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1

THE

WILTSHIRE

IrrjjtMlogird ani $btaal Sirfortj
MAGAZINE,

FOBMED IN THAT OOUNTY, A.D. 1863.

VOL. XXIII.

DEVIZES :
H. P. Bull, 4, Saint John Stbibt.

1887.

The Editoe of the Wiltshire Magazine desires that it should
be distinctly understood that neither he nor the Committee of the
Wiltshire Archaeological 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. XXIII.

No. LXVII.

Notes on the Church of S. Mary the Virgin, Bishops Cannings : By Mr.

C. E. PoNTING

John of Padua : By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A

The Names of the Nobility, Gentry, and others in the County of Wilts
who contributed to the Defence of the Country at the time of the
Spanish Armada Invasion, in 1588 : Contributed by Mr. Walteb
Money, F.S.A

The Orders of Shrewton : Communicated by the Rev. Canon Bennett...

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire (Continued) ; By Abthub

SCHOMBEEG

On the Study of Entomology : By the Rev. T. A. Maeshall

Guide to the British and Roman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire

Downs in a Hundred Square Miles round Abury, by the Rev. A. C.

Smith, M.A. : Reviewed by the Rev. R. C. Cluttebbuck, Rector of

Knight's Enham, Andover

Confirmation of the Guild of the Holy Ghost, at Basingstoke, by Charles

the First : By W. W. Ravekhill, Recorder of Andover

Description of the Opening of a British Dwelling-Pit at Beckhampton :

By Henry Cunnington

Ancient Stone- Work on Langley Burrell Common

Collections for a History of Seagry : By the Rev. H. K. Anketell

( Vicar)

Subscriptions for the Sloper Collection

Donations to Museum

Account of the Thirty-Third General Meeting, at Swindon

History of the Sarsens : By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S.,

£c

Swindon" and its Neighbourhood— No. 2: By the Rev. Canon J. E.

Jackson, F.S.A

Barbury Castle : an Address by the President, Nevil Stoet Maskelyne,

Esq., m.p., f.r.s ■,;•,■^";^"•^;,*■,

" On Ringsbury and other Camps in North Wiltshire : By the Kev.

W. H. E. Mc. Knight

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire (Continued) : By Abthttb

SCHOMBEEG

Contributions to the Library and Museum

1

14

31

33

40
51

59

62

65
68

71

95
96

97

122

155

180

195

200
212

iv

CONTENTS OF VOL. XXIII.

No. LXIX.

Relics of Ancient Population on Oldbury Hill, Wilts : By Mr. Cunning-
ton, F.G.S 213

On a Sepulchral Vessel found near Marlborough : By Mr. Cunnington,

F.G.S 222

The Churches of Purton and Wanborough : By C. E. Ponting, Esq.,

(Diocesan Surveyor and Architect) 229

Recent Explorations at Silbury Hill : By Aleeed C. Pass 245

Notes on the Manor of Aldbourne : by the late P. A. Caeeington, Esq. 254

Selwood Forest : By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S A 268

Notes on some Ancient British Skulls in the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes :
By J. G. Gaeson, M.D., F.Z.S., Vice-Pres. Anthrop. Inst., London,

Hon. Corresponding Mem. Soc. Anthrop., Paris 295

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire (Continued) : By Aethur

SCHOMBEEG 299

The Wiltshire Compounders : (Communicated by Mr. James Watlen) 314
Donations to the Museum, 1887 347

Illustrations.

Church of S. Mary, Bishops Cannings, View from the South- West, 1. Church of
S. Mary, Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire, Plate I., 2. Church of S. Mary,
Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire, Plate II., 3. Plans (Figs. I. and II.) of Stone-
Work on Langley Burrell Common, 68 .

Fig. 1. Diagrammatic Section of the Country from Bagshot to Heytesbury, about
sixty miles, 132. Fig. 2. Impressions of the Root of a Palm (?) in a weathered
Sarsen in a wall at Abury : Sketched by Col. C. C. King, F.G.S., in 1885, 144.
Fig. 3. A piece of Sarsen with sub-parallel and sub-cylindrical rootlets of
Palm (?) ; collected by T. Codrington, Esq., C.E., F.G.S., in Wiltshire; in the
British Museum (Natural History) ; reduced one-half, 145. Fig 4. A block
of Sarsen, with the impression of a tap-root and rootlets of a palm ? In the
Museum of Practical Geology, London ; found on Lockeridge Down, near
Marlborough, by W, Cunnington, Esq., F.G.S. ; one-half of the natural
size, 146. Map of Braden Forest, temp. Henry III., 163. Plan of Barbury
Castle, 181. Plan of Binknoll Castle, 190.

Plan of Oldbury Camp, 214. Bronze Penannular Brooch, found within the camp
on Oldbury Hill, in 1858 (full size), 216. Ring-Dial, 219. Funereal Vessel,
found near Marlborough, Wilts, 1807, 222. S. Mary, Purton, Wilts, View
from the South- West, Plate I., 229. S. Mary, Purton, Wilts, Details of
various parts, Plate II., 233. The Church of S. Andrew, Wanborough, Wilts,
Plate III., 238. The Church of S. Andrew, Wanborough, Wilts, Plate IV.,
239. Silbury Hill, Wilts, Plan, 246. Silbury Hill, Wilts -Section, 250.
Selwood Forest. Its extent temp. Edw. Ill,, 282.

No. LXVII.

JULY, 1886.

Vol. XXIII.

THE

WILTSHIEE

IttfttDlDgital anil Jlatanl listen)

MAGAZINE,

pttftlt^tjeXf miner \ty JBtmttan

OF THE

SOCIETY FORMED IN THAT COUNTY,
A.D. 1853.

DEVIZES:

Printed and Sold for the Society by H. F. Bull, Salnt J ohn Stbeet.

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. William Nott, 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. Smith, Yatesbury Rectory, Calne;
and H. E. Medlicott, Esq., Sandfield, Potterne, Devizes.

The Rev. A. C. Smith 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.

The Editor desires to state that though from unavoidable
circumstances the present Number is of more meagre dimen-
sions than usual, he intends that, by Increasing the bulk of
the two subsequent Numbers, the size of Volume xxiii. shall
be of average size with previous Volumes.

July, 1886.

This slip to be cancelled by the Binder.

THE

WILTSHIRE
MAGAZINE,

No. LXVII. JULY, 1886. Vol. XXIII.

Contents

Notes on the Church of S. Maey the Viegin, Bishops

Cannings : By Mr. C. E. Ponting 1

John of Padua : By the Eev. Canon J. E. Jackson, P.S.A 14

The Names of the Nobility, Gentey, and othees in the
County of Wilts who conteieuted to the Defence of the
countey at the time of the spanish aemada invasion, in

1588 : Contributed by Mr. Walter Money, F.S.A 31

The Oedees of Sheewton : Communicated by the Rev. Canon Bennett 33
The Chuech Hebaldey of Noeth Wiltshiee (Continued) : By

Arthur Schomberg, Esq 40

On the Study of Entomology : By the Bev. T. A. Marshall 51

Guide to the Beitish and Roman Antiquities of the Noeth
Wiltshiee Downs in a Hundeed Squaee Miles bound Abuey,
by the Rev. A. C. Smith, M.A. : Reviewed by the Rev. R. C.
Clutterbuck, Rector of Knight's Enham, Andover 59

CONFIBM ATION OF THE GUILD OF THE HOLY GHOST, AT BaSING-

stoke, by Chaeles the Fiest : By W. W. Ravenhill, Recorder of

Andover 62

Desceiption of the Opening of a Beitish Dwelling-Pit at

Beckhampton : By Henry Cunnington 65

Ancient Stone-Woek on Langley Buerell Common 68

Collections foe a Histoey of Seagey : By the Rev H. K.

Anketell (Vicar) 71

subsceiptions foe the slopee collection 95

Donations to Museum 96

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Church of S. Mary, Bishops Cannings, View from the

Church of S Mary, Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire, Plate I. 2

„ Plate II. 3
Plans (Figs. I. and II.) of Stone-Work on Langley

Burrell Common 68

DEVIZES :
H. F. Bull, 4, Saint John Steeet.

THE

WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE.

"multobttm manibtjs gbande levatue onus."— Ovid.

fjfoto on % C|wtj[ of Sit |gtotg % fflxttfxt,
§is|o|s Cannings.

By Mr. C. £. Ponting.
GENERAL description of this Church was given in this
Magazine a quarter of a century ago, by Archdeacon
Macdonald, in his able " Historical Memoirs of the Parish of Bishops
Cannings" (vol. vi., p. 121), since which time it has received little
notice in these pages. The object of the present paper is to supple-
ment the information there given by a few notes on points of detail
which have not, I think, been hitherto touched upon, and on other
features of fresh interest, which have been opened out during the
recent restoration.

Archdeacon Macdonald states that the manor of Bishops Can-
nings belonged to the Bishops of Salisbury from time immemorial.
Bishop Roger (1102— • 1139) was deprived of the episcopal estates
by King Stephen, from whom they were wrested by the Empress
Matilda, who, by deed in 1148, promised the restitution of them.
This was confirmed by a second deed, dated 13th April, 1149, and
fully carried out in 1157. There is little doubt, I think, that upon
recovering the estates the Bishop at once set to work to build the
present Church, the earliest parts of which date from that period.
The work, apparently, proceeded slowly, and the style of architecture
changed during its progress. The Church of that time had at
least chancel, nave, and aisles, on the site of those now existing.
There was, therefore, probably a tower between the two former, but
there is no indication of transepts of that date, and as the archways
into those now existing are later insertions, I conclude there were
none. Probably the tower was either taken down or fell at about
the time of the erection of the present transepts.

VOL. XXin.— NO. LXVII. B

% Notes on the Church of St. Mary |

The plan of the Church as it now exists (Fig. 1, Plate I.) is
cruciform, and consists of nave with north and south aisles, and
south porch (with room over) , north and south transepts with a
chapel extended from the east side of the latter, central tower, and
chancel, with sacristy, having a room over, on the north side. It is
somewhat remarkable that, although the Church is one of some
irregularity of plan, and has had many subsequent alterations, it ap-
parently covered the same area when completed at about the middle
of the thirteenth century as at present, no enlargement having been
made. The side walls of the aisles, although re-built in the fifteenth
century, are on the earlier foundations ; this is shewn by the original
twelfth century west end walls and buttresses at L (Fig. 1, Plate I.).

The order in which the various parts of the Church were built,
and the principal alterations made, appears to be nearly as^ follows
Latter part of the twelfth century : —

The nave, aisles and porch erected ; the existing remains are
good specimens of transitional Norman work. The chancel
arch o£ this period is in situ-— this, together with the low
window of the same date presently referred to, indicate the
existence of a coeval chancel.
^Earlier half of the thirteenth century : —

The tower (with probably a roof of shingles), transepts,!
chantry chapel, chancel, choir, and the lower stage of sacristy!
erected, and the west wall of nave re-built.
Earlier half of the fourteenth century : —

The south window of the sanctuary inserted, and the tw(]
others on the south side of the choir widened and altered in
form, as described on p. 9.
Latter part of the fourteenth century : —

The groining inserted in the lower stage of tower, and
window in the south wall of the chantry chapel ; that
the south aisle, west of the porch, is also of this period.
latter half of the fifteenth century :—

The side walls of the aisles and the clerestory of the nav(
re-built, the upper stage added to the sacristy, and the staircas<
formed for access to it. The spire was also added to the towej

in

8

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the
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the Virgin, Bishops Cannings. 3

! within this period, but the stone roof of the stair-turret is
coeval with the shingle roof of the tower, and the pitch of the
latter is still to be traced on the west and south sides of it.
The lower window in the west end of north aisle and the
doorway in the north transept were built up, or closed, at this
date, and the gable of the porch re-built.
I Among the Post- Reformation structural alterations made before
the commencement of the late restoration may be mentioned the
insertion of the archway in the south wall of the porch, and the
three-light window and fireplace in the sacristy, which are of
seventeenth century date ; the new roof of the nave, bearing date
1670; and, in more modern times, new roofs to the chancel and
south transept and the re-building of the chapel with new east
window to the same.

I may here mention a feature which I discovered on my first
inspection of the Church, and which I thus referred to in my
preliminary report, dated 22nd October, 1881: — " That the spire
was also erected at this time (fifteenth century) is clearly shewn by
the very interesting fact which I noticed upon a close examination
of the work — that oyster shells are used in forming both the vertical
and the bed joints in the stone-work of the aisles, clerestory, and
spire ; and this peculiarity is not met with in the work of any other
period at this Church.''-' I have since applied this test to other
parts of this Church, and the result fully substantiates the statement
I then made.

J The proportions of the twelfth century nave must have been very
fine. The roof sprang from the level of only about a foot below
the plate of the present roof.1 and the high pitch increased the
height of the interior by about 10ft. The main light was from the

, 1 The parapet added to the nave when the clerestory was re-built is (as will be
Seen on reference to the sketch view from the S.W., which forms the subject of
one plate) an embattled one, with richly-crocketted pinnacles marking the divisions
of the bays, and carried up over the west gable, one pinnacle occupying the usual
position of the gable cross. The flat pilaster buttresses at the angles do not
appear to have been taken down more than 4ft., and the manner in which those
on the north and south faces are adapted to receive the " Perpendioular " pinnacles
is especially worthy of notice.

B %

4> Notes on the Church of St. Mary

imposing range of windows in the clerestory on each side. No trace
of these was discernible until the plaster was recently removed from
the inside face of the walls, when the lower parts of the windows
were discovered. The outer jambs were removed when the clerestory
was re-built in the fifteenth century, but the direction of the jamb
splays indicates that they consisted of single lights about 17in.
wide on the exterior, widening out to about 4ft. 4in. on the inside.
The sills are also deeply splayed, the inner being about 3ft. 6in.
deeper than the outer ones, so that the windows on the inside were
little short of 12ft. high. The remains of these are shewn on the
interior elevation of the north side of the nave, given in Fig. 2,
Plate I. It will be noticed that the windows are placed over the
piers, an unusual arrangement, and one whieh is only found in very
early work. The Church of Battle, Sussex, is a somewhat similar
instance ; there the Transitional arcade and clerestory remain intact.
But Bishops Cannings differs from Battle, in having a window on
each side at the easternmost end of the clerestory over the respond.
To get these i{ respond " windows they were brought farther over
the arches than in the case of the " pier " windows, and the sill
splays kept natter.

It is worthy of remark that the Churches of Bishops Cannings
and Battle have another unusual feature in common, though of later
date, viz., the means of access to the rood loft. The late Rev.
Mackenzie Walcott remarks,1 after alluding to the not unusual
opening through the respond on to the loft : — w At Battle there is
an external stair-turret, having a bridge within the north nave aisle,
which communicates with a similar opening." A precisely similar
plan appears to have been adopted at Bishops Cannings. Subse-
quently to the re-building of the north aisle,3 a staircase appears to
have been constructed outside the wall and in the angle formed by
the aisle and transept, the foundations of which I discovered by
excavating, as shown by the dotted lines at B» Fig. 1., Plate L
This was entered from the north aisle by a doorway, the sill of

1 " Sacred Archaeology," p. 516.
2 This is shewn by the masonry on the outside having been so little disturbed
in its removal, and by the line of the roof above.

the Virgin, Bishops Cannings. 5

which is 1ft. 7in. above the floor, and the exit from it on to the
bridge was by another doorway in the same wall, the sill of which
is lift. 3in. above the floor. The opening in the respond of the
nave arcade is 3ft. 5in. above the level of the upper doorway in the
aisle wall ; and the label of the archway beneath, leading into the
transept, is cut away on both sides in such a manner as to suggest
the probability that a bridge (and not a screen) was carried across
the aisle, with other steps from it to the opening in the respond,
and thus to the rood loft, as indicated by dotted lines, Fig. 9,
Plate II. As will be seen by reference to the sketch on the same
plate, and to the elevation, Fig. 2, Plate I., the position was a
difficult one in which to get a passage through the wall of the
respond, owing to the aisle roof being so near to the arch : the
opening was thus necessarily low, the entire height being only
4ft. lin. That this size should have been sufficient raises the
question of the use of the rood lofts, and confirms the theory which
the cramped dimensions of rood stairs often found seems to suggest
—that these were not intended for the passage of adults, and that
the ceremonial of the rood loft was not one in which the priest took
part, but rather such as the mere decoration of the rood and lighting
of tapers by an acolyte.

At the west end of the north aisle (at G, Fig. 1, Plate I.) are
features of the greatest interest, which are illustrated by Figs. 1
and 2, Plate II. Previous to the restoration of the Church all that
could be seen in this wall was a small window of twelfth century
date, high up and near the respond of the nave arcade : the di-
mensions of this window on the outside were 3ft. high from
sill to springing and 6|in. wide : it was blocked up with modern
masonry on the outside, but open to the interior : there are holes
for a stanchion bar in head and sill, and marks on the south jamb
of the hooks to which a shutter was probably hung, the stone-work
being rebated for it. Upon removing the plaster from the inside
of the wall a similar window was discovered nearly in the centre of
the width of the aisle, the sill of which was only 3ft. 4in, from the
floor-level. The dimensions of the outer opening of this window
are, 2ft. 6in. high from sill to springing and 12iin. wide : this

6

Notes on the Church of St. Mary

opening-, however, was built up with masonry so nearly assimilated
to the outer facing — the circular head and splays of jamb and sill
having- been cut away and squared off for this — that until the
existence of a window had been found on the inside it was almost
impossible to trace it outside. The stone-work of this window is
also rebated for a shutter, and has the marks of hooks to which it
might, have been hung, but no holes for either vertical or cross bars.
Both windows have deep splays on the inside, the upper opening
out to 3ft. 10in., and the lower one to 4ft. 9in., and both have
chamfered segmental inner arches, that of the lower one being
depressed as if to allow the sill of the upper one to be kept down.
Above the lower window, on the inside, and at a height of 9ft. 6in;
from the floor, against the north jamb of the upper window, and formed
of the same stones, was found an aumbry, 1ft. Tin. high, 1ft. 7^in.
wide, and 12iin. deep from the face of the wall. A rebate of about
an inch is carried round the opening, and there are marks of hinges
on each side of it, as if for folding doors. On the inside there are
grooves which might have received a thick wood lining, and the
bottom of the aumbry is carried below the sill, as shewn on the
section given. That these three features are coeval is clear from
the identical character of the stone of which they are constructed;
and from the inner sill of the upper window being carried along to
support the masonry of the aumbry, the surrounding walling being
of rubble. The low window and the aumbry, and especially the
inaccessible position of the latter, offer ground for much speculation
as to their use.1 In considering this subject it must be borne in
mind, that the archway at the east end of this aisle (H, Fig. 1,
Plate I.) did not exist when these features were constructed, but
that probably an altar stood in this position, of which the lower
window would command a full view. My conjecture was that the
aumbry was employed as a receptacle for the reserved Host, used in
communicating persons outside through the low window, and that
its elevated position was for the better security of its contents from

1 Whatever use was made of these features, it apparently came to an end in
the fifteenth century, for the stone " filling " of this low window is shewn by
my oyster shell test to be of that date.

• the Virgin, ' Bishops Cannings. 7

profanation. In January, 1884, I submitted this opinion to the late"
Mr. J. H. Parker, of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, together
with a measured drawing and a full description of the features.
In his reply (dated 29th January, two days before his death) he
says : — " The Church of Bishops Cannings I well remember as a
fine Early English .example, but it is many years since I have seen
it. There seems no doubt that the interesting low-side window
that you have opened, and the window over it, are of the twelfth
century, though not very early. Frequently the low window had
reference to the altar of a chantry chapel, as in this case, and not to
i the high altar. The aumbry, or locker, above the window may
have been used as you suggest from the fact that it is away from
the altar, but I should be inclined to think it was used for other
purposes. All this part evidently belongs to a chantry chapel of
an earlier Church. " This, at any rate, contains no contradiction of
my view ; probably but for Mr. Parker's delicate state of health at
the time he would have suggested, as I had hoped, some better
explanation of this unusual combination of features.

It has been suggested to me that there was probably a floor across
this end of the aisle, to form a priest's or watcher's room over, the
upper window being for light to, and the locker for the use of, the
occupant. There are marks in the pier and respond of the arcade
which at first sight seem to support this view. But surely, if such
an upper room had been contemplated in building this part, there
would have been some structural provision for carrying the floor,
land it would not have been left to be fitted up by running the
(bearers into the columns ! Then the holes, which are filled up,
jwould only receive timbers of about 4|in. x 3in., a size entirely
;Dut of keeping with my idea of what the beams used in a Church
pf the twelfth century would be. And further, the twelfth century
[foof, the pitch of which is plainly discernible on the outside, and is
■shewn by a dotted line on the inside, in my drawing, would come
[to within 3ft. of the level of this upper floor, as indicated by the
(marks in the columns. After carefully weighing all the suggestions
which have been made to me, and giving the matter very full
,ionsideration, I feel compelled to fall back upon my original idea;

8 Notes on the Church of St. Mary

but I should be glad if any persons reading this would give me their
views upon this interesting point.

Another remnant of twelfth century work was discovered in the
south wall of the sacrarium (at J» Fig. 1. Plate I.), and is shewn by
Fig. 4, Plate II. This consists of a low-side window, the opening
of which, though built up outside, can be seen; it is about 16in.
wide/and the inside is widened out as shewn. The eastern jamb is
splayed to command a view of the high altar from the outside,
whilst the other side is square. Amongst the rubbish which filled
this window was a piece of a chamfered course, 5in. thick, apparently
part of a seat. The depth exactly corresponded with the distance
between the upper bed joint of the top course of the inside sill of
the window recess as carried down and the stop of the chamfer on
the jamb ; this appeared to suggest its position where I have placed
it (K, Fig. 4, Plate II.), and its use as a seat or ledge. Near to it,
also used as "filling," was a stone resembling the larger portion of
a corbelled piscina, apparently coeval in date; the un worked part
of this, which had been built into the wall, corresponded in depth
with the inner sill of the window proper, and, as this was near to
where it was found, I fixed it there, but this must not be held to
imply my belief in that being its original position. The low window
was cut into in the fourteenth century by the insertion of the win-
dow above it, and by the introduction of the weak-looking sedilia,
even if it had not been destroyed in erecting the rich thirteenth
century arcade, part of which exists as a piscina, and which— as
traces of it are to be seen west of the window— doubtless extended
to that point as sedilia. In connexion with this may be noticed the
curious feature of a portion of the wall at this point— as high as
the low window exists— not being parallel with the rest on the
outside; this and the low window are evidently parts of the earlier
chancel. The floor of the chancel had been raised in 1858 when a
new tile pavement was laid : the previous level has now been restored.
In doing this a step was found at the entrance of the chancel, llin.
below the present pavement, shewing that the entire floor of the
Church has been raised.

A singular, and, as far as my experience goes, an unparalleled

the Virgin, Bishops Cannings, 9

instance of mediaeval " modernizing 33 of ancient features occurs in
the westernmost window on the south side of the chancel, as shewn
by Figs. 5, 6, and 7, Plate II. This window (Fig. 6) was originally
a lancet like those on the north side (Fig. 5), and the exterior
remains unaltered as regards the outer members of its jamb and
arch mouldings. In order to widen the opening for the insertion
of tracery, early in the fourteenth century, the inner members of
the outer mouldings were cut away, and the inside jambs set back,
as shewn by Fig. 7, where their original positions are shewn by
dotted lines. New thin jamb stones were then inserted, and a
mullion and tracery introduced. At this time the thirteenth century
inside string, which still exists on the north, was probably destroyed
on the south side; the one existing at the commencement of the
restoration was of cement.

The east walls of north and south transepts each have an arcade
of two bays, the shafts of which project 2ft. 3in. from the wall on
the inside. The arches have the same rich mouldings as the other
coeval work here, and which are so noticeable a feature in this
Church. They are of beautiful proportions, are stilted, and are
supported by clustered shafts with carved capitals. Those in the
south transept are shewn by Fig. 10, Plate II. The archway on
the south is wider than the rest ; it is carried through the wall, and
forms the entrance to the chantry chapel of " Our Lady of the
Bower." The remainder of the arched recesses are evidently in-
tended as separate chapels, and each has a single lancet window
over the position of its altar. On the back and sides of the recess
shewn in the drawing were found traces of fresco paintings repre-
senting figures ; this work, which is of late date, has been secured
to the wall, and so retained.

The chapel of " Our Lady of the Bower 33 extends eastward from
the transept wall, in a line diverging from that of a right angle,
the apparent object being to avoid obstruction of light to the
adjacent windows of the chancel and recessed chapel. This was
re-built in 1872, when the three-light east window was inserted,
superseding the single lancet shewn in old prints and photographs.
Remains of the piscina still exist in the south wall of this chapel,

10 Notes on the Church of St. Mary

and that another altar formerly stood in front of the archway into
it from the transept is shewn by the beautiful piscina with shelf, at

F, Fig. 1, Plate I.

The removal of whitewash from the walls of the transepts re-,
vealed paintings of a red stone-jointed pattern of thirteenth century
type. The vaulting of the chancel was somewhat similarly deco-
rated/'and, at a later date, star-points of scroll-work have been
painted over this pattern round the bosses. An aumbry, or locker,
was discovered in the south wall of the sacristy.

The south porch has long been the subject of notice from the
richness and delicacy of its outer archway. My first impressions
of it are given in my report of 22nd October, 1881, of which the
following is an extract :— The walls and groining of the south
porch and the inner doorway are coeval with the earlier work of
nave and aisles, but the outer archway is an insertion of the
Decorated period. This archway, in its original state, must have
been exceedingly rich, it having possessed, in addition to the ball-
flower ornament, a pierced cusping to its inner members, but this
has been much mutilated. From the character of its pediment, and
the manner in which it has been inserted in the old work, it bears
the appearance of having been intended for an inner archway,
rather than for its present position as an outer doorway." The
opinion thus expressed has been fully borne out by subsequent in-
vestigation. During the execution of the works I had the privilege
of discussing this feature on separate occasions with Mr. William
White, F.S.A., and Mr. Henry Christian— both eminent archseolo^
gists-and, although neither would at first admit that it was an
insertion, both, after having fully considered all the points I suto
mitted (and on one of the occasions I refer to some hours were spent
in the investigation), finally agreed in my view. On making
further research we discovered that it was the archway of an altar
tomb removed from its original position and inserted here, of cours<*
at a post-Reformation period. This was shewn by the discovery of
colour behind the mortar joints connecting it with the twelfth
century work, and of the section of the moulded mensa of the altae
at E, Fio-. 3, Plate II., on which the inner moulding of the jamb

i:

1

the Virgin, Bishops Cannings. ll

stopped, the height of the slab being about 3ft. 3in. from the floor-
| level. This insertion, together with the failure of one jamb, had
caused the settlement of the gable and a leaning forward of the
urchwsy itself to an extent which rendered it necessary to replace it.
This was done by forcing the latter back with screws, and re-
building the shattered gable over. In doing this oyster shells were
found in the joints, and as the work had every appearance of being
I of the twelfth century (the original pitch being retained) my oyster
Shell theory seemed to be in danger of falling to the ground.
Later on, however, the discovery of thirteenth century mouldings
on the back of some of the stones set the matter at rest. I was
then fully convinced that the gable was re-built in the fifteenth
century. This probably accounts for the one-sided position of the
window in the gable, as shewn in the view. It was also made clear
that the archway was subsequently inserted, and not built in at that
period, by the fact that it was bedded in mortar of an entirely
different kind to that used in the surrounding work.

The question arises, when and from what part of the Church was
this altar tomb removed ? There is no wall-space in the chancel,
unoccupied by features of an earlier date, of sufficient width to
receive it; and I can only conclude that it was taken from the
chapel of "S. Mary of the Bovver," at, or shortly after, the time
of its conveyance to John Ernie, of Bourton, which was made by-
deed, dated 6th November, 1563.

The only means of access to the room over the porch formerly
appeared through the window in the outside gable, but in the course
of the restoration a doorway into the aisle over the south entrance
doorway was opened out ; it had two steps in the thickness of the-
wall, and the jambs are rebated and retain the original hooks for
idoor hinges. The inner twelfth century doorway of this porch has
a corbel of fifteenth century character, inserted in the label over the-
centre of its arch, evidently for the support of a figure, and the rib
of the early vaulting has been cut away to give additional height
ifor it. The remains of a fifteenth century stoup exist on the right
.side of this doorway. Stoups also exist by the fifteenth century
doorway of north aisle, and the thirteenth century one of north

12 Notes on the Church of St. Mary

transept, that to the latter being cut in the earlier wall. As this
doorway was built up in the fifteenth century (as proved by the oyster
shell test) the stoup here could only have been in use for a short period.

In the next stage of the tower over the groining doorways
exist on the cardinal sides, three of which originally opened
into the chancel and transepts (respectively) above the collars of
the trussed rafter roofs, of which the roof of the north transept is
a re-production. Another doorway, to serve a similar use in the
higher roof of the nave, occurs in the next stage of the tower, and
at present opens on the outside of the modern roof; so that the
lower doorway on the west has no apparent meaning but to preserve
uniformity, unless the room in this stage of the tower were used as
a watching chamber. All these doorways had been closed, but
those on the east and north faces have now been re-opened and
fitted with doors.

The font is a plain one of fourteenth century date.
The alms-box is made of a solid block of oak, and has staples for
the three locks enjoined by the canon of 1603.

I must not, even at the risk of unduly extending the limits of
this paper, omit to mention what is known of the " ups and downs |
of the weathercock. The earliest tidings of it that I can gather
introduce it, some twenty years ago, as a fragment lying on the
inside sill of the belfry window, where it had probably been 1
disuse for a long time, The late incumbent, the Rev. W. Ewartj
(vicar of the parish, 1862 to 1873), rescued it from this comparative
oblivion, and had it mounted in a glass case with carved oak frame,)
and set up in the hall of the vicarage. Beneath it was painted thej
following inscription : —

FRAGMENTVM * QVOD * VILE * PVTAS * ET ' INTVILE * FERRVM * ,
TRITON ' SACRA * SVPER * MCENIA * NOTVS ' EGO '
INDICIVM " POPVLO ' PLVVIAS ' VENTOSQVE * SEQVACES *
LONGA ' PER ' ANNORVM ' S^ICVLA ' PERTVLERAM .
ILLVM • NOSTRAM ' APICEM * QVONDAM ' CRVX * DIGNA ' CORONET j
HIC ' MERITA ' REQVIE * FESSVS ' AT * IPSE * FRVAR *
QVILIBET * ES * LECTOR ' TIBI . SINT * TRANQVILLA ' SENECTVS I
ET • GRATES ' HOMINVM * POSTtyVB ' PERIOLA * SALVS

the Virgin, Bishops Cannings. 18

The cock had lost its head, and the shape of the fragment was
as shewn in Fig. 11, Plate II. Mr. Ewart thereupon either took
it as representing a sea-god—- (and the form of the tail is very sug-
gestive)—or he used the term « Triton" as a representative one,
the sea-monster with long tail and broad breast being not infre-
quently employed as a weathercock; and tritons were said to be
weatherwise, and, under Neptune, had the superintendence of storms.

The conventional form of the cock (which is of copper, not of
iron, as the discolouration of the metal apparently led Mr. Ewart
to believe) pointed to the conclusion that it was of medieval origin,
and I considered it contemporary with the erection of the fifteenth
century spire. On a scaffold being raised for the repair of the spire,
advantage was taken of this to compare the weathercock with the
top of the cross, when it was clearly shewn that the hope expressed
in line 5 of Mr. Ewart's inscription had been anticipated; that the
cross (the stem of which was built 9ft. into the stone- work of the
spire) was the original one, and that it was formerly surmounted by
the weathercock, their separation having been caused by the cutting
off of the spindle through friction. Disregarding, therefore, the
desire expressed for well-merited rest, we agreed to restore the head,
as shewn by the dotted lines in the sketch, and re-mount the bird on
its former lofty perch, "above holy walls," where we trust that it
may yet, " through long generations of years give warning of
f&ains and sweeping winds."

C. E. P.

C , 0

14

of fjaha-

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.
^TIO was John of Padua?

M This is a question which has been very often asked, but
hafVever yet been satisfactorily answered. Yet an answer, if one
could be found, ought to be interesting to Wiltshire people, seeing
that this person is traditionally said to have designed the finest
house in their county— Longleat, the seat of the Marquis of Bath;
- He is not named by our oldest topographers, Leland and Camden,
and the writer who appears the first to mention him is Walpole, in
his " Anecdotes of Painters," where Dallaway, the editor, adds, ill
a note But who was John of Padua ? what was his real name ?
how educated ? and what were his works previous to his arrival fj
England ? No research has hitherto discovered with satisfaction ." 1
Mr. Digby Wyatt also, in a very interesting essay (1868) " On the
Foreign Artists employed in England in the Sixteenth Century,"
says :_-«No research has yet clearly made out who < Johannes de
Padua/ the celebrated architect who mainly took the place of
Holbein as Henry the Eighth's chief designer, really was." 8
In the following paper I propose to shew

I. Who " John of Padua" may really have been.

II. What little probability there is that he could have

anything to do with the building of Longleat.
I.— All that is hitherto really known about him is, that at Easter
34 Hen. VIII. (A.D. 1542), he began to be employed in the servicj
of King Henry, and that two years afterwards, by letters patentj
dated 30th June, 1544, an allowance was granted to him (thj
payment commencing retrospectively from Easter, 1542) of tw
shillings a day "for good service in architecture and various M

i

i "Anecdotes of Painting," Edit. 1828, vol. i., p. 216
■ Mr. Sarsfield Taylor has some severe remarks upon the style of
reputed to have been introduced by Holbem and the un-xdentrfied John C
Padua. (" Origin of the Fine Arts," vol. i., 243 and 262.)

John of Padua.

15

compositions in' music" taking that to be the right meaning of the
original words " in architectural et variis in Re Musica inventis."
Such is the substance of the following patent, given by Rymer 5.— 1

" Pro servitio in Architecture et Musica.
" A.D. 1544. Rex omnibus ad quos, &c, Salutem.

