mr. James Cottle, of Farley-Wick, and was replaced by an open stone railing. This in its turn was removed in 1874 to the top of the chancel steps.
Stalls of oak have been put up for the choir, and the reading desk isin the chancel. The pulpit has every appearance of the ageassigned to it, and we may honestly believe in the tradition that Bishop Jewel preached from it. The inscription is as follows :—‘‘ Blessed are Thay y™ heare y© word of God and Keepe it.—Zwhe, xi., 28.”
The gallery was doomed to removal by the faculty, but was re- prieved for want of means. It is, on the whole a disfigurement and a nuisance. It takes away all light and air from a number of the free seats; it harbours disturbance ; it destroys the fair proportions of the nave; and it cuts off the tower as an effective part of the
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 193
Church. Were Bishop Burgess’ school room, now used only as a vestry, thrown into the Church, the gallery might, with every ad- vantage, be removed.
The expense of the improvements in 1874 was £540, and whilst Mr. Tooke, the Rector, met the expenditure on the chancel, the principal parishioners found the balance required.
A board containing the twelve commandments, of date 1616, a black letter bible, and many hatchments were in existence within the memory of man, but, so far back as the time of Mr. Powell, were “ non inventi.”
The material used throughout the building is the freestone of the locality, and it is clear from the outward and inward appearance of this, from the aspect of the ground outside, from what was uncovered of the vaults in 1874, and from the details of expenditure in 1843, that the site and foundations have ever been the same, and that the material is the stone-work of the original Church.
There is a very large proportion of free seats; and there is a rule, under the authority of the vestry, that when the bell ceases to toll all unoccupied seats are free. I myself should prefer to see every seat free—save, it might be, out of courtesy to punctual Church- goers, and to the necessities of age and infirmities—and I believe the old adage would still preserve us from inconveniencies :—
“Cloth of gold, be not too nice, Though thou be match’d with cloth of frieze;
Cloth of frieze, be not too bold, Though thou be matched with cloth of gold.”
But the lower classes have their pride and their proprieties, and there is still amongst us some of the leaven of our forefathers, whose dames had their quarrels of precedence in 1626, as I have before mentioned.
In times still recorded from hear-say the custom of our Church- going was very much more dignified than it is now. Instead of the slip-slop tumbling into and out of Church at any moment, and without any order or respect, the practice was this: the people assembled for Church service before and inside the porch; then _ came the rector in his robes, and his dame in her silk apron, and
194 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
they entered the Church first; the people made their reverencies (alas! the custom has, with the word, almost died out in these days!) stood aside, and followed into the Church ; and so on coming out.
The east window was put up in memory of the Rev. E. Brown, rector, who died in 1863. ‘The centre figure is that of St. Mary Magdalene, and that on the left St. Edward the Confessor. The origin of such a juxtaposition is said to have been entirely fanciful and sentimental.
The tunes that used to be played on the barrel-organ are almost a matter of bygone history, but they are worth recording if only for the sake of keeping in memory the tunes that our forefathers loved. They are :—
Barret 1. BaRrew 2. 1. Evening Hymn. 1. Easter Hymn. 2. Portugese, 89. 2. Luther, 139. 3. Somers, 106. 3. Harrow, 149. 4. Sheeland, 25. 4. Staines, 27. 5. Abingdon, 9. 5. Old Hundredth. 6. Sheldon, 13. 6. Sicilian, 43. 7. Devizes, 92. 7. Ashley, 5. 8. Morning Hymn. 8. Mount Ephraim, 67.
In 1553 the King’s Commissioners, Sir Anthony Hungerforde, William Sherrington, and William Wroughton, Knights, gave over to the churchwardens “ three belles for the use of the Church.” Our bells are still three in number, but only one of them (and that cracked) is hung and is used. One bell bears date 1724, and the names Daniel Webb, Esq,, and “ John Tozier, re-fecit.” The others are inscribed 1783, Thomas Cottle and Daniel Taylor churchwardens, and William Bilbie, Chewstoke, Somerset.
“One cup of vill. oz., and one chalice of viii. oz.” were also made over by the Commissioners in 1553, and I may as well here record exactly what Church furniture we have now :—
In the Chancel.
Two curtains and rods against the east wall.
One communion table of oak.
oo
oe
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 195
One green embroidered altar and super altar cloth. One damask cloth for holy communion.
One embroidered cambric and two patten cloths. Two oak alms boxes.
One organ stool.
Two altar stools, embroidered I.H.S.
Two oak chairs.
Four altar cushions.
One long and two small pede clothes.’
One paten
Two cups Veta, and in a wainscot box. One alms dish
One brass lamp, suspended.
Two communion books.
Chants and hymnals.
In the Nave.
Twelve lamps on iron standards.
Ninety hymnals, “ Ancient and Modern.”
One folio bible.
Two oak benches.
Kneeling stools.
Curtain to the porch door.
One oak lectern.
One font.
One fald stool.
One iron chest for records.
In the chancel and in the nave respectively are still a number of tablets, but old Thomas Sweetland confirms the information given to Mr. Powell that there were “a terrible sight ” of these before Mr. Brown’s restoraticn, so, some day or other, perhaps the vaults in which they were all said to be heaped together may be discovered.
Tur CHURCHYARD AND 'TOMBSTONES. My. Powell suggests that so much of the churchyard as lies south of the Church was an addition, and perhaps it was, but if so it must have been at some time antecedent to the old duchess’s burial in 1802.
196 - Some Account of the’ Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
The north side is certainly more full of graves, and it was there, too, that a “ Butter Cross” stood within the memory of Thomas Sweetland—born 1801. He used to hear of people coming to market there from Bath and Bradford, and he himself has played on the steps, where the cross stood, which were flat at the top.
There is but one tombstone worthy of full record, and it is that of Daniel Taylor, blacksmith and churchwarden, who died April 17th, 1795. It runs thus :—
“My sledge and hammer lie declined, My bellows they have lost their wind. My fire’s extinct—my forge decayed, And in the dust my vice is laid. My coal is spent—my irons gone, My nails are driven, my work is done. My fire-dried corpse lies here at rest, My soul well smoked soars to be bless?.”
There are epitaphs almost word for word similar to the first six lines of these at East and Mid Lavant, near Chichester, and at Hatfield, near Doncaster.
That at Hatfield is to John Seaton, of Stainforth, and is of date 1802. Those at the Lavants are to John Ewen and Richard Sanford respectively, and are of date 1750 and 1825 respectively. Here the families were related, and the Churches close together, but I can trace no connection between them and that at Doncaster and our own epitaph.
Tue Rectory.
The old rectory stood about 20 yards below the present house, on the site of what is now partly lawn and partly stables. The present house was built in 1844-6 by the Rev. Edward Brown, rector, at his sole charge, and at an expense of £2120 3s.6d. The architect was Mr. Hicks, and the contractors, Messrs. Wilcox & Co., of Bristol.
The present rector, Mr. Tooke, has added very materially to the accommodation and comfort, and has completed the design of the house ; and, whether we consider its site, its proximity to the Church and the parish, its accommodation, its present interior ornamentation and arrangements, or its outward form and aspect, it would be diffi- eult in all Wiltshire to find a more beautiful and suitable parsonage.
————eaoo rr
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 197
CHURCHWARDENS.
The following is a list of churchwardens, very imperfect, no doubt, but the best I can get :—
1372. William le Boteler.. John Spakeman, senior. John de Lewes. John Spakeman, junior.
1553. Anthony Woodward. John Walter.
1626. John Walter. William Baker.
1636. William May. Richard Batterbury.
1641. John Butler “ ye elder.”
1659. James Barrett. John Deverell.
1700. Wailham Cottle.
1754. John Lee.
1783. Thomas Cottle. Daniel Taylor.
1798. William Cottle. . Joseph Blinman.
1811. Joseph Blinman. Thomas Bull.
1829. Richard Clarke. John Crooke.
1850-1876. John Moon. Whyatt Cottle.
1877-1880. John Moon. Sir C. P. Hobhouse.
1881. Sir C. P. Hobhouse.
CuurcH Rates, CoLLecTIons, AND EXPENDITURE.
Taking an average (from 1836 to 1859) of twenty years, excluding those years during which there was an extraordinary expenditure for the re-building of the Church, I find that the usual Church rate amounted to about 2d. in the £, and produced as nearly as possible £20 a year.
I give a summary of our Church expenditure for the year ending
Easter Day, 1881, and it will be seen from this, which is a good average year, that our Church expenses are, as nearly as possible, what they always were. - So also is the incidence of them ; for now, as before the abolition of the compulsory Church rate, it is the principal ratepayers who supply the funds. We are therefore practically, and I may add cheerfully, exactly where we were in this parish, so far as this rate only is concerned.
198 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
But the summary below has another tale to tell. The rector and the squire are the sole resident gentry. There are no other residents of much substance, or surplus means. Therefore whatever contributions there are in the summary, apart from the school, are derived mainly from the pence of the laboring man, and it will be seen that towards the Church and its necessities, whether in the parish or at home or abroad, the laborers amongst us subscribe yearly a sum of about £10. The gift in them is comparatively large, and the habit of giving for Church purposes on a broad principle has been engendered and as it is “ Where we give there we love most,” it may be hoped that the Church is here gaining strength every year.
ParisH oF MoNETON Fartry—Votunrary Cuvrcn Rare. Churchwarden’s Receipts and Expenditure, 1880-81.
EXPENDITURE. £ s. d. RECEIPTS. fad. Balance due to Churchwar- Subscriptions at 2d. in the £— den, Easter, 1880 .. 310 4 F. Dening, Esq. 2 8 O Archdeacon and Sper s H. Hancock, Esq. 3 11 8 Fees 018 O Sir C. scabs Cleaning Church | oe yo oO des Bart. 5 00 Sexton Bee oer nO Mr. C. Kendall 213 0 Insurance of nave ne OTEO H. Spackman, Esq.5 4 O Warming Church op BLL yo The Rey. T. H. Repairs me abeegedl isle Tooke i ORG Lighting ae 214 0 : Washing surplices, com- 2016 8 munion cloth, &. ... 012 0 Offertories for Church Sacramental wine 14 0 expenses «. OAR Me Register book for baptisms 013 0 Donations— Churchwarden’s expenses 0 2 6 Mr. J, J. Cottle 0 5 0 Balance in hand, Easter, Mr. E. Doel ... 0 2 6 1881 er ito dy By ROE Mr. John Sweetland0 5 0 012 6 Refund of error in sexton’s salary Rot Peel! 2G, £22 13 12 £22 13 12 BuinMan’s CHARITY. 1880. £ Se. ia: 1880. £ os d. Received by churchwarden, St. Thomas’s Day. Dis- one year’s dividends .. 1717 2 tributed in coals LL IQ EES 10
Ditto, distributed incash 814 2 £17 17 2 £17 17 2
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 199
Summary or Sums CoLLECTED FOR VARIOUS CHARITABLE PURPOSES IN THE ParisH ofr Monkton FARLEY, FOR THE YEAR ENDING Kaster Day, 1881.
For the National School— Enso) di 8 vavrds Subscriptions 50 . 385 5 O School pence 50 .. 1412 11 — 4917 11 For Church expenses— Voluntary Church rate .. 2016 8 Donations ae . O16 6 ~ By offertories— Church expenses sa aa ONTO, ne — 2213 12 Curates’ Augmentation Fund... Boe ds dase
Poor Benefice Fund, in accordance with the
Bishop’s letter, for the Diocesan Societies... 1 6 4 The Bath United Hospital ote weve 12. 0 The poor of the parish Soc pe TOE TO National Society So alae ah Foreign Missions, 8.P.G. Aap eet)
By subscriptions and donations to ditto 619 0 — 8 7 0 £98 10 5}
I append a table of Church fees, from the Church board, May 31st, 1861 :—
Minister. Clerk.
Churching % .Banns si 4 certificate of Marriage by licence ae by banns Vault in Church, two ae aa Opening such vault Single brick grave in Church Opening such grave Tablet in Church, 7s. 6d. per foot Marble or flag-stone Hatchment Vault in churchyard, two dbfiin width bea Opening such a se Single brick grave in dharebyard ae
— = SuaSSauonsrnmuawsowo”
Or onwnwnorHrartwaorHroodods eH
WHOM NMWNTHENHAMEHENWNO ”? Soeescooeo soo & Ooo os Seoococcocoocoeocococcoco oh —
MARDOORAMROADOOCOR
200 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
£ Raised tomb over vault, with iron railings 3 a A » without = 2 Tomb of small size, over single brick grave 2 Head, foot, and body stones, for double grave... 2 5 5 as : single _,, 1 Mural monument, outside Church, per foot ... 0 Breaking ground for burial of non-parishioner = 1 3 Me ar parishioner ... O
OrMParHnwnnwww? ooo oooco Sie ee So Ss S.e5 coonanaugnuan? Soonmnoooo8
N.B.—For the opening of vaults, erecting of tablets, &c., &c., the previous consent of the minister or churchwardens, or both, as the case may be, must be obtained.
CHAPTER VII.
Civit, History.—Mzrans or Epvucation.
In 1829 Bishop Burgess. built the room attached to the Church “ for the use of the Sunday School of this Parish.” This is still used to some extent for this purpose, but practically it has become the vestry. In Rector Brown’s time a night school was, during the four winter months, held in this room, the average attendance being from fifteen to twenty. The age of the scholars was from fourteen to twenty-four, and each paid 2s. 6d. in advance for stationery, firing, &c. The teachers were the curate and his wife and John Bishop, the schoolmaster. There is, for the time, no longer any night school in the parish. Up to the year 1835 the room was used as a boy’s day school, a dame’s school being at the same time kept by one Birt in the cottage opposite the Church gate. The Sunday school hours were one hour before the morning and one before'the afternoon service, and the average attendance—1853 to 1863—was fifty. .
The teachers were the rector’s wife, the curate and his wife, and the schoolmaster and mistress. The Sunday school is now held in the National school-house, and in the vestry. The hours are from 10 to a quarter to 11 in the morning, and the average attendance is thirty. .
In 1845-6 Mr. Wade Browne established a boys’ and girls’ school with a master and mistress, but the master died and Rector Brown
=o
Se ae ———
>)! a
at | ean
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 201
then kept up the boys’ school at his own expense. The average daily attendance was twenty-five, and the ages four to eleven. Mr. Wade Browne kept on the girls’ school, giving the children a distinctive dress, viz., red cloaks, blue gowns, and white aprons and collars. The average daily attendance was thirty, and the ages four to twelve. On Mr. Wade Browne’s death this school was still kept up by his widow by means of a bequest of £35 a year, which Mr. Browne had made for that purpose. This bequest, however, was conditional on the family’s continuance in the manor, and when they left it lapsed. The school was held in the cottages opposite the Church Farm, and there it was mantained until the year 1870.
In that year the present National School was built at a cost of £626 16s. 7d., towards which each one of the principal landowners subscribed the sum of £100. The site is on glebe land. There is a master’s cottage and garden attached, and the buildings are vested in the rector and churchwardens for the time being.
The school is denominational, instruction in the Bible and in the doctrines of the Church of England being given by the rector every morning from 9 to 10; it is a school of boys and girls mixed, in charge of a mistress, and is maintained partly by the Government grant in aid, partly by school fees and partly by voluntary sub- scriptions. The report of 1881 shews the general working of the school, and the details of the several sums paid for its maintenance.
These details, when they are analysed, shew the very important fact, viz., that there is scarcely one person in the parish who does not, according to his ability, contribute towards the education of the youth of the parish—the rector, the landowners, the quarry- masters, and others, in the shape of voluntary contributions, and the villagers in the shape of school pence.
Monkton Fartey Nationat ScHoo.u.
Report made to the Education Department, for the Year ending 31st March, 1881. -:
N.B.—It is computed that the attendance of children in elementary schools should be at the rate of one for every six of the population. In our case it ought
202 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
to be 416 + 6 =69. The highest weekly average reached in the year was 87°2.
1.—The total number of children on the register, 31st March, 1881, with their respective ages, is as follows :—
Boys. Girls. Total. Over 3 and under 4 1 iL 2 ai Ee Woe 4 1 5 he hha 6 5 6 11 oie Open gm a 7 Be | ned AP tga 7 es ” 8 9 9 5 6 11 ” 9 ” 10 7 6 13 »10 5 I 3 5 8 ” 11 ” 12 6 2 8 prt) Deg ltheas 2 3 5 sf LD)! hye lt 0 4 4 Total 47 43 90 2.—Total number of attendances in the year :— Boys aot ae seb es 15211 Girls is = S98 ie 13253 28464 3.—Total number of times the school has been opened, 420 4.—The average daily attendance throughout the year :— Between 3 and 7 Sob 12:92 724 20:16 Above 7 see ves 23:29 2430 47°59
36°21 31°54 67°75
5.—Total number who have attended 250 or more times, and qualified themselves for examination :—
Above 4 and under 7 ve 5 ay 20 Above 7 hes ae dic Ree 53 73 6.—Rates of payment per week 1d. 6d. Free. | Number paying at each rate 1 8 7,—The Government grant for the year was as follows :— £ os. d. Average attendance a 68 @ 6/- 20 8 O Infants ane 20 @ 8/- 8 0 0 Passes in R., W., and As a case 111 @ 3/- 1613 0 Classes x rae 48 @ 2/]- 416 0 Pupil teacher... oes 500 ace 2 0 0 £51 17 0
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 203
Cash account of the Monkton Farley National School, for the Year ending 31st March, 1881.
~ 1880. RECEIVED. fragt id. PayMENTS. £38. da. Mar. 31. Balance in hand 2 0 9 Salaries— June. Government grant 50 8 0 Mistress .. 55 0 0 Annual subscriptions— Pupil teacher ... 10 0 0 Mr. James Cottle 0 5 O Paid monitor ... 6 O O F. Dening, Esq. 2 0 O Gardener & Marsh, 71 0 0 Messrs. PIO Stationery and books 5 4 6 H. Hancock, Esq. 72. 0:.0 Fuel and light ne Lh a Sir C. P. ees Replacement and repairs to Bart. 30 ee O80 furniture, andcleanng 311 8 Mr. W. Hyatt ...1 0 O Rates, taxes, andinsurance 0 7 6 Pictor & Son, Repairs to buildings ... 6 6 7 Messrs. 110 Balance in hand, Bist March, Randell & Saunders, 1881 .14 4 9 Messrs. 110 H. D. Skrine, Esq. 20 0 H. Spackman, Esq.7 O O Stone, Brothers ...1 1 0 Mr. I Sumsion ...1 1 0 Mr. J. Sweetland 0 5 O Rev. T. H. Tooke 310 0 35 5 0 School pence— Quarter ending Mid- summer, 1880...3 1 4 Do.Michaelmas do. 218 2 Do.Christmas, do.3 11 9 Do. 3lst Mar.,18815 1 8 14 12 11 £102 6 8 £102 6 8
The Bishop's Inspector reports as to religious knowledge, 2nd November, 1880—“I really have no fault to find with this school; the children are well and carefully taught, and do full credit to those who have taken so much trouble with them. It was a great pleasure to examine them.”
The Government Inspector reports as to secular knowledge, 7th May, 1881—
“The children are thoroughly well disciplined, and the writing of the first
standard and geography of the third, are the only exceptions to the otherwise
good results of the examination. The improvement in arithmetic and grammar is most marked; and, in view of the difficulties of the past year, reflect the greatest credit on the school staff.’
CHAPTER VIII.
Buitpines or Interest.
TI have already spoken of the manor house and of the rectory, and VOL. XX.—NO. LIX. P
204 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
besides these the only houses, that can properly be so called, of in- terest are, that occupied by Mr. James Cottle, and that at present used as an inn—the “ Fox and Hounds”’—at Farley-Wick. The first, according to Mr. Powell, dates back to the time of James L., and the other has a curious courtyard and entrance-pillars.
But some of the cottages in the parish have a history which should not,.I think, be overlooked.
There is one with the initials T.H., and the date 1689; another, W.S., 1737; and a third, J.B., 1787. These initials represent respectively Thomas Hooper, William Symes, and John Bigges, the latter two being certainly, and the former probably, masons by trade.
These persons were undoubtedly the builders of the several cot- tages, and the dates represent the building, and these facts point to a class of persons and to a system, both of which have passed away from us, viz., to the class of customary tenants and to the system of letting lands for lives and on building leases.
The class of customary tenants is as old at least as Domesday, and no doubt they always built their own cottages, such as they were, but these cottages would come to an end from time to time, and the population would and did, as we know, increase, and so more cottages had to be built, and these too of a better description, and the question arose who was to find the labor and the capital to build them.
The wood for building and repairs, as, indeed the leases stipulate, was freely given from the manor; the stone, in our parish, at least, was to be had almost for the hauling, and still came off the manor ; and there were masons and carpenters to be found in the parish in abundance; so the land and the materials were the landlord’s, the labor was the tenant’s, and hence, the bargain of leases for lives or for long tenure at small quit rents, the copyhold system, in short, in that particular form of it.
The customary tenant of Domesday became thus merged into the tenant for life or long tenure, and this tenant has now in his turn succumbed altogether.
The causes are obvious. The builder, though usually skilful enough to be his own architect, was not a wealthy man, and he was building for a limited period. His heart was not, therefore,
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 205
bent on perpetuity, and his means, materials, and workmanship were never of the best, so the buildings were not made to last.
Then, if he occupied for his own life, ten to one but the cottage passed to strangers on his death. Either he had no family, or too large a family, to succeed him, and the object was not to inhabit as an heirloom the cottage, but to let it to others. Then ensued a practise of rack-renting on the one hand, and of no sufficient repair to the tenement on the other, producing at once the two evils of high rents and bad accommodation. ‘There were no means or no inclination to pay for fresh lives or prolonged tenures, and so at last the tenement tumbled, in some eases literally, into the landlord’s hands, a veritable white elephant.
It has been, I believe, by some such process as this that in our
-parish the number of life-renters, which, within the memory of living man, was very considerable, is reduced to some three families resident on what was “The Green,” at Farleigh-Wick. Happily, the materials for our buildings were of stone, and so many of our life cottages have been preserved, but even so it has been in some cases almost at the cost of re-building; and there are some yet standing and inhabited which should properly speaking be pulled down and replaced. The late Mr. Caldwell did very much in a very short time to remedy this evil, and I hope we have not fallen off since his time.
There is one other cottage which is deserving of mention, as preserving the memory of another system, also gone by. The house and shop now occupied by our baker was the parish poor-house. It is remarkable outwardly for its stone doorway with its pointed arch,
Here old Sally Mizen, a veteran of the parish, was brought up, and here her father, mother, and five or six children, and often as many as three families besides, lived all together—no distinctions made as to age or sex. “ Figure to yourself,” says Hannah Moore (24th October, 1794) “from ten to thirty, forty, or fifty or more
_ ignorant creatures of both sexes and all ages crammed under one
__ roof—that roof so ragged as to admit the rain on such poor wretches
as were confined to their beds. Six or eight persons in one room without regard to age or sex. Parents and children of all ages P 2
206 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
sleeping together, this attended with some circumstances I can not write. In one of our most decent parishes I am now visiting, two women, on the point of lying-in, are terrified beyond expression at the idea that men will sleep in their rooms at that time.”
Look upon the picture thus presented, and then at that which our Union Poor House at Avoncliffe now presents. An average of one hundred persons of both sexes, representing the whole extreme poverty of a population of 10645 persons. The sexes separated so as to provide, as far as such means can, against impropriety or in- decency. ‘The class of persons represented—the sick, the very aged, and the feeble only. Separate sick wards and ample and skilful medical attendance for each sex. Cleanliness, order, and sanitary arrangements fully provided for. The labor test enforced on va- grants and the few able-bodied malingerers who still infest the house. Admirable schools for the orphan or deserted or destitute children, with out and in-door recreation and labor. Economy watched over and the whole institution governed by a body of guardians, chosen out of the locality, thoroughly acquainted with its wants, and, as a rule, cheerfully and efficiently giving their unpaid labor, spared from the gains of life, for the benefit of their poorer neighbours.
If it were possible, and it is found amongst other nations to be possible, to have no poor relief, it would be better, and no doubt the present system, especially in its out-door features, is very imperfect ; but compare the in-door system with that which obtained within the memory of a living generation, and surely it is one of the most promising and beneficial changes of the age.
Prcurtar Names or PLAcgs.
I append a list of our field-names, taken principally out of the tithe apportionment papers. I do not profess to give the derivation of the names, some are no doubt fanciful, as Pennsylvania and the Mountains; some are probably corruptions, as Plaisterers and Starve- all; and some are directly historical, as Pound Piece and Mary’s Croft (the fish-pond and the croft of St. Mary’s Priory) ; but the majority have had their origin in the combined vanity and industry of man. Men, as David says, “think that their houses shall
j
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 207
continue for ever, and call the lands after their own name.” But whatever the origin of the names one thing is certain, that they speak to the history of the parish, and that they are, and ever will be, mixed up in that history. Therefore they demand a record.!
Our Occupations AND AMUSEMENTS.
We have very few manorial records, and I judge of our ancient customs partly from the facts recorded in our parish registers and in our manorial leases, and partly from analogous facts recorded of neighbouring parishes.
I have elsewhere given some account of the population of our parish up to the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, and I find that after that time our society was made up of the gentry or nobility at the manor house, the parson and the yeoman, and of the hand-working classes. We had a succession of husbandmen, blacksmiths, masons, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, grocers, carpenters, and agricultural laborers, with now and then a clothier, a weaver, a maltster, a shearing-man, and even a fiddler.
So I imagine that up to the beginning of this century our parish was fairly self-contained and self-supporting, even down to our amusements.
Fiddling was one of our amusements, evidently, and so was coek- fighting; and we can well imagine the excitement in the parish when, in 1656, Parson Allambrigge pitted his cock against Chris- topher Morris’, and afterwards recorded his victory in the registers. Probably, too, we had the game of “nyne holes,’’ forbidden at one time, but still surviving in “ pitch penny.”
Our amusements now are perhaps more varied. Our squires, in Mr. Blinman and Mr. Long’s time, kept harriers and greyhounds, but their kennels even are now removed and give protection to the more profitable fowl-yard. Our nearest pack of hounds—the Duke’s —pays us an occasional visit, but our country is a ¢erra ignota in this respect to most sportsmen, and our squires resort to the more ignoble pursuit of shooting. Rabbits to them are happily vermin, and hares and partridges are scarce; but tame birds are turned out to become
1 Appendix F.
208 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
wild, if they will, and are shot in hot corners and in flocks like fowls—proh pudor !
Lawn Tennis is another institution of the day, and as it does not oust the more manly game of cricket, and on the other hand is a game in which both sexes may indulge, and which promotes a sensible sociality, replacing to some extent the dull and costly dinner party, long may it flourish.
Our rustics play cricket and rounders, and have besides their annual festivals :—one, the club feast, at which they dine and dance; another, the school feast, given by the Rector to the children; and two others, the village concert and the Christmas tree, given usually in Christmas week and managed by the manor house. There is also a reading room for males above 13 years of age, where news- papers, a few books and periodicals, drafts, dominos, and bagatelle are found. The subscription is ls. a quarter, and this includes the above and fire, lights, and the room. The institution does not pay, and the attendance is in summer next to 2/, but in winter a con- siderable proportion of the youth of the parish is attracted.
A curious custom still lingers in the parish, which has its uses, When man and woman are taken “ flagrante delictu” their effigies are made up in straw and dressed in the nearest approach possible to the usual costume of the delinquents. These effigies are then placed on a hurdle and paraded three nights in succession throughout ‘the village. Halts are made and unparliamentary remarks passed ‘at the doors of the delinquents, and on the third night the effigies ‘are burnt with all honors. Justice, in the shape of the parish policeman, is for once judiciously blind, and as no actual disturbance of the peace takes place, the custom, as I have said, has its uses.
If our amusements were and are still, cireamscribed, we were in our occupations a busy community. We tilled the land, we built, we carpentered, we tinkered, we wove, we tailored, we baked, and in short we found ourselves in all our ordinary wants, and we had our public duties also. We had our courts baron and leet, our views of frankpledge, and our duties as jurors. We had our constables, our tithingman, our heywards, and no doubt our ale-tasters, and our
sheep-tellers. We adjudged copyholds, heriots, burglaries, evil
lt
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 209
living, bad language, gossipping, gambling, tippling, breaking bounds, stealing wood, forfeitures, neglecting Church, and so forth. Perhaps, too, we had onr Sunday closing of ale-houses, and our prohibitions of nuisances.
In fact we were very much a law unto ourselves, but the effect of centralization has changed all this. We still till the soil; we have: in addition, the “irritamenta malorum ” in the dug-up treasures of our stone quarries; we have a parson, a carpenter, and a blacksmith, but jurisdiction we have none left; and for almost every want of daily life we have to resort to the nearest town. And so, as a rule, the population of our rural parishes is everywhere decreasing, and that of our towns increasing. Perhaps, unless new industries or new systems of' old industries spring up, the time may come when the parish may be represented by the manor house, when all its wants may be supplied entirely from the nearest town, and when the parson and the squire may have the parish Church to them- selves. Meantime I haste to record what remains of our population, and I append to it a list of names of families gone and existing.
Appendix E.
ConDITION OF OUR VILLAGERS.
According to the return made in 1535, our village was then made up of agricultural laborers only, and it is not until the year 1700 that I find in our registers any specific mention of occupations or trades of any kind, but inasmuch as in those days the son usually followed the occupation of the father, no doubt we had other occu- pations beside that of the agricultural laborer in vogue in our parish long before the year 1700. This, indeed, would follow, ex necessitate rel.
But I imagine that the condition of a non-agricultural laborer in a rural parish would not, in the first instance at least, be any better
than that of the agricultural laborer, and that so Harrison’s des- eription of the latter would apply equally to the former.
The agricultural laborer, he says, as he now is, first began to appear towards the close of the sixteenth century, and this was his
then condition :—he had a daily wage of 4d. (equal to 20s. of our
210 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
money a week), but besides this he had his fuel gratis, he had free range for his pigs, his ducks, his geese, and his cow; he was, per- haps, even—a small return given in kind or in labor—practically a freeholder; and, if the statute of Elizabeth was ever in force, he was a landowner of as much land as he could personally superin- tend.
I cannot say whether this description of the agricultural laborer of the sixteenth century is applicable to our laborer at that time, but certainly their position here about the middle of that century (1535), and even at an earlier period (1294), was very favorable, for when they had paid a quit rent, either in money or in manual labor, to the value of 10s., or at the most £1 a year, they would seem to have been practically independent.
“°Twere hard to tell and sad to trace Each step from grandeur to disgace,”
but certainly the laborer of 1863 in our parish, as described by Mr. Powell, must have been in a sorry plight, and “ quantum mutatus ab illo” of the sixteenth century. The wages but 8s. to 10s. a week ; the lodging indifferent and indecent; the drainage bad; the will and the means for domestic comfort alike wanting ; and, I may add, the privileges of land, pasture, fuel, and forage, entirely swept away.
Happily, in the short interval of some seventeen or eighteen years, we have a different story to tell. Nearly one half of our hand- laboaring population consists of quarrymen. Their labor is for the most part piece-work in the free-stone quarries, and their weekly earnings are from 15s. to 25s. and even 30s. The agricultural laborer, if his earnings are not so high in cash, is yet comparatively well off. His wages are from 12s. to 15s. a week; he has a cottage rent-free; at lambing or harvest time, or in hauling for other than land work on the farm, he gets extra allowances; his potato-ground is given to and ploughed for him. Thus, whilst his yearly income is nearly equal to that of the ganger or head quarryman, his earnings are more sure, and his work is neither so severe nor so dangerous to life and limb, and is far more health-giving and maintaining. It
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 211
may be that his life lacks something of the independence of the quarryman, but on the other hand it has far more of sound discipline, quietude and order.
It is rare still to see butcher’s meat amongst any class of our hand-labourers, but the meal of bacon, potatoes, fresh vegetables, tea and soup is usually plentiful, wholesome and cleanly cooked.
The cottage accommodation, though not sufficient for all those who make a livelihood within the parish, is for the most part good and cheap enough of its kind, and is certainly not perversive of life’s decencies. There is usually a good kitchen, a scullery, a larder, a coal hole, and from two to three bedrooms. There is a vegetable garden of from fifteen to twenty perch, and a plot for flowers, and if more ground is wanted for potatoes, it can be obtained in allotment land at about 9d. a perch per annnm. The average yearly rent is £5, the landlord paying the taxes. The sanitary arrange- ments are under the eye of the rural sanitary authority, and are rarely a subject of real complaint.
Our cottager has also an excellent National School, under Govern- ment control and direction, and the daily superintendence of the Rector, where he can educate his children in all essentials at 1d. a week—or less than 4s. a year; and a Sunday school, where education is given gratis. He has a Church, where, twice on Sundays and once on week-days, and on the greater fasts and festivals, he can | always find a free seat, and which is warmed and lighted for him in the winter. He has, further, the advantages of a fortnightly offer- tory, administered by the Rector; of a benefit club, and a clothing club, maintained by his own subscriptions. The benefit club sub- scriptions are funded under rules sanctioned by the Legislature, are available in times of sickness, accident, or infirmity, and are dis- tributed by a governing body elected from out the subscribers themselves.
And, these resources failing, the cottager can at the worst fall back upon the poor-law system. Unhappily this, as at present ad- ministered, will assist him in needs which are the result of his own improvidence or misconduct; but on its better side it will at least rescue from actual want and starvation those who, from no fault of
212 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
their own, would otherwise be reduced to such a state, and it will minister to the sick and helpless.
As a matter of fact there is next to no pauperism in our parish, and though there is occasionally some privation, it is rarely of that degree that it cannot be relieved within the parish itself; and if, at a moment’s notice, inquisition were made into our cottage life, the spirit of order, cleanliness, peace, and comparative comfort would but in a very few instances be found wanting.
I do not, of course, mean to say that we have no shortcomings and no vices even, or that we do not need reform in many matters —the national beer drinking, for instance—but on the whole we are, I think, an unusually sober, peaceful, and harmless community, neither “ alient appetens” nor “ sui profusus.”
Our Rates anp Taxes.
I have found it quite impossible to ascertain in any sufficient sequence the extent and the principles on which our parish was taxed until the present time, but such traces as we have of taxation had best be recorded.
At Domesday the geld we paid was 70s. solidi, equivalent to about 200s., or £10 of our money. But this was only paid for a very short period, for when the Bohuns made a grant of the manor to the priory there were no restrictions, not even as regards any feudal service, so that so far as the King, 7z.e. the State, was concerned, the priory would seem to have held the manor free of all State taxes.
Again, in the Taxation of Nicholas IV., A.D. 1291, although the priory would seem to have paid its decimz or tenths for Churches and chapels appertaining to the priory estates generally, yet no mention is made of any tenths paid by our parish in any shape.
I should suppose, however, that whenever the monarch for the time being required money for his wars or other exigencies he did not spare our manor, and certainly in the year 1372, temp. Ed. IIL., both our parsonage and our manor, as I have shewn above, paid their dues of corn, wool, lambs, milk, &c., to the then monarch.
So again in the time of Henry VIII., c. 1533, the tenth of the yearly income of our manor, after deducting certain outgoings, was,
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 213
together with the tenths of the priory estates generally, paid to the King, and there were apparently certain special payments adjudged against our manor, which more than swallowed up the whole profits of it, viz. :—
£ s. d. To the Trustee of Eaton College by feod “firm” 388 0 0 Annua Pencio Priori de Lewys 013 4
Distributed to the poor on the day of the Cen Domini et Paschenes on the anniversary of Humphrey de la Bound Fundatur huj ‘ priorat” 2 0 0
Making a total of £40 13 4
After the Dissolution, first the Somersets, and after them the Bretons, paid the above sum to Eton College, and a pension of 46s. 8d. to the Crown, in the tenth and twelfth of Elizabeth’s reign; but in the eighteenth Elizabeth the then Earl of Hertford paid a sum down on account of this pension “due for the house and site of the Priory of Farley in order that the said Karl eundem situm clamavit in perpetuum” and thereafter I find no traces of these payments, nor in fact of any State charges upon the manor at all, except in a general way under the names of “ quit rents, pensions, portions, annuities, fees, tithes, troubles and incumbrances,” some of which were apparently due to the Crown.
But when we come down to present times we find ourselves in the midst of a posse of rates and taxes, which I will as shortly as possible put on record, premising that our present rateable valuation is £3955, and that all these rates and taxes fall more or less directly upon it.
1. Income tax, schedules A. and B., at 5d. and 24d. in the pound respectively.
2. The poor rate, which now includes the sanitary and school and the county main road rates, at an average of 2s. in the pound.
3. The highway rate, now a district rate, and falling on this
“parish at from 9d. to 1s. in the pound.
4, The tithe rent charge at perhaps 5 per cent. on about half the total acreage of the parish.
214 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
5. The inhabited house duty, at 9d. in the pound on the rateable value of the house assessed.
And voluntary Church and school rates varying according to the good will of the donors and the exigencies of the case.
SPRINGS.
Of these we have a plentiful supply. The best known is that which issues from the Monks’ Well, in Conduit Close. The water in this has been analysed and pronounced to be very pure. “ Hach quart” is said to contain “ only about 20 grains of solid matter, and this is composed chiefly of lime in the condition of carbonate and muriate, so that, in fact, chalk is the principal part of the 20 grains.” The water from this spring is conducted into a cistern within the manor house garden, and thence supplies the house, the Conigree, the fountain, and some troughs in the avenue.
There is another spring at Ashwell. This supplies first the King’s Arms Inn and the farm-yard opposite; and next Mr. Spackman’s bailiff’s house. Thence it passes into a cistern by the village pump, and thence by earthen pipes down the village street to a turncock opposite the baker’s house. It is public property, and the keys are kept at the manor house.
A third spring proceeds from a well in the Lower Sands and passes by iron pipes to the Upper Calcord and to cisterns in the manor house grounds. These conduct to the manor farm and to the Conigree, and thence to a fountain in Link Lane, and into the avenue.
There are springs also in Park Wood and in Pond Mead. These pass thence first into the Wraxhall and then into the Broughton Brook, and this falls into the Avon at Monkton in Broughton Gifford.
REMARKABLE OccURRENCES.
Canon Jackson has recorded the death of one of our notorieties, a Tropnell, who was strangled by his own dog-couples; but Mr. Powell has found in the Gentleman’s Magazine of September 8th, 1806, a more remarkable occurrence still, viz., the account of “a man struck in a thunderstorm near Monkton Farleigh.”
ol iim
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 215
“Some gentlemen shooting in a wood near Kingsdown found a man lying motionless. Finding some symptoms of life in him they had him conveyed to an house. His name is John Lockyer, and he is well known in Bath. Being on his way home on Tuesday evening, the 19th of August, during the tremendous thunderstorm, he was struck senseless by lightning. How long he remained in that state he has no conception, but, on recovering his recollection, he was incapable of standing.
«That a human being should exist 20 days without any sub- sistence but the little rain water he was able to catch in his shaving cup and by chewing the surrounding grass, will appear incredible, but it is a fact, and will be clearly substantiated. His senses would appear to have recovered much sooner than his power of speech or the use of his limbs. He was conscious of his situation before he had the ability to speak or move.
“The medical men who attend him expect he will recover the partial use of his limbs. The following are the memoranda he minuted on the slate leaves of a black letter case, and which book is bent and cockled up, evidently appearing to have been soaked through by the wet.
««T am just able to pencil this. I believe the fatal thunderstorm (to me) was on the 18th of August. [It was on the 19th.] I should not have known how the time went on only by hearing the guns go off for the Partridge shooting Sept. Ist, and it is now the 4th I am pencilling this—from the above time until now I have not had anything to put into my mouth.’
“On another leaf he had written on the day he was found :—‘ As I was going across the wood to Farleigh I was struck down by a violent clap of thunder—where I lay senseless for God knows how long. When I came to myself my hands and my feet were swelled very much, so that I could not stand, nor have I eat or drank any thing for three weeks past.’ He has since undergone the am- putation of one of his feet.”
This is the account in the magazine, and to this I may add that Tom Sweetland tells me that his father used often to talk of the occurrence, that it happened in Ashley Wood, that he saw Lockyer
216 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
directly after he was found, and described him as a perfect skeleton. In further confirmation of the story I may add that a person coming from Kingsdown to Monkton Farleigh would naturally skirt Ashley Wood, and that a very slight, and yet, in the nutting season, a very natural divergence, would place a traveller in a position where he might not be found for weeks, and where yet he might naturally be lighted upon after the commencement of the partridge season.
ConcLusion.
The origin of this compilation—for it is nothing more, is simply this. The late Mr. Wilkinson wrote a history of the neighbouring parish of Broughton Gifiord, in which I have an interest. This suggested to me that something similar might be done for our own parish, and I then discovered that Canon Jackson had written a history of our priory (see Wilts Arch. Magazine, vol. iv., pp. 267— 284), and that Mr. Powell, when a curate amongst us, had collected materials for a more complete account of the parish. This history and these materials were placed unreservedly at my disposal, and my principal work has been simply to verify the materials, as far as I had the means of doing so, and to put them together.
To this end I have carefully examined and analysed the parish registers, and I have consulted Domesday, Leland, Dugdale, Tanner, Hoare, and other minor authorities, and, through the kindness of Mr. Henry Hancock, I have had access to such of the manorial papers as are still in existence.
I have thus been enabled to arrive at some new facts, and I have ventured to introduce a few very obvious remarks and comparisons.
I have not the knowledge nor the materials that would have enabled me to write a history of so complete a character as that of Mr. Wilkinson’s, and in speaking of persons or of events I have endeavoured as a rule to speak of them only to the extent that they were connected with our parish, and if at any time I have ventured to introduce any extraneous matter, it has been because I thought it had some more or less direct bearing upon the history of the parish, or was a matter deducible from facts relating to it.
I do not suppose that more than half-a-dozen persons out of the
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 217
parish will care to read the greater part of the compilation, but perhaps if some one person in every parish were to follow my ex- ample, and were to put together facts and reflections connected with it, there might be for some future Macaulay a collection of materials which could be turned to more general account.
It only remains for me to thank, as I do most heartily, the Rev. Canon Jackson ; Mr. Smith, of Yatesbury ; Mr. Powell, of Buckland- Filleigh ; Mr. Tooke, of Monkton Farleigh ; Mr. Henry Hancock, of Bath; Mr. Adye, of Bradford-on-Avon; and Mrs. Abbott, for- merly Mrs. Wade-Browne, for their kindness in placing their labors and papers and information at my disposal.
Appendices.
A, Tur Orprr or CLUGNIACS.
When the fact is considered that a community of Clugniae monks actually dwelt in our parish for a period of four hundred years, it cannot but be interesting to know something of the history, customs, and daily life of such acommunity. According to Dugdale (Monas- ticon), the founder of the order was one Benon, and Odo was the perfector of it, and the first Abbot of Clugni, A.D. 912. The first monastery was established in A.D. 895. at Clugni in Burgundy, and the rules adopted were those of St. Benedict. It was William de Warenne, who married the Conqueror’s daughter Gundreda, who first introduced the order into England; and thereafter, according to Tanner, twenty-seven, but according to Dugdale, forty-two priories and three cells were established in this country, the greater part of them before the reign of Henry II., but the last A.D. 1222.
The cells were usually made up of a prior and twelve brethren, but in the greater monasteries there were, besides the brethren, the following _ ecclesiastical and lay officers:—An abbot, a great prior, deans, a cloister prior, choristers, masters for the boys, a prechaunter, a cup- board-keeper of the Church books, a chamberlain in charge of the clothing, a treasurer in charge of the Church treasure, a cellarer, a
218 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
master of the guests, an almoner, an infirmary keeper and oblate or lay monks to ring the bells and sweep the Church and choir.
The Church services were numerous and carefully attended to. Every day two solemn masses were sung, a monk of one of the choirs offering two hosts at each. On common days, three monks ; on Sundays, five monks; on solemn festivals, the deacon and sub- deacon; and on the three days before Easter all the monks com- municated.
Bread for the sacrifice of the altar was thus prepared. The wheat was selected grain by grain, was washed, was put into a bag set apart for the purpose, was carried to the mill by a selected servant, dressed in an alb, and with his face covered, all save the eyes, with a veil, and was then ground between millstones, washed before-hand and covered with curtains. Similar ceremonies were performed in the preparation of the meal. The warden of the Church, two other priests or deacons, and a lay brother, set apart specially, matins ended, washed their faces and hands. The three first named then put on albs, and whilst one washed the meal, the others baked the hosts in iron moulds, and whatever remained uneaten was finished by these four persons.
After November 13th in each year the elders stayed in the choir after matins, while the younger brethren resorted to the chapter- house to learn to sing. Psalms were recited whilst the brethren were at work. After complin no eating was allowed.
After September 13th only one meal was allowed, except on festivals of twelve lessons. Two meals were allowed within the octaves of Christmas and Epiphany.
Silence was observed until the hour of prime, and this so strictly, especially amongst the novices, that a series of elaborate and oc- casionally very ludicrous signs was established to prevent the ne- cessity of using the human voice.'
Each monk had in turn to be cook, and had to cleanse the pots and pans. Each had to clean his own shoes, and make his own
1 Sussex Arch. Colls., V. iii,, and 28; Arch. Journal, V. 28; and Illustrated London News, 8th November, 1845.
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 219
bed, and especially was he required to comb his hair, and to wash his face, hands and clothes, and lavatories, towels and troughs were set apart for these purposes,
Children, including those of good families, were educated at the monastery, serving as choristers, and wearing the habit of the order. Charity to the poor, especially in Lent, was practised in profusion, and the remains of the bread and wine served in the refectory were given to poor travellers.