" Sciatis quod Nos de gratia nostra, speciali, ac ex certa scientia et mero motu
hostris, necnon in consideratione boni et fidelis servitii quod dilectus serviens
noster Johannes de Padua nobis in Architecture, ac aliis in re Musica inventis
impendit ac impendere intendit, Dedimus et concessimus ac per Presentes damus
et concedimus eidem Johanni Vadium sive Feodum Duorum Solidorum ster-
iingorum per diem Habendum et annuatim percipiendum prcefato Johanni
dictum Vadium sive Feodum Duorum Solidorum durante Beneplacito nostro, de
Thesauro nostro ad Receptam scaccarii nostri per manus Thesaurariorum et
.Camerarioruni nostrorum ibidem pro tempore existentium, ad Festa Sli Michaelis
Archangcli et Paschas per sequales Portiones.

" Et insuper Sciatis quod cum dictus Johannes nobis inservivit in dicta Arte
a Festo Paschas quod erat in Anno Regni nostri 34t0, prout certam habemus
notitiam Nos de uberiori Gratia nostra Dedimus et concessimus eidem Johanni
praefatum Feodum Duorum Solidorum per diem Habendum et percipiendum
eidem a dicto Festo Paschae Nomine Regardi nostri.

" Et quod expressa mentio, &c.
I " Teste Rege apud Westmr. 30 die Junii.

" Per Breve de Privato Sigillo."

The patent was renewed on 25th June, 1549 (3 Edw. VI.) 2 in
1 precisely the same words {mutatis mutandis), and with the order of
retrospective payment from Easter, 1 Edward VI. The only
difference was, that the salary in the former one was " during- the
King's pleasure " : in the latter " for life."

These patents have often been quoted as authority to prove that
Henry VIII. was the first who introduced a new officer about the
Court, under the title of " Devizer of the King's Buildings" : but
no such title appears in them. It occurs only in an Office Book
which Walpole saw, in which the entry is made of the annual
payment of £36 10s. to John of Padua, Devizer of the King's
Buildings. This payment continued till the reign of Philip and
' Mary,3 but still no mention of the particular work paid for. The

' , 1 " Foadera," vol. xv., 34, Edit. 1713. ~~~~ ~~~~

2 "Rymer," xv., 189.
3 Daines Barrington to Rev. Mr. Norris, "Nichols's Literary History," vol.
j v., p. 602, referring to " a MS. of the then Royal Household, which I had th,e
honour of presenting to the Society of Antiquaries."

IQ John of Padua.

only palace on which King Henry was engaged at his death
was Nonesuch, near Cheam, in Co. Surrey, now long since en-
tirely destroyed. This fantastical and costly building was one on
which some very novel and un-English ideas in architecture were
indulged : and it is possible (though there is no evidence to show it)
that the Italian new-comer may have brought those fanciful ideas
with him.1

It is only a tradition that he was employed by Protector Somerset
upon Old Somerset House, in the Strand : 2 and Sir John Thynne,
the founder of Longleat, having been closely and officially connected
with the Protector, the same tradition extends to the designing of
Longleat. And because there are other houses in the West of
England that are built somewhat in the style of Longleat (as, for
instance, Kingston, or the Duke's House, at Bradford-on-Avon), for
this,and for no other conceivable reason, topographers, andguide-book
compilers, copying from one another,and without any other authority,
persist in referring them to this John of Padua. Walpole would
give him Sion House, in Middlesex. "Much," says Mr. M. D.
Wyatt most justly,3 "is attributed to him that is apocryphal."
Instead of "much" I am rather disposed to say "all": that is, so
far as regards his having been the sole contriver and arranger of
the architecture of any large house. For the fact is that not a
single scrap of documentary evidence has ever been produced of any
work, great or small, in which he was engaged.

In the " Vetusta Monumenta," vol. iv., the Gate of Honour at
Caius College, Cambridge, there delineated, is also ascribed to him,
but quite erroneously. Still, in the middle of the last century, his

» Nonesuch palace was an expensive toy left unfinished by King Henry : the
grounds filled with statues, pyramids, fountains, Dianas and Acteons, &c. lhe
whole front of the house was faced with plaster work, made of rye-dough, m
imagery very costly." (MS. note in Le Neve s copy of Aubrey's « Surrey. ),
There is an engraving of this very singular palaee, by Hoffnagle, copied in
'•Lysons' Environs of London/' vol. i., 153: also in « Nichols s Progresses of
Queen Elizabeth" : and on the margin of Norden and Speed s Map of the Co.
of Surrey : but the most complete is in Braun's " Orbis Terrarum, 1572.

A mixture of the most heterogeneous conceits." "A piebald mass of
masonry." (Mr. Sarsfield Taylor.)

« « The Builder," 20th June, 1868.

By the Eev. Canon J. R JacJcson, F.S.A.

17

name, for some reason or other, had found its way to Caius College :
for Dr. Ducarel, of the Society of Antiquaries, says in a letter to
' Mr. Lethieullier, 1 750, October 24th " In Caius College I saw this
summer the picture of John of Padua, a famous architect who built
that college and [old] Somerset House, on the old front of which
next the Strand remain to this day some old Doric columns like
those at Caius." Here, as the late Dr. Guest of that college in-
formed me, Dr. Ducarel was mistaken : the portrait is that of
Theodore Have, an architect from Cleves, who worked at the building
of the college with Dr. Caius himself.1

Some, again, in a despairing effort to make out who John of
Padua was, have suggested that he was no other than the celebrated
English architect John Thorpe, who, after studying abroad at Padua,
on returning home may have adopted the name of the city instead of
his own. The late John Britton,in his "Dictionary of Architecture,"*
considers this notion strengthened "by the fact that plans of Somerset
House, in London, and Longleat > the most generally acknowledged
works of John of Padua, are among Thorpe's drawings in the Soane
Museum." Here Mr. Britton was certainly in error, as to Longleat.
[n the list of contents of Thorpe's volume of drawings, given by
Dallaway,8 the name of Longleat does not appear : and I have myself
searched the volume very carefully, and was unable to find any plans
p portions of plans of Longleat in it. That John Thorpe was
John of Padua seems to be a mere idle guess which may be at once
dismissed.

So again, the question recurs, " Who could he be ? "

One, and perhaps the principal reason, why those who have tried

'This portrait is thus described by Walpole ("Anecdotes of Painting," i.,
'). 323, Dalla way's Edit., 1828) :— " An old picture (bad at first and now almost
■ffaced by cleaning) of a man in a slashed doublet, dark curled hair and beard,
coking like a foreigner, and holding a pair of compasses, and by his side a
folyhedron, composed of twelve pentagons. This is undoubtedly Theodore Have
timself ." Be this as it may, it used to be called " John of Padua " : and all
i care about it is that the curious "polyhedron with twelve pentagons," painted
a the corner, may presently help me to account for that person's name being
'net with at all in connection with Caius College.

2 Under the head of " Padua, John of."
8 " Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting/' vol. i., p. 330.
OL. XXIII.— -NO. LXVII. q

filacf

]g John of Padua.

to answer it, have missed the scent, is that, being called in English
John of Padua, it has been always taken for granted that he must
have been either a native, or a citizen of that city. In that case it
would follow that his own family name had been dropped, and that
"par excellence/' through some easy superiority to all other "Johns"
in the same branch of art, the public voice had glorified the city by
connecting his Christian name with it. Such, for example, was the 11 a
case of Raffaelle Sanzio (his family name), more commonly spoken I
of as Raffaelle V'Urbino (the place of his birth) : or, again, Pietro 1
Vdnmcci, more famous as Pietro Perugino (from the town of Perugia)
But this can hardly have been the case with our " John of Padua."
For, in the first place, in such a document as royal letters patent, a for-
eigner, who had any family name at all, would never have been loosely
described as William of Rome, George of Naples, or John of Padua. |ati

Many of the great Italian artists, it is true, are best known by
their Christian names only, as Raffaelle, Guido, Michael Angelo,
&c, and where the Christian name was a common one the mouth
of the public sometimes appended the name of the place. All
Italy knows in a moment who is meant by John of Bologna, but
of John of Padua nobody in Italy appears to know anything. In
our country also, we have very old historians who are known to us
only as " John of Salisbury," '« Richard of Devizes," and others.
The clergy, more particularly, were named from their homes. In
the episcopal registers at Salisbury, the greater part of the earliest
entries (the end of the thirteenth century) are in that form : for no
other reason than that family names were at that time unsettled
and uncertain. The country clergy, more particularly,being generally
of humble origin, could only be distinguished by the name of the
village they belonged to, as " William of Edington," "William of
Wykeham, &c. In this way names of places ultimately became
family names. But family names had long been settled in England
before Henry VIII., and in Italy for centuries before that.

Again, a man of European reputation might be expected to have
left, in his own country, at all events, some master-pieces of work,
or some undisputable records of his work, which is certainly not
the case in this instance.

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.

19

The historians also of Padua, had he really been a native of that
place and very conspicuous as an architect, would not have omitted
to claim so famous a son.

It was by mere accident that 1 was led to the explanation which
I venture now to submit, of the mystery which so long surrounded
the name of John of Padua.

In turning over a number of curious old volumes that had been
'rescued from destruction in the garret of a farm-house I met with
a thin little quarto, the title of which was " Joannis Paduanii
! Veronensis opus de compositione et usu multiformium Horologiorum
Solarium.'" {John Paduanius of Verona, on the construction and use
| of Sun-dials of various shapes.] " Printed at Venice, 1570.-"
Happening at the moment to remember (what I have already
mentioned) that at Caius College, Cambridge, there is a picture
with a curious sun-dial painted on the corner, which picture Dr.
Ducarel understood to be that of "John of Padua," the coincidence
:>f the names and circumstances struck me as remarkable.
: This sun-dial at Caius College, it should he mentioned, stood
formerly (for it has long since disappeared) on a column in the court
ml the college. Being constructed on twelve pentagons, each
pentagon having of course, five faces, it presented sixty dials. The
mnals of the house record that it was set up by Theodore Have, in
iihe year 1576. There is a miserable little sketch of the column on
;vhich it stood, in Loggan's print of that College, Now, though
Theodore Have may have set up this curious sun-dial, still, he may
lave been assisted in its construction, either by Joannes Paduanius
n person, or by the rules in his book on that subject, printed in
1570, a few years before; and this, perhaps, may be enough to
iccount for the name of J ohn of Padua being mentioned at all at
he college. At any rate it brings John de Padua into such striking
loncurrence with Joannes Paduanius that it is difficult to believe
hey were not one and the same person.1

i J . 1 The usage of Latin grammar would suggest V^uanus rather than Padua?nw$:
' j ut neither of them is classically correct. Livy, the Eoman historian, a native
p Patavium (Anglice Padua) was " T. Livius PatavinusP

\ c i

20 John of Padua.

But Joannes Paduanius was " of Verona " : not of Padua. If
then John de Padua was the same person as J. Paduanius, the
inference ia plain that " de Padua 33 was his family name) Verona
his home.

Then, is anything known about Joannes Paduanius? It is quite
certain that there was at that time, and had been for many years
before, in the North of Italy, a family of this very name, called
variously ,Paduanius, de Padua, or (in Italian) dei Padovani. In 1476
a work had been printed at Venice, called " Alberti de Padua
eolemne opus, &c." : being a treatise on the Lord's Day and the
festivals, as mentioned in the New Testament.1 And in such of
those treatises of John Paduanius as, written by him in Latin, were
afterwards translated into Italian, the author is called a Giovanni
dei Padovani33 2

Furthermore, it is certain, not only that it was, but that it is still,
an Italian family name : for curiously enough, even while writing j
out this paper for the press, I met in the Times newspaper with an
account of a horrible murder in a railway carriage near Bologna, on
the 14th of this present January, 1886, the unfortunate victim's
name being Pietro Padovani, of Anguilla, near Venice.

From all the circumstances above mentioned, it may now,
perhaps, be considered probable that the person whom, in English,
we call John of Padua, may have been no other than Giovanni
Padovani, of Verona, the author of the work on sun-dials.

1 A copy occurs in the catalogue of the Syston Park Library, sold last year.

* The prefix of " De " was thought (and the idea is not yet quite obsolete, even
in our own country) to denote less of the plebeian and more of the aristocratio
quality. At the period alluded to it had become so much in vogue as to call for a
slight rebuke even from the pen of Erasmus. In the colloquy called " The Hippeus
Anippos" (The Horse-less Horse-man), a person of humble origin suddenly
becoming rich, wishes to be instructed how to assume the properties and appear-
ance of a gentleman. His counsellor suggests, first of all, a coat of arms (of
course of a ludicrous kind), and then adds, " But if your name should happen to
be ' Philippus Comensis,' be very careful to alter it to 1 Philippus De Como.' "
The editor of Erasmus, in a note, says, " The principal families of Italy were wont
to write and announce their names in this way. Hundreds of examples may be
found in Italian authors of the prepositions ' a ' and 1 de ' thus prefixed to the
name of some city, village, or even private estate."

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 21

There are in the British Museum several other treatises by him,
viz., " On Arithmetic/' " Chronology/' " Instructions for Songs by
the Harmony of many Voices/' " Mathematics/' " Astronomy/' &c.
The names are given in the note.1 These show him to be a man of
various accomplishments.

There is another curious coincidence of circumstances that might
help to identify this Giovanni dei Padovani with the John of Padua
employed by Henry VIII.

Referring to the letters patent we find that, besides his skill in
architecture, whatever that may have been, he was engaged in King
Henry's service on account of his "compositions aud novelties in
music"

From Mr. D. Wyatt's essay, already referred to, I borrow some
remarks upon the King's fondness for music, and foreign performers.
f Henry's own gifts as a musician were of no mean order, and his
protection of everything connected with music was most liberal,
In a letter from Nicolo Sagudino, Secretary to the Venetian Embassy,

1 On the Horoscope. " Opera nuova di Giovanni dei Padovani, Veronese, Verona.
1580." In the preface to this he says that some years before he had constructed
astronomical instruments of various kinds, as astrolabes, quadrants, &c, &c.

2. " Joannis Paduanii, Veronensis, Liberalium Artium Professoris,Viridarium
Mathematicorum," in which he professes to deal with various difficulties in
astronomy. Venice, 1563.

3. " Opusculum " on the variation of the year and changes of festivals.
Verona, 1575.

4. On singing by harmony of many voices. Verona, 1578.

5. On the construction of sun-dials of various forms. Venice, 1570 and 1582.

6. On the composition and division of time. Verona, 1586.

7. On the true day of Our Lord's Passion. Verona, 1586.

8. On arithmetic. Verona, 1587.

9. On the parts of the human body. Verona, 1589.

10. "Consummata Sapientia, seu Philosophia Sacra Peaxis DE LAPIDB
mineeali." A curious medley of theology and chymistry. This was also
translated into German, as the work of " Johannes de Padua? ' It was originally
written in 1557, but not printed till 1602. The author had not himself intended
to publish it at all, but had ordered it to be kept secret and shewn only to genuine
lovers of the art. The editor, M. Schumbert, says that the original MS. of 1557
was so worn by perusal that he had the greatest difficulty in decyphering it
when it came into his hands.

Whether John Paduanius was the author of any work on architecture, or not ,
I cannot say. There is none in the British Museum Library.

%2> John of Padua.

dated June 6th, 1515" [this,however,was in an earlier part of Henry's
reign], " to one of the Foscari, there is an excellent description of the
magnificent entertainment given to the ambassador at Greenwich.
After the banquet they were taken into rooms containing a number
of organs, harpsichords, flutes, and other musical instruments, where
the prelates and nobles were assembled to see the jousts then in
preparation. The ambassador told some of these grandees that he
(Sagudino) was a proficient on some of those instruments. He was
consequently asked to play, and did so for a long time, being listened
to with great attention. Among the listeners was a Brescian, to
whom the King gave 300 ducats a year for playing the lute, and
who took up his instrument and played a few things with him
(Sagudino). Afterwards two musicians, also in the King's service
(it is to be hoped they were not Englishmen) , played the organ, hut
very badly : they kept bad time, their touch was feeble, and their
execution not very good. The King practises on these instruments
day and night." In another passage of his letter Sagudino asks
for new music from Venice, especially some compositions of Giovanni
Maria's, to exchange for some of the English, and particularly for a
few new " ballata/' or music for State entries.

Two things are to be chiefly noted in this letter.

1. That the organ-playing at King Henry's court admitted of great

improvement, and called for better performers.

2. A Giovanni Maria of Venice is introduced. Of whom presently.
1, — As to the organ-playing. John Paduanius of Verona, the

maker of wonderful sun-dials, was also very well qualified "to
render the King " [as the patent specifies] " good service " in this
department of " Res Musica."

In the dedication of one of his treatises to the Bishop of Torcelli,
he says : — " It has been the peculiar, almost the natural, privilege
of several members of my family to be of much use to churchmen,
chiefly bishops, and thereby to become their clients and confidential
friends. Not to mention still earlier instances, my father Francis,
to the very end of his life, helped the Monks of Olivet, at Verona,
in adapting sacred music to the organ in their Church. My uncle,
Blasius, himself a member of the Helenian Brotherhood, as long

as

By tie Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 23

he lived— and he lived to his 86th year— did the same for them
in the principal Church of their city, to the universal satisfaction
of the citizens. He likewise was the author of two volumes of very

great utility to young students in music I °^80 ^ave

followed in the steps of my relatives, hy filing the same office as
my father for the Olive tans."

Of his own passion for music he gives, in another of his little
writings, the following account : — " I was born in 1516. Both my
parents died when I was of tender age, but an uncle took care of
me. Having but slender means I was sent into the country for
maintenance ; but that kind of life not pleasing me I went to
Ferrara to learn music, my paternal aft." He adds that "he
retained the strongest impression of his father's brilliant performance
on the organ in the Church of St. Mary. It was such as would
have tamed any bear or Hyrcanian wild beast."

If then there were any human animals of this sort in King
Henry's Court at Greenwich, here were several of the De Padua or
Padovani family capable of playing the part of Orpheus.

King Henry's fine ear and partiality for the organ would not be
likely to allow him to put up very long with the bad playing of the
year 1515 : and though he could not at that time have employed as a
reformer this John Paduanius of Verona, who was not born till 1516,
he might very well have engaged him when 26 years of age, in
1542, when (according to the first patent) our John of Padua's
musical services began.

2.— If, however, it should be thought (as it probably may), that
I have not succeeded in identifying this John Paduanius of Verona
with the John of Padua we are in search of, I have another string
to my bow : a second claimant, in the person of the " Giovanni
Maria " of Venice, spoken of above in Nicolo Sagudino's letter from
the English Court, as a foreigner to whom they looked for compo-
sitions in music for state entries and dances» Now this Giovanni
Maria's family name was also " De Padua," or " Padovani."

The late Mr. Rawdon Browne, well known for his elaborate re-
searches into Venetian archives, being applied to for some possible
information about any " John of Padua," was so obliging as to obtain

24, John of Padua.

from tlie Marchcse Selvatico some particulars that throw considerable
light upon the subject. The Marchese said :— " He could not
find in their national documents or histories any mention exactly of
an architect of that name : but there was a John Padova, of Milan,
a scholar of Solari, a carver of figures in 1524 ; though no mention of
his having gone to England. There was also a Giovanni Maria
Padovan, very clever as a sculptor, a moulder and maker of medals.
He wrote his name John Maria Patavinus.1 He worked in sculpture
at Padua and at Venice, but of his being an architect nothing is
said. It is, however (says the Marchese), not impossible that he
was one, because all the eminent artists of the Revival Period were
often well accomplished in all the three arts. As he was also em-
ployed in 1548 by the King of Poland to construct a magnificent
mausoleum, for which he was liberally rewarded, this would allow
us to presume that he was also an able architect, seeing that the
sepulchres of that period seldom consisted of sculpture only, but
required to be constructed according to the rules of architecture." 2

Novel and most fanciful decorative work was precisely the sort
that King Henry used in profusion at Nonsuch palace, so that if this
Giovanni Maria, " a clever sculptor and moulder/' at Venice, was
able, as he was, to supply King Henry with this, and also with new
music of the lighter sort for state concerts, we have in him at once
the very qualifications for which Henry conferred an annual pension,
as stated in the letters patent of 1544, viz., for having rendered,
and intending to render, great service in architecture and new musical
compositions. The Italian biographies, it is true, do not speak of
his having gone to England ; but this presents no difficulty : for an
Italian residing at home might, in return for musical compositions,
and architectural devices sent to England, receive English pay at
Venice as easily as in London.

Of tbe John Padova of Milan, mentioned above by the Marchese

1 Mr. Bawdon Browne says, in a private letter :— " I believe the name of
" Mosca," by which this man was generally known, was a surname, from his
having built the Kremlin, and it then became a family name : but its architects
could have had nothing to do with Longleat."

2 An engraving of this mausoleum, if there is one, would supply a specimen
of the architectural taste of this " John Maria Padovani."

By the Rev. Canon J. B. Jackson, F.S.A. 25

Selvatico, nothing is known, either as to his having- been an architect,
or of his having visited England, or his knowledge of music, a chief
service for which, according to the letters patent, our " John de
Padua " was paid.

Our choice, then, seems rather to lie between the other two persons
of the same name and family : John Padovani, of Verona, the maker
of sun-dials, &c, and player on the organ ; but of whose skill in
architecture we know nothing : and John Maria Padovani, of Venice,
who was architect enough to embellish with sculptured ornaments,
and probably to build a royal mausoleum in Poland : and who was
a very celebrated musical composer, especially of f ' ballate " and
entertainments of a lighter sort, suited to amuse a court.

The reader is at full liberty to choose which of the two he thinks
the more likely to have been our " John of Padua/' He will, perhaps,
be glad to shelter himself under Mr. Dames Barrington's opinion :
viz., " That John of Padua had most likely come from Italy as a
performer on some instrument, and by accident only was employed
by Henry VIII. as an architect."

II. — The Second point I proposed to deal with in this paper was,
What probability is there that John of Padua — and this applies to
either of the two Padovani above named — had anything to do with
the building of Longleat ?

" Longleat " [says Mr. Digby Wyatt *] " scarcely answers one's
expectation o£ what a regularly-educated Italian architect's work was
likely to have been/' But this may easily be explained. Longleat
was commenced just at the time when Classical feelings began to
revive in England. English architects went to Italy to study
Classical style : and Longleat appears to be one of the earliest, if
not the very earliest, example of a house designed, either by an
Italian desirous of combining Italian with English, or, vice versa,
an Englishman combining English with Italian, architecture. The
large windows of many lights, with mullions and transoms, cannot
be called Italian, being very rarely to be met with there : whilst, on

1 In page 234 of the " Essay, &c," above referred to.

26 John of Padua.

the other hand, the Classical features of the house were, before the
Ilevival, almost unknown in English domestic architecture.

The actual circumstances under which Longleat was built are not
generally known.

In the first place, the present house is not the original Longleat
erected by Sir John Thynne. The present house dates from 1568,
but there was one before it on the same site, begun twenty years
earlier. This disappeared : and how much or how little the present
house resembles it, must of course be to a certain extent (for some
points of resemblance are known), a matter of conjecture. The
history of the founder's building operations, so far as can now be col-
lected from letters and other documents of the period, is as follows : —

Longleat the Eikst.
In the year 1540 Sir John Thynne purchased the dissolved Priory of
Longleat. What the Priory House was like it is impossible to say,
no drawing of it being left. The number of the religious brethren
having been small their house would probably be not very large.
There was a chapel, which was retained ; and much of the house was
certainly utilized. But Sir John does not appear to have begun any
alterations at all until the year 1547 (the last of King Henry the
Eighth's reign, and the first of Protector Somerset's greatness) :
from which year, it is quite certain from the evidence of old corres-
pondence and other papers still forthcoming, that by degrees, and
with continual interruption from public and domestic affairs, he went
on for more than twenty years, first with one piece of work, then with
another, often changing his mind, doing and undoing, till at last he
ended by producing one of the finest houses in the country. His
steward, writing from the place to his master, says :— " I think no less
than that your house now to see to, is, and will be by it is finished, the
first house and handsomest of that size within the compass of four shires
round about the same, and so doth all the country report. Some
pleased, some grieved." No plan or full description of it has sur-
vived : but there are some letters of the year 1547, when Sir John
Thynne began the alteration of the old priory, and of the two fol-
lowing years, from which the first Longleat would appear to have been

By the Rev. Canon J. K Jackson, F.S.A. 27

in some respects of the same style as the present house,with this known
exception, viz., that the uppermost story consisted of a row of gables,
such as are seen on some parts of the present house on the inner
side facing the courts. But there is no mention of any general
designer, or of any person whom we of the present day should call
an architect. In the letters alluded to Sir John gives his own orders
for everything, with incessant counter-orders and fresh instructions.
Among other alterations to the old priory, there is " a room to be
built over the old chapel/' and a " New Lodging of many bed-
rooms/' to have " gables " with figures of animals on the points,
to be worked "by John Chapman/' a local workman, who, when
he has finished at Longleat, is sent for to be employed for similar
carving of animals at Lacock Abbey, then Sir William Sharington's.
In 1547 a Charles Williams, who had travelled over Italy, writes to
offer his services in supplying internal decorations, " after the Italian
fashion." In 1554 another "New Lodging" is commenced, in
which a person is employed for decoration, whose name is not given :
but there are two letters from Sir William Cavendish and his wife
(Bess Hardwick) to Sir John, requesting the use of this " cunning
plays terer," who, they hear, " had made " dy verse pendants and
other pretty things, and had flowered the hall at Longleat/' to do
like work for them at Hardwick. This was old Hardwick House,
now a ruin, but on the walls of it are still to be seen large florid
decorations in plaster-work, which, no doubt, are the very work of
this man. Presently, in 1559, follows a third and expensive piece of
" New Building," the original contract for which with one William
Spicer, of Nunney (in Co. Somerset, a few miles from Longleat),
still exists : and in this it is distinctly stated that the work is to be
executed " according to a plan agreed upon between Sir J ohn
Thynne and himself." In this are named " chimnies of columns
17ft. high " (such as are on the present house) : and large windows
of many lights, " all of the forefront to be of like moulding as the
great window is of, that is now there." The dimensions of that
pattern great window, with the number of transoms, mullions, &c,
are precisely given, and they correspond almost to an inch with
the actual large windows now at Longleat. Architraves, friezes,

1

28 John of Padua,

pilasters, capitals, and bases are also specified. There was also
a hall 30ft. wide, and a long gallery in the second story on the
north side, J 20ft. long, and 17ft. wide. All this certainly shows
that the first house was very much of the same style as the present
one. Yet though the names of persons employed in the work are
given, and a Mr. Throckmorton comes occasionally to see the work
is right, there is not the slightest allusion to any architect or
designer.

This first house came to a very untimely end. After sundry
escapes it was almost utterly destroyed by fire on 21st April, 1567.
The catastrophe is distinctly mentioned at the beginning of the
building accounts of the present house : and there are letters in
which Sir John received the condolence of his friends. It is also
mentioned in an early edition of Camden's " Britannia/'' trans-
lated by Philemon Holland, who, speaking of Longleat, says
" Although once or twice it hath been burnt, it hath risen eftsones 1
more fair.'''' Sir R. C. Hoare, in his history of this place,2 does not
mention this fire, and indeed seems not to have known at all that
there had been any former house. Yet in the original document
which he was copying and has printed, and which is in the hand-
writing of the first Lord Weymouth, a few words occur which, had
he observed them, would have informed him of it. The paper
begins thus : — " Sir John Thynne built Longleat with his own stone
and timber, and the materials of the former house which was burnt." 3

Longleat the Second.
Sir John Thynne's patience and purse were not exhausted ; and
presently, like the unextinguishable phoenix, Longleat the Second
rose from the ashes of its predecessor, fairer than before. After
allowing nine months for clearing the ground and other preparations,

1 " Eftsones," i.e., immediately after.
2 " Modern Wilts," Heytesbury, p. 72.

3 The materials of a burnt house do not, generally speaking, go Very far to-
wards a new one. Sir John purchased from the Audley family an acre and a
half of land on Box Hill, out of which the stone was fetched for the present
house. The workmen now on the spot informed the writer that the vein of
stone used for Sir John's purpose is one of the very best that the Bos quarries
yield.

By the Rev. Canon J. F. Jackson, F.S.A. 29

the present house began to be built in January, 1568, and was still
unfinished at his death, in 1580.

The building- account books are in good preservation, but, once
more, there is not a word about any John of Padua. I am very
much of opinion that the general design of the former house was
repeated, with probably some variation and enlargement, and that no
one had more to do with the plan than Sir John Thynne himself.

There is a very strong confirmation of this idea in a strange half-
satirical half-facetious effusion (still preserved), from the pen of a
Wiltshire gentleman of rather evil notoriety in that day, Wild Will
Daiell, of Littlecote Hall. In this crazy composition the house is
supposed to be making an Address to its founder, Sir John. It jeers
him for its pretentious appearance, and for the toil and trouble he had
himself been at in erecting it. Here is a specimen : — " But now, see
him that by these thirtyyears almost with such lurmoyle of mind hath
been thynking of me, framing and erecting me, musing many a time
with great care, and now and then pulling down this and that part of
me, to enlarge sometimes a foot, or some few inches, upon a conceit^
or this or that man's speech not worth a woodcock's brains : and by
and by " [which, according to the sense of the expression at that
time, meant directly, all at once~] " beating down windows for this or
that fault, they knew not why nor wherefore." Another passage
of this " wild " production speaks of " this Dorick, this Tuscan
fashion : my quadrants, my ascendances, my columns with a
geometrical proportion " : also of " my unquiet, besides many times
assailed with that ungracious enemy of fire and at last almost
utterly consumed with that facility coming from above that it was
miraculous.-" 1

At the beginning of the building of the present house a person
of the name of Moore was the head man, and received the highest
pay : but he was very soon superseded by another of some eminence.
There is an original letter at Longleat from a Mr. Humphrey Lovell
to Sir John Thynne, dated 11th March, 1568, " recommending Mr.
Robert Smithson who had been employed by Mr. Vice-Chamberlain

1 Does this mean that the first house was struck by lightning ?

80 John of Padua.

as principal freemason." He was at once engaged by Sir John
Thynne. It is impossible to say how far Robert Smithson merely
executed work according to plans already provided for him : or how
far he may have assisted in arranging and finally settling the plans:
but it is remarkable that he was the man who built Wollaton
House, in Nottinghamshire, and on his monument in the parish
Church there, where he was buried, it is recorded that he was " the
Architeetor and Surveyor unto the most worthy House of Wollaton
with divers others of great account.33

The late Mr. John Britton considered the two houses so re-
markably alike that, in his opinion, they must have been the pro-
duction of one and the same mind, Another writer 1 sees so many
minute differences in details, that he is of a contrary opinion. So,
in architecture, as in medicine, doctors differ. It is true that Wolla-
ton, having been built a few years later than the other, has more
ornament ; still, the general observer cannot help being struck with
a very strong resemblance between them : and would probably
conclude that they were really the work of one and the same
architect, who, naturally, would not make them precisely the same,
but would give them the sisterly likeness which Ovid gives to
his sea-nymphs," not exactly the same features, yet not very
different 93 :—

" facies non omnibns una
Nec diver sa tamen ; qualem decet esse eororum."

(Metam., II., 1. 13.)

The word "Architeetor," used on the monument to Robert
Smithson, may mean, not the modern architect, but merely the
builder. R. Smithson certainly was not employed upon the first
Longleat, so that if that first house was (as by the notice of " friezes,
architraves, capitals, bases, &c," it appears to have been), of the
same Italian-English or English- Italian style as the present "one,
Smithson could not have been the original designer. That person
must have been, as already suggested, either an Italian, or an
Englishman educated in Italy, whose object was to combine both

1 See " The Builder," 13th May, 1882.

Names of Persons who contributed to the Defence of the Country. 31

styles. But the general character of the first house having1 been
adopted for the second, it may have been more fully developed under
Robert Smithson's superintendence.

As to " John de Padua," whether a John Padovani of Verona,
of Venice, or of Milan, there is among the Longleat papers not the
slightest reference to his having either designed, or having been
consulted as the work went on, or of his having received any money
for services, either for the first, or the second house at Longleat.

In the great research that is now going on among public and
private historical documents something may yet be discovered to
establish his claim, but the records at Longleat itself are silent.

%\t Uattws of % IJoHIitg, dftttrg, anh otjws
in % Cottntg of Wilis, to|o rontnktefr to

J. E. Jackson.

(Contributed by Mr. Walter Monet, F.S.A.)

March.

John Thistlethwayte [? Winterslow] the 8 of March £25

Sir Walter Hungerford [Farley Castle] the 10 of March 50

Edward Hungerford the same day 25

Edward Horton [? of Iford, Bradford] the same day 50

John Longe, Sen. [Wraxall] the 14 of March 25

Boger Blagden [? Blackden, of Kings wood] the same day 25

Edward Longe [? Monkton] the 15 of March 25
John Trusloe [? Hampworth, of Avebury afterwards] the 16

of March 25

« King's Lib., Brit. Mus., 194, a. 22.

32 Names of Persons who contributed to the Defence of the Country.

Thomas Goddard [P Upham]
Thomas llulbcrt [P Eaton]
"William Reade
Charles Vaughan [Falston]
William Feltham
John Dauntsey [? Pottcrne]
April. Laurence Huyde [? Hyde, of West Hatch]
William Cordrey [P Chute]
Anthony Hynton [? Escote]
Michael Ernley [P All Cannings]
\ Thomas Hutchins [P Salisbury]
Thomas Stevens [P Burderop]
Henry Longe [P Whaddon or Dracott]
Jane Mompesson, vidua [P Corton]
John Flower [P Chittern]
Jeffrey Whiteacre [P Teignhead]
Thomas Dowse [P Collingbourne]
Frances Greene [P Baverstock]
Stephen Duckett [? Calston]
George Scrope [P Castle Combe]
Thomas Chaffyn [P Warminster]
William Pinckney [P Eushall]
William Eyre [of Great Chalfield]
William Webbe [? Manningford]
Walter Hungerford [? Caddenham]
William Sadler [? Salthorp or Everley]
Thomas Lodge

Nicholas St. John [Lydiard Tregoz]
Bartholomew Horsey [P of Martin]
William Baskerville [? Wanborough]
William Jordan [P Chitterne]
Thomas Toppe [P Stockton]
Thomas Bennett [P Pithouse]
Thomazine Grove [P Donhead] vidua
William Young [P Harnham or Durnford]
Anthony Dixon

William Kemble [P of Ogbourne and Stratton]
John Lovell [P Trowbridge]
William Stamford
John Hunte [P Endford]
John Baylie [P Etchilhampton]
Thomas Joye

William Button [Alton Priors and Stowell]
William Eeeve [? Clack]
Eichard Barnard
John Thynne [Longleat]
May. Eichard Modie [of Garsden, near Malmesbury] the 1 of May
Alice Gawen, vidua the 3 of May

the 17 of March
the 18 of March
the 19 of March
the 21 of March
the same day
the 31 of March
the 1 of April
the same day
the 3 of April
the same day
the same day
the 5 of April
the same day
the 6 of April
the 7 day
the 8 day
the same day
the same day
the same day
the same day
the same day
the same day
the same day
the same day
the 9 April
the 10 April
the same day
the 11 April
the same day
the 13 April
the same day
the same day
the 14 April
the same day
the 15 April
[the same day]
the same day
the same day
the 16 April
the 22 April
the 24 April
the 25 April
the 26 April
the same day
the 29 April
the 30 April

25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
50
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25

The Orders of Shrewton. 33

Edmunde Ludlowe [Hill Deverill] the 7 May 25

John Cornall [? Cornwall, of Marlborough] the 10 May 25

Sir Edward Baynton [Bromham] the 11 May 25

Thomas Wallys [? Trowbridge] the 12 May 25

Dame Jane Brydges [Ludgershall] the 19 May 25

Henry White [? Charlton] the 25 May 25

Anthony Geeringe [Sherston-Pinkney] the 14 May 25

William Lea [_? Leigh] the 25 May 25

June. Thomas Walton the 4 June 25

Nicholas Downe the 8 June 25

William Darell [" Wild Darell," of Littlecote] the 12 June 50

Peter Polden the 14 June 25

William Noyes the 15 June 25

Eichard Lavington [? Wilsford] the same day 25

John Streete the 15 June 25
George Farewell [? Farewell, of Holbrook, Co. Som., Mar. into

Horton fam] the 22 June 25

July. Sir John Danvers [Dauntsey] the 1 July 50

November. John Harding [? Pewsey] the 12 Nov. 25

William Brouncker [of Melksham] the same day 25

Communicated by the Rev. Canon Bennett.

VERY interesting agreement of the freeholders, tenants, and
commoners of the parish of Shrewton, dated 9th March,,
1599, is engrossed in the oldest register of the Church.1 It consists
of seventeen orders, which are subscribed by the landowners, the
vicar, and other parishioners. They were drawn up and agreed to

1 This register book consists of thirty leaves of parchment stitched into a cover
made from a part of a deed of " . . . . year of our Soveraigne Lord Charles
ye Second." It is lO^in. high X 5^in. wide. The first and last leaves are
imperfect, and the whole book has suffered a good deal from damp and mildew.
Births, deaths, and marriages are entered in order as they took place under each
year from 1557 to 1649— when it appears to have been left in the charge of
Eobert Wansbrough, the churchwarden, in whose family it remained till Easter,
1860, when it was very gracefully restored to the Church, with the following
VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVII. D

84

The Orders of Shrewton.

at the u earnest persuasion " of Nicholas Barlowe, the vicar, in
order to remedy disorders which had arisen in consequence of the
dismembering' of the manor in 1596, and the discontinuance of the
Courts Baron wherein orders were taken, in former times, for the
u better government and quiet estate of the parish," and they
apparently embody what had been the customs of the manor time
out of mind.

The picture of a Salisbury Plain parish at the end of the sixteenth
century presented by this document is a very pleasant one. Nicholas
Barlowe, the vicar, was a Shrewton man, according to the first
entry in the register : —

" March. 1548. Nicholas the sonne of John Barlowe was Baptised, and
afterward Ordered and Collated Vicar of Shrewton by Bishop John Jewell
A°. Di 1570."

If we may judge from tbe way in which he kept the register,
which is in his own writing till 29th April, 1609 (the year before
his death) , he was a man of scholarly and business-like habits, and
in 1599 his long incumbency must have given him great weight in
the councils of the parish. The gentry of the village were men of
position in the country. Edward Estcourte owned the parish of
Rolleston and that part of the parish of Shrewton called Nett.
He was an ancestor of the present Mr. Estcourt, of Estcourt, near
Tetbury. Thomas Tooker was the brother of Sir Giles Tooker,
Recorder of Salisbury, and M.P. for Salisbury, 1601—1621, who
lived at Maddington. William Goldisborough and Robert Wans-
borowe were owners of considerable estates in the parish — -the latter
lived in the manor house, which is now occupied by Mr. Charles
Wansborough, his lineal descendant, who possesses whatever rights
were left to the lord of the manor, after its sale and dismembering
in 1596. Nicholas and John Gylbert were members of a family
who for about two centuries owned land in Shrewton and Madding-
ton. Robert Tiercey's descendants are to this day respectable
tradespeople in Shrewton.

inscription on the cover :— " This old register, which has been in the careful
keeping of my family for more than two hundred years, I now restore to the
Church of Shrewton at the request of the Vicar, the Rev. F. Bennett, this
second day of April, 1860. Chaeles Wansbeough."

Communicated by the Rev. Canon Bennett. 35

The twenty-three freeholders, tenants, and commoners sign in the
order of their quality, very much as they do at the present time,
but only six of the signatures are autographs.

The farm lands in 1599 could have been only in the valleys
near the village. The rest of the parish consisted of common fields
and downs, which were occupied by the common flocks and herds
and broken up from time to time for " catch crops " of corn. In
the extremity of winter the cattle and sheep perished for lack of
hay, which could only be grown in the narrow strip of water-meadow
and the home pastures. Clover, rye-grass, and sanfoin were un-
known. A parish hayward, whose office it was to buy and provide
hay for the common flocks and herds, was a very necessary and
important person. The hayward, shepherds, cowherds, and hogherds
of the parish were elected by those who had rights of pasture. The
village pound was an important feature in the parish government,
and all stray and offending cattle were duly impounded, and detained
till their owners had paid the fines required. All fines for breach
of the orders, as Christian charity dictated, were given for the uses
of the poor of the parish. The orders were enforced and the officers
elected by the freeholders, tenants, and commoners, assembled, most
probably, in vestry, controverted points being decided by the most
voices. Memoranda are made in the registers of disputed bound-
aries being settled, and exchanges of ^^gf^1^^^1 tlie " ^v0~
cession Day " in Rogation Week.

Children and servants were negligent then as now, but swine and
geese seem to have possessed greater powers of " offending."

At the inclosure of the open field lands of Shrewton under a
private Act of Parliament, passed in 1798, ten acres and sixteen
perches were awarded to the churchwardens " in exchange for lands
which they previously possessed." No record exists of the manner
in which "the Church land" was originally acquired, but it may
have resulted from a benefaction which is thus entered in the
register : —

"1608

" Wylliam Gouldesborongh gave to the Churche A Cowe ye viii day of May,8'
With the " Cowe " he surely gave a cowleaze, which would invest

D 2

36

The Orders of Shrewton,

the Church with a status amongst the commoners of the parish,
even if it were not accompanied by " three acres/' and would entitle
the churchwardens to a share of the common fields at their enclosure.

The ten acres and sixteen perches were situated more than a mile
away from the village. In 1883 they were exchanged, with the
sanction of the Charity Commissioners, for eight acres of better
land near to the Church, now let in allotments. The rent, as hereto-
fore, is still applied towards the repair of the fabric of the Church
and the expenses of maintaining divine service, which it nearly
defrays.

" Ano Due nre Elizabethe Regine 42.
Ano Domini 1599. Marcij 9.

" Forasmuch as ther hath ben in this pish of Shrewton of Antient tyme out
of minde A Courte barron continued and yerlye for the most part houlden and
kept wthin the mann\ of Shrewton, wherein orderes were taken and ratified for
the better gov'ment and quiet estate of all the frehoulders tenants and other
conion's wthin the saide parishe by virtue of the said courte, and all such psones
as were Irregular and disordered were then amersed, and paid the amersements
and penalties by way of distresse to the Lord royale of the mannr afforsaid vntill
that of late in the yeare 1596.

" The sayd manr was dismembered by sale of the ]ande to divers psones and
most pt. to the tenants themselves. Since which tyme divers disorders have
been comited to the great hurt and detriment of the greater pt of the frehoulders
tenants and comoners of .... breache of christia charitie and peace of
the neighborhode, For reformation [where]of and at thernest pswasion of Nicholas
Barlowe Gierke, we the freeholders tenants and comoners whose names and
m'kes are hereunto subscribed do with one accorde consult determine and ratine
that these orderrs following shall be unviolably kept and observed^bindin
o'rselves owr heyres and assignes to the due observation thof and of evry pt or
parcell thereof from henceforth for ever. And for the better corroboration
hereof we have caused these orders to be Ingrossed in this or register booke to
remayne in ppetuall record.

" Edw : Estcourte.

" Nicholas Barlowe Clerke.

" Thomas Tooker.

" William Goldisborough.

" Robert Wansborowe p his mke.

" Jonn Smith £ his marke.

" William Barlowe.

" Robert Piercey. R his mke.

" Nicholas Gilbert + his mke.

" Agnes Barlowe Widow * her mke.

Communicated by the Rev. Canon Bennett.

" Richard Munda . .
" John Gilbert als Netton V his mk.
" John Wilshere U his mke.
" William Woodroffe W his mke.
" Richard Gilbert als Netto.
" John Browele.
" Richard Kelow.
" Robert Sutton R his mke.
" John Gylbert.
" Robert Jennings.

37

" Will'm Chandler
" Josh —J Kellawaye his mke.
" Edmund -I Blanchard his mke.

{< Imprimis. Bycause we have heard b}r olde men and find by antient records
in divers coppies of court roule y* no freholder tenant or comoner in ....
in right kept any wuther beaste in the feeldes of Shrewton or Net, vntill of late
years they have usurped the same, we do nowe therefore agree consent and order
that fro henceforth not any freholder tenant or comoner in Shrewton or Net ther
deputies or servants shall keepe any kind of wuther beastes in the feeldes of
Shrewton or Net (except such calves as they shall breed of their owne being under
the age of one year in Net feeld only) to depasture and feed upo payne to for-
faite for every beast so depasturing for every day xiid to the poore of this pishe.

" 2. Item it is lyckewyse Agreed and Ordered that fro the feast of Sfc Mychaell
the Archangell yearly vntill the first day of August, not any freeholder tenant
or comoner ther deputies or servants shall keep tye oivleaze any horse ....
beaste in the feeldes down .... Shrewton uppo payne to
every horse beast so offending f every day xiid. And that no frehoulder.
tenant or comoner shall keepe tye or leaze auy hough beast or beasts in the
feeldes or downes of Net fro the feest of S* Martyn's yerly untill the first day
of August upo payn to forfayte for every horse so offending for every day xiid
and from S* Luke's Day they shall take their horses fro the feeld.

"3. Item yt is ordered and_agreed that fro henceforth it shall not be lawful for
any freehoulder tenant or comonr in Shrewton to "breed above twelve lambes upo
a yerde lande, or above ten lambes vpon a yerde lande in Nett uppon payne to
forfaite for every lambe he they or theyre assignes shall keepe or cause to be
kept ovr and above the sayde number vid for every weeke so offending to the poor
of this parish.

" 4. Item the lambes shall be accompted sheepe and go in shepes places yearly
at St. Lukes day.

"5. Item the cowes hoges and other feeble shepe shall be yearly drawne from
the flocke of Shrewton and Nett by the discretion of the gretest pt of the fre-
houlders tenantes, or comoners & the sheppd of the same flocke and kept by one
comon sheppd in the fryth or other place as by them shall be thought most con-
venient for their better preservation and it is ordered that no tenant, comoner
or freehoulder theyre children or servants shall keepe orlease any shepe or lambes
in the feeldes downes or other comons of Shrewton or Nett at any tyme of the
yeare from the comon flocke aforesaid vppo payne of forfayte for every suche
offence vid to the poore.

88

The Orders of Shrewton.

" G. Item yt is ordered that yf any frehoulder tenant or comonor in Shrewton
or Nett shall hereaftcrkeepo any cottrell whose stones are not clene cut out, shall
after three dayes waring, forfaite the same shepe or other beast to the poore of
this parishe.

" 7. Item yt is ordered that if any frehoulder tenant or comoner in Shrewton
or Nett shall want any hurdles of the fould of Shrewton or Nett by the space of
six dayes forfayte for every hurdle so wanting after warning given him or them
by the sheppd xiid. _

"8. Item yt is ordered and agreed that yf any freehoulder tenant or comoner
in Shrewton or Nett theyre children or servants shall fro henceforth ....
keepe, or suffer any of theere swyne in the feeldes of Shrewton or Nett from S*.
Martines day vntill the first day of August yearly shall forfaite for eache swyne
so offending vid to the poore. _

"9. Item ordered and agreed that yf any frehoulder tenant or comoner

in Shrewton or Nett shall hereafter suffer any of theire swyne to go in the feeldes
of Shrewton or Nett unringed shall .... for every such swyne unringed
vjd. to the poore of the pissh.

" 10. Item bycause ther hath ben hertofore gret harme done .... by
negligence of children and servantes in keeping of swyne, yt is now therefore
ordered and agreed that from henceforth one comon hogherd shall be prouided
nominated and appointed by the most voyces of the freeholderes_ tenants and
comoners to keepe all the swyne in Shrewton, and one other comon hogherd to
keeoe all the swyne in Nett, and suche wages or stipend as most of the said
comoners shall agree_uppo for and with the said hogherd, every freehoulder
tenant or comoner haing swyne in the feeldes of Shrewton or Nett, shall pay
to the same hogherd, and farther that no freehoulder, tennant or comoner in .
. . . Nett their deputies .... shall fro henceforth leaze ther owne
swyne vppo payne to forfaite for every day so offending xiid.

"11. Bycause the flockes of Shrewton and Nett hath ben heretofore (and nowe
at this p'sent) vnprouided of hey in the extremitie of winter by which meanes
many sheepe have peryshed, for reformation whereof we do nowe order andjigree
that from henceforth yearly at the feast of St. John the baptists nativitie comoly
called Midsom1 day, that every freehoulder tenant or comoner in Shrewton or
Nett shall the prouide and deliv1 yearly five shillings of currant money for every
yeard lande which he or they houldeth vnto two indifferent men which shalle be
yearly chosen nominated and appoynted by the most voyces to buy and provide
hey for the flockes of Shrewton and Nett for that yeare following and whosoeuer
having sheepe of his owne or of others in his lease in ither of the sayd flockes
that shall make defaulte of payment of the said five . ... the yeard lande
being .... unto required or demnded by the said purueyoures or ther
assignes, that then it shall be lawfull to and for the said purveyoures of hey or
theire assignes, to Impound and distrayne the sheepe going or depasturing in or
vppon the leaze of any suche freehoulder tenant .... comoner making
such def . . . . And the same sheepe so impounded to detayne vntill the
sayd some or somes of money be satisfied and payde to the vse aforesaid.

" 12. Item yf Any freeholder tenantf or comon in Shrewton or Nett or ther as-
signes shall keepe or have any sheepe or lambes on leaze or above his ordinary stint
shall forfayte for every such sheepe or lambe for every three days vid to the poore

Communicated by the Rev. Canon Bennett.

89

" 13, Ite yt is ordered and agreed that ther shalbe a hay ward chosen and nomi-
nated by the most voyces of the freehoulders tenantes or comoner of Shrewton
and Nett, and the sayd hayward shall have yearly for his wages iijd for every
yearde lande our and beside his pounde pence.

" 14. Item for the better observing and orderly keeping of these orders yt is
agreed that yt shall be lawfull to and for any one freehoulder tenant or comoner
in Shrewton or Nett to Impound the catell of any other freehoulder tenant or
comoner whosoever that shall at anjT tyme or tymes hereafter .
any default or b .... of any of these orderes aforesayd and the same
cattell so Impounded to detayne and withould vntill all suche some or somes
of mony f orf ayted as by any article or articles pticularly or genally is mentioned,
be fully satisfied or payd to the ov'seers of the poore to the vse of the poore.

" 15. In consideration of these orders agreed vppo, and for the better keeping
of our horses and plough beastes in the somer tyme It is ordered and agreed,
that fro henceforth, it shall be lawfull to and for euery freeholder tenant and
comon7^ in Shrewton or Net yearly to plough and sowe one Acre for every yeard
lande wh he or they his or theire assynes houldeth in the somer feeldes of Shrewton
and Nett with pease or other lent gran in such place or places as is or shall be
agreed uppon by the greter part of the sayd freehoulders tenants and comoners
or their assignes indifferantly to be assigned that no ma be wronged, and he that
at any tyme lyketh not to sowe his land in suche place may lawfully take the
herbage theoft properly to himself for that season ....

" Nicholas Gilbert is apoynted hey ward.

\_On the next fag e and in another handwriting^

" 16. And it is further ordered and agreed by the freeholders tenants and
comonrs of Shrewton and Nett aforesaid That from henceforth yf any of the
said Freholders Tenants and comonrs shall keep any horse beasts or wuther
beasts above the former rates in the comon feeldes contrary to the orders before
mentioned he shall forfayte for evry tyme for Poudinge the some of iiis. and iiijd.
to be levied to the vse of the poore of the sayd paryshe.

" 17. And it is further agreed yk noe geese shall be kepte or suffered to go in
any pte of the comon feildes of Nett at anie tyme vpon payne of forfeyture for
euery goose so offendinge iiiid. Likewise to be delivered to the vse of the poore
of the said paryshe."

40

% Cjjuwjr jjwattrj of jtetl Milium.

By Arthur Schomberg, Esq.
(Continued from Vol. xxii., p. 339J

HUNDRED OF MELKSHAM.
WH ADDON.

Mural Tablet, North Wall of North Chapel.

29. I. — Sable, semee of cross crosslets, a lion rampant argent.
Crest. A lion's head gutty erased argent holding in mouth a
sinister hand gules. Long of Wraxall.

Walter Long, ob. 1807, set. 95.

On Floor of North Chapel.

30. II. — Semee of cross crosslets, a lion rampant, two flaunches
ermine. Crest. Out of a crescent a lion's head gutty erased. Long
of Trowbridge.

Calthrop Long, ob. 1729.

31. III.— Long of Trowbridge (30).
Sir Walter Long, ob. 1710.

32. IV.— Long of Trowbridge (30), without crest.
Henry Long, ob. 1612.

EARLE STOKE.

A Stone Screen built into Wall of South Transept, perhaps once part

of a tomb.

33. I. — Bulstrode (9), impaling, quarterly. 1 and 4. Blank,
2, and 3. Three fusils in pale (Bonham ?).

34. II.— -Barry of six, in chief three roundles (Hungerfobj) ?)

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire. 41

35. III.— Quarterly, 1 and 4, Bulstrode (9). 2 and 3. A
chevron between three squirrels sejant.

36. IV.— Bulstrode (9), impaling, a chevron between three
crosses fitchy.

Thomas Bollstryd and Edyth his wife (A. and J.)1.

In the old Churchyard, on the Moor of what was the Chancel— still

in situ.

37. V.— -Argent, six roundles in pale 3, 3, on a chief embattled,
a fusil fessways thereon a cross patty. Crest. A dexter arm em-
bowed and vested, holding- a fusil.

Ann Brouncker, ob. 1684.

38. VI. — Brouncker (37), with martlet for difference, and
without crest.

John Brouncker, ob. 1681.

39. VII. — Brouncker (38), without difference, impaling, be-
tween two bars engrailed nine martlets 3, 3, 3 (Moore?).

William Brouncker, ob. 1679.

40. VIII.— Moore (39).
Katharine Brouncker, ob. 1679.

HILPERTON.

South Wall.
Hatchment.

41. I.— Quarterly 1 and 4. England. 2. France. 3. Ireland.

South Wall, outside.

42. II. — Sable, semee of cross crosslets a lion rampant argent.
Pieux quoique Preux. Long of Rood Ash ton.

43. III. — Per bend embattled gules and argent. Honor virtutis
premium. Boyle.

1 Vide Aubrey and Jackson's " Wiltshire Collections," sub Earle Stoke ;
formerly Bonham (?) was impaled on a pew in this Church.

42

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

STAVE11T0N.

Over Chancel Arch.
Hatchment.

44. I. — Quarterly 1 and 4. England. 2. Scotland. 3.
Ireland, on a shield of pretence, Hanover.

TROWBRIDGE.
St. James.

Mural Tablet on North Wall of Chancel.

45. I. — Argent, a maunche, on a chief azure a lion rampant.
Crest. Out of a coronet a bull's head. Virtute et Victoria.

John David Hastings, ob. 1800.

A large diapered piece of work, East Wall of North Chapel.

46. II. — Or, on a bend between two crosses flory gules three
swans, wings elevated. Crest. A swan chained, wings elevated,
dexter foot on a cross flory, mullet on wing. Moriens cano.

Clark, 1793—1864.

47. III. — Clark (46), without crest and motto.
Clark, 1832.

48. IV, — Argent, on a chevron engrailed sable, two swords in
saltire, points upwards, surmounted by a wreath, thereon a battle-
axe erect, between three crab-fish.

Bythesea, 1647—1832.

49. V. — Azure, a bend or, on a chief argent a saltire engrailed
gules between two birds.

Vyner, 1591—1647.

50. VI. — Gules, three men, 2, 1, habited and couped at the
loins holding in dexter hand a staff between fifteen cross crosslets
fitchy, 5, 4, 3} 2, 1.

Wood, 1550—1591.

By A. Schotnberg, Esq.

43

51. VII. — Sable, a bend lozengy argent.
Baynton, 1537—1560.

52. VIII. — Azure, a bend cotised argent between six lioncels.
De Bohun, 1119—1125.

Mural Tablet on North Wall of same.

53. — IX. — Quarterly of eight. 1. Bythesea (48). 2. Argent,
a chevron engrailed gules. 3. Quarterly per fess indented gules
and or (Bromley). 4. Argent, on a chevron within a bordure
engrailed gules five roundles (Chetilton). 5. Argent, on a fess,
6able three cross crosslets between six fleurs-de-lys (Clifton).
6. Gules, on a chevron argent three roses. 7. Vyner (49).
8. Long of Trowbridge (32). Crest. An eagle displayed, on its
breast the same charge as is on the chevron of the Bythesea arms.
Mutare vel timere sperno.

Bythesea, 1672—1839.

On Roof of same, carved in a Shield.

54. X.— A chalice.

Mural Tablets under Tower.

55. XI. — Argent, a lion rampant, a chief or, impaling, or, a
chevron between three apples slipped gules. Southby.

Edward Yerbury, ob. 1690, and his wife Anna.

56. XII. — Bendy or and sable, impaling ermine.
William Monk, ob. 1707, set. 81,

57. XIII. — Argent, on a saltire sable five fleurs-de-lys or.
Robert, Hawkins, ob. 1672.

58. XIV.— Argent, a chevron cheeky gules and azure (?) between
three cross crosslets fitchy sable (?).

Esau Reynolds, ob. 1778.

59. XV. — Argent, on a fess, between three talbot's heads erased
azure, as many bezants, a crescent for difference, impaling argent
three lions rampant azure, a chief of the last.

Elizabeth, wife of Robert Houlton, ob. 1707 (M.I.).

44 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

Mural Tablets above Tower Arch.

60. XVI.— Barry of seven gules and or, an escocheon ermine,
on a chief of the first, a pile paly of seven of the field, impaling a
chevron between three crab-fish. Crest

Horlock Mortimer, ob. 1803.

61. XVII.— Ermine, a bend gules, impaling, sable, a fess '
engrailed or between three escallops argent. Maskelyne.

Henry Wallis, ob. 1629.

62. XVIII.— Argent, a fess between six annulets gules, im-
paling, azure, a cross bottony or between four mullets argent, a
crescent for difference.

Thomas Lucas, 1741.

63. XIX— Gules, two bends wavy or, a chief vaire, impaling,
ermine, on a canton sable a crescent argent.

Abigail, wife of William Brewer, daughter of Thomas Strode,
ob. 1691.1

On Screen under Tower.

64. XX.— Clark (46).

65. XXI.— Three bull's heads caboshed 2, 1. Crest. A
wolf (?) sejant.

66. XXII.— Hastings (45).

67. XXIII.— Azure, our Lady and Child, with sceptre in her
left hand (See of Salisbury), impaling, argent, a bend gules be-
tween a hind's head erased and a cross crosslet fitchy, a crescent
for difference, ensigned with a mitre. Denison.

68. XXIV.— Barry of five or and argent, on a chief quarterly
1 and 4 two fieur-de-lys. 2 and 3 a lion passant.

69. XXV.— Long of Hood Ashton (42).

70. XXVI.— Argent, on a bend gules two eagles displayed
between three boars passant, a rose for difference. Crest. A goat's
head erased.

1 Formerly on north wall of chancel, with another, bearing the same arms, to
William Brewer, ob. 1707. (M.I.)

By A. Schomberg, Esq. 45

71. XXVII. — Azure,, on a chevron between three lamb's heads
erased, as many roses, in chief as many garbs. Crest. On a mount
agnus Dei, end of staff on a garb. Stancomb.

Mural Tablet in South Chapel.

72. XXVIII. — Quarterly gules and argent, on the first and
fourth quarter an escallop of the second. Crest.

Thomas Timbrell, ob. 1820.

Over Chancel Arch a Hatchment.

73. XXIX. -The royal arms (44) .

On Pews of South Chapel.

74. XXX.— Stancomb (71). Do right, fear not.

A carved Stone Mantlepiece in Vestry.

75. XXXI. Dexter panel. A hart lodged gorged and chained.

76. XXXII. Centre panel. A lion with two bodies couchant
affrontee.

77. XXXIII. Sinister panel. A lion passant.

On the corbels of windows outside, west wall, a bear and staff ;
on south wall, an ape gorged and chained; a pelican in piety; a
phoenix rising from flames ; a hart grazing.

Holy Trinity.

In a South Window.

78. Argent, a fess between six martlets sable.
Hon. Digby Walsh, ob. 1869.

St. Thomas5.

St. Stephen's.
East Window.

79. Quarterly, 1 and 4 gules, a fess vaire between three unicorns
passant argent, maned or. 2 gules on a fess or three annulets
between as many crosses fitchy. 3 gules, a spur or leathered
argent, on a chief of the third three cock's heads of the field, over
all a crescent for difference.

Francis Henry Wilkinson, ob. 1869.

4

46 The Church Heraldry of North Wills hire.

POULSHOT.

Hatchment over Chancel Arch.

80. I. — Royal arms (27).

Scratched on inside Wall of South Porch.

81. II. — A rose within a circle,

MELKSHAM.

Chancel, under North Window.

82. I. — Quarterly, 1 and 4 azure, a chevron, charged with three
bars gemellee gules, between as many eagles rising or, in chief the
badge of Ulster. 2 and 3, a fountain thereout issuing a palm tree,
all proper. Crest. 1. A lion sejant ermine gorged with a collar
gemellee gules. 2. A dexter arm embowed and couped, habited
purpure, purfled and diapered or, cuffed argent, holding a palm
branch proper. Quod tibi id alii. Lopes.

83. II.— Quarterly, 1 and 4 argent, two lions passant in bend
sable between as many cotises gules. 2 and 3. Sable, three hawks,
argent. Crest. A leopard's head erased affrontee. Fructus
virtutis. Kekewich.

In memory of the parents of Ralph Ludlow Lopes, and Elizabeth
his wife, erected 1876.

Mural Tablets.

84. III. — Or, a chevron between three fox's heads erased gules,
impaling, azure, a stag's head caboshed argent. Horton. Crest.
A fox gules.

Bohun Fox, ob. 1750, and Ann, his wife, ob. 1746.

85. IV. — Awdry (19) impaling, argent, a fess between three
mascles or.

John Awdry, ob. 1698.

86. V.— Argent, on a bend cotised gules three cinquefoils of the
field.

Jeremiah Awdry, ob. 1754, and Martha, his sister, ob. 1769 (M.I.)

87. VI.— Awdry (2), with crescent for difference.
Awdry, 1786—1816.

By A. Schomberg, Esq. 47

88. VII. — Awdry (19).
John Awdry, ob. 1639.

On Floor.

89. VIII. — Awdry (2). Nil sine Deo.
Alethea Sophia Awdry, ob. 1882.

90. IX.— Awdry (2). Nil sine Deo.
Sir John Wither Awdry, ob. 1878.

91. X. — Awdry (19), impaling, argent, a fess between three
mascles or (85).

Martha Awdry, ob. 1769 (1709?). (M.I.)

92. XI.— A zure, a cross between four swallows, impaling,
ermine, three chevronels gules. Selfe.

Margaret, widow of Daniel Webb, ob. 1783 (M.I.).

93. XII. — Awdry, impaling, ermine, on a chief dancetty three
escallops. Taylor.

Mary, wife of John Taylor, ob. 1763; Ann, widow of Ambrose
Awdry, ob. 1719 (M.I.).

94. XIII.— The three lions of England often repeated.

Mural Tablet in North Chapel.

95. XIV. — Argent, a fess between three nags passant sable,
impaling, argent, a bend ermines between two lions rampant gules.
Osborne.

Coulthurst, 1715—1786.

North Aisle.1

96. XV. — Bruges, impaling Gale (21).

Thomas Bruges, ob. 1835, at. 86, and Sarah his wife, ob. 1801.

Hatchment.

97. XVI. — Bruges, impaling Gale (21).

1 In this aisle there were once two shields, on which, Vert, a fess between
three mullets argent. Pooee ? (A. & J., p. 296.)

I

■

4,8 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

In a Window.

98. XVII. — Argent, an oak tree couped proper, fructcd or and
of the field between two crosses azure. Crest. An oak slip proper
fructed or and argent. Diu virescit.

William Jeffries Wood, ob. 1795, and Anne his wife, ob. 1834.

Mural Tablets, South Chapel.

99. XVIIL— Selfe (92).

Jacob Selfe, of Place House, ob. 1730.

100. XIX. — Awdry (19), impaling Selfe (92).
Ambrose Awdry, ob. 1738, and Mary, his wife, ob. 1719.

101. XX.— Quarterly. 1. Azure, on a saltire engrailed or
three cross crosslets fitchy of the field. 2. Azure, a chevron be-
tween three pheons or. 3. Selfe (92). 4. Per pale azure and
gules, a chevron between three lions passant guardant or. On a
shield of pretence, quarterly, 1 and 4, sable, a fess between three
martlets or. 2 and 3. Argent, on a fess between three crescents
gules as many lioncels of the field. Crest . . . Ut vivas
vive.

Richard Jenkyns, ob. 1806, and Ann [nee Lockett), his wife,
ob. 1825.

102. XXI.— Selfe (92), with crescent for difference, impaling,
argent, a bend sable, on a chief of the second three cushions of the
field. Johnson.

Isaac Selfe, ob. 1682.

103. XXII.— (101) Without shield of pretence and crest.
Jenkyns and Selfe, 1726—1759 (M.I.).

104. XXIII.— Gules, on a chevron argent three lion's heads
erased sable, langued proper, between as many cinquefoils of the
field, impaling, argent, a cross gules between four doves (?) proper.
Webb.

Thomas Smith, ob. 1723, and Elizabeth, his wife, ob. 1719.

By A. Scho?nberg, Esq. 49

105. XXIV. — Selfe (92), impaling, argent, two chevrons
sable. Ashe.

Jacob Selfe, ob. 1702, and Maria, his wife, ob. 1701.

On Floor.

106. XXV.— Selfe (92).

Penelope, d. of Isaac and Penelope Selfe (d. and co-heiress of
Lord Lucas, of Shenfield, Co. Essex), ob. 1718.

107. XXVI. — On a chevron sable three trefoils slipt between
as many leopard's heads erased.

. , . . 1767,

108. XXVII. — On a chevron three lion's heads erased between
as many cinquefoils. Smith (104).

T. S., 1698; T. S., 1699.

109. XXVIII. — A lion rampant (in chief a canton, M.I.).
Ellin Owen, ob. 1728.

110. XXIX. — On a chevron three fleurs-de-lys between as many
gilly-flowers slipt, impaling, on a fess wavy three roundles between
as many lion's heads erased.

Richard Guppey, ob, 1723, and Margaret, his wife, ob. 1757,
set. 86.

111. XXX.— -Smith (104) impaling Webb (104).
T. S. K, 1723.

112. — XXXI. — Selfe (92), impaling, on a chevron three fleurs-
de-lys between as many roses, slipt.

Margaret, third wife of Isaac Selfe, ob. 1734, (M.I.)

113. XXXII.— Selfe (92) impaling Smith (104),
Anne, wife of Isaac Selfe, ob. 1681. (M.I.)

114. XXXIII.— S mith (104) impaling, argent, on a chevron
gules three trefoils between as many lion's heads caboshed (?)

John Smith, ob. 1757. (M.I.)
VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVII. E

50

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

115. XXXIV. — On a chevron three fleurs-de-lys between as
many roses slipt ( 1 1 2- ) impaling, Gutty, in chief three chess rooks.

Thomas Kington, oh. 1757, and Jane, his widow, ob. 1768.
(M.I.)

Hatchments.

116. XXXV. — Quarterly, 1 and 4, ermine, a chevron gules.
Touchet. 2 and 3. Gules, a fret or. Audley, impaling, ermine,
two bars vert. Supporters, two wyverns sable. Ensigned with a
baron's coronet. (M.I.)

117. XXXVI. — In a lozenge, argent, a chevron gules between
three boar's heads couped and erect azure issuing out of each a
cross crosslet fitchy of the second, (M.I.)

118. XXXVII.— Quarterly, 1 and 4. Long. 2 and 3. Per
pale, first argent, three endorse sable, second azure. (M.I.)

119. XXXVIII.— Long of Rood Ashton (42), over all an es-
cocheon azure, impaling, argent, two endorse sable. (M.I.)

120. XXXIX.— (117). (M.I.)

121. XL.— Quarterly 1 and 4. Touchet (116). 2 and 3.
Audley (116), impaling, per fess ermine two bars vert ; two bars
argent, in base a fleur-de-lys or. (M.I.)