Such were the main rules of the order; but if the Supplicatio Cluniacensium, exhibited before Edward III. in Parliament at Winchester, was not—as it may, perhaps, have been—a document made to order, these rules were at one time little observed.
The domus, the supplication set forth, was ill-governed, as well in spiritualities as in temporalities. Where there should have been thirty to forty monks there were not one-third of that number. Goods, that should have gone to sustain the monks, were wasted or exported. There were no Anglican archiepiscopal or episcopal visi- tations. No elections were held, and persons were made pastors who were at once unlearned and unthrifty. Any monk speaking of order or religion was banished one hundred leagues away. Parlia- ment had directed that the Prior of Lewes should receive professions and determine complaints, but some never professed. The aliens were preferred and spent everything, whilst the Anglicans wanted even decencies, were made subject to the aliens, and were sometimes forty years in the order before receiving any profits.
This supplicatio was thus endorsed :—‘‘ That Abbots and Priors of the said Order under the patronage of the King in England, do quickly reform these abuses at their peril lest the King visit them in some severe manner.”
I have given this gravamen in detail, lest any reader should com- mit the uncommon error of believing any community of monks to be perfect ; but it seems to me that the gist of the gravamen lay in
the last passage of it, and that it was not so much that the com-
munities were corrupt, as that the Anglicans were jealous of the aliens, and had a shrewd suspicion that this jealousy, not un- righteously, was shared by the monarch.
_ VOL. XX.—NO. LIX. Q
220 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
As a matter of fact enquiries were made more than once by the monarch as to the condition of our priory in relation to aliens, and as no fault was to be found with us we were left in peace, and the spectacle of the austerities, the charities, the hospitalities, the learn- ing, and the industry of the monks, leavened the lump of civilization of our parish for over four hundred years, much to our profit.
APPENDIX.—B.
NAMES OF SOME OF THE Priors or FARLEY.
Elias de Turri
1247 Henry, resigned
1208 Main, in whose time there was a convent seal
1281 William, died
1291 Stephen, resigned
1813 John
1322 John de Feschamps, Chamber- lain of Lewes
1334 William Galsham
1366 Lawrence de Archenband
1409 William Preston, died
1520 Ludovic Brecknock, presented to Biddeston St. Peter’s by] Sir H. Long
1525 John Stone
Ludovic Millen
APPENDIX.—Ba.
List or Rectors anp CuRATES.
A.D. Patron. Rector.
1334 Dominus propter | Walterus de Hanekyneton
inidonitatem personz Prioris de Farley 1338 Rex pro Priore de| Robert de Hakeway de Al- Farley dyngton, p.m. 1348 es Robertus Bere de Notynham = Richard Honeymanger 1385 Prior de Farley Thomas Newshawe, per mut. 1415 Es John Horton, per resig. T.
Highawe
August 10
Oct. 8 Jan. 30
Oct. 5
May 27 8 August
25th Oct. 24 Dec. 9 August July 2
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 221
Patron.
Prior de Farley.
Henry Brittaine The LadyCatherine
Cornwallis,widow by consent of Henry Brittaine, and by assign- ment of George Brittaine
The King
The Common- wealth P Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury
” 33
Gilbert Burnet ,,
Thomas Sherlock,,
” ”
John Gilbert ,, John Hume ,, ShuteBarrington,, John Fisher ,,
Thomas Burgess ,, Edward Denison ,, W. Hamilton ,,
” Ed
Rector.
——
Galfrydus Lyncolne John Combe, per mut. Johannes de Yatte William Wyse, per resig. William Doke
John Passelow, vice W. Doke' Walterus Cove, per resig. John Papelewe, died 1460 Nicholas Perigson
John Mower
Thomas Ley
Richard Todgyb, per resig. John Tyvel
Henry Goldeney, per mut. Lawrence Balfront, per resig. John Davis (22nd Rector) John Williams
John Bragge
Ludovicus Jones
Richard Bridges John Allambrigge John Adams
Jacob Harris, per resig.
David Jenner
Richard Medlicott
Thomas Tattersal
Thomas Sartaine, “ mors lucrum ”
A. Ford
Richard White, d. 1735, tablet
William Cheyne
Richard Ford, per resig., d. 1756, tablet
W. Sparrow, @. 1780
Peter Gunning
William Holland
M. Rowlandson, no Rector o: Curate resident
W. B. Cozens
Edward Brown, d. 1868, tablet
Alfred Earle
Thomas Hammond Tooke
d. 1713
222 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
A.D. Curate. Rector,
1781 MatthewPomphrey| Gunning 1783 John Elderton 4 1786 Thomas Meade W. Holland 1787 George Cozens 1788 Thomas Hopkins 1789 Joshua ShawCrosse 1790 Anthony Jones and Thomas Street 1795 R. Holland 1798 John Skinner 1800 H. Monkhouse 1802 Richard Budd 1804 George Streete 1805 George Streete 1806 A. Hamilton, A.H. Hemphill, and Maurice James [ House) 1807 R. C. Taunton (lived at Cumberwell 1809 John Symons 1810-13 George Hicks 1814-16 Peter Gunning Henry Marriott H. Dinnell F. D. Grove G. F. Bevan R. Powell W. H. White John Fletcher E. D. Slade Frederick Forde “A Walter Long M. Rowlandson C. S. Meech W. B. Cozens E. Rowlandson G. HE. Turner x JohnRobert Powell.) E. Brown M.A., of Jesus College, Oxford, ordained to the parish by Bishop Denison, left it on the death of theRev.E.Brown, became Perpet- ual Curate of St. Peter’s, Marland, Great Torington, Devon, and is now Rector of Buckland-Fil- leigh, Devon.
”
—
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 223
APPENDIX.—C. 1. Taxatio Nicnoras IV., 1291.
Diocese. Spiritual : Lincoln. Pens: in eccl: de Wyvell 2£ 200 Sarum. Portio in Wyvelesford 3.6 8 - ,, --in eecl: de Biscopestrewe 2 0 0 5 6 8 ee Ecclesia de Cosham 0 6 8 j cf » de Boxe 613 4 a5 Bs » deChippehm 13 6 8 283 is » deSlautreford 2 3 4 oad a , de Alynton Aiba. Ai Sse a » de Soppeworth 113 4 858 Bhs » deChippeham 110 0 ahs = ,» deSlautreford 113 4 A 2910 0 es Porcione de Soppeworth 100 3 Ss de Wockesley 100 aa 4 in vicar: de Chippeham 1 6 8 3 6 8 by Pencione de Edyngton, Avebury Deanery 100 Wygorn. Prior de Farley habet apud Holtby de Gloucester? redd: assiss: res mare et dimid : 26 8 Hereford. Habet apud Farle de redd : assis : 05 0 Temporal : Lincoln. Prior de Farle 05 0 is in decanat: de Graham et Framelund 1312 0 13 17° 0 Sarum. Cheddentone 012 0 ok Farle 1513 4 si Wrockeshale 3 0 0 = Broctone 5 14 10 BS Cortyngetone 3 0 0 3 Lye 48 0 i Porcio in ecclesii de Cosham 013 4 2 PB » de Edinton 200 io Clive Pypard 7 6 0 7 Mershstone 513 4 ay apud Brome in Swyndone 10 0 O 98 Slautreford 4 6 8 Sarum. Alinton 4 6 8 Burs; Soppeworth 3 6 8 83.17 10 5 De Clive Pipard, Avebury Deanery 313 0 e Marshtone, Deanery Creck 216 8 ” Swyndone 5 0 0
ll 9 8
Total 15219 8
‘(N.B—In the Valor 26 Henry VIII. the gross revenue was taken at £217 0s.43d. and the net income at £153 14s. 23d.]
224
APPENDIX.—C. 2. Vator Eccuzstasticus, temp. Henry VIII.
spirit
Inp_quis cur’
O28" 0
— ra On
i)
118 1
Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
Transcript of return,
annus
pore decimayr’ recept in dicis vill’ subsequens’
oo
11 0
OWONFS aOorO -eooocodo
43 0 0
43 0 0
43 0 0
26 H. VILL. First Fruits Office. Prioratus de Farlegh. Ludovico nunc Priore—ibidem val’—vizt p.a. Temporalia annus penciones In redd : County. Parish. Decimz et firm’ Wiltes. Chippenham 22.0 222199 Pa Box + Bydeston cum Hartham 020 a Barley 4 Hedyngton 02 0 6 Pumbrye - Slaugtonford 18 6 O38 os Staverton 5 Wilsford and Manyngeford 3 6 8 5 Bishoppestrewe 2 0 O a Hardnash 02 0 + Soppworth 20) 0 20 0 a Okeley 20 0 35 Fayrlegh 01 0 27.7 2* 11 dos WO ils Rectoria Somerset. Tymesbrugh 018 0 Wiltes. Thornhill 12 2 8 5 Marsheton i) * Monketon juxta Broughton 12 4 0 oy Wraxhall 3 8 O = Lye juxta Westbury ll 5 9 e Corton 4 3 0 123 | Sod! 1S DE Gloucester. Haversham 7 16 11 lands of Holly and Elm Lincoln. Navebye and Wellby 8 8 8 Divers Places Ss 0.0 1213 8 145 8 73 * Of this 14 2 2 in hand.
ea
de eis, a
By Sir Charles Hothouse, Bart. 225
Spiritualia annuz Porci’ decimar’ 43
annuze Pensiones 1211 8 Temporalia. Wiltes 161 6 88 = 217 0 4 De quibus in : to : deductions 63. 6 2.*
Clear p.a. 153 14 25
Inde per decima 15 7 5¢
* De quibus Deduct’ et Alloc’ jux’ forma Statuti inde edit’ viz Reddit’ Resolut’ For land in Sheldon p’ a’ viz to Walter Hungerford Knight 17/ and to the Lord
of Codford 6/8 13 8 To the Earl of Arundell for lands in Corton 0 3 4 To the Abbot of Keynsham for lands in Ferneborough O01 0 To the Trustee of Eaton College by “ feod’ firm’”’ 38 9 0 To the Viscount of Wiltes for cert’ redd’p’a’ 1 5 0 To the Abbess of Shafton’ for lands in Comerwell 0 3 44016 4 Pens’ Solut? Archdeacon of Wilts for the Church of Chippenham O 5 93 - FF. Boxe O 5 9 * x Slaugtonford O 5 93 - A Bideston O 5 93 Annva Pence’ Solut’ Priori de Lewys 01 4
Elemos Distributed to the poor on the days of the ; Czenz Domini et Paschenes on the anni- versary of Humphrey de le Bound, fun-
dator huj’ priorat’ 20 0 Distributed to the poor 4 days in the year on the foundation and gift of Barthei
Bygote p’ a’ B 013 4 Feod’ To Henry Long, Miles, the Chief Capitlis of the said Priory senli 200 Thomas Moumford subsenli 2 00 William Burton, Auditor 20 0 Richard son of Henry Receptor 16 8
John Parsons, Collector of the Dues of Haversham, FerneburghandTymesbrugh 2 0 0 Jobn Usher, Collector of the Dues of Lye,
Corton and Bishoppstrowe 200 Richard, son of Henry, Bailly of the Liber- ties of Farlegh 1 6 8 Thomas Wilkes, Collector Chippenham 16 8 Thomas Young, Collector of the Manors of Marsheton, Brome and Thornhill 1 6 8=19 16 6 Total 63 6 2 and so remains clear p’ ann’. 153 14 23 Inde per decima 15 7 52
226
Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
APPENDIX.—D. 1.
Priory ENDOWMENTS.
Name of Manor,
Farley, Wilts.
Bishopstrowe, Wilts.
Wivelisford Wilts. [ Willesford ].
Wocheseya, Wilts with Cherynton. [Oaksey, Malmesbury ]
Trowbridge.
Heddington, Wilts.
Calne,
Date of Gift.
1125
1135
Name of Donor.
Humphrey Bo- hun II.
H. Bohun IIL, Dapifer in 5th of Stephen. Margery, his wife, and Ma- tilda de Bohun, his mother. The said H. de B. styled Fun- dator ejus loci’ in charter of Henry III.
Humphrey Bo-
hun III. and| Margery, his} wife.
bP
Particulars of Gift.
The whole manor, with the park and every other thing belonging to the same village, “including after- wards the then hamlet of South Wraxhall. Brictrie held at Domesday.
The Church and all belong- ing to it—one hide of land in the village, pasturage for one hundred cattle (the same withdrawn 11387), and a carucate of oxen. The Prior presented to the Church 13804 to 15382. Edward of Salisbury held at Domesday.
The Church of—afterwards changed to a tenth of the demesne here and in Man- ningeford, which see.
The Church of, and a tenth of the wild colts [Pullo- rum], Cherynton with- drawn 1137. Brictric (and his father before him) held at Domesday,
10 solidi of the Church. Brictrie (and his father before him) held Domes- day. Edward of Salisbury bequeathed it to his dau- ghter Maud, or Matilda, wife of Humphrey de Bo- hun II.
The Church and the whole
tenth of the demesne as well of fruits and cattle and every other thing, with the house and virgultus which belonged to Simon the Clerk. 14 H. VII. Prior and convent sold this. Edward of Salisbury held at Domesday.
=
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 227
Name of Manor. Gift.
Waleton. [Whaddon, near Melksham, Wilts ?]
Stavretone, Wilts [Staverton. ]
Strattone, Wilts [Strat- ton St. Margaret, Highworth. ]
Bradeham
MonketoninBroughton, ' Wilts.
Bera. [The Beries, Westbury, Wilts. ]
Thornehill, near Chris-
tian Malford, Wilts. ee
Hanum, [afterwards called the Grange, | Gloucester.
Tymbresberia, Somerset _ [Tymsburgh].
1141 Plumberea [Pomeroy]. Winkfield, Wilts. Berlochestria.
Date of
styled now Earl
Particulars of Gift.
One half the Church belong- ing to their Feud. Aluric of Melksham held at Domesday.
One tenth of the Demesne with all things appertain- ing. Brictric held at Do- mesday, E. of Salisbury bequeathed it to his daugh- ter, Maud.
One tenth of the wild colts [exchanged for Oaksey, 1187]. The mill which Robert de Carentoem gave and 3 solidata of land, the gift of Humphrey deSancto Vigore [witness to the grant]. Nigel the Physi- cia held at D.
One mark of silver.
The manor, free of all service due to the Bohuns, but ex- cepting service due to the King. Saward held at Domesday.
The land, free of all service due to the Bohuns. Os- mund the King’s servant held at Domesday.
The land, first of all free, but afterwards subject to service to King Henry and the Bohuns. The donor a witness to the grant.
The gift of the land, sold by Hugode Chaldefelde and Leolselina, his mother, to the Priory, confirmed free of everything save j of a feud of one soldier.
One tenth of. The gift of Ganfridus Dapifer, witness to the grant, confirmed and the mill which William, son of Ganfird, gave.
Osmund held at Domesday.
exchanged for Horning- sham.
228
Name of Manor.
Clutton, Somerset.
Framberga, Somerset [ Farnebrugh].
Hechesingtona, Wilts [ Echilhampton ].
Bydeston cumHartham, Wilts.
Duberche, Somerset. Denelyke Wake juxta, Bridgewater
Box, Wilts.
Elmore et Cerneia [El- more and Cerney Wike, Gloucester P. Wilts ?]
Horningsham, Wilts.
Nova Villa.
La, Gore, Manynford, * Wilts
Date of
Gift.
”
1141
”
Name of Donor.
and Ibert de Chaz.
9
and the Dunstanvilles.
and Bartholo-
mew Bygot, witness to grant.
Humphrey Bo- hun the ITI.
Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
Particulars of Gift.
One tenth of. With one
man’s service rendering
6 solidi and the Church of.
The Church of—after the death of Harold Presbyter, and 15 solidata of land, the gift of William of Gran- ville. Witness.
10 solidi of land, the gift of Ilbert, and 5 ., .,° 5,06 Simon the Clerk. Edward of Salisbury held at Domes- day.
5 acres, the gift of Archard, and } the 10th of, and the Rectory of, held by H. de l'Isle and from him passing by marriage to the D’s.
The mill of. The gift of Rudolf Wake. Confirmed.
The mill which B. B. gave, and the service of Hubert de Wadeswick [now Wads- wick Farm] and his land rendering 6 solidi. Con- firmed H. III., A.D. 1227. The tythes and advowson of the Chureh? Edward of S. held Domesday.
The land of, rendering half a mark of silver.
One tenth of. In lieu of Berlochestria and 1 virgate of land, the gift of Adale- Imus, son of Ganfridus, Dapifer.
The land of, and appurte- nances, formerly held by Philip, son of Edwin, and given by Galfrid, son of William.
The land of in the Manor of Maningford, in la. Wike.
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 229
Name of Manor.
Maningford, Wilts
Chippenham, Wilts
Merston, Wilts [in Highworth].
Ruda [Rowde] Wilts.
Penley and Westbury, Wilts.
Lya [Westbury Ley] Wilts.
Broc. Bratton, Wilts.
Buthoria [or Birthona]
Gerva, Redley, and Her- linghame, Gloucester.
; : Grosmunt, Gloucester.
1227
Date of | Gift, ' Name of Donor.
>
Henry III.
and Empress Matilda.
and Radulf de Lamvalley.
Partieulars of Gift.
One tenth of the demesne
and its appurtenances— save 30 solidi to the Hos- pital of St. Nicholas of Sarum to conclude the composition between the Dean and Chapter of Sa- rum, the Brothers of the Hospital, and the De Bohuns.
The Church and tenths, lands, meadows, chapelries, pastures, and all appurte- nances, a Pannagium or larder, money for the keep of pigs in the King’s For- est, and one cart-load of dead wood every year from the said forest.
Same as above, save the Pannagium and dead wood, described as part of Wurda.
1 hide of land called Foran- gra [Foxhanger] given by “Domina Imperatrix ma- ter Henrici Regis avi nos- tri.”
Lahideof land. Exchanged for a water mill with Wal- ter de Paveley, 7 and 14 Ed. IL, 1314—21, and 40 acres of faggots [assartis] in the forest, made in Hav- edingull ?
One half the village and a mansion, 7.¢., at Plaistude. Thereafter the vicarage paid 13/4 a year to the Prior and Convent.
The mill—just as Aibricus left it.
4a hide which Roger Cocus held.
1 virgate of land called Purirland.
i the fisheries, Arlingham, near F'utherne, on the Sev- ern [Jackson], and King John paid 22/- a year for Gerva. Hardy’s Calendar of Close Rolls, 1, 285.
The Hermitage.
230
Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
Name of Manor.
Havescumle 3 [ Haversham ]
Lym, Lynley, juxta Rowde, Wilts.
Chinctura [Gloucester ?]
Pridi [Somerset ?]
Clifton, Gloucester.
Caversfield, Bucks. Cudford, Cornwall. Melksham, Wilts.
Sopworth, A [near Badminton].
Alinton, Box, Wilts.
Slaughterford, Wilts.
Brome, Swindon, Wilts, Welby[ Willett Lincoln. Navely [Namby] ,,
Monketon juxta Chip- penham, Wilts.
North Wraxhall
”
Date o Gift.
”
Uncertain Roger de Nunant.
Uncertain. Henry III. H. de B.
1259 1255
1260 | Daughter of Sir J. Tropenell, of
Chalfield.
1276-82 | Exchanged with the nuns of Martigny the Valois.
1150 | Matilda the Em- press.
39
Leigh, Woolley, Holt, | Uncertain’ Martin. a Chap-
and Winsley, Wilts.
Dulton [Wilts ?]
Langley .,,
lain.
Richard de An- asya[Dancey ].
te
1401 Simon Pater.
Name of Donor. |
in
Particulars of Gift.
The Hermitage, two rusties, Almetus and Alwardus, and theirlands and3 crofts, the gifts of William, son of John de Tilli and his wife Dyonisa.
1 hide of land which Geri the Presbyter held.
3 a virgate of land.
Land and its pasture.
Lands. The gift of Richard, son of Odon, confirmed.
Lands.
Lands in.
Two acres in the manor, value 124,
Court House and 180 acres of land and advowson of the living, to which the Prior presented up to 1535 A.D.
Manor of. Given by Ste- phen and others to the nuns. Escheated 26 Kd. I., 1293, and afterwards re- stored to the Priory, and by it held up to the Disso- lution.
Manor, rectorial tithes, ad- vowson and chapelries.
Manor.
The Church and tithes
Two hides and other lands, the advowson of Berlegh Chapel, lardar money, a mounchiary, viz., one horse with his harnessand bridle, originally held freely of William de l’Isle by the service of one whole knight’s fee and suite of court and rent.
2 virgate of land.
Lands and tenements with appurtenances.
rp I., A.D. 1294.
eit) Pensio. Churchet. Sisiwant fu ee or Pool, Church. Value. Kind. Value. Listes ) ) 18 0 f ; d 1 Hardenwyche| 2 0} Fowl 2 4 2 4 2 8 7 )
0 2 0 Os A a a
Messuages and —_—— Church, s. d.| curtilages, paid in Farm. * money or kind.
Bromesfelde |30 0 0
Bromesfelde| 5 0 0
2 0 0 Horspoles
N.B.—The figures are not always correct in the original. The totals and some of the arrangement are mine. The jurors at Monkton Farleigh were John de Greenhull, William at Walte (Atworth), Stephen at Slade (Sladesbrook), Roger de Burlegh (?), John de Morle, W. Paris, Walter Seluman, Robert and Simon le Jovene (Young), John de Wolvele Hugo-Cock and Henry le Frie—most of the names still known to our registers and neighbourhood.
APPENDIX.—D. 2.
Farm Vatvuation or THE Priory or Monkton Fanrteten, tempore 22nn Epwarp I., A.D. 1294.
SS
Name of Manor.
Lardar.
Lye Westbury
— aes £151 15s. 10d.
Total valuation.......
1 14 10 One
Total amount and value of lands.
——_—[—————
Total number and value of
‘Tenants.
Arable 33 1 Meadow 11 8 Wood 23 Pasture 1 14
48 6
2043 Liberi 153% Villani 40 Coterelli 68 Aids
=23042
26 1014 4 47 16 19 10 35 5 8 11 56 1910 1
118=62 13 2
cath ee ware Libere Tenentium. Plncliast Arable Meadow. TANCE een chet Pensio. Churchet. aoa r hs Tigeonry tenarum = or Vool, & Curtilage. No. 8 oe: id. er nundinia. Acres Value. Acres Value. Number. Value. Church. Value. Kind. Value. waive’ | Farleg Monachorum LOO) 6 3.4 4 1) 2) | 762 at 32) 9) 13 363 2/ 313 0 3 ow fi) Woxehall-Hamlet 2003 ,, 24 113 5 PAF yf 012 0 Chippenham i 2 8 1 3 @ [2a 88) 2 7 9) 14 1/6) 1 0 7 015 0| Har 2 180 Slaughterford 5 0 GP 3) 3) 10) 2082 ,, 24 Teldend I 4 012 0 SGlnaeliey 2) Tsenal te 24 i Boxe 1 2 451,31] O11 4] 3 1/6 6 9 210 7 24 Alinton-Hamlet 1 4 0 178 41] 219 4] 14 1/6) 1 0 Sopworth 8} () 124 ,, 24 110 0 Lye Westbury 2 2 d ” 0 4 4? 9 ye Westbury 34 ,,6°| 017 PEO Se rae ll abe) 8 7 Monketon in Brouton 1 2 1 2 | 1423 ,, 64 415 0)'-30 (24 3 0 3P 116 0 Thornhull 6 8 4? 2 bi0 PW or LAS lef CO ssi 115 0 Sol-Merston 14 614 1 20 4| 26 |1014 4 241 904 |33 1 8| test (11 8 0. 47 | 1619 10 lo 2 ol 7 all io! ee pee Ee ee ee ee ee ee ee oe ee pa 2 SS Eee ee ee ee Coterelli. an Wood, Aids quam de Pasture, Masaudpes and Name of the Manor. Water-Mill. fers iden liberis quam Church. & s. dj curtilages, paid in | Farm. No. £5 d Acres. £ os, d de nalivis: Acres. vs pts G2 NE Farlegh Monachorum 21 4 8 2 38 20 0 Woxeha]l-Hamlet Chippenham Bromesfelde |30 0 0 Slaugterford Hotertide Waggon Boxe. Bar : Bygot? 3 4 Bromesfelde| 5 0 0 » Alinton 9 15 9 Sopworth 1 210 Lye Westbury 2P @) BW 2P if th 4 2 0 2 Monketon Broughton 1? 14 0 362 18 0 orspoles - ney Holding in common & Thornhill. Sybil’s and i 10 3 1 day's Sao aneht 1? 110 0] 32 6: 16 10 216 8 virgate & autumn work 5 5 0 2 tenants | Brome. Swindon for 1 10 0 0 carucate
N.B.—The figures are not always correct in the original. The totals and some of the arrangement are mine. The jurors at Monkton Farleigh were John de Greenbull, William at Walte (Atworth), Stephen at Slade (Sladesbrook), Roger de Burlegh (?), John de Morle, W. Paris, Walter Seluman, Robert and Simon le Jovene (Young), John de Wolvele Hugo-Cock and Henry le Frie—most of the names still known to our registers and neighbourhood.
VALUATI
APPENDIX.—D. 3.
VALUATION BY THE JURORS OF THE INCOME OF THE Priory or Monkton Fartercu, A.D. 1294 : a AND’ Return, 1535.
————————————
1294. 1535. Yearly rental. Manor. Tenths, Pensions. Feuds. Giardino) WS te ncceel | ae Sema coe S vee aed ee aaa | otal. Farlegh ; 27 13 10 Ot Of ht @ Bile) 1 @ Woxehall, Ham* 2411 8168 0 0 68 0 0 Thornhull 25 15 6712/16 8 68 6 2176 210 Chippenham 5 19 9 Py PA AD al ) BP 8} By i. Ecclesiam BOMOmO 20 0 0 20 0 0
Slaugterford He Up OFN NS} AP) |] 2) ) 20 12 0 Alinton 814 2 Box i) aYs5 0)
Ecclesiam 5 0 0 LO mO) 1100 Sopworth Od Nay 10) 2 0 0 2 00 A) (0) Lye and Bromerfelde juxta Westbury 18 310}11 9 9 2 0 0/18 9 9 Broughton Monk : 11 9 8412 7 4 Wy bf 7 Merston (je I) a WB Wf {33 Broome 10 0 O Certon 4 3 4 3 Haversham, Holly and Elm, Gloucester ve NO (0) 710 0 Navely and Welby Lincoln 8 8 8 8 8 8 Divers Places ey () 8 0 0 Bydeston cum Hartham 6 0 0 2 6 2 0 Berley t @ @ td © Hedynton 200 1 ele) Pumbrye 4 0 4 0 Staverton ; 16 16 Oaksey 2 0 0 2 0 0 Wilsford and Maningford 36 8] 10 MO) 4 of Bishopstrow 2 0 0 2 0 0 Hardenuish 2 0 2 0 Tymesbrugh with Hanham and Farnboro’ 18 2 0 0; 218 0 H. Long (Steward) 2010) 2 ORO, T. Mounford, under do. AWM Of 2 O @ W. Bulton, auditor 210 SON 2 OG R. at Harnyngsham t@ sy Oe
£158 7 148610 2!'41 1 0/1211 8178 0 2 318 3 0
Deduct Feuds 78 O 2 240 2 10
ea
entation Office. Reddit? et Servic? Manorium.
5q? Firms Exitus de Sale of Sale of pid toe Summa Decimar’. | pretio cattle. Wool. Wood. & heriots. a. sea cad, a, £ s d. gs. a.| £ 8. a.| & 8 d. ee SS hig) Ek Ls oe es
Rectoria 20 0 0
Rectoria 0) 0
013 4\6919 S|l0 4 4 1 5 O}10 11 8
Rectoria 20 0
Rectoria 11 0 0
el
35 13 4(|6919 8 {10 4 4 to @il0 1t §
6 5 6
41 18 10 169 19 8110 4 4\1 5 0|1011 81296 2 1
Compurus Prioratvs pp FartecH, femp., Joun Stonn, Anno 17 Reais H. VIII.
APPENDIX.—D. 4.
1.
Abstract of Roll in the Augmentation Office.
Reddit?
et Servic? Manorium,
——<$<$<$£<&£@ ___—__——_.-—m—OCE— Holl OOO . " , Libere et a Cert. Redd. | De fenenti- | is’ Situs a = i edd’ Firma eae ivers: 7 y ensio E | i Name of the Manor. Baa | Recemuentaal ieeseanoer CeCe || Manor. etsthing | bus pro Boece WrabentMCite,| Peco sea Lemay Para cate lear weal Saar cou ies s i ardar. | : 4 ‘ 5 & heriots. & sd.) § sg. d.| £8 s. d.| & 58. d.| 8 5 gd.) £ s. d,| § 5 ad eS ak CL es Gb Pie.) |e esd, Fah So ereus £8. d.| & 6. d.| & 8. d Wiltes Com : Monketon in Broughton 10 0 0|2 4 0 Uhaleds deCantaria) : Chippenham 90 0 1815 4 0 2 0 | Rectoria ne 20 0 0 213 4 Slaugterford 10 4 2/0 8 0/613 4 Bectoris Thornhill 5 0 0 6 0 8 0 16 10 Marsheton 56 5 2 0 8 0/110 Brome 12 0 0 Corton 4 2) 8 Holly et Elmore 2 5 6 Wroxhalle 318 8 Lye, Westbury 9 5 8 Farlegh 15 3 0 Willet et Namby, Lincoln 6 0 0 Sopeworth Om 0 20 0 Hava, Gloucester i) isy Zé Bathe, Somerset 0) 30 4 Foxanger. Rowde iW © Tyngler Sir John or] yngle : ; Tymmebrough 0 4 0 Nera Clutton Oa 0) 013 4/6919 §/10 4 4/1 5 O}1011 8 Farnebrough 012 8 Lynley, Rowde a Baste E Rectoria 0 2 0 Hedyngton 012 0 PK aa) Brokers- Lacock marsh VEY 100 Rectoria Boxe et Ryddelow (0) 2) 0 11 0 0 Wadiswyke 013 6 Bishopstrowe Horr 168 Wodeburgh 010 0 Denelickwyke Bridgwater 010 0 Hilprynton 02 0 Aho de Rector Cheldynton 06 0 Hichilhampton 0 8 0 de Priori Freshford de Hinton 0 0 38 de Rectore} Dultyng deEdynton 013 4 8918 4114.0 211 6 8l72 0 5/012 0/613 4/1 410/110 0/0 3 4|2 0 0|6 4 03518 4/6919 8/10 4 4/1 5 O}011 8 1 2 0] 213 10 6 8/3 8 0 10 0/8 4 0/6 5 6 a Zoe maul ata anol EG Me! ANT al MO oNamalUcTmAlrr Ol Emo MONNO Ma ml ha imOMlo) |(4NNS IO) LIN 6) [0Nl601 ORG 1L10 rset OL LORI SAIRZEB EES
Name of the Manor.
Powletsbere Somerset Bristoll es
Penlegh Horningesham Litilcote
Kenet
Somerford magna Henton St. Georgii Lepeyate Over-Wroughton Hertham Newhalys in Clyste Tedenham Wallia Shereyenewton Shepton Berenger Leyghterton Pensford
Predy
Sernewyke Bradeforde Bratton
Byddeston Wevermede Pumbury
Woxsey
Willesford et Mannyngeford
APPENDIX.—D. 4 (Continued).
Stanley Wyvill
Hardyngnash
Mafor. | Tenem. | Redd’. | Watermin, | QLibereet | | Firme,, Tre Cee Cal £° ip. ds £ ws. d. £8. ¢. £ os. dad. {UIE IGE Saas. ds iL Py gate La ffordis 018 0 ano de Stourton i @) @ 0 8 O Prior de Bradenstoke| 0 5 0 O60) () 2) 010 0 010 0 OZ) Mal @) Q i O @ 6 0 5 0 0 6 8 0 5 0 i @ © @) 9) 06 8 O70 ® & | QW OF O % @ i 04 0 PA a) 0) Bi) (3) 3} de Abbate 013 4 de Rector 2) 0) de Capell 0 2 0 1320 213 10) 3 8 O tM (3 fi] @ & © 8: 4, 0
ract Roll 28, H. VIII.
1 56 0; 1113 4
4 0 3 6 8 20 2 0 0 0 6 0 0 06 8 0 8 0 0 013 4 —|——_ —|_—__ —| Total
118 41/141 6 O (185 19 6
Name of the Manor.
APPENDIX.—D. 5.
Computus Mrntstrornum Domrinit Reers temp., Henry VIII.
Firma Manor’.
Libere or
Custum’ tenents,
£ os.
a.
Per quis’ Curia.
Pannag"
Porcorum,
Lardar Silver.
Abstract Roll 28, H. VIII.
Tenementa
et Terra. Pensio,
Decime,
Wraxhall cum Box Allingeton Slaugterford Marsheton
Corton
Holly and Elmore Lye, Westbury Westbury
Willet & Namby Soppeworth Bathe
Foxanger, Rowde
Tymmeburgh
Farneburgh Hedyngton
Boxe & Rydelaw
Bishopestrowe
Hilprynton Litileote
Kennet
Henton St. George Over Wroughton Leygterton Stanley Wilsford, &e. Chippenham Hartham
Barford Aston-Keynes Melksham
Atteford
Byddeston Staverton
Pumbrey Wyntefield
Stratton le Fosse Upton
ao
no
15
ow
on
wor ooo
= ouap ooo
CRN RPI RE
DBoOIDDORS
iw)
9) 6
Churehous 0 0 4 15 0 Horspole 113 4
216 0
1113 4
22np Epwarp I., or A.D. 1294.
‘&. & ds Asses. 115 0| 5 at2/ 010 0
oat OC
D4 0
D 6 0
018 0
816 0 5
d, Bees. = 0/59 at3/ | 817 0| 7 5 Ef 0/20 2/8] 213 Oo; 2 0 6
”
0 : a 0 16 17 at 3
213 acres 5 4 at 4/
£58. d. Ewes. & es. d, Lambs, £s. dad
010 0 |100 at 6? | 210 0/ 40 at 67) 1 0 O
16 at 64 0 8 O/}llat 44) 0 3 8 010 0 116 218 0 51 13 8 q Geese & 5. ates & 6, 4. 0 {100 at1/4| 613 4 iigin oc kt. O 0 anette... ped 0-0 Bion, O19 4 0] 12 at 1/4] 017 0} 153 26 2 5 and 40 de 0 ari. 38 0 0] 8iacres | 017 0 8 172 14 3 8 24, ae
N.B.—The Bona and Catalla of Lye-Westbury were “set forth by the Cyrographum who lives near the Magistrate R. de Abyndon.”
APPENDIX.—D. 6.
List or Bonz er Catattz or Live anp Deap Srock or THE Priory, aS VALUED BY THE Jurors, 22np Epwarp I., or A.D. 1294.
——__—_—__—_—— SSS Name of the Manor, Oxen. & 5. da. Cows, &sada Bulls. & 8, d. Yearlings. £5 d. Calves. £5 da. Mules. & 8s. da Asses. £5 da. Ewes, & s. d. Lambs, Bower ds Farlegh 53 at 6/8/18 0 0| 16 at5/ | 4 0 O| lats/ | O 5 O| 11at3/ | 113 0] 9at1/ | 0 9 O| 7ats5/ | 115 0| 5 at2/ | 010 0 |100 at 6 | 210 0| 40 at 6t| 1 Woxhall iG wile 8 all = | OB @ i | a / al 40 at 6 00 Chippenham 24 «(yy 8 0 0} 11 FF 215 0} 1 op 0 5 O| 6 at5/ 110 0} 9 at1/ 0 9 O| I at3/ 8) Slaughterford 23 - 713 4 al 0 5 0 Box, Alynton Hamlet 6 , 20 0 4 pA U (0) 0) Sopworth 13 at 5/ 315 0| 1 m 0 5 0 2 at 2/ 040 Lye, Westbury 9 at 6/8] 3 0 0] 2at10/| 1 0 0 2at3/ | 0 6 O lat4) | 0 4 0 Monketon, Broughton | 17 nN 513 4] 7 at5/ 115 0} 1at6/8} O 8| 7 at2/6| 017 6} 7 at 108 0 510] 1 at6/ 06 0 Thornhill 25 at 9/ | 11 65 O 4 at 3/ 012 0} 2at 8] O 1 4] 2 at9/ 018 0 16 at 64 | O 8 Oj} llat 44} O 383 8 186 6413 4 43 111 5 0 3 016 8 30 418 6] 29 I 9 32 14 316 0 010 0 116 218 0 51 Le So 8: Ee ee Ti _ Name of the Manor. Porkers. | £ 5 d. Pigs. £ s. d. | Horses, B gcd || ogee £5. a. | eels aca esac | Sc Ohl Cee ech || ates il eB] Gee ; r. Farlegh 36 at 64} 018 0} 30 at 1/ 110 0 4 3.8 4 1 at 3/ 0 3 0} 6 at6/8| 2 0 0| 69 at 5/ 17 5 0] 59 at 3/ 817 0/100 at 1/4] 6138 4 Woxehall-Hamlet 10 » 210 0} 7 » ok) yal a Wow) Chippenham 24 at 34] 0 6 0} 89 at1/6| 218 6) 2 110 0/ 1at2/8); 0 2 8} 2 012 0/30 , | 710 0/20 2/8/ 213 4/30 , | 2 0 0 Slaughterford 7 ” 115 0} 2 » 0 5 4] 10 re 018 4 Boxe 1 at 104] 0 010] 1 0 3 0 Alynton Hamlet 1 03 0 Sopworth ae 3/ 03 0 3 aah 0 4 8 15 at 5/ | 315 0 016 0} 12 at1/4| 017 0} 15% a 5 ry ale , 5 and 40 Lye, Westbury R 2 1 at 1/6 056 5OLat,, | 1212 6 56 4 0 anes 3 0 0] 84 acres Monketon, Broughton 17 at 8° 0 911 2 at 2/ 2 0 s o| @ats/9or 19 10 0 Thornhill cS 70 acres 223
Total amount life stock 629
» dead ,, Carts 10
5 » » Ploughs 12
. » » Wheat 223 quarters FA » » Barley 113 ”
7 » » Oats 172 ”
- » » Beans 24 ”
” » » Hay
Tenths and Vessels
£247
a
be RWW RIaore
m
co 00
bo
Bleol CHBDROHDY
Baths, brass
Name of Manor. pots, Potilla Tenths &c, forks &c, Chippenham Value 5 6 6 Value 2613 4 Slaughterford 05 0 Box and Alynton on 010 i 8 0 0 Sopworth _ 0 3 6 Lye Westbury n 04 0 0 0
N.B—The Bona and Catalla of Lye-Westbury were “set forth by the Cyrographum who lives near the Magistrate R. de Abyndon,”
; By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 231
“N.B.—My authorities for the above are, Dugdale’s Monasticon and Baronage, Jones’s Domesday, Leland’s Collectanea, Hoare’s 8. Wilts, Tanner’s Notitia Monastica, Abbreviatio Placitorum, Hundred Roll of Wilts, 39 H. III., Jackson’s Aubrey, p. 74 and 117.
APPENDIX.—E.
PopuLaTion aND Prorsssions, 1881.
3 - zi , q 5 . wa ey q ; Ba g a) cs) a é 4 Z a | 2 Al. S| 3/2 = g Z\Sl\a\eleldjsis a | 2 eis lsl slg Breve al si si2/sisielalal=l|al . 2} s|4|2\ 32 elelei|e/z\2\2| 8 eis sisi esl elsl| Slelel als cd = a2/Co!}H =sia|o|olsa 41 alo |s q|.2| 4 =|8lala|s|e8\s|s/8i/eis slalelS lel ei slslalSlelsl2) a] s|Slsle| sis CIBIOIAISIOIAISASIAlOlalse [S/S /Tlolelae [als 9}1/2!1!3islsol1les}alefilelelililml7iiiils
PoPuULATION.
1841. 1861. 1881.
435 358 412
First appearance of
Names. Professions, the Name in the Parish. Ball Quarryman Barnes Tenant Farmer Barter Policeman 1652 Bolwell Quarryman 1586 Bradfield Ee 1740 _ Brooke Day Laborer 1573 Butler Farm Laborer 1797 ~ Bucknill Bailiff Butler a 1372
Canning { Farm Laborer 1570
232 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
Names.
Collett Cottle Dening Deverell Doel Douding Gane Gate Gibbs Giles Godwin Green Greenman Goddard Hancock Hobbs Hobhouse Hole Hozey Hunt Hyatt Hull Harford Kendall Isaacs Love Lyreton Miles Mages Maslen Marks May
Professions.
Carpenter Yeoman Gentleman Farmer Life Holder Quarryman Shepherd Quarryman Farm Laborer Quarryman Farm Laborer Baker, &e. Coachman Farm Laborer Coachman Gentleman Farmer Farm Laborer Squire Schoolmistress Quarryman Farm Laborer Blacksmith Quarryman Farm Laborer Tenant Farmer Farm Laborer Quarryman Farm Laborer Gamekeeper Innkeeper Farm Laborer
”
Day Laborer
First appearance of he Name in the Parish.
1651 1656
1575
1571
1579
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart. 233
First appearance of
Names. Professions. the Name in the Parish.
Mizen Farm Laborer 1700 Moore On the Club Moxham Quarryman 1804 Painter fr 1809 Parry Farm Laborer Parsons Day Laborer 1773 Perry Farm Laborer Prickett Groom Reynolds Butler Rice Widow Shell Farm Laborer 1803 Spackman Gentleman Farmer 1372 Sparks Gardener 1607 Sumption Quarryman 1667 Sweetland Innkeeper, &c. 1622 Symmonds Pensioner 1701 Stebbins Farm Laborer Smith a Tayler ‘ 1719
_ Tooke Rector
_ Tristo Quarryman Vaughan ; Widow 1809 Williams | Gamekeeper, &c. 1601
APPENDIX.—F. . Names oF PULAcEs. Names of Places. Tithe Map. Explanation.
Acre’s Well 192 [1617.
Angel Leaze 148 A family of the name, 1586—
234 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
Names of Places. ‘Tithe Map. Explanation. Peete! Baker’s Tyning 202 A family, 1573 to 1756. Bassett’s Mead 264 A family, 1665 to 1681. Bays 83 Broadstone Tyning 46 Cod Mead 257 Calcord, Upper and | 136-7 Lower Chalk Lease 114 | Pecularity of soil. Cold Harbour 190 Collett’s Tyning 251 A family from 1651 to present day. Common, in little 206 Part of common lands, Conigree, the The Coney-acre, formerly rabbit warren. Cottles Down 101 | A family, 1656 to the present day Covin’s Close 85 Cow Leaze, Lower 245 Cox’s and Cox’s Or- | 273-5 | Name occurs 1591. chard White Cross Mead 198 Culver Hay 200 Culverhouse occurs 1600. Dyer’s Ground 88 Dapper’s Ground and 92 Dapstone Dry Leaze 147 Quality of soil. Duchess Clump Farley Clump, planted by Anna Maria, Duchess of Somerset, e. 1799. Enclosure from Waste 124 Made in Wade Browne’s time. Follett’s Wood 290 Grass Folletts 59 288
“Upper Folletts
By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart.
235
Names of Places. Tithe Map. Green Meare 205 Gibbon’s Piece 141
Hancock’s Piece 145
223
Haye’s Mead, Great 182
and Middle Hayes.
222 Hay Corner 221 , 238 Holly Pits, Upper a6] Hooper’s Close 158 Holly Hill Ground and Holly Stone Tyning 90 TInnox and Inwoods 48 King’s Tyning, Piece, | 37 and and Little Mead. 193-6
Long’s Tyninge and |234,6 and
Border 268, 9. Links, Upper and Lane} 143 Mary’s Croft _ 144 Mill Hill 103 The Mountains 84 Ox’s Tyning 211 Pennsylvania Plaisterers 77 Plock Pile Wood 183 Pond Piece 120 Poor Tynings 210 Raven’s Tyning and 47
' Lands Rook’s Closes 50 and 61
Explanation.
A family, 1701 to 1802. A life-holder in a cottage, 1777- 47.
Name occurs, 1615-£8 and 83. A family, 1621-97. Several families, 1535 to 1842.
St. Mary Magdalene’s Priory. Had we a mill ?
259-60-2| Given by the Quakers amongst
us ?
Adjoins the Priory Fish-Pond,
A family, 1688-1789.
236 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh.
Names of Places. Tithe Map. Explanation. x (212-13- 14-19-
Rowley | 90-29.
| 55-56. Sands, Upper & Lower} 118-19 | Quality of the soil. Shepherd’s Leaze 150 | A family, 1775 to 81, or because
a sheep slate. Shamble Pits By the side of the Roman Road. Slade’s Leazes 250 Stallard’s Close 155 | Name occurs, 1700. Starveall 102 Stile Croft 89 Sweep’s Coppice 295 Taylor’s Grove and | 286-91 | Several families, 1719 to present Closes day. Week’s Horn 235 Willock’s Wood 231 Willow Beds | 186-7 | Now quarries. Wilsalls 294 & 96 Withy Bed 263 Is still a withy bed. Errata.
p. 28, last line, for “ Wilton” vead “ Ambresbury.” », 29, line 3, for “ Ambresbury ” vead “ Wilton.” », 38, line 15, for 1787 read 1777.
*,* The Committee desires to express its obligations to the Rev. J. Bliss for the gift of the illustrations of the south doorway and chancel arch, in Manningford Bruce Church, page 130.
H. F. BULL, Printer and Publisher, 4, Saint John Street, Devizes.
“IN COURSE OF PUBLICATION.
“MAP OF A HUNDRED SQUARI MILES ROUND ABURY:
With a Key to the British and Roman Antiquities” : occurring there.
BY THE REV. A.C. SMITH, gm
Rector of Yatesbury, and Hon. Secretary of the Wiltshire Archaologica : R ‘ and Natural History Society. oe
ee work, the materials of which have been accumulating for twenty-five qe years, is the result of innumerable rides and rambles over the Downs of — North Wilts; and deals with one of the most important archeological Distri
in Europe. It will be published and issued to subscribers by the Marlborou College Natural History Society, and it will consist of two parts :—
First.—The Great Map—78 inches by 48 inches, on the scale of 6 line inches, or 36 square inches, to the mile; it comprises 100 square miles 1 oun Abury, and includes the great plateau of the Downs of North Wilts, exte din from Oliver's Camp, on Recuaan Hill, on the west, to Mildenhall on the ea t and from Broad Hinton on the north, to the Pewsey Vale on the south. — district thus mapped measures 13 miles from west to east, and 8 miles from to south. ~Every square mile, marked off with faint lines, lettered with a capita letter and numbered, will show the Barrows, Camps, Roads, Dykes, Enclosur ( Cromlechs, Circles, and other British and Roman Stone- and Earth-works of a district; every such relic, being lettered with a small letter in its own square, readily found and easily referred to. The Map will be printed in six colo viz., the Antiquities in red, the Roads in brown, the Lanes and Down Tracks gveen, the Sarsen Stones in yellow, and the Streams and Ponds in blue.
Second.—The Key to the Great Map,—which is by far the most impor a part of the work and will form a general “ Guide to the British and Roman 4 tiquities of North Wilts,’’—will be a volume of large quarto size, and will the whole of the large Map in fifteen sections, measuring 18 inches by if four supplementary sections, each measuring 6 inches by 12. The Lette will contain some account of each of the Antiquities, with references toa extracts from the best authorities, as well as figures of various Urns and other ~ objects found in the Barrows, views of the Gestnleola, plans of the Camps, An Index Map, on the scale of 1 inch to the mile, coloured, numbered, lette and divided like the Great Map, will accompany the volume ; and the whole be a general account of the Antiquities of North Wilts, iuaanaale as the dist thus aalincated embraces nearly all the remains of earliest times which exist the northern Sees of the County. ‘
} dex) will be eid by the Rev. T. A. Preston, The Green, Martho of the Tar ge Map and Key complete will be, to Subscribers, One ¢
AGENTS
FOR THE SALE OF THR
WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE,
7) Oa ARES R. E. Pzacu, Bridge Street. Bradford-on-Avon. G. J. Farrtneton, Old Market Place. MIVOSTOL © cds ones sys. James Fawn & Son., 18, Queen’s Road. TEASE SB epee C. T. Jerrerizs & Sons, Redcliffe Street.
FOUHE eeu iesivvcss A. Heata & Son, Market Place. Chippenham ...... R. F. Hovtston, High Street. Curencester......... Keyworth & Everard, Stamp Office. BPAIUIZOR sa. cuceonns H. F. Butz, St. John Street. Marlborough ...... E. & R. A. Lucy, Post Office. Melksham ......... A. Cocurane, Bank Street.
AOFOTE s). 5.5500 0508 Jas. Parker & Co., Broad St. ‘Salisbury ....06... Brown & Co., Canal.
Warminster ...... B, W. Coarss, Market Place.
H. F. BULL, PRINTER, DEVIZES.
3 j , y
a
| No. LX.
WILTSHIRE | Arehwologieal ont Batural Wistary
MAGAZINE,
Publishes unver the Direction
OF THE .-
SOCIETY FORMED IN THAT COUNTY,
A.D, 1853.
A aes " UF = Oe Gare tei ee
= yt ee
; a 3
tenga
a PS
he
a DEVIZES: PRINTED AND So~pD For THE Society sy H. F, Bunt, Sant Jonn SrREEr.
Price 5s. 6d.—Members Gratis.
NOTICE TO MEMBERS.
Members who have not paid their Subscriptions to the Society for the current year, are requested to remit the same forthwith to the Financial Secretary, Mr. Wiit1am Nort, 15, High Street, Devizes, to whom also all communications as to the supply of Magazines should be addressed, and of whom most of the back Numbers may be had.
The Numbers of this Magazine will not be delivered, as issued, to Members who are in arrear of their Annual Subscriptions, and who on being applied to for payment of such arrears, have
' taken no notice of the application.
All other communications to be addressed to the Honorary Secre- taries: the Rev. A. C. Smirn, Yatesbury Rectory, Calne; and H. E. Mepticorr, Esq., Sandfield, Potterne, Devizes.
The Rev. A. C. Surra will be much obliged to observers of birds in all parts of the county, to forward to him notices of rare occurrences, early arrivals of migrants, or any remarkable facts connected with birds, which may come under their notice.
To be published by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, by Subscription.
THE WLORA OF - WIiite
BY Eee aby. TA. PRESTON, M.A,
ez Further particulars will shortly be sent by circular to Members of the Society.
The Author will be glad if any who could assist him with a list of plants
in their several localities would kindly communicate with him. Early information “is particularly desired. Address—Rev. T. A. Preston, Zhe Green, Marl- borough.
— o> - ee
THE
WILTSHIRE Archeological ond Batural Wistory
MAGAZINE.
No. LX. NOVEMBER, 1882. Vou. XX.
Contents.
“LETTER FRoM THE AvuTHoR or ‘Nenra Britannica’ To ARcH- DEACON CoxE, ON THE ORIGINAL DEstan oF STONEHENGE AND
PAGE
THE NeicHBourinc Barrows”: Communicated by H. J. F. TENN ial PROM tan oe sind se dxvnen mac auaiedabocunses <oeannsbaauis 237 _ Eprinapon Monastery: By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.... 241 A Srront tHrovucH BraprorpD-on-avon: By Canon W. H. Jones,
SMAMMRTR SEA ys AVSGATY Sete. cig sco. ssciawievansbtisd saqchescaieGuden caldeaseeneneasplesias 306
Extracts FROM THE RECORDS OF THE WILTSHIRE QUARTER SEs-
stons: Communicated by R. W. Merriman, Clerk of the Peace......... 322 _ DeEscRipTion oF 4 BARROW RECENTLY OPENED ON Overton HILL:
) ENNIS NN da opie wdc bad na Bb gaia an aimed os sWoneegeoncecvagy ss Roar aenes 342 Tur Openine oF A BaRRow ON OVERTON HILL ...........ccccseceeaees 345
EXxTRacts FROM THE ReGister IN CHRisTIAN Matrorp CHURCH 347
ILLUSTRATIONS. Edingdon Church, Wilts (south side)...........cccsseeseenee 241 Edingdon Church, Wilts (west end) ...........seeeseesse ees 295
Fac-simile of an entry by the Clerk of the Peace, 1579 340
DEVIZES : H. F. Bout, 4, Saint JoHn STREeEr.
Pr eG ‘ r ‘ 4
> >
A yaie uh bn9 os x .
“so
iy é ’ .
-
Sar & Oe y 4 82808 ugolcusae db 220k .7 ni - ~~.
a saey oe 4,
10)
WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE,
““MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUE ONUS.’—Ovid.
“Metter from the Author of «Alenia Britannica’ to Archdeacon Coxe, on the Original Design of Stonehenge amd the Aleighbouring Barrots,” Communicated by H. J. F. Swayne, Esq.
G 7G HE Rev. James Douglas, the author of the “Nenia Britannica,” never seems to have given his ideas upon Stonehenge to the world. The following copy of a letter of his to Archdeacon Coxe may therefore be interesting. Mr. Douglas—though what people in these days would call prescientific—was the precursor of the
modern school of archeology, which so wisely depends upon the | spade.
fee B.S.
“Martin, in his ‘ Religion des Gauls,’ says that stone monuments are more
certain guides than historians, and he says right. I place this remark at the
head of your query. Josephus mentions the earliest stone pillars, as erected by Seth, which he says were to be seen in the time of Vespasian; but this is doubted by Stillingfleet (Origines Sacre, Lib. I., cap. 2). In I. Samuel, vi., 18, a stone is mentioned by the name of Adel, but which, from the marginal reference of the Bible, should be read Aben, a stone made a boundary for the country of the Philistines, ‘ whereon they set down the ark of the Lord in the field of Joshua,’ which stone, according to Holy Writ, appears to have been the identical stone which Joshua raised as a religious memorial, and to which he called the tribes Sichem, in imitation of the one erected by Jacob at Bethel (Joshua, xxiv., 26). These were the earliest stones we read of as simple though magnificent memorials of the one and only true God ; but afterwards under various similitudes perverted by Gentile superstition, and therefore forbidden by the law (Levit., xxvi., 1),
VOL. XX.—NO. LX. R
238 Letter from the Author of “ Nenia Britannica”
called in the Hebrew a pillar, or by the Septuagint Mascoithim. Clemens of Alexandria, Lib. I., says they were common to all the Eastern nations. The Brahmins worshipped the Deity under this similitude (De la Wulf); Jupiter Ammon under the similitude of a conic stone (Quintus Curtius) ; Apollo under a stone like a pyramid (Pausanias, Lib. I.). The Jews erected stones on every high hill and under every green tree (II. Kings, xvii., 10). It is certain that rude stone worship prevailed over all Syria, Egypt, and Greece, and we must not wonder that in Britain (where there can be no doubt an Eastern people resorted, particularly the Phoenicians) that single stone worship was introduced. From this previous consideration, I ventured to pronounce the single obeliscal conic stone detached from the temple of Stonehenge as one of the similar order to which both sacred and profane history refer, and were I permitted to hazard an opinion in this delicate fastidious age, I should not scruple to assert by many convincing analogies that Stonehenge was erected as a temple to the Deity per- sonified or typified by this conic stone, which, by its form—not contaminated by the tool—is in every respect absolutely dissimilar to any of those appropriated to the temple. The pyramidal shape is another reason why it challenges the des- cription which may justly incline me to believe it of secondary origin to the single Bethel, and therefore applicable to the Canaanitic order, or worship of fire, and more avowedly so, as it is placed to the east or sunrise in the front of the adytum of the temple, unquestionably so proved by the five trilithons, which form a parabola to the opening before the altar and exactly opening to the eastern position of the stone. You cannot now be surprised that I should deem the temple of Mithraic import, and of secondary origin to the Bethel, I mean of a later period; if Pellettier is right in his History of the Celts, making them one and the same people with the Persians, Syrians, and Phenicians, their language, customs, and religion being similar. Though History has not justified the fact, yet I think by the most convincing cognition we may be enabled to trace the Eastern colouring into this island, to whom most of our open and un- hewn stone temples or circles may be with the greatest colour of truth ascribed. If the consequitive arrangement of this argument may have weight, then a clear discrimination may be applied to the sepulchres surrounding the temple. Those in which the entire skeletons are found may fairly be attributed to the Patri- archal or first order of Bethel worship; and those in which urns are found with ashes to the Canaanitic or Mithraic order, the worshippers of fire, Bel, or Baal. Thus, my dear Sir, by the favor of a quiet and calm inspection of Stone- henge in your company, unprejudiced by any wishes on the subject, I have briefly transcribed a few notes to justify my opinion on the history of your celebrated Temple; being happy to find that this extremely curious and most antient structure has engaged the attention of gentlemen more able than myself to expand on the subject, and who have a more ready access to those materials which I am not in possession of. It is an absurd idea that Mithraic worship was always accompanied with fire-sacrifice; and if I am right this will account for the few vestiges of Charb discovered on breaking the ground near the temple. I think it not probable that the interior circle of single granatic stones was a subsequent erection. Both our observations, I think, agreed on this particular. They were used for the libations of oil, and chosen as a harder stone to prevent absorption, They could not have been conveniently introduced through the trilithons if of
tu Archdeacon Coxe. 239
snbsequent date. It is certainly a remarkable coincidence that the Pheenicians, as a prototype of the sun, erected one stone, big at the bottom and the point conic, like the single stone at our famous temple (Herodian, lib. 5). I cannot help setting off again. Some regard ought to to be paid to the incumbent stone within the outward circle of the trench, which certainly has the appearance of an altar stone originally so laid, but if once erect there can be no doubt of its having been methodically and intentionally thrown down. It ought to be raised on the north side, as the ground is best fitting for it, and supported by two or three shores, for the inspection of the ground under it, which might possibly attest a very antient sepulchre; a purpose for which several cogent reasons might be in- ferred. Whatever Stukeley may say, there were never more than three stones within the outward circle. I examined the ground minutely ; their intention is manifest with a very trifling variation. The two that are standing point north and south: consequently the eastern position was easily perceived where the obeliscal stone was placed, and which are, of course, indicatory of the original purpose of the temple, The fine large tumulus near the temple ought to be ex- plored. I should like to be present: the apex seems to have been a little dug into, but the primary interment, I am confident, has never been discovered. I remarked two small flattish tumuli within the outward circle, one to the south, the other north-east; they seem to have been explored. I think there may be some reason to call the trilithons the British Lechlawors (Giraldus Cambrensis, Lib. II., 1). If Heraldus employed his whole army and many cattle to transport one stone, was it not possible for the people who raised Stonehenge to do the same? But I confess that Wormius ought to be read with much caution and doubt. These Northern writers have most of their knowledge from the Scaldic bards of the tenth century, and they lied a little: say twelfth century also. Is it possible the detached stones called the Grey Wethers or Sarsen stones could have been transported to the spot where they now lay ? if so, is there any similar stratum in the neighbourhood? Is it also possible that these stones might have once formed a Templar erection? I have never seen them, and cannot therefore form a judgment. Bethel was converted into a place of worship on account of Jacob's Pillars. ‘But prophecy not again any more at Bethel; for it is the King’s Chapel, and it is the King’s Court’ (Amos, vii., 13). Compare the strict analogy of this place of worship with the obeliscal stone and temple of Stonehenge. Also Gilgal, where Joshua erected pillars on his passage over Jordan (I. Sam., vii., 6); Gilead, Gallied, or Mizpah, the same (see Judges and Hosea). Affairs of the nation were also transacted at these places, held sacred to all covenants. Hence deemed places of convocation. My best compliments and kind regards to Mr. Kennington,* and tell him I consider the conic relic covered with gold, formed, with the breast-plate, the Jodain Morain and other gold ornaments as sacred to the memory of Mithras. It is the mystic Bzlizle mentioned by Sanchoniathon consecrated to the sun, and used by the priest or priestess in the ceremonies of fire-worship, to Bel or Baal. The brass dagger with gold studds is exactly the shape of the instrument on an entablature (if my memory serves me right) found at Persepolis in the hand of a Mithraic priest offering the bull to Mithra. The
* Evidently phonetic spelling of the name of Mr, Cunnington,
R 2
240 Letter from the Author of “ Nenia Britannica.”
barrow where these relics were found being an urn-deposit, may fairly apply to an almost coeval date with the temple, and I venture to say this reason by analogy may be sanctioned by this remark, that in all the earliest specimens of fire-worship no animal form whatever is seen on any relics of coeval date with these very antient remains of Stonehenge. The ruins of Persepolis are of much posterior antiquity ; and if any credit can be given to fair unprejudiced enquiry into the very interesting monument of Stonehenge, I should not hesitate declaring, in the face of that ridicule too often attached by levity to these abstruse enquiries, that the gold relic in question may be honestly applied as the para- phernalia of a ‘priest or priestess of the Mithraic order. The names of some of our British kings imply their connection with the priesthood. Belinus, for example, and I believe Cesar or Dio, I forget where, speaks of Deoratucus as one also; and as the barrows surrounding Stonehenge must have a reference or connection to that very antient and interesting pile, and which can by no means be applied to promiscuous interment of a people, who have perished by the common course of mortality, they ought, therefore, to be con- sidered as of a peculiar and distinct order. I am still on the Mithraic gold relic. It certainly belonged to a priestess or prophetess, to whom the study of future events was allotted. ‘ Euphages vero scrutantes, seriem et sublimia nature pandere conabantur’ (Ammianus Marcellinus). Also Diodorus Siculus mentions them. Strabo also. See Tacitus on the Custom of the German Nations. Genana, a Celtic virgin, was worshipped as a goddess next in rank or honour to their cele- brated Valeda. I should be obliged to Mr. Tinney for his reference from Diodorus Siculus to the temple in the Western Islands. I have him not, though I once had, as also Stukeley’s Avebury and Stonehenge which I parted with to White, thinking that I had no farther use for him, which I now lament, wishing to compare notes. It was a great pity this antiquary, who had a famous mind for research, did not confine himself more to analogy and the spade than excursions of fancy. I think D’Hankeville ‘Sur les Arts and les Sciences’ is the best book to be consulted for the Mithraic Bull, where the coincidence will be found between these types of creation in the antient mythology of all the nations of the East. I cannot further expand for the present; Maurice will also produce a good col- lection on the subject. Does Sir Richard Hoare mean to go farther than the description of Stonehenge? if not, I will take it up in a brochure with a few engravings which I have; had I visited the spot a few years ago, I should have found great help for my ‘ Nenia,’ which I should have arranged in a different manner.”
"TOST “A'V payp.oasuog
‘yaamyf unjGurry
fm
Evingdon Aonastery. By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.
EVERAL short notices of Edingdon! have already, from time to time, appeared in print, but the grand old Church, so well known to architects as “ the earliest authenticated example of the Transition from the Decorated to the Perpendicular Style, and as such the more valuable from its date being known,” ? deserves —what it has not yet obtained—a volume to itself, and one that should be rich in illustration. In the meanwhile, the following paper pretends only to make a little contribution of some details re- lating principally to the Monastic establishment connected with the Church, which have not yet been published, and are culled chiefly from the well-preserved register of Edingdon, forming Lansdowne MS., No. 442, in the British Museum.? The earliest fact in the history of this place is that when King Edgar in A.D. 968 founded Romsey Abbey, in Hampshire, he be- stowed “ Edyngdon” upon “ the Holy Church of God at Romesey for the use of the Nuns dwelling there.” It is not now quite clear
1 The name is spelled Edingdon (or Edyngdon), almost invariably in the oldest records, and not Edington.
2 J. H. Parker.
3 The register is very fairly written on vellum, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 458 pages, the rubric headings very bright. It contains a great number of documents and title deeds of the various estates of the monastery, many of which also relate to the Abbey of Romsey, Hants. An alphabetical list of the con- tents is printed in Dugdale’s New Monasticon, vol. vi., p. 585: where also are given all the references to be found in Tanner’s Notitia Monastica, and to the Public Records. In the Record Office are documents of the reigns from Edward II. to Henry VIII. Of the latter, a rental of Edingdon and Tynhide, 3 Henry VIIL.,of Coleshill, 11 Hen. VIII., fragments of steward’s accounts of Coleshill, and leaves from a manor court book of Edingdon, 1 to 8 Hen. VIII. Other general descriptions of Edingdon are to be found in Britton’s Beauties of Wilts, vol. iii., p. 363 : The Gentleman’s Magazine, a paper by the late J. G. Nichols, with print of the remains of the monastery : and another by the late Rev. Arthur Fane, Vicar of Warminster, in Wilts Archeological Magazine, vol. iii., 1.
242 Edingdon Monastery.
how much the gift exactly comprised. The parish includes Edington proper and the tithings of Tynhide (vw/jo Tinhead), Baynton, and West Coulston. The King’s gift probably carried almost the whole: because in the Domesday Survey we find that, with the exception of one small estate then held by one Hervey, of Wilton, under the Crown, two-thirds of the rest of Edingdon stood in the Abbess’s own name, and the remaining one-third in the names of military men who held under her. Some one now resident in that district, familiar with local names, may perhaps be able to identify the extent of Edgar’s gift, from the “ boundary marks of Edyndon,” as specified in the King’s charter :—
“From Milbourne springs to the Ford: to Lechmere: to Cram-mere: to Worseles-down: along Milbourne to Rodenditch: to Rendburne: to Herway : to Moderan-cumbe: to Inman-dene [or dune]: to Rede-ston: to Bedelus-birge :
to Ageles-ham: to Lusthorn: to Hillyng-estrowe: to Hize-don: to Ruzebury : to Pudetan-stone: and so back to Milbourn springs.”
After the notice in the Domesday Survey, A.D. 1085, little or nothing is met with, until the Nonarum Inquisitio, A.D. 1341, In that return a principal land-owner under Romsey Abbey is a “ John de Edyngdon”: and the abbess is called “ Rector.”
The ancient ecclesiastical history of the place is three-fold.
1. A Recrory PReBenD.
2. A CotteciaTte CHURCH.
3. A Monastery.
1—Epinepon, A Rectory Prepenp oF Romsny ABBEY.
For centuries the Abbess of Romsey had been patroness of the living, a Rectory: but the Rector, instead of being a resident parochial minister, was a Canon or “ Prebendary of Edingdon,” in the Church of Romsey, who left all local duties to be discharged by a vicar. In 1838 the abbess nominated to the prebendal rectory for the last time: as, a few years afterwards, a great change in the Church affairs of Edingdon took place, through the interest of an eminent native of the place, William of Edingdon, appointed Bishop of Winchester in 1345 (19 Ed, IIJ.).
That he was born, about A.D. 1300, of a family who lived here
——
a
ary
-
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 243
is distinctly stated in his great Foundation deed: “de qué villa traxit originem” (from which place he derived his birth).!. There is a tradition that he began life only as a poor boy, and that having no surname, he adopted for one the name of his native parish. It was a very common custom, especially in that century, for ecclesiastics to be called after their birth-place. Out of the first hundred names in the “ Wiltshire Institutions” (which is a transcript from the Diocesan registers of Salisbury), between the years 1297—1301, no less than eighty are designated, chiefly after Wiltshire towns or villages, as William de Lavington, Adam de Cumbe, Richard de Cannings, &c. It was also the case that established surnames were sometimes capriciously relinquished in favour of names descriptive of residence, as conveying a notion of greater importance.? If William of Edingdon really had been the “poor boy” of the tradition, so much the more honour both to himself and the times in which he lived: and if he was an anonymous poor boy, what better could he do than borrow the name of his birth-place? But there is good reason for believing the tradition of his very humble origin to be inaccurate. One of the deeds in the Edingdon chartulary certainly mentions without any surname both his father and mother, “ Roger and Avise,” and “his brother John.” But this hrother John is shewn by the evidence of documents (as will appear presently) to have been a knight, and moreover, the very person mentioned above as a large landowner holding under Romsey Abbey, in the Manor of Edingdon. This knight was succeeded in 136] by a son of the same Christian name, also a knight, and nephew to William, then Bishop. So that, instead of being a penniless lad, the Bishop seems to have begun life as the younger son in a good established family, whose name was the same as that of their parish. Further, it will be shewn, by the aid of documents, that a very large part of the estate with which, when Bishop, he endowed the Monastery, was the identical land held by his brother, the elder
1 Dugdale, New Monasticon, vol. vi., 536. See infra, p. 252. 2 Frost (History of Kingston on Hull, Co. York, p. 16, note) mentions one James, son of Adam and Agnes Helleward, who preferred to go through the world as “ James de Kingston.”
244 Edingdon Monastery.
Sir John, under Romsey Abbey: which (by some arrangement) the Bishop ultimately obtained for the perpetual maintenance of a House of Religion.!
After education at Oxford, William de Edyndon became Rector of Cottingham, and afterwards of Dallington, both in Co, North- ampton. The latter he exchanged in 1322 for the Rectory of Middleton Cheney, near Banbury.” He was also Prebendary of Leighton Manor, Dioe. Lincoln: Dean of Westbury-on-Trym, Co. Gloucester: and (if it was not another person of the same name) he was also appointed by Alicia la Rous to the Chapelry of St. Ed- mund, Imber, and was a Prebendary of Netheravon, in the Chureh
1 We have also the names of others, no doubt his kindred. John de Edingdon, Prebendary of Romsey, and of Faringdon, A.D. 1351, and Thomas de Edingdon, Prebendary of Chute, A.D. 1350, both in the Church of “Sarisbury.” (See Jones’s Fasti Sarisb.)
The armorial bearings attributed to the bishop do not assist much in identifying any distinct family name: there being (according to Bedford’s Blazon of Epis- copacy) no less than three different coats among which to chuse :—
1. Lozengy [P] on a cross engrailed five cinquefoils. Seal, MS., Ashmole, 833.
2. Three bars wavy. Gatehouse at Esher palace, and MS., Brit. Mus. Add., 12443.
3. Azure, two lioncels passant O., in a bordure A. Harl. MS. 6100, and MS., Brit. Mus, Add, 12443, fol, 130.
Francis Thynne, the Herald, in a MS. at Longleat, draws this last coat, with a border Gules, and the lioncels passant gardant: impaled with the See of Win- chester.
The bishop’s “secretum,”’ or private seal, among the archives at Winchester,’ is said to exhibit “a cross engrailed with five mz//ets pierced.”
In the Wilts Archeological Magazine, vol. i., p. 186, Note, it was stated by the present writer, in the notes upon Leland’s Tour in Wilts, that there was some reason for believing William of Edyngdon’s family name to have been Cheney ; principally on the authority of a manuscript in the Ashmolean Library: but upon subsequent inspection of that document this appeared to be incorrect. Of the coats of arms variously attributed to him (as just described) not one in any way resembles those of Cheney of Co. Wilts, which were, “A Fess lozengy, each charged with an escallop, as may be seen in Edingdon Church). But though not of their blood, it is clear from many circumstances that the Cheney family is to be reckoned among his principal coadjutors and patrons. They resided at Brook House, in the parish of Westbury.
2 In 1329 (3 Ed. ITI.) John, son of Roger Enok sold to William of Edingdon, Rector of the Church of Middleton juxté Bannebiri all his tenement in North- mead, and an acre lying by the road from Tenhide to Sweltenham (Edingdon
Chartulary).
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 245
of Salisbury. ‘His patron seems to have been Adam de Orleton,! Bishop of Winchester, who in 1335 promoted him to the valuable Rectory of Cheriton,? in Hampshire (to which it was his own fortune afterwards to present a relative—John de Edindon—in 1347),?
On the death of Bishop Adam de Orleton (William Devenish having been at first named as his successor, but set aside by the Pope), William de Edyngdon was, by Royal favour, nominated to the
1 Adam de Orleton, Bishop, first of Hereford, then of Worcester, finally of Winchester, is supposed to have been, by a sermon preached at Oxford, instru- mental in sealing the fate of King Edward II. He is also said to have been the author of the ambiguous Latin sentence, “ Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est”: which, according to the way in which it is punctuated, either recommends or forbids the murder of that king. Some one (probably Thomas Fuller) translated it :-—
“To shed King Edward’s blood Refuse to fear I count it good.”
A comma after “refuse,’’ dissuades from the murder : after “ fear,’ recommends it.
A similar mis-punctuation may, by the way, be mentioned, occurring in Villani’s Hist. of Italy. One Provenzano Salvani of Sienna was told by an enigmatical spirit, before an engagement :—‘ Thou shalt go fight conquer not die in the battle and thy head shall be highest in the camp.” Putting a comma after “conquer,” he read it:—* Thou shalt go, fight, conquer, not die,” &e. ; but putting it after “not,’ he went, was killed, and his head cut off and carried through the camp (Cary’s Dante, II., Notes, canto xi.).
2TIn 14 Ed. IIL, A.D. 1340, “Wm. de Edindon, Parson of the Church of Cheryton purchased 4 messuages, 65 acres of arable and 29 of pasture in Westbury and Muleborne from Thos. Bracton (Add. MS., 24831, £. 14, and Hoare’s West- bury, p. 79.)
3 This John of Edingdon is most likely the same who was Master of St. Cross Hospital, near Winchester, 18th April, 1349, and Rector of Farnham, 1366, On 30th June, 1368, he was cited to appear in the Bishop’s Court on a complaint brought against him by the parishioners of Fernham, for having embezzled the materials purchased by his predecessor, Archdeacon Inge, for re-building the chancel of Fernham Chnrch. He was again cited (in March following, and once more on 6th November, 1369), for neglecting to proceed with the repairs: being charged also with having received from Bishop Edingdon the money bequeathed by Archdeacon Inge for that purpose. A John of Edingdon was installed.
Prebendary of Chamberlain Wood, in the Church of St. Paul, 20th October, 1366,
and Rector of Woodham Ferrers, in Essex, 26th April, 1393. They were probably all one and the same person, viz., the Archdeacon, who enjoyed this dignity up- wards of thirty years, and died at length in 1397. (Manning and Bray, Hist
of Surrey.)
246 LEdingdon Monastery.
see of Winchester. The Papal bull confirming the appointment is dated at Avignon, 9th December, 1345.!
On Friday in Easter Week following he appears as Lord Treasurer of England amongst the grandees present in the Archbishop’s chamber at Lambeth, to receive the homage of Edward the Third’s son-in-law, John de Montford, Duke of Brittany.2 When the King was projecting one of his expeditions to France, he appointed his son Lionel to be guardian of the realm; Bishop Edingdon and the other chief officers of State to be his advisers. The Treasurer’s principal business was to raise money for the enterprise: a difficult operation, in which one of his predecessors—Archbishop Stratford— had been very unsuccessful; the King’s extravagance baffling the utmost exertions of his financiers. “ During Bishop Edington’s management of that office,’ says Fuller,> “he caused new coins, unknown before, to be made, groats and half groats, both readier for change and fitter for charity. But the worst was [“ imminuto nonnihil pondere”| the weight somewhat abated. If any say that this was an unepiscopal act, know he did it not as Bishop but as Lord Treasurer, the King, his master, having all the profit thereby. Yea, succeeding Princes following this pattern have subdiminished their coin ever since. Hence it is that our Nobility cannot maintain the port of their ancestors with the same revenues ; because so many pounds are not so many pounds, though the same in noise and number, not the same in intrinsical valuation.” The diminution of weight whilst the value was increased was a plausible but dangerous experiment, which is said to have deranged the price of commodities for a long time afterwards.
Bishop Edingdon, like his successor, Wykeham, whom he or- dained, was a great builder. An able judge in these matters pro- nounced that the Church at Middleton Cheney was built in his time, and a late rector of that parish, the Venerable Archdeacon Churton, used to please himself with thinking that the beautiful east. window and curious porch of his Church were early specimens
1 Foedera, p. 64. 2 Federa, p. 38. 3 Worthies of Wilts.
By the Rev. Canon J. EH. Jackson, F.S.A. £47
-
of the ingenuity and taste of Bishop Edingdon. The Chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster, was re-built and made collegiate in 1347 by King Edward III., who probably availed himself of the Bishop’s skill in constructing it, as he did so in framing a code of regulations for that establishment ; Bishop Edingdon being named as “ Conditor Statutorum ” (compiler of the statutes) in the register of St. Stephen’s, still extant.
Contemporary with that Royal foundation in its renovated state, and not unlike it in form, was the Institution, by which the Bishop proceeded to connect his name and memory with his native village.
2.—Epinepon, A CoLLEGE oR CHANTRY OF PRIESTS UNDER A WarDEN: FOR SEVEN YEARS, A.D, 1351—1358.
The Bishop carried his first plan into execution in A.D. 1351. The parish being large and populous, and the Prebendary Rector of Edyngdon being generally absent, the Bishop’s object was _ to make the property of the Church more directly and continually available in future, for the immediate benefit of the parish. Three priests were appointed to reside, and were endowed; one, as Custos or Warden, superior to the other two, who, as chaplains, were to serve a chantry for the special good of the founder’s soul, and as curates, to minister generally to the parishioners. The number to be increased as additional endowment should be obtained. To carry out this plan the prebend was for the time filled up by a “ Master John of Edyngdon, Clerk” (probably some near relative), and then (in 1351) leave was obtained from the Bishop of Sarum to appropriate the Church and advowson of the prebend with the Chapel of North Bradley annexed, and a messuage and 2 acres. Three more priests were then added, making a total of six. The warden was to con-. tinue to hold the rank of Canon of Romsey. Master John of Edingdon then resigned, and Walter Scarlett was inducted as first Warden or Custos. The title adopted by the new establishment was the same as that of the parish Church: “The B. V. Mary, St. Katharine and All Saints.”
1 Baker’s Northamptonshire, i., 653.
248 Edingdon Monastery.
The whole scheme is set forth in a deed preserved in the chartulary of Edingdon. The Bishop of Winchester petitioned the Bishop of Sarum, who in turn addresses the Pope. Innocent VI. confirms the request, by a bull dated at Avignon, three years afterwards, 10th May, 1354.
After reciting the particulars just mentioned, the document goes on to say that the founder was to present during his life: after his death the Wardens were to be collated by the Bishop of Sarum, within two months after a vacancy: or in case of lapse, the pre- sentation to be by the Chapter of Sarum: in case of omission, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Immediately after induction, the Custos to take corporal oath that he would continually reside at Edingdon and personally minister in the Church. Two chaplains to dwell with him, and to be maintained out of the revenue of a chantry to which they should be attached: each of them to have 40s. a year beside a robe at Christmas, or a mark of silver instead. The Custos to have a stipend of 4 marks of silver and one robe, or 20s. An inventory of goods to be taken every year and laid before the Founder during his life; after his death, before the Diocesan. The Custos and two chaplains to live in a house provided for them in Edingdon. The rest of the priests in another, all within the same manse; and to eat together. The Custos to find a competent clerk to wait upon the chaplains at mass and in their chambers: also to provide them with good surplices and amices trimmed with dark fur (‘“‘honesta superpellicia et almicias nigris pellibus foderatas”), to be used in the Church at Edingdon during service. A former Prebendary, Gilbert de Middleton, official of the Court of Canter- bury, and Archdeacon of Northampton, to be prayed for. Then follow long directions about the services, which were always to con- clude with “ Anima Willielmi Fundatoris nostri et anima Johannis germani sui, et anime parentum et benefactorum eorum et nostrorum et omnium fidelium defunctorum per Dei misericordiam requies- cant in pace” (May the souls of William our Founder, and of John his brother, of his parents, of all benefactors to them and us, and of all the faithful deceased rest in peace). The same also to be said daily after grace at table. The Custos and chaplains not to have a
| :
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 249
common seal. No one but the Custos to introduce guests into the house. Any one who did so to pay 38d. sterling for every dinner, and 2d. for every other meal, the same to be stopped out of his allowance. All, and particularly the priests, to avoid excess in eating and drinking. All taverns to be avoided: and no visits to be made to any houses without leave of the Custos. The Bishop of Sarum’s Letters of Request to the Pope, containing these par- ticulars were signed by himself, by the Bishop of Winchester, John the Prior, and the Chapter of Winchester, the Abbess and Convent of Romsey, John of Edyndon, Canon of Romsey and Pre- bendary of Edyndon, and Walter Scarlett, Custos of Edyndon, and were dated 28th October, 1351.
In the meantime, between this application to Rome and the granting of the Pope’s bull in 1354, the Bishop of Winchester con- ceived another and larger design: that of converting his College or Chantry into a Monastery, and building an entirely new Monastic : Church—the one still existing at Edingdon.
In this, as well as in his selection of a particular Order of Religious men, he was chiefly encouraged, says Leland, by the Black Prince, who, having just returned from the winning of Calais and other _ exploits in France, had brought home with him pleasing recollections of a certain order of friars whom he had met with, called Bonhommes, _ or Boni-Homines. Of this order there was at that time only one house in England, viz., at Ashridge, in Buckinghamshire, Edingdon became the second: and besides these there never were any others?
3.—TuEe Monastery.
In 1352 (26 Ed. III.) the first stone of the Monastery of Augus- tines called Bonhommes, was laid on the 3rd July? The building being likely to occupy some years there was at present no change in the chaplains; Bishop William meanwhile occupying himself
1Jn the Journal of the Archeological Association, vol. xxxvii., p. 73, it is stated that there was a third on College Green, Bristol, now the Mayor’s Chapel. But there is no mention of this in Tanner’s Notitia Monastica. _ *Teland’s Itinerary, vi., p. 48, quoting a book which he saw in Edingdon Monastery. See Wilts Arch. May., i., 189.
250 Edingdon Monastery.
in increasing his means of endowment. For this he appears to have made very great exertions: not only by large purchases of his own, but by obtaining assistance from the piously-disposed in the neighbourhood. The first step was to enlarge the site, by obtaining out of the Abbess of Romsey’s land an addition to the churchyard. This deed is given in Madox’s Formulare, p, 165 :— “ July 1352 [26 Ed. III.}.
“Indenture between the Abbess of Romseye of the one part, and Walter Scarlet, Warden of the Chantry in the Prebendal Church of Edyndon newly founded by William of Edyndon, Bishop of Winchester, and the Chaplains of the said Chantry, of the other part : Witnesseth that the Abbess hath given to the said Warden, &c., half an acre and 10 perch of arable contiguous to the Church of Edyndon; and 1% acre and 24 perch of meadow contiguous to the Manse or Close of the Warden, for its enlargement, in Free Alms, in exchange for Half an acre and 10 perch and 13 acre and 24 perch of meadow in Edyndon. Dated at Romeseye in the Chapter House of the Abbess and Convent, Monday before the Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula. 26 Edw. III.”
The Rectory or Bucktanp, near Faringdon, with the Chapel of Bureote, annexed. This was purchased by Bishop William of Edingdon from Sir Thomas Besils, and then given to the house.! Out of this the priory paid 40s. a year to the crown on account of the dissolved Priory of Wallingford. At the Dissolution it was annexed to the see of Bristol. One of the Buckland deeds in Eding- don chartulary, dated Southwerk, 18th June, 1353, states that “the number of chaplains being originally three, the Bishop intended to add three more as soon as the profits of the Church of Edingdon should be received [this had been done]; and three more as soon as those of Buckland Church.” It had now become nine.
1352. Correripen. Here and at Southwick, 40s. in rent of land that had belonged to the Cheney family, passed into the hands of John de Edingdon, Kt., and through him to the bishop’s foundation: and at the same time the mills at Sweltenham (or Swetnam).
A.D. 1354. Epinepon Prespenpat Rectory. The appropriation of this, lately granted to the bishop for his chantry, was now con- firmed to him for his monastery. He reserved to himself for life the right of appointing the superior or Rector of the new priory, as
1 Dr. Rawlinson’s Collections : quoted in Lysons’s Berks, p. 253.
fee ede
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F-8.A. 251
well as of nominating to any Churches or Chapels belonging to it. After his death the patronage to be exercised by the Bonhommes themselves. In 1365, after the Founder’s death, the appropriation and possession of Edingdon Prebend was contested by one Thomas Duncklent, clerk, Rector of Tredyngton, Cornwall: but ineffectually (Eding. Cartulary).
North Brapuey. The Church of St. Nicholas of North Bradley having been heretofore annexed to Edingdon Prebend, its land and tithes became henceforth impropriate to the house of Bonhommes. The Rector of Edingdon Bonhommes continued to present to the Chapelry or Vicarage of North Bradley from about 1351 to 1543, when the Crown became patron by seizure. In 1545 John Owen, Esq., then lord of the manor of Southwick (in North Bradley), was patron, probably only for the turn. In 1552, and since, Winchester College.?
Some years ago there was still to be seen on glass in the east window of North Bradley Church, the arms, A cross charged with five roses, for the coat of Edingdon Monastery : the same as appears in stone on Bishop Edingdon’s work in Winchester Cathedral. There was also at Bradley the name of “ Thomas Elme,” Rector of Eding- don Monastery, 1433—1450, in one of the south aisle windows: showing perhaps the date either of the re-building or embellishment of that Church.
Some land at Drrcurimen, near Box, was given, probably by the bishop’s patrons, the Cheney family.
1354. STEEPLE, 7.e., STaPLE, or Market, or East Lavrneron. About this time Bishop William impropriated the Advowson, with the Chapel of Gore, dependent upon it, to his monastery, which continued to present to it till the Dissolution. One of the deeds in the chartulary states that in 1368 (42 Ed. III.) the Bonhommes of Edingdon purchased the Manor from Robert Forestall. They held it of the Crown iu capite, charged with 20s. a year to Devizes Castle,
? The Crown had taken North Bradley from the college, by exchange for Enford,
in 1544: but by another exchange, in 1 Edward VL, it was again restored to
the college. North Bradley Church was charged with the payment of 12s. a year
_ to the Vicar of Steeple Ashton.
252 Edingdon Monastery.
5s. a. year to the Preceptory of Hospitallers at Ansty, in South Wilts, and £9 6s. 8d. a year to the Chapel of St. Katharine, of Wanborough, Co. Wilts, to which the monastery presented. After the Dissolution the payment last mentioned was made to Magdalen College, Oxford. The Bonhommes had the whole Rectory of Market Lavington, including Easterton. After the Dissolution the Rectory of Market Lavington proper and the presentation to the vicarage were given to Christ Church College, Oxford. The Easterton tithes were shared by many owners.
From the same Robert Forestall the bishop purchased some land at Coulston and Seend (I. p. M., 41 Edw. III).
1358. March 29th. The consent of the Bishop and Dean and Chapter of Sarum to the Commutation into a Monastery is embodied in a Latin charter of Foundation (printed in the New Monasticon, vol. vi.), of which the following is a translation :—
1358. 29 March. “To all, &c., Robert [Wyvill] by Divine permission, Bishop of Salisbury, greeting in the Saviour of all.
“Under the holy sanction both of the law of the land and of the rules of the Church Religious foundations, though in their origin wise and wholesome, and formed after much wakeful consideration, have been sometimes changed with a view to improvement. And whereas some years ago the Reverend Father in Christ, William, by the grace of God, Bishop of Winchester, thoughtful of his own salvation, and desirous to make a blessed exchange of things earthly and transitory for things heavenly and eternal, founded in the Parish Church of Edingdon, in the diocese of Sarum, the village whence he derived his birth, a perpetual chantry of certain secular chaplains, for the health of his own soul, those of his parents and others of the faith, for the praise and worship of God, and in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Katharine and All Saints, under which title the said Church had been dedicated: and did further endow the same sufficiently for maintenance of the said chaplains and other things necessary for the said chantry.
“But afterwards carefully reflecting that though whilst leading a secular life, men might, under Divine grace, very well discharge their duties, blot out sins and render a good account of the talent entrusted to them ; still, they have more undisturbed leisure for these duties, when, despising honours, and withdrawn from those worldly distractions that disturb contemplation, they prefer to seek a heavenly country by submitting their own will to the power of another, to live according to the observances of holy rule and to serve the Lord continually. He [the said William] has long since desired and still earnestly desires that the chantry and secular society [“ecclesia’”’] united with it may be elevated into a Religious House : wherein may be settled in (as it is hoped) the perpetual service of God and his most blessed Virgin Mother, Brethren of the Order of St. Au- gustine, commonly called Boni Homines, by whom as by vigilant husbandmen, a
i i i
. ; ; ( : ‘ } ;
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 253
garden of healthful plants may be watered and, by the help of the Lord, produce
- rich and ripe fruits, flourishing in the House of God. We, therefore, approving this pious intention, with consent of our Chapter of Sarisbury and all concerned, decree that the said chantry and secular Church shall be elevated into a House of Religion, &c.”
1358 (32 Ed. III.). 5th April. The Warden and secular chantry priests still held their places, as in this year Walter of Sevenhampton was appointed Warden by Bishop Edingdon. He was probably soon
- pensioned off, or may have taken the office only pro temp., haying declared not to become a monk: for ten months afterwards the bishop’s arrangement for the new monastery was so far completed as to admit of the
First Tonsure or THE Breturen, 16th September, 1358. The meaning of the ceremony was, that instead of being secular chap- lains, unfettered by monastic rule and vow, they now became
subject to both.
The “Dean” (says Leland, meaning the Warden), Walter of Sevenhampton, was the only one who declined to become a Bon- homme. The title of Warden was now dropped, and the superiors of the new monastery became “ Rectors.” The first was John of Ailesbury, a brother from the house at Ashridge, Co. Bucks. His license to assume the Rectorship of Edingdon had been granted by the Bishop of Lincoln in December, 1357. A second license was necessary from the Rector and Convent of Ashridge to enable him to leave that society. He was instituted to Edingdon Monastery by deed of Robert Wyvill, Bishop of Sarum, dated Maiden Bradley, (12th April, and was inducted 14th April 1358.
- Thomas Fuller has (as usual) some facetious remarks upon the
class of Augustines who were called by the peculiar name of Bon- hommes. “The Bonshommes or Good-men, being also Eremites, were brought over into England by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in the reign of King Henry III., his brother: so styled (not exclusively _ of other orders) but eminently because of their signal goodness. _ Otherwise the conceit of the epigrammatist [John Owen], admiring that amongst so many Popes there should be but five Pious, lies _as strongly here; that amongst so many orders of Fryers there should VOL, KX.—NO. LX. s
254 Edingdon Monastery.
be but one of Good-men. . . . . These Bonshommes tho’ begging Fryars [the poorest of orders], and eremites, the most sequestered of begging Fryars, had two (and I believe no more) convents in England, absolutely the richest in all the land (monks only excepted), the one at Ashridge in Bucks (now the mansion of the truly Honble. the Earl of Bridgewater, where I am informed more of a monastery is visible this day then in any other House of England. It was valued at the Dissolution at £447 8s.64d. The other at Edington in Wiltshire (now [1662] known for the hospitality of the Lady Beauchampe dwelling therein), valued when dissolved at £521 12s. It seems that these Fryars tho’ pretending to have nothing, nec in proprio nec in communi, would not cast their caps (I should say their cowls) at rich revenues if bestowed upon them, but contentedly (not to say cheerfully) embrace the same.” !