On the Iron Gate at the east end of the Churchyard apparently
crest of Heathcote. A mural crown between two wings displayed,
the pomme has, however, disappeared.

STUDLEY.

51

flht .tj« j$tubg of €ntoma%g.

By the Rev. T. A. Maeshall.

[^NE of the most important functions of a local scientific society
should be to create and foster among its members that
universal spirit of enquiry which is the distinctive character o£ the
scientific mind. Not, indeed, that it is desirable to persuade in-
dividuals with limited leisure, and tastes already definitely directed,
to an imperfect diffusion of their powers over new subjects; which
would be to promote sciolism rather than knowledge ; but it is
highly expedient to invite the attention of those less fully occupied,
to whatever branches of enquiry may seem to have been partially
neglected. The vastness and variety of the subjects which fall
within the province of a society taking its title from Archaeology
and Natural History offer the widest field of choice to the most
differently constituted minds, and if a new subject is pointed out,
there is at least a strong probability of its being taken up by some
enterprising members, to their own advantage as well as the further-
ance of the general object. With these views the present writer
ventures to recommend entomology, as a new departure in the
cultivation of the natural history of Wiltshire, being informed that
the subject is not one which at present engages the attention of
the society. Indeed it may be doubted whether any serious attempt
has ever been made to observe the insect- productions of this county,
apart from those general works which treat of the indigenous Fauna
of Great Britain or of Europe.

The study of entomology is considered, in the eyes of the world,
as merely an agreeable pastime, without any ulterior object of utility.
A certain amount of raillery usually falls to the lot of those who
seem simple enough to occupy themselves with the consideration of
minute animals, vulgarly supposed to be either noxious or repulsive.
This is probably a fair statement of public opinion on the subject,
But if we turn to the class of adepts in the science, we find that

e %

52 On the Study of Entomology.

entomology lias become with them a perfect passion : not among
mere loiterers and dilettanti, but men high in place and seriously
occupied, the most distinguished and the most intelligent. They
are a minority, but in this case, as in some others, the opinion of
: e minority is to be preferred: and if the public at large cannot
understand the existence in sensible men of a taste which it stigma-
tizes as childish, this is only because it is not aware of the difficulties
or the utility of the pursuit, and most of all because it is ignorant of
its pleasures. I shall not repeat any commonplaces about the beauties
and wonders which are revealed to us by the study of nature, for I con-
sider that the readers of all such papers as find a place in these tran-
sactions must be of the number of those who are already touched with
the sacred fire, or in whom at least the latent spark requires only to be
kindled. I propose to say a few words as to the method and spirit
in which this most useful and pleasing kind of knowledge should j
be cultivated ; and if anything here suggested has the effect of
leading observers in the county of Wilts to apply themselves to some j
of the numerous branches of entomology, this appeal, however poorly
expressed, will not have been written in vain.

There are several different aspects in which entomology may be
viewed, and consequently several distinct categories of entomologists.
It is with the latter that we are concerned just now, and they may
be all summed up conveniently under the two headings of collectors
and observers.

The first comprises amateurs, whose amusement it is to make I
collections of insects, with no more definite object than inspires
collectors of postage stamps, or books unread and unreadable, or I
biscuits, or obsolete crockery. They are the happy possessors of
cases filled with objects beautiful or ugly, but always curious, which
they regard with never-ending delight. " Geux-la ne meritent aucun
interet" says a French naturalist ; but I am not at all disposed to I
agree with so sweeping a judgment. Whatever may be said of the
furor of collection- making in general, the entomological collector at
least ought not to be spoken of in terms of disparagement. He is
an indispensable factor in natural science, he brings the bricks of
which the edifice is to be constructed, and without which the great

By the Rev. T. A. Marshall. 53

temple could never have risen from the ground. There are latent
possibilities about him which at any time may take a surprising
development : the most philosophic naturalist must have begun by
collecting, and must continue to some extent to collect throughout
his career : as the child is father of the man, so is the amateur the
father of the observer. I think, then, it is a sadly conceited mistake
to undervalue the functions of the amateur : on the contrary he
deserves every respect, and should be encouraged to the top of his bent.

On a somewhat higher round of the scientific ladder stand those
who employ themselves in bringing together the species found m
some particular country or district, with a distinct object, viz., that
of ascertaining the limits of its productions. They frequently read
such books as are necessary to name their species, and when this is
done correctly, they contribute to a knowledge of the laws of
distribution. Many of them would, if they had the opportunity,
enlarge the circle of their observations ; but circumstances confine
them to a single country. Our Continental friends laugh at us for
establishing a sixth quarter of the Globe, as if Great Britain and
Ireland were physically distinct from the rest of Northern Europe.
However, local observations are not without value in their bearing
upon general laws; but beyond this they contribute little, and their
usefulness is considerably restricted.

Far above these— so far, indeed, that sometimes they are quite
lost in the clouds— are the classifiers and systematists. Many of
them, also, limit their speculations to the Fauna of one locality, in
which case their partial systems cannot fail to be exploded as soon
as they are compared with schemes that aim at universality . There
is a great deal too much of classification; the best arrangements are
but artificial, and can lay no claim to finality. The materials are
not yet brought together upon which a permanent and compre-
hensive system of organisms can be founded. Some kind of order
is necessary for practical purposes, and such attempts at order exist
in superabundance. So long as they serve their purpose, which can
be but temporary, it is idle to permute and combine as a mere
exercise of ingenuity. Nevertheless many eminent writers are to
be found in this class, and their labours have supplied a necessary

54 On the Study of Fjntomology.

assistance ; for it is obvious that without classification as an instru-
ment, the naturalist would be unable to work, or lie would have to
spend his time in manufacturing his own tools. Classification, how-
ever, is but an instrument, and a very imperfect one; and to confine
entomology to this acceptation is as bad as it would be to rank
index-making on a level with authorship. Or, rather, it would be
to reduce entomology to the condition of an abstract science, deprived
of the practical usefulness which chiefly distinguishes it, and further
denuded of that grace and poetical charm which constitute its
greatest attractions.

The third and highest category comprises the naturalists, this
name being here taken in its proper sense. Of these it would be
invidious to say that there are not many ; but the great shining
lights — the Linnes and Darwins — unhappily occur only at the rate
of two or three in a century, or still more rarely. The aims and
functions of the naturalist are immeasurably beside and beyond
those of the two classes just mentioned. He may be compared to
the architect who plans and directs the building of an edifice ; the
collector brings the stones, and the systematist, who serves tables,
is the clerk of the works. The naturalist, then, begins where the
others leave offj he accepts the results of his colleagues as the
foundation and materials of a higher superstructure, reserving to
himself the right of judging, adopting, or rejecting, the vast
accumulation of facts. He is not necessarily the possessor of large
or well-ordered collections ; in fact he is more disposed to dissect
specimens than to preserve them. He is not the slave of any par-
ticular kind of classification, knowing that most of the existing
systems are houses of cards, liable to fall flat at a breath, or elaborate
cobwebs which any bouncing wasp can disorganize in a moment.
His principal attention is most likely given to his register of ob-
servations, filled with real treasures, although inappreciable to the
public mind until some results are forthcoming, which (as in the
case of Darwin) at once command the admiration of all, with full
recognition of their wisdom and usefulness.

It is worth while to turn aside for a moment, just to illustrate the
kind of results referred to, of which I do not hesitate to assert the

By the Rev. T. A. Marshall. 55

wisdom and the usefulness. It will be enough to prove a case for
usefulness, when wisdom follows naturally ; since no one will deny
that it is wise to seek whatever is useful. Without entering far
into an inexhaustible subject, which has long ago filled volumes, I
will take a single department of the science, now called economic
entomology. This has to do with the injuries and benefits which
the human race receives from the race of insects. These creatures,
however weak individually, constitute collectively one of the great
powers of Nature, which man is obliged to respect ; he must either
learn to control it, or he must take refuge in flight. It is hardly
too much to say that we hold our place on sufferance ; our presence
is tolerated. It is within the resources of insect power to render
any given country uninhabitable ; to break the staff of bread in that
country ; to realise the terrors of Egypt ; to spread death among
flocks and herds ; to rot the forest trees, and blight the produce of
the garden, together with the hopes of the farmer. I must not go
into details, but anyone will readily recall accounts of the ravages
of many species of locust (no traveller's tales, as is often supposed) ;
the cattle-destroying tzetze ; the Colorado beetle, which has already
sent out spies to view the British Islands ; the Phylloxera vastatrix,
which has a price of £25,000 set upon its head by the Australian
Governments, and 300,000 fr. by that of the French Republic. The
bleak and watery climate of Great Britain might be supposed to
offer a substantial check to the destructive forces of insects ; and to
some extent this is the case: yet insects have ruined many an
English family. Our cereals, turnips, hops, and fruit trees, are all
at their mercy, and the partial failures that occur annually shew what
ravages, under unfavourable circumstances, are conceivable. We
have also innumerable enemies of minor importance, who, if unable
to ruin our fortunes, attack our persons, invade our dwellings,
plunder our larders, and render domestic life, in some countries, a
perpetual skirmish. It is not my intention, however, to make a
catalogue of plagues; a brief allusion to them is enough to shew
the necessity of organised resistance, with whatever of labour, ob-
servation, and experiment may be required to render it efficacious.
On the other hand the advantages which men derive from insects

56 On the Study of Entomology} \

are hardly less numerous than the injuries. Honey, silk, cochineal,
ale, and blisters, are familiar examples of direct benefits. The
indirect are less easily recognised, but not the less substantial. Like
all classes of the animal kingdom, insects are divisible into the
devourers and the devoured. The voracious hordes that live at the
expense of human industry are themselves the victims of a host of
carnivorous foes and parasites, controlling their increase, and miti-
gating their ravages. An inestimable amount of benefit is received
by mankind from this source. The intricate adjustments which
thus determine the balance of Nature, are largely dependent upon
insects. And all interference on our part, by extermination or
otherwise, if conducted without knowledge, is just as likely to do
harm as good. Anyone can see that the destruction of spiders
means the increase of flies : and that when a farmer ignorantly sets
traps for moles, the wire-worms are likely to enjoy peace and plenty.
There was a time when the Kentish hop-growers, seeing millions
of lady-birds on their hops, waged war upon them, under the idea
that they were the cause of the hop-blight. The teachings of ento-
mology have long since shewn them that they were killing their best
friends ; that the Coccinella is carnivorous, and preys upon the Aphis,
the real source of mischief. But I am digressing, though perhaps
not unreasonably, inasmuch as having mentioned the usefulness of
entomology, I was bound to shew some warrant for the assumption.

With all the subjects above mentioned, and an infinity of collateral
matters, the naturalist must be conversant ; keeping steadily in
view the advancement and diffusion of knowledge, for the benefit
of mankind. It is for this that he investigates and registers the
phenomena of the world, seeking general principles from the
structure, economy, and mutual relations of living creatures, which
he applies to the elucidation of the obscure problems of biology and
the intricacies of the great scheme of Nature. The character of
the man who is fitted for such pursuits is no common one. He
must be humble and patient, free from the vulgarity of prejudice,
and tolerant of the prejudices of others ; reverent^ but not super-
stitious ; indefatigable in his work, knowing that success means an
immense capacity for details ; not devoted to the idol of beauty,

By the Rev. T. A. Marshall.

57

looking with an equal eye upon the scorpion and the bird of para-
dise ; not devoted to the idol of size, the mite should be to him as
the rhinoceros; having a solemn sense of the dignity of truth,
remembering that a teacher who speaks inaccurately is like the false
prophet out of whose mouth came frogs. For his personal qualities,
he should be hardy and abstemious, ready to face danger and forego
luxury ; a lover of travel, of the sea and its wonderful sights, of the
mountains and deserts; courteous to strangers, skilful to extract know-
ledge from the rude and ignorant, and to conciliate savages. To
his literary attainments no bounds can be set ; for in these days the
interdependence of the sciences is so thorough that it is no longer
possible to pursue one successfully without a knowledge of many.
Not to be too diffuse, let us take the entomological naturalist as a
type of his class. The attainments necessary for him are a good
answer to the wondering questions of those who cannot conceive
how such a study as entomology can involve serious efforts. In
the first place the student of entomology finds himself face to face
with a literature about equal to that of the classics. He can never
hope to attain a thorough acquaintance with more than one depart-
ment, which he must choose for himself ; for the rest he requires a
general knowledge, enough to enable him upon occasion to refer to
sources of information exterior to his own subject. He will soon
notice that the books he consults, and especially those of older date^
are not free from errors : these it will be his business to avoid and
correct. He must be possessed of a fair knowledge of botany,,
chemistry, meteorology, agriculture, physical geography, and, in
fact, of as many ologies as possible. His proficiency in each, with-
out amounting to that of a specialist, should at least be rather above
the average found in educated men. A good knowledge of languages
is an absolute necessity. The two classical languages are a matter
of course. The tongues of modern Europe in which entomological
literature lies enshrined, are German, English, French, Italian,
Butch, Spanish, Greek, Russian, and Swedish. But since no
scholar can be simultaneously possessed of all these, it has been
agreed on all hands that writers, whose vernacular is at all out of the
way, shall be bound to translate their works, or have them translated,

58

On the Study of "Entomology .

into one of the great European languages, German, English,
French, Italian, or Spanish ; these, therefore, may be regarded as
the limits to which the modest requirements of the entomologist
may be restricted; while practically, and in the majority of cases,
he will find himself able to work well upon Latin, English, French,
and German. A knowledge of the microscope, and a considerable
tincture of optics, should not be forgotten. And we may finish the
list of requirements with the necessary art of drawing and painting
with effect and accuracy. The above sketch seems to shew that it
is impossible for any man to unite in his single person accomplish-
ments so numerous and varied. Certain it is that the best of us
will be found wanting in many, or even the chief part of these
qualifications ; but a true love of science will always find means to
supply defects and to turn difficulties. Entomologists are a united
brotherhood : the powers of each are at the service of all ; union is
strength, and the actual force exerted is the resultant ol the com-
bined efforts of the whole society. The reader is now requested to
compare the portrait of the ideal entomological naturalist with the
existing examples of those who trifle about the precincts of the
great edifice without the courage to enter. Entomology is a serious
science, and should be studied seriously; already it comprises
amongst its votaries a large number of distinguished men, and not
a few women, of all civilized nations, banded together for objects of
recognised importance, the influence of which is widely felt and
receives daily extension. I am so far from thinking that any
remarks here made can have a discouraging tendency, or deter
through the difficulties presented, that I have chosen this course
deliberately ; I have a strong belief that, if these lines are read at
all, they will be read by those to whom difficulty is an attraction,
and the desire to promote worthy objects a passion. These are the
minds whose attention I have endeavoured to invite towards a
subject apparently untouched by members of this society ; but
which is certainly a needful complement to their other labours, and
indispensable to the physical knowledge of this large county.
Nunton,

April 21st, 1886.

59

dmik tcr i|e JSwtisjj »nfo Jonran Jttttqmtws of
% gefr. |. & sum, »•!•

Second Edition. Published by the Wiltshire Archaeological
Society, 1885.

Reviewed by Rev. R. C. Clutterbuce, Rector of Knight's Enhani, Andover.

|g^jHE Wiltshire Archaeological Society is to be congratulated
SStf on ^eing ^ne channel through which the result of Mr
Smith's thirty years of learned research and patient investigation
have been given to the reading public : the first edition, published
by the Marlborough College Natural History Society, having been
in great part consumed by fire, so that not even all the original
subscribers could obtain a copy. The volume before us only professes
to deal with the antiquities of the British and Roman periods in
forty-two parishes comprehended in a hundred square miles of the
North Wiltshire Downs : but within the limits the author has thus
set himself he has completely exhausted his subject. The book is
touchingly dedicated " To my wife, the constant companion for the
last thirty years, of my rambles on horseback over the Wiltshire
Downs " — and its plan, as well as the object of the investigations
described in it, will be best given in Mr. Smith's own words : —

"In 1852, seeing the downs around me becoming broken up, and many of the
barrows fast disappearing under the plough, I began to map down such districts
as were newly brought under cultivation, and so keep a record of such of the
mutilated earthworks as were still recognisable. Then, as my material increased}
I projected a map on a large scale of the district surrounding Abury ; and taking
the one-inch ordnance map as my guide, I enlarged it to six inches linear measure
or thirty- six square inches, to the mile, every such square mile being distinctly
measured off, lettered and numbered, and on this I began to mark, as accurately
as I could, all the barrows, camps, dykes, roads, cromlechs, stone circles, cattle

60 Guide to Ike British and Roman Antiquities of the North

pens, or other enclosures, and any other earth or stone works, and all other an-
tiquities which this portion of the downs might possess. . . . The map
professes to deal only with the table-land of the downs, and to ignore the sur-
rounding valleys altogether. It does not pretend to be a modern topographical,
so much as an arckceological map, the main object of which is to define as near
as may be the exact spot of the several antiquities with which it has to deal."

We are quite prepared to believe in the intense enjoyment the
author tells us he found in his daily rides " athwart and askwy " on
the area of his investigations ; for nothing" less than an interest
amounting to a " second nature" could have sustained such patient
and minute research.

The map, however, as Mr. Smith remarks, would have been de-
prived of a chief part of its merit had it not been accompanied by a
key, in which every antiquity of the British and Roman period is
designated with a letter which indicates its exact position.

In an introduction Mr. Smith condenses an immense fund of in-
formation on the various classes of antiquities noted in the subsequent
pages. He advocates the theory that the circle at Abury was
a temple, and in this, as on some other points, is at issue with
Fergusson, from whom he differs in opinion as to the age of the
Wiltshire monuments. When speaking of the barrows of that part
of the county he points out that the common mode of sepulture was
simple interment on the open down, whereas the cromlechs and 1
barrows mark the tombs of the mighty dead ; and he aptly compares
burial under a barrow within view of the great sanctuary of Abury
to burials of the eminent of our time in Westminster Abbey. Fol-
lowing Dr. Thurnam, he divides the barrows into two classes, long
and round — the former the work of the pre-metallic period when
metal was unknown, or so scarce as to be practically unemployed ;
the latter belonging to the bronze period. In the long barrows of
the Wiltshire downs the contracted position of the corpse was
general. In the round barrows the bodies, whether burned or not,
were more commonly enclosed in a cist. The objects found in these
early graves are thoroughly representative of those usually discovered
in similar positions, and form the subjects of illustrations, as, e.g.,
incense cups, arrow heads, stone breast-plates, celts, bone tweezers,
&c. The personal ornaments, however, found in the North Wilts

Wiltshire Downs in a Hundred Square Miles round Abury. 61

barrows are but few in number and insignificant in value, wbich
seems to indicate a very high antiquity. The district illustrated in
Mr. Smith's work affords several examples of Early British camps :
the difficult problem as to how these camps were supplied with
water receives much illustration from details given of the con-
struction of dew-ponds. The downs, as distinguished from the
valleys, were the natural position for the dwellings of the early
tribes, and this tract of country so fully investigated yields many
examples of pit-dwellings. The famous Wansdyke, too, gives a
characteristic sample of those stupendous earthworks, which must
have been made at the cost of almost incalculable labour. Earth-
works of another class which Mr. Smith considers to be cattle-pens
are numerous, as are the terraces or lynchets on the sides of the
hills. The sarsen stones, of which the stone-works of the Early
Britons in North Wilts are constructed, exist in countless thousands
in this district, and their positions are indicated on the map. Their
geological characteristics are easily summed up as " masses of sand
concreted together by a silicious cement, left scattered over the
ground when the lower portions of the stratum were washed away,"
but the question as to how such vast masses as form the trilithons
of Stonehenge were moved and set up is not so quickly answered.
Mr. Smith does not think it necessary to attribute to the Early
British masons any extraordinary mechanical knowledge, remembering
how much can be effected by sheer force of numbers, aided by such
simple mechanical contrivances as the roller, the lever, and the wedge.

It is somewhat remarkable that North Wilts possesses very few
relics of the Romans. The only tangible evidences of undoubted
Roman work within the area treated of are the fragments of two
Roman roads.

No one is more competent to write of the early inhabitants of
this island than Mr, Smith, and as, in the district he is dealing with,
almost all classes of primaeval remains are represented, we have in
this volume a complete and most valuable digest of all that is known
on the subject. He calls it a very matter-of-fact volume, and so
indeed it is; but the facts are marshalled with such admirable
clearness, and every statement and quotation verified by full and

62

Confirmation of the Guild of the Holy Ghost,

complete reference to the immense number of hooks he lias consulted,
that this cannot fail to take its place among our standard works of
reference.

But perhaps, after all, the great feature of the book is the pains-
taking effort to elucidate the nomenclature of the district, and obtain
what historical evidence can be had from the place-names. Every
section of the map is dealt with in detail, all noteworthy place-names
being fully discussed : and thus, what may be termed the physical
archaeology of this hundred square miles, is complete.

There is an admirable index, and an appendix gives the altitudes
of the bench marks. We rise from a perusal of this book with a
deep sense of obligation to its author, and a feeling of satisfaction
that in these days of accurate historical research another book has
been produced worthy to take its place beside those for which
Wiltshire is already so distinguished. Would that other counties
were so fortunate.

Confirmation of % (Mfo of % polg 6]jo$,
at fjSasittgstofa, frg Cjjarte % Jfmst

By W. W. Ravenhill, Recorder of Andover.

iiOME interest still lingers about that picturesque pile of ruins,
which meets the traveller's eye as he passes Basingstoke
Station, known as the Chapel of the Holy Ghost, though the
culture and perhaps spirit of the Guild which built it may have
passed to the modern u Queen's Free School " of that neighbour-
hood.

All who were fortunate enough to be of the Society's party when
" The Vine" and Silchester were visited (1883) will recollect this,
the final object of our excursions.

A short document in the Record Office, which appears not to have
been previously noticed, has recently come into my hands, and adds
to our knowledge of the events connected with the place.

at Basingstoke, by Charles the First.

63

Of its general history various editions of Camden's Britannia
have told us that both Free Chapel and Guild were founded by
William Lord Sandes 1 (Lord Chamberlain and Privy Councillor to
Henry VIII) and Bishop Fox, in 1525, pursuant to royal license.
" The Guild " was established for the promotion " of works of piety,
religion, and charity/'' and as a firstfruit built this chapel and a school,
where a priest was appointed to officiate and teach.

As to the architectural beauties of the chapel an opinion may
be formed from its ruins, and no doubt it was worthy of some
admiration, iC elegantly finished in the style of the florid Gothic
degenerating into Greek." Much was thought by Mr. Camden
of the paintings within it. Upon the roof " the history of the
prophets, apostles, and disciples of Christ is very curiously described,
with their several pictures." 4

Lord Sandes,3 the founder, was buried here in 1542, though there
is no trace now of his grave, or indeed of himself, beyond his
arms coupled with those of his wife, Margery Bray— the heiress
of the Brays— cut in the wall of the hexagonal tower at the south-
west corner of the building.

Soon after William Lord Sandes death the Guild appears to have
entered troubled waters, and was dissolved either in the thirty-seventh
year of Henry the Eighth's or early in Edward the Sixth's reign.

But it was revived in 1556 (third and fourth years of Philip and
Mary) and again became moribund under James the First.

1 Variously spelt— Sands, Sandes, and Sandys.
2 Gibson's "Camden," 1722.

3 There is amongst the papers of Thurloe, Cromwell's Secretary, vol. hi., p. 647,
the following deposition relating to the Lord Sandes of 1654—1655, which would
place the latter amongst the followers of Saint Hubert :—

"Wm Houston (Wroughton) the elder of Willcott in the County of Wilts confesseth, that
twice or thrice he was in company with Major Clarke, Mr. Bowles, and others of the late Risers
(the Rising in the West, A D. 1655), this last winter at hunting near Everlie, and dined with them
at the said Everlie after their sport ended. He saith further, he had a son engaged in the re-
bellion, as also that he sold the Lord Sandys at Ludgershall the day the rising was at Sarum (12th
March, 1655) four horses of a good price, and went thither the same day on purpose to hunt with the
said Lord Sandes. He denieth that he met on purpose with the said Clarke, Bowles &c, to hunt
(it had been prohibited by O rder in Council), but accidentally as he was airing his horse upon the

d°» This acknowledgment was made by the above-mentioned Mr. Houghton unto me upon the 14th
of July, 1655, and upon enquiry after him I find him to be a reputed Cavalier and to have been
formerly questioned by Major Boteler. (( Holton "

64 Confirmation of the Guild of the Holy Ghost.

To what extent this happened is not clear, but the following
document, which is amongst "the dockets'''' or summaries of the
transactions of the Privy Council, A D. 1640, tell us of its restoration
to some degree of health under Charles the First.

I print only enough of the docket to shew the meaning of the
entry that relates to this chapel, it is written on a sheet of white
paper, of which the writing occupies three sides :—

" Dockets.
«'29 die April 1640.

" The four usuall warrants to the Exchequer for the charges of redd cloth
Spangles Embrodery of Coates for his Mats Guards and other his Mats and the
Queene's servants for this 16th yeare of his Mate Raigne subscd by the Gierke of
the Exchequer ; procured by Mr. Secretary Windebank.

" Three usual warrants.

" A warrant to the Lord Tresr and other officers of the Exchequer about the
accompt of James Dripper Esq.

" A grant by his Majesty to convert the impropriate Rectory of Cirencester
into a Rectory p resent ative with cure of souls.

" Like grant, Haverfordwest, &c.

^ ^ w ^ ^

" A confirmation to the Alderman and Wardens of the fPraternity called the
Holy Ghost neere Basingstoke in the County of Southton and their Successors of
certaine messuages, lands, and tents in Basingstoke to the intent that they should
wth the Revenues and pfitts thereof find out one fitt and able priest to celebrate
divine service in the Chappell called Holy Ghost Chappell and to keepe a schoole
and teach and instruct the children and youth of the said Toune as it was graunted
unto them by K Philip and Q Mary 24 ifebr in the third and fourth yeares of
their Raigne wth this further use now That wth the Revenues thereof they may
also repayre the chappell and schoole house. Subscd for ut supra upon signification
pf his Mats pleasure by Sr Sidney Mountague ; procurd ut Supra.

" Waewicz."

The name " Warwick " at the end of the docket, is that of the
newly-appointed1 (1640) Privy Councillor, Robert Rich, Earl of
W arwick, and " the confirmation " of the Guild and the restoration
of the Chapel would not, in the times then soon to come, he for^-
gotten by that nobleman — whom we hear of some years later as the
jovial lover of schismatics — the grandfather of Frances Cromwell's
husband — the friend of" My Lord Protector. "

No doubt the lead from the roof of the Chapel was very useful at
the siege of Basing" House !

1 Clarendon's History.

65

escrigtiait of t\t %enittg of » §titis|
jtoelling=1pit at §ecIij}antjjton:.

By Heney Cunnington.

June 13th, 1884, I had the pleasure of opening an ex-
ceedingly interesting British dwelling-pit, on the farm
occupied by Mr. Wentworth, at Beckhampton.

The pit is situated almost on the top of the hill, in the middle of
the trackway leading from Mr. Wentworth' s house to his farm-
buildings on the down.

The curiosity of those who travelled on the road has often been
excited by the peculiarly hollow sound occasioned by either riding
or driving over the spot.

This dwelling was found to consist of two circular pits sunk in
the clear firm chalk, the one adjoining and intersecting the other.
The depth of the large pit is 5ft. Sin. ; the diameter 5ft.
The depth of the smaller one is 4ft. Sin., and about 4ft. in
diameter, being a foot less deep than the other.

The smaller pit forms a seat on which the occupant of the dwelling
could conveniently sit, as in a chair, while superintending the cooking
or other domestic operations.

Several objects of antiquarian interest were found in this excava-
tion. Amongst them may be mentioned a curious bone implement
or ornament ; a well-shaped spindle whorl, cut out of chalk ; a chalk
loom weight ; two earthen cooking vessels, which appeared to have
been much used. Both of these were broken, but, as most of the
pieces of one have been found, it has been sufficiently restored to
show its size and shape, &c.

Besides these were the following articles, showing that the oc-
cupation had been of comparatively recent date : — a fragment of
pseudo-Samian ware, several pieces of Roman pottery, and iron
nails, &c.

The bones of animals were only those of sheep, ox, and rabbit.

VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVII. P

66

Description of the Opening of a

Amongst the ashes under the earthen cooking1 vessels there were
six singular egg-shaped nodules of burnt clay, about an inch-and-
a-half long, probably used as sling-stones. Mr J. Evans has
kindly presented to the museum one of the sling-stones now in use
among the inhabitants of New Caledonia. It is made of steatite,
or soap-stone, and admirably illustrates the burnt clay missiles
found in the dwelling-pit at Beckhampton. Similar sling-stones
are still in use among many savage nations, and can, by the practised
hand, be thrown with great precision, as mentioned in Judges,
chap, xx., verse 16: — "Among the tribe of Benjamin there were
seven hundred chosen men, left-handed; every one could sling stones
at an hair breadth, and not miss.-'''

Mr. Cunnington, in page 84 of " Ancient Wiltshire/' says : —
" We have undoubted proof from history and from existing remains,
that the earliest habitations were pits or slight excavations in the
ground, covered and protected from the inclemencies of the weather
by boughs of trees or sods of turf. The high grounds were pointed
out by Nature as the fittest for these early settlements, being less
encumbered with wood, and affording a better pasture for the nu-
merous flocks and herds from which the erratic tribes of the first
colonists drew their means of subsistence; but after the conquest of
our island by the Romans, when, by means of their enlightened
knowledge, society became more civilized, the Britons began to
quit the elevated ridge of chalk hills, and seek more sheltered and
desirable situations. At first we find them removed into the sandy
vales immediately bordering on the chalk hills. At a later period,
when the improved state of society under the Romans insured them
security, the valleys were cleared of wood, and towns and villages
were erected in the plains, near rivers, which, after the departure of
the Romans, became the towns of the Saxons. But a considerable
period must have elapsed before these important changes took
place ; for on our bleakest hills we find the luxuries of the Romans
introduced into the British settlements, flues, hypocausts, stuccoed
and painted vases, &c, &c. Yet not a single inscription has ever
yet been discovered, in any one of the British dwellings that might
throw some positive light upon the era in which they flourished,

British Dwelling -Pit at Beckhampton.

67

or were deserted for a more temperate and less exposed climate."

In a field near Oxford there is an assemblage of many dwelling-
pits of exactly the same size and shape as the one at Beckhampton,
some of them single round holes, and others double and intersecting ;
together forming a large British village.

I have no doubt there are many more of these pits on Mr.
Wentworth's down. His shepherd informs me that he can point
out many places where the same hollow sound is produced by riding
or driving over the ground as that which indicated the spot where
the present dwelling was found.

These will, I hope, be shortly explored by some of the members
of our Wiltshire Society, and I have little doubt that they will be
rewarded by some of the richest finds that have been discovered for
many years.

Dr. Stevens, of Reading, has kindly sent me the particulars of
some similar pits, opened by him near Hurstbourn, Hants.

Although the articles found in these pits were very similar to
those at Beckhampton, the pits were probably constructed by quite
another tribe of people, as they differ entirely in their formation
from the sharp round form of the Beckhampton dwelling.

I quote the following description, given by Dr. Stevens, of these
pits: — u The number found was six, but these were evidently only
a portion of a considerable village. These pits were of various
diameters, but about 4ft. deep ; they were all entered by an alley,
or sloping passage, graduating downwards from the level of the
native soil into the pits ; the alley about the same length as the
diameter of the pit, and averaging about 13ft.

" One of these pits contained the remains of bones of ox, deer(cervas
elephas), sheep, dog, and rabbit; a quantity of calcined stones,,
probably pot-boilers ; rude Romano-British pottery ; a bodkin of
bone ; a bone knife ; flint flakes ; and sandstone grain rubber. In
another pit, which we thoroughly investigated, w as found a sand-
stone grain rubber, and around the fireplace, which was of flint
stones, and in the centre, bruising stones ormullers; also pot boilers ;
bone needle with eyelet; bone bodkin; marrow scoop; a chalk
whorl; a whetstone; also flint flakes and cores."

68 Ancient Stone-Work on Langley Burrell Common.

At Highfield, near Salisbury, are some singularly-shaped dwellings
in drift gravel, resting on chalk, models of which are in the County
Museum j they are described in " Flint Chips/' by E. T. Stevens
(page 57).

The antiquities from the Beckhampton dwelling-pit are placed in
the County Museum, and form an interesting group.

Common/

: ANGLE Y BURRELL lies north of Chippenham, some
portion of that town being contained within the area of
trnTparish. A mile from Chippenham the high road runs over a
common of eighty acres (now enclosed), which occupies the centre
of a table-land. The rectory house stands on the eastern edge of
the common, and is connected with the high road by a drive
running along a raised terrace. A large stone, marked a on Eig. 1,
standing just above the turf, projected an inch or two into the drive.
It had attracted notice for many years, and had provoked many
questions, but no one knew anything about it. Old men remem-
bered another stone, I. Lest an accident might happen by a wheel
striking upon the stone a, on a dark night, it was thought prudent
to remove it. In January, 1886, an attempt was made to raise it.
Then followed the discovery that, in connection with it wTere other
stones, six or seven deep, set up in parallel vertical courses, which
were carried in irregular curves north and south, rounding outwards
and downwards to a depth of 2ft. Further examination showed
that the general form of the whole work was that of an imperfect
ellipse, from 2ft. to 3ft. broad, the eastern half being much more
regular in its curvation, and the stones laid in better order than on I

1 The Committee desires to acknowledge its obligation to the Rev. C. Clarke,
for the illustrations which accompany this paper. [Ed.]