The Rector was by custom entitled to sit in the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury.”
A deed in the chartulary, headed “Transmutatio Cantarie de Edyndon,” gives the full scheme of the Bishop’s Foundation. The following is the substance of the more important part. It runs in the name of Robert (Wyvill), Bishop of Sarum, and is dated at Salisbury, 29th March, 1358 :—The office to be said according to the Use of Sarum, daily and nightly. The brethren to attend the Chapter House every day; thence to mass. Then follow details of the services, striking (pulsatio) of bells, &c. All to attend, unless occupied out of doors. During a vacancy of the Rector, the house to be governed by a deputy called the Cor-rector. The qualifications for becoming a brother of the house are that the candidate shall be
1 Fuller's Church History, Bk. vi., sect. i., art 24,25. As the title of a sect of grave religious men, this French name of course could not be intended to convey the modern meaning of the French word, “easy good-natured men,” but that of “doers of good works.’ There was an Oriental order of monks, on Mount Sinai and elsewhere, called Caloyers, or Kalories, a name of similar kind, which some have fancied to be derived from, and to be a corruption of, the Greek KadAéepyo, operum bonorum artifices (doers of good works). (See Pegge’s Anonymiana, cent. xil., 93).
In Todd’s History of Ashridge is an account of the peculiarities of the Order of Bonhommes.
2 Hody’s Hist. of English Councils, 1701, p. 6.
‘<a ee ee a
,
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 255
of govd character, competently learned, under no kind of bondage of debt or service, unmarried, and suffering from no incurable malady. When they desire admittance, and it has been granted, they are to be introduced into the Chapter, and on being asked what their object is (“quid petant?”), they-are to prostrate themselves on the ground and reply “The mercy of God and truth.” The Rector is then to say, “ Rise,” and he is to explain to them the rigorous observances required of Religious men. On answering that they are ready to keep these, they are further to be asked, whether any of the im- pediments before-mentioned exist ? If there is none, a year of probation is to be assigned. They are to assume the dress: when dressed to be taken into the choir, “ Veni Creator” to be chanted, they being prostrate before the altar. Then “ Kyrie Eleison,” ** Salvos fac servos,” “ Dominus vobiscum,” &c. When the year of probation is over, they are to be asked whether they will live ac- eording to the rule of St. Augustine and the institutions of the house? If so, their profession to be made in this manner :-—I, A.B., vow and make profession, and promise obedience to God, the B. V. Mary, and to thee, C.D., Rector of Edyndon, according to the rule of Augustine and the institutions of the Bont Homines of this place: and I will be obedient to thee and thy successors, even to death.’ Whilst saying these words, the candidate is to hold his hands between the Rector’s. Then the dress, at least the tunic and scapular, to be eonsecrated after the following form: ‘ O God, who didst vouchsafe to take upon Thee the garb of our mortal nature, grant we beseech thee that these garments appointed for our use by our Holy Fathers in token of holiness and innocence, may by our hands be so blessed, that he who wears them may be meet to behold Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Twice a year the Rector to produce his ac- counts before the four senior brethren. In theChurch duringchanting, in the dormitory during sleeping, and in the refectory during eating, silence to be observed. The brethren to avoid disputation. At all times, especially in conversing with the scholars,‘ to use the language
1No account has been met with of the “ Scholars,” but it would seem from the phrase that young people of the parish, or perhaps boarders from a distance, did come to the Monastery for instruction.
8 2
256 Edingdon Monastery.
of modesty. The Rector to be vigilant over the flock committed to his eare: the brethren not to be vagabond and idle, but diligently oceupied in good works. From Easter to the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14th Sept.),a short sleep to be allowed after dinner. After the sleep, regular chanting, except on fast days. Then in chapter everyone to confess any open irregularity and do voluntary penance. Tf he neglect, the Cor-rector to punish him. After the punishment, prayers for benefactors and the departed: then certain special prayers for the founder, the King, the Bishop of Winchester, the Bishop of Sarum, John de Edyndon, the founder’s brother: also for Adam de Orleton, late Bishop of Winchester, and Gilbert de Middleton,! Archdeacon of Northampton. When a brother dies the chapter bell to be struck (pwlsetur): the brethren to go to the infirmary and minister to any sick: the body to be washed and wrapped in its habit: then to be watched by half the quire before matins, and the other half after matins. The funeral on the following day. When the founder dies, his Obit and that of his father, mother, and brother to be observed with all due solemnity.
The number of brethren, clerks, and priests in the house to be as many as the revenues will support without difficulty. No corrodies to be charged upon the monastery. All the brethren to wear grey tunics (tunicas griseas) with scapulars of the same shorter than the tunic, and with hoods of competent size. Also to have cloaks of the same colour down to their feet. The Rector and brethren to have decent large round capes of grey when they go any distance ;
1He had been Prebendary Rector before the change to Warden and Chantry. The place from which he took his surname was probably Middleton Cheney, near Banbury, Co. Oxon: with which the Westbury families of Paveley and Cheney were connected. In the Calendar of Patent Rolls, is a notice of his being in danger of depri vation of his estates as a rebel; and he had a good deal to lose: for in “ Fasti Eccles. Sarisb.”” Canon W. H. Jones says “Gilbert of Mid- dleton was well endowed with prebends, holding them, at one and the same time, at St. Paul’s, Lincoln, Sarum, Chichester, and Hereford. In 1312 he was ‘ Firmarius’ of the Church of Bradford (on Avon), under the Abbess of Shaston. In 1321 the King granted him that he should not be disturbed in any of his benefices.” Well-endowed Prebendaries not being generally of a turbulent or rebellious temperament, one is curious to know something more of the disloyal doings of this singular plural man.
By the Rev. Cunon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 257
to wear linen next the body, except on the nether limbs: all to sleep in garments of wool or hemp (laned seu stamined). Besides the number of brethren above-mentioned, to be two secular priests to wait upon the parishioners of the Church in the nave and to look after them in distributing sacramentals, &. ‘The founder’s will and mine” (the Bishop of Salisbury’s) “is, that the Rector have a confessor, a discreet and proper person to be approved by the con- vent.” The brethren to confess twice every year to the Rector.
Signed and sealed by the Bishop of Salisbury and the Bishop of Winchester, the founder.
1359. 20th September. King Edward III. granted a charter! confirming the privileges of the monastery. This document begins by an acknowledgment of Bishop Edingdon’s long and indefatigable labours, and his wisdom and faithfulness in administering the affairs of the whole kingdom. It is dated at Leedes Castle, in Kent, and witnessed by Simon (Islip), Archbishop of Canterbury, W. Wynton (the founder), Chancellor, John (de Shepey), Bishop of Rochester, Treasurer; Henry, Duke of Lancaster, William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, Ralph Mortimer, Earl of March, Henry de Percy, John de Grey de Codnore, and Guido de Bryan, Seneschal of the Palace.
The same year was granted a license from the Crown to crenellate (embattle) the manse of Edingdon Priory, and enclose it with a wall of lime and mortar, on petition of the founder : also to enlarge the house and cemetery: and to have a way between the house and the church. An agreement about this, made between the Abbess of Romsey and the Rector of Edingdon Monastery, is signed by John de Edingdon, Sen., and John de Edingdon, Jun., the bishop’s brother and nephew.
1361. The Priory Church was finished, and consecrated by Robert Wyvile, Bishop of Sarum. The day is notnamed. Leland (referring to the book he saw at Edingdon), says (but erroneously) that the saints to whom it was dedicated were S¢. James the Apostle, St. Katharine, and All Saints.
1 Harl. MS, 927, and Lans, MS. 442.
258 Ldingdon Monastery.
The next purchases made by the founder were from Edmund de la Beche, Archdeacon of Berks: viz., ALVERCOTE manor, near Burford, on which was a charge of 8s. a year to the Earl of Shrewsbury’s manor of Bampton: ALWALDEsBURY, from Sir William de Goatacre, Kt.: and Wustwett (one hundred acres) from John Laundells, subject to 20s, a year to the Prior of St. John of Quenington or Queenhampton, a preceptory of Knights Hospitallers in Gloucester- shire (Val. Eccl. II., 142).
1361. Sir John de Edingdon, Senior, (Knight) died. The Rector and brethren by arrangement succeeded to the lands which he held under Romsey Abbey, at Eprnepon, Tynu1pg, Bratron, CorEripGs, Mitsourng, Stoxx, and Eartstoxe. The Abbess, Isabel Camoys, and the Convent of Romsey, granted license to Sir John de Eding- don, Junior, Knight, to release them to the monastery, which he did in this form :—“I John of Edyndon, Kt., at the request of William Bishop of Winton, my uncle, and for the health of the soul of my father, have given to John, Rector of Edyngdon, and the convent, all my lands in Edyngdon [&c.], to have and to hold for ever in free alms.” Witnesses, William Fitzwaryn, Philip Fitzwaryn, Knights, Nicholas Bonham, John de Roches, Thomas Gore, and others. Dated at Edyngdon, 20th February, 36 Ed. III. (Ed. Regis- ter).
The lands in Edingdon parish thus derived from the founder’s brother, and belonging thenceforth to the Rector and brethren, were for a long time called Edingdon Rectory Lands, to distinguish them from such portion of the parish as the Abbess of Romsey continued to hold till the Dissolution, and which were called Edingdon Rom- sey’s. The monastery paid to the Abbess a chief rent of £3 6s. 8d. per annum.
1361. Bishop Edingdon held for the monastery five virgates of land at Bucktanp and CaNnFIELD, and Cotgsuitt Manor, all in Berks: also lands at Bratron, Higuwortn, and Estuorp. Re- mainder to himself (I. p. M.).
1361. A patent was granted for the manor and advowson of Tormarton, Co. Gloucestershire, purchased by the founder from Sir John Philibert, Kt., and for a rent of fourteen marks of silver out
By the Rev. Canon J. £. Jackson, F.8.A. 259
of the manor of Kingston Deverel, Co. Wilts, given by John Husee, brother and heir of Sir Roger Husee, Kt.’
Tormarton was subject to 2s. a year to the Prior of Eynsham. in 6 H. IV. Sir Thomas Hungerford held some rents there, be- longing to Edyndon (I. p. M.).
1361. John Laundels held for the Rector of Edingdon, Krny- core and Munster manors, in Oxon. Remainder to himself (I. p. M.).
1361. Bishop Edingdon is nominated by the King guardian of Joan, co-heiress of John Pavely, lord of the manor of Westbury and of the hamlet of Hefding-hill (Bratton).? She afterwards married Sir Ralph Cheney, whose name is given to the mortuary chapel now standing between the nave and south aisle of Edingdon Church.
A license from the Crown, dated Westminster, 6th May, was granted to enable the monastery to conduct water to the Prior’s house from a rivulet in the middle of Edingdon village. The same for the Abbess of Romsey to a house belonging to her.?
1362. 36 Ed. III. The Abbess of Romsey gave the Rector and brethren two messuages and one virgate of land, &c., in Edingdon, in exchange for others in the same vill (Inq. a.q.d.).
1362. West Itstey. Co. Berks. Some land here called “ Pen- ley’s” held under the Duchy of Lancaster, was given to the monas- tery by Sir Richard Penley, who was afterwards buried at Edingdon.*
1 Edingdon Register. The name of “ Hussey Deverel” still survives for some part of the parish of Kingston Deverel.
2 See this in R. C. Hoare’s Hundred of Westbury, p. 59.
3 About a quarter-of-a-mile from the site of the Priory, and about one hundred yards to the right of the road leading from Edington to Bratton, four springs burst from the hill-side. From the largest is supplied a copious stream that flows through the premises formerly of the Priory, and thence to join other streams tributary to the Avon. Over the southernmost spring a stone fountain-cell (still standing) was built, in the strong and finished style of William of Edyndon. The roof is of stone supported by two pointed arches. The conduit-drain, which ‘had an arched roof, was destroyed some years ago, and the leaden pipes stolen and sold.
* Leland’s Itin.
260 Edingdon Monastery.
He was the owner also of Penley’s, now Penleaze, near Westbury, where Hoke-wood was given to the monastery.
1363. 37 Ed. III. Some tenements at Contyeton and SHorTEs- DEN, in Co. —————, were granted by patent.
Lands in Escore (Eastcort, in the parish of Urcuront) were, purchased by Bishop Edingdon from Henry Rolweston, together with the right of presentation to the chapel there. Out of this estate, Edingdon Priory paid £3 7s. 8d. a year to Wilton Abbey (Val. Eecl.). There was formerly a chapel at Escote, to which Sir Thomas de Ashton had presented down to the year 1322. Edington Monastery presented from about 1358, in which year (though the date is not given in the Wilts Institutions) one Thomas de Aylesbury, probably a relative of John of Aylesbury, first Rector of the Bon- hommes, was nominated. The Bonhommes presented 1405, 1420 1426, 1428, 1449. The chapel stood near the high road from Easterton to Urchfont : some remains of it are now attached to Mr. Drax’s farm-house. The Edington Priory estate at Escote was purchased at the Dissolution by land-jobbers, Tutt and Hame (Hoare’s Warminster, p. 85). ;
1363. Soura Newsenton (Newton Vaence), Hants. Impro- priation of the Church was granted to Edingdon Monastery by patent.
1363. An Ing. p. m. of this year mentions as property of Edingdon Priory, “Tue Hunprep or WuHERWELLSDowN”: and services at the Court of Ashton Manor and Boxgree (?) (The manor itself of Ashton never belonged either to the Bishop or his Monas- tery, but always to the Abbess of Romsey.
TynHIDE (now TinnEAD). The Abbess of Romsey had lands here, distinguished afterwards as “ Tynhead Romsey’s: but there were also some lands called Ten Hides, which had belonged to Sir Robert Selyman and had been sold by his widow, Maud, to the founder’s brother, Sir John de Edingdon, Sen. He gave the reversion at his death to the founder, for the Rector and Brethren of his Monastery, allowing Matilda Selyman, the widow, to hold it during Sir John’s life. On his death this year (1363) it fellin. It was this portion of Tinhead that was afterwards known as “ Tinhead Rector’s” : not
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 261
because it was glebe of a parochial Rector: but because it belonged to the Rector and brethren of the Monastery : and to distinguish it from the Abbess of Romsey’s Tinhead, above-mentioned. A house and seventeen acres of land in Tynhide was held by the Priory, of the Crown in chief by service of a hatchet ; and was called “‘ Hache- davey’s.” The brethren paid to the Abbess, as lady of the manor, _ £1 3s. per annum for their “ Tynhide Rector’s.” As both Romsey Tynhide and Edington Tynhide were, at the Dissolution, granted to one and the same person, Sir Thomas Seymour, and have since generally formed one estate, the distinction between “ Tynhide Romsey’s ” and “ Tynhide Rector’s”’ is lost. ;
Some part of Tynhide belonged in later times to Jeffery Whitaker, of « Westbury family, originally of Lincolnshire (Hoare’s Westbury, 42). Tynhide Court, a fine old grange with grand ecclesiastical barn, is now destroyed. It was some time the residence of the Carpenter family (see Wilts Vis., 1623).
1363. Hieawortu. From Edingdon Cartulary (p. 147) it ap- pears that Laurence de Coleshill grants (for the Monastery) to John le Northerne, Vicar of Buckland, in the same county, and Robert Gundewyne, a brother of Edington Priory, certain lands and tene- ments in Highworth. These in temp. Edw. II., had belonged to Matthew Picot ; in 1338 to one Adam the Fisherman (“ Pécheur”’), of La Bataille; then to Richard of Hanningdon, and then to the said Laurence de Coleshill. The deed is dated London, and is wit- nessed by Sir Thomas de Hungerford, and others. The name of “ Pécheur” indicates that this may have been at a place called Freshdene (now Fresdon) which in the minister’s accounts of Eding- ton property is described as consisting of a “ Firma barcarum,” a ferry.
Some lands at Esrnrop, near Highworth, were given to the Priory by Benedicta Mandeville (see “ Bratton,” below). The Abbess of Godstow paid two shillings a year to Edingdon Monastery for some land at Esthrop (Val. Eccl., II., 194). At Sevenhampton the name of “ Friar’s Mills” probably refers to the house of Edingdon (I p. M.).
CotusuHiLL, Co. Berks. This was the largest estate belonging to
262 Edingdon Monastery.
Edingdon Monastery. It anciently belonged to a family of the same name, to whom Claricia, Abbess of Wynton, had granted the manor in fee farm at a rent of £10 a year for ever... In 1850 Thomas Coleshill sold it to Bishop Edingdon. The Bishop’s feoffees, Nicholas Carewent, Rector of Crondale, Hants; John Bleobury, Rector of Witney, Oxon; Walter of Sevenhampton, Rector of Alresford, Hants; John Corfe, Rector of Collingbourne Abbats, Wilts; Walter Heywood, Thomas Hungerford, and Michael Skylling, knights, assigned it over to Edingdon Monastery in 1366. Out of it was paid to the Hundred of Shrivenham the price of six bushels of corn at eightpence a bushel, by the name of “ King’s corn ” : and two shillings a year to the Mandatory, or Prior, of St. John, of Queenhampton (Quennington), Co. Glouc., chief lord of Burward’s- cot (Buscot). It was granted at the Dissolution to Sir Thomas Seymour, Lord Sudeley.
Edingdon Monastery had also the rectory and patronage of Coles- hill.’
They also had the Hunprep or Surtvenndam, and lands at Larkesy, Catpecot, and SHELLINGrORD, Co. Berks.
1364. Bratton. This was held of Devizes Castle, of the King in chief, being certain lands late William de Mandeville’s, who died in 1333. The donor appears to have been Benedicta, widow of Sir John Mandeville, heir of Joan, the wife of Nicholas de Bosco att Hooke (Hook-wood).
1365. 39 E. III. Hunesrrorn’s Osrr founded. Sir Thomas Hungerford, then of Heytesbury, afterwards of Farley Castle, Bishop Edingdon’s seneschal, and one his executors, by deed dated
1 Edingdon Register, p. 164.
2 Coleshill manor (through an heiress of Pleydell) is now the Earl of Radnor’s. The present house at Coleshill was built in 1650 by Inigo Jones for Sir Mark Pleydell. A window in the Church of the Nativity, at Angiers, was purchased by an Earl of Radnor and placed in Coleshill Church (Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting, II., 38).
In the Archzological Journal, vol. xiv., 268, are some deeds relating to one Nicholas de Tyngewick, Incumbent of Reculver in Kent, for whom, being physician to King Edward I. in his last illness, the King applied to the Pope for a dispensation to hold also the living of “Coleshull, in the Diocese of Sarum.”
By the Rev. Canon J. BE. Jackson, F.8.A. 263
15th August, founded an Obit at Edingdon Monastery ; to be kept for himself and Eleanor (Strug) his first wife: his father, Walter, and mother, Elizabeth (St. John): and Sir Robert, his uncle; on the third day after the Feast of the Nativity of the B.V.M. (which would be on the 11th September) ; with lessons, requiem, &e. Every brother of the house to use a special collect upon the occasion.
His endowment consisted of his lands at Htgnwortu, Easturop, Westurop and Hampton Turvitie, Co. Wilts: part of which late belonged to Edith, wife of Elias de Mandeville. The total value of the lands at these places is stated in the minister’s accounts at the Dissolution, as £24 a year.
By a conveyance dated at Edington the same day, being Monday after the Feast of the Assumption, Sir Thomas transferred the lands, “ except a shop called ‘ Sherer’s shop,’ ” to Thomas Jordan, chaplain, and Robert Gundewyne. Witnessed by Robert De la More and others.!
1365. Lands in Urcuront, Cuartton, and Compton appear to have been purchased from Michael Skylling and William Werston (or Wroughton) (I. p. M.).
And in CuatrigLp and Trowsripes, from Philip Fitzwarren and Constance, his wife.?
Deatu or BisHor WriiuiAmM or Epinepon, THE FounpDER. 1366. In this year William Edingdon, Bishop of Winchester, the founder of this Monastery, died, October 7th, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. Here we may continue and conclude the
~ notices we have of him.
.
In 1349, on the institution of the Order of the Garter, he had been appointed the first Prelate or Chancellor, a dignity which con- tinues appurtenant to the See of Winchester. His place was at the King’s right hand at the Feasts of St. George: and upon each
_ of these occasions he received the costly present of a set of robes.
| q \
For his mantle no less than six hundred ermine skins were required ;
1 From the Hungerford Cartulary. 2 Walker’s Chalfield, p. 4. See also Inq., p. M., 40 Ed. III.
264 Ldingdon Monastery.
for the cape, one hundred and forty.1| On the 19th February, 1357 he was made Chancellor of England, on Archbishop Thoresby’ 8 resignation. His signature stands first to the Treaty of Britanny, by which the King resigned his pretensions to the throne of France. In 1862 Edingdon carried through Parliament the statute by which the English language was appointed to be used instead of French in courts of law, and of Norman French in schools. On the death of Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury, he was elected to the Metropolitan See, L0th May, 1366, but refused to accept the dignity, giving (so runs the tale) as the reason of his refusal, that “ Canter- bury was the higher rack, but Winchester the better manger.” In the Bishop’s antecedent history, however, there is nothing to justify the idea that any motive of that kind would have deterred him from taking the one remaining step to the summit of ecclesiastical rank. It is more consistent with his character to suppose that either in- firmity or years had warned him against undertaking any novel burden; and that this was the cause becomes more probable from the fact that his death took place a few months after the offer had been made.
Towards the latter part of his life he had commenced the re- building of Winchester Cathedral. Milner, in his account of that building, says, “ It is incontestable, from his will, made and signed in the year of his decease, that he had actually begun and undertaken to finish the re-building of the great nave of the Church, though he only lived to execute a small part of it. This consisted of the two first windows from the great west window with the corresponding buttresses and one pinnacle on the north side; as likewise the first window towards the west with the buttress and pinnacle on the south side. The stalls of the choir are also said to be his work, and his also was the mortuary chapel which bears his name. Within the tenth arch at the west end, adjoining to the steps leading to- _ wards the choir [on the south side], is an ancient chantry, by no
1 See Anstis, Order of the Garter. In 1363 (87 Ed. III.) against the Feast of St. George he was allowed for a dress, a cloth of scarlet, a mantel of four hundred and fifty-four ermine skins, a “fwrrura,” or pelisse, of two hundred and forty-
four do., another of two hundred and seventy do., and a “capucium” requiring
one hundred and fifty-four do. (Wardrobe Rolls).
~he
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 265
means to be compared with that of Wykeham, but in the same style of architecture. ‘This contains the monument and the figure of his predecessor, William of Edingdon, a prelate in his virtues and talents only inferior to Wykeham himself.” For a long time this chantry chapel had been consigned to dust and oblivion, but from the disgrace attached to such neglect the authorities are now free. In “ Britton’s Winchester Cathedral” there is an engraving of his effigy, and of his chantry.’ The effigy lies on an altar-tomb “within a stone open screen. The statue is fine in proportion, and has been carefully finished. Its mitre and episcopal costume are ornamented with much taste and elegance. The head rests on two pillows, supported by two angels having censers. The figure ap- pears to have been painted. Round the ledge is a perfect inscription with gilt letters on a blue enamelled ground. There is no appear- ance of a crosier.” The- epitaph, in jingling leonine verse, and in old English char- acter, runs thus :— “ Edyndon natus—Wilhelmus hic est tumulatus :
Presul pregratus—; in Wintonia cathedratus.
Qui pertransitis—,ejus memorare velitis.
Providus et mitis—ausit cum mille peritis:
Pervigil Anglorum—fuit adjutor populorum ;
Dulecis egenorum—pater et protector eorum.
M. C. tribus junctum—post L. X. V. sit I. punctum. Octava sanctum—notat Octobris inunctum.”
“Out of this bombast rhyme? we collect this good character, that he was a vigilant Helper of the People, a Father and Protector of the Poor, a Bishop well beloved, and a religious and devout man ” (Cox’s Magna Brit.). He is said by a contemporary writer to have deserved the title bestowed on him in his epitaph, of father and _ protector of the poor, having given chiefly to them in his lifetime
nearly all that he had.
_ He was Bishop of Winchester twenty-one years. His chantry
1 Plate xxv., Letter A., and page 117. 2 For the credit of Winchester Latinity, the reader must be reminded that as Bishop William of Edyngdon was the predecessor of William of Wykeham, this _ specimen of Latin verse must be considered as Prae-Wykehamite.
266 Edingdon Monastery.
there was maintained by the rents of Oxenbridge farm (Val. Eccl.). Prayers for his soul were also appointed at Lesnes Abbey, in Kent, by the provisions of an Obit founded there for his own family by Sir Thomas Hungerford in 1377. Also at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, every 8th of October; and in Abbotsbury Abbey, for the maintenance of which the Bishop had granted to that convent two acres of land and the advowson of Swinton Toller (or Toller Porco- rum), a parish in which his friends and patrons, the Cheney family, had the estate of Kentcomb.’ At Edingdon Priory his death was of course duly commemorated. His chief monument at Edingdon (‘sl queris, cireumspice”’) is, of course, the noble Church itself. Smaller memorials there, are or were, a stone on the floor, near the south door, bearing the arms of the See of Winchester encircled by stars: and on one of the returns of the mouldings of the porch his coat of arms, on a cross five cinquefoils, within the garter.
“Some,” says Fuller (quoting Speed’s Catalogue of Religious Houses in Wiltshire), “condemn Edington for robbing St. Peter [to whom, with St. Swithin, Winchester Church was dedicated] to pay All Saints collectively, to whom Edington Convent was conse- erated, suffering his episcopal palaces to decay and drop down whilst he raised up his new foundation.” If this was the case, “ he dearly paid for it after his death by his successor William Wickham [an excellent architect, and therefore well knowing how to proportion his charges for reparations] who recovered of his executors £1662 10s.,a vast sum in that age, though paid in the lighter groats and half- groats. Besides this, they were forced to make good the standing stock of the bishopric, which in his time was impaired: viz. (ac- cording to Bishop Lowth) 127 draught horses, 1556 oxen, 4117 wethers, 3521 ewes and as many lambs.” Episcopal farming seems to have been conducted on a very large scale in the reign of
Edward III.
His WILL.
A copy of the Bishop’s will is preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth (Langham Register, p. 144). It is in Latin,
1 Hutchins’s Dorset, I., 530 (old edit.).
a
| | :
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 267
dated ‘at South Waltham in my ‘manerium’ there situate,” 11th September, 1364; and the see being vacant, it was proved before Commissaries “in the Chapel of the Palace or Castle Episcopal of Wolves,” ! near Winchester, 20th October following. It neither mentions any person as a relative or in any way connected with him, nor gives any account of his estate: but after a great number of bequests to various Religious houses, Churches, friends, and servants, leaves whatever residue there may be to finish the work begun by him at Winchester Cathedral, and to help his House or his Chantry of Edyngdon, if in need of help. Among the legacies are: “To Brother John, Rector of my House of Edynton, to celebrate, and to pray for my soul, xx" and a cup of silver with a cover. To each Religious Brother in the said House to celebrate and to pray for my soul C* To the Carthusians in Selwood? Cs : and to Henton C *# To the Church of Cheriton xx marks for the supply of a vestment and x! to the poor. The same to the Church of Middleton near Bannebiri .4 To Thomas Hungerford my Steward, 50 marks and a cup with cover.” The executors were Nicholas Kaerwent, Rector of Crundale, John de Bleobiri, Rector of Wytteneye, Thomas Hun- greford, my seneschal, Walter de Sevenhampton, Rector of Alresford, and John de Corfe, Rector of Collyngeborne Abbas. A marginal note in a later hand states that the clear sum of money bequeathed was £3000.
1366. 23rd January and February. Soon after the founder’s death the Priory exchanged its manor of Highway, near Bremhill, for the manor of BremEtrice, in Westbury parish. The following is the substance of the Latin documents relating to this transaction, printed in Sir R. C. Hoare’s Westbury, p. 61.
A license from the Crown having been given (5th June, 1364, 88 Ed. III.) to Robert Gundewyne and William atte Chambre (two
of the brethren) who held the manor of Highway in fee farm under
1 Wolvesey, near Winchester. A view of part of the ruins is given in the _ title-page of Milner’s Hist. of Winchester, vol. I.
? Witham Friary, near Frome: within the limits of ancient Selwood Forest. 3 Henton Charterhouse, south of Bath. 4 Middleton Cheney.
268 Edingdon Monastery.
the See of Salisbury at a rent of £10 a year,’to grant the said manor to Edingdon; another license was given 23rd January, 1367, to Sir Philip Fitzwarin and Constance, his wife, to give to Edingdon, in exchange for Highway, the manor of Bremelrigg, in Westbury, and fifteen acres in Dilton, with the advowson of a chantry of Hey- wood (in Westbury Church). The exchange was ratified by a deed (in French) a few days afterwards, October 1368. Out of this estate the Priory paid to the Prior of Monkton Farley 10s. 8d., to Sir John Arundel, Kt., 6s., to Lord Stourton, 16s., and to the heirs of St. Maur, 11d., a year.
A.D. 1375- Imper. Sovuta Imper was part of the estate of Romsey Abbey. In 1183 (29 Henry II.) the Abbess had granted a portion of it to Richard Rous in perpetuity, at a fixed rent of £10 a year. In 1375 this (one acre excepted) was conveyed, for the Monastery of Edingdon to two brethren, Thomas Elmedon and John Auncell, by Richard Rous. His descendant, William Rous, in 1435 (14 Hen. VI.) confirmed the gift. At the Dissolution it was worth £17 1s. 8d., out of which Edingdon Monastery paid the £10 a year to Romsey. Another part of Imber (Great Farm) belonged to the Paveleys of Brook Hall—from them it passed to Cheney— thence to Willoughby de Broke, who gave a rent of £3 6s. 8d. arising from it to Edingdon.
.The Abbess of Romsey originally presented to Imber, but after a dispute, Rous obtained it.®
Imber is described in Bacon’s Liber Regis as having been a “ Pre- bend of Edingdon Priory.”
The See of Sarum being this year vacant by the death of Bishop Wyvill, the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed John de Norton, LL.D., Chancellor of Sarum, to act as commissioner for the in- spection of Wilts Monasteries. Lacock Abbey was exempt by
1Tn the Archeologia, vol. xlvii., p. 147, is an interesting account by Dr. Baron, F.A.S.., of Upton Scudamore, of the discovery at Bremridge of thirty-two gold nobles inj fine preservation, and some of considerable rarity. This sum being as it happened, the precise sum of annual rent due from the tenant, the learned Dr. suggests that it had been safely put away against the next rent day, but by some misadventure had never reached the Bursar of Edingdon. 2 Hist of Heytesbury, p. 160, quoting Edingdon Chartulary.
By the Rev. Canon J. BE. Jackson, F.S.A. 269
license of Pope Boniface. Edingdon Monastery was summoned to show by what title it held its impropriate Churches of Coleshill, Edingdon, Steeple Lavington, and Buckland. Thomas de Aylesbury, Prebendary of Urchfont, appeared as Proctor for Edingdon, 12th November: and having given satisfactory explanations was dis- charged (Edingdon Cartulary, p. 27 b.).
1379—1380. Besides the lands, late William Mandeville’s, at Bratton, others at Ditton and Bratton, late Walter Daunsey’s, were conveyed to the Monastery by John Mandeville, Ralph de Norton, and Margaret, his wife, sister of William Dauntsey. Out of Dilton there was an annual payment of 13s. 4d. to the Priory of Monkton Farley, near Bath.
Mops or Erecting a New Recror.
1382. The following extract from one of the deeds in the Car- tulary describes the course pursued in the election of a new Rector, Tt also shows the number of the brethren in the house at this time. “The Cor-rector and convent, eighteen in number, present with sorrow to the Bishop of Sarum that John of Aylesbury, late Rector, had gone the way of all flesh on the 25th March last. After de- liberation the majority, consisting of Brothers William Hampton, Adam Schenlegh, Nicolas Clerk, Robert Offington, William Brok- weye, John Westbury, John Ambresbury, John Tenhyde, John Stowe, Robert Tame, John Brehulle (Brill: these two last Bucking- hamshire names, perhaps from the other house at Ashridge), John Winchester, Thomas Tame, Peter Edyndon, and William Hamme, have nominated three brethren, John Buckland, Thomas Odyham, and Henry Lavington: and request the Diocesan to chuse one of the three. Dated in the Chapter House of Edyndon, lst April, 1382.” Odyham was chosen and immediately instituted: being at the same time required to deliver in a statement of the Churches impropriated to the Monastery.
1390. Corertpen (now Cuttridge, near Westbury). Here cer- tain lands, formerly granted in fee farm by the Abbess of Romsey
to Walter de Quercu (i.e., Cheney) and afterwards sold by John VOL. XX.—NO. LX, T
270 Edingdon Monastery.
Cheney to the founder’s brother, Sir John Edingdon, now belonged to the House of Bonhommes.
An original Latin document (at Longleat) records a solemn pro- ceeding of this date, relating probably to the manumission of a “‘ native,” or “ neif” :—
“Brother Thomas [Odiham] Rector of Edyngdon and the Convent there, authorize John Gowayn their steward to summon a Jury in their manor of Coteridge, and enquire upon oath whether John Sefare, son of John Sefare, of Bradleigh, was or was not a “ Native” belonging to the convent, and of servile
condition. The return to be registered. Dated at Edyngdon Chapter House, Thursday after the Feast of St. Maurice the Abbot. 14 Rich. II.”
1898. 17 Rich. II. Keevit. Impropriation of the Rectory of “ Kyveleigh.” It is this of which Leland says: “ One Blubyri, a prebendary of Sarebyri and executor of the Wille of Hedington ” [Bishop William Edingdon] “ caused a great benefice of the patron- age of Sceaftesbyri Monastery to be impropriate to Hedington” [i.e., the Monastery]. ’ The Church of Keevil had been given by Ernold de Hesding to the Abbey of St. Edward, at Shaftesbury. The documents relating to the transfer to Edingdon are preserved in the Cartulary. The grant by the Abbess, Joan Formage, was witnessed by John, Lord Lovel, Thomas Hungreford, and Ralph Cheyne, Knights, John Gawayne, Thomas Bonham, John Auncell, Thomas Bulkington, and others. The attorney to deliver possession was John Mareys, the Abbess of Shaftesbury’s bailiff for her Hundred of Bradford. An annual rent of four marks was reserved to Shaftesbury Abbey. ' That the transfer of ecclesiastical property in those days was not an easy or inexpensive matter is evident not only from the various petitions to the Crown, licenses, inquisitions, &c., that were necessary : but from the actual bill of costs which appears to have been so enor- mous that the particulars in this case were thought deserving of being recorded (‘im ¢errorem”’?) in the Edingdon Cartulary. They are as follows, taken from a
Public Instrument, dated 1395. Paid to the Abbess and Convent of Shaftesbury, for the Advowson of . Keevil 133 6 8 Expenses in London, settling the annual pension of 182 18 7 4 marks 49 11 11
1 Leland, in Wilts Mag., and Hutch. Dorset, IL, 613.
. this, “Pro anima J. Blebury, Pater noster.
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 271
‘In costs of an Ing. ad. q. Damnum [7.e. to ascertain whether the
Crown would sustain any injury] 37/2. To the Chancellor £80 112 7 2 To the Queen of England £8. John Chittern, £19 13 4. Divers expenses 56/8
To John Waltham, Bp. of Sarum, for License of Appropriation £66 13 4. Gifts to Robert Gawayn his servant, £13 6 8.¢ 86 4 Fees to various officials, £6 4 2
To the Chapter of Sarum £66 13 4. To the Archdeacon £6 13 4. 5 0 0 To Master W. Bradele, official 33/4
To the Chancellor of the Bishop 60/- Expenses at Keevil 52/7 512 7 Expenses at Keevil, “ pro Vicarié dotanda,” &e 313 2 Thomas Lavington [a brother in Edingdon Priory] expenses in ae £18 11 13. Fees “ servientibus ” Selby and Pictese 20 2 43 31/3 Gifts to Master Richard Pictes, Canon of Sarum, for Rell 8 20 the endowment of the vicarage £7 2 0. His clerk 20/. Paid the Court of Rome, for confirmation under leaden seal 33 8
Qui facit 791 marks £527 6 8
The Rectory of Keevil, one hundred years afterwards, was worth only £22 138s. 4d., less outgoings, £4 2s., net, £18 11s. 4d. a year. The actual price of the advowson above was only £133 6s. 8d. The rest represents fees and charges, £394, three times the mere purchase-
money.
The first presentation to Keevil Rectory by the Monastery was in 1400. At the Dissolution it was given to Winchester College, to whom it now belongs.
John Bleobury is often mentioned in deeds of the Hungerford family as a feoffee of their estates, as for instance in the purchase of
Farley Castle in 1369. He had been a brother of the Priory of
Edyndon, where an Obit was kept for him as a benefactor (Leland, and Val. Eccl.). An ecclesiastic of this name was buried at Shillingford, in Berks, where, under the north window of the
chancel, is his monument, on it a brass effigy of a priest vested in
his habit, all within an arch of tabernacle work, curiously wrought. On the brass verge of the marble this epitaph: “De terre fut feat et formé Johan de Bleobury jadys nomé et en terre fu retourné Pan de grace bien accompte 1372 en mois de Marz qui bien lesponde le vint et vint et septisme jour pour qui Dien de s’alme eit pilie. Amen.” In a glass window over the monument was the picture of
John Bleobury in a red gown and purple hood kneeling, and under 2»)
1 Ashmole’s Berks, T 2
272 Edingdon Monastery.
Buikineron; a tything of Keevil. The monastery had here a manor, a farm, customary rents and the rectorial tithe. The donor or vendor is unknown; but it was probably Thomas Bulkington, who is mentioned as having had an obit at Edington, as a benefactor. Out of the rents here the monastery paid, to the choristers of Sarum 9s. 4d. a year: to the Earl of Arundel £1 1s. 6d.: to Sir Walter Hungerford, 1s. 2d.: and to the heirs of John Buller, 5s. (Val. Eccel.).
Bulkington is not named in the Index of Edingdon Register, but is in the Val. Eccl. Perhaps in the former it is included under Keevil. From 21 Rich. II. to 33 Hen. VI. the Fitzalans, Earls of Arundel, had a manor here paying 20s, a year to Devizes Castle. The Stourton family were also connected with it, in Henry V. and Edw. IV. In 5 Hen. V. Richard Vere, Earl of Oxford: and in 1534, Thomas Barkesdale, were freeholders. In 5 E. III. Henry Thomas held at Bulkington twenty acres for a certain chaplain of some chapel not named (Inq. p. M.).
1405. 7 Hen. IV. Stapie or Marker Lavineton, Ler, Brat- ton, WestHorPE, and Firuzap. Tenements at these places were given by John Elys, clerk (Inq. a. q. D. p. 355).
1409. 11 Hen. IV. Somsourne, Hants. When this Church was appropriated to the Priory of Mottesfont, Hants, it was charged with a pension of two marks of silver per annum to the House of Edingdon. The cartulary of Edingdon contains a very long dispute about this, which ended in a writ to the sheriff, W. Cheney, to compel J. Brekenyle, Prior of Mottesfont and Rector of King’s Somborne, to pay Thomas Culmer, Rector of Edingdon, twenty-four marks, arrears of the annual payment.
1423. 2 Hen. VI. Wesrsury and Bratton. Thirteen tene- ments, obtained from John Frank and others (see H. of Westbury, 67). In do., p. 84, is an abstract of many deeds in Edingdon register relating to this.
1427. 5 Hen. VI. West Bratton and Mrrpourns. 5th May. By license from the Crown John Frank, clerk (probably Rector of South Newton) (Wilts Institutions, 1425), Thomas Touke, of Horn- ingsham, John Franklin, of Coulston, and John Spendour, of Immer, convey to the Monastery about three hundred and fifty acres, &c., in
by the Rev. Canon J. BE. Jackson, F.S.A. 278
West Bratton and Milbourne. Out of Bratton the Monastery paid every year to the Crown by the hands of the Sheriff of Wilts, £6 13s. 4d. To the heirs of St. Maur, £1 7s. 9d. To John Arundell, Kt., ls. 1d. To the Hundred of Westbury, 10s. 8d. To the Castle of Devizes, 20s. To the Sheriff, 20d.
1443. 14 Hen. VI. Baynton, or Eprneron Baynton. This belonged to the old family of Rous of Imber, who at an earlier date —1274—held two carucates at Baynton under Romsey Abbey (Hund. Rolls, I., 277). There is in Madox’s Formulare, a deed of the year 1313, from which it appears that the Rous family had always claimed a right to place in Romsey Abbey two nuns, with a *valectus” to wait upon them: with a right of distraining, for their maintenance, upon Brawthorne and Baynton in the manor of Edingdon ; on the plea that those places had been given to Rom- sey by their ancestors. By this deed John Rous, Kt., having ex- amined the Romsey evidences, renounces to Clementia, the Abbess there, both his right to nominate the said nuns, and also all claims upon those places or any others belonging to her in the manor of Edingdon.
Another Sir John Rous, Kt., the last of the old Imber family, had in 1413 settled his manor of Baynton upon his younger son, John, who is called in the Edingdon Cartulary, John Rous of Baynton, Jun. This John, says Sir R. C. Hoare (Heytesbury, p. 162), is chiefly remarkable in the episcopal registers as a promoter of Loll- ardism and heresy, and was accused in 1428 of instigating the inhabitants of Edyngdon and Tinhead to enter into bonds not to pay offerings to the Church for certain services: for which they were frequently summoned to the Bishop’s Court, and seem to have _ been very troublesome to the ecclesiastical authorities: but though John was pointed at as the chief instigator, no sentence appears to have been pronounced against him. In 22 Hen. VI., however, he granted his manor and advowson of Baynton to the Rector and Convent of Edyngdon, and thus perhaps purchased the peace of the Church (Eding. Chart.).
_ His gift, which included also tenements in TynunipE, STEEPLE Asuton, and West Couxsron, was this year confirmed by patent to
274 Edingdon Monastery.
feoffees for the Monastery, viz. John Conge, Prepositus of St. Edmund’s College, Sarum (Wilts Instit., 1443), John Cammell, William Alysandre (patron of Winterbourne Cherbourg in 1424, 1443), and John Touke (I. p. M.). An annual payment of 17s. 11d. was made to the Abbess of Romsey. After the Dissolution, “ Ed- ington’s Baynton,” and five acres at Orcheston St. George, were sold by the Crown to Anselm Lambe (Harl. MS. 607, 25 b. Ar. 59).
Tirnzs of Baynton. The original “ Prebendary Rector of Ed- ingdon Church in Romsey Abbey” had always had a claim upon the tithe of Baynton tything: it being within the parish of Eding- don. This seems to have been a bone of contention, for there was a chapel at Baynton,the chaplain of which claimed to be called Rector, the Rous family being patrons. The Edingdon Cartulary contains some deeds relating to these quarrels. One is headed “ An acknow- ledgment by the Rector of Baynton of having despoiled the Warden of Edingdon Chantry of certain tithes: and of the restitution thereof.” On the 17th December, 1351, before the Bishops of Win- ton and Sarum, and Master John de Ingham, Vicar of Warminster, Thomas the clerk, calling himself Rector of Baynton Chapel within the parish of the Prebendal Church of Edingdon, made a confession in writing, “In Dei nomine, Amen. I Thomas, &c., have unjustly taken great tithes of two acres upon Dunge-Hill, &c.” In 1362 a composition was made between the Rector and Convent of Edingdon and the Patron and Rector of the Chapel of Baynton about the tithes of corn and bay and mortuary fees: in which allusion is made to a former dispute between Gilbert de Bruere (Prebendary Rector of Edingdon) and John de Rous, Kt., the Rector and Patron of Baynton Chapel. The last presentation to Baynton Chapel men- tioned in the Wilts Institutions was in 1439. Edingdon Chartulary supplies another name, William Chippenham, in Edw. IV. The chapel itself has disappeared; but a field called Chapel Close, in which it probably stood, lies in Edingdon parish, between Tynhide and West Coulston, near the old mansion house of the Danvers family (afterwards the Longs), and close to the high road.
In 1857 two leaden coffins were found in a field on “ Blandford’s
Farm,” in Edingdon Baynton.
ee —_——_
By the Rev. Canon J. EL. Jackson, F.8.A. 275
1449. Jan. 5th. William of Westbury, Justice of Common Pleas, leaves by will 40s. to Edingdon Priory (Hist. of Westbury, 18).
29th June, 1450. Tae Murper or Wittiam Ayscouen, Bisnoe oF SALIsBuRY, aT EpINGDON.
The following account of this event is taken from Fuller’s Worthies | (under “ Lincolnshire”).
“He was descended of a worshipful and very ancient family now living at Kelsey, in this county, the variation of a letter importing . nothing to the contrary.’ I have seen at Sarisbury his arms, with ) allusion to the arms of that house and some episcopal addition.’ Such likeness is with me a better evidence than the sameness, know- ing that the clergy in that age delighted to disguise their coats! from their paternal bearing. He was bred Doctor of the Laws, a very able man in his profession, became Bishop of Sarum, confessor to King Henry the Sixth, and was the first (as T. Gascoigne re- lateth)? of Bishops who discharged that office, as then conceived beneath the place. Some will say, If King Henry answered the character commonly received of his sanctity, his Confessor had a very easy performance. Not so, for always the most conscientious men are the most scrupulous in the confession of their sins and the particular enumeration of the circumstances thereof. It happened that J. Cade with his cursed crew (many of them being the tenants of this
1 The prelate’s name is variously written, Ayscough, Ascough, Aiscoth, and Asku (the last being the proper way of pronouncing the name however spelt). The family was of Yorkshire origin, where it was also called Aske.
2'T. Gascoigne’s complaint was that whereas. earlier kings were wont to chusa for their contessors grave doctors of divinity who had no other cure of souls, or if they happened to be appointed to bishopricks were dismissed to look after their dioceses: but that in later times the dioceses were neglected by Bishops being also confessors to the King, Chancellors or Treasurers. ‘The mob” [he says] “when they set on Asku, Bishop of Sarum, to murder him, thus insulted and up- braided him: ‘ That fellow always lived with the King, and was his confessor and did not reside in his Diocese of Sarum with us, nor keep any hospitality: therefore he shall not live.’ Not content with their revenge on the Bishop, they likewise plundered several Rectors and Vicars in the same diocese near Salisbury and about Hungerford, harassing the inferior clergy at a, barbarous
_ rate” [though what the inferior clergy had to do with the King’s conscience they,
did not stop to enquire]. See Lewis’s Life of Pecock, pp. 30 and 135.
276 Ldingdon Monastery.
Bishop) fell foul on this Prelate at Edingdon ” [Bishop Ayscough had no palace at Edingdon, but had merely fled thither for refuge]. * Bishop Godwin could not tell why they should be so incensed against him. But I conceive it was because he was learned, pious, and rich, three capital crimes in a clergyman. They plundered his carriages, taking 10,000 marks (a mine of money in that age) from him, and then to secure their riot and felony by murder and high treason dragged him, as he was officiating, from the high altar. And although they regarded difference of place no more than a wolf is concerned whether he killeth a lamb in the fold or field, yet they brought him out of the Church to a hill hard by, and there bar- barously murdered him, and tore his bloody shirt in pieces, and left his stripped body stark naked in the place.
“Sic concussa cadit populari Mirra tumultu ; Proteget optamus nunc Diaprema Devs.
[By people’s fury Mitre thus cast down; We pray henceforward Gop preserve the Crown. ]
“This his massacre happened June 29th, 1450, when he had sate almost twelve years in the See of Sarisbury.” !
Leland (1540) says “The body of him was buried in the house of Bonhoms at Hedington, and on the spot where he was killed ther is now a chapelle and hermitage.”? Later “Jack Cades” have left no trace either of these buildings or of any monument in the Church of Edingdon, if there ever was one to his memory. The one in Salisbury Cathedral called Bishop Ayscough’s by Gough is of much older date. The villagers used to show, as the scene of the murder, a spot where they pretended that the grass grew so rank and strong that the cattle refused to eat it. An old survey of A.D.
1 There are very few Bishops of Sarum of whom history has so little to say as Bishop Ayscough. See Cassan’s Lives. Also Wilts Archeol. Mag., i., 189, note: and the ‘‘ Chronicle of Hen. VI.” (Camden Society), p. 64, which adds : ‘¢ These two Bishops [Adam Moleyns and Ayscough] were wonder covetous men and evil beloved among the common people, and holde suspect of many defaults, and were assentyng and willing to the death of the Duke of Gloucester, as it was said.”
2 Leland, Itin., III., 98. Wilts Magazine, I., 189.
ae Saye
ay Oe
Ringwood, Hants.
By the Rev. Canon J. HE. Jackson, F.8.A. 277
1570 mentions a ground of five acres at “ Bishop’s Cross on the Hill.” An Obit was kept for Bishop Ayscough at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.
1462, According to a MS. in the Bodleian Library, quoted in Rees’s Cyclopedia, art. “ Church,” a pilgrim deposited the following articles at the Priory :—
A Chapel made to the likeness our Lord’s Sepulchre at Jerusalem. A variety of vestments with imitations in wood of the Chapel of Calvary : of the Church at Bethlehem, the;Mount Olivet, and the Valley of Jehosaphat.
1475. 15 Ed. IV. One John Prescote having purchased some lands at Knoyle, from Margaret, Lady Hungerford and Botreaux (but probably not having the money ready), agrees that the eviden- ces shall be ‘“ putte in safe keeping im a sure place within the Monas- tery of Edington; there to remain until such time as any nede shall require them to be had and seen for the wele of the said lands: and when they have been seen, there to be laid up in safe keeping again,” }
Very few are the incidents that have been met with connected with Edingdon Monastery. One William Way, of Eton, an early traveller in the East, settled at the House on his return.? It is also mentioned by Fox,’ the Martyrologist,* as the place where King Henry the Eighth’s commissioner examined a poor Wiltshire- man, afterwards burnt at the stake, John Maundrell, son of Robert Maundrell, a native of Rowde, near Devizes, but occupier of a farm at Bulkington, near Keevil. ‘ Then succeeded three men who were burnt the same month at one fire in Salisbury, who in the like quarrel with the others that went before them and led the dance, spared not their bodies to bring their souls to celestial felicity . .. Their names were John Spicer, freemason, William Coberley, tailor, and John Maundrell, husbandman, son of Robt. M. of Rowde— dwelt at Bulkington. So it was in the days of King Henry 8, at
1 Hungerford Chartulary. ? His travels to Jerusalem were printed by the late Beriah Botfield, Esq., for the Roxburgh Club: with a preface by the late Rev George Williams, Rector of
3 Fox’s Martyrs, Brewer’s edit., 8vo, viil., 102.
278 Edingdon Monastery.
what time Dr. Trigonion! and Dr. Lee did visit Abbeys, the said John Maundrell was brought before Dr. Trigonion at an Abbey called Edington within the county of Wilts, where he was accused that he had spoken against the holy water and holy bread, and such like ceremonies: and for the same did wear a white sheet bearing a candle in his hand about the market in the Town of Devizes. In the days of Queen Mary he went into Gloucestershire and about Kingswood, but coming back to the Vyes to a friend of his named Antony Clee had talk with him of returning to his own house. On the Sunday following they went to Keevil Church, where Maundrell Spicer and Coberley seeing the people in the procession to worship the idol there, advertised them to leave the same, speaking to one Robert Barksdale head-man of the parish, but he took no regard to their words. When the Vicar came into the pulpit Maundrell called out ‘that was the Devil’s pinfold.? He was put into the stocks, and taken to Sarum next day before Bishop Capon, W. Geffrey being chancellor of the Diocese. After examination they were condemned by the chancellor and burnt 24th March 1556, ata place between Salisbury and Wilton where two posts were set.” ?
Tur DissoLvurion.
1534. 26 Hen. VIII. John Ryve was Rector of the Monas- tery when it was seized by the Crown, by whom it was retained seven years. A valuation was taken. The spiritualities amounted to £128 3s. 6d. a year, of the money of the day, consisting of seven impropriate rectories, viz., Edyngdon, Keevil, Steeple Lavington, and North Bradley, in Wilts: Coleshill and Buckland in Berks, and Newton Valence in Hampshire. The temporalities, consisting of the lands and manors that have been mentioned (together with some small things omitted) amounted to £393 8s. Lld. a year. Wheat, according to the return, was then 5s. 4d. a quarter.
1 Meaning probably Dr. Tregonwell, employed by Hen. VIII. on various com-
missions. See Strype, index.
2 There used to be a gallows, called in Latin deeds the “ Furcz de Bemerton.” . 3In other valuations taken at the Dissolution, a few years only after this, wheat is put at very nearly the same price as at Allington, near Chippenham, 5s, a quarter in 1537. It was at 5s, at Monkton Farley so far back as 1294,
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 279
The seneschals or stewards of the estates were (in 1534), for Wilts, Henry Long, Kt., of Wraxal and Draycote, with a fee of 60s.: for Berks, Nicholas Willoughby, the same: for Oxfordshire, John Briggs, Kt., 20s. a year. The auditors, Walter Seymour and John Macks, or Marks, £2 3s. 4d. a year each.
The Monastery was also charged, by bequests, with the perpetual maintenance both of Obits and Chantries, for the following benefac- tors:—Richard Penley, Kt., John Rous, Simon Best, Sir William Culmer (formerly Rector of the House), Thomas Bulkington, and Thomas Gereberd (probably of Odstock), John Waltham, Bishop of Sarum (d. 1395), John Bleobury, a brother, and William Godwyn (formerly Rector). The principal bequest for this purpose was J. Bleobury’s £8 a year. Also with Obits only, involving a trifling expense, for Nicholas Broke, Nicholas Grey, William Fitzwarren, John Amesbury, John Daunsey (a former lord of part of Bratton manor) and two persons of the name of John Botham. The
total amount of outgoings was £100 2s. 8d., and the net revenue
£321 9s. 8d., 2.e., about £3600 present money. The Monastery seems to have farmed largely on its own account; a large part of Edyndon, all Coleshill and part of Tynhide, Baynton and Bratton being returned as “ in hand.”
1538. 30 Hen. VIII. Thomas, Lord Cromwell, K.G., Keeper of the Privy Seal, presents Paul Bush to be Rector of the Monas- tery.! This would be whilst it was in the King’s hands; between the seizure and dissolution.
Paul Bush was born in 1490. About 1530 he became a student at Oxford, and five years after took the degree of B.A., being then, Wood says, numbered among the celebrated poets of the University. He then became a brother of the Order of Bonhommes, and after studying among the friars of St. Austin (now Wadham College) was elected Rector (Wood calls him “ Provincial”) of his Order at Edingdon, and Canon Residentiary of Sarum. Here he remained (not many, as Wood says, but) two years: when the King being informed of his great knowledge in divinity and physic made him
E 1 Wilts Institutions, II., p. 207. Rymer’s Federa, XIV., 638,
280 Edingdon Monastery.
his chaplain and advanced him to the newly-erected see of Bristol, to which he was consecrated June 25th, 1542, at Hampton. On this promotion he vacated the Vicarage of North Bradley.! “ Pits very erroneously says,” he was made Bishop of Bristol by Edw. VL, partly with a design to draw him from the ancient religion, and partly because they could not find among the reformers any other person of sufficient erudition. This author, however, allows that he denied the true faith by taking a wife, whom, as an excuse, Pits turns into a concubine. In consequence of this connection he was, on the accession of Queen Mary, deprived of his dignity, and spent the remainder of his life in a private station at Bristol, where he died in 1558. Pits, and after him a congenial lover of popery, the late Mr. Cole, says that he dismissed her of his own accord; but that is improbable, as there could be no necessity for such dismission till Queen Mary’s accession, which happened in July, 1553, and the Bishop’s wife died in October following.”
Dr. Paul Bush wrote 1, “ An Exhortation to Margaret Burges, wife of John Burges, clothier of Kingswood, Co. Wilts,” London, printed in the reign of Edw. VI.; 2, “‘ Notes on the Psalms,” Lon- don, 1525; 3, “ Treatise in praise of the Crosse”; 4, “ Answer to certain queries concerning the abuses of the Mass,” in Burnet’s History of the Reformation, Records, No. 25; 5, “ Dialogues be- tween Christ and the Virgin Mary”; 6, “ Treatise of salves and curing Remedies”, 8vo, printed by Redman, no date; 7, “ A little Treatise in English, of which the title, is The Extirpation of Igno- rancy, compyled by Sir Paul Bushe, Preeste and Bonhomme of Edyndon”, printed by Pynson without a date. Astle *® says that the first instance in which he had seen round Roman letters (type) was in a marginal quotation in pica, at the latter end of the second part of Bush’s book: but that Pynson had printed a book wholly in Roman type in 1518. From this it would seem probable that the “ Extirpation of Ignorancy” had been printed before 1518,
1 Wiltshire Institutions, A°. 1543. 2 Chalmers’s Biog. Dict.
3 Origin of Printing, fol., p. 223.
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, FSA. 281
when that type was more uncommon: and hence the conclusion that Paul Bush was a brother of the Bonhommes at Edington before he was twenty-eight years old.
There used to be, a few years ago, in the palace of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol—then at Stapleton, near Bristol—a portrait of Paul Bush, which had been given to Bishop Monk by the Ven. Thomas Thorp, then Archdeacon of Bristol. The dress was a coloured silk gown with some badge dependent from the neck: but whether this was the official costume of the Rector of Bonhommes or not, is uncertain.!
In “Dingley’s History of Marble,” vol. I., p. Ixv., there is a sketch of Bush’s tomb in Bristol Cathedral: of which Britton, in his history of that Church, says, “ At the east end of the north aisle is a low altar-tomb, which supports an emaciated figure of Bishop Bush, who died in 1558. The head rests on a mitre and by his right side is a crozier. Over each of the pillars” [there are three, in front, supporting the flat canopy] ‘is a shield bearing arms. Round the base and cornice of the monument is an inscription.” This is given by Dingley: “Htc JACET DNS PAULUS BUSHE PRIMUS HUJUS ECCLESIZ EPISCOPUS QUI OBIIT XI™ DIE OCTOBRIS ANNO DOMINI M.D.L.VIU. TATIS SUH LXVIII. CUJUS ANIM# PROPITIETUR DEUS CHRISTUS. AMEN.”
“On a grave-stone below the altar-steps, is inscribed, ‘ Of your charity pray for the soul of Ldithe Bushe, otherwise called Ashley, who deceased the 8th day of Oct., A.D. 1553.’ His marriage with this lady caused Bush to be deprived of his bishoprick.” ?
1539. 30 Hen. VIII. On the 31st March the monastery was formally surrendered by Paul Bush. To the original deed in the Augmentation Office an impression of their COMMON SEAU is appen- ded. It is on red wax, and represents the Apostles, Peter, in dexter, and Paul, in sinister, Over them the Virgin Mary and Child; and
1 Archdeacon Thorp told the present writer that the portrait strongly resembled some of the same name then living at Bristol. 2 Britton’s Bristol Cathedral, p. 61. The reader will notice both in the Latin
and English epitaphs a late instance of the request to “pray for the soul.”
282 Edingdon Monastery.
within an arch below an ecclesiastic with a crozier. The legend is “§, COMMUNE. RECTORIS.! CONVENTUS. DE LDYNDON.”
The surrender was signed by Bush and eleven brethren, whose names and pensions allowed to them were these :—Paul Bush, £160 a year, and the houses he reserved from the farmer of Coleshill, Berks. All these he resigned on being made Bishop of Bristol. John Scott, £10; Dnus John Chaundler, £8; Richard Phyllips, £6 18s. 4d.; Thomas Yatte, £6 13s. 4d.; John Noble (novice), £2 ; Dnus John Morgan (novice), £2; John Payne (ditto), £2; Thomas Button (ditto), £2; Thomas Alyne, £6 ; William Wythers (ditto), £2; Robert Hende, £6 138s. 4d, There remained in 1553 in charge, £3 in fees, £17 6s. 8d. in annuities, and the above pensions.”
The following table exhibits the names of the chief ecclesiastics of Edingdon, under their various titles, from A.D. 1286 to 1538 :—
EDINGDON. I.—The Church a Rectory, and Prebend in Romsey Abbey.
Vicars appointed by
A.D, Title. Patron. Prebendary Rectors. the Prebendary, 1286 | Prebendary | Abbess of |John de Berwick. Also
Romsey | Prebendary of York, Lich- field, and London: and Dean of Wimborne-Min- ster, where he was buried (Hutch. Dorset, IL. 78. c.1294/EcclesieRector.| Ditto |John de Romsey. Also1297. Edward de Vicar of North Bradley.) Overton William de Rom-
se 1302 Ditto Ditto |John de London.* ‘ 1312 |Eccl.Prebendar| Ditto Gilbert de Middleton “ Fir-1317. John d marius de Bradford,” 1312,, Winchcombe of Stanton, Oxon. Arch- deacon of Northamptont
1 This word is erroneously priuted PRIORIS in the New Monasticon, vol. vi., p: 586. On the original seal the word REcToRIs is perfectly legible, 2 See Willis’s Mitred Abbies, II., 255, and Add. MSS. (B. Mus.) 24831, p. 250.
*In H. Wright’s Hist. of Domus Dei at Portsmouth, ‘‘ Sir Roger de Harum, Warden of Domus Dei, is stated to have been presented 9th September, 1303, to the Rectory of Edingdon and to the Rectory of Downton, Wilts, 1304, by John de Pontissera (Anglice Sawbridge), Bishop of Winches- ter. but of his being made Rector of Edingdon no evidence has been met with,
+ See supra, p. 248,
In the Wilts Institutions a ‘‘ Robert de Harwedone ’’ was presented to Downton, Wilts, 1303—
Nh EA NR Tia ty
By the Rev. Canon J. EL. Jackson, F.S.A. 283
5 Vicars appointed by Prebendary Beotors. the Prebendary.
1334 | Prebendarius.
Stratford 1337 Ditto i John St. Paul
1338 Ditto i Gilbert de Bruera 1351 Ditto 1 John de Edindon. Nephew/1348. John d of the Bishop Staunford, ap- pointed by th Bishop
Il.—The Prebend united with a Chantry of Secular Priests founded by William of Edingdon, Bishop of Winton.
r Custodes or Wardens of the AD. Title. Patron. College or Chantry.
1351 | Warden of |The Bishop|Walter Scarlet: resigned Oct. 30} Chantry of Winches-| for Houghton, in Hants
ter. 1357-8 Ditto Bishop of |Walter de Sevenhampton Winton.
III.—The same commuted into a Monastery of Augustines, called Bonhommes.
AD Title. Tatron. Rectors of the Monastery.
1358 | Rector of Con-| Bishop of |John Aylesbury. Died 25th 12 Apr. vent Winchester.| March, 1382.
1382 Ditto Ditto |Thomas Odyham 1 Apr. 1414 Ditto Ditto /Thomas Culmer 1433 Ditto Ditto |Thomas Elme z. T. C.* 1450 |Ecc. Conv. de.) Rector and | William Godwyn p. m. T.E. Convent of ; Edingdon 1464 |Mon. of Eding.| Ditto {William Newton _— Ditto Ditto |Willam Hulle or Hill. R. p of Poulshot, 1491, d. 1494) | 1494; Ed. Mon. Ditto |John St. John p. m. W. H. 1515 | E. Priory Ditto |John Rvye p. m. J. St. J. 1538 — Thos. Lord |Paul Bush p.m. J.R. Also
Cromwell, | Vicar of North Bradley, Keeper of| which he resigned 1543. the Privy| First Bishop of Bristol, Seal [2.e.,] 16th June 1542. Resigned| the Crown ]| that see, 1553. Died 11th October, 1558, <et. 68.
_* Mentioned in *‘ Parson of Edington’s case, 19 Hen. VI,” (Gouldsborough’s Reports, 1653, p, 11).
284 Edingdon Monastery.
The vultures were ready for the carease. In the very year of its surrender some of the estates were sold off by the Crown: and among the earliest applicants for the lands at Dilton was John Bush, probably a relative of the ex-Rector. Westwell and West Ilsley were granted to William Berners; Tormarton (only a small property) to Michael Ashfield; and the large estate at Coleshill to the Duke of Somerset’s brother, Sir Thomas Seymour.
1540. 382 Hen. VIII. Of the bulk of the estates in the hands of the Crown, the usual “ Minister’s,” or Crown bailiff’s, account was taken. It is printed in abstract, in the New Monasticon, vol. VI., p. 536. The original document in the Augmentation Office is very minute. The rectorial title of Hawkesley (Hants) which does not appear elsewhere was probably comprised under Sutton Valence in former accounts.
1541. 383 Hen. VIII. The site of the Priory and the lands in the manor of Edyngdon and Tynhide, together with the rectory, were this year granted by the Crown to Sir Thomas Seymour, just mentioned as having obtained Coleshill. He had also a grant of the Abbess of Romsey’s adjoining manor of Steeple Ashton, and of the Hundred of Whorwellsdown.' In the following year, 13th April,
1TIn some of the Hundreds of Co. Wilts small payments still continue to be made to the lord of the Hundred by the occupiers of certain lands, the meaning and origin of which nobody understands: and so they fall into disuse or are the cause of dispute. If any such petty taxes (which scarcely pay the cost of col- lection) should still linger in the Hundred of Whorwellsdown, under the names of «hundred silver,” “certain silver,” “ white money,” or the like, it may be useful to know what places in it were liable at this period. A survey of the manor, among the Longleat documents, says :—“ The sayd hundred, in charge of Henry Brounker, Esq. [acting for the lord], extendeth into these tythings which pay certain silver, as follows, Batelsfield, n2Z, Kevell 5/-, Tylshead 3/4, Colston 6/6, Tynhead 13/-, Edingdon 13/-, Southwick 13/- Bradley 2/6, Semington 6/6, Lyt- tleton 6/6, Henton 6/6, West Ashton 13/-. Also there be divers freeholders which be suitors at the Three-weeken Court yearly following, viz., The heirs of Lord Broke, by lands in Southwick, the heirs of the Lord Souche and Seymor, by lands there, Henry Longe, Kt. by lands in West Ashton late Lord Stourton’s, Thomas Champnes for lands in Bradley and Southwick, Thomas Wyse, in Tyl- shead, Richard Kyrton for hys lands there late Morgan’s, Heirs of Loveden’s for lands in West Ashton, Heirs of Hawkins in Semyngton, Leonard Willoughby in Ashton, late Norfolk’s ; Heirs of Dawntsey in Low Mead, Thomas Horton in Tyls- head, William Bayly in Ashton late Tucker’s, William Button for late Temys
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 285
Sir Thomas’s first court was held. The original MS. of this, with some leaves wanting, but otherwise in good preservation, belongs to Mr. Moore, of West Coker. Meric Ap-Rice,' of Welsh family, was tenant of the manor farm of Edingdon (Edingdon Romsey’s) under a lease for forty-five years granted Michaelmas, 1531, by Elizabeth Ryperose, Abbess of Romsey. Her farmer is called her “ husband,”
z.e., “ husbandman.” That the buildings of the Monastery had not been disturbed in
1549, appears from a survey (at Longleat) made just after the death of Sir Thomas Seymour :—
“The site of the late Rectorye with the Isle of Wyght of Edyngdon with the Lord’s orchard t wo acres, the convent orchard one acre, and the selerer’s [cellar- er’s] orchard one acre and one close of pasture.
‘Mem. ‘The late Monasterye or Rectorye of Edyngton is scituate under the playne and not yet defaced: the Hall, with all houses, buyldings, barnes, stables and other houses of offices all covered with tyle: the Frater and the Cloyster covered with ledde.
‘‘There is a small Fayre kept there yearly upon Releken Sunday [‘‘ Relic Sunday,” 12 July] the profit whereof goith to the Reve which ys not worth 4, by the yere.”
| 1549. 3 Ep. VI. Sir Thomas Seymour (created Baron Seymour
of Sudeley, 16th February, 1547) was beheaded, under warrant of his brother, the Protector. Edingdon and the rest of his estates, reverted to the Crown.
1550. 1 Edw. VI. That part of Edingdon which had been the Abbess of Romsey’s till the Dissolution, was then sold to a great nobleman, Sir William Paulet, Baron St. John and Ear] of Wiltshire, created this year Marquis of Winchester.?
[Rood Ashton], Richard Styleman in Ashton and Lowmede: Heirs of Packer in Semington and Ashton, Gyles Gore in Ashton, John Palmer in do., Henry Brunker for late Loveday’s in do., Antony Passheton for lands in Henton and Lyttleton late Gore’s.
“The late Lord Admiral [7.e, Thomas Seymour, Lord Sudeley] was Lord Royal of this Hundred by reason whereof he had all manner of waifs, strays, &e. : within which Hundred the Sheriff shall not meddle to serve any process, but the lord’s officer only.”
' Mentioned in the Wilts Visitation of 1623 in the pedigree of Carpenter of _ Tynhide.
2 Of this very remarkable man Strype gives the following description: “ He is _ celebrated as one of the greatest temporizers in English history. Lord Treasurer, President of the Council and Great Master of the Household to Henry VIII.
} VOL. XX.—NO. LX. U
286 Edingdon Monastery.
1551. The house and lands called “ Edingdon Rectors” bemg in the hands of the Crown under the Act of 1 Edw. VI., concerning chantries to be dissolved, were leased to Lady Isabella Bayntun ? (born Leigh), the second wife and widow of Sir Edward Bayntun, of Bromham, who had died 1544. During the Bayntun occupation, Sir James Stumpe (son of the wealthy clothier who had bought Malmesbury Abbey) had some interest here, for in his will dated 1563? he mentions “ a lease of Edington.” His first wife had been Bridget, daughter of Sir Edward Bayntun.
In 1561 the reversion of the last-mentioned part of Edingdon (subject to the Bayntun lease) was bought by the Marquis of Win- chester of the Crown for the sum of £1005 16s. 2d., the annual sum of £7 6s. 8d., issuing out of it, being reserved for the stipend of two chaplains serving the Church of Edingdon.
In the collection of papers at Longleat there is the following letter from the first Marquis, relating to an insubordinate tenant :—
William, first Marquis of Winchester, to Sir John Thynne.
“After my right hartie comendations. You and Sir James Stumpe and other your felowes Justices of peace appointing Robert Blackborough* my tenant in
One of the mourners at his funeral and one of his executors. Went along with the Reformation and bought Church lands largely of the Crown. In the next reign Lord Treasurer again. Master of the Wards and Liveries, Lord Lieutenant for Southampton, visited by the King at Waltham (late belonging to the See of Winchester) and at Basing. Appointed Seneschal for the trial of the Duke of Somerset : with the Duke of Northumberland ruled the Court, he by his wit and counsel, the Duke by his stout courage and proudness of stomach. The Marquis of Winchester was a mourner at King Edward’s funeral: signed and swore to the Succession as limited by the King: was, however, one of Queen Jane’s counsellors, yet signed the order to the Duke of Northumberland to lay down his arms. Was present at the proclaiming of Queen Mary; continued Lord Treasurer by her, prayed the Queen not to give away the Church lands without his consent. Knight of the Garter, Lieut.-General south of Trent. One of Queen Mary’s Privy Council: mourner at her funeral: present at the proclaiming of Queen Elizabeth, and Lord Treasurer again. When asked towards his death, how he had contrived to keep his influence through so many religious and political changes, he said, ‘ By being born of the willow and not of the oak.” His life and death were written by Rowland Broughton, 1572.
1The lease was to Sir Edward Hastings, Kt., and Lady Isabella Bayntun. No marriage between them being recorded, Hastings was, presumably, a trustee.
2 Collectanea Topog. et Geneal. (Nichols), vol. VII., 84.
* Robert Blackborough occurs in an old survey as copyholdor of a tenemeat ealled ‘* The Hurst,” part of ‘‘Edingdon Rectoris.”
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 287
Edington to serve your orders for the Queen, wherewith Oswald Burrall a ser- vant of Sir James Stumpe hath given much evil language to the said Robert, and not so content but hath hurte him also: Whereupon you have caused the same Oswald to be bound to the peace which is well done but yet not enough for so evill a ruled man, but thinke him worthie to be commy tted to Warde and in- dicted as a common barratter and disturber of the queen’s peace : and thereupon to put in sureties for his good a-bearing against all the queen’s liege people ex- cept he wolde better obey had Maj'*’s eommandmient then I fear he doth: praying you to take order with Mr. Stumpe and other your fellowes for reformacion of this matter that men serving the queen by your commandment may serve in peace and without hurte. Thus fare you well.
“Written the xviij of August 1562
“Your lovinge frende
“To my loving frende, S'. John “ WINCHESTER.”
Thynne Knight one of the
Justices of peace in the Countie
of Wiltes.”
Seal: within the garter, an eagle volant.
| The first Marquis of Winchester died in 1572. His son John, : second Marquis, married an heiress of the immediate neighbourhood, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Willoughby, Lord Broke, of Brook House, Westbury. At Longleat are two letters from this nobleman,
relating to Edingdon. The first is to request (in some case that
had arisen affecting his woods there), the assistance of Sir John Thynne (the builder of Longleat) who had been in charge, on behalf of the Crown, of the Monastery estates after confiscation :—
No. 1.—John, second Marquis of Winchester, to Sir John Thynne, 2nd May, 1574.
“S', by information into the Exchequer certen woodes of myne about Edington be brought in question for Her Maj'*® and therein my Pattent verie hardlie skanned to my prejudice, and the disadvantage of the most men’s pattents in England, yf it should take place: But for the better travaille of the matter, there is acommission graunted to to the enformere to enquiere of the right thereof by the e_voyses of the cuntrie. And it is allso graunted unto me to joyne certen comyssioners in my behalf to enquiere & examyne wytnesses for my right. Whereuppon I am so bould of your frindshipp as to name you, requesting you to take the paynes in my behalf so far to extend your travail as to meet together with the reste of the comyssioners, at the time and place appointed, whereunto I ‘am so hardlie pressed, as yf you faile to shewe me this curtesye yt will redound to my great disadvantage which I trust your frindship will prevent. Ihave allso sent you the interrogatories whereuppon I would have the wytnesses examyned.
u 2
288 + Edingdon Monastery.
And even so bede you right hartelie well to fare. From my howse at Chelseye this xvj of Maij 1574 “Your assured friend “ WYNCHESTER ” Postscript :— “The Comyssion is returnable the last returne of the next terme.”
“To my loving frind St John Thyne knight geve theise.”
No. 2.—The same io the same. Requesting friendly interference to prevent law proceedings about a small piece of ground.
“T hartelie commend me. Where a servant of yours one Parrey hath through information exhibited, made her Maj‘* a party against Bromwiche a tenant of myne in Edington, surmising me to have intruded upon an acre of ground there, termed Rack acre, & the cause prosecuted unto Trial (at this last assizes to have been had) with more expedition and less indifference then in equitie appertayneth: giveth me to think yourself not privie thereof, as from whome I presume to have been furst advertised of the interest pretended, before the same attempted in manner as before [mentioned], especiallie the matter in demaunde being so small, and myself not so well acquainted therewith as driven with great charge to defend the same. And therefore requesting, if the matter (being no greater) may be otherwise determined then by ordinarie proceedings in Law that I may use your frindlie furtherance therein. And so bidd you use you hartelie farewell. Hooke, this xxiiij'" of September, 1578.
“ Y" very loving frinde “ WINCHESTER.”
The lease by the Crown to the Bayntuns, in 1550, was for many years, and had not yet expired. Lady Isabella dying, was succeeded by her step-son, Andrew Bayntun, Esq. (son of the late Sir Edward by his first wife, Elizabeth Sulyard). From the following letter! (at Longleat) it appears that towards the end of his lease, he had not only committed waste on the premises by well-nigh “ plucking down” the Monastery House, but had before his death taken upon him to assign the lease over to his wife. William, third Marquis,? (grandson of the original grantee) disputed Mr. Bayntun’s right to do so, and applied to the Court of Exchequer for a sequestration of
1 Harl. MS., 286, p. 213. 2 This William, third Marquis, was the author of a now scarce book, called “The Lord Marques Idlenes, containing Manifold Matters of acceptable Devise,
or, Sage Sentences, Prudent Precepts, Morall examples, &c.” Printed by Edmund Bollifant, 1587.
By the Rev. Canon J. EF. Jackson, F.S.A. 289
the estate until a trial could take place. This was granted. Upon this, Mrs. Bayntun, the widow, following a not uncommon practice of those times, made a private appeal to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Sir James Puckering, who thereupon wrote to the Marquis. To this the Marquis replies, in the following letter :—
William, third Marquis of Winchester, to the Keeper of the Great Seal, July 20th, 1593.
“My veryie good Lo. havinge receaved yo" Lo: lre of the xv™ of the last monethe the xx** of this instant Julie addressed att the instance of Mres Bainton, whoe semeth to have informed yo". Lo. of my Receipte and deteyninge of the Rents and profitts of the Mannor of Edington w". shee pretendeth to apptaine unto her. Whearin I finde greatlie to abuse yo". Lo: and wrong me as one de- servinge to possesse nothinge injuriouslie. The cause dependeth in the Exchequer Chamber, and is readie for hearinge and a daie given for the same this next Tearme and the issues and profitts whearoff shee complaineth are by speciall commission out of that Courte sequestered & there remaine in Deposito, untill the hearinge of the said Cawse, so is it not in me to relieve her necessities, neyther to helpe myself so muche as unto the Rentes due unto me out of the said Manor: before the saied Cawse be determined. The reason which moved the Courte to graunte the said Sequestration was in respecte of the great waste and spoils done by her Husbande, whoe beinge my Tennte of that Mansion howse & demaynes, & seeing his Tearme nighe expiered did courablie assigne over the Demaynes to the use of his saied wiffe reserving the said howse, & thereupon presently plucked downe the said howse, and hath so spoiled the same, as one thousande ponndes will not reedifie it againe. Whearin the Courte of Exchequer purposinge to give redresse as cawse shall requier, must submitt myselfe and the
_ eawse to the censure thereof. And even so doe leave yo" good Lo. to the tuyton _ of the Almightie. Aberstone this xx‘ of Julie 1593.
| *Yo'. Lo: to Commaunde
“ WINCHESTER.”
Addressed :—
“To the Right honorable my veraie good Lo. the Lo. Keeper of the Greate Seale of Englande.”
Endorsed :—
“July 20. 1593 “The Lo. Marques in answer to yo" Lo. for M**. Baynton.”
ce At was, therefore, Andrew Bayntun, who died in 1579 and was buried under a large altar-tomb in Chippenham Church, who pulled _ the Priory at Edingdon to pieces. The small portion that remains
290 Edingdon Monastery.
of the original house, stripped of its gables and altered by the later addition of two square castellated appendages, presents but little that is architecturally interesting. There is an engraving of it as it was in 1846, in the Gentleman’s Magazine of that year, p. 257.
In 1587 a subsidy roll of Queen Elizabeth gives the name of William Jones, of Edingdon, gent.,! as the principal person in the parish. It was he who in 1599 purchased Brook House of Lord Mountjoy. A son, Sefton, married a daughter of John Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells: a grandson, Sefton, married Hester, daughter of Walter White of Grittleton, who left two daughters, co-heiresses, Ann, wife of Peter Whatley, and Elizabeth, wife of Henry Long.
The long lease having expired, about the beginning of the seven- teenth century Edingdon became the residence of Sir William Paulet, Kt.,2 one of four natural sons of the third Marquis: of whom Dugdale says that ‘ they were all born of one mother, Mrs, Lambert and provided for by their father with leases for 100 years, of little less than £4000 a year, which to this day are called The Bastards’ Lands.”
Sir William Paulet’s second daughter, Elizabeth, was the second wife of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary general, from whom he obtained a divorce in about four years; on the ac- cusation of intrigue with Mr Uvedale. She married for her second husband Sir Thomas Higgons.®
Levis. The next lessee under the Paulets was Sir Edward Lewis of the Van, near Caerphilly, Co. Glamorgan. He married Ann (Sackville), widow of Sir Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp (who died 1619).
1 An old churchwarden’s account book, in the parish chest, of A.D. 1588 to 1615, mentions in 1591, “ Mr. Bainton in arrears to the parish £6 13s. 9d. In 1593 William Jones signs the account.
2 Sir William Powlett signs the Church book in 1603.
3 Sir Thomas Higgons was a valuable servant of the Crown as Ambassador to Vienna: of whom there is a memoir in Chalmers’s Biographical Dictionary. He pronounced a funeral oration over his wife at her interment at Winchester in 1656, printed in London: in which her character was vindicated, and the true causes of the Earl of Essex’s conduct described. See Granger’s Biographical Dictionary and Peck’s Desid, Curiosa, xii., 16.
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 291
Sir Edward Lewis was buried at Edingdon in 1630. On the south side of the chancel there is a very large monument to his memory ; over it a shield of his arms impaling those of Sackville. Lady Ann Beauchamp resided at Edingdon. Her hospitalities are alluded to by Fuller, the Church historian (see p. 254 above), and by Aubrey,! She was buried at Edingdon. In the Church is this inscription on a brass plate :—
“ Here lyeth the body of the Right Hon* Anne Lady Beauchamp who deceased the 25" of Sept A.D. 1664.”
Richard Lewis, Esq., the son, was of Edingdon, 1670, and probably lived there until about 1694, when he purchased the Corsham estate. He was buried at Corsham in 1706.
Lewis oF Epinepon. [No pedigree in College of Arms.]
Robert Sackvilles=Lady Margaret Howard, Earl of Dorset. sole dau. of Thomas, Earl of Norfolk.
| 2nd husband, Sir Edward=Rt. Hon. Ann Sackville.=1st husband, Sir Edward Lewis, of the Van, Co.| Bur. at Edingdon, 25th Seymour, Kt., Lord
Glam., Kt.,Gent of Privy | Sept., 1664. Beauchamp, from 1612 Chamber to Prince Henry —19; gr. grandson of | and KingCharlesI. Bur. the Protector and elder at Edingdon, 10th Oct., brother of the restored 1630. Dukeof Somerset. Died
1619.
| | | Edward. William. Richard Lewis, Esq..=Mary, dau. = Robert
seven years old at| of Lewis. his father’s death (third son) of Eding- don, M.P. for West- |
bury, 1660—85—88 90. High Sheriff of Wilts,1682. D.Oct. 7th, 1706, xt. 83. Purchased Corsham, 1694. Bur. at Cor- sham in a vault, dis- covered 1850, and now used by the Methuen Family.
| | | Thomas Lewis,=Anna James. Bur. Edward. Anna. Elizabeth.
Esq., of Cor- Maria at Edingdon, Bur. Bur. Bur. sham, eld. 5s. ...... 1680, xt. 9 1670. 1673, 1676, & h. (C. deeds). (M.L.). eet. 1. et. 1.
1 Aubrey, in N. H. of Wilts (MS.) Pt. IL., ch. v., says :—‘ The Lady Anne
292 Edingdon Monastery.
Other, third Earl of Plymouth, who died 1732, married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Thomas Lewis, the ultimate heiress of Lewis of the Van. She died 9th November, 1733.
Tn 1689 the then owner of Edingdon, Charles Paulet, sixth Marquis of Winchester, having been instrumental in settling the Crown on the Prince and Princess of Orange, was created Duke of Bolton. Edingdon passed through the hands of six dukes suc- cessively.
Charles, the third Duke, earned a bad eminence by barbarous treatment of his wife, Anne Vaughan, daughter of John, Earl of Carbery, on whose death, in 1751, impatiently waited for, he married Lavinia Fenton, sometimes called Lavinia Beswick, an actress often painted as Polly Peachum of “The Beggars’ Opera.” !
During the third Duke’s life, his younger brother, Lord Harry Paulet, was residing here. He afterwards became fourth Duke. Charles, the sixth Duke, brought to an end the connexion of his family with this property, which had now lasted two hundred and
Beauchamp (at Edington in this county) has a peculiar way of making excellent mault, which gives a very good rellish to the Beer: scil: She hath a Kilne, to dry Mault with Pittcoale: There is a large iron Plate over the fire, wh. being red hott, drieth the mault wh. lieth three or four foot above it.” When Edingdon House was dismantled, the fixtures found their way into neighbouring houses. A fire-back with Lady Ann’s arms (i.e., Sackville) on it is (or lately was) to be seen in the house formerly the Monastery, near the Church : another at East-town farm house, and at Tinhead. The Sackville arms, almost obliterated, are also over a doorway in the garden at Edingdon.
1 A writer in the Quarterly Review, 1857, p. 466, speaking of Joseph Warton, thus alludes to this subject :— The low level to which public feeling had fallen at the middle of the last century, and the little which was expected from the guardians of public morals, may be seen in acts like that of Joseph Warton, who travelled with the Duke of Bolton and his mistress upon the continent in 1751 that he might be at hand to marry them the moment they got intelligence of the death of the Duchess, then sinking under a mortal disease. For some reason he (J. W.) returned to’England before the poor deserted lady had breathed her last, and the impatience of her husband and her successor not permitting them to wait till Warton could rejoin them, he lost both the opportunity of performing the office, and the preferment which he expected would reward the service.
Yet four years afterwards he was elected second master of Winchester Schou, and nobody appeared to consider him less fitted to train up lads in the way they should go because he had countenanced the Duke of Bolton’s roving abroad with
a mistress while his wife was dying at home.”
—_e
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 293
fourteen years. Of which long connection all that the place retains is a tradition or two, passed on from one who was in his day the “ oldest inhabitant,” to somebody else who in course of time became the same: that the Duke used to employ running footmen, who, being trained to their long-winded duties on meat half raw, kept a-head of his carriage, with a bell in one hand and pole in the other, to assist His Grace out of difficulties by the way. Also that they had, between Edingdon and Tynhide, in order to ascend to the plain, a private road called “Coach Hollow.” An inn at Tynhide, now pulled down, used to be called “The Three Daggers,” a popular name for the Powlett arms, three swords in pile, which are still to be seen on the north side of the farm-house part of the monks’ dwelling.
In 1768, during the life of Harry, the sixth Duke, the manor, 4094 acres, was sold by the trustees of his late brother Charles, fifth Duke, to Peter Delmé (of Erlestoke), for £72,100, but no convey- ance was made. In 1782 Joshua and Drummond Smith purchased it out of Chancery: and in 1784 an Act of Parliament was found necessary to complete the title.’
Joshua Smith, Esq., was M.P. for Devizes in 1788, 1796, 1802, and 1806. He was owner also of Erlestoke. He left four daughters no male heirs. Much of the old Monastery was taken down by him, and the materials were used in building his house at Erlestoke.
1820. Mr. Joshua Smith’s executor sold Edingdon, and with it Erlestoke and Coulston, total eight thousand acres, to the executors of Simon Taylor, Esq.: in settlement upon his niece, Mrs. Watson Taylor, sole heiress to her uncle on the death of her brother, Sir Simon R. B. Taylor, Bart., unmarried. The price 250,000 guineas. These estates are now the property of Simon Watson Taylor, Esq., of Erlestoke.
1 Charles, the fifth Duke, by will, 1763, had charged his estate with payment of his debts, and then assigned them to trustees to the use of his brother, Lord Harry (sixth Duke) and his heirs male: remainder to Jean Mary (wife of Thomas Orde, Esq.), in the will called Jane Mary Powlett Brown and her heirs in tail male: then to the testator’s right heirs. The testator died 1765. The mother of Mrs. Orde had been Mary Banks Brown, the fifth Duke’s housekeeper at Edingdon. Since the purchase by Joshua and Drummond Smith, Mrs. Orde had given birth to a son, and hence the necessity for an Act of Parliament.
294 Edingdon Monastery.
SmitH oF Epinepon. John Smith,=Mary Ransom, a merchant | of Lambeth.
in London.
| | |
Joshua Smith.=Sarah Sir John Sir Drum- ae Sp Mary=Lord of Edingdon | Gil- Smith mond of Ja- =Jelfe. Dun- & Erlestoke.| bert. Burgess, Smith,Bt., maica. M.P. for De- Bart. = first; vizes. Mary Cun-
liffe: and
second, Eliz-
abeth, dau.
of Vis. Gal-
way. Ob.,
s.p., 1816.
sa- ney.
| | | | Charles=Augusta, Mary,=Charles, Elizabeth,=William Emma, fourth
Smith, | third dau. eld. Marq. second Chute, dau. Living ofSut-| The baro- dau. of Nor- dau. of The at Pear Tree tons, netcy set- thamp- Vine, Green, Co. Essex. | tled on her ton. Hants. Southamp., issue. See 1856. Died Burke’s : 1859. A. Baronetcy. Cunliffe Smith, of Tring Park, Co. Herts. Watson Taytor. | Simon Taylor Sir John Taylor.=Elizabeth-Gooden, Ksq., of Lys- Cr. Bart. andd.| d.andh. of Philip sons Hall, Ja- 6th May, 1786. | Houghton, Esq. maica Died 14th April, | 1813, et. 73.
Sir Simon Richard Brissett Taylor. Anna Susanna.=George Watson, Esq. D. s. p., 18th May, 1815. Bur. Eldest of three | Assumed his wife’s at Edingdon. Mon. by Chantrey coheiresses. D.| surname. Of Erle- on N. side of chancel. Sth Jan., 1852, | stoke. M.P. for
et. 72. Devizes. D. 1841. Simon one Taylor,=Lady Hannah Charlotte Hay, Esq. Eldest son. second dau. of the Marquis Now of Erlestoke. of Tweeddale. | | | 4; bal. baa George Arthur John William Seven Simon Wellesley. Arthur. Arthur. daughters.
a ine a
Jington {rarer ilts, (WEST END)
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 295
Tur Cuurcu.
* From a certain Latin book of Edindon Monastery :—
3 July, A.D. 1352: was laid the first stone of the Monastery of Edindon.
A.D. 1361. The Conventual Church of Edindon was dedicated by Robert Weyville, Bishop of Sarum to the honour of St James the Apostle, 8. Katharine and all Saints.”