)

Section. %ul fi&tt -rnAAAud AA.^^k foCa^ ,

Ancient Stone-Work on Langley Burr ell Common. 69

the west. But on the east the ellipse was broken, and the broad
course of vertical layers curved to a point, and then passed off into
a line of single stones for about 200 yards. It was thought that a
parallel line of single stones would be found on the south side, but
none remain in situ, and they were probably broken up in making
the road, which ran right through the work. The whole of the
internal area is pitched with small stones. The general direction
of the pitching is shown by arrows on the plate. The western are
of the circle (left blank on the plan) was buried under the drive,
but the road has now been diverted, and the courses of stones are
found to remain in position uninjured. The pitching has been
broken up along the line of the road ; where it remains, towards the
east, it is divided into three parallel oblong floors, slightly raised in
the middle, and separated from each other by narrow depressions
as shewn on the plan. The large stones are very hard, and of the
roughest character, and show no sign of any tooling whatever;
they probably came from an old quarry in Kington St. Michael, or
Leigh Delamere, and are of the Forest Marble formation, full of
fossils. The ground around has been probed and tested in every
direction, but no other stones have been detected.

No tradition respecting this work exists in the parish or neigh-
bourhood, nor do any of the old people ever remember seeing any
other stones than those at a and b. Yet a century ago all the upper
ranges of the stones must have been above the level of the common.

o

The section at A A shows that, when disinterred, the upper stones
were covered with only 6in. of earth, while the highest stone was
not hidden at all.

Darwin calculates that in England the worms raise the surface of
the ground one inch in ten years, more or less, according to the soil.
On an acre of land suitable for worm-work ten tons of earth pass
through their bodies, and are brought to the surface in one year.
There are twenty-six thousand eight hundred and eighty-three
worms in an acre on Langley Common, and they work about two
hundred days in a year. A field of scant herbage which, in 1841,
was thickly covered with flints of the size of a man's fist, in 1871,
was all compact turf with mould 2iin. thick— all the work of worms.

70 Ancient Stone- Work on Lang ley Burrell Common,

So it seems that in John Aubrey's time all the stone- work ought to
have been visible.

Some human bones have been found scattered here and there,
much broken and splintered. If there ever were an interment in
the centre of the internal area, the skeleton would have been broken
into when the drive was made. The presence of bones above ground
may favour the conjecture that the body was laid upon the pitching",
and a cairn or barrow raised over it. Some paved burial places
remain in Cornwall.

There was originally a circular plateau of earth enclosing the
stones, as appears in "Fig. II. ,1 where A is the work just now laid
open ; a great quantity of the soil has been removed, but the outline
remains. From the circumference of the plateau radiated five or
six terraces of earth, about 6ft. broad, like the spokes of a wheel,
with dykes on either side, and ran in right lines across the country.
One of these terraces is still perfect, a b, on Fig. II.; it is carried
for 120 yards in a continuous line, and diverges in an obtuse angle,
and, being broken by low ground and old earthworks, disappears for
100 yards, but is then taken up again and carried on through other
fields to c d e% The carriage drive to the rectory runs over another
terrace, g A. A third, A h, as also a fourth, A/; and a fifth, A M
were levelled by living men. The sixth, if it ever existed, cannot
be traced, but should have run south-east. These terraces are called
by the old people " The Paths" and were much higher in their
young days. They may have been " Sacra Vice" converging upon
one sacred centre, the sepulchral shrine of the chief of some
warrior tribe, in prehistoric ages.

The plans of reference, illustrative of this paper, were drawn by
the Rev. C. Clarke, Vicar of Langley Ftzurse, who also printed off
the plates, and has presented them to the Wilts Archseological
Society.

There are other ancient earthworks, mounds, and terraces on
different parts of the common, which require careful examination

J. J. D.

1 In the diagram of the points of the compass on this plate the position of the
letters E and W must be reversed.

71

Collections for a pistotg of jJeagtg.

By the Eev. H. K. Anketell (Vicar.)

|gJ*p,HIS is a small village, six miles north-east of Chippenham,
and five miles south of Malmesbury, It is divided into
Upper (or Over) Seagry and Lower Seagry. Lower Seagry is
that part which adjoins the Church, towards the eastern side of the
parish : Upper is towards the west, and joins Draycote. It is in the
hundred and deanery of South Malmesbury, union of Chippenham,
diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Population, about one hundred
and forty-nine; acreage, one thousand and thirty-three. Pastures
by the side of the river Avon, one hundred and forty-nine acres. The
present landowners are, Earl Cowley (including late the Earl of
fladnor's and Lady Holland's) Mr. Bayliffe and Mrs. Sevier.

The name has been, as is usual, variously spelled in old records,
viz. : — Segry, Segree, Segrey, Seagrey, Seagree, Segerie, Segre,
Segreth, Seagre. " Vulgo Segary," says John Aubrey, meaning
that in his day it was pronounced (as it often is still) as if spelled
Segry. The derivation of the word is rather perplexing. There is,
in the Department of Maire et Loire, in France, a place called
Segre ; but French names not being likely to be found for places in
North Wilts (except as family names, like Delamere, Tregoz, St.
Quintin, &c, appended to the old Saxon names, Leigh, Lydiard,
Stanton, &c.) another origin has been suggested more akin to the
names of neighbouring villages. The Saxon termination ey , or ea,
means tvater, and as Dauntsey is Daunt's-water (from some old
Saxon owner), so Seagry may have been Seager's-wTater (Seager is
still a family name in the neighbourhood) : but as there is no record
of any such ancient proprietor, we must fall back upon the Saxon
word " sceg" a sedge : in which case the name would signify, very
appropriately, sedgeivatsr, the Avon being full of sedge here.

In a grant of King Edgar's, A.D. 956,' of the then great manor

1 See Mr. J. Y. Akerman's paper on the possessions of Malmesbury Abbey,
in " Archaeologia," vol. xxxvii., p. 267,

72

Collections for a History of Seagry.

of Brokenborougb to the Abbey of Malmesbury, the boundary is
described as running past " Segmead/' which most likely represents
what is now called Seagry Meadow.

In another grant by King Ethelrcd, A.D. 982, 1 to the same
abbey, several names are given in describing the boundaries of
Rodbourne, which may still be identified at Seagry, as " Sceorte-
leye/' now Startley ; and " Fegeran- thorn " (white-thorn), now
corrupted into " Five- thorns Lane"; and " le Hethen buryels,"
whicb will be alluded to presently.

The village o£ Seagry was originally comprised in the ancient
hundred of Sterkele. At various times this name was spelt Sterkel,
Sterkele, Stercklei, and Steorch-leah, this latter being the oldest
mode, and was in use in Anglo-Saxon time, its signification being
the "young beasts' run." This hundred, together with two others,
was merged into that of Malmesbury, somewhere between the years
1540 and 1690.

Seagry is mentioned twice in Domesday Book, A.D. 1087. One
portion is thus described : —

"Durandus de Gloucester [he was Sheriff of Gloucester] himself holds Segbete.
Two Thanes held it in the time of King Edward [the Confessor] ; and they paid
geld for five hides. The land is four carucates. Of this there are in demesne
two hides, and there is one carucate : and there are three villans, and two
borders with three carucates. There are forty acres of meadow. It was worth
forty shillings, it is now worth fifty shillings.

" Two milites hold the manor of Durand. They who held it in the time of
King Edward could go whither they wished." *

The other is thus : —

" Drogo Fitz Ponz holds Segrie of the King. Wiflet held it in the time of
King Edward, and paid geld for five hides. The land is four carucates. Of this
there are in demesne two hides and there is one carucate : and there are five
villans and six bordars, and five coscets, with one carucate. There are two mills
paying twenty-two shillings and four pence ; and thirty acres of meadow. A
house in Malmesbury pays nine pence. It was worth sixty shillings ; it is now
worth seventy shillings." f

1 See Mr. J. Y. Akerman's paper on the possessions of Malmesbury Abbey,
in u Archseologia, vol. xxxvii., p. 268.

•Jones's Wilts Domesday, p. 97. The meaning of •« going whither they wished " is, that under
the Feudal s}'stem manors of a certain class were held under some chief lord. Some were hound
to a particular chief lord: Others might transfer their allegiance to any superior lord they
pleased, (See ditto, Introduction, p. xxvi.)

t Ditto, p. 119.

By the Rev. R. K. Anketell, Vicar. 73

These two estates, which seem to have been of nearly equal size,
may have been the origin o£ the two divisions into Upper and Lower
Seagry.

The names of the two " milites," or knights, who held the first-
mentioned part of the parish under Durand not being given, the
line of succession of owners breaks off. The other is continued.
Drogo or Dm Fitz Ponz was a noble Norman, son of Walter de
Ponz, and brother of Richard de Ponz, ancestor of the noble family
of Clifford. Another Walter, son of Richard, and nephew to Dm,
married the heiress of Clifford Castle, and their son, another Walter,
exchanged the name of Ponz for De Clifford.1

Drogo or Dm was very largely endowed with manors by the
Conqueror, especially in Devonshire. His family name, as Drew,
survives in Somersetshire at Stanton Drew : and in Wilts at Littleton
Drew. His estate at Seagry appears to have passed to the great
nephew, Walter, above-mentioned, who took the name of Clifford,
and whose effigy in full armour is now in the south transept of
Seagry Church. This Walter Clifford was the father of Fair
Rosamond.

In 1259 (44 Henry III.) we find a Roger de Burnivale (the name
of the lower part of the town of Malmesbury), holding at his death
lands in Seagry; and in 1275 (3 Edward L), and again in 1399,
Roger de Clifford owner of half a knight's fee (three hundred and
twenty acres), held under the Crown. One Simon de Segre sub-
tenant under Clifford.

Aubrey mentions a Lord Segrave as an owner, but gives no date
or authority. It may have been Nicholas, Lord Segrave, who died
about A.D. 1321. A few years later, in 1373, Seagry was held of
Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford; and in 1399 of Roger
Mortimer, Earl of March, by the Prior of Bradenstoke, Simon de
Segre, and Walter le Gisle.

The Clifford name disappears in 1369, with Roger, above-
mentioned ; but that of Drew revives. By Isabel, the daughter

1 See Burke's Extinct Peerage.

74 Collections for a History of Seagry.

and heiress of Thomas Drewe of Seagry, i some part of the lands
passed in marriage to John Mompcsson, of an old South Wilts
family. Mompesson was already an owner in the parish by descent
from the Godwyn and Bonham families. His wife, Isabel (Drewe),
restored the Church : and her effigy is now in the chancel, in a
good state of preservation. Their great grandson, Edward Mom-
pesson, died A.D. 1553, leaving four sisters co-heiresses, one of
whom married William Wayte, and it was by their daughter, Elizabeth
Wayte, that the manor came to Sir Richard Norton, of Rotherfield.
In 1648 Sir Richard Norton's grandson sold Seagry, and his estates
(formerly Mompesson's) were broken up amongst three purchasers —
1st, the Stratton family ; 2nd, Mr. Charles Bayliffe ; 3rd, Right
Hon. Henry Fox.

1. — Stratton's, now Seagry House. This is in Upper Seagry.
The farm, which the Stratton Family purchased from Sir Richard
Norton, consisted of a house and about two hundred and forty acres,
the Hyde, Wood-leases, North Field, Heath, Starch Field, &c.
About 1710 it was bought by Joseph Houlton, Esq., of Grittleton,
who added other small purchases from Nathaniel Godwyn, Jasper
Hibbard, and Mark Newth. The present house was built by his
son, Nathaniel Houlton, Esq., whose coat of arms is within a
triangular pediment in front, on a stone shield Houlton quartering
White. The last of that family who lived there was Captain,
afterwards Admiral, John Houlton, who died at Grittleton in 1791.
In 1785 he sold it to Sir James Tylney Long, of Draycote, from
whom it has descended to Earl Cowley. Successive tenant occupiers
have been Windsor, afterwards Lord Plymonth, the Rev. Jeremiah
Awdry, WTalter Long, Jun., Esq. (who married the heiress of the

1 This Thomas Drewe had married Emma, widow of Thomas Cary, of Kingsdon
Gary, Co. Somerset, By a deed, dated at Seagry in the year 1369 (43 Ed. III.)
Thomas Dru and Emma, his wife, grant to her late husband's brother certain
lands at Kingsdon which she held in dower. This deed is witnessed by John
Dauntesey, Edw. de Cerne, Peter Delamere, Kts., and others. On the two seals :
1, within a Gothic border a shield, ermine a wolf or dog statant. The legend,
" sigillvm thome dev." 2nd, within a richer Gothic border on a shield a
greyhound statant. Legend, "sigillvm emme dev." (Nichols's Collect. Top.
et Gen., YI. 359.)

By the Rev. E. K. Ankefell, Vicar. 75

Herberts, of Dolforgan, both of whom died in the same year, 184-7),
William Honey-wood, Esq., Capt., now Sir Thomas, Eraser Grove,
Bart., and Mr. Pierrepont, It is now rented by Captain Cotes, of
the 12th Regiment. The following are the names of the fields
attached to this house :— The Heath, Little Mead Plat, Oak Hill,
Little Oak Hill, Beech Tree Grove, Knapps, The Home Ground.

At the back of Seagry House are the Seagry Woods, celebrated
for their beauty, covered with a rich carpet of flowers in early spring
and summer, the tints of whose trees are unsurpassed in autumn,
and through whose dells the horn of the Beaufort Hunt echoes in
winter. In the year 1700 Robert Hollis built a large brick house
in Upper Seagry, which now belongs to his great grandson, William
Teagle, of Little Somerford. Attached to this house are two fields*
The Long Close and Homestead ; it is rented by Meredith Brown,
Esq , of Park Street, Grosvenor Square, London. Mr. Teagle is
also the owner of some cottage property in the parish, situated in
Hen Lane. Upper Seagry is divided by a stream known as Jordan's
Gutter, which crosses the Chippenham Road a little above the school,
separates the vicarage from the churchyard, and empties itself into
the Avon. A little above this stream, and in Upper Seagry, is the
house occupied for many years by the Vines family, one of whom —
the late Mr. William Vines — took much interest in the history of
his native parish ; he had the old registers bound and interleaved,
and left several notes, which, through the kindness of his relative,
Mrs. Sampson, I have been able to make use of in compiling this
history. The house is now occupied by Mrs. Sampson. The fields
attached to this house are " The Provinces.'"

2. — BaylihVs purchases. Manor Farm, now rented from the ex-
ecutors of the late John Searle Bayliffe, consists of one hundred and
sixty acres. This property was bought by Henry Bayliffe, Esq.,
of Monkton, Chippenham, from Sir Hichard Norton, A.D. 1618. 1
There is an ancient house, built by the Bayliffes, but it has been
considerably modernised, and few of the ancient features remain

1 The first member of this family who settled here was Mr. Charles Bayliffe,
who died 1737.

76

Collections for a History of tieagry.

The land attached to this farm is chiefly pasture. The following
are the names of the fields : — Stoney Burgess, Hungerdown
Ground, Hungerdown Meadow, Older Ground, Bracken Hill, New
Leaze, Sturrnage, Long* Close, Great Close, Five Thorns, Farmer's
Close, Grass Hyde, Ploughs Hyde.

Passing over Jordan's Gutter and down the road, past the
school, we come on the left to a farm now rented from the executors
of the late John Searle BaylifFe by T. Y. Candy, and formerly
occupied by the Salters, Sealys, Knights and Fray lings. This farm,
as now arranged, contains thirty acres of grass land : — Grammar's
Close, Ten Acres, Beard's Ground.

Opposite this farm is an old house falling into ruins, the property
of Mrs. Sevier, of Maisemore Lodge, Gloucester. On the chimney
outside are rudely cut the initials " J.H." and the date 1632. John
Hibbert resided in the parish at that time, and from the arrange-
ment of the house it evidently was once a substantial farm-house.
It is now converted into two cottages, one being used as the post
office, the other as a reading room.

3. — Fox's purchase. A few yards further down the road we
reach an ancient farm-house, evidently four hundred years old, now
occupied by "William Hay ward, a descendant of the Sealys and
Benjamins, who rented the farm for over two hundred years.
This farm I believe to have been part of Mr. Fox's purchase, and
to have passed to Lord Holland, who sold it with the rest of his
estate in this parish to Earl Cowley. It consists of an ancient
house, out-offices and two hundred acres, a considerable portion
being arable. The following are the names of the fields : — Old
Maise, Broad Close, Five Acres, Brimble, Lounces Leazes, Little
North Field, Great North Field, Little Mead Plat, Great Sand
Furlong, Vines Ground, Great Bickmead, Part of Adye's, Great
Copse Thorn, Little Copse Thorn, Acre, Field Ground, Wet Land,
Field Grounds, Shadwell Ham, Little Shadwell, Great Linch, Little
Linch, Mead Hill, Field Ground, The Meadow.

Church Farm, formerlybelonging to Bradenstoke Priory. Crossing
Jordan's Gutter again, through the sluice gate, we come to Church
Farm, known in the leases as Stratton's. This farm is approached

By the Eev. E. K. AnJcelell, Vicar. 77

by an ancient gateway with a turret. It was a grange farm of the
Prior of Bradenstoke.

The Priory of Bradenstoke held considerable property in the
village, which it received under sundry bequests. In the Cotton
MSS. and Malmesbury Chartulary are some deeds relating to these,
mostly undated, but between Henry I. and Henry III. They were
signed at Gloucester in the 3rd year of Henry III.

Elyas Burel, of Segre, " for my salvation and the salvation of all my rela-
tives," gives all the land which he had in the towns of Segre, lower and upper
" as in crofts and fields, meadows and hams, and in all other places within and
without the aforesaid vills (except my messuage, which I keep for the use of
myself and my heirs or assigns) " unto the Church of the blessed Mary of
Bradenstoke, and to the canons there serving God.

The next relate to lands anciently known as " Segre Cockerells."

John de Cokerel gives also all his demesne in the town of Segre upper to the
same Church.

2nd Henry III., 1218, Alice Cokerel, widow of Walter de Sireburn, is recorded
to have given to William Chambers five virgates of land, with appurtenances, in
Segre, with Felicia her daughter in marriage, also that the said William was
charged with the murder of Simon de Nether Segre, and " hath made flight,
and that the King claimed the land in forfeiture. As the result of a lawsuit
decided at Westminster in 1224, the Prior of Bradenstoke, in consideration of
lands received is required to pay to the said Felicia half a mark of silver yearly,
all her life, the first moiety at the feast of S. Michael, and the other moiety at
Easter. It is added, " And moreover, ths same Prior hath given to her, Felicia,
ten shillings sterling."

A charter of W. de Cokerell gives one acre of meadow "between the meadows
of my hinds by Dodeford," in Seagre, to the same Church. John Russel, of
Seagre, gives the canons a right of free way and chase upon his land for " ten
pounds of silver in hand." The receipt of John Russel bears the date 12th year,
Edward II., 1318-9.

"Segre Earls/'

[Hen I.] Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and Constable
of England, confirms by charter all the gifts of land which the Canons of
Bradenstoke had received in Seagry. There is a release by the same earl relating
to the lands specified in the previous charter. Witnesses. Sir Geoffrey, Abbot
of Malmesbury, Milo de Morlee my steward. Philip de Cerne, John de Estone,
Kts., Simon de Segre, John Esturmy, William Baylemund, Robert de Hales,
my clerk, the maker of this writing.

In another document, date about 1188, Alexander de Segre grants the Church

78

Collections for a History of Seagry.

of Segre," with all tilings belonging to the same," to the Church at Bradenstoke.
His son, Simon de Segre, confirms tins gift, as docs likewise W. de Clifford.
Later, Master T. de Cobluun, official of the Lord Bishop of Salisbury, vests the
Church and appurtenances in the Vicar of Segre. who covenants to pay to the
Prior of Bradenstoke forty shillings yearly. Letters patent are extant in which
Robert, Archdeacon of Wiltshire, and William, Dean of Malinesbury, upon the
induction of a Trior, confirm the foregoing gifts and payment in connection
with Segre Church.

On the gable of a building, now a bam, near the Church, is a
small round chimney with open sides. Within is a large fireplace.
Large rooms of this kind, with fireplaces, (Jetached from the rest of the
buildings, are sometimes met with at or near old monastic premises.
Their use is not quite evident. There was never any endowed
nunnery or house of monks at Seagry. This farm was purchased in
1648 by the Hon. Henry Fox. It then came to Lord Holland, who
sold it some ten years ago to Earl Cowley. In 1700 Robert Stratton
pulled down the old house and built the present one. Both Aubrey
and Britton are in error when they say " this was the manor house,
and sometimes used as a convent/''1 During the last two hundred
years the farm has been rented by the Strattons, Baileys, Beaks, and
Godwins. The present tenant, John Godwin, holds it from Earl
Cowley. The following are the names of the fields attached to this
farm, which, as now arranged, consists of about two hundred acres : —
The Acre, Little Smell-Mash, Great Smell-Mash, Seven Acres,
The Heath, Great "North Eield, Little North Field, Corolees, Close,
The Grove, The Moors, The Orchard, Arch Furland, New Lees, Un-
close, Gassen Piece, Little Pickmead, Field Ground, The Meadow.

The ancient mill which is mentioned in Domesday is situated on
the banks of the Avon, and was once in possession of the Prior of
Bradenstoke. Since then it has been held by the Burgmans, Barbers,
Pylls, Adyes, Parslows; the present owner is James Godwin. The
land attached to the mill consists of three fields, the Laggers
Island, Mill Furland.

The second mill mentioned in Domesday has disappeared. It
was situated near Dodford.

This refers to the Hungerford property, late Radnor estate, at Upper Seagry.

By the Rev. II. K. Anheiell, Vicar.

79

Malmesbtjry Abbey.

The Abbey of Malmesbury was endowed with large possessions
in the immediate neighbourhood but does not appear to have ac-
quired much, if any, in Seagry : but sundry landowners adjoining
the town were bound to do their part in keeping the " King's Wall."
Among these are named John de Segre and the Heirs of Cokerell.
The Abbot also received, of " Out-hundred silver/'' " From Segre
xiid at St. Martin's Day and xiid- at Hock-day."

The Abbey Register preserves the names of two other ancient
inhabitants of Seagry, Robert Sturmi and William de Wotton ; the
latter being owner of Barrow Farm, near Chippenham.

Present Freeholders and Tenants.

These are the names of the present freeholders and voters : — Earl
Cowley, Rev. Henry Kennedy Anketell, James Bond, John Edward
Bond, Charles Croker, James Godwin, John Godwin, Joseph Hull,
Richard Hull, Lewin Marsh, Alfred Parsloe; Alfred Baker, Charles
Barrington, Meredith Brown, T. Candy, Charles Carey, John Carey,
Moses Carey, Nathan Clark, Arthur S. H. Cotes, Charles Day,
William Hayward, Robert Hickson, Charles May, William Minty,
George Elliott, George Perrett, Albert Pullen, John Pullen, Alfred
Teagle, Isaac Teagle, George Tyler, John Tyler, jun., Mark Tyler.

Late the Earl of Radnor's Lands.

William Leversage and Grace, his wife, were owners of land at
Seagry in 1566 (9 Eliz.). Soon after this the H ungerfords are
found here. Aubrey appears to be in error when he says that they
came in by marriage with one of the heiresses of Mompesson : at
least no such match appears in any Hungerford pedigree. In 1583
(24 Eliz.) Sir Edward Hungerford, of Farley Castle (who died in
1607), and Dame Jane, his wife, leased to William Adie the manor
and farm of Over (i.e., Upper) Seagry, altogether one hundred and
eighty-five acres. Sir Edward married, secondly, Cicely Tufton,
daughter of the Earl of Thanet. After Sir Edward's death she
re-married Francis, Earl of Rutland, who, in her right, held the

80

Collections for a History of Seagry.

estates for his life.1 Other tenants under the Ilungerfords, of various
portions, were, William Hawkins, John JefFeries, and Gabriel
Wheeler. Total acreage, three hundred and seventy four.

The tenants of the manor of Seagry appear to have considered
themselves as holding under the Duchy of Lancaster. There is
an original declaration,2 dated 25th November, 1651, signed by
Alexander Staples, Feodary and Bailiff of the Duchy, issued at the
request of the tenants : testifying to them certain ancient privileges
of exemption from payments of tolls, serving upon juries, doing
suit of court, and the like.

In 1681 it belonged to another Sir Edward Hungerford, of Farley
and Corsham, who, in his will, leaves " to his old servant Edward
Adye of Seagry, gent., an annuity of ten pounds." The estate
passed to Sir Giles Hungerford, of Coulston, near Devizes, whose
widow, Margaret, in 1701, leased a messuage and lands in Lower
Seagry for three lives, to Edward Adye, of Chippenham, mercer.
About the middle of the eighteenth century it passed by marriage
with the heiress of Sir Giles to Lord Lexington, by whose family it
was sold to the Earl of Radnor's family : by whom it has been
sold to Earl Cowley. The farm has been rented by the Hamlins,
Jefferies, Wheelers, Adeys, Beaks, Bayliffes. Present tenant,
George Perritt. These are the names of the fields:— Stone Quarries,
Dungcart, Keynes, Great Keynes, Great Slates, Little Slates,
Griroes, Lower Broadleaze, Upper Broadleaze, Peter's Orchard,3
Little Gorse Crab, Great Gorse Crab, Purcher's Rails, Withy Tree,
Townsend Lees, Little Five Thorns.

There were many substantial houses here in ancient times. The
Bayliffe family, who resided at Upper Seagry, built, in 1700, a
gabled house in Queen Anne's style, which still exists.

The Richmonds, from whom Leigh Richmond (the anthor of
" Dairyman's Daughter") descended, resided at Lower Seagry in a
house which is now a ruin. The Sealeys and Benjamins lived in
two farm-houses in Lower Seagry, now in the occupation of their

1 See " Wiltshire Collections, Aubrey and Jackson," p. 282.
2 In the possession of Canon Jackson.
3 The last two being site of The Heathen Burial Ground.

By the Rev. R. K. Anketell, Vicar.

81

descendants, the Haywards. The Hollis family built a large house
in Upper Seagry, now belonging to their descendants, the Teagles,
and Mr. Robert Stratton built in 1700 the house opposite the Church.

Ecclesiastical History.

The Heathen Burial Ground. The field contains about ten acres
and presents a very singular appearance. In removing the sods,
about 2ft. from the surface we discovered extensive stone foundations,
extending for a considerable distance over the field. From the
charred appearance of the stones they had evidently suffered from
fire, thus supporting the tradition of some of the oldest inhabitants
that the ancient Church (said to be situated here) had been destroyed
by fire. On continuing the search we found, about 2ft. below these
foundations, a quantity of Early British pottery, the remains of
broken urns, some charred bones, and small arrow-heads. The
excavators, unfortunately, did not take sufficient care, and one of
the most perfect specimens, with a border round the neck, was
broken. Still, however, several fragments have been collected, and
are now preserved in a glass case, together with copies of the old
deeds relating to the parish and its boundaries.

The following is an extract from a letter which I have received
from a gentleman 1 whose family has been connected with this parish
for over two hundred years, and who has given me great assistance.
He says : — " My father was born at Startley in 1784, and remained
there until about 1810. Both he and my grandfather were deeply
imbued with old folk lore. I well remember them constantly
speaking of the firm belief handed down to them of the heathen
burial places at Seagry, and of the supposed ruins of a Church and
some religious house at Upper Seagry." I think the discoveries
made (on the very spot mentioned by tradition) in August, 1882,
are abundant proof that after the lapse of more than nine centuries
actual verification of the carefully-transmitted tradition has at last
been found.

The Church.

The profits of the benefice were shared between a vicar and the

~uir. J. T. Hand, of Halifax.
VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVII. G

82

Collect ions for a lLhlory of Seagry.

adjacent monasteries, Malmesbury and Bradenstoke. In the Hun-
dred Rolls (p. &72) Seagry is named as part of King John's gift to
the Abbot of Malmesbury, along with the hundred of Sterkeley and
Cheggeley and the ancient demesne of Malmesbury.

There was also an appropriation of some part of the benefice in
the thirteenth century to Bradenstoke Priory. Dugdale mentions
(I. 142) that the appropriation was confirmed to that house about
A.D. 1250 by William (de York) Bishop of Sarum, and afterwards
by charter of King Henry III.

In the enquiry made for raising Edward the Third's subsidy,
called Nonarum Inquisitio, the ninth of corn, hay and wool arising
out of Seagry is set at 66s. M. The profits of the glebe and small
tithe, at 405. An annual pension of 20s. is paid to Bradenstoke.
This return was made at New Sarum before R. Selyman, Robert
Hungerford, and others, by four parishioners, Henry Paternoster,
Adam Wootton, Peter Chesman, and Walter le Whyte.

At the general valuation made by King Henry VIII. the return
stood thus : — the Prior of Bradenstoke had there, in rents of assize,
per annum, £8 15s. 3d.; out of which he had to pay an annual
pension by composition for the maintenance of a vicar, £8 ; besides
10*. rent, to Thomas Mompesson, lord of the manor; the Abbot of
Malmesbury received from Seagry an annual " pittance " of 22s. 8d. ;
the value of the vicarage, as returned by Richard Huntley, then
vicar, arising from land, tithes of corn and wool, was £8, charged
with fees to the Archdeacon of Wilts, 6s. \\%d.

A terrier of Seagry vicarage, extracted from Sarum Registry in

1671 sets forth as follows * —

" We have no glebe lands belonging to our vicarage, only a dwelling house,
barn,* and stable : a small orchard and garden contiguous, by estimation three
parts of an acre of ground : and it is bounded on the east and south by our vicar :
and on the north and west by Sir Edward Hungerford. This is all we know off.
Only a pension of nine marks a year and a ground which is kept from our Vicar
by the owners of the Abbey of Bradenstoke which we presented at your lordship's
last visitation."

Signed by Christopher Simons, Vicar, William Sparrow, James
Grinaway, churchwardens.

* The barn was pulled down some eighty years ago.

By the Rev. H. K Ankelell, Vicar.

83

In 1734 the rectorial tithes belonged to Thomas Boucher, of
Ogbourne St. George, Esq., by whom they were let on lease at £40
a year. [The arms of this Mr. Boucher, on the original document,
are a cross engrailed between four water bougets. Crest, a head
with a cap on.]

In 1749 a small payment was annually made to the vicar by the
owner of " The Farm/' under the name of " Privy Tythes."

The patronage of the vicarage belonged to the Prior of Bradenstoke
until the Reformation. Afterwards to the family of Danvers of
Dauntsey. In 1724 to Mr. Boucher. In 1750 to Robert Sawyer
Herbert, Esq., uncle to the first Earl of Carnarvon, the ancestor
of the present patron.

Vicars.

A list of the vicars of the Church, commencing from the early
date of 1322, is subjoined from Sir T. Phillipps's " Wiltshire Insti-
tutions."

Name of Vicar.

Simon de Cemecote * He was vicar in 1290

(See Oott. Man.)
John ....

Thomas Brewer, on death of John ....
Thomas Hopkins, Chaplain of S.Mary's Chantry,

Tethury, by exchanging with Brewer
Richard Smyth, by exchanging with Thomas

Hopkins

John Wittecote, on death of Smyth
Richard Andrews, on death of J. Wittecote
Adam Daimgerville, by exchange with Richard
Andrews

Thomas Exale, from S. Mary's, Cricklade, by

exchange with A. Daungerville. In 1410 he

was appointed to Sutton
Thomas Kemele, in exchange with Thomas

Exale
Roger Palmer
William Lawles, on the death of Roger Palmer
William Beckbury, by exchange with William

Lawley

Patron.

Prior of Bradenstoke

• " 1290. Simon •vicar of Segre, 28 Oct. 18, Ed. I.— grant to him by Edw. X a House and four
virgates of land at Tokkenliam Parva juxta Lyneham," (Cotton MSB. Yitell, A. xi. 193.)

G 2

84

Collections for a History of beagry.

tl

1419
1423
1424
1430
1432

1445
1462

1523

1544
1545
1547

1572

1612

1619

1626
1666

1724

1750
1762

1803

1805
1827
1848
1854

1878

Name of Vicar.

Thomas Heiron
Thomas Frelair
William Welered
Reginald Marderderwha

John Rede, on resignation of Reginald Marder
derwha

Richard Randolf , on the death of John Rede
Thomas Raffoon, on the death of Richard Ran
' dolf.

Richard Huntley, on resignation of Thomas
Raffoon

Richard Hickman, on death of Richard Huntley
Thomas May, on the death of Richard Hickman
Thomas Adeson, on resignation of Thomas May
Richard Palmer

Peter Champion, on resignation of Richard

Palmer
Elias Woodruffe

William Jones, on death of Elias WoodrufBe

[buried at Seagry]
Edward Bridges, on death of William Jones
Christopher Simons, on resignation of Edward

Bridges [buried at Seagry]

William Pulsford, on death of Christopher
Simons [buried at Seagry, 1st Feb., 1749]

Gilbert Lake, on death of William Pulsford
Benjamin Rogers, on death of Gilbert Lake

John Dawson, on death of B. Rogers

David Middleton,on resignation of John Dawson
Arthur Edie [buried at Seagry, 16th Oct., 1847]
John Hemsted, on death of Arthur Edie
Charles Hill Awdry, exchanged with John
Hemsted

Henry Kennedy Anketell, on resignation of
Charles Hill Awdry

Patron,

Prior of Bradenstokt

The Crown

John Danvers, Esq.

Henry Danvers, Kt.,
Baron of Dauntsey

Henry Danvers, Lord
Danby

Henry, Yiscount Corn-
bury ; Sir Ralph
Verney,Kt. & Bart. ;
Thomas Yates, S.T.
P. ; John Carey,
gent.

Thomas Boucher, Esq.,

of Ogbourne S.

George
Robert S. Herbert,Esq.
Hon. R. Herbert, of

Highclere,Co.South-

ampton
Henry, Earl of Car-

The Church.

No mention is made in the Domesday Survey of the existence of
a Church, but the omission in this survey is no proof that there was
not one, considering it was only such Churches as were endowed

By the Rev. H. K. Anketell, Vicar.

85

that were recorded as existent, and so coming1 under the cognisance
of the commissioners.

Tradition points to an earlier structure at Upper Seagry, built on
the site of the ancient British burial ground mentioned above.