It is on the authority of the above extract, made by Leland on the spot, that we are able to fix the date of Edingdon Church: for though the memorandum copied by him mentions only the laying of the first stone of the Monastery (not necessarily the same thing as the Church), there can be no doubt that the entire establishment is to be understood. ‘St. James the Apostle,” as one of the saints to whom the Church was dedicated, may have been an error of Leland’s in copying. In the foundation charter, printed in the New Monasticon (vi., 536), the dedication is to the B. V. Mary, St. Katharine and All Saints. ;
As Bishop William of Edingdon did not die till 1366, the whole was finished in his lifetime. It was, therefore, entirely under his superintendence and through his influence that the work was com- pleted, and no doubt in great measure at his own expense, with aid from such patrons and friends as the Abbess of Romsey and Sir Ralph Cheney who had married the co-heiress of the Pavely family of Brook House.
The Church is cruciform in plan, and consists of a clerestoried nave of six bays with aisles corresponding, transepts, tower at the intersection, large chancel, and south porch of three stories, one of which is called the Priest’s room. The use of little rooms in this situation was various: sometimes they served, as at Fotheringhay Church, Co. Northampton, where also there are two above the porch, one for a chorister’s vestry, the other for the sacristan or sexton : sometimes for a church library.
The measurements are :—} Ft, In. Nave length 75 breadth, including aisles 52 8 height 45
1 From the Rev. A, Fane’s paper, Wilts Archeol. Mayq., iii., 50.
296 Edingdon Monastery.
Ft In, Ft. In Transepts length 71 9 breadth 23 7 Chancel length 54 breadth 23 9 Square of tower 25 4 = 20 6G
My. J. H. Parker’s general description of the style already alluded to (p. 241) is as follows: “It is all of uniform character, and that character is neither Decorated nor Perpendicular, but a very re- markable mixture of the two styles throughout: the tracery of the windows looks at first sight like Decorated, but on looking more closely, the introduction of Perpendicular features is very evident ; the west doorway has the segmental arch, common in Decorated work; over this is the usual square label of the Perpendicular, and under the arch is Perpendicular panelling over the heads of the two doors; the same curious mixture is observable in the mouldings, and in all the details. ‘This example is the more valuable, from the circumstance that it was Bishop Edington who commenced the al- teration of Winchester Cathedral into the Perpendicular style.” !
An embattled parapet is carried round the roof, including the tower. Under the fine west window of eight lights is a central doorway divided into two openings. The doors themselves remain, but are never opened on account of the dangerous condition of the
stone-work above.
NAVE.
The nave has a singular wooden ceiling of debased character with plaster panels, a small west gallery, high pews, tablets on the piers, whitewashed walls, and other tokens of ante-Restoration barbarism. The date of churchwarden work is recorded by initials in some places on the wall-plates: the full names being supplied by conjecture from. old parish account books of the period. In the south aisle, above the Cheney monument, “I H [John Hart] 1615. 8S H [Stephen Horle] R R [Robert Rogers].” Also “I H 1674.” In
1 Archeeol. Instit. Journal, vol. vii., p. 206. See also in same Journal, vol. for 1850, p. 202, a wood-cut of the west front, and at p. 206 some remarks.
o ‘ Sa ik ee al ela
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, P.S.A. 297
the north aisle, “I H 1658. W F ([Ford}.” The six pointed arches on each side of the nave are all alike. The clerestory windows were once filled with stained glass.
CHANCEL.
This is spacious, and has three lofty windows on each side, with a large one at the east end. There is a series of eight canopied niches with tabernacled heads: two holding headless figures. Over six of the niches, as well as over two reclining figures in the north- west and south-west corners, are stone corbels, which may have supported a former roof. Over the altar, a late Jacobean wooden reredos, which, judging by the central pilaster and keystone above, appears to have formed at one time a chimney-piece in some old house. The chancel is said to have been formerly ceiled with stone, having the arms of Bishop Edingdon on the bosses. The presentceiling was substituted by Mr. Joshua Smith, of Erlestoke, about A.D. 1789.
InTERMENTS AND MoNUMENTS.
There is a dearth of information about the burials in this Church. Leland names that of Sir Richard Penley, a knight who gave West Isley, in Berks: also, Sir John Rous, of Imber, who gave Baynton, and a Willoughby. He had also “ hard that one Blubyri, a preben- dary of Saresbiri, executor of Bishop Wilham Edington was buried there.”1 Gereberd and Thomas Bulkington, benefactors, having obits, would probably be also in the number. Perhaps Bishop Ayscough: but of none of these is there now any memorial.
Before the levelling of the chancel pavement, there used to be, on the south side, near the modern door, a large blue stone with sockets of a figure and shields at the corners of which only one was left, bearing “On a cross five cinquefoils in a semée, or circle of -mullets [Epinepon].” It was removed to the west end of the Church, but is not now visible. There was also on the same floor, near a blocked-up door, once opening into the cloister on the north
1 Bleobury’s name does not appear as a Prebendary of Sarum in Canon W. H. _ Jones’s “ Fasti,’’ and he was probably buried at Shillingford, Berks, as mentioned above, p. 271.
298 Edingdon Monastery.
side, a stone to “John Allambrigge, clerk, sometime chaplain to the Dowager Lady Beauchamp”! Some other large blue stones with marks of brasses were likewise removed. On the south side is a fine marble and alabaster monument to Sir Edward Lewis, of the Van, Co. Glamorgan (see above, p. 290), with effigies of himself and his wife, with children kneeling in front. Above is a cherub hovering over the recumbent figures with a crown of glory in his hand. The lady, by whom it was erected, was by birth a Sackville, married first Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp, an eldest son and heir in the Seymour family (in the third generation from Protector Somerset) who, had he not died young in the lifetime of his father and grandfather, would have been the second Duke of Somerset, restored.
Epitaph.
HEERE LYE THE BODYES OF THE RIGHT WOR" s® KDWARD LEWYS LATE OF THE VANE IN THE COVNTIE OF GLAMARGAN Knt ONE OF THE GENTLEMEN OF THE PRIVIE CHAMBER to Princr Henry AND AFTER TO KING CHARLES: AND OF THE RIGHT HON®!® ANNE LaDy BEAVCHAMPE HIS WIFE THE WIDOWE OF EpwarpD LorpE BEAVCHAMPE DAVGHR® or Ropert Earte or Dorset, BY THE Lapy MarGareEt HowakD, SOLE DAVGHTER OF THomMAs DuxKE oF NoRFOLEKE THEY HAD ISSVE LYVING FowER soNNES, EDWARD, Wittiam, Ricwarp, AND RoBERT AND ONE DAVGHTER ANNE LeEwys,
HE DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 10™ oF ocroBER 163). In MEMORIE OF WHOME HIS MOVRNEFVLL LADY ERECTED THIS MONVMENT FOR HIM AND HER SELFE WHOE
DECEASED THE 25 o[F] S[EPTEMBER 1664. ]
In one line along the slab, under the figures :—
SINcE CHILDREN ARE THE LIVING CORNER-STONE, WHERE ManiaGE BVILT ON BOTH SIDES MEETES IN ONE, WHILST THEY SURVIVE, OUR LIVES SHALL HAVE EXTENT, VPON RECORD IN THEM OVR MONYVMENT.
The arms on the shield are Lewis impaling SackviL1p, viz., Deater, Quarterly. 1. Sable a lion rampant Argent, Luwis. 2. Sable a
1 From 1641 to 1660 John Allambrigg was Rector of Monkton Farley. In 1662 one of this name resigned Whaddon (Wilts Institutions).
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S8.A. 299
chevron between three fleurs de lys Argent, Cotwyn ap Tango. 3. Gules three chevronels Argent, Justin ap Gareent. 4. Sable a chevron between three spear-heads Argent tipped Gules, Carapoc Vrericurar. Sinister, Quarterly, Or and Gules over all a bend vair SACKVILLE.
On the floor an inscription, ‘‘ Lapy Anne Buravcuamp died 25th Sept. 1664.” Four young children of Ricnarp and Mary Lewis, viz., Exizapetu, d. 1]th February, 1676; Annu, 21st September, 1673; Epwarp, February, 1670. James, 1630, xt. 9. Lavy Caruarine Powzert, wife of Lord Harry Powlett (who was after- wards fourth Duke of Bolton) 23rd April, 1744, «et. 49. Rav. Wixuram Roots (Vicar) d. February 18th, 1830, xt. 77. Mary Auicg, his wife, 3rd June, 1816, et. 59. And three daughters.
On the north side is a fine monument by Sir F. Chantrey, repre- senting the death-bed of Sir Simon Ricuarp Brissetr Tayor, Bart., d. 18th May, 1815, ext. 32, erected by his sister, Marra, who d. 26 Oct., 1817. Against the north wall “Srmon Taytor, Esq., of Lyssons Estate, Jamaica, d. 14th April, 1813, et. 73. His brother, Str Joun Taytor, Bart, 6th May, 1786, wt. 41.
Arms of Watson Taytor. For Taytor (incorrectly given in Burke’s Extinct Baronets'), Quarterly. 1 and 4. Arg. a saltier wavy Sable between a heart in chief and another in base Gules: and a cinquefoil Vert in each flank. For Watson 2 and 8 Arg. a tree _ proper, over it a fess Arg. charged with three mullets of five points of the field. Crest. Issuing from a ducal coronet Or a hand and arm proper holding a cross-crosslet fitehée in bend of the first. Over
the crest, “Jn hoe signo vinces.” Supporters (granted by warrant, 1815), two leopards proper plain-collared and chained, the chains reflected over the back, Or. On an achievement in the chancel are the arms of Josnua Surrn, _Esq., formerly owner of Edingdon. Swmiru impaling Grupert. Dexter, Quarterly. 1. Arg. a saltire azure between three crescents Gules, and a dolphin hauriant in base Sable. 2. Argent, on the sea a a ship all proper. 3. Azure a wild cat sejant holding up the dexter
oe The arms were differenced with a canton for the late George Watson Taylor, Esq.
300 Edingdon Monastery.
paw. 4 Or, a crescent Gules. Smirn, of Scotland and Stoke Park. Sinister. Gules a leg couped at the thigh, in armour, be- tween two broken spears proper. GILBERT.
In a vault in the Church is a brass coffin-plate with this inscrip- tion, “ The most Illustrious Lady Lavinia Dutchess of Bolton, Dowager of the Most High Puissant and Noble Prince Charles Powlett, late Duke of Bolton, Marquis of Winchester, Earl of Wiltshire, &c. Died 24th January, 1760. Aged 49 years.” The arms of the lady (impaled with the Duke’s), are, Gules three bezants a fess in chief Or, Brswyckz, quartering, on a bend engrailed three wheatsheaves.
This lady was the “ Polly Peachum” of the “ Beggar’s Opera,” mentioned above, p. 292.
The chancel floor is 3 feet higher than that of the transept. Under the arch which divides them is an incongruous carved oak screen, beautified with the Royal arms, the Commandments and Creed, and the date 1788. A rood-loft above this. The steps leading to this, now closed up, are in the corner of the North transept.
Sout TRANSEPT.
Against the south wall is a large altar-tomb, with an effigy of an ecclesiastic under a canopy ornamented with tracery, mouldings, shields, devices, &c., all coloured. All attempts to identify it satis-
factorily have hitherto failed. In a note on ‘Leland’s Tour in —
Wilts” (Wilts Archaol. Mag.,i., 188), the present writer, being at that time under the impression that the two letters on a principal monogram were T. B., suggested, from reasons there given, that they denoted Thomas Bulkington, a benefactor to the house. But upon a later and closer inspection the first letter proved to be, not T, but J. With I. B., however, we are not much nearer discovery than before. That the figure represents some ecclesiastic of im-. portance connected with the Monastery seems most likely, yet neither among the known names of the superiors, nor of the brethren occasionally mentioned in documents relating to Edingdon, is there a single one whose surname fits exactly the rebus over the cornice of the tomb, which is a branch or sprig issuing fromaton. This would
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 301
not inappropriately match with the name of Bayntun (s.c., Bay-in- tun): and there was a leading county family of that name, long settled, first at Falstone, in South Wilts, afterwards at Bromham, not far from Edingdon, but of their connexion with the Monastery no evidence has been met with. Under the canopy against the wall there is a blank space which may have been filled with an inscription. In the quatrefoils below is the redus just mentioned. In the mould- ing above the quatrefoil is the same rebus, and another in which the branch or sprig seems to spring out of some animal. On the tun or barrel at the feet of the effigy are, at one end I. B.; at the other a triangle. In small niches on each side are little figures : St. Peter with a key in one; St. Paul with a sword in the other. Some lettering on the ledge appears to be only the scratching of idlers. In the corner behind this tomb is a winding stair leading to the
belfry.
Tue Nortu TRransEpr is thought to have been a Lady Chapel. In the west corner is a closed-up doorway which once opened upon the cloister. That this ran along the north side of the Church is shown by the space of blank wall and the height of the windows from the ground, as at Malmesbury Abbey. An altar, a piscina, niche, and some coloured glass remain. There are memorials to “ Mary, daughter of Martin and Anamoriah Taylor, 13th September, 1769.” “S.P.[Sarah Price] 1794.” “ Bridgeat, wife of John Gardiner, gent., of Tinhead, 1689.”
Nortu AIsie.
Against the wall is a consecration cross, viz., a cross within a circle: the four quarters formed by the cross being painted blue and red alternately. There are ten of these crosses outside the Church, two north, three south, two west, and two on east wall inside!
Some of the Longs of Baynton are interred in this aisle.? Will-
iam Long, 10th June, 1807, et. 73. On an achievement the arms
1 For some account of these crosses see Dr. Baron’s paper, Wilts Archeol. Magq,., vol. xx., p. 134. *See Tab. IV. of the Pedigrees of Long, privately printed by William Long, Esq., of Wrington. VOL. XX.—WNO. LX, x
302 Edingdon Monastery.
of Long,,impaling, Sable a chevron between three fleurs de lys Argent. Emma, only child of William and Mary Long, 1796. Mary, widow, llth January, 1822. Gules an escarbuncle Or. OneEpzERT. (?) Towards the west end is a mural tablet to a family of Taylor, where the sculptor has introduced the novelty of a group of children, kneeling, in modern yeoman dress. On the floor also, John Gardiner 1720. The glass in one or two of the clerestory windows has a bordure of lions passant. This bordure of lions, enclosing a cross flory forms the arms on the borough seal of Westbury, and is a token of connexion with the Pavely family. (See Sir R. C. Hoare’s Westbury, p. 3.)
Sourn AIsLEz.
On the floor near the entrance is an old stone with the “ Cross Keys” upon it. Also a very large Purbeck slab with sockets for two brasses of man and wife, with shields at the corners, but all the brasses have disappeared.
Under one of the arches dividing this aisle from the nave is a pretty little oratory or mortuary chapel: consisting of an altar-tomb, beneath a canopy of light stone-work with a side door, niches, tracery, cornice and shields. On the Purbeck-stone surface of the tomb, sockets for two figures, man and wife, but brasses and inscription all lost. This tomb has been generally considered to be that of Sir Ralph Cheney, who died c. 1401, having married Joan, one of the co-heiresses of Sir John Pavely, of Brook House: but the following arms, carved on the frieze of the canopy and panels of the tomb, if intended to apply to such a match, are rather perplexing :—
On the canopy, side facing nave.
CHENEY. CHENEY. CHENEY. A fess lozengy each quartering @ Cross charged with an moline.! escallop.
1 The cross moline may possibly be for Pavey, to whom more than one variety of cross is given in the armouries. But there is some difficulty in adapting the heraldry on the stone-work to the match between Sir Ralph Cheney and Joan, ‘heiress of Pavely. In another shield, on the opposite side of the monument,
——EE
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 803
On the tomb, same side. A Rupper.! CHENEY. Parti per pale four es- (Badge of Pavely.) callops, two and two.?
On the canopy, side facing aisle. CHENEY. PAVELY. PAVELY. impaling a cross moline. _ A cross flory.
On the tomb, same side. A Roopper. CHENEY. Parti per pale four es- callops, two and two. Over the doorway, the rudder. In the north-west corner is the font, octagonal, the basin of Purbeck marble, the base of free-stone. In the same corner is an oven-like projection concealing a passage through the wall which once led into the cloister. The bells are six in number: none older than 1640. 1. § Anno Domini 1640 I @ L. 2. § Anno Domini I @ L. 1654. 3. Richard Price, Churchwarden 1781. Willm. Bilbie, Chew- stoke, Somersetshire, Founder. 4. James Wells, Aldbourn, Wilts, fecit, 1802. Jas. Newman and E. M. Ellis, Churchwardens. . § Anno Domini 1647. CG: W.P: C.W. 1 @ L.
. I to the Church the living call And to the grave do summon all. A @ R. 1723.
the cross moline is impaled with Cheney, denoting a wife, not usually an heiress : but in this shield the cross is guartered with Cheney ; which, again, is a form usually denoting the son of an heiress. It is true that (as exemplified in the Garter Plate and seal of Neville, Earl of Fauconbridge) the arms of an heiress were sometimes quartered with the husband’s, instead of being set on an escutcheon of pretence: still, why on this monument the cross appears differently on two shields, impaled on the one, and quartered on the other, is not quite clear.
1 Camden says that Robert Willoughby (who, on account of his descent from the Pavelys by the family of Cheney—both of Brook House—took the title of Willoughby de Broke) bore a rudder, as Admiral of the Fleet. But the rudder was seen on the windows of Broke House, by Leland, before Willoughby had succeeded the older families. See a note in “ Wiltshire Collections, Aubrey and Jackson,” p. 400.
2 This shield has not been identified. Of the coats of arms known to be con-« nected with the Pavely family that of Erleigh comes nearest, viz., three escallops, two and one.
o> ot
x 2
804 Ldingdon Monastery.
The chancel, outside, has undergone a scraping, which gives it a newer appearance than the rest of the Church. Hight of the pinnacles are gone. The present four are modern.
In the Cuurcuyarp, on the left of the south porch is a very ancient altar-tomb called the ‘‘ Dole-stone,”” on which certain loaves are distributed. On the right is the base of a churchyard cross, On the east side of the cemetery is a fine old yew tree, the girth at 8 feet from the ground about 21ft. 3in. On the churchyard wall is an old tomb with panelled sides, but no inscription.
The tracery of the Towzr window is worked in the pattern of a cross moline. The west window of the south aisle has tracery of the same pattern, but the cross is in saltire.
Rematns or THE Monastery.
Of these there is little left. As above mentioned, the cloister ran along the north side of the Church. Part of the monks’ dwell- ing is now a farm house with gabled front, flanked by two embattled square towers of later addition. Of this there is a wood-cut in the Gentleman’s Magazine of 1846: but the central gables there repre- sented have been taken away. There is nothing remarkable in the interior. One room, lined with oak, is called ‘‘ The Chaplain’s,” but bears neither date nor ornament. Of the Monastery when entire no plan is known to have been preserved. Its destruction by Mr. Bayntun and Mr. Joshua Smith has been already mentioned. There was, within living memory, a wall 7 feet high and 2 feet thick which led from the house to the Church, into which it was built: and was strengthened by some singular semicircular buttresses with conical caps.
The fish-ponds, which were turned into withy-beds when Mr. Joshua Smith purchased the property, were restored to their original use in 1856, by the present owner.
Founratn-CEtu.
There are four springs of water near the site of the monastery : and over the southernmost a stone building or fountain-cell, erected by the monks, is in fair preservation. It is 8 feet high by 4 feet
CATT Rakes
By the Rev. Canon J. £. Jackson, F.8.A. 305
4 inches wide: the side-walls 7 feet 10 inches high, under a slanting stone roof which is supported in the centre by two pointed arches. Edingdon springs are much visited in summer, partly for water- eresses, partly for the amusement of trying what truth there is in a common saying about two within the monastery garden, viz., that one yields hard and another soft water.
VICARS.
In the time of the Rectory Prebend and afterwards of the Monas- tery the Church was served by a Vicar appointed by the Prebendary and by the Rector of the house. The names of some of the Vicars down to 1348 have been given above at page 282. After the Dis- solution, the impropriator of the tithes or his lessee found a clerk to do the duties, who used to be called Perpetual Curate. To the Dukes of Bolton he also acted as chaplain, had £30 a year, a horse and servant found, and table at the house. The preferment was called, or miscalled,adonative. The title of Vicar has been restored.
The following names occur in old churchwardens’ account books from 1575, and from the parish register, which commences Ist August, 1678 :—
Patron. Perpetual Curate, now Vicar. i [ter By) 1608 Thomas Aisley “minis- 1615 John Newman 1697-1741 David Thomas 1754, July 22nd William Thomas 1766, May 8th Robert Haynes 1768, Jan. 28th William Thomas[again] 1779, March 8th Richard Sanderson 1781, Nov. 15th John Bailey ) probably 1782 Daniel Lloyd § «. iitated Joshua Smith and Th Mark R 1784 } Prazon smith ee tata hear Es Sanderson qs. 1786, October William Roots
1826, 4th Sept. Samuel Littlewood, B.D. 1880, 17th May |S. Watson Taylor, Esq.) Henry Cave-Browne- Cave
306 A Stroli through Bradford-on-Avon.
In “ Buckler’s Anglo-Norman Antiquities” are views of the interior of Edingdon Church, two monuments: also at page 122 the monument and effigy of Bishop William Edingdon at Winches- ter. In the “ Building News” of July 12th, 1872, are double-page drawings of the exterior by the late Mr, F. C. Deshon.
J. E. J.
[The Committee desire gratefully to acknowledge their sense of Canon Jackson’s liberality in presenting the photographs which illustrate his paper on Edingdon.]
A Stroll through Bradford-on-A bon,’
By Canon W. H. Jonzs, M.A., F.S.A., Vicar.
¢ fg HERE are two things which must strike every stranger; that AY. has “eyes to see, or ears to hear,” on his first visit to this singularly interesting town, especially when he listens to the tales of old folks about it—the jist is its evident antiquity,—the second, the ecclesiastical imprint that is to be discerned everywhere. I.—As to its antiquity there can be no doubt. It is certainly among the oldest of Wiltshire towns. The only others mentioned in really ancient times are, as far as I know, Amesbury, Corsham, Calne, Chippenham, Cricklade, Malmesbury, Ramsbury, Old Sarum, and Wilton. As early as A.D. 652, we read of an important battle having been fought at “ Bradford-by-the-Avon” by Cenwalch, King of the West Saxons, which, followed up as it was by another con- test six years later “against the Welsh at the Pens in which he put them to flight as far as the Parret,” led to important results as
—
1 This paper consists of short notices of objects of interest in the town of Bradford-on-Avon which were given hy the Vicar to the Members of the Wilts Archeological Society, as they “strolled” with him round it, on the occasion of their visit, in August, 1881.
<a
-
By the Rev. Canon W. H. Jones, F.8.A. 307
recards the large accession of territory in these parts of England gained by the conquerors, and indirectly to the re-establishment of Christianity here. For Cenwalch, who had abjured Christianity and at the same time repudiated his wife, and had been in the year 642 driven temporarily from his kingdom, no sooner regained it by the battles at Bradford and at the Pens, than he returned from his apostacy, and became not long afterwards the founder of a Church at Winchester. And it is of no little interest to us to know, that Aldhelm, whose name should be so well known and reverenced here as the founder of our Saxon Church, that cradle of primitive Christi- anity, was nephew of King Cenwalch.
II.—As to its ecclesiastical character ;—this seems impressed upon
‘us by the quaint and church-like look of so many of its buildings.
Each of the old limits of the town was at one time guarded as though by an ancient chapel—those of St. Laurence, St. Olave, St. Mary at Tory, St. Margaret, by the bridge, St. Catharine, near the old almshouses—five ecclesiastical barbicans, two of them still re- maining to us in good preservation, and the sites of all the rest being well known. Nor is this ecclesiastical character surprising when we recollect its history. Here, as early as A.D. 705 S. Aldhelm founded his little Church, and what is called his “ monastery,” by which is meant a Church and dwelling-house with three or four missionaries, as we might say, attached to it. No doubt for many years after this, Bradford-on-Avon, though otherwise as regards its “monastery” and Church an independent foundation , and certainly not supported by any means derived from Malmesbury , owed allegiance to that religious house and to its Abbots from time to time. But in the year A.D. 1001 we find the whole manor of Bradford, together with its monastery—then called cwnodiwm—bes- towed by King Aithelred on the Abbess of Shaftesbury, the specific object of this gift being to “ provide the nuns of Shaftesbury a safe refuge (the exact words are impenetrabile confugium) from the attacks
of the Danes, and a hiding-place for the relics of the blessed King
Edward, then recently martyred, and the rest of the saints. And
for more than five hundred years, the manor of Bradford was in the
hands of the Abbesses of Shaftesbury for the time being. This may
. 808 A Stroll through Bradford-on-Avon,
well account for the ecclesiastical character of the whole place.
But we will stroll round the Town, and speak in turn of each of the objects of interest.
1. We will start from the most interesting of all our treasures, the Saxon Cuurcu of St. Laurence, which stands close by the north- east end of the present parish Church. Both Churches no doubt origi- nally stood in the same churchyard, the extent of which was at one time much greater than at present. The story of the discovery and gradual re-purchase and re-habilitation of this “little church ”— ecclesiola, it is called by William of Malmesbury—has often been told, and therefore I need not here tell the tale again. Suffice it to say that it consists of a Nave, a Cuancet, and a Porcu on the north side; that originally there was a similar annewe on the south side, so that the building was cruciform; that the Nave is about twenty-five feet long by thirteen broad ; the chancel thirteen feet long by ¢en broad; and the porch may roundly be described as about ten feet square. The height of the building is very remarkable, in the nave being rather slightly, and in the chancel considerably, greater than the length, in either case. There are also two interesting stone figures of angels above the chancel arch, which, if not quite coeval with the building itself, can hardly in any case be later than the tenth century, since in the Benedictional of St. 4thelwold which is of the date 970—975, there are figures of angels which correspond very closely with them. In any case there is now a general agree- ment among all who are qualified to form an opinion, that we have in this most interesting “little church,” a building which was founded by S. Aldhelm (who died in 709), and which is a solitary perfect example of a Church of so early a date.
2. We now come to the Parish Cuurcu. This is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It consists of a Chancel, Nave, North Aisle, Tower, and a mortuary Chapel, erected by one of the Hall family, on the south side—the last being now used as an organ chamber. The north aisle was built at intervals of some fifty years apart, the western portion, extending to the eastern side of the fourth window, being the earlier work, and having been a chantry chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas—the reredos in the centre of which stood over a crucifix
—— =
By the Rev. Canon W. H. Jones, F.S.A. 309
still remaining as a structural portion of the wall—the eastern por- tion having been a chantry chapel of the Blessed Virgin, founded by one of the Horton family, whose brass, recording the last fact, is still preserved. As is the case with all ancient Churches, there have been alterations and additions made from time to time. Fragments of an earlier Church have been found, and are to be seen still treasured up in the porch of the Saxon Church. The present structure no doubt originally consisted simply of a chancel about two-thirds of its present length, and a nave, and there was a row of Norman windows both above and below, the latter being more accurately described as clere-story windows. Two of the larger Norman windows in the chancel have lately been re-opened. To- wards the end of the thirteenth century the chancel would seem to have been lengthened, and the two recessed tombs inserted, one on the north and the other on the south side. Next followed the aisles, originally, as has been said, two, but now joined in one. In the beginning of the sixteenth century followed the tower; and then the mortuary chapel of which mention has been made.
The Church contains memorials of the families of Hall—the maternal ancestors of Earl Manvers—of Methuen, Tidcomb, Stewart, Thresher, Shrapnell, Clutterbuck, Tugwell, Cam—the maternal an- eestor of the late Lord Broughton—and Bethel—a family ennobled
in the late Lord Chancellor Westbury.
3. Leaving the Church, and passing up the steps on the western side of the tower, we stand before a house of some interest. It belonged once to Edward Orpin,! the parish clerk of Bradford, and
- was probably built by some of his family. He was the “ Parish
Clerk” whom Gainsborough, the artist—a frequent visitor to this neighbourhood—painted. The portrait was given by him to Mr. Wiltshire, and became the property of his descendant, who lived
1 EpwarD OPIN, the parish clerk, died in June, 1781. The name “ Orpen,” or “Orpin,” as the clerk himself always spelt it, occurs frequently in our registers during the previous century-and-a-half, but after his time we lose traces of it altogether, and he seems to have been one of the last—if not the last—of his family. The stone lying just within the rails, opposite the house, is said to cover his remains.
310 A Stroll through Bradford-vn- Avon.
at Shockerwick. On the sale of his pictures after his decease the one we are describing was purchased for the nation, at a cost vf some £800, and is now to be seen among the paintings by English artists in the national collection.
4, We pass on now till we come to the western entrance to the churchyard, where on the north side of a modern building, dignified by the name of Abbey House, are the remains of what Leland speaks of as “Horton’s House.” The Horton fainily were well-to-do wool merchants, and, as we have already seen, benefactors of the Church. The mansion which one of them built was afterwards in part used for shops for the weaving of cloth. And as the Flemish work- men, introduced first of all into the town for the purpose of such manufactures, were quartered, or at all events plied their craft here, the yard was called till a very recent period the “ Dutch Barton.” There is a deed in existence by which, in 1659, Paul Methuen cove- nanted with the parish officers, that a certain spinner, by name Richard (otherwise) Derricke Johnson, whom, together with his wife Hectrie, and several small children, he for his own proper gain and benefit did fetch or bring out of Amsterdam, in Holland, should never be chargeable to the parish. There is a similar deed in the parish chest, dated 1674, endorsed, “ Mr. William Brewer his bond of £100 to save harmless the Parish of Bradford against certain Dutchmen,’ whom he had brought over from Holland, or ‘ Powland,” for the purpose of promoting, as they did effectually, the manufac- turing trade in cloth in Bradford.
5. Walking on down Church Street, and passing by a little knoll called “ Druce’s Hill ”—so termed from one Anthony Druce, a Quaker, who built a house there in which he lived—we come to a large and interesting building, mentioned by Leland in 1543 and called by him the “ Cuurcn Housz.” This, which is of the date of the fifteenth century, was built by one of the Horton family, and was the public place of assembly where people met for the purpose of assessing themselves and their neighbours for the expenses of Church repairs, the relief of the poor, &. On the principle of ‘business first and pleasure afterwards,” as soon as they had at- tended to the wants of others, they had a little care for their own,
By the Rev. Canon W. H. Jones, F.S8.A. 311
and indulged in festivities known as Church-Ales, Whitsun- Ales, and the like. It was purchased a few years ago by the trustees of the Saxon Church, and given in exchange for the portion of that building which had been used for the purposes of a free school. The Free School was afterwards transferred to the Church-House, and is still held there.
6. We now arrive at the Town Hall, a handsome building, erected about thirty years ago on the site of some old gabled and interesting houses, the removal of which took away one of the most picturesque groups of buildings in the town. Opposite to the Town Hall are what are called respectively Horsz Street and the SuamBtes. The former derives its name from an old inn called the “ Seribbling Horse”’ (a corruption of “Scribbling Herse”’) the last name denoting the frame on which the cloth when first made was stretched in order that it might be scribbled (i.e., cleared by the teasel from all its inequalities), an operation formerly done by the hand, but now by machinery. The latter, now confined to a narrow paved passage between shops, was termed the “‘ Shambles ” because of the butchers’ stalls which were there, or it may be in the Market Place immedi- ately adjoining, in the lower portion of the Town Hall, of which we shall make more particular mention presently,
7. We pass through the Shambles; on our way we must notice on the right the old barge-boards on the houses, and the fifteenth century doorway of what is an inn now called the Royal Oak. We pass a narrow lane on the left called Coppice Lane, an indication in its name of the close proximity of the wood to the town at one time, and enter Silver Street, called at different times Fox Street and Gregory Street, presumably from the names of some old in- habitants there, and stop for a moment before a small draper’s shop, now kept by Mr. Jennings. This house has some little interest from the fact that here John Wesley, when he came at different times to visit his community here, had his lodgings. One tradition- ary tale is told concerning him. One morning, when he came down, as was his wont, at an early hour, he congratulated his host on owning a “truly English bed.” ‘“ Why, Mr. Wesley?” was the enquiry. ‘“ Because,” was the answer, “it has no notion of giving out.”
312 A Stroll threugh Bradford-on-Avon.
8. Pursuing our onward course, we pass first of all WarreHEaD’s Lane—so called from one Manasseh Whitehead, a copyholder there —and come to a narrow passage between houses, now called Cur- Turoat Lane, a corruption I imagine for the less alarming “ Cur- TuroucH” Lane—a fair description enough of it—and so we arrive at the corner of Wurre Hitt, the former portion of which is possibly a corruption of a word signifying “ wood,” asin Wit-ley near Melk- sham, and here we reach the site of one of the old chapels of which I have spoken, namely that of St. Otave. All traces of the chapel are now removed, but in documents of the last century we have the street described as “ vicus Sancti Olavi,” otherwise “ Tooley Street.” Just as Tooley Street, in Southwark, is so called from the Church of St. Olave (e.g., St. Olaf, contracted into ’T Olaf, and so into Tooley), so it was the case here. The street has now by a kind of attraction assumed the name of the tithing to which it leads, namely Woolley Street; originally, however, Woolley was “ Ulf-lege,” and so called from an owner of the name of Ulf, who is mentioned in Domesday Book.
9. We now arrive at Kineston Hovssz, the most beautiful specimen of domestic architecture in the town. It partakes much of the character of Longleat, and was built probably between 1590 and 1620. It was commenced probably by John Hall, who was married to Dorothy Rogers, and who died in 1597, and completed by his son, bearing the same Christian name, who married Elizabeth Brunne, of Athelhampton and who died in 1631. This house may be described as of the transition style, between the old Tudor or Per- pendicular and the new or Palladian. Its enrichments are of German invention, and the excess of window light is characteristic of houses of this date and style. It is of such that Lord Bacon said, “ they are so full of glass that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the way of the sun or of the cold.” The principal front is to the south; it is divided into two storeys with attics in the gables, and has large windows with thick stone mullions. The whole building may be divided into three portions, the central one coming forward square, and the two side ones with semicircular bows. In the centre is a large sculptured doorway to a porch, and the
By the Rev. Canon W. H. Jones, F.8.A. 313
summit of the window-bays is adorned with open parapets.
The last of the Hall family left all his property to Rachel Baynton, of Chaldfield, who was married to Evelyn Pierrepont, son of the Marquis of Dorchester, afterwards jirst Duke of Kingston. Their only son, who became second and last Duke of Kingston, succeeded in due course. It is from that noble family that this house came to be called Kingston House. On the death of the second Duke without issue, subject to a life interest to his Duchess, the property descended to his sister, the wife of a son of Sir Philip Meadows, the ancestor of the Manvers family. It remained the property of the last-named family till 1806, when it was sold to Messrs. Divett, who turned it into a storehouse for wool, and allowed it to go to sad decay. In 1848, happily for all who would fain preserve ancient buildings, especially those of interest and beauty, it was sold to the late Stephen Moulton, Esq., and it was to his generous enterprise, and exquisite taste, that a building equal to any in the county as a specimen of domestic architecture is seen by us in its original form and beauty. :
1C. We pass through the grounds of Kingston House and come into a lane—now called Kingston Road, but formerly, as it would appear, Frogmere Street—till we arrive at the Old Market Place. It was at this spot that one Trapnell—a name familiar enough to us in connection with Chaldfield—was burnt publicly for so-called heresy, in denying the King’s supremacy, in the year 1532. Against the wall of what is now the Royal Oak stood the OLp Marker Hovse; the lines of the roof-gable may still be traced. I have been favored by one whose early youth was spent in Bradford with a description of this old building. He says, “The Old Market House was originally of what might be termed three storeys. The basement or cellar was on a level with the street opposite the shop now occupied by Mr. Budget Jones, the entrance joining the Royal Oak, and was used some sixty years ago as a crockery store, The second storey was an open colonnade looking up Coppice Lane, and was full of butchers’ stalls—whence the name of ‘The Shambles” occupied by the country butchers. The entrance was on the level _ of the Shambles, and the storey itself consisted of three plain round
314 ’ A Stroll through Bradford-on-Avon.
columns, one at each angle, between them being wooden palisading, and acentral column; to this last, the ne’er-do-wells who were sen- tenced for some offence or other to have a whipping were bound, when suffering the wholesome penalty for their misdeeds. The third or upper storey consisted at one time of a room in which the courts were held and the business of the manor transacted. But in my time (1820) it was in ruin, and the staircase leading to it was gone. I remember, however, that it had three quaint projecting windows of a square-headed form, with thick deeply-moulded oak frames, which were filled with small diamond panes of glass, and looked into the Old Market Place. I remember the upper part falling down, whilst the lower was still for some years afterwards used by the butchers.” ;
I may as well add a few words as to the ultimate fate of the Old Market House. For some years no repairs were done to it, and it gradually becume more and more dilapidated. Again and again presentments had been made concerning it, as a place not only “unfit but unsafe to transact the Lord’s business in.” Once the borough jury were bold enough to present the steward for not at- tending to their presentments in this particular. But all was in vain; no attempt was made to sustain the tottering fabric, and one night, it is alleged, the building fell. Whether its fall was the result of accident or design—tales are afloat which favour the latter supposition—men cared not too curiously to enquire. ‘Tull a recent period, the man was living who carted away the materials of the Old Town Hall, which he had previously purchased for the sum of twenty shillings!
11. We now turn to the left and shortly find ourselves at the foot of the Town Bripex, with its interesting CHapeEt on the eastern side of it. The bridge itself, as an examination of it soon shews, was at one time not only narrower in width, but shorter in length. If you look underneath the arches from a lower level this fact is soon apparent. In truth, the original centre of it is pretty well half way between the chapel and the commencement of the bridge from the Market Place. Originally it was used only for pack-horses and foot-passengers, or at the most very light vehicles, the heavier
By the Rev. Canon W. H. Jones, FSA. 315
waggons and other conveyance being taken over the ford, which was at this point broad and shallow. The bridge was lengthened to- wards the southern side, but the force of the current is still against what were originally the central arches, between which is a strong and not inelegant “ cut-water.” The construction of the old Chapel is also worth examining, at all events as regards its lower portion— for the upper portion would seem to have been a construction of later date—with its graduated corbelling and the elegantly-designed shaft on which it is erected. What its object was originally is more or less matter of conjecture. Standing as it did at the foot of the bridge on the south side, some have thought that it was simply a toll house, one of the places at which were collected dues which were demanded from all who came into the town to sell their various wares. Others have assigned to it a higher object, and Aubrey says of it—“ Here” [at Bradford] “is a strong and handsome bridge, in the midst of which a little chapel as at Bath for masse.” So that possibly, as the Hospital of St. Margaret was close by, in fact at the bridge-foot, it may have once contained the image of the patron saint, and so have been a place for receiving at once the devotions and alms of passers-by. Before the building of the present Town Hall it was used as a temporary lock-up for offenders against the laws. The vane at the top of this interesting chapel is “a fish,” and it used to be a common saying among Bradford folk, as they saw some culprit being “run in” to this strange lock-up, that “ he wer’ a gwoing auver the water, but under the vish.”
12. All traces of the Hospital of St. Margaret, which was standing in Leland’s time, for he speaks of it as “ of the Kinges of England’s foundation,” have disappeared. Its memorial is preserved in the street which is still called St. Margaret Street, and in Mor- gan’s Hill, close by—pronounced by the old folk of Bradford Mar- gan’s Hill—and as lately as 1724 called St. Margaret’s Hill. It must have been close to the bridge, and probably included amongst other property that on which stands the house now owned and oc- cupied by Mr. George Spencer, a house that derives some little interest from the fact that there once lived in it Dr. Bethel, and his
: distinguished son who became Lord Chancellor of England, and,
316 A Stroll through Bradford-on-Avon.
was ennobled as Baron Westbury. Nor must we forget, as we pass other houses close by, that one on the left-hand belonged once to the family of Shrapnell, one of whom was the inventor of the once famous “ Shrapnell Shell”; and that in another, on the right-hand, a well-known and deservedly esteemed Noncomformist minister, the Rev. W. Jay, of Bath, found a retreat for his declining years. We advance onwards a hundred yards or so, and we come to the Old Men’s Almshouse, founded A.D. 1700 by John Hall, Esq., for four poor men. Over the Almshouse is a shield with the “ battle axe” carved on it, the crest of the Hall family, with an inscription under it, “ Deo et Pauperibus.”” The administration of this charity is now in the hands of Earl Manvers, the lineal descendant of the founder.
13. From the old men’s Almshouses we come appropriately enough to thuse for old women. These are situated close by the canal They are of Pre-Reformation date, a small payment from the lord of the manor, due from time immemorial, forming part of the endowment. There is still to be seen a small relic of the Chapel of St. Catharine, to whom the “ hospital ”—using this term in its original sense—was dedicated. Even till a recent period Catherine-tide, or as the old folks call it Kattern-tide, was duly re- membered, and many a one in Bradford reckoned their ages from it. Thus an old woman once said to me, “I’ll be vower-score come Kattern-tide.” Till quite lately the really old-fashioned among us used to send presents of small cakes, called “ Kattern-Cakes,” to their friends, in memory of this festival.
The Almshouse, in which, until three years ago, there were but three women maintained, came to be in a sadly ruinous state. A legacy bequeathed for the purpose by the late Mr. Bubb enabled the trustees to build three entirely new houses some twelve years ago. Increase in the income of the charity, and a better system of management, permitted of the erection of a fourth Almshouse some three years ago, and the addition of another poor almswoman to the recipients of the benefits of the charity.
14, But leaving the Almshouse of St. Catharine, and turning down a lane on the left hand, and passing the “ Pound,” in which stray cattle were once placed till their owner might claim them,
.
4
By the Rev. Canon W. H. Jones, F.S.A. 317
leaving on the right a field called Cutver-Ctosz, because there at one time was the dove-cot or pigeon-house (from the Anglo-Saxon cu//re =dove, or pigeon), we come to what is called Barton Farm, the homestead of the lady of the manor, or of the chief farmer, who held it under her, and was called the Firmarius. Of the house itself, as regards its ancient portions, hardly anything is left. A small portion which seems parcel of a gateway, and a small apart- ment annexed to it, is nearly all; and the date of this would hardly be earlier than the fifteenth century. But the glory of Barton Farm is its magnificent Barn, which is like a long nave with double transepts, being 170 feet in length, and 20 feet in breadth—indeed, including the transepts no less than 60 feet broad. The object of so large a building was to house the crops from the farm itself, and also the tithes which in early days were paid in kind, as well as to provide shelter during winter and inclement weather for the flocks and herds. It is generally called an Early English Barn, and the older and more pointed arches of the transeptal entrances, into which the more recent and depressed ones have been inserted, can still be distinctly seen. The construction of its massive roof is not only skillful—it was built in a time when men grudged as it would seem neither labour nor materials—but ingenious. The roof-timbers are all so framed from the ground as to be as far as possible inde- pendent of the walls, and so to minimise the lateral thrust which their great weight would otherwise exert on the building, to the great detriment of the walls. On the surface of the stones in the interior can still be traced the various “ marks” of the masons who were employed in the original construction of the building. By making a collection of them—for each master-mason had his dis- tinctive mark, which he was obliged to leave on the surface of each stone which he had worked, instead of as now on the side that is embedded in the wall—it would not be difficult to make a rough calculation as to the number of masons employed in the building. The date of the barn may be put down at about ¢c. 1300—1350. Tt is strange that we know not at all who built it. Aubrey, when he came to visit us, now two hundred years ago, thought that he saw as one of the finials a “ battle axe,” the crest of the Hall family, VOL. XX.—NO. LX. ¥
318 A Stroll through Bradford-on-Avon.
and seems to intimate his belief that one of them built it. But John Aubrey was certainly deceived, as he well might have been, for he does not speak as though he had inspected the building, but as only having seen it from a distance. There is no finial at all like a “battle axe,” nor is it known that any of the Hall family, at any rate at so early a period, had anything to do with the manor.
At the same time there was a man of note, who, at the very period when, as we conjecture, the barn was first built, may have been its bold designer. This was Gilbert de Middleton, who held the Manor of Bradford under the Abbess of Shaftesbury at that precise period, and was virtually Rector—for as such he appointed Richard Kelveston to the Vicarage of Bradford in 1312—and who could at all events well afford to indulge his building tastes. For he held prebends in the Cathedrals of St. Paul’s, Chichester, Hereford, Wells, and Sarum, besides being (in 1316), Archdeacon of North- ampton, and Prebendal Rector of Edingdon. He was moreover, we may conjecture, not unknown, or at least not without interest at Court, for in 1321, we are told, “the King” (Edward II.) “granted him that he should uot be disturbed in any of his benefices.” Though it is of course wholly conjecture, yet I sometimes think that this same Gilbert de Middleton may have had a hand in building the barn. If not assisted, like others similarly situated, by the landlady in chief, the venerable Abbess of Shaftesbury, he may have had a very beneficial lease granted to him of the Manor, by way of recouping him in part for the necessarily large outlay.