The Church of S. Mary the Virgin, Seagry, appears to have been
founded on the feast of the Assumption, 1172. It originally con-
sisted of nave, chancel, and south transept, and one bell. The
inscription rudely and indistinctly written around the upperpart of the
old bell in letters of the fifteenth century, was " Sancta Anna ora pro
nobis" This bell was re-cast at the restoration of the Church in
1849, and is now the bell of the Church. The architecture of the
old Church was, generally, Early English, with bold Perpendicular
windows on the north side of the nave, but all these features were
destroyed at the restoration, together with an ancient stained glass
window of a kneeling esquire with a silver collar round his neck,
of the sixteenth century, and a shield of arms, dexter perished,
sinister three horses' heads bridled. Horsey. In a spandril of a
window of the nave were the letters T. D., for "Thomas Drew."
The arms of Godwyn and Mompesson also disappeared at this time.
The only remnants of the old Church are the font (which is early Nor-
man), two effigies, and the monuments to the Adyes, Richmonds,
Strattons, BaylifFes and Longs, and the ancient screen. The old
Church had been restored twice — once by Isabella Mompesson,
daughter of Thomas Drew, of Seagry, the lady whose effigy is
now in the chancel, and something was done to the fabric during
the incumbency of William Pulsford. A complete restoration
(on the old foundation) took place in IS 49, during the incumbency
of the Rev. John Hemsted, who built the school, enlarged
the vicarage, and added the north transept to the Church. The
Church was at this time disfigured by a gallery where the choir
sat, a very old pulpit, clerk's desk, and high pews. The royal
arms were over the chancel arch, the first were placed there in
1662, and these were removed in L 700, and replaced by others
which were taken down at the restoration. The clerk's desk was
carved with the initials of the parish clerks since 1709: — R. C.
(Richard Cary), 1709; T. M. (Thomas Mills), 1747; T. H.

86 Collections for a History of Seagry.

(Thomas Hawkins), 1756; E. F. (Elias Ferris), 1775. A. good
specimen of a carved oak screen spanned the chancel arch and hid
the altar.

The cost of re-building" was £860, £100 being raised by a rate,
£200 given by the patron (the Earl of Carnarvon) for the chancel,
and £100 by Lord Holland for the south transept; the remainder
was raised by subscription. The first stone was laid on the 7th
June, and the Church opened on the 8th November in the same
year. It is entered by a Gothic porch, with stained and lancet
windows, given by the architect, John Henry Hakewill, 8, Craig's
Court, London. The nave and chancel are tiled after the pattern
of the old tiles; the seats are oak, carved with a scroll pattern.
The chancel arches are adorned with suitable texts in red and black
letters. In 1880 the Church was lit throughout with handsome
ruby and brass triplex lamps, with chains to match ; the altar vested
with a set of altar cloths, and a surpliced choir of twelve placed in
the chancel seats, until then occupied by the vicar's family and the
squire's. The following are a list of monuments now in the Church.
At the restoration the position of some of them was necessarily
altered, but they are now given as placed : —
List oe Monuments and Inscriptions in S. Mary's, Seagry.

In South Transept.
The effigy of Walter Drew Clifford, the founder ; part of the
arms visible.

Here lyeth the body of Ann Wells, the daughter of John and Rebackas
Stratton, who departed this life January the 7th, Anno Domini 1704, JEtatis
suse 61.

Rebecca Wait, daughter of John Stratton .... of ... . 1708 .

Near this place lies the body of Robeet STBATTON,fGent., obiit Oct. 9th, 1758,
iEtat 75.

Near this place lyeth the body of Robeet Steatton, Senr., Gent., who died
Oct. 11, 1700. Resurgam.

Anne, daughter of T. and R. Stratton, was here interred July 5th, Anno
Dom., 1707, aged 4 months.

Here lyeth the body of Rebekah, ye wife of Henry Stratton, who departed
this life the 12th day of June, 1678, aged 84.

By the Rev. H. K. Anketell, Vicar.

87

Here lieth ye body of Rebecca, ye wife of George Richmond, Gent., who
departed this life March ye 5th, 1725, in the 30th year of her age. Daughter of
Thomas Stratton and Grace his wife.

Husband, farewell, and babes likewise,

. . . . Then dry your eyes ;

'Tis but in vain to weep and cry.

Death gave his stroke ....

To God alone

And pay my

To the respected memory of George Seaele Bayliffe, a Magistrate, and
one of the Deputy Lieutenants for this County, who died the 3rd of May, 1813,
aged 78 years.

Also of his Son, Charles Searle Bayliffe, by Ann, daughter of Thomas
Banks, of Derrotts. Blest with a sound understanding and a love of science and
literature, his excellent principles, firmness of character and kind, benevolent
disposition gave every hope that had it pleased the Almighty to prolong his days
he would have been a blessing to his family and an exemplary member of society.
He died of the typhus fever, 9th April, 1823, aged 20 years.

His beloved sister, Anne Georgia Bayliffe, after performing every filial
duty to her surviving parent in the same fatal disease, fell herself a victim to it.
Lovely, amiable, and accomplished, equally attached with her brother to science
and literature, and endowed with a correct and classic taste, her natural diffidence
concealed her attainments and avoided all worldly applause, but early had she
devoted her thoughts to Him who could alone reward her piety, affection and
benevolence. She died 27 June, 1823, aged 22 years.

In the Chancel.

Here lyeth the body of Bridgett, the daughter of Henry Richmond, Clarke,
and Katharine his wiffe, who departed this life the 16th day of January, in the
.... 1687.

Here lyeth the body of Oliffe Richmond, son of Henry Richmond, Gent.,
who departed this life the 20th day of June, Anno Dom., 1685, aged 6 weeks.

Here lieth the body of Edward Adye, the elder, Gent., who departed this
life the 18th day of Aprill, in the yeare of our Lord God 1663. Memento mori.

In this chancel lieth the body of Henry Richmond, late Rector of Horn-
blotton, in the county of Somerset, eldest son of Oliffe Richmond, of Ashton
Keynes, in this county, Gent. He dyed January i6th, 1723, aged 63. He
married Katharine, the daughter of Edward Adye, of this parish, Gent. He
left two sons, Ayloffe-Henry and George.

Katharine Richmond died Sept. 1st, 1739, aged 81.

Also near this place lieth the body of Ayloffe Henry Richmond, son of
the above-named Henry Richmond, who diedFebruary ye 10, 1761, aged 71 years.

Elizabeth Russell, died Oct. 3rd, 1798, aged 93 years. Widow of Thos.
Russell and relict of Mr. Charles Bayliffe, who died 1737,

88

Collections for a History of Seagry.

George Searle Bayliffe, Esq., died May 3rd, 1813, aged 78 years.

In tlio Grave beneath are deposited the mortal remains of Charles Searle
BatlIFFE, the son of George Searle Bayliffe, Esq., and Anne, his wife, lie died
April the 9th, 1823, aged 20. And likewise his beloved sister, Anna Georoiana
Bayliffe, who died June 27, 1827, aged 22.

In the Aisle.

Carolus'Bayliffe, Armiger, obiit 8to Julii, 1735, anno. JEtat 29. — Maria
Bayliffe, Soror EgusT obiit. 3rd Junii , 1760, iEtat 60. — Maria, Uxori Georgii
Searle Bayliffe, obiit 30th April, 1779, ;Etat 46.

George Meeewethee Bayliffe, eorum maximus natu Filius perguam et
merito Delectus, 28th Feb., 1784, anno. Mtsd 22. Placida compostus morte
quievit.

TJnder*this seat lieth the body of Jeremiah, son of Charles and Ann Jenkins^
of this parish, who departed this life June 4th, 1764, aged 5 years and 3 months.

Also Anne, wife of Charles Jenkins, of this parish formerly, but late of S.
Leonard's in the liberty of the Tower in the City of London, who departed this
life December 29th 1790, aged 72 years. She was brought from London and
buried under this seat according to her own desire.

Also of Charles Jenkins, of the parish of S. Leonard, Shoreditch, London,
who died June 24th, 1800, aged 69 years.

Under these two seats was buryed the body of Eachel Long, the daughter
of Mr. Long, late of Calleways, Gent., Apriel the 7th, Anno Domini 1700.

There are also tablets to W. Vines, Esq., and his sister. The
east window is in memory of W. Vines, and the two chancel windows
in memory of James and Sarah Godwin. In the nave there is a
window in memory of Mr. Sampson.1

There is also a tablet to the memory of Henry Bayliffe, son of
G. S. Bayliffe and Ann, his wife.

The school and teacher's house was built in the year 1850, the
cost being £408, including levelling of the ground, the site being
given by the parish. In 1852 the vicarage house was enlarged at
the cost of £350, the amount being borrowed from Queen Anne's
Bounty. The old house was very small, and until 1828 almost in
ruins.

1 Three of these windows are from the well-known firm of Messrs. Clayton &
Bell, London.

By the Rev. H. K. Anketell, Vicar. 89

The names of the following curates are extracted from the parish
registers : —

1761. F. M. West.1

1764. William Willis.

1778. William Evans.

1793. F. M. West.

1796. William Toke.*

1801. Charles Wightwick.

1802. Henry Wightwick.3
1826. Henry Brown.4
1838. G. A. Bedieman.
184-7. E. G. Edwards.

List op Churchwardens.

Jasper Wheeler and Robert Brady were churchwardens, A.D.
1610. In 1671 William Sparrow and James Greenaway were
churchwardens.

Robert Hollis, 1724; F. Hopes and Jaspar Hibbard, 1725;
William Pyatt, 1728; William Hollis, 1729; John Hollis, 1732;
Nathaniel Houlton, 1733; John Hollis and Nathaniel Houlton,
1735; Nathaniel Houlton, 1736; Richard Bayliffe and John Hollis,
1737 ; Nathaniel Houlton and John Hollis, 1738 ; Nathaniel
Houlton, 1739 ; Nathaniel Houlton and John Pearse, 1740;
Nathaniel Houlton, 1742 to 1753, when he died; Robert Stratton,
1754: Robert Stratton, 1756; William Latcham, 1758, 1759, and
1760 ; William Latcham, 1761; Robert Hollis, 1762; William
Latcham and Robert Hollis, from 1762 to 1767 ; Edward Bailey
and Robert Hollis, from 1767 to 1771 ; William Dick, 1772 and
1773 ; John Sealy and William Beak, 1774 and 1775 ; Edward
Bailey, 1776, William Beak, 1777 ; Mrs. Mary Benjamin, 1778 ;

1 Eector of Draycote.
2 Ourate of Draycote, and afterwards Rector of Barnstone, Essex.
3 Rector of Codford.
* Afterwards Head Master of Kepier Grammar School, Houghton-le-Spring.

90 Collections J or a History of Seagry.

Robert Mollis, from 1779 to 1793 ; John Bailey, and Robert Hollis,
1794; John Baily, 1795 and 1796; Thomas Sealy, from 179? to
1799; Robert Hollis, 1800 and 1801 ; James Baily, 1802; Thomas
Sealy, 1803; John Beak, 1804; Robert Hollis, 1805 to 1809;
Edward Hollis, 1810 to 1814; Thomas Sealey, 1815 ; Henry
Bayliffe and Charles Beak, 1816 ; Henry Bayliffe and George
Wright, from 1817 to 1820; Henry Bayliffe and George Beak,
1821 ; George and Charles Beak, 1822 and 1823; William Hollis
and Heriry Bayliffe, from 1824 to 1826 ; James Godwin and Henry
Bayliffe, 1827 and 1828 ; Daniel Denby and Charles Beak, 1829 ;
Charles Beak and Henry Bayliffe, 1830 ; James Godwin and Henry
Bayliffe, 1831 ; Henry Bayliffe and Jessey Hay ward, 1832 ; Henry
Bayliffe, and James Godwin, from 1833 to 1835 ; James Godwin
and John Hiscocks, from 1836 to 1838; Jessey Hay ward and
James Godwin, 1852 ; James Godwin and John Teagle, from 1853
to 1H57; James Godwin and David Godwin, from 1858 to 1866 ;
James Godwin and John Bayliffe, 1867 ; James Godwin and John
Teagle, 1868; James Godwin and Charles Bayliffe, 1869; James
Godwin and John Teagle, from 1870 to 1873 ; James Godwin and
John Godwin, from 1874 to 1886.

Coins found at the Restoration of Seagry Church.

One of these is a small copper coin about the size of a modern
sixpence. On one side is a crown with two sceptres, and the in-
scription is caro. dg. piac. [/ think this is the word, but cannot
understand it] b. On other side, a harp crowned. Inscription,

F-RA. ET. HIB. REX.

The other is a small silver piece. I do not think it can be called
a coin. It is very thin, and about the size of a sixpence. On one
side is a shield. The shield is surrounded by a wreath. The other
side has a double shield, one of which is a counterpart of that just
described, the other one bears a harp. There is neither date nor
inscription, but over the double shield is this mark -it

A silver coin nearly of the size of a florin. On one side is an
exceedingly well-preserved crowned bust of Elizabeth (profile).

By the Rev. H. K. Anketell, Vicar. 91

The ruff is well-marked, and between the ruff and the rim of the
coin is a full-blown rose. Inscription reads, Elizabeth, dg. ang.
. . . . regina. The other side has a date, 1574 (I think), the
latter figure is much rubbed and worn. It is placed over a shield
divided into four quarters by a cross. Inscription is uncertain, as
also are the heraldic bearings.

A silver coin of James. On one side a crowned bust of the King
(much worn and rubbed), face to the right. Near the left shoulder
are the figures xn. Inscription, iacobus. dg. mag. br. fra. et. hib.
rex. On other side, a large shield of four quarterings, two ap-
parently being the arms of England, Ireland, and France, one is a
harp, the fourth that of a lion rampant within a bordure. Inscription
is very illegible, tu. deus. coniuxit. nemo

Extracts from the Parish Accounts.

In the accounts for 1739 appear the following entries : —
"June 10— Paid John West, of X. Malford, Is. for fox " ; "Paid W. Fry,
for fox killed at Broad Somerford, Is."

Such entries occur several times.

In 1754 is the following entry : —

" Jan. 4— U. to Isaac Belcher for 5 hedgehogs catched in Mr. Lake the vicar's
garden."

In 1760 :—

" May 22 — To William Bick, for a book and proclamation for the Fast, 2s. 6d."

A small income seems to have been spent yearly for foxes, sparrows,
polecats, and hedgehogs.
January 8th, 1761 : —

" To a discharged sailor from Royal Ann man-of-war, Is."
November 26th, 1762:—

" For thanksgiving for taking the 1 Havanah,' Is. 6c?."
1767:—

"This year a number of sailors wounded and injured in war were relieved .i-iu
October, November and December."

93

Collections for a History of Seagry.

1804:—

" We whose names .... do agree to have a leg of mutton and seven
gallons of beer and to be dressed at the officer's house in the parish. Witness
our hands, Thomas Scaly, John Beak, churchwardens. James Baily, John Young."

1808 :—

" William Wheeler appointed clerk at Is. per week."
18L0:

" Thanksgiving for plentiful harvest, 2s. Qd."

Registers.

The registers date from 1610. They consist of eight books and
are all in a good state of preservation. Register A. (the oldest) is
a parchment volume, and contains the baptisms, burials and marriages
from 1610 to 1710. Register B. contains the baptisms, burials and
marriages from 1710 to 1811 (the marriages in this book are entered
only up to 1756, when a new book begins). Register C. contains
the marriages from 1756 to 1811. Register D., the marriages from
1813 to 1837. Registers E. and F., the marriages from 1838 to
the present time. Register G., the burials from 1813 to the present
time. Register H., the baptisms from 1813 to the present time.

Mxtracts.
November 29th, A.D. 1739

" I came to live in the parish of Seagry, in the county of Wilts, forty years
ago last Lady-day, and have lived in the said parish ever since that time, and I
found it to be the custom of the parish when I first came to pay Easter offerings,
which I have paid or my husband for me ever since. The amount of money for
Easter offerings is two pence for every person above sixteen years of age, and
Mr. Simons when alive always fetched the money himself. Witness my hand,
+, the mark of Mary Carey. In the presence of Ayliffe Henry Richmond."

November 20th, 1739 :—

" I was possessed of my estate about ye time that Mr. Symons, our late vicar,
died. Since that time I have paid a composition tithe to Mr. Pulsford, our
present vicar, and likewise Easter offerings, for I am well persuaded that the
payment of Easter offerings is an antient custom in ye parish of Seagry. Witness
my hancf, John Hibbard."

By the Rev. H. K. Anketellj Vicar.

93

November 23rd, 1739 :—

" I do hereby certify that I rented Seagry Mill twelve years in Mr. Simond's
time, that I paid six shillings and eightpence every year for ye tithe of ye mill,
likewise Easter offering every year either in money or fish. I do likewise declare
that I have paid a composition tythe for ye herbage and fruit of my orchard and
garden, and Easter offerings besides to our present vicar, Mr. Pulsford, for
several years past. I do acknowledge ye payment, both of tythes and offerings,
to be ye custom of Seagry. Witness my hand, W. Brabby."

There are several other entries of a similar kind.

" Christopher Burgman was baptised 18 of April 1610."
" John Turtle was baptised 16 Decr. 1610."

From 1610 to 1710 we find the names of Wheeler, Hibbard, Scott,
Greenrnan, Welldon, Burgman, Leonard, Palmer, Coleman, Stratton,
Adey, Hull, Richmond, Carey, Croker, Rimel, Cleeve, and Long
frequently occurring. Between 1735 and 1811 the names BaylifFe,
Hollis, Sealy, Burgman, May, Bailey, Beak, Godwin, Tyler, Teagle,
Vines, Hay ward, Hickson. Most of these names still survive in
the parish.

Benefactions.

William Blackmore, of Berwick Bassett, bequeaths towards the
repairs of the parish Church of Seagry 40.?., from churchwarden to
churchwarden for ever. This has been alienated from the Church,
and no record can be found about its expenditure since 1740.

" Memorandum.

" At a Vestry Meeting held in ye Parish Church of Seagry in ye year 1737
consent was given for Mr. John Hollis to erect a Pew in ye Church and to take
in ye Passage between Mr. Stratton's Isle and the body of the Church Provided
that Mr. Robert Stratton and his successors shall always have the Privilege of
going from his isle to the Church in the usual way.

" Witness William Pulsford Vicar of Seagry."

" No affidavit was brought to me that Ayliffe Richmond buried ye 5 September
1739 was buried in woollen only, whereof notice was given to the churchwarden
| ye 218t of the same month.

"Byrne W. Pulsford."

91

Collections /or a History of Seagry.

" Kccd. Tythe in kind of Nathaniel Houlton Esq William Adye throughout
the year 1741. To wit. Tythe Milk, Calf, Lamb. Wool, Apples.

" N.B.— The miller of Seagry Mils has paid six shillings and eight pence
yearly at Lammas for ye mill wheel."

The rate books begin in 1700, and are well and regularly kept.

The main incidents in the history of a small country village are

generally atrocities. Seagry is not without one of the kind; and

as it stimulated some unknown local bard to emulate the Poet Crabbe,

the verses are here introduced : — -

" Lines (in imitation of Crabbe) on Judith Pearce, who was most inhumanly
murdered by a gipsey, at Seagry, in this neighbourhood, in the month of
November last. [From the Bath Herald of December 2, 1820.]

" A lonely cottage stands beside the way,
A white thatched cot, with honey-suckles gay;
There Judith Peaece, a widow, lived alone,
By a rough quarry of blue-coloured stone ;
Where lurked a wretch, of Egypt's wandering race,
A wretch forlorn, without a mark of grace,
Whom ruffians left, for such a rogue was he,
That even the vilest shunned his company ;
Dark was his face, but darker still his mind
To pity, and to every tender feeling blind.
He had no friends, nor knew the joys of home,
But muttering, through the dews of night would roam,
Brooding on fancied wrongs, with secret pride,
On words, or looks, or benefits denied.
Eound his gaunt side a rope for girdle swung,
From which a light, short-handled hatchet hung ;
A tattered garment did the village fright,
A coat by day, a blanket all the night,
Which round his neck a butcher's skewer confin'd,
Fit fastening such a filthy dress to bind.
Judith had often a kind warning given,
How far his ways were from the ways of Heaven ;
And once too, Judith (which would kindle strife
In greater persons) asked him — ' Where's your wife ? '
Once fire denied— a common courtesy ;
Yet there seemed danger in his quick black eye ;
And so there was, for as she lay in bed,
At night the thatch was blazing o'er her head,
And Edwaed Buckland, so the villain call,
Was met in haste, close to the village wall ;
And if as on some villainy he mused,
The evening salutation he refused ;

Subscriptions for the Sloper Collection.

95

Suspected, taken, he escapes at last,

And all supposed the danger now was past —

When Judith's brother, in the dead of night, "\

Heard his grand-niece who shook with cold and fright, >

Tell how she 'scaped the murderer's hand by flight ; J

4 Wake ! wake ! she's murdered ! ' was the frightful cry ;

' I heard the blow ! I almost saw her die.'

They found her lying on the garden mould, ~\

Mangled with dreadful wounds, quite dead and cold, >

A sight to shock the weak, and almost scare the bold." J

I tender my very best thanks to Mr. J. T. Hand, of Halifax,
Canon Jackson, and Mrs. Sampson, for the valuable assistance they
have given me in making these collections : it is only an attempt
to belp some future historian.

nMgte for % JMojet Collection.

?N November, 1885, a favourable opportunity occurred of
§5 obtaining, for the Museum, the collection of fossils formed
by~Mr. G. E. Sloper, and his late brother, Mr. S. W. Sloper.
The accumulation of these specimens was the pursuit of the
late owners for nearly half-a-century. They were obtained from
railway cuttings, and from quarries long since disused ; and include
many rarities such as cannot now be found in the county. Some
friends who knew the collection strongly urged that the purchase
should be made j but at the time, the available funds of the Society
were temporarily engaged in publishing. It was therefore resolved
to appeal to the Members for subscriptions. The event proved, as
usual, that Wiltshiremen are always ready to support the progress
of natural science, as well as archseology. The amount was speedily
raised, with a small balance towards the necessary alterations of

90

Donations to Museum.

cases, &c, and the fossils became the property of the Society. The
following is the list of contributions : —

Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice
Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P. ...
Eight Hon. E. P. Bouverie
Sir John Neeld, Bart.
W. H. Long, Esq., M.P.
Sir Henry Meux, Bart.

G. P. Fuller, Esq , M.P.
E. C Lowndes, Esq.
N. Story Maskelyne, Esq., M.P.
Sir G. Goldney, Bart. ...
Alexander Mackay, Esq.
W. W. Ravenhill. Esq.

H. M. Clarke, Esq.
Thomas Clarke, Esq.
G. H. Palmer, Esq.

G. H. Mead, Esq., Mayor (given and coll
T. Cclfox, Esq.
W. R. Brown, Esq. ...
J. Mullings, Esq. (Cirencester) ...
William Stancomb, Esq.
George Noyes, Esq. (London) ...
S. Tucker, Esq.
Thomas Chandler, Esq.
W. H. Butcher, Esq. (London) ...

£

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gonations to jpTOtn.

An Egyptian Mummy, recently sent to England. Presented by J . Hadow, Esq.,

of Park Cottage, Devizes.
Desk Seal of the Tropenell Family. Presented by Aethtjk Goes, Esq., of

Melksham (since deceased).
Some Flint Flakes, by Mr. Pile, Devizes.

H. F. BULL, Printer and Publisher, 4, Saint John Strset, Derizes.

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logical and
> Nile;7 " A
Palestine,"

twenty-five
ie Downs of
logical Dis-

he Barrows,
British and
mces to and
arious urns
Camps, &c.
urs, on the
prising one
rom east to
: the North
t readily be
lap, on the
led like the

nd Natural
tion having
1883.

tie Society,
booksellers :
vn, Canal,

py each at
£r. Noxt.

96

Donations to Museum.

cases, &c, and the fossils became the property of the Society. The
following" is the list of contributions : —

Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice
Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P.
Eight Hon. E. P. Bouverie
Sir John Neeld, Bart.
W. H. Long, Esq., M.P.
Sir Henry Meux, Bart.

G. P. Fuller, Esq , M.P.
E. C. Lowndes, Esq.
N. Story Maskelyne, Esq., M.P
Sir G. Goldney, Bart. ...
Alexander Mackay, Esq.
W. W. Ravenhili. Esq.

H. M. Clarke, Esq.
Thomas Clarke, Esq.
G. H. Palmer, Esq.

G. H. Mead, Esq., Mayor (given and collected by)
T. Cclfox, Esq.
W. E. Brown, Esq. ...
J. Mullings, Esq. (Cirencester)
William Stan comb, Esq.
George Noyes, Esq. (London)
S. Tucker, Esq. „
Thomas Chandler, Esq.
W. H. Butcher, Esq. (London)

£

s.

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Donations to Iptt&em

An Egyptian Mummy, recently sent to England. Presented by J . Hadow, Esq.,

of Park Cottage, Devizes.
Desk Seal of the Tropenell Family. Presented by Aethur Goeb, Esq., of

Melksham (since deceased).
Some Flint Flakes, by Mr. Pile, Devizes.

H. F. BUlL, Printer and Publisher, 4, Saint John Strset, Derizes.

DR.

1885. EECEIPTS.
Jan. 1st. To Balance brought from last account :
Consols 150 1
Cash 112

Or-LCJNTKl iAL

Dec. 31st. To Cash, Entrance Fees and
Annual Subscriptions re-
ceived from Members

during the year

„ Transfer from Life Member-
ship Fund

To Cash received for Sale of Magazines..
„ Ditto ditto for " Jackson's Aubrey '
„ Ditto ditto for " Smith's North Wilts
„ Ditto ditto for Admission to the Museum 4 2
„ Dividend on Consols 4 10

7 17 10

8 4 2
2 10 0
8 14 0

Aooouisri:.

CR

1885. DISBURSEMENTS. £ s. d..

Dec. 31st. By Cash, sundry Payments, including
Postage, Carriage, and Miscellaneous

Expenses 19 1 1

„ Ditto Printing and Stationery 15 12 8

By Printing and Engraving,

Ac, bit' Magazine No. 65 45 3 9
„ Ditto ditto No. 66 46 7 7

91 11 4

By " Smith's North Wilts " :—

Printing 99 12 0

Engraving 18 0 0

Carriage 15 1

1S<8 12 10

By Miscellaneous expenses at

Museum 12 9 2

„ Attendance at ditto 22 19 0

„ Insurance 4 19 4

,, Land and Property Tax ... 2 3 8

42 11 2

By Loss on purchase and sale of Consols... 1 12 6

„ Commission, &c 20 11 4

„ Balance 99 3 6

£478 10 5

LIFE MEilBERSHIP FUND.

DR.

1885. £ s. d.

Jan. 1st. To balance brought from last account 34 12 2

Dec. 31st. „ Life Membership Subscriptions :—

Sir H. B. Meux, Bart „ 10 10 0

Lord Bishop of Salisbury 10 10 0

„ Bank interest 118

Audited and found correct,
24th July, 1886.

£56 13 10

CHARLES F. HART,
G. S. A. WA.TLEN,

Dec. 31st. By one-tenth to General Income Account
„ Balance

CR.
£ s. d.
5 13 4
51 0 6

WILLIAM NOTT,

Financial Secretary.

90

cases, &c, and
following is th

Lord Edm
Sir John ]
Right Ho
Sir John ]
W. H. Lo
Sir Henry

G. P. Fill

E. C Lov
N. Story ]
Sir G. Go
Alexandei
W. W. Ri

H. M. CL
Thomas C
G. H. Pa
G. H. Me
T. Cclfox:
W. R. Bi
J. Mullin
William I
George N
S. Tuckei
Thomas (
W. H. B

An Egyptian M
of Park Co

Desk Seal of t
Melksham

Some Flint Flal

Just Published, by the Wiltshire Archaeological and
Natural History Society, One Volume, Atlas 4to,
248 pp., 17 large Maps, and 110 Woodcuts, extra
cloth.

SECOND EDITION OF

The BRITISH and ROMAN
ANTIQUITIES of the NORTH
WIL TSHIRE D O WNS,

BY THE

KEY. ALFRED CHARLES SMITH, M.A.,

Hector of Yatesbury , Wilts, Son. Sec. of the Wiltshire Archaeological and
Natural History Society; Author of " The Attractions of the Nile,'1 " A
Spring Tour in Portugal" " A Modern Pilgrimage through Palestine,"

<$fc., Sfc.

rpHIS work, the materials of which have been accumulating for twenty-five
-L years, is the result of innumerable rambles and rides over the Downs of
North Wiltshire, and deals with one of the most important Archaeological Dis-
tricts in Europe.

It consists of a large quarto volume, containing an account of all the Barrows,
Camps, Roads, Dykes, Enclosures, Cromlechs, Circles, and other British and
Roman Stone- and Earth-works of a most primitive district, with references to and
extracts from the best authorities, as well as figures of many of the various urns
and other objects found in Barrows, views of Cromlechs, plans of Camps, &c.
Bound up with this volume, in sections, are maps, printed in six colours, on the
scale of six linear inches, or thirty-six square inches, to a mile, comprising one
hundred square miles round Abury, and including thirteen miles from east to
west and eight miles from north to south, being the great plateau of the North
Wiltshire Downs, on which all the antiquities are shown and may readily be
found, and referred to by means of letters and figures. An Index Map, on the
scale of one inch to the mile, coloured, numbered, lettered, and divided like the
Large Map, accompanies the volume.

This is a reprint, undertaken by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural
History Society, in consequence of more than one-third of the first edition having
been destroyed at the binders' in the great fire in Paternoster Row in 1883 .

The work can be obtained from the Financial Secretary of the Society,
Mr. W. Nott, 15, High Street, Devizes ; or from the following Booksellers :
Mr. H. F. Bull, 4, Saint John Street, Devizes; Messrs. Bbown, Canal,
Salisbury ; and Mr. Beenaed Quaeitch, 15, Piccadilly, London ;

Price £2 2s.

Members of the Wilts Archaeological Society may obtain one copy each at
I £1 lis, 6d. per copy until 31st December, 1886, on application to Mr. Nott.

AGENTS

FOE THE SALE OP THE

WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE.

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j)eviZes H. F. Bull, St. John Street.

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No. LXVIII. DECEMBER, 1886. Vol. XXIII.

THE

WILTSHIEE

attlitsnlogital ana lateral listorq

MAGAZINE,

OP THB

SOCIETY FORMED IN THAT COUNTY,
A.D. 1853.

DEVIZES:

Peinted and Sold fob the Society by H. F. Bull, Saint John Stbeet.

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. William Nott, 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. Smith, Yatesbury Rectory, Calne;
and H. E. Medlicott, Esq., Sandfield, Potterne, Devizes.

The Rev. A. C. Smith 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.

THE

WILTSHIRE

Slrrji^lngiral anir JMitrol 30tsforq
MAGAZINE.

No. LXVIII. DECEMBER, 1886. Vol. XXIII

COtttWtg*

PAGE

Account of the Thiety-Thied Geneeal Meeting, at Swindon 97
Histoey of the Saesens : By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S.,

F.G.S., &g 122

Swindon and its Neighbouehood — No. 2 : By the Rev. Canon

J. B. Jackson, F.S.A 155

Baebuey Castle : an Address by the President, Nevil Story Maskelyne,

Esq., M.P., F.R.S 180

"On Ringsbuby and othee Camps in Noeth Wiltshiee " : By

the Rev. W. H. E. Mc. Knight 195

The Chuech Heealdey of Noeth Wiltshiee (Continued) : By

Arthur Schomberg, Esq 200

Conteibutions to the Libeaey and Museum 212

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Fig. 1. Diagrammatic Section of the Country from
Bagshot to Heytesbury, about sixty miles 132

Fig. 2. Impressions of the Root of a Palm (?) in a
weathered Sarsen in a wall at Abury. Sketched by
Col. C. C. King, F.G.S., in 1885 144

Fig. 3. A piece of Sarsen with sub -parallel and sub-
cylindrical rootlets of Palm (?) Collected by T.
Codrington, Esq., C.E., F.G.S., in Wiltshire. In the
British Museum (Natural History). Reduced one-half 145

Fig. 4. A block of Sarsen, with the impression of a tap-
root and rootlets of a Palm (?) In the Museum of
Practical Geology, London. Found on Lockeridge
Down, near Marlborough, by W. Cunnington, Esq.,
F.G.S. One-half of the natural size 146

Map of Braden Forest, temp. Henry III 163

Plan of Barbury Castle 181

Plan of BinknoU Castle 190

DEVIZES :
H. F. Bull, 4, Saint John Steeet.

IS

Hi

tie

m
h

Wi

Con
m
T

1 1

Hisl
lc

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Irk
X

THE

WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE.

"multobum manibus geande levatub onus." — Ovid.

THE THIRTY-THIRD GENERAL MEETING

OF THE

Wiltfftixz arcljaeolostcal anti Natural fgistors Soctctg,

HELD AT SWINDON,
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, August \§th, Wth, and I2tk,

1886.

PEESIDENT OF THE MEETING,

Nevil Story Maskelyne, Esq., M.P.

HE SOCIETY for the third time selected Swindon as the
centre of its Annual Meeting in 1886, having previously
visited that town in I860 and 1873 : and on Tuesday, August 10th,
the Members and their friends assembled in the Town Hall, at
2.30, p.m., with the President of the Society in the chair; sundry
Members of the Society having previously visited the celebrated
Locomotive and Carriage Works of the Great Western Railway
Company, over which they had been conducted, by the kind per-
mission of the Manager, Major Dean.

The President opened the proceedings by calling on the Rev;
A. C. Smith (one of the Honorary Secretaries), to read the

REPORT FOR 1886.