15. But leaving the Barton Barn, and crossing the pretty little ancient bridge, with its five arches and the piers each with its elegant cut-water so arranged as to break as far as possible the force of the stream in time of floods, we come to what is called Barron Orcuarp, and so to a large house on the right-hand which is termed Cuantry Hovussz,a name also given to the field immediately adjoining it. The site on which the present house stands, as well as the field referred to, were at one time the endowments of the “‘ Chantries ” which were founded in the parish Church ; and pcssibly also on the same site there once stood a smaller dwelling, in which the Chantry Priests lived. The present house has been from time to time added
By the Rev. Canon W. H. Jones, F.S.A. 319
to and altered, and looks as though its oldest parts may date from the fifteenth, or at any rate the sixteenth century. It belonged, some two hundred years ago, to the Thresher family, from whom it was purchased, about 1741, by Mr. Samuel Cam, a leading clothier and active magistrate of the town. One of Mr. Cam’s daughters mar- ried Sir Benjamin Hobhouse, and their eldest son, “ John Cam”— afterwards raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Broughton de Gifford—inherited Chantry House. On his decease it descended to his nephew, Sir Charles Parry Hobhouse, Bart., and by him was sold a few years ago to its present possessor, the Rev. J.C. Thring.
16. We now visit the spot whence issues the water-supply, which for so many centuries, has sufficed for the needs of the town. This is called Lapy-WetL, perhaps because it belonged to the Lady Abbess at Shaftesbury, or perhaps (and as we would fain believe more probable) from the dedication of the little chapel at the very top of the hill (the more so as the water all comes from the hills behind it), as though it were the well of “ Our Lady,” that is, of the ‘‘ Blessed Virgin.”’ Noted for its purity for centuries, the sanitary diggings, and the engineering proclivitics of modern times, have contrived—though only temporarily we will hope—to damage its fame, and even the supply provided for themselves by the poor folk of Bradford at their own cost and trouble is pronounced impure. We will hope, however, now in a very short time to have a pure supply of water to our town, though an archzologist may be forgiven for expressing a passing wish that it had been found possible to preserve a supply, about which there was at all events more than a temporary interest, otherwise than by the rough-and-ready expedient of closing it altogether.
17. We now climb a steep hill called Wztt-Paru, and at the
-top of it we find ourselves by the side of what is called Tory Cuapet,
and also, by Leland, termed the Hermirace. The word Tory is no doubt little else but the old word, common to Celtic and Teutonic dialects (W. ¢wr and A. S. ¢or), which signifies a high eminence; in fact our word fower is its modern equivalent; and the situation verifies the name, for it is the very highest part of the town itself, By “Hermitage” is not meant one of those primitive hermitages, ¥ 2
320 A Stroll through Bradford-on-Avon.
the simple purpose of which was to allow some recluse to live the life of a devotee, but one of those useful single houses which were stationed in various places to afford a traveller food and shelter. There was a “ chapel” here, which the wayfarer might use for his devotions, a small hall in which he might have a simple meal, and a spare room in which he might find a night’s shelter. It was, in fact, one of those “ hospitals”—using the word in its primitive sense —not unfrequent in these parts—(there was one at Chapel Plaister, and another at St. Audoen’s, Wraxall)—in which the pilgrim bent on a religious errand, such as a visit to some holy place or shrine, might at all events find food and shelter on his journey. The “recluse” or “ hermit” lived here, and received such guests from time to time. It was an effort on the part of our forefathers in the middle ages, to carry out the precept once given to God’s ancient people, “Love ye therefore the stranger ; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deut., xi., 19.)
18. We pass along Tory, a name given to the terrace, so to speak, that runs along the very top-rank of our town, and at the end of it we see on the right a building, deprived of some of its interest by having been made so bran-new and bereft of all its luxuriant ivy tresses, which ought to have a passing notice. It was one of the earliest non-conforming places of worship, and was called the Grove Meetine House. It was built about A D. 1698, shortly after the passing of the Act of Uniformity, and the first minister was one of the ejected clergy, who previously had been at Calne.
19. Ascending the hill still, we go through what is called the ConteRE, a common name enough, and signifying a “ rabbit-warren,” and then turning to the right we arrive at last at Curist Cuurcu, built now some 35 years ago in a style of rigid simplicity, but now, by the addition of a chancel—almost the last work of the late gifted architect, Sir Gilbert Scott—and the use of mural decorations, and introduction of stained glass, a Church that is well worth a visit. But we are strolling beyond the bounds of our town, and will content ourselves with saying that the Church in question is a wonderful example of the way in which genius and taste can transform an
By the Rev. Canon W. H. Jones, P.8.A. 321
unattractive building into one, which even the most critical can hardly fail to admire, for the grand effect of its chancel, and the chastened beauty of its mural painting.
20. We descend the hill—down what is called Mason’s Lane —and at perhaps its steepest part, we stand before a large dwelling- house, which, till quite a recent period was called “ Methuen’s,” but on which, some thirty years ago, was bestowed the fancy name of “The Priory,’’ though no religious house ever existed there. It is a house that has portions of it of the date, it may be, of Henry VI., and the hall is especially worth seeing. There are still within it some memorials of the Methuen family, to whom it belonged for more than a century. It was built originally most probably by one of the “Rogers” family, the first of whom, Thomas Rogers, des- scribed as “serviens ad legem,” #.e., “ Serjeant at Law,” lived about 1478. The Rogers family settled afterwards at Cannington, in Somerset. From Hugh Rogers, of Cannington, this house was purchased by Paul Methuen, in 1657. Some hundred years after- wards, in 1768, it became the property of the Tugwell family. From them it was purchased, in 1811, by John Saunders, and it is now the property, as well as the residence, of Thomas Bush Saunders, Esq., the oldest of our county magistrates.
21. We come once more, after leaving this house, through Pippet Street, to the front of the Town Hall—a point which we have already visited on our stroll round Bradford. As to the meaning of “ Pippet Street” we have long been puzzled. A suggestion was made, at the time of our ramble, that after all it might be simply a corruption of the word “ Pie-powder,” which is from the French pied- poudreux (literally dusty-feet, whence its name in Latin, Curia pedis pulverizati) a name given to a Court once held in fairs, to administer ready justice to buyers and sellers, and to redress at once disorders committed in them. Old spellings of the name, Peput and Pepud, are by no means against such a theory as to its derivation. More- over the one “fair” of the town, at Trinity-tide, has from time immemorial been held here; and no doubt in ancient times, as in our own, prompt administration of justice, and summary recti- fication of wrongs, must ever have been esteemed a boon.
:
322
Gxtracts from the Aecords of the Uailtshive Onarter Sessions.
Communicated by R. W. Mzrriman, Clerk of the Peace.
REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. Table of Extracts and Notes.
I. Minute Books and Great XII. County Rates.
Rolls. XIII. Highways and Bridges.
II. Court Towns and acting XIV. Dwellings of the Poor. Justices. XV. Woods.
III. Badgers. XVI. Restitution.
IV. Tippling-houses and Tav- XVII. Matters Imperial. erns. XVIII. Transactions of a single
V. Unlawful Games. Sessions.
VI. Trespass in Pursuit of XIX. References to Justices Game. out of Sessions.
VII. Restraints on handicrafts. XX. Criminal Jurisdiction.
VIII. Apprenticeship.
. Practice and Procedure.
IX. Relief of the Poor. XXII. Minor Transactions.— X. Vagrancy. Assizes. XI. Gaols and Houses of Cor- rection. Appendices.
I.—Minvute Booxs anp Great Rotts.
Not in many counties are there still extant records of proceedings
at quarter sessions in regular continuity from the end of the six- teenth century to the present day. The rarity of such a possession
is no matter for r surprise. While the archives of a city or college
1 These extracts are transcribed for publication under the express sanction of The Earl of Radnor, Custos Rotulorum of the county. They do not pretend to deal adequately with the subject which they imperfectly illustrate: and have no higher aim than to afford examples of the sort of material which a reader might
. expect to find to his hand in the records of the Wiltshire Quarter Sessions.
Extracts from the Records. 323
found sure asylum in civic chest or cloistered strong-room, the muniments of a county were subject to change of domicile on every appointment of a new clerk of the peace. In days, too, when piles of old papers would have been regarded with little interest, the retiring functionary, or the representatives of one deceased, might possibly have considered that the exigencies of the occasion had been amply satisfied when the incoming officer had received all ‘documents of immediate practical importance, and it is not difficult to imagine that gradual ruin would overtake the remainder.
Whether by mere accident or (as one prefers to believe) by the considerate prudence of successive clerks of the peace, it is happily the fact that the transactions of the Wiltshire Quarter Sessions are still to be read in a fairly continuous series of documents, having their commencement in the sixteenth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
These records divide themselves into two chief classes—the minute books, and the great rolls.
The minute books, through a part of their currency, are sub- divided into separate series of “ Orders” and “ Entries,” between which the rough distinction may be taken that the entries address themselves to criminal and the orders to non-criminal business.
The great rolls (of which, in the Elizabethan minutes, mention occurs under the homely title of the “ Sessions Bundles”) consist of files of the several proceedings, the abridged notices of which fill the minute books. The great rolls (one of which was made up for each sessions) form the more interesting series of the two; for the reason that while the minute book may content itself with a somewhat curt entry of any given magisterial act, the great roll will probably contain the full text of the order, with the autograph _ of the acting magistrate, and the depositions or information upon which it proceeded. It must be confessed that a narrative of tran- sactions relating to an agricultural, inland, and sparsely populated shire, such as our own, cannot pretend to emulate in interest the more eventful histories of counties having a sea-board, surrounding _ some military centre or place of learning, or situate in the neigh- - bourhood of the seat of government.
524 Extracts from the Records of the
If in comparison with the records of Devonshire’ and Essex, or of such municipalities as those of Oxford and Liverpool, the rather monotonous entries of Wiltshire sessions business seem trivial and commonplace, an apology for their transcription may be found in the recollection that in the pages of this Magazine a local audience is addressed, who may be not indisposed to endure with good humour a rehearsal of local occurrences and local allusions, devoid of in- terest to the general reader.
Unfortunately the series of great rolls cannot be said to have a satisfactory starting-point till the early years of the reign of King James the First, so that, as to the quarter sessions of Elizabethan times, it is from the minute books alone that the inquirer can dis- cover for himself which were the places of assembly—who the at- tending magistrates—and what the business transacted.
II.—Court Towns anp ActinG JUSTICES.
The four towns which are at present dignified as the quarterly seats of justice, enjoyed a like distinction during, certainly, the last thirty years of Elizabeth’s reign. Salisbury was generally visited at the Christmas, Hilary, or Epiphany Sessions, Warminster at Easter, Devizes at Trinity or Midsummer, and Marlborough at Michaelmas; but this order of rotation was by no means invariable, nor was there, in this matter, an exclusive monoply. Calne, Chip- penham, Hindon, and Trowbridge, were each of them upon occasion selected as the sessions town, and such departures from the usual routine seem to have occurred most frequently between the years 1575 and 1587, during which interval not a single sessions is entered as having been held at Marlborough. Of the magistrates whose names are inscribed as constituting the court a list is appended to these extracts. During thirty years between eighty and ninety names are so recorded, some of which recur, sessions after sessions, with laudable regularity: the list includes the Earls of Pembroke, and Hertford, two Bishops of Salisbury (John Piers and Henry Cotton), Lords Audley and Stourton, and Chief Justice Popham.
1 Tt will be apparent that in the present notes the writer has been greatly in- debted to Mr. Hamilton’s work on the Devonshire records.
Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 325
In the appendix, too, is exhibited a list of some place-names mentioned in the minutes between the year 1574 and the end of the reign.
III.—Banperrs.
If the scope of an enquiry into the nature of the transactions which occupied the attention of Her Majesty’s justices in quarter sessions assembled were limited to the first score or so of pages of the earliest extant minute book, the single word “ Badgers” would suffice for an answer.
These dealers in victuals have not lacked recognition in the pages of this Magazine—they have been described by Mr. Carrington, Canon Jackson,? and Mr, Ravenhill,’ the last-named of whom has transcribed at length a petition from the inhabitants of Bath for the grant to two persons therein named of licences to act as badgers.
Although the offences of “ forestalling regrating, and ingrossing ” do not present themselves to the general reader as attractive subjects for study and discussion, yet it may be useful to recall the definition of a badger, given in old law dictionaries. “ Badger,” says the English version of Les Termes de la Ley, ‘is used with us for one that is licensed to buy corn or other victuals in one place and carry them to another—and such a one is exempted in the statute made in the fifth and sixth of Edward VL., c. 14, from the punishment of an Ingrosser within the statute.”
Under this Act of King Edward VI. it was within the com- petence of any three justices of the peace to licence a badger— but to all appearance this latitude was considered too large, for by the Act, 5 Elizabeth, cap. 12, the power of licensing was restricted to the court of quarter sessions alone.
No applicant was eligible for a licence unless he were thirty years of age, a householder. and married: the penalty for trading without a licence was five pounds, a limit which seems practically to have set the measure of the bail (entered indifferently as v/ and cs) which
1 Vol. vii., pp. 13, 14. ? Vol. xiv., p. 215. 3 Vol. xviii., pp. 156-7.
326 Extracts from the Records of the
the justices almost invariably required for compliance with the terms of the statute.
Not only were corn and grain within the prohibition of the Act, but no drover of cattle or buyer or transporter of butter or cheese could legally follow his calling without a licence, which ran for one year only.
Under such conditions it is not surprizing to find that licensees were not always able to postpone the renewal of their licenses till the season came round when the court would be sitting at the town most accessible to them. John Tytcombe, of Compton Basset, Thomas Dawson, of Kemble, Richard Russell, of Rowde, John Bristow, of Slaughterford, and Robert Butt, of Yattisbury, repaired to Salisbury to enter into their recognizances. To Warminster came applicants from Amesbury, Ashton Keynes, Boxe, Cannings, and Wedhampton ; while Devizes is visited by persons similarly in- tent from Corsley, Durrington, Mayden Bradley, and Wanborough. These were exceptions; for the most part the intending licensees resorted to the town least distant from them, and among such per- sons was Thomas Browne, of Hast Lavington, who at Devizes, in, April, 1587, is specially mentioned as licensed to trade ‘‘ cum duobus equis.”
A loose slip of paper, dated “ xiij January 1574,” (singular for its quotation of the year A.D., and in the use of Arabic numerals) contains the only instance, in the minute books, of the allotment of several territories to the different dealers named in it as “ allowed by the justices.” The allowances were, for the Hundred of Alder- bury, one badger; Amesbury, two; Bradford “and the towne,” three; Calne, two; Chippenham, three; Damerham, one; Dun- worth, one; Potterne, two; the liberties—of Rowde, two; and West- bury, two ; and the parishes—of Broadchalk, two; and Lavington, no number stated.
At the Trinity Sessions, 18th Elizabeth :—
“Tt is ordered at this Court that no foren™ or out dweller shall have eny corn in Warm m'kett or eny other m'kett within Wiltes before xj of the clock in the forenoon of sayd m'kett day And that no forin' or eny other seller shall be | sufferyd to ley in their corn in eny mans house but shall sell their corn in the
Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 327
m'kett or els bere it home again And that the poorer sort of the Towne and County shall first be sufferyd to buy before badgers and other strangers And that no Badger shall house any corn in the Town of Warm’ or in eny other m'kett towne on the m'kett day within the county And that the Justices of peace within eny division or the Township of eny Mrkett Towne do appoint ij to vewe whether the prmisses be observyd on the mkett day yea or no.”
In later years the enormities of regrating butter and cheese, and of buying corn in the fields were visited with appropriate penalties. That the clerk of the peace regarded the licensing of badgers as no mere matter of form is clear from the memoranda which he entered for his own information and instruction.
He writes in October, 1576 :—
“Md. that I take order of the Badgers that they do name the places where the Badgers do use to badge before they resieve their lycens.”
And again at the same date :—
“Md. to make pces [process] against all the Badgers that doe badge without licence.”
Such faithful compliance with current legislation may not have been wholly disinterested: the Act gave the clerk of the peace a fee of one shilling for each licence, eightpence for each recognizance, and fourpence for registering.
TV.—Tirriine-Hovuses and TAVERNS.
This praiseworthy vigilance concerning the more substantial articles of a Wiltshireman’s diet was accompanied by an equal care- fulness in the control and regulation, under the licensing law of the day, of breweries, malt-houses, ale-houses, and victualling-houses. A few extracts will best illustrate this branch of magisterial action.
Epiphany, 18th Elizabeth :—
“Md qd ad hanc Sess pacis concess: et concordat : fuit p" p'fatos Justiciar adtunc et ibm existentes modo sequente videlt That where the said Justices did well allowe that Anne Maple of Downton in the said County widowe shoulde contynewe her kepeing of her Inne in Downton aforesaid for that the said Court was enformed that shee was meete therfore in respect of her well useing thereof And therfore it was comanded to all the rest that toke upon them to kepe eny Inne in Downton aforesaid That they and ev'y of them shoulde leve of and receave no more horses nor horsemen nor other persons thereafter uppon payne to be grevouslye amerced if they did contrary to this order And that none do reseive eny to lodge unles they be assigned by the Offycers of the Towne.”
328 Extracts from the Records of the
Trinity, 18th Elizabeth :—
[Translation.] ‘“ Tippling-house.—Bail for Nicholas Harris of Westbury Lighe, viz., Robert Cogswell, of the same place, yeoman, and Thomas Saunders, of Westbury-under-the-plain (Westbury subtus le playne), clothier : each of the sureties in 66s. 8d., and the principal in £5, under condition of keeping good rule in his house according, &c.”
Trinity, 19th Elizabeth :-—
“Md that pces be made against Mathew Webb of Kingswall Shewmaker for that he kepith an Alehouse whoute lycens by the credible reporte of Mr. Spenser forman of the Grand Jury.”
Easter, 21st Elizabeth :—
“Tt is ordered that Robert Spenser of Horningsham shal be disharged for keping any farther Alehouse unles he can bring some of his neighbors to speake for him, wch be of honest fame, to St John Thynne.”
At the Trinity Sessions, 25th Elizabeth, occurs an entry that :—
“Tt is ordered by all the whole courte at the assize holden at Sar. xxij° die Augusti anno xxv E. Regine that Will™ Askew shalbe from hence deposed and put downe for [i.e from] keping any alehouse or Tipling from henceforth.”
A similar sentence from the court of quarter sessions overtook Robert Randell, Fisherton, not long afterwards, and William Sparks was suspended “until such time as he bring a certificate from the Aldermen of Malmesbury of his good behaviour. were clearly the recognized guarantors of respectability within their
” These dignitaries
municipality, for at a later date :—
“Tt is ordered that no Justice shall graunt any licence for selling ale in the towne of Malmesbury unles the pties be comended under the hands of the Alder- men Burgesses and Fermors of the said towne or the most part of them.”
In the last year of the sixteenth century the condition of the common victualling-house licence is stated to have been that the keeper should “performe all such articles as are set downe in a booke latlie sett forth by the Councell.” What these articles were may be gathered from a perusal of the transactions of the Michaelmas Sessions in that same year, among which are entered eight clauses expressly referred to at subsequent sessions as those which had been issued by Royal mandate.
Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 329
The purport of these clauses is as follows :—
“. First that noe Innkeeper or Typler that may convenientlie be served from anie brewer do brewe in their houses but that they take from the brewers such drincke onlie and at such reasonable sise as shalbe fytt for travelers and passen- gers and as the Justices of the peace of that place or lymitt shall assigne or set downe as fytt for that purpose.”
2. Against the admission of “cardes dice or tables” into any tippling-house.
“3. Itm that no Victuler &c shall dresse or suffer to be dressed or eaten within his house ani fleshe upon anie forbydden dayes saving in case of necessitie of sicknes &e. &e.
“4, Itm that they suffer none to eate and typle or victual in their houses but such as wayfaring men that shall take the same to refresh themselves in their passage or iorny or such as shalbe appoynted to lodge or take dyett in their houses but to deliver oute of their houses that quantitie of drink wch their neigh- bours of the poorer sorte shall have need of to be druncke in their houses whoe fetche or send for the same, and not elswhere.
5. No drunkenness to be permitted, “nor anie tipling at all on the Sabaoth dayes or hollydayes in tyme of devyne service,” nor after 8 p.m.
6. None to be entertained for longer than one day and one night “ but such as he [the victualler] will answer for.” .
7. Against buying goods of any wayfaring man.
“8. Itm that ev'y Inkeeper and Typler allowed shall buy his drinke wthout brewing, of anie of the brewer allowed to brewe drinke (if anie be) all of one sorte And if eyther Typlers or Innkeepers refuse soe to doe ev'y of the Typlers soe refusing to be forthwith dismissed to Typle any longer, and to be bound over &c.”
At the Epiphany Sessions, 19th Elizabeth, two innkeepers—one of Hindon the other of Fisherton Anger—gave bail with sureties conditioned, among other things, for the due observance of the third of the foregoing articles.
The City of Salisbury seems to have been foremost in application for licenses to “ aquavitemen,” while Devizes stands almost alone as the place at which the inns are, in the minutes, named by their signs.
At the same Michaelmas Sessions held at Devizes as that at which the above rules were promulgated, nine innkeepers at Devizes gave bail, themselves in £10 with two sureties in £5 each—John Sawter, in respect of “The Beare,” the sign of which is mentioned as “ de novo apposit:”; James Willis, for “ The Lambe”; Nicholas Bar- ret, for “The Crowne”; Richard Maundrell, for “The Harte” - _ John Pearce, for “ The Swan” ; Stephen Godfrey, for “The Lyon” ; _ and three other persons for houses which are not specially designated.
330 Extracts from the Records of the
East Lavington contributed three publicans; Weeke two (for the titles of whose houses the spaces on the page are left blank) ; Up- avon two (of whom one was Maurice Oram, of “ The Antelope, de novo apposit:”’) ; Allecannings one; and Bromham one. From the east of the county came, on a like errand, Thomas Waters, of Frox- field; while from the yet remoter borders of Charnham Street journeyed three persons whose names are separately entered and noted as “ diversorii de antiquo allocati, sed non tenebantur coram eisdem justic: sicut alteri.”
Like security was taken from seven common brewers, of whom Upavon sent one and Devizes the rest. Three of them are described as “ yeomen,” two as “ gentlemen,” one as a widow, and the seventh passes undescribed. They undertook to “ brewe and sell noe other but good and wholesome ale and beare well sodden and well brewed of wholesome grayne as it ought to be.” A regular tariff is pre- scribed for them, but unfortunately the measures of quantity only are specified, while the spaces for the prices were never filled in.
A distinction between victualling and alehouse-keeping is marked in the following order :—
“Tt is ordered that John Reele only shall keep an Alehouse in Great Bedwyn, and that William Pierson shalbe permitted to kepe Vitlinge untill Easter next
without setting up any Alestake* but if he kepe any disorder then to be utterly dismissed. All other to be removed.”
V.—UntuawruL Games.
The due conduct of a tippling-house included a discountenancing of unlawful games, a term which, so far as the generality of the population was concerned, included, temp. Eliz., a variety of amuse- ments which would now-a-days be regarded as not only harmless but commendable. The statute then in force on this subject had been passed in the thirty-third year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, and was styled “ The Bill for maintaining Artillery and the debarring of unlawful games.” The connection between the two ideas, not at first very obvious, is explained by a perusal of the Act. The bowyers, fletchers, stringers, and arrow-head makers had _
* Alestake; the post or pole, the sign of an alehouse,
Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 331
made complaint to the King that.notwithstanding “ divers good and lawful statutes ” made against unlawful games, yet that “ many subtil inventive and crafty persons intending to defraud the same estatute, sithens the making thereof have found and daily find many and sundry new and crafty games and plays as Logetting-in-the Fields, Slide-thrift, otherwise called Shove-groat . . . . by reason whereof Archery is sore decayed.” Paying a tribute to the past prowess of the English archers, these “ daily orators” proceed to deplore that “yet nevertheless archery and shooting in Long Bows was little used but daily did minish decay and abate more and more . . . . and also by means and occasions of custumable usage of Tennis play, Bowls, Cloysh, and other unlawful games
great impoverishment hath ensued [7.e., folk could not find money to pay for long bows of yew] and many heinous Murders Robberies and Felonies were committed and done.”
Whatever may have been the wisdom or folly of the reasoning thus put forward by the “ bow-and-arrow interest,” the Act did its best to encourage archery, and to stamp out idle gambling. It obliged every man to “ have in his house for every man-child being of the age of seven years and above, till he shall come to the age of seventeen years, a bow and two shafts.”! This clause is followed by a variety of others, all favorable to bowyers, fletchers, and arrow- head men, which clauses are in their turn succeeded by stringent prohibitions of the reprehensible amusements specified above. No artificer or craftsman, &c. (ten synonyms are added), was permitted to play at the tables, tennis, dice, cards, bowls, clash, coyting, lo- gating, or other unlawful game, out of Christmas, under pain of xxs. to be forfeit for every time ; and even at Christmas, indulgence
1 Such an obligation must have formed a doubtful contribution to the comfort of the man-child’s household. It recals the lament (from the pathetic pen of Mr. Slimmer of the New Castle Morning Argus) for Willie done to death by his purple monkey climbing on a yellow stick :—
“Oh! no more he’ll shoot his sister with his little wooden gun.” _ With his little bow and two shafts the Willie of the sixteenth century made himself felt, no doubt, as an appreciable nuisance; the more so if (as possibly happened) he now and then laid precocious hands on the four arrows statutorily kept in store for his elder brethren’s practice at the butts.
332 Extracts from the Records of the
in these pastimes was permissible only “ in their masters’ houses or in their masters’ presence ”—while, as for howls, no manner of person was at any time to disgrace himself by such wanton wickedness “ in open places out of his garden or orchard upon the pain for every time . . . .. to forfeit vis. viiid.”
So commissioned and so empowered, a conscientious magistrate must frequently have found himself face to face with the stern ne- cessity of relegating to a righteous doom the irreclaimable quoit- player and backsliding bowler. Such an one may Alfred Hawkins have been, of Norton Bavant, who, at Trinity, 22nd Elizabeth, on a charge of unlawful gaming (the full enormity of which is not disclosed), stood in contempt of an indictment, which, howerer, ap- pears to have been removed by Royal writ to the court above.
At Michaelmas in the following year :—
“Willm Wood of Fleetstreet of the Citie of London hat maker, Robert Car- penter of Oxfordsheer [admirable exactitude] carpenter & Edmond Carpenter of Oxfordsheere hath confessed that they have used certaine games called Trole- madame [Autolycus comes to mind] and ryfiling of disshes & plattes in the countie of Wiltes being unlawfull and cossyning games And therupon the said
pties are comitted to the Shreife untill they have founde suerties for their good behaveour & to appear at the next quart’ sessions.”
Seend and Hilperton must have been incurably addicted to bowl- ing, for at the Trinity Sessions, 29th Elizabeth :— “William Wilkins and John Somner of Seen on a presentment for unlawful
games &c were fined iis. and iijd. to dischardge all Seen g Hilp*ton men for bowling, vj of them by Mr. Brouncker pd to me 2s. therfore.”
At the same sessions three other offenders were fined 2s. 6d. each, and in a later year a misguided reveller who forgot himself to the extent of unlawfully tippling before he unlawfully bowled, was con- demned to forfeit xijd. for each of these forbidden pleasures.
Ralph Haggard fared better. He appeared in person at the Easter Sessions, 44th Elizabeth, and in answer to a presentment against him made at the preceding Warminster Sessions by James Minterne (an active prosecutor, who is expressly stated to be suing under the Act of Henry the Eighth) successfully pleaded a general
pardon.
Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 333
VI.—Trespass 1n Pursuit or Game. Licence To Sxoor.
Worse than such’ pastimes as slide-thrift, shove-groat, or logating- in-the-fields, was lawless incursion into chase, park, or warren, to the certain disturbance of the deer (exagitatio damarwm) and the probable slaughter of rabbits (necatio cwniculorum).
Trespass, not necessarily a part of the gamester’s misdoing, was inevitable with the poacher, and is laid as a separate charge in many of the Gases which came up for trial under the Game Laws.
The entries of these cases vary in particularity.
Sometimes the charge is stated simply as a pursuit of game (venatio), or breaking into a park (parcus fractus).
Sometimes the landowner’s name occurs, as when John Warner, of Netherhampton, William Hookett, of Wilton, and George Poul- ter, of Winterborne Dauntsey gave bail on a charge of hunting in the “ warren of the Earl of Pembroke”; or John Ritchman “ offered voluntary upon his discharge that he will go to Sir Henry Knivet and be bound in forty pounds not to disturb his game from hence- forth.” The warren of John Mervin, too, is mentioned as having been forcibly entered by Roger Watkin, of Horningsham, whose enterprise was rewarded by fines of £10 for the trespass and £10 for killing coneys.
But in the majority of ieitiadieee the invaded territory is specified by its own name.
The forest of Braydon received a sporting visit from Richard Rutter, of Chelworth, Cricklade.
For hunting coneys at Hilthorp, Henry Barkshire, of Ramsbury, was fined five shillings.
At the Epiphany Sessions, 18th. Elizabeth, William Forty, of Mylenoll” (in £20), Thomas Heal, of “ Weke,” and Robert Brown, of “ Rokeley” (in £10 each), gave bail for the appearance of the first-named at the next sessions, and immediately afterwards the same Robert Brown aud John Liddiard, of Rockley, became surety for Robert Liddiard, of “ Prsult”’ under a similar obligation.
So far only the official entry. But by a marginal note the clerk of the peace takes the reader into his confidence. ‘ Md.,” he re- marks, in reference to the first recognizances, “ This Will Forti was VOL, XX.—NO. LX, Z
334 Extracts from the Records of the
Indyghted for hunting in Alborne chase by my L. of Pembroke”: opposite the second set of recognizances he adds, “ This is lykewise a hunt.” ;
At Michaelmas, 41st Elizabeth, at Marlborough, Thomas Pearce was fined 13s. 4d., not only for hunting in Alborne Chase, but for killing coneys there. Yet such an inveterate poacher was he that at the next sessions he was “up” again for a like offence at the same place, save that on this second charge the evidence seems to have extended to “ exagitation” only, and not to “necation.” He produced as sureties Ambrose Adlam, of West Harnham, and John Eyles of New Sarum. But why this succour from a far country ? Can it be that the North Wilts coney addressed itself seductively to the palate of the southern city, and was in brisk demand there? Such a supposition is at variance with inherent probabilities: the woods of Clarendon and Grovely were at hand, and there was no lack of enterprising commissaries. John Mann, of Pitton (with a fine of 40s.), collected supplies at Clarendon, and Richard Mundy —though acquitted on the main charge of coney-killing at Grovely— did not escape without a penalty of 20s. for disturbing the deer there.
Wardour Park was explored by Thomas Brett, of Tisbury, and no doubt all three coverts by many more who have not attained the distinction of a place in the sessions kalendar.
The Queen’s warren at Watcombe, in the parish of Auston (Al- vediston), and Her Majesty’s warren and liberty at Mere, fared no better than the preserves of her subjects. Trespass in one, and hare-hunting in the other, are recorded with corresponding fines, which, however, fall far short of the exemplary penalties inflicted in some other instances.
Of the irregular sportsmen who directed their attention to fishing, it may suffice to mention that certain of the inhabitants of Fisherton Anger found it impossible to resist the attractions of the Earl of Pembroke’s waters; and to chronicle the fortunes of Thomas Riddle, and John Harrison, of “ Ambrosbury,” and William Wolfe, of ** Mildeston,” who entered into their own reeognizances in £10 each that they would not for the future fish in any water, save with lawful nets, and not otherwise,
— -- —— ~~
Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 335
Even to carry a sporting-piece was, for the unprivileged, an in- dictable misdemeanour. At the Michaelmas Sessions, 26th Elizabeth, Simon White was arraigned for the pursuit of game and for keeping a crossbow (pro custodia arcubaliste). At Michaelmas, 44th Elizabeth, John Archard, of Malmesbury (acquitted), and Thomas Woodgate, of Tockenham (who traversed), were each indicted for shooting in a hand gun (such was the technical phrase) charged with powder and
_hail-shot (pro sagittatione in tormento onerato pulvere et glandinibus
plumbeis). What sort of thing a licence to shoot may have been may be ex- emplified by the following specimen.
Easter, 44th Elizabeth :—
‘To all Xren people to whome theise pnts doe app'teyne greetinge. Whereas I Sir Robert Dormer Knight as well by especiall comaundem* from her mati? as by reason force and vertue of the tenure of certen landes tents and hereditaments to me descended and come by from and after the decease of St. William Dormer Knighte, my late father deceased am now intituled to have use exercise & enjoye in by and throughe all pts & places within this realm of England as well by my sufficient deputie or deputies by me in that behalfe to be appointed The office of Marshall Master Overseer & Keeper ot her ma‘? hawks w** all suche libties priviledges & jurisdicons as to the same apperteyneth as by divers lres patents made to the said S* William Dormer Knight my late father & unto me the saide S* William Dormer Knight and others by & from her mat & her most noble progenitors more at large appeareth Nowe knowe yee that I the saide S* Robert Dormer by vertue & authoritie thereof to me given and for the necessary pvision keepinge & feedinge of suche Hawkes as Jasper More of Haitesbury in the Countie of Wiltes Esq or his servauntes have in his or there custodye of her ma‘** have licensed and authorised and by these pnts do licence and authorise for so much as in me is, the said Jasper More or his servant or servants the bearer hereof to shoote in Crosbowe Handgune or other piece w* anye kinde of shott at Crowes Rookes Choughs Stockdoves Ringdoves or any other kinde of birde or fowle birds or foules meet and fitt for foode for such Hawks as he or any of his servants shall have in his or there [custody] of her ma**. Provided allwaies that the said Jasper More or any other by vertue hereof shall not shoote nere any River or Plashes used for hawking at any fowle or at any foule or other marke upon any Churche or Dovecote nor w'*in three miles of the Courte where- soever the same shall happen to be Provided also this my pnte graunt & licence shall noe longer have continuance or be of force then onely duringe my will & pleasure In witness whereof I the saide St Robert Dormer Knight have hereunto set my hande and seale the xx" daie of November in the foure and fortieth yere of the raigne of our Sov'aigne ladye Elizabeth by the Grace of God of England France & Ireland Quene Defender of the faithe & 1601.”
zZ2
336 Extracts from the Records of the
VITI.—Restraints on Hanpicrarts.
But not to a man’s hours of idleness alone did the legislature take heed; it directed and controlled him in the workshop and the mill, in a spirit differing greatly from that of modern factory laws. For the practice of almost every sort of handicraft some form of licence, or certificate, or allowance, or at least bail, was needed—and among the applicants for such licences, or defendants called to ac- count for the want of them, are to be found bakers, wheelwrights, dyers and weavers. It was upon these last and upon the clothiers that the law pressed most heavily, even while its laudable aim was the suppression of “scamped ” workmanship.
Shoddy—ubiquitous, and unabashed, in the later nineteenth cen- tury—encountered from the legislature of the sixteenth nothing but uncompromising hostility.
Edward the Sixth’s Acts! of Parliament gave it no quarter. They denounced “the slight and subtile making of clothes and colours,”
? The preambles of Edward’s Acts breathe a spirit of such primitive simplicity ; principles not always regarded in modern commerce are there advanced with an air so serious, and in phrases so fresh and original, that their transcription more at large may perhaps be forgiven :—
“‘Forasmuch as by the slight and subtile making of clothes and colours within divers parts of this Realm, now of late practised and used, not only great infamies and slanders have grown to the same Realm, but also the King’ Majesty’s faithful and true subjects have sustained great loss in the use and wearing of the said clothes so slightly and subtilly made.”
And :—
** Where heretofore divers and many goodly statutes have been made for the true making of cloth within this Realm, which nevertheless forasmuche as clothiers, some for lack of knowledge and ex- perience, and some of extreme covetousness, do daily more and more study rather to make many than to make good clothes, having more respect to their private commodity and gain, than the ad- vancement of truth and continuance of the commodity in estimation, according to the worthiness thereof, have and do daily, instead of truth, practise falsehood, and instead of substantial making of cloth, do practise sleight and slender making, some by mingling of yarns of divers spinnings in one cloth, some by mingling fell-wool and lambs-wool, or either of them, with fleece-wool, some by putting too little stuff, some by taking them out of the mill before they be full thicked, some by over stretching them upon the teiter, and then stopping with flocks such bracks as shall be made by means thereof; finally, by using so many subtle sleights and un- truths, as when the clothes so made be put in the water to try them they rise out of the same neither in length nor breadth as they oughtto do, and in some place narrower thansome, beside such cockeling, bandoning, and divers other great and notable faults, as almost cannot be thought to be, true. . - . And yet nevertheless, neither fearing the laws in that case provided, nor regarding the estimation of their country, do not only procure the Aulnager to set the King’s seal to such false untrue and faulty cloth, but do themselves weave into the same the likeness and similitude of the King’s Highness most noble and imperial crown, and also the first letter of his name, which should be testimonies of truth, and not a defence of untruth, to the great slander of the King our Sovereign Lord, and the shame of this land, and to the utter destruction of so great and notable commodity, as the like is not in any foreign nation,”
Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 337
and forbade the dyeing of any wool which had not been perfectly woaded, boiled and maddered . . . . according to the ancient “workmanship in time past used.” Minute restrictions and pro- hibitions were laid upon the clothiers, the due enforcement of which was secured by the annual appointment of overseers in every town or village in which cloth was manufactured. The detective energies of these officers, and the critical faculties of the acting magistrate, were simultaneously stimulated by an ingenious expedient. It was provided that any piece of contraband cloth should be divided into three parts: of these one was allotted to the King, a second to the person presenting it, 7.e., the informer, the remaining third part to the person to whom it was presented, ¢.¢., the magistrate by whom it was condemned.
The manufacturers were evidently harassed and impeded by the severity of these requirements, and it probably fell out, as in the preceding reign, that :—
** Upon these taxations The clothiers all, not able to maintain The many to them ‘longing, have put off The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who
Unfit for other life, compelled by hunger And lack of other means . . are all in uproar.”
At all events an Act of Philip and Mary recites that “divers clothiers found themselves aggrieved alledging that it is unpossible for them to observe the same Act [of E. 6] in all points and have
prayed some mitigation thereof,” which mitigation Parlia- ment proceeded in some measure to administer.
Apart from this aspect of the matter, the Act of Philip and Mary is interesting as containing an inventory of the only colours per- missible in any cloths “ put to sale within the realm of England.” These were, “ scarlet, red, crimson, morrey, violet, pewke, brown-blue [a remarkable shade], black, green, yellow, blue, orange, tawney, russet, marble gray, sad new colour [a distinctly precious tint], azure, watchet, sheeps colour, lion colour, motley, iron gray, fryer’s gray, crane colour, purple, and old medley colour.”
Elizabeth carried on the legislation; but her hand was heavier
338 Extracts from the Records of the
than her brother’s: he rewarded those who convicted, she fined those who convicted not. By the “Act against the deceitful stretching and tentering of northern cloth,” any justice negligent concerning the due execution of the statute was liable to a penalty of £5.
Two other Acts of the same reign were those in which Wiltshire- men were chiefly concerned. The red and white cloths manufactured in the shires of Wilts, Gloucester, and Somerset, had already, in Edward’s reign, been the subject of special enactment. Of these materials the pieces were to measure, while wet, in length between twenty-six and twenty-eight yards, and in breadth not less’ than seven quarters of a yard between the lists. The prescribed weight of such pieces being, of white cloths, sixty-four pounds; of coloured pieces, sixty pounds.
These quantities were reduced by Elizabeth. The length remained at twenty-eight yards, but the width was drawn in to six-quarters- and-a-half, ‘and the weight, for “broads,” to sixty-three pounds, while “narrows” were to stand at sixty-one pounds ; and the penalties for transgression of these conditions were re-settled.
Such were the laws which the magistrates of the day found to their hand; but their experience seems to have been, that, eschewing all other colours, the Wiltshire manufacturer satisfied himself with the steady production of his white cloth, broad or narrow listed as the case might be. These at all events were the only colours which found their way “ into court,” and it was not until the passing of the latest Act of Elizabeth, passed after the century had turned, that the overseers seem to have initiated any systematic prosecutions under its clauses.
At the Trinity Sessions in 1602 a score of offenders are presented —some of them on a handful of separate charges. Fourteen of these cases came on for trial at the next sessions: the accused in every instance pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to the payment of fines or the forfeiture of the defective cloth. Four shillings per pound on the deficiency in weight was the measure of the fine where such deficiency constituted the offence ; and forfeiture of the cloth ensued where illegality of measure was the ground of complaint— the forfeiture being commuted for a money payment of the value of
——w =p pee
—
ee te ee ee
Te ea ed
Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 339
the cloth as appraised by the court. With two exceptions only the fines were paid—in one of these the delinquent is noted as being in arrear, without further observation. A less fortunate offender from Westbury (whose piece was deficient by 5 lbs.) was amerced in the sum of 52s. Out of this sum 12s. (viz, 3 lbs. at 4s.) went to the overseers; for the remaining 2lbs. the fine was 40s., half of which went to the overseers and half to the poor of Westbury. The de- fendant is noted as not paying the fine, and the entry closes with the ominous words, “ pro quibus committitur.”
At the last sessions in Elizabeth’s reign, the number of these cases (either original or adjourned) fell scarcely short of one hundred.
Other offences under the Acts relating to woollen cloths also came before the court. William Cooke, of Quemerford, was indicted for using a tenter with seven lower bars (pro occupatione tenture cum vy inferioribus trabibus). Nicholas Parkyn, of Westbury, was charged with refusing to allow an inspection by the overseers, John Ussher, of the same place, “ pro extensione, Anglice stretchinge” a piece of cloth made for sale; while among neighbouring places, Westbury Leigh, Brook and Chapmanslade, Steeple Ashton, Hinton and Pollesholt, all at one time or another contributed their quota to such minor offences (presented nevertheless by the grand inquest) as keeping a loom or practising the craft of a weaver not having been thereunto duly apprenticed.
VIII.—APpreEntIcEsHIP.
This last offence was not confined to the cloth trade; it related to all manual occupations. In the fifth year of Elizabeth’s reign was passed the statute of labourers, &c., which dealt exhaustively with the employment of labour. Any man under thirty years of age, unless already employed in some manner prescribed by the Act, and even above that age if he were unmarried, was liable to be marched off to service in a very summary fashion, and the juvenile pauper, numbering at last sufficient years for manual occupation, was handed over with eager alacrity to the first person who would accept his services.
“Md.” writes the clerk of the peace at the Trinity Sessions, 1579,
340 Extracts from the Records of the
in his own atrocious handwriting 1—contrasting most unfavorably with the comparatively neat penmanship of his clerk :—
“Md. that by the commaundemte of John Eyres Esquier I was willed at this Sessions to enroll that John Willms being now eight yeres of age and lefte by some unknowen beggar within the ptish of Braddford was appointed by the
p'ishioners to serve Robt Brouncker of Broughton Gifford Wever to serve him according to the statute wntyll he come to thage of xxij yeres.”
At the Michaelmas Sessions, 1591 :—
“Tt is ordered that If Xrofer North be abled by law to be an apprentice that then he shall serve the woman so long as she shall exercise the mistery of weavinge or cause him to be instructed in the same bona fide during the yeares.”
And at the preceding Easter Sessions the order for maintenance of a boy is to run only until he shall be fit to be an apprentice (quousque fuerit habilis essendi apprenticius).
One year was the shortest term for which a contract for labour could be entered into, and the minimum was occasionally adopted.
At the Epiphany Sessions, 22nd Eliz., John Westbrooke, of Alderbury, undertook to receive Thomas Grymsted into his service and produce him at the Feast of Epiphany, in the year 1580.
Two similar undertakings were entered into at the Trinity Sessions, 82nd Eliz., when each of the intending employers gave bail in £5, conditioned for the production of the servant at the end of the year.
Nor were such safeguards mere formal superfluities.
Among the employers of the period one at least formed an austere estimate of a master’s duty towards his apprentice.
At the Michaelmas Sessions, 1589 :—
Order is lykewise taken by all the Justices that whereas one John Hewse being the apprentice of one Morrys Henley of Wootton Bassett in the countie of Wiltes Shomaker dyd upon dyvers abuses and threatenings whereby the said John Hewse stode in dyspeyre of his life depted from his said mayster and where upon complaynt and profe thereof made before certeyne of the same Justyces the said Morrys Henley refused to become bounde that the said John Hewse should re- mayne with hym in securytie and safetie of his lyfe that the said John Hewse .
shalbe at lyberty to serve els where at his will and pleasure at all tymes hereafter wthout any contradycion denyall or ympedynt of the said Morrys Henly unles
1A specimen—being one of the numberless entries of bail to appear at the next sessions, and meanwhile to keep the peace—is given in the accompanying illustration.
Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 341
the said Morriss willbecome bounde by recognyasaunce before some justyce of peace of the same sheire that the said John Hewse durying the tyme of his said apprentyshippe shalbe remayne and contynewe in safety of his lyfe for any thing used to be done or comytted to the contrary by the said Morrys Henley his mayster.”
At the Trinity Sessions, 1592 :—
“Tt is ordered that Arthur Husband shall deliv’ John Crawley to his father before nine of the clocks of this next daye or to be comitted to gayle.” “Fiat [the entry concludes] capias versus eundem Husband.”
By the end of the century the magisterial interest in apprentice law would seem to have subsided (a condition of mind to which the readers of these pages have, it is to be feared, by this time been also reduced), for at the Michaelmas Sessions of 1600 :—
“Tt is ordered that noe Informacons shalbe exhibited into this Courte against anie pson for using or exercising anie misterie or manuell occupacon wherin he hath not ben Apprentice unles the same be first made knowne to some Justice of the Peace neare the place where the pson dwelleth against whome such informacon is or shalbe exhibited and that the same Justice doe consent therunto And that all informacons hertofore exhibited into this Courte against badgers of woollen yarne shall cease and be noe further prsecuted until further order be taken.”