"The Committee of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural
History Society has but a short report to offer to its Members of
the condition of the Society during a somewhat uneventful year,
which year, however, though not marked by any great efforts on
the part of the Society, will be found to show a fair amount of work
done in the several departments. First, however, must be mentioned,

VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVIII. H

98 The Thirty -third General Meeting.

with much regret, the very heavy losses which the Society has
sustained in the death of several of its most honoured Members
since this time last year. The loss of such men as Canon Rich
Jones, one of our most able and indefatigable fellow-workers in the
Society (a memoir of whom has already appeared in the Magazine),
and more recently of Mr. William Long-, of West Hay, Wring-ton,
to whom we are so deeply indebted for his admirable treatises on
Abury and Stonehenge, the former published in the fourth, the
latter in the sixteenth volume of the Magazine, are heavy blows
indeed to the Society, nor can their names be mentioned here without
a feeling of deep regret that their voices will be no longer heard
amongst us. We have, moreover, to lament the deaths of many
other valued members, of whom we may mention the late Earl of
Shaftesbury ; Archbishop Errington ; the Right Rev. Dr. Parfitt ;
Mr. Rigden, the very hospitable Mayor of Salisbury when the
Society met there in 1865; Colonel Perry Keene, who in 1869
presented the Society with the very curious and valuable original
Inquisition on Ruth Pierce, of Devizes Market Place renown ; Mr.
Arthur Gore, of Melksham, an original Member of the Society,
and a very frequent attendant at our Annual Meetings, and who
within a few weeks of his death sent me, for the Museum, a valuable
silver desk seal of the Tropenell family. There have been many other
losses, we regret to say, through death, removal from the county, or
resignation, which have diminished our numbers, so that the names
of Members now on the books amount only to three hundred and
forty-one, being a decrease of fourteen since last year. In regard
to out-door work, an examination of the very important barrow
at Heytesbury, well-known as the ' Bowlsbury Barrow/ was under-
taken at the spring of this year by Mr. William and Mr. Henry
Cunnington, who perseveringly continued their investigations in
this immense and difficult mound during many days, and of which
we hope to print a detailed account in the next number of the
Magazine. Sufficient for the present to say that some interesting
skulls and other human bones were exhumed, some of the skulls
cleft as if with a sword ! But I need not add that of course no im-
plements other than flint flakes were found in this veritable specimen

Report for 1886. 99

of the long* barrow of most ancient date. Another point to which
the special attention of the Society has been directed this year has
been the present unsatisfactory state of Stonehenge, and the sug-
gestions it offers for the protection of the monument which all
Wiltshire claims as its own, but as the deputation sent to examine
it has drawn up a special report on this subject, to be presented this
day to the Society, no further reference need be made to it here.
The Museum has been much enriched by the purchase, by means of
special subscription, of the magnificent collection of fossils formed
by Mr. G. E. and the late Mr. S. W. Sloper, of Devizes. These,
which have been secured to the Society by the exertions of our
indefatigable Curator, Mr. Henry Cunnington, and his brother, are
described by them as of very great local interest and value. We
may, therefore, congratulate ourselves on their acquisition without
drawing at all on the funds of the Society. Other additions to the
Museum have been a handsome collection of Palaeolithic flint im-
plements, presented by Dr. Stevens ; a good specimen of an Egyptian
mummy, recently brought to England and presented by Mr. James
Hadow, and a desk seal of the Tropenell family, already alluded to
as given by the late Mr. Arthur Gore. The Library has also re-
ceived several additions, notably the History of the Malet Family,
given by Sir Alexander Malet. Of the financial position of the
Society it is unnecessary to speak, as the balance sheet for the last
year has just been issued with the new number of the Magazine,
showing a balance in hand at the beginning of the year of about
£100. Your Committee cannot close this report without expressing
the hope that the Local Secretaries, each in his own locality, will
endeavour to enlist the support of new Members to replace the
many losses we have sustained of late ; and they further trust that
new workers will be found to carry on the work of the Society, as
those who have hitherto laboured for it are one by one taken away.
There is yet a large field of observation in every department of
natural history, as well as in archseology, in this county, the exami-
nation of which has only begun ; but it is hoped that diligent en-
quirers will arise, who shall prosecute their researches and not cease
from their labours till the ancient as well as the natural history of

H %

100 The Thirty -third General Meeting,

Wiltshire shall be worked out in every direction and made known,
But that, we make bold to say, is a work which will tax the energies
of Wiltshire archaxdogists and Wiltshire zoologists in every branch
Of science for many a generation to come, so much is there yet to
learn on all those subjects upon which our Society has now, for
thirty years, been engaged/''

The President, before asking some gentleman to move the
adoption of the report, called on them all to endeavour to increase
the Society in point of numbers, and he would certainly endorse
every word said by their Secretary as to the very great importance
of local inquiries. When he said that some of the most important
points of what was now called old English, but what they used to
call Anglo-Saxon history, depended upon the identification of places,
where there were many places of the same name, and that identifi-
cation could only be the result of very careful local observation and
research, he thought he urged at least one cogent reason for endorsing
what their Secretary had said. And it is in the power of almost
anyone who has leisure and an enquiring spirit to make some addition
to the records that give interest to a neighbourhood, whether it be
by hunting up and collecting facts regarding the past or putting on
record what is interesting among their contemporaries. He might
mention as a matter of some interest to the Swindon neighbourhood,
that in the last year an interesting collection of facts, and gossip,
and old records in connection with Swindon and its district, had been
published there by Mr. William Morris, editor of the Swindon
Advertiser. He was sure anyone who would take that work up
would find how much could be done by one who would collect the facts
around him within his own memory and the memory of his friends.

The Rev. E. Awdry briefly proposed, and the Rev. H. K.
Anketell seconded, the adoption of the report, and after a few
remarks from Mr. W. Cunnington as to the falling-off of Members,
it was agreed to.

The President then proposed the re-election of the Secretaries
(the Rev. A. C. Smith, and Mr. H. E. Medlicott), the Curators of the
Museum, the Local Secretaries, and the Committee, and he also pro-
posed the name of Mr. C. E. H. A. Colston as Treasurer to the Society.

The Opening Meeting,

101

The Rev. Tupper Carey seconding" this, it was carried unanimously.

The Rev. A. C. Smith proposed, and Mr. H. E. Medlicott
seconded, the appointment of Mr. C. F. Hart and Mr. G. S. A.
Way lew, both of Devizes, as Auditors of the Society, and this was
carried unanimously.

The President, before he called on the Secretary to read a report
on the present condition of Stonehenge, the result of the visit of a
deputation appointed by the Society to inspect it, desired to remind
his hearers that Stonehenge was not merely a Wiltshire monument,
but one of national interest and world-wide celebrity; yet its protection
was almost nil. In Parliament, some few years ago, Sir John
Lubbock brought in a Bill for placing public monuments under the
protection of a public officer. The measure became an Act of
Parliament, and General Pitt Rivers, whose absence that day he
regretted, was appointed as national protector of ancient monuments.
He was not aware, however, that General Pitt Rivers had as yet
any considerable number of monuments under his protection, because
of course he could not protect anything which was not committed
to his protection by the owner. One monument — Barbury Castle — ;
about which he should say something presently, was included in the
Schedule of Sir J. Lubbock's Act, but is still in the hands of two
owners. He hoped, however, some arrangement would be made by
which its venerable mounds and precincts might be placed under the
national protection. Stonehenge, however, above all, required to be
placed under such protection. There ought to be some power, in
the Act of Parliament, to prevent owners of what was really national
property, in a higher sense than a great many more generally-
received forms of national property, from permitting the destruction
of monuments which were entirely irreplaceable, and sacred from a
venerable antiquity. They all knew how Avebury had been
destroyed by farmers in former times, and now the people who
were most destructive at Stonehenge were among those for whose
advantage the monument should be preserved.

The Rev. A. C. Smith then proceeded to read the following
report, of which he said it required no words of introduction, as it
at once explained itself: —

102

The Thirty-third General Meeting.

Report of Deputation to Examine into the Present State of
the Stones at Stonehenge — July 20th, 1886.

In the course of last autumn and winter urgent appeals were
made from time to time to the Wilts Archaeological and Natural
History Society to lift up its voice with all the authority it possessed
in defence of Stonehenge, which was reported to be undergoing
daily injury at the hands of an unchecked public, whereupon
the Society resolved to send some of its own Officers to see for
themselves, and report its condition.

Accordingly a deputation (consisting of the two Honorary Sec-
retaries, a former Honorary Secretary, and one of the Curators of
the Museum,) visited Stonehenge on July 20th last, and carefully
examined every stone in order, noting down on the spot its exact
condition, with special reference to injuries of recent date : and now
desire to finish their task by submitting the following detailed report
to the Society. The numbers refer to the very handy Plan of
Stonehenge in its Present Condition, appended to Mr. Cunnington's
"Notes on the Fragments/' printed in 1884, in the Magazine,
vol. xxi., p. 141.

No. 1. Slightly injured by recent chipping and cutting of letters.
„ 2. Untouched of late years.
„ 3. Two very small chips of recent date.
„ 4. Chipped in several places recently.
M 5. Chipped in two or three places.
M 6. Much chipped.
„ 7. Very much chipped.

9J 8. Original surface, not only injured, but completely gone ;

though not much damaged of late years.
„ 9. Injured in two places.
„ 10. Slightly scratched.
„ 11. Slightly scratched.
„ 12. Surface very much damaged.
„ ] 3. Surface considerably damaged.
„ 14. Uninjured of late.
„ 15. Very little injured.

Report of Present State of Sto?iehenge. 103

No. 16. Worn by constant walking on, but otherwise not recently
damaged.
„ 16 L. Not much injured of late.

„ 17. Very badly chipped, and lately (one piece taken off measuring

lOin. x 8in.).
„ 18. Not seriously damaged.

„ 19. Very badly chipped: large pieces gone in many places.
„ 20. Damaged by footmarks only.
„ 21. Also injured by walking on.
„ 21 L. Badly worn by footmarks.
„ 22. In good condition.

„ 23. Initials recently cut, and stone chipped on the outside.

This stone, on the north side, has a crack which has
recently increased very much, and should be at once
stopped with cement or otherwise.

„ 24. In good conditon.

„ 25. Badly chipped,

„ 26. No damage. Stone too hard to be cut.

„ 27. No damage [but rabbits at work beneath it].

„ X. Much walked upon, and so injured.

„ S. 28. [Underground, and not visible.]

„ 29. Not damaged.

„ 30. A little pecked by some sharp instrument, but not much
injured.

„ 31 a. Not much injured, though slightly chipped.

„ 31 5. Two chips on this stone.

„ 32. Not damaged.

„ 33. Chipped, but not very recently.

„ 34. Not damaged lately, but a large piece was broken off about

fifteen years ago. [Rabbits at work below.]
„ 35. Worn by feet.
„ 36. Much worn by feet.
,,37. Not much damaged, except by feet.
„ 38. Damaged by feet : otherwise uninjured.
„ 39. Also damaged by feet.
„ 40. Very much worn by feet.

104

The Thirty -third General Meeting.

No.41. Much worn by feet.
„42, Slightly chipped : otherwise unhurt.
„ 43. Chipped a little : otherwise in good condition.
„ 44. Chipped, and also worn by feet.
„ 45. In fair order.

„ 46. "Very slightly damaged. ) these two stones are in

„ 47. Do. do. ' pretty good order.

^ 48. Very little injured. This stone has a curious diagonal vein

of infiltrated silex across it.
„ 49. Letters recently cut on it, and otherwise chipped.
„ 56 a. Very much worn : the surface entirely gone, from walking

on it.

„ 50 b. Surface gone by feet. [Rabbits burrowed below.]
„ A. Very much worn by feet.

9, 50 1. Mortice worn by feet ; otherwise in fair condition.
„ 51. One recent chip : otherwise in good order. This stone does
not appear to have gone any farther in the incline from
what it did many years ago.
„ 52. Very much damaged by feet, and by boys making, a slide

down it. [Rabbits burrowed below.]
„ 52 I. Not recently damaged, excepting the edge, which is worn
away by many feet.
53. Surface worn by feet : otherwise in good order.
„ 54 0. Damaged by footmarks : otherwise not injured of late.

[Rabbits burrowed below.]
„ 54 b. In fair order.
„ 54 c. In fair order.
„ 54 I a. Slightly injured on surface.
54 I b. Very badly worn on surface.
541 ^.Somewhat injured, but not very materially*
„ 55. Very badly chipped.

„ 56. Very slightly chipped : otherwise in good order.

„ S. 57. [Underground— therefore protected from injury.]

„ 58. Chipped, cut, and badly scratched.

„ 59. In good order.

„ 60. Very much injured by feet.

Report of Present State of Stonehenge. 1 05

„ 61. Also much injured by walking on.

„ 62. [Under 50 d.'j

„ 63. Very much damaged by feet.

„ 64. Upright and in good order.

„ 65. Recently injured by the carving of initials and scraping.

„ 66. Likewise recently carved and chipped.

„ 67. Under a stone, therefore not damaged.

„ 68. Worn by feet.

In addition to these stones within the area there are certain out-
lying stones, which require notice.

(a) An outlying stone, lying to E.S.E. About nine years since a
fire was lighted against this stone, when a large piece was
split off, by some accounts as large as a horse's head ; other-
wise computed at three-quarters of a hundredweight.

(l>) The " Slaughtering Stone " ; an attempt has evidently been made
(whether in ancient or modern days is uncertain) probably to
remove a corner of this stone by means of six holes cut in a
line, after the manner of breaking sarsens now practised.

(c) The " Friar's Heel/' otherwise known as the * Devil's Heel/'
much chipped, and very much inclined.

In addition to the injuries detailed above, it should be added that
scribbling with chalk all over the stones has been indulged in to a
large extent, and, though such chalk marks may not be positively
injurious, they are very disfiguring, and should not be permitted.

It should also be mentioned that rabbits have burrowed beneath
several of the stones, as has been already noticed; and this would
form a very serious item of danger, but that steps have been taken
for the banishment of that mischievous rodent, and it is sincerely
hoped that, by continued vigilance on the part of the keeper, no
injury need now be apprehended from that source.

The practical question now arises, what (under the circumstances
detailed above) is the recommendation of the deputation ? and on
this point we are of opinion, that, owing to the increase of visitors,

106 The Thirty -third General Meeting.

and bearing in mind the irreparable injury to the stones constantly
going on at the hands of thoughtless or mischievous tourists, the
time has come when the monument should be properly protected.
First, by a fence which should exclude all carriages and horses
from the area ; but in lieu of any unsightly railing which
would destroy the wild character of Stonehenge, a sunk fence, or
ha-ha, is the barrier strongly recommended, and that too at a
considerable distance beyond the trench which encircles the precincts
proper. Second, by the appointment of a caretaker, who should be
in responsible charge of the monument, with power to enforce the
regulations with which he would be provided ; who should admit
all visitors through one entrance only, near the stone known as the
" Friar's Heel " ; prevent all picnicing within the precincts ; and,
above all, prevent all injury to the stones, whether by chipping or
marking, or scratching or standing on them. Whether the salary
of such caretaker should be provided by a small entrance fee, or
otherwise, would be a matter of after consideration.
So far as regards the protection of Stonehenge.

The deputation has no desire to see the ^restoration " of Stonehenge,
and with this view is not in favour of the replacement in an upright
position of the tall leaning stone, which is so remarkable a feature
of the monument, and whose readjustment has been advocated by
many leading archseologists. At the same time perhaps means
should be used to secure it in its present position ; for the fall of
such a stone would be a dire calamity. The deputation does, how-
ever, recommend very earnestly the following precautionary measures
to be carried out as early as possible. (1) The stones 6 and 7, with
their lintel, to be pushed back into their original position, and secured
there, when the unsightly wooden props and buttresses could be re-
moved. (2) The stones 25 and 1, with their impost, to be in like
manner pushed back into position, and secured there, before they lean
farther towards the outside and fall, as they threaten to do at no
distant date, unless previously attended to. (3) The stone known as
the " Friar's Heel/' which is very much inclined, to be carefully ex-
amined, and, if pronounced unsafe, to be securely fixed. The

The Opening Meeting,

107

deputation desire to direct special notice to the three points named
above, as requiring immediate attention : but they cannot conclude
their report without advocating" with all their might the re-erection,
at the same time, of the great trilithon which fell in 1797, whose
exact position is undoubted, and whose replacement has been so
often urged by the most distinguished antiquarians, notably by the
Royal Archaeological Institute, when it met at Salisbury in 1849,
under the presidency of Mr. Sidney Herbert. Should the proper
appliances for readjusting the stones 6 and 7, and 25 and 1, mentioned
above, be procured (whether, by permission, from the Royal Dockyards
at Portsmouth, or elsewhere) it would seem an opportunity not to be
let slip, now, if ever, to re-erect the great trilithon, which, if re-
placed in position, would add so much to the grandeur and imposing
appearance of Stonehenge, and whose prostrate condition is lamented
by so many.

"We would, in conclusion, disclaim any intention of interfering
beyond our province. Stonehenge is a national monument, of such
world-wide renown, and its well-being and protection from injury
are so intimately connected with the work of the Wiltshire Archae-
ological Society, that it appears to us a paramount duty on the part
of the Society to speak out boldly on this question, and we have
therefore not hesitated to express our decided opinions.

W. Cunnington, formerly Ron. Sec. : now Fice- President.
H. Cunnington, Curator of Museum.

The President then invited any other of the gentlemen who
formed the deputation, and all of whom were present, to make any
further remarks to what had been said in their report.

Mr. Medlicott said they were called upon to make their investi-
gation of Stonehenge in consequence of letters appearing in the
papers, some of them from foreigners who cast reflection upon
England for not taking greater care of what belonged not only to
England } but to everyone everywhere who took an interest in

A. C. Smith,
H. E. Medlicott.

General Honorary Secretaries.

108 The Thirty -third General Meeting.

archreology and antiquities, and as the monument was in Wiltshire
it was considered that the Wiltshire Archaeological Society was
responsible for the condition in which it was. In drawing up their
report they were greatly aided by Mr. Cunnington's carefully-
prepared plan in his small book, which was an admirable companion
for the visitor to Stonehenge, and in which plan every single stone was
lettered and numbered. He thought hardly sufficient had been said in
the report about the depredations of the rabbits, for he was astonished
to see what an enormous amount of mischief rabbits could do. Round
the actual stones some efforts had been made, by digging them out
and stopping up their holes, to prevent the mischief, but in the
immediate contiguity of Stonehenge there were a number of barrows,
and some of them had been literally turned inside out by rabbits, they
were honeycombed through and through, and their contents scattered
around, till they looked more like heaps of chalk and flint than old
barrows covered with the ancient and pristine turf of the district.
Something had been done he knew to protect Stonehenge. There
was a caretaker, but there was very little evidence of any care being
taken. There was an innumerable quantity of broken bottles there,
and many of the stones had been made a " cock-shy " of by those
pic-nicing there. There was also any amount of straw blowing
about, owing to horses being tethered and littered among the stones,
which was very unsightly. Nearly all this would be done away
with by a sunk fence at a considerable distance round. It would
cost money, but Stonehenge was a relic worth taking every possible care
of. At any rate, if their report was adopted, he thought they would
have done as much as they could do at the present time to meet the
charges made against the Society, and against the county generally.

Mr. W. Cunnington testified to the enormously increased numbers
of people who visited Stonehenge as compared with former times,
so that the mischief was continuing and increasing. The injuries,
however slight, are irreparable, and they are constantly accumulating.
On the longest day hundreds always came to witness the sunrise from
the altar stone, though it was impossible for more than a very few
persons to see it from that point, and the majority spent a miserable
night, as he could say from experience. Much damage was done by

The Opening Meeting.

109

horses driven amongst or tethered to the stones. In one instance a
horse was thus tied up, but got hampered, and fell, and finally
kicked two large pieces off one of the stones. The trilithon which
fell in 1797 was used as a slide by boys, and it was as smooth as if
it had been French polished.

The President said the subject was one of paramount importance,
and one in which vigorous action on their part migkt really do
something. The mischiefs alluded to were evidently accumulating.
Every bit that came off Stonehenge was a bit more lost, and could
never be replaced. There were different kinds of stones in Stone-
henge,and some of them were not only very much softer in their nature
than the hard Sarsens, but were weathering and getting soft very
fast. At present we knew not exactly where they came from ; some
of them are exotic stones, and these were the very ones which were
pitched upon by the man who went there to carry away, perhaps to the
other side o£ America or to some remote English village, some little
relic as testimony to his having been to Stonehenge. These precious
stones ought to be preserved most carefully. Then came the question
of how it was to be done. The only way was, he thought, what had
been proposed by the deputation, viz., to, in some way or other, keep
the general public from meddling with the stones. This could only
be done by having somebody appointed, not merely as a general
curator, but somebody who should be practically resident there and
be supported by authority. How that authority was to be given
against the will of a landlord, of course one could not say. They
must only hope that by perpetually bringing this thing before the
public, they might arouse the interest and zeal of the landlord, so
that he and they might work together. The proposal to put a
ha-ha round was one involving considerable expense; he frankly
confessed that he did not see how that expense was to be provided,
and, further, that he did not believe it would prove an effectual
protection. He was in favour of a light iron fence, which at any
rate would be a symbol of the line within which the public was
not to be admitted without certain precautions. There should be
one entrance at which the public could be admitted, and they might,
if thought desirable, charge a very small fee for entrance. Within

1]0 The Thirty -third General Meeting*

the area enclosed let there be some authority such as was given under
Sir John Lubbock's Act, making it a legal offence to injure any
part of the grand old monument. A light iron fence that would
hardly be seen from a distance was, to his mind, preferable to either
a ha-ha or a heavy impregnable mass of iron railing. Of course
they must always have within it someone to represent the law. In
that way they might defend Stonehenge from human depredators.
Rabbits might be kept out by a rabbit fence 4ft. high, attached to
the other fence, and sunk a few inches into the ground. The law
was always a stronger fence than any of a material description. He
believed that the national sentiment in favor of preserving a
place like Stonehenge, would, when such a symbol of authority
was put up, with a man inside it — a policeman, if they liked — with
authority to arrest an offender and to assert the law, be found to be
the most economic and effectual way of performing this national duty.
Touching on that part of the report about replacing some of the
stones : no doubt they would have a great outcry about this ; for
there were many people who thought that to replace a pinnacle on
a Church tower, or an old monument that was lost, was a sort of
sacrilege. He confessed he was not one of those. He thought if
they could really restore, in the true sense of the word — replacing —
it was the best duty they could perform towards an ancient monu-
ment. The great trilithon that fell in 1797 could undoubtedly be
replaced where it was without any difficulty ; and with regard to
the leaning stone, which the deputation did not propose to restore,
he confessed he never looked at it without trembling. Any day
something might happen — a rabbit burrowing beneath it, or a frost
coming after much rain, or anything that should just shake the
small bit of earth that held the stone in its place, and that stone
would come down and crush one of the most interesting stones of
Stonehenge. Therefore, he maintained that they ought to do some-
thing to keep it in its place, or to endeavour to bring it a little
more into the perpendicular. The rubble beneath the stones being
undermined ought to be replaced with best modern cement, and
they could be then kept in their places without interference with the
aspect of the monument, or the position of the stones : and it might

The Opening Meeting,

111

then remain there for ever. He thought some immediate public steps
should be taken, by means of a public meeting, or some other method
of getting at the views of the leading men of Wiltshire, who should
treat outspokenly with this matter. He thought Sir Edmund
Antrobus should feel that he occupied a very important position in
being practically the master of this monument, and that, through
whatever channel he was most accessible, they should appeal to him
to help them to carry out that object. They did not wish to throw
any expense upon him. If he would throw the monument over to the
public the public would take care of it. Some meeting in Salisbury,
and notices put forward in a way which would touch the feelings,
not merely of the men who know Stonehenge well, but the feelings
of the whole of England, were, he thought, practicable ; and their
Society was the proper means of doing it. If no one suggested
anything else, he should propose that the meeting sanction the
appointment of a committee, or ask the Council of the Society, to
undertake this work.

Professor Rupert Jones continued the discussion, and reported
that the Geological Society, which had lately paid a visit to Stone-
henge, considered that something should be done for its preservation,
that they had communicated with General Pitt Rivers on the subject,
and tried to induce the owner to place it under national care.

The Rev. C. Soames suggested the propriety of* approaching Sir
Edmund Antrobus, and enlisting his assent and co-operation with
the Society ; and Canon Jackson advocated a general remonstrance
from the geological, antiquarian, and other scientific societies ; so
that, the question being taken up by the national societies, and not
by the Wiltshire Society alone, Sir E. Antrobus might be inclined
to listen to them.

After some further conversational discussion it was proposed by
the President " That the Council o£ the Society be hereby requested
to put itself in communication with the Archaeological, Antiquarian,
and Scientific Societies in London, with a view of common action
in the direction of carrying out some measures for the preservation
of Stonehenge." This was seconded by the Rev. C. Soames, and
unanimously agreed to.

112

The Thirty-third General Meeting.

The President then gave an address on " Barbury Castle/' into
which we will not enter here, as it will be found in extenso in another
part of this number of the Magazine. At its conclusion, and on
the subsidence of the hearty applause with which it was received,
the Rev. Canon Jackson proposed a vote of thanks to the President
for his able and interesting1 address ; and in doing so said what the
Society wanted among its Members was more men of the stamp
of the President, who. having taken a thorough and practical
interest in the locality in which he resided, had thus been able to so
accurately present to them the distinguishing features of the place
he had so well spoken of. They were exceedingly obliged to their
President for the information he had given them. The Rev. "W. C.
Plenderleath seconded the motion, and the vote having been ac-
corded with acclamation, the President expressed his acknowledg-
ments for the kindness which had been shown him, and said if he
had succeeded in fishing up anything which could throw any light
on what had taken place in past history he was more than satisfied*
He wished, however, to thank in particular his friend Mr. H. Kemble,
of Overtown — to whom his hearers owed more than to himself — for
his kindness in helping him in all sorts of ways and in providing
him with a fine ordnance map, on which the actual sites of the places
he had mentioned more particularly in his paper on " Barbury
Castle " were plainly marked.

This concluded the proceedings of the morning Meeting, on
which the company adjourned to the Quarries, where Professor
J ones pointed out the different strata and the characteristic features
of various fossils; and others to the Church and other interesting
spots in Old Swindon.

The Anniversary Dinner took place at the Goddard Arms Hotel,
at 6, p.m., the President of the Society in the chair, when the usual
loyal, patriotic, and other toasts were duly given and responded to.

A Conversazione was held at the Town Hall, at 8, p.m., at which
the President occupied the chair, when, in the absence of the Vicar
of Swindon (the Rev. H. Armstrong Hall), who had prepared a
paper on "Our Oak Chest," the Rev. J. S. Puckridge, Curate of
Swindon, read the paper, which detailed various old records of parish

Second Day, Wednesday, August Wth. 113

matters from early times. And then Professor T. Rupert Jones
gave an admirable address " On the History of Sarsen Stones/' and
in which he contrived to embody a great deal of very interesting as
well as valuable information.

A vote of thanks from the chair to the readers of these two
papers, heartily responded to by the audience, terminated the pro-
ceedings of the day.

SECOND DAY, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11th.
At nine o'clock those who had signified their intention of joining
the excursion to Liddington and Barbury Castles repaired to the
Town Hall, where sundry brakes awaited them ; and on as pleasant
a morning as excursionists could desire the party started for Wan-
borough, where the Church attracted great attention, from the
singular feature of its possessing a square tower at the west end and
a spire between the chancel and the nave. There are said to be but
three examples of this in England, and, strange to say, another of
the three is to be visited in to-morrow's excursion, viz., that of
Purton. The third example is far away from Wiltshire, viz.,
Ormskirk, in Lancashire. Here Mr. C. E. Ponting, under whose
auspices the Church has been admirably restored, read a short paper,
pointing out all that was most interesting ; but, as we look forward
to printing a paper by that gentleman on this and some other
Churches visited by the Society in this year's excursions, we will
not anticipate his remarks here. It was observed that Wanborough
lies on the summit of a hill surrounded in great part by a bank and
ditch, doubtless remains of the ramparts with which in ancient
times it was defended, for Wanborough was once a place of no small
importance, and enjoys the reputation of having been formerly " the
key of Wessex," near to which all the great highways of Wessex
converged, and in whose neighbourhood one of the fiercest and
bloodiest battles recorded in our annals was fought, as pointed out
long since by Dr. Guest. From Wanborough a short drive brought
us to Liddington, and here, too, the pretty little Church demanded
notice, and its curious tombs, said to be in memory of two Abbesses
of Canterbury, one of whom tradition declares to be the founder of
VOL. XXIII. — NO. lxviii. 1

114

The Thirty -third General Meeting.

the Church. Then we visited the old manor house, and the remains
of its wide moat, and its fine old staircase ; and then we drove to the
foot of the hill on which " Haddington/' as it is generally called, or
" Badbury " Castle, as it is sometimes more correctly designated,
stands. This is a large camp, enclosed by a bank and ditch of
considerable circuit, though not of very great height or depth : in
all probability a British fortress, though afterwards strengthened
and occupied by Romans and Saxons in turn. It was difficult to
persuade the excursionists to descend from this elevated spot, where
the magnificent views, east, north, and west, and the pleasant down
breeze on a fine morning induced them to linger, but at length the
Secretary's horn recalled the stragglers, and taking their places in
the carriages they drove on to Chiseldon, until lately a most retired
and somewhat inaccessible village, little known to any but its
immediate neighbours ; but now suddenly brought into the world
and into close connection with everywhere by means of the Swindon
and Andover Railway, which has a station in the heart of the village.
A halt was made at the Church, which seemed especially interesting
to archaeologists as the hand of the restorer has not been here to
sweep away with undistinguishing zeal, as has so often been the
case, alike that which is venerable and worthy of the utmost care,
and that which is worthless. From Chiseldon a pleasant drive
brought the excursionists to the foot of Barbury, where it was
delightful to find a tent erected by the forethought and liberality
of Mr. Henry Kemble, of Overtown, and here the welcome luncheon
was spread and thoroughly appreciated after the morning's ramble
in the appetizing air of the downs of Liddington. After luncheon
all adjourned to the square earthwork which lies at the immediate
foot of Barbury, and here labourers were at work, as they had been
on the previous day, cutting trenches and making other excavations
with a view to discover the nationality of those who had originally
constructed it : and this was satisfactorily determined, by the
quantity of fragments of Roman, and the absence of any single
particle of Brittsh pottery, throughout the excavations. While
collected round these interesting trenches, the President, in the
name of the archaeologists, offered the hearty thanks of the Society

Second Day, Wednesday, August Wth. 115

to Mrs. Kemble and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kemble for the trouble
they had so willingly undertaken on their behalf : and called for
three cheers for them, which were heartily given. To this Mr.
Kemble replied in suitable words ; and then all began to climb the
steep sides of the down to Barbury Castle ; amidst whose ramparts,
lofty banks, and deep ditches they spent a considerable time ; and
not the least interesting object of examination was a sand-pit, or
" pocket of sand/' which was pronounced to be the material from
which the sarsens, so well known to all Wiltshiremen, were formed.
On leaving Barbury the party drove straight back, through
Wroughton, to Swindon.

At the Conversazione, held in the Town Hall at 8 o'clock, Canon
Jackson read, in the happy manner peculiar to himself, a very in-
teresting paper entitled " A few Notes about Wootton Bassett and
other places around Swindon/''

At the close of the paper, the reading of which had been fre-
quently applauded, Mr. William Morkis, rising to the call of the
President, said :— On Tuesday much had been said about the necessity
for steps being taken to preserve their national monuments, and the
danger in which Stonehenge now stood was particularly pointed out,
There was a remark in Canon Jackson's paper which bore this out
very fully. The Meeting had heard that Aubrey had referred in
his Wiltshire Collections to a Druidish temple standing at Broome ;
one of the stones, called Longstone, standing 10ft. high. Canon
Jackson, in his Aubrey, had the remark : " Of the great stones
mentioned by Aubrey none are now remaining." In his capacity
as the editor of a local newspaper a correspondent had addressed a
letter to him, some five-and-twenty years ago, asking if any
explanation could be given of the disappearance of these stones.
At that time he (Mr. Morris) could give no explanation, but
it led to his making enquiries about these stones, and which
resulted in his discovering that they wTent to Cricklade to make
and mend streets and footpaths with. The facts appeared to be
these: a former inhabitant of that ancient borough had a par-
ticular weakness for good roads and footways, and when he
died he left so large an amount of land, the proceeds of which

i %

116

The Thirty -third General Meeting.

were to go to the milking and mending of roads, that a special body
of administrators called feoffees had to be created for the purpose of
carrying out the terms of the bequest. These feoffees, it would
seem, not knowing what otherwise to do with the funds they found
themselves in possession of, and possibly with a view of making a
thorough good job of the thing and saving themselves and others
trouble, purchased the remains of the Druidieal temple at Broome,
and after having them broken up they were conveyed to Cricklade,
and they now formed parts of the roads and footways of that town,
so that those who would desire now to see those ancient remains,
instead of going to Broome and looking up and measuring in their
mind's eye a stone said to be standing 10ft. high, would have to go
to Cricklade and look down at their feet as they walked along to
see the remains of this Druidieal temple. Then he (Mr. Morris)
would remark that in his opinion their neighbourhood was crowded
with objects of interest which had not yet been described or even
investigated, and which only waited to reward those who should
seek after them and enquire into their history. On the previous
day something had been said about Wanborough. But comparatively
little was known about Wanborough to what might be known if
proper time and attention was given to it. The neighbourhood of
the Nythe was literally swarming with remains and evidences of
the Roman period. But not only the Nythe; there were other
places also, and he might mention that recently when the railway
was being made from Swindon to Highworth it was discovered that
its course ran along the edge of what undoubtedly was a very con-
siderable Roman station. In this one place there were acres of
ground which bore traces most inviting to the enquirer, and which
promised him a rich reward for his labours. In the making of this
railway, although the site was only slightly touched, a number of
interesting relics and objects of interest were discovered, but un-
fortunately they had all been carried away to distant parts before he
(Mr. Morris) had heard of their discovery. There was one other
point to which he would, with the permission of the Meeting, refer.
Some few months since he had occasion to go into a field on the
Marsh Farm, a very short distance from the Swindon Wharf, for

Second Day, Wednesday, August IM. 117

the purpose of looking* for evidence bearing on a theory he had
advanced as to the water-supply to Swindon Hill. He did not find
what he was looking after, but he found other things which he did
not expect to find. At a distance of 460ft. north of the road leading
to High worth, and a short distance only from the Swindon Wharf,
he found a well-defined circle or circus, having an internal diameter
of 110ft. surrounded or enclosed by a mound 20ft. broad and 3ft.
hisrh. At a distance of 80ft. northward from this circle there was
a second circle, not so well defined, but still sufficiently clear to be
easily traced. The internal diameter of this circle was 120ft.,
surrounded by a mound 6ft. broad, and about 18in. high. Still
farther on northward there were faint traces of a third circle, but
the traces were so faint that he could give no particulars without a
more minute investigation than he had yet given to the matter.
Fortunately, when in the field he met with an old man who had
known it and worked on it for many years. He had known the
circles all his time, but could give no traditionary account of them.
But in answer to further enquiries as to other unusual marks or
features there or thereabouts, he said he knew of nothing beside
what he had always heard called " the old graves/' and he proceeded
to take him (Mr. Morris) to the south-west point of the first circus
to which he had referred, the one nearest the road, where there were
undoubted signs of long mounds like graves, and concerning which
there was the tradition that they were old graves. There was one
suggestion he would venture to make in regard to these circles and
graves, and it was this : that they belonged to the Roman period,
and were used for the purposes of sport, amusement, or personal
encounters by the people who lived at what we now know as the
Nythe, Wanborough, at Stanton Fitzwarren, and other places, and
that the graves were those of men who had played their part in
these sports or encounters, and who, meeting their deaths thereat,
were removed outside the circus and buried. This, however, was a
matter which could only be spoken to after careful investigation,
and he now only threw out the suggestion for the purpose of showing
how teeming their neighbourhood was with matter to interest the
archaeologist and the antiquarian. It had been his intention to

118

The Thirty-third General Meeting.

have asked Mr. Goddard, the owner of the field, for permission to
explore this interesting relic, and although this opportunity had
passed, he hoped that now that the matter had been brought before
the public some steps would be taken to investigate it.