The hundred juries may have considered that the hint was not for them—as indeed perhaps it was not. Certainly the jury of the Hundred of Westbury were moved at the Easter Sessions, 44th Eliz., to present :—
Elizabeth Vooke, of Dilton for keeping a servant, aeglias a jour- neyman who has not served as an apprentice.
William Axford, of Bratton, for taking an apprentice to the art of weaving, to which art he had not himself been apprenticed.
_ William Collier and John Swetland, each of Bratton, for keeping apprentices who were sons of labourers in husbandry.
Among the persons indicted at an earlier sessions was Alice Clifford, for exercising an art “in qua non fuit educata.”
(To be Continued.)
[The Committee desires to acknowledge the liberality of Mr. R. W. Merriman in presenting the plate which accompanies his paper.]
34%
Description of a Barrow recently Opened on Overton Aull.
By C. Pontine, Esq. i —— of these ancient tumuli having disappeared, and
an opportunity having been afforded me of seeing it opened, I venture to place on record some account of it. I vould have wished this duty had fallen into abler and more experienced hands, and I regret that my effort to obtain the presence of our worthy Secretary to witness the opening was defeated by the incessant downpour of rain during the day on which it was necessary it should be done: otherwise that gentleman had, in spite of his ill health at the time, undertaken to be there.
The barrow was the second from the south along the range of hills between West Kennett and Abury, on the estate of the trustees of the late Mr. Tanner. The land around and over it being arable, the barrow had become much flattened, and the cairn of sarsens which it contained almost denuded of the covering of soil, by probably centuries of cultivation. I may here remark that an interesting contrast is shown, illustrative of the levelling effects of this process, in the well-preserved barrows on the adjacent down land, northwards of the arable, and which are planted over. The stones of the cairn being found to interfere with the use of the plough, workmen were, in February last, put to remove what they at first thought to be a few stray sarsens.
I was made acquainted with this by one of the stone-cutters bringing me a small earthen vessel, which he had found amongst what he described as a “ heap of stones.” This vessel is of British manufacture, rude and imperfectly burnt, 34 inches in diameter, and the same in height, and is apparently a food-cup. With it a skeleton evidently a secondary interment in the cairn of the barrow—was
Description of a Barrow recently Opened on Overton Hill, 343
found, but this was destroyed by the workmen in removing the stones. On visiting the place I found that this heap of stones was the cairn of the barrow, and that it had been opened almost to the natural level of the ground, so that I was too late to measure its original height. The cairn was formed of sarsen stones roughly piled up, and was about 24 feet in diameter. At a distance of about 6 feet from the base of this was the very unusual peculiarity of an outer circle, composed of very large specimens of similar stones in adouble row; this circle was continuous. The whole was covered in the usual manner with soil, but of a somewhat more clayey nature than that surrounding the barrow. Owing to its flattened state, however, it was impossible to ascertain the extreme diameter of the barrow.
The cist containing the primary interment was in the centre of the cairn, excavated out of the chalk 24 feet below the level of the natural surface of the ground. It was in the form of an irregular circle—the average interior diameter being about 33 feet—partially walled with sarsen boulders, the hard chalk having been left in places without a lining of stones ; and it was covered, at the ground- level with one large and two smaller flat sarsens. The cist was filled with soil, and the removal of it without destroying the shape and position of the skeleton was a work of some difficulty, and although the skeleton was very perfect, the smaller bones were so much decayed that it was impossible to remove them whole. The body had been placed in the cist lying on its back, with the head to the north in the direction of Abury, but the legs had been turned over, and the lower part of the spine so twisted as to give it the ap- - pearance of lying on the left side. The knees were drawn up to within fourteen inches of the chin; the left hand placed against the head, and the right across the abdomen. On the east side, and in front of the knees, where the cist was slightly elongated, were portions of the skull, jaw and other bones of an animal of about the size of a rabbit, and also a large number of very minute but distinct bones under } of an inch in length. These last were in clusters of some hundreds to each.! The soil in the cist contained a singular
1A sample of these minute bones, most of them reduced to fragments, and
4
344 Description of a Barrow recently Opened on Overton Hill.
piece of wood in the form of a knife, and also many shaped flints, but no pottery or ashes, although wood ashes were found on the ground under the lowest stones of the cairn.
Amongst the stones forming the cairn were also bones of some large animal—probably a horse—and portions of stags’ antlers. These, together with the skull, earthen vessel, and the other things found in the barrow, have been deposited in the Museum, and the Secretary has obtained the professional report upon the skull which is given below.
The sarsens of which the cairn and outer circle were constructed were of an entirely different kind to those found on the adjoining downs, and the workmen who cut them considered them exactly similar to those existing in large numbers by the Kennett, east of Overton. As many of the stones were of immense size and several tons in weight, the work of getting them to the top of this hill— supposing them to have been taken from the Kennet valley—must have been one of no slight magnitude.
SKULL rrom Barrow on Overton HI,
kindly described by Mr. Robertson, of the Museum, Oxford :—
“Skull possibly of a stout female, past the middle period of life, with complete dentition, the teeth much worn with hard food or grit. Some of the upper teeth have been lost since the skull was removed from the barrow. The nasals and part of the nasal surface of the maxillary, the zygomaic process of the right tembual bones have been lost. Also the right condyle of the lower jaw. The incisor teeth are small. The molars, particularly in the upper jaw, much worn, but—as usual in barrow skulls—do not present any traces of decay.
“The mastoid processes are small, the palate short and deep, the
all of them much broken, was submitted to the anatomical inspection of Mr. Robertson, at Oxford ; and that gentleman at once and unhesitatingly pronounced them to be bones of frogs. This authoritative decision appeared at first somewhat staggering, as it seemed impossible to account for so large a collection of the bones of that batrachian on the top of a dry down at a considerable distance from water: but as a matter of fact, during the opening of the adjoining barrow last autumn, live frogs were observed in some numbers in that immediate locality. [Ep.]
The Opening of a Barrow on Overton Hill. 345
subraciliary ridges prominent, and most of the cranial sutures are still visible. The chin is not prominent. The left parietal is shorter than the right, with a considerable depression on the posterior sur- face near the lamboid suture. This depression has caused a con- siderable prominence of the supraoccipital region. The space between the parietal and supraoccipital on the right side is filled up by a number of small wormian bones.
“ Height about 5 feet 4 inches.
“ Measurements taken with Flower’s craniometer :—
Circumference, 22 inches, or 56 metres.
Length 7.6 i pis ies alae Breadth 5.9 Pag Fy Height 5.9 ee 5
Cubic capacity, 111 cubic inches,”
Che Opening of a Barrow on Oberton Pill.
N the 15th and 16th of September, 1882, Mr. Henry Cunnington having made arrangements for opening the barrow H. vi. b. (Rev. A. C. Smith’s map), on Overton Down (West Kennet), invited me to join him; and as the Rev. W. C. Lukis was then paying an archeological visit to the Rev. A. C. Smith, - these gentlemen favoured us with their presence on both days. The account of the opening of the barrow H. vi. a. (in the same map), by Mr. Ponting, which is described above, naturally raised the expectation that this barrow, H. vi. b., situated so close to it, and of the same size and shape, would prove to be of the same period, and of the same general character. Such, however, was not the case: on the contrary, they afford an interesting example of the wide differences which existed in the modes of burial adopted by the ancient inhabitants, even in adjoining sites,
346 The Opening of a Barrow on Overton Hill.
This barrow is circular, with an elevation, now, of 4 feet 4 inches above the natural level, but it has been much reduced in height by the plough, &c. It is at present upwards of 90 feet in diameter.
It consists almost entirely of heavy clayey earth, apparently derived from the surface-soil around. We commenced on the south edge of the barrow with a trench reaching to the chalk substratum, and worked towards the centre, thence enlarging the opening east and west. Towards the east, and about 18 inches from the present surface, we found a circular cavity, of about a foot in diameter, formed in the soil, and carefully smoothed inside; in this were the bones of an adult, completely burnt and mixed with the wood ashes. They apparently belonged to a person about thirty years of age. There were no beads or other personal relics found with the ashes. A long thin line of ashes extended over a distance of 6 or 8 feet in the soil above this interment, but quite distinct from it.
At a depth of from 4 to 5 feet, traces of the ancient soil were plainly shown by the fibrous remains of the former turf. This was very generally covered with a layer of wood ashes, and on this level, to the north-west of the centre, another interment of burnt bones was discovered. ‘These were placed in a cist similar to the last, but less carefully formed. They apparently belonged to an adult person of about the same age as in the other instance, but they had been very uregularly burnt—some portions of the skull retaining much animal matter. They were also mixed with a large quantity of wood ashes.
In one spot near this interment as many as twenty or more flint flakes were found, and amongst these a very well made flint scraper. This, and one or two other rude implements had apparently been made on the spot. Here, too, Mr. Lukis picked up a specimen of a saw-edged flint implement. It is rudely formed, but is distinctly and regularly serrated. Unfortunately it was somewhat damaged by the spade.
1 We believe this to be the first specimen of distinctly serrated flint implement
Extracts from the Register in Christian Maiford Church. 347
Scattered throughout the general mass of the barrow were nu- merous bones— chiefly broken and splintered—of the usual domestic animals, ox, deer, sheep, and hog. There were also fragments, of an ancient British drinking cup, of an urn of about the same period, and of a small bone needle or pin.
The barrow is of early date, and if the two incremated burials are the only interments, its history is simple, indeed—but there is some doubt whether the skill of four archzologists, and the efforts of five stout labourers were not after all baulked in the attempt to find the original interment. The occurence of concentric layers of chalk-rubble near the centre, is in favour of the supposition that there had been another—a primary—burial.
Witiiam CUNNINGTON. 11, Gauden Road, S.W.
Ertracts from the Register in Christian Aaltord Church.
SHE following curious extracts from the register books of Christian Malford Church, were made, by kind permission - of the Rector, at the time of the Society’s visit, in August, 1882 :—
“ Memorandum yt on y® 27% of January 168} Thomas Persons (alias Seagar) Henry Prise, William Bovy, y° Widdow Ryley, Bridgeat Bernard & her two sons George Bernard & John Bernard were y" denouns’d excomunicate by an order from y* Reverend M*. Robert Woodward, Archdeacon of y* Archdeaconry of North Wilts for not repairing to their Psh Church by me
“James Cooke, Cur”
C—O OO l—Ee oe recorded as found in Wiltshire; though “flint saws” are common elsewhere,
rticularly in Yorkshire, where as many as fifteen fine examples have lately fen discovered in one barrow.
348 Extracts from the Register in Christian Malford Church.
“Tt they were denounced excomunicatt again y® 8 of Novemb: 1685”
“ July 10, 1725 “Mem: That Jno. Bernard was absolv’ from A sentence of This Excomunica- tion by me “Joun IrcHener Rector.”
Also, in another place :—
“Memorandum y* on y® 16 of August 1687 I granted a certificat for Susanna y°® daughter of William and Phrizweth * Scott to be toucht for y® Kings Evill, John Selman and William Scott being Churchwardens
“ Witness my hand
“James Cooxe Curatt.”
* This is not the only instance of the use of this strange name in this parish, for again in the same register book we meet with:—
“Mary the wife of Rich: Giles Bur. 10 Junij 1704
**Phriswith the wife of Wm. Scot Bur. Sep 161704”?
[Wote by Canon Jones, This is most probably intended for ‘‘ Frideswide.”? People in olden days often took the names of great folk, e.g., Frideswide, daughter of Sir John Hungerford, of Down Ampney (no great way off), was first wife to Sir Henry Longe, of Wraxall (c. 1540—60).]}
END OF VOL. XX.
H, F, BULL, Printer and Publisher, 4, Saint John Street, Devizes.
WILTSHIRE
Archwological and Alatural History Society.
NOVEMBER, 1882.
Patron: Tar Most HonovRABLE THE Marguis oF LANSDOWNE
President : Lorp Epmonp Firzmavuricr, M.P.
Vice-Presidents :
The Most Hon. the Marquis of Bath William Cunnington, Esq.
Sir Gabriel Goldney, Bart., M.P. The Right Hon. Lord Heytesbury Sir Henry A. Hoare, Bart.
The Rev. Canon Jackson
The Rev. Canon Jones
Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P. Sir John Neeld, Bart.
The Right Hon. Earl Nelson Charles Penruddocke, Esq.
C. H. Talbot, Esq.
Trustees :
Sir Edmund Antrobus, Bart.
The Most Hon. the Marquis of Bath The Right Hon. E. P. Bouverie William Cunnington, Esq.
G. T. J. Sotheron Estcourt, Esq., M.P. G. P. Fuller, Esq.
Sir Gabriel Goldney, Bart., M.P.
The Most Hon. The Marquis of Lansdowne
Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P.
Sir John Neeld, Bart.
The Right Hon. Earl Nelson
Charles Penruddocke, Esq.
J. W. G. Spicer, Esq.
Committee :
T. B. Anstie, Esq., Devizes
The Rev. E. L. Barnwell, Welksham
The Rev. W. P.S. Bingham, Berwick Bassett, Swindon
Henry Brown, Esq., Blacklands Park, Calne
Robert Clark, Esq., Devizes
A. B. Fisher, Esq., Potterne
The Rev. E. H. Goddard, Hilmarton
W. Hillier, Esq., Tinhead, Westbury
The Rev. C. W. Hony, Bishops Can- nings
Joseph Jackson, Esq., Devizes
Alexander Meek, Esq., Devizes
The Rev. A. B. Thynne, Seend
Honorary General Secretaries : The Rev. A. C. Smith, Yatesbury Rectory, Calne H. E. Medlicott, Esq., Sandfield, Potterne.
Honorary General Curators : The Rev. H. A. Olivier, Poulshot Rectory Henry Cunnington, Esq., Devizes
Honorary Local Secretaries :
G. Alexander, Esq., Highworth W. F. Morgan, Esq., Warminster H. E. Astley, Esq., Hungerford J. E. Nightingale, Esq., Wilton W. Forrester, Esq., Malmesbury The Rev. W. C. Plenderleath, Cher- N. J. Highmore, Esq., M.D., Brad- hill, Calne
ford-on-Avon The Rev. T. A. Preston, Marl- H. Kinneir, Esq., Swindon borough The Rev. G. S. Master, West Dean, J. Farley Rutter, Esq., Mere
- Salisbury J. R. Shopland, Esq.. Purton Alex Mackay, Esq., Trowbridge H. J. F. Swayne, Esq., Wilton
Treasurer :
F. A. S. Locke, Esq.
Financial Secretary : Mr. William Nott, 15, High Street, Devizes
LIST OF SOCIETIES, &c., IN UNION WITH THE Wiltshire Archeological and Hatural History Society, For interchange of Publications, &e.
Society of Antiquaries of London. Royal Archeological Institute of Great Britain and Treland. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Royal Historical and Archzological Association of Ireland. Kent Archzological Society. Somersetshire Archzxological Society. Oxford Architectural and Historical Society. Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club. Essex Archeological Society. Professor L. Jewitt. Bath Antiquarian and Natural History Field Club. Dr. F. V. Hayden, United States Geologist. Bristol Naturalists’ Society. Watford Natural History Society. Powysland Club. Bristol Natural History Society. Bristol and Gloucestershire Archeological Society. Epping Forest and County of Essex Naturalists’ Field Club. Berks Archzological and Architectural Society.
Tetist of G2embers.
Life Members.
Bruce, Lord Charles, M.P., Wilton House, Eaton Square, London, S.W. Clarke, Henry M., 25, Mount St., Grosvenor Square, London, W. Clutterbuck, Rev. Canon Henry,M.A., Buckland Dinham, Frome Duke, Rev. Edward, Lake House, Salisbury [Bath Ellis, Rev. J. H., Stourton Rectory, Fitzmaurice, Lord E., M.P., Bowood Grove, Sir Thomas Fraser, Bart., Ferne, Salisbury [head Hoare, Sir Henry A., Bart., Stour- Holford, R. S., Weston Birt, Tetbury Jackson, Rev. Canon, Leigh Dela- mere, Chippenham Lansdowne, the Most Hon. the Marquis of, Bowood, Calne Lowndes, E. C., Castle Combe, Chip- penham Lubbock, Sir J. W., Bart., M.P., 15, . Lombard Street, London, E.C.
Lushington, Godfrey, 16, Great Queen Street, Westminster, London, 8.W.
Morrison, George, Hampworth Lodge, Downton
Mullings, John, Cirencester
Neeld, Sir John, Bart., Grittleton, Chippenham
Penruddocke, C., Compton Park, Salisbury
Prior, Dr. R. C. A., 48, York Terrace, Regent’s Park, London, N.W.
Selfe, H., Marten, Great Bedwyn
Shaftesbury, the Rt. Hon. the Earl of, St. Giles’s, Cranbourne
Walmesley, Richard, Lucknam, Chippenham
Wellesley, Lady Charles, Conholt, Park, Andover
Wyndham, the Hon. Percy, M.P., 44, Belgrave Square, London, 8. W.
Annual Subscribers.
Adderley Library, Librarian of, Marl- borough College
Adye, Charles S., Bradford-on-Avon
Ailesbury, the Most Hon. the Mar- quis of, Savernake, Marlborough
Alexander, G., Westrop House, Highworth
Anketill,, Rev. H. K. F., Seagry Vicarage, Chippenham
Anstice, Rev. J. B., the Vicarage, Hungerford
Anstie, T. B., Devizes
Archer, Col. D., Fairford House, Gloucestershire
Arundell of Wardour, the Rt. Hon. Lord, Wardour Castle, Tisbury, Salisbury (Club, London
Arney, Sir G. A., Hanover Square
Astley, H. E., Hungerford
Awdry, Rev. E. C., Kington St. Michael, Chippenham
Awdry, Justly W., Melksham
Awdry, West, Monkton, Chippenham
Awdry, Rev. W. H., Ludgershall, Andover
Baker, T. H., Mere, Bath
Banks, Mrs. G. Linnzeus, 82, Green- wood Road, Dalston, London, E.
Barnwell, Rev. E. L., Melksham
Barrett, S. B. C., Pewsey
Baron, Rev. J., D.D., F.S.A., The Rectory, Upton Scudamore, War- minster
Barrey, H. G., Devizes
Bateson, Sir T., Bart., M.P., 12, Grosvenor Place, London, 8. W.
Bath, the Most Hon. the Marquis of, Longleat, Warminster
Batten, John, Aldon, Yeovil
Bell, Rev. G. C., Marlborough College
Bennett, Rev. Canon F., Maddington, Shrewton
Bennett, F.J., M.D., Wilton, Salisbury
Bennett, W. S., Castlefield, Calne
Bethell, S., The Green, Calne
Bingham, Rev. W. P. S., Berwick Bassett, Swindon
Blackmore, Dr. H. P., Salisbury
Blake, F. A., 39, Market Place Salisbury
Iv LIST OF MEMBERS.
Bleeck, C. A., Warminster
Bouverie, Rev. the Hon. B. P., M.A., Pewsey
Bouverie, the Rt. Hon. E.P., Market Lavington
Bowes, J. I, M.B., Wilts County Asylum, Devizes
Bradburne, F. A., Lyburn, Lyndhurst
Bramble, Jas. R., 2, Bristol Chambers, Nicholas S8t., Bristol
Brewin, Robert, Cirencester
Brine, J. E., Rowlands, Wimborne
Britton, Mrs. Helen, 39, Croydon Grove, West Croydon, Surrey
Brown, H., Blacklands Park, Calne
Brown, Henry, Salisbury
Brown, James, South View, London Road, Salisbury
Browne, Rev. E. Kenworthy, Darley Chine, Bournemonth
Brown, W., Browfort, Devizes
Brown, W. R., Highfield, Trowbridge
Bruges, H. Ludlow, Seend, Melksham
Bryant, George R., Queenwood, Calne
Buchanan, Ven. Arch., Potterne
Buckley, Alfred, New Hall, Salisbury
Buckley, Rev. Felix J., Stanton St. Quintin, Chippenham
Buckley, Rev. J., Tormarton Rectory, Chippenham
Bull, H. F., Devizes
Bullock, William H., Pewsey
Burges, Rev. J. Hart, D.D., The Rectory, Devizes
Butt, Rev. W. A., Vicarage, Westbury
Caillard, C. F. D., Wingfield, Trow- bridge
Carey, J., Steeple Ashton, Trowbridge
Carey, Rev. T., Fifield Bavyant, Salisbury
Carless, Dr. E. N., Devizes
Chamberlaine, Rev. W. H., Keevil
Chandler, Thomas, Devizes
Chandler, T. H., Rowde, Devizes
Chandler, W., Aldbourne, Hungerford
Cholmeley, Rev. C. Humphrey, Dinton Rectory, Salisbury
Clark, Robert, Devizes
Clark, Major T., Trowbridge
Clarke, W. A.. Chippenham
Cleather, Rev. G. E., The Vicarage, Cherrington, Devizes
Clifford, Hon. and Rt. Rev. Bishop, Bishop’s House, Clifton, Bristol Colborne, Miss, Venetian House, Clevedon
Colfox, Thomas, Rax, Bridport
Colston, C. E. H.A., Roundway Park, Devizes
Colwell, J., Devizes
Coward, Richard, Roundway, Devizes
Cowley, the Rt. Hon. Earl, K.G., Drayeot Park, Chippenham
Crawhall, Rev. S. J., Stratton St. Margaret, Swindon
Crowdy, Rev. Anthony, Bankton, Crawley Down, Crawley
Cunnington, H., Devizes
Cunnington William, 11, Gauden Road, Clapham, London, 8.W.
Cunnington, W., jun., 11, Gauden Road, Clapham, London, 8.W.
Curtis, C. W., Everley, Marlborough
Daniell, Rev. J. J., Langley Burrell, Chippenham
Dear, George, Codford St. Peter, Bath
Dicks, W. B., The Limes, Trowbridge
Dixon, 8. B., Pewsey
Dodd, Samuel, 27, Kentish Town Road, London, N.W.
Dowding, Rev. W., Idmiston, Salis- bury
Duckett, Sir George, Bart., Newing- ton House, Wallingford
Eddrup, Rev. Prebendary E. P., Bremhill, Calne
Edgell, Rev. E. B., Bromham, Chip- penham
Edmonds, R. 8., Swindon
Edwards, Job, Amesbury
Errington, Most Rev. Archbishop, Prior Park, Bath
Estcourt, G. T. J. Sotheron, M.P., Estcourt, Tetbury
Estcourt, Rev. W. J. B. Long Newnton, Tetbury [botts
Everett, Rev. E., Manningford Ab-
Ewart, Miss, 3, Morpeth Terrace, Victoria Street, London, 8.W.
Ewart, Miss M., Broadleas, Devizes
Eyres, Edwin, Lacock, Chippenham
LIST OF MEMBERS. Vv
Eyre, G. E., The Warrens, Bram- shaw, Lyndhurst
Eyre, G. E. Briscoe, 59, Lowndes Square, London, 8.W.
Fisher, A. B., Court Hill, Potterne
Fisher, Major C. Hawkins, The Castle, Stroud
Flower, T. B., 9, Beaufort Buildings West, Bath
Forrester, William, Malmesbury
Fulcher, G. F., M.D., Burbage, Marlborough
Fuller, G. P., Neston Park, Corsham
Gabriel, C. W., Vale Lodge, Weston, Bath Goddard, Ambrose L., Swindon
Goddard, Rev. E. H., Hilmarton,
Calne
Goddard, Rev. F., Hilmarton, Calne
Goddard, H. Nelson, Clyfie Pypard
~ Manor, Wootton Bassett
Godwin, J. G., 76, Warwick Street, London, S.W.
Goldney, F. H., Rowden Hill, Chip- penham
Goldney, Sir Gabriel, Bart., M.P., Beechfield, Chippenham
Gooch, Sir Daniel, Bart., M.P., Clewer Park, Windsor
Gore, Arthur, Melksham
Griffith, C. Darby, Padworth House, Reading
Grindle, Rev. H. A. L., Devizes
Grose, Samuel, M.D., Melksham
Grove, Miss Chafyn, Zeals House, Bath
Guise, Sir W., Bart., Elmore Court, Gloucester
Haden, Joseph P., Hill View, Trow- bridge
Hadow, Rev. G. R., Calstone Rectory, Calne
Haleomb, John, Chievely, Newbury
Hall, Capt. Marshall, New University Club, St. James Street, London,S. W.
Hancock, H. G. B. B., Standen, Chute Standen, Andover
Harris, Rev. H., Winterbourne Bas- set, Swindon
Hart, C. F., Devizes
Hartley, Rev. Alfred Octavius, Steeple Ashton, Trowbridge
Hawkins, Rev. C. F., East Grafton, Marlborough
Hawkins, F. G., Hordley House, Ramsgate
Haynes, Richard, 4, Maze Hill, St. Leonards-on-Sea
Hayward, Rev. S. C., Irvinestown, Fermanagh, Ireland
Haywood, T. B., Woodhatch Lodge, Reigate
Heard, Rev. T. J., The Rectory, Sherrington, Codford, Bath
Henley, E. R., Calne
Heytesbury, The Right Hon. Lord, Heytesbury
Highman, Frank, Salisbury
Highmore, Dr. N. J., Bradford-on- Avon
Hillier, W., Tinhead, Westbury
Hitcheock, Dr. C., Fiddington, Market Lavington
Hitcheock, C. K., M.D., M.A., Kings- down House, Box
Hobhouse, Sir C. P., Bart., Monkton Farley, Bradford-on-Avon
Hodgson, Rev. J. D., The Rectory, Collingbourne Ducis, Marlborough
Hony, Rev. C. W., Bishops Cannings
Horsell, W. B. C., The Marsh, Wootton Bassett
Hughes, Rev. J. H., 57, Euston Square, London, N.W.
Hulbert, H. V., Great Cheverell
Hulse, Sir Edward, Bart., Breamore, Hants
Humphries, A. R., Fernbank, Wootton Bassett
Hussey, Mrs. H., The Close, Salisbury
Hutchings, Rev. Canon R.8., M.A., Alderbury, Salisbury
Huyshe, Wentworth, 6, Pelham Place, Brompton, London, 8.W.
Inman, Rev. E., Gillingham Rectory
vi LIST OF MEMBERS.
Jackson, Joseph, Devizes James, Hugh, 3, Stansted Villa, ee aaa Road, Balham. London, W
Jennings, J. S. C., Abbey House, Malmesbury
Jones, H. P., Portway House, War- minster
Jones, Rev. Canon W. H., Bradford- on-Avon
Jones, W. S., Malmesbury
Kemble, Mrs., Cowbridge House, Malmesbury
Kemm, Thomas, Avebury
Kemm, W. C., Amesbury
Kenrick, Mrs., Seend Cottage, Seend, Melksham
King, Rev. Bryan, Avebury
Kingdon, The Right Rev. Bishop, Fredericton
Kingsbury, Rev. T. L., Kingston Deverill, Warminster
Kinneir, H., Redville, Swindon
Kinneir, R., M.D., Sherborne
Knight, Rev. J., Heytesbury, Bath
Lambert, Rev. R. U., Christchurch Vicarage, Bradford-on-Avon
Lane, F. R., Honeystreet, Marl- borough
Leach, R. V., Devizes Castle
Lewis, Harold, B.A., Herald Office, Bath
Liardet, John E., Broomfield House, Deptford
Linton, Rev. G., The Vicarage, Cor- sham
Littlewood, Rev. S.,22, The Waldrons, Croydon
Lloyd, Rev. John A., Broad Hinton Vicarage. Swindon
Locke, F. A. 8., Rowdeford, Devizes
Long, W. H., M.P., Rood Ashton, Trowbridge
Long, Walter J., Preshaw House, Bishops Waltham, Hants
Long, William, West Hay, Wrington, Somerset
Ludlow, C. H., Baycliffe, Stoke Bis- hop, Bristol Lukis, Rev. W. C., Wath Rectory,
Ripon
Mackay, Alex., Trowbridge
Mackay, James, Trowbridge
Mackay, William, Trowbridge
Maclean, J. C., M.D., Swindon
Magrath, Col., Murhill, Bradford-on- Avon
Malet, Sir A., Bart., K.C.B., 19, Queensbury Road, London, S.W.
Manders, Neville, Marlborough
Mann, William J., Trowbridge
Marlborough College Nat. Hist. Society, the President of
Maskelyne, E. Story, Hatt House, Box, Wilts
Maskelyne, N. Story, F.R.S., M.P., 112, Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park Gardens, London, W.
Master, Rev. G. S., West Dean, Salisbury
Matcham, William E., New House, Salisbury
Mayo, John H., India Office, London
McNiven, Rev. C. M., Perrysfield, Godstone, Surrey
Meade, Rev. de Courcy, Tockenham Rectory, Swindon.
Meade, Rev. the Hon. S., Wylye, Bath
Medlicott, H. E., Sandfield, Potterne
Meek, A., Hillworth House, Devizes
Meek, A. Grant, The Ark, Devizes
Merriman, E. B., Marlborough
Merriman, R. W., Marlborough
Merriman, §., Glenthorne, Putney Park Avenue, London, §
Merriman, S. B., Philip Lane, Tot- tenham, Middlesex
Methuen, Right Hon. Lord, Corsham Court
Miles, Col. C. W., M.P., Burton Hill, Malmesbury
Miles, J., Wexcombe, Great Bedwyn, Marlborough
Mitchell, Arthur C., The Ridge, Corsham
Morrice, Rev. Canon W. D., St. Thomas's Vicarage, Salisbury
Morgan, W. F., Warminster
LIST OF MEMBERS. vii
_ Mullings, Richard B., Devizes Musselwhite, W., High Street, Marl- borough
Nelson, Right Hon. Earl, Trafalgar, Salisbury
Nelson, Lady, Trafalgar, Salisbury
Nightingale, J. E., Wilton
Normanton, the Right Hon. the Earl of, 7, Prince’s Garden, Prince’s Gate, London, 8. W.
Nott, William, Devizes
Noyes, George, 11, Bassett Road, Notting Hill, London, W.
Olivier, Rev. Canon Dacres, Wilton, ' Salisbury Olivier, Rev. H. A., Poulshot, Devizes Ottley, Rev. G. L., Luckington Rectory, Chippenham
Palmer, George Ll., Trowbridge
Parfitt, Rt. Rev. Dr., Midford House, Midford, Bath
Parsons, W. F., Hunt’s Mill, Wootton Bassett
Paul, A. H., The Close, Tetbury
Peacock, Rev. E., Rockfield House, near Frome
Pearman, W. J., Devizes
Pembroke and Montgomery, the Rt. Hon. Earl, Wilton House,Salisbury
Penruddocke, Rev. J. H., South Newton Vicarage, Wilton
Perry Keene, Col. T., Minety House, Malmesbury
Philipps, Rev. Canon Sir J. E., Bart., Warminster
Phillips, Jacob, Chippenham
Pinniger, Henry W., Westbury
Pinniger, T. L., Honeystreet, Marl- borough
Piper, J. H., North Wilts Herald, Swindon.
Pitt, W. J., Cowbridge, Malmesbury
Plenderleath, Rev.-W. C., Cherhill Rectory, Calne
Ponting, C. E., Lockeridge Cottage, Overton, Marlborough
Poore, Major R., OldjLodge, Newton Toney, Salisbury
Porter, W. E. E., Frankleigh House, Bradford-on-Avon
Powell, Mrs. M. E. Vere Booth, Hurdcott House, Salisbury
Preston, Rev. T. A., Marlborough College
Price, R. E., Broomfield Hall, Bridg- water
Proctor, W., Elmhurst, Higher Erith Road, Torquay
Prower, John Elton, Sissells, Purton
Radcliffe, C. H., Salisbury
Radcliffe, P. Delmé, Vicarage, Marlborough
Randell, J. A., Devizes
Ravenhill, W. W., 5, Fig Tree Court, Temple, London, E.C.
Read, C. J., St. Thomas’s Square, Salisbury
Rendell, W., Devizes
Richardson, H., Marlborough College
Richmond, George, R.A., Potterne
Rigden, R. H., Salisbury
Robbins, Mills, Bournemouth
Rodway, E. B., Adcroft House, Trow- bridge
Rogers, Walter Lacy, Rainscombe, Marlborough
Rolls, John Allan, M.P., The Hendre, Monmouth
Rumming, Thomas, Red House, Amesbury
Rutter, J. F., Mere, Bath
Rutter, John K., Mere, Bath
Newnton
Viii LIST OF MEMBERS.
Sadler, S. C., Purton Court, Swindon
Sainsbury, Capt. C. H. S., Bathford, Bath
Salisbury, the Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of, The Palace, Salisbury
Saunders, T. Bush, Bradford-on-Avon
Schomberg, Arthur, Seend, Melksham
Seymour, A., Knoyle House, Hindon
Seymour, Rev. C. F., Winchfield Rectory, Hants
Shum. F., Beleombe Brook, Bradford- on-Avon
Shum, F. E., 3, Union Street, Bath
Shopland, James R., Purton,Swindon
Simpson, George, Devizes
Skrine, H. D., Claverton Manor, Bath
Sladen, Rev. E. H. M., The Gore, Bournemouth
Sloper, Edwin, Taunton
Sloper, G. E., Devizes
Sloper, 8. W., Devizes
Smith, Mrs., Old Park, Devizes
Smith, Rev. A. C., Yatesbury, Calne
Smith, J. A., Market Place, Devizes
Soames, Rey. C., Mildenhall, Marl- borough
Southby, Dr. A., Bulford, Amesbury
Spicer, J. W. G., Spye Park, Chip-
penham
Stancomb, J. Perkins, The Prospect, Trowbridge [terne
Stancomb, W., Blount’s Court, Pot-
Staples, T. H., Belmont, Salisbury
Stevens, Joseph, Dorset Villa, Oxford Road, Reading [penham
Stokes, D. J., Rowden Hill, Chip-
Stokes, Robert,Crane Lodge,Salisbury
Stratton, Alfred, Rushall
Stratton, William, Kingston Deverill, Warminster
Strong, Rev. A., St. Paul’s Rectory, Chippenham
Sturton, Rev. J., Woodborough Rec- tory, Marlborough
Swayne, H. J. F., The Island, Wilton
Tadman, BE. 1T., 11, St. James’s Terrace, Regent’s Park, London Tait, E. S., 54, Highbury Park, London, N.
Talbot, C. H., Lacock Abbey, Chip- penham
Tanner, R. P., Ogbourne Maizey, Marlborough
Tayler,G.C., M.D., Lovemead House, Trowbridge
Taylor, S. W., Erlestoke Park, Devizes
Thynne, Rev. A. B., Seend, Melksham
Toppin, Rev. G. Pilgrim, Broad Town Vicarage, Wootton Bassett
Tordiffe, Rev. Stafford, Devizes
Tucker, Silas, Spencer House, Lark- hall Rise, Clapham, London, 8. W.
Tucker, Rev.G. Windsor, Burton Hill, Malmesbury
Veysey, Rev. J., Purton, Swindon
Wadworth, H. A., Devizes
Wakeman, Herbert J., Warminster
Walker, Rev. R. Z., Boyton Rectory, Bath [Newbury
Ward, Col. M. F., Greenham,
Warre, Rev. Canon F., Vicarage, Melksham
Waylen, G. 8. A., Devizes
Waylen, R. F., Devizes
Wayte, Rev. W., 6, Onslow Square, London, 8S. W.
Weaver, Henry, Devizes
Weller, Mrs. T., 22, Tamworth Road, Croydon, Surrey
Were, Rev. E. A., North Bradley Vicarage, Trowbridge
Whinfield, Mrs. M. A., Woodleigh, Bradford-on- Avon
Willis, F. M.. The Cedars, Trowbridge
Wilson, J., M.A., Chippenham
Winterscale, Major J. F. M., Buck- leigh, Westward Ho
Wyld, Rev. C. N., St. Martin’s Rectory, Salisbury
Wyld, Rev. Edwin G., Mere, Wilts
Wyndham, C. H., Wans, Chippenham
Yockney, A., Pockeridge, Corsham
Zillwood, F. W., Salisbury
‘Rampasoogy yorownwyy VDE gets LNATON ‘TEON WVI'TTIIA ‘qoottoo punoy pue pozpNy "2881 ‘pig ysnsny
G¢ 9 98F 9 9 98F
0 *L 0 eer eee sre ee eeeeee *ree**asazozur queg “
0 OL OL **xeak oq} Sump “bsg ‘uozSurysny “pH OL el 1g wees cer se eesesse+ eeeees teeer® aoureg “ wody poateoar uondraosqng drysiaquie yg ayy i) "481g 09q BR Ors ****aumoooy aml0dU] [BLeUep) 0} Y}U9}-90 Aq “as[g 20d GZ + 7*-*** qunoooe yee] WOIs FYBNOIG souvyeg OF, “48ST “uve p Ss ¥ “1881 ps § “18st “yo "ad
‘aNOuW dIHsSunaWNaNn BAIT
& 1 vars & L beret eC 1 682 ee ee ree me see rere eee eee CHEE ee goueleg “ 0 0 02 eee eee w essere eeearere ‘a7 ‘UOISSIMITLOD “ce Zz 2 le — , OMN6T LS a Sunoop ployperg wow sourjeg “ 0 ott’ xe Ajrodorg pue pue'y % 00 3 ISST ‘xoquIeAONT 43g Surpuo xwat 103 ‘soztAeq, SVG ee ee Le Some x jo sokeyy “bsq ‘umorg "py 4q uoneuog “ 0 Zt st °°" OTP 38 souepUcHy 8 F 8 TUNasNyT OU} 0} WOISsIUIPY Joy 0331p ong “* 6 & g *‘OVIp ye sesuedxa snoour][e0st WM 6 =O26 _ AdIQny S,Wosyoes ,, LOF 0331p ong “ TI € g Whesnyy 3% s3u7y pur ompruing “ L 918 “se*+>**squIzeseyy JO a[eg oy paatodar ysep “‘ 0 t 90T T 6 Té6l 5 L cy *2*"""90 "ON OIG oI “ L OL g ee ee ee pung 8 8109 “LG ON ‘quizeseyy drysroquiepy ary wos Jajsuery, “* roy “org ‘BuyavsZuo pure Suyuyg ae 9 SI L8t *°°''*** teed 043 Supp si0q % 919 tereeeeees Krquoyeg pue Sunug oid “We Wo peateoar suorjdrios %’ I SI Se eee vom ‘aBulsreD en -qng pur seaq aournUg ‘yseg “ “4819 ‘00g a8ejsog Surpnyout ‘syueukeg Arpuns “ysep kq ‘381g 29d ’ GS OLI qunoooe ysey wos yySnosq sourfeg oF, “4S[ “ues p's F ‘SLNEWESUNASIA ‘1881 pcs F¥ ‘SLd1SOaa “1881 te) ‘ad
‘LNOQOOOV TIVUANAD
Oe ‘aatsnpour skep yyOq "TEST ‘toquieoed] 48T§ °F Avenue 4sT ey} wmorz ‘Aqoroog oy} Fo Ss}uomesingsiq] pue sydreoey oy} Fo yUNODDy
‘ALGIOOS AVOLSIH 'IVUALVN GNV TVOISOTOW HOUV GQUIHSLTLA
a
. eee an warttont a ae
7 ys ane 77 yee oe rid ond. heiaee” eae batt py Oe
tor ~~ ‘ Ps ~ 8 E « ate SigP yor bovisoes bea) oS oe A i or taht Tngadgnh™ sy onl OMIT f é
&
Ad z ~
© muna te agsits® fro ser” a= = , roth ta aoansqrs eroomalinoe ;
4 re outs Ix socabossta z, : niwlh oft packer Aeo? oh — arid,
Bes uc AO) cas tanec. CONMUSME got he rpalt a owes at ud poe “
vole... SOT Ghregord basalt - Se . “TELE rahistot PR riba teny Wr sotivo :
Re z “= rye ee apitealé brother can opanlall 4, Bai
7 es ae sroftetarenyy or og. tom _ - “ re ae se
lhorooi,
eee % =
x sys ands Satu ss Paseo NE abn e= eomalelt ; ‘. 9 nel a a ow < ra ° - + _ J . ey ee ay [33 ; [=n Sant Ge ee An ee a= a tm “> wo ire . aoe, am Gace ; 4" a nw ~ a i. < i‘ = 4 $5 font ‘< s & i; a Fi — ‘ = 22% 2 AEE oe oe: =i a: cat. wanere Sans a2) ke = 2 ee = = ye ey se E sae a eS Ast. vengeniescne BETS Sin. Bae AOE ae
i : ts Re ~ ° ea Bs be Pea ye “i e x ~~ atl p+ & wateas ;
ts)
¥ nbdv hats é re i mifsat hs eo eat oe tae poe pay ond Be oT Sant c2t 7 ceaaniod ho so" a) Bem nis c ein ee +o i’ Ravineat ollGiebedn® edie wl, a8 ov
. ~ fen ses waeee dia. . are obtadell * * he . Ee nae ot ‘ iy : [: 6 BL Ob: <.cxmye ols galied a pet fofghidentcO. .- Py Th yet Ae Skee ee oe é POOL OLS ek aes Sans nak concen tatoo dna, s ee a ae 2 n Ss z . peterpan HD) yp ae Be ge et Os § o § cc ae ae eee . p ) & Heke i aie 2 Ast “he wes ee a 2 re a x ein, - . * ; d Sf = pe ee z, Sd : f rs. «2s xg : i eS * 4 rye a art oo . Ss = x e ee a ¥ La 4 & "1 ie. _ ee <oZ . = r 4 nS 3 i. . M —_— Pi + ote . : Reel ne re Z
5 SOW MALIA : : seuuot Saint poe, hella il eaten. Sibwtee) ; ) ok 9 aan tang
IN COURSE OF PUBLICATION.
MAP OF A HUNDRED SQUARE MILES ROUND ABURY:
With a Key to the British and Roman Antiquities occurring there.
BY THE REV. A. OC. SMITH,
Rector of Yatesbury, and Hon. Secretary of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society.
HIS work, the materials of which have been accumulating for twenty-five years, is the result of innumerable rides and rambles over the Downs of North Wilts; and deals with one of the most important archeological Districts in Europe. It will be published and issued to subscribers by the Marlborough College Natural History Society, and it will consist of two parts :—
First.—The Great Map—78 inches by 48 inches, on the scale of 6 linear inches, or 36 square inches, to the mile; it comprises 100 square miles round Abury, and includes the great plateau of the Downs of North Wilts, extending from Oliver’s Camp, on Roundway Hill, on the west, to Mildenhall on the east ; and from Broad Hinton on the north, to the Pewsey Vale on the south. The district thus mapped measures 13 miles from west to east, and 8 miles from north to south. Every square mile, marked off with faint lines, lettered with a capital letter and numbered, will show the Barrows, Camps, Roads, Dykes, Enclosures, Cromlechs, Cireles, and other British and Roman Stone- and Earth-works of that district ; every such relic, being lettered with a small letter in its own square, is readily found and easily referred to. The Map will be printed in six colours viz., the Antiquities in red, the Roads in brown, the Lanes and Down Tracks in green, the Sarsen Stones in yellow, and the Streams and Ponds in blue.
Second.—The Key to the Great Map,—which is by far the most important part of the work and will form a general “ Guide to the British and Roman An- tiquities of North Wilts,” —will be a volume of large quarto size, and will contain the whole of the large Map in fifteen sections, measuring 18 inches by 12, and four supplementary sections, each measuring 6 inches by 12. The Letterpress will contain some account of each of the Antiquities, with references to and extracts from the best authorities, as well as figures of various Urns and other objects found in the Barrows, views of the Cromlechs, plans of the Camps, &e. An Index Map, on the scale of 1 inch to the mile, coloured, numbered, lettered, and divided like the Great Map, will accompany the volume ; and the whole will be a general account of the Antiquities of North Wilts, inasmuch as the district ¢hus delineated embraces nearly all the remains of earliest times which exist in the northern portion of the County.
Subscribers’ names and addresses (a list of which will be published with the Index) will be received by the Rev. T. A. Preston, The Green, Marlborough, The cost of the Large Map and Key complete will be, to Subscribers, One Guinea. Any copies which remain (after all the Subscribers have been served) will be offered to the public at an advanced price, viz., for the sheets of the Great Map only, 10s.; for the Key only, 20s.; or, for the whole, 28s.
—————————————————_——_————————————— CC CT
AGENTS
FOR THE SALE OF THR
WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE.
WP iias oes cncalenniae R. E. Psacn, Bridge Street.
Bristol vevievs ceva’ James Fawn & Son., 18, Queen’s Road. pada oP ey C. T. Jurrertes & Sons, Redcliffe Street:
ORIN sien tetsedndeen A. Heatu & Son, Market Place.
Chippenham ...... R. F. Hovtston, High Street.
Cirencester .....+.+ Kzyworth & Everarp, Stamp Office.
Devizes v.iccrsceces H. F. Buz, St. John Street.
Marlborough ...... E. & R. A. Lucy, Post Office.
Melksham .......++ Cocurane & Maaes, Bank Street.
Osfordd:. lis Jas. Parker & Co., Broad St.
Salisbury .....005 Brown & Co., Canal.
Warminster ...... B. W. Coatzs, Market Place.
H. F. BULL, PRINTER, DEVIZES.