In thanking Mr. Morris on behalf of the Meeting for his remarks,
the President re-echoed the hope that steps would be taken to
investigate the matter thoroughly.

This was followed by a paper on " Ringsbury Camp/'' by the
Rev. W. H. E. Mc. Knight, which, in the absence of that gentleman,
was very kindly read by Mr. James Sadler, of Purton; and then
Mr. William Cunnington, F.G.S., exhibited and commented on
several specimens of skulls of the dolichocephalic form, which had
been taken from the famous long barrow known as " Bowlsbury
Tump/5 near Heytesbury, opened by himself and Mr. Henry
Cunnington, Hon. Curator of the Society, under the auspices of
this Society, in June last. The skulls found are of much interest,
all of them being of the long (dolichocephalic) shape. They confirm
the views of our late fellow-Member, Dr. Thurnham, who first
discovered the fact that the people who erected the long barrows
possessed longer skulls than those of the people of the round barrows,
who succeeded them, and longer than those of any of the modem
races of Europeans. They are apparently the most ancient inhabi-
tants of this island of whom any record exists. No implements of
metal of any kind have been found in their interments, and their
pottery is of the rudest kind, without any ornaments. The only
traces of art found in Bowls Barrow are flint flakes, struck off in
making implements, and an oval quartzite pebble, which has been
used at both ends as a hammer. The skulls, or fragments of skulls,
of at least fourteen individuals were found on the late occasion :
more than half of these had been cleft or fractured, apparently at the
time of death. Several of them were shown at the Meeting; also
specimens illustrating the differences between the long skulls of the
long barrow type, and the shorter skulls o£ the round barrow period.

As all these papers will appear in the Magazine, they need not be
further mentioned here : needless, too, to say that their authors were
severally thanked from the chair, and that the approbation of the

Thursday, August !2tM. 119

audience was made very manifest. Before leaving the room, the
President expressed, on behalf of the Society, their gratitude to
the inhabitants of Swindon generally for the kind, courteous, and
hospitable way in which they had been received ; to the Secretaries
of the Meeting more especially (Mr. Kinneir, Mr. Shopland, and
Mr. Radway) , for all the trouble taken by those gentlemen on their
behalf, and which had resulted in a very successful Meeting ; and
last, but not least, to Major Dean, for the facilities he had granted
to such of the Members as were wise enough to avail themselves of
them, for seeing the celebrated Locomotive and Carriage Works of
the G. W. R. Company.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 12th.
The excursionists were favoured with another fine day for their
expedition to Wootton Bassett and Purton. Again they mustered
at the Town Hall at 9, a.m., and soon after started for Wroughton,
where the very interesting Church required so much more time for
examination than had been anticipated, that the punctuality which
generally prevails in the Society's proceedings was on this occasion
sadly at fault throughout the remainder of the day. From
Wroughton a steep hill and a narrow road conducted to the vale
below, and then a pleasant drive brought the archaeologists to the
house of their President, who, with Mrs. Story Maskelyne and their
daughters, was ready at the hall steps to receive their numerous
visitors, and all of whom most kindly devoted themselves to pointing
out the valuable collections and the many choice specimens of art
with which this charming house is filled : for here were to be seen
and studied not only the admirable collection of gems, whose
reputation is so wide-spread ; but such china, such pictures, and
such other precious objects as are seldom seen collected in one
country house. Nor was the hospitality of the house behindhand,
for, though the hour of the visit was too early to admit of refresh-
ments of a substantial character, there was a loving cup in which
the President pledged his guests and they returned the compliment :
and then the Rev. A. C. Smith, in the name of the Society,
thanked Mr. and Mrs. Story Maskelyne and their daughters for the
pains they had taken to point out the treasures which the house

120 The Thirly-iUrd, General Meeting.

contained, and for their kindness and hospitality; to which the
President suitably responded : and then en route was the word
given ; and, some on foot for Binknoll Camp direct, and some in
the carriages for the base of the hill on which that strong* little
triangular camp is perched, all started from Bassett Down : but
again the delay of the morning was repeated, and before the last
straggler had descended from Binknoll Camp and the carriages
were in motion for Wootton Bassett, that town should have been
reached^ However, once arrived, the archaeologists soon found
objects of interest : the Church, indeed, handsome structure as it is,
did not delay them long, as it has been re-built in recent days, and
contains but little of the old fabric. But in the primitive building
used as the Town Hall were exhibited for the gratification of the
Society some interesting objects belonging to the Corporation — an
institution that at the end of a few months will cease to exist owing
to the operation of the new Municipal Act of Parliament. Besides
an elaborate sword of state there was a pair of curious small silver
maces. They are of an earlier date than is usually found; they
measure 14in. in height, and consist of a shaft with two knops
surmounted by a bowl with a cresting of fleur-de-lys, a goud deal
of this ornament, however, has worn away. Within the bowl is
engraved a shield bearing the royal arms surmounted by the date
1603. There is no hall mark, but this probably indicates about the
time they were made ; the letters e.s. are also found engraved on
them. At the lower part of the mace are five projecting flanges.
These are somewhat curious, as they represent really the origin of
the corporation mace, which is the military weapon turned upside
down. In later and more common examples the bowl is much
enlarged, and is surmounted by the royal crown, but the Wootton
Bassett examples clearly indicate the transition by retaining the
flanges at the bottom in a diminished form. These constituted the
head of the flanged or laminated maces of iron and steel used in
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The core of these maces is of
iron covered with plates of silver. In their present form they might
be used as weapons with considerable effect, and from the worn
appearance of the cresting they almost look as if they had been so

Thursday, August l'2tk, 121

used. It is much to be desired that these two interesting objects
should find a resting-place in the British Museum now that there is
no longer a legitimate use for them at Wootton Bassett. At the
house of Mr. Cooksey the visitors were shown, amongst other
interesting local antiquities, a set of twelve roundels of unusual
design. These tablets are very thin pieces of sycamore wood of
circular form, usually decorated with floriated ornaments in colour,
and inscribed with texts and quaint stanzas conveying moral ad-
monitions, &c. They were in vogue in the time of Queen Elizabeth,
and probably used for some purpose at the table-board. The present
examples are perhaps of rather later date, they are similar to a set
of roundels exhibited at the York Meeting of the Institute, in ] 846,
having engraved representations of the sybils, coloured, and sur-
rounded by prophecies, in verse, inscribed on their margins.

On leaving Wootton Bassett, the excursionists next drove to
Kingsbury Camp, to which Mr. James Sadler conducted them:
and much astonished many of our Wiltshire archaeologists were to
find so extensive an area surrounded by so perfect a ditch and bank,
in this secluded spot, far away from the downs where such entrench-
ments mostly congregate. Considerable doubt, however, was ex-
pressed by many whether this was a camp or fortified place at all :
for, like Avebury and similar enclosures of a peaceful character, the
ditch was on the inside and the bank on the outside, which arrange-
ment is generally held to indicate that they were not intended for
defence. But, whatever its origin and intention, Kingsbury is a
very interesting spot, and deserves to be more carefully examined
than was possible in an excursion.

Purton was soon reached after leaving Kingsbury, and here, in
the magnificent hall of the Institute, a substantial luncheon was
prepared, which was doubly welcome after the prolonged morning's
excursion. At its conclusion the Kev. A. C. Smith called on the
Society to join him in a vote of thanks to their President, who was
now, he regretted to say, come to the end of his term of office : to
Mr. Maskelyne we were indebted for much of the success of our
Meetings, for he had presided over us with ability, and had infused
a heartiness and genial warmth into our proceedings. In his reply

12 2 History of the Sarsens.

the President again enforced his opinion that in its excursions the
Society attempted too much, and earnestly advocated a more confined
area, and greater time for examination of each object of interest
within that limited district.

Purton Church, with its tower and steeple, were next visited, and
here a considerable time was spent, for the venerable building is of
very great interest, but for all particulars we refer to Mr. Ponting's
notes. Then a fine old manor house hard by demanded notice, and
the archaeologists were courteously permitted to explore it from
garret to cellar. A short halt at the Church of Lydiard Millicent
was all that time allowed, and the visit to Lydiard Tregoz was,
perforce, abandoned. And then Swindon was reached, and so ter-
minated a most successful Meeting.

fBistoig of tjw ^limits-

By Professor T. Rtjpeht Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c.

Contents.
I. — -Introduction — The Sarsens.
II.— Size of the Sarsens.

III. — Constitution of the Sarsens.

IV. — Origin of the name " Sarsen."
V.— Geological History of the Sarsens.

VI. — Prof. Prestwich and others on the Sarsens.
VII. — Fossil Roots in the Sarsens.

VIII.— Appendix. I. — Notes from the Geological Survey
Memoirs, &c. II. — Reference to the Guide to the
Antiquities of North Wilts. III. — Bibliographical
List.

I. — Introduction— The Sarsens.

iN" the south and south-eastern districts of England these
large stones are spread about the country, especially in
Kent, Surrey, Berks, and Wilts. They lie thickly in some places,
especially a little to the west of Marlborough (near the village of
Kennet they look like a great flock of sheep, hence their name

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.8., F.G.S., Sfe. 123

f Grey- wethers " 1 ) ; and are thinly scattered elsewhere, among the
heather of the downs and the grassy herbage of low grounds, or
peeping out on arable fields. They often lie along hedge-rows
where they have been hauled and left by the farmer. Many have
been buried out of the way of the plough. Hundreds were formerly
to be seen about the country in cromlechs, standing stones, and
ancient circles ; but of these comparatively very few remain. Not
unfrequently Sarsens are found in the gravel-beds of the surface.
Being the only durable stone in some districts, innumerable blocks
have been used as stepping-stones in brooks and wet lanes, — as
border-stones for ponds, — as corner-stones along roads and village
streets, — as foundation-stones in churches, bridges, houses, barns,
and outbuildings, — as building-stones in large and small edifices,
castles, churches, houses, cottages, and various walls. Enormous
quantities have been broken up for making and mending roads, also
for paving and gate-posts. The art of breaking and destroying
the very largest has long been known and freely used, namely, by
lighting narrow streaks of firewood across a block and pouring cold
water on the heated lines, and then bringing the sledge-hammer
into play on the pieces. So also a line of shallow pits chipped
across the surface gives a line of weakness for breakage.

When exposed on the Downs these stones are often grey with
lichen ; and their own colour varies from brown to a yellowish tint
and grey. In shape they are usually more or less quadrangular 7
longer than broad, and much broader than thick. They may be
plain and smooth, or undulating and irregular with hollows on the
surface. One face is usually flatter than the other. They often
occur broken in two with a sharp, clean, straight fracture across
their length.

II. — Size of the Sausens.

On the Frimley Ridges, Surrey : — >

Length. Breadth. Thickness. Cubic Measurement. Weight.

Feet. Feet. Feet. Feet. Tons.

12 5 2 120 8i

1 " The Grey Wethers which lye scattered all over the downes about Marie-
borough, and incumber the ground for at least seven miles in diameter," &c.
" I have mett with this kind of stones sometimes as far as from Christian Malford

124

History of the Sarsenx.

About two miles N.W. of Lambourn, Berks, the following- have
been measured : — 1

Length.

Breadth.

Thickness.

Solid Contents

Weight

No.

Feet.

Feet.

Feet.

in cubic feet.

Tons.

1.

3

2-5

1

7-5

i

2.

4

2

8 5

28

2

8.

4

4

2

32

2i

4.

10-5

2

2

42

3

6.

5

3

8-5

52-5

6.

8

3-5

2

56

4

7.

8

55

1 to 2

66 (about)

4|

8.

12

6

1

72

5

9.

6-5

6.5

2

84-5

6

10.

9

5

2

90

6*

11.

8

8-5

5

340

In "Welford- Woodlands, near Hangmanstone Lane, Berks :—

Length. Breadth. Thickness. Solid Contents "Weight.

Feet. Feet. Inches. in cubic feet. Tons.

10—12 9 25 108 (about) 13i (about)

At Wormstall Farm, south of and not far from Wickham, Berks,
there is a large flat Sarsen, nearly two tons in weight.

On the north side of the Kennet, in a valley near Marlborough,
there is a conspicuous block, 13ft. long, 10ft. broad, 7ft. thick,
containing about 850 cubic feet, and weighing about 57 tons. " This
looks like a small hut at a distance." (Whitaker.)

At Avebury (Aubury or Abury), in the great circle, is one of
these stones 16ft. high, and estimated to weigh 63 tons. One
nearly in the " Kennet Avenue" is 12ft. high, 6Jft. broad, and
3ift. thick.

Lord Pembroke (Stukeley tells us) estimated the " general

in Wilts to Abingdon, and on the downes about Royston, &c, as far as Hunting-
don, are here and there those Sarsden-stones." Aubrey's " Natural History of
Wiltshire," edited, &c, by John Britton, 1847, p. 44.

" Greywethers .... These Downes look as if they were sowen with
great stones very thick," &c, p. 314. Aubrey and Jackson, 1862,
1 Mem. Geol. Surv., Sheet 13, 1861.

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.8., F.G.S., fyc. 125

weight 33 of the stones at Avebury u at above fifty tun " ; and some
were thought to be 70 tons (Dr. Stephen Hale).

One of the small circular sets is said to have had a stone 21ft.
high. Wilts Mag., (No. 33, February, 1869,) vol. xi., p, 344:—
" Extracts from a Common-place Book of Dr. Stukeley." "West of
Abury is another entrenchment sett with stones, one whereof makes
the end of a barn.-"

u My IA Pembroke says the stones are of 200 Tun weight each
at Abury. (90 tons would be more nearly correct. — Ed.) 33

Wilts Mag. (No. xli., March, 1874), vol. xiv., p. 230. From
Stukeley's MS. Notes. Rev. Bryan King (Abury). "The bulk
of the stones tho' not hewn generally f. square 10 cub. 4 or 5
thick."

At Stonehenge the outer Sarsens mostly stand 12ft. 7in. out of
the ground, and are about 6ft. broad, and 3ft. 6in. thick (about
273 cubic feet, and about 17 tons in weight 1 ) . The imposts are
about 10ft. long, 3ft. 6in. broad, and 2ft. Sin. thick. (The "altar-
stone," which is not a Sarsen, is 16ft. 2in. long, 3ft. 2in. broad, and
1ft. 9in. thick.)

In the Wilts Mag., vol. x., the Rev. A. C. Smith, referring to
the size of fche Wiltshire Sarsens, notes that " the highest stone at
Stonehenge is computed to measure under 25 feet, whilst the largest
stone at Avebury is scarcely 20 feet in height, and its weight about
62 tons 33 ; and this, being thick, is said by Messrs. Cunnington
and Long 2 " to be the most massive Sarsen stone in Wiltshire." 3

1 " By hill-tribes in India large long stones, 20 tons in weight, are carried up
hills, 4000 feet high, in a few hours, by a horizontal arrangement of crossed
bamboos with men in the interstices ; and then one end is let down into a hole
and the stone raised upright in it by hauling up the carrying framework of
interlaced poles. See also the Eev- A. C. Smith's paper on " The Method of
Moving Colossal Stones." Wilts Mag., vol. x., 1866, pp. 52-59. A plan of
investing the stones with parallel timbers, and then rolling them has also been
alluded to.

"Multorum manibus grande levatur onus." — (Ovid). The Society's motto.

2 Wilts Mag., vol. iv., p. 336. " The specific gravity of Sarsen stone is about
2"500 or 2\ times greater than water. The weight per cubic foot is 154 pounds."

3 A large stone stood at Avebury a few years since ; its weight was not less
than 90 tons. Idem, p. 336.

1£6

History of Ike Sarsens.

In the gravels and brick-earths of Surrey, Berks, and Wilts
water-worn Sarsens and more or less rounded fragments are of fre-
quent occurrence. Some of the more usual sizes are : —

Length.

Breadth.

Thickness.

Indies.

Inches.

Inches.

23

19

15

23

24

7

17

8

10

III. — Constitution of the Sarsens.

In their composition the Sarsens are sandy, — in fact they consist
of quartz sand, either fine or coarse (grit), sometimes with pebbles
and angular bits of flint in greater or less quantities. As to their
structure, their internal appearance very roughly resembles, in most
cases, that of broken loaf-sugar ; hence it is said to be " saccharoid "
or " saecharoidal " ; sometimes they are more closely crystalline.
In the middle they are dense and hard, the sand-grains being close-
set and strongly cemented with silica (the same natural substance
as the quartz and flint) . The sand has been derived from very old
rocks containing or made of quartz ; such as granite, quartzites, and
quartz- veins in schists. The first-named is the most likely source ;
and, while the quartz-grains remained, after its degradation, to form
sand-beds, and the mica was floated away to a distance, the de-
composed felspar yielded the kaolin to form the clay-beds associated
with the sands of the Tertiary formations, and free silica also
sufficient in some instances to cement the sands into blocks, if not
as whole beds. The flint pebbles have been derived from the Chalk.

On their surfaces they are often soft and friable : the sand-grains
either not having been closely cemented, or having lost their holding
power. The sand itself is white and pellucid, or colourless ; but it
is stained1 very generally with iron-oxide or natural iron-rust.
Hence the stones very often have an irony, rusty, or ferruginous
colour of more or less intensity ; and the outer part is frequently

1 Noted also by Mr. W. Cunnington, as quoted by Mr. W. Long, Wilts Mag. ,
vol. x., pp. 71—74.

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., Sfc. 127

hardened into a brown crust by this oxide. Fossils are extremely
rare in them, excepting some remains of plants, to be alluded to by
and by.

Certain differences in constitution on the large scale, though the
majority are uniformly solid throughout, have caused some Sarsens
to have a lumpy structure, showing roundish portions throughout
the mass, especially when much weather-worn, just as if the material
had concreted at and around points at irregular distances apart, and
with varying results from unequal power of aggregation : hence
concretionary structure, with large or small irregular sandy kernels
of greater or less hardness and persistency.

Occasionally a laminated structure is met with, visible only on
the weather-worn faces of some blocks.

Lastly, the numerous superficial hollows and internal cavities may
be taken as belonging to structure, because they have been eaten
out, or worn bigger and deeper, by the natural agencies brought
to bear by wind and water on the soft parts of the stones, such
as soft lumps and lines in the mass, that is, spots and streaks of
weak material.

IV. — Origin of the Name " Sarsen.-"
These " Greywethers/' " Druidstones," " Sarsdens," 1 " Sarsens,"
or " Sassen/-' have received the last names, as the Rev. John Adams
has suggested (Transact. Newbury District Field-Club, vol. i., 1871,
p. 117, and Geolog. Mag., vol. x., p. 199), probably from the Saxon
Sar (Engl, grievous, troublesome; Scotch, sair), and Stan (a stone) ;
for they must have been sore hindrances 2 to the early clearers of the
land, — as, indeed, not unfrequently they are now.

1 There is a village, Sarsden, in Oxfordshire, three and three-quarter miles
from Chipping-Nortou ; and Sarson is a tything of Andover in Hampshire. Mr.
Swayne reminds me that Aubrey suggests that Sarsden, in Hampshire, had or
may have had something to do with Sarsens. Canon Jackson and the late
Poulett Scrope, he tells me, went there to see if there were any vestige of them,
and found none. Sarsden (or Sarson) is in Amport parish, near Andover, and
lies on the Chalk.

2 " When you spoke of the ' sore stones ' [in a lecture at Newbury, in 1880] I
thought of the struggle I had had with the boulders during some twenty months
of railway-construction in Sweden." Letter to T. R. J., from Mr. Henry Fidler,
December 4th, 1880.

128

History of the Sarsens.

Among1 the several suggestions about the origin of the word it
has been thought " Saracen" was the term applied opprobriously,
and softened to " Sarsen"; but neither old Saxon nor Briton knew
anything of the Saracens. The Latin word Saxa (stones) is better
than the last as a root (John Phillips) ; and the Roman landowners
must have known them well in the fields which their slaves worked
and the walls they built (Silchester, for instance) ; but the Saxon
derivation seems to be quite satisfactory.

Other derivations have been suggested for " Sarsen" or " Sarsden. M
Wilts Mag., vol. v. (No. 14, November, 1858), p. 168. Mr. W.
Cunnington, quoted by Mr. W. Long", states: — " According to Mr.
Falkner, of Devizes, the Anglo-Saxon word for a rock or stone is
Ses,] in the plural Sesen or Sesan. The letter e in Sesan is sounded as
e in there, ai in fair, and as e in apres. The people where the stones
are found (on the Marlborough Downs) call them Sasens or Sassens ;
so that perhaps the word Sarsen is no other than the Anglo-Saxon
word for rocks properly pronounced, as many other words from the
same origin are in the present day." So also R. Falkner's note in
the Geol. Mag., 1874, p. 96, with which the above has been
collated.

Mr. H. J. F. Swayne, of the Island, Wilton, kindly reminds me
that Aubrey, in his " Natural History of Wiltshire " (edited by
J. Britton for the Wiltshire Topographical Society, 1847), which
appears to have been written between 1656 — 84, says, at p. 44,
that the stones called " Grey Wethers which lye scattered all
over the downes about Marlborough .... are also (far from
the rode) commonly called Sarsdens or Sarsdon stones."

Mr. Swayne also has been so good as to refer me to an entry in
the Marlborough Corporation Book, given by the late F. A.
Carrington, Esq., in a paper on the Old Market House, &c, at
Marlborough, Wilts Mag., vol. iii., 1857, p. Ill, thus : —

1673. Reed, for the Market House (first time since the fire), 40u. Paid for
two loads of sarazen stones, 8s."

Mr. Swayne himself thinks that these blocks were so called as

1 See Bosworth's "Anglo-Saxon Dictionary" (Addenda), 8vo, London, 1838.

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.8., F.G.S., Sfc. 129

being " outlandish." My notion, however, is that the word
" Saracen " has been applied since Saxon times by those who,
not knowing Saxon words, applied something, having a near sound,
that they did know ; and this word " Saracen " was foreign and
opprobrious enough for these awkward mysterious stones. Indeed,
as Mr. Swayne intimates, they were in a peculiar sense "outlandish"'''
to the peasants, for they believed (and some still believe) that both
the blocks and the field-flints grow out of the land.

In Palsgrave's Dictionary " Sarsin " is a Saracen. In HalliwelPs
"Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words/'' 1850, we find: —
"Sarsens. Round bolder stones. Wilts." (They are not round,
nor are they true boulders.) Omitted in the new edition, 1859, by
Halliwell & Wright. In dictionaries Saraseyn or Saresyn comes
close to " Sai*sen," and suggests itself as a verbal ally ; and, in the
sense of heathen or pagan, it has had warm supporters as the root
of Sarsen. As the " heathen " are the Heath-men (out of the reach
of civilization, &c), and as Sarsens are Heath-stones, there is a
roundabout association, but not intended.

In Richard Symonds' " Diary of the Marches kept by the Royal
Army/'' &c., edited by C. E. Long for the Camden Society, 1859,
the term " Saracens'' Stones " is applied to Sarsens thus : — " Tuesday
[12th Nov., 1644] .... to Marlingsborough, where the
King lay .... the troopes to Fyfield, two myles distant, a
place so full of a grey pibble stone of great bignes as is not usually
seene ; they breake them, and build their houses of them and walls,
laying mosse betweene, the inhabitants calling them Saracens'
Stones, and in this parish, a myle and halfe in length, they lye so
thick as you may goe upon them all the way. They call that place
the Grey-weathers, because a far off they looke like a flock of
sheepe" (p. 151). Quoted by Mr. Long, Wilts Mag., vol. xvi.,
1876, in his remarks on the " Geological character of the Stonehenge
Stones/'' pp. 68 — 74. Possibly the gallant soldier, not under-
standing the local word " Sarsens," confounded it with the somewhat
similar word " Saracens," with which he was acquainted. So also
he mixes the place and the stones under the name Greywethers.

In the Notes and Queries, vol. xi., 1855, pp. 369 and 494,

VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVIII. K

130 History of the Sarsens.

" Sarsen " is referred to " Saresyn," as applied by the Saxons to
pagans and heathens in general, and to stones grouped in temples
popularly attributed to heathen worship, and hence called Saresyn
or heathen stones. " J.W [aylen] ."

Mr. Long, in the Wilts Mag., (Nos. xlvi.— xlvii.,"June, 1876),
vol. Xvi—" Stonehenge and its Barrows"— pp. 1—241 ; pp. 68—74,
« Geological character of the Stonehenge Stones/' observes that 1
Sarsen or Saresyn may mean pagan stone ; for " Sarrasin " is com-
monly given on the Continent to any roads and buildings of Celtic
or Roman construction (prior to the Christian era). He quotes j
Waylen's " History of Marlborough/' p. 529, and H. L. Long's
" Survey of the Early Geography of Western Europe" (quoting
French arehseologists, &c.), p. 105.

Mr. Bristow (Catal. Rock-specimens, 1862, p. 163) supports this
derivation from " Saracen," and says that the word " Saracen" is
applied in some parts of England to any foreigner, and that the )f
Sarsens in popular belief were originally brought by foreigners. "In
Cornwall large heaps of refuse from the mines are known by the
name of Attle-Saracen, or heaps of rubbish left there by the Sara-
cens." These Orientals, however, could not have been known to
the Britons or the old Saxons (though there is a reference to an
army of Saracens in a book written in Anglo-Saxon, Jud. c. 16),
nor to the English generally until the time of the Crusades. Nor
do we find the epithet " Saracen" applied to Stonehenge or Abury
(both Saxon terms), or to any other heathen temple or monument
in this county, as Mr. Adams truly observes ; and he adds that
these stones must have had a local name before Saracens were heard
of in this country, and it is unlikely that it would have been re-
placed by so vague a term as " Saracen." Rev. John Adams, he. cit.

V. — Geological History of the Sarsens.
In order to understand the circumstances under which these great
irregular blocks of stone were formed and deposited, those who are
not well acquainted with geology must ignore the present geography
of the country, and bear in mind that in bygone ages there were in
this district sand-beds accumulated perhaps 100ft. above their heads,

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., 8fc. 131

and that the region was at a much lower level than now, and was
covered by the sea. The water, charged with silex, filtering among
the sand-grains, cemented them here and there, making these great
blocks of concreted stone, which accordingly formed irregular sand-
stone beds, interrupted by spaces, where no concretionary action
went on.

The sands of the Woolwich -and-Reading Beds are some of those
that underwent this concretionary change at places ; also those of
the Bagshot-Sand series. The relative successional order (from
above downward) of these formations is as follows : —

Upper. 300ft. thick in Berks ; with a few pebbles,
and with a pebble-bed at the base (Q.J.G.S.,
vol, xlii., p. 414).
Middle. 20ft- in Berks ; with a few small pebble-beds.

Barton Clay and Bracklesham Beds ; 400ft.
in Isle of Wight, with a pebble-bed.
[_ Lower. 150ft. in Berks ; with a few small pebble-beds.
i f London Clay and Bognor Beds. 500ft. in Essex ; 60ft. in
f & I Western Berks ; 15ft. near Great Bedwyn, Wilts ;

^ -j 0 in Marlborough Forest.

I Basement-bed of the London Clay. With pebble-beds. Near
L London 2 to 5ft; west of London, 9ft. to 0.

"Old-Haven Beds (Whitaker). 30ft. in Kent : 0 to the
west.

Woolwich-and-Reading Beds. 50ft. near London and

p Bagshot Sands.
A

* §

d
o

in Berks ; in Wilts, 15ft. (Great Bedwyn) ; j g
0 further west. I t>

I 0 further west. J

£ (JThanet Sands. 60ft. in West Kent ; 0 in Berks.
CRETACEOUS.— Chalk.

The above table indicates that the " London Tertiaries " thin out
westward ; consequently in Wiltshire the Bagshot Beds get gradually
to lie nearer to the Chalk, which persists throughout the south-east
of England. Not far west of Marlborough Forest the Woolwich-
and-Reading Beds, as well as the London Clay and its Basement-
bed, all disappear, and consequently the Bagshot Beds must have
lain directly on that rock, just where the " Grey wethers " occur in the
greatest number. Hence these blocks near about Clatford are most
probably the concretionary sandstones of the Bagshot Sands. See
Tig. 1. In Berks the Sarsens for the most part were derived also
from the Bagshot Beds, though some may have come from the out-
cropping edges of denuded Beading Beds. In Surrey the Bagshot
Sands were surely their source, for they lie on surfaces 200ft. and

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F,R.S., F.G.S., 8fc. 133

more above the Reading Beds still undisturbed below. In Kent,
Middlesex, and Hertfordshire the Woolwich-and-Reading Beds were
the more prolific source of these blocks.

Doubtless many blocks were forcibly moved away from their
parent beds and knocked about as the strata were denuded at their
edges by encroaching waters, but where the stones lie flat over wide
areas, or have been arranged in an orderly manner in superficial
hollows with brick-earth made out of the beds themselves, doubtless
they were " quietly let down during the slow denudation and re-
moval of the softer material of the beds of which they once formed
a part." Whitaker, Geol. Mem., Explan. Sheet 7, p. 72.

In the gravel on Crawley or Portisbury Hill, above Camberley, a
spur of the Frimley Ridges, very fresh Sarsens are met with. The
Upper Bagshot Sand has here been denuded and replaced with the
high-level ferruginous flint gravel ; and in this the Sarsens lie, their
mother-sand having been removed from above and around them,
but still almost in contact with their convex lower face.

Sarsens are very often found in the patches and pockets of sand,
brick-earth, and gravel on the Chalk,1 and usually are then much
eroded and worn. These materials are the remnants of Tertiary Beds
once lying, perhaps thick, on the Chalk, together with some of the
flint of the denuded Chalk itself. On Barbury Down (and probably
elsewhere) occasionally a green-coated flint, peculiar to the lowest
stratum of the Woolwich-and-Reading Beds, may be picked up,
showing that these beds contributed some of the alluvial spoil of
that region, and possibly, as far as they reached, some of the Sarsens.

1 Near Wycombe, Nobles, Napple Common, Walter's Ash, Denman Hill,
Bryant's Bottom, Hampden Row, &c, also in the Marlborough Railway-cutting",
at Inkpen, and many other places. Sarsens are particularly abundant in the
gravel of the Kennet Valley, near Newbury.

Dr. Joseph Stevens, in his papers " on Sarsens, Grey wethers, Druid Stones,"
read before the Winchester and Brighton Natural History Societies in 1874 (see
the bibliographic list), after noting the distribution, origin, and structure of
these sandstone blocks, considers their drifting, or removal from the original
sands, to have been coeval with the formation of the Brick-earth on the high
Chalk tracts, which is inferred to have been deposited at the close of the Glacial
Period. Geolog. Record, vol. i., p. 35, and vol. h\, p. 37.

History of the Sarscn.s.

The many pebbly blocks of Sarsen stones might at first sight
suggest that the pebbly Woolwich Beds must have been their
especial source, as, indeed they are of the " Hertfordshire Pudding-
stone"; but there are many pebbly specimens in Surrey (Wish-
moor, &c), and indeed some concretionary blocks in place in the
Frimley Ridges were found to be pebbly. Mr. Prestwich stated
that " The well-known blocks of light-coloured or nearly white
saccharoid sandstone are met with chiefly in the upper beds of these
sands, generally just below the gravel. They are found by sounding
the sands and gravel with iron rods.1 Some of these concretions
attain a size of 10ft. to 12ft. across, and 3ft. to 4ft. thick. Flint
pebbles, sometimes only slightly rounded and angular, at other
times perfectly rounded, occur in them. The sandstone is friable
when first excavated, but hardens by exposure." Q. J. G. S., vol.
iii., pp. 384, 385 ; and fig. 3, p. 38.

Such blocks were also exposed in similar positions by the railway-
cutting through the Frimley Ridges from Woking to Aldershot ;
and the stone was used in bridges, &c.

In the Lower Bagshot Beds (Q. J. G. S., vol. x., p. 382) Mr.
Prestwich noticed " a few concretionary masses of saccharoid sand-
stone, which are more compact and harder than those in the upper
sands, and by no means so abundant."

In Hampshire, on a surface far above the Woolwich beds, there
are pebbly Sarsens. Seven localities of Tertiary sandstone blocks
near Southampton and Winchester are mentioned in the Geol. Mag.,
vol. iii., p. 297, 1866. Four of them were in gravel, and consisted
of a small-grained, heavy, and whity -brown saccharoid sandstone ;
two of the specimens contained small partially rounded flint pebbles.
Three measured : —

Length.

Breadth.

Thickness.

Inches.

Inches.

Inches.

43

19

23i

23

19

15

23

24

7

1 The stones so obtained are chipped into small squares for paving, and are
called Frimley Stone. The holes left by the diggers are dangerous in hunting.
Frimley Church and Yorktown Church are largely built of these stones. .. .

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.8., 8fc. 135

Mr. T. Codrington, F.G.S., notes that " Fragments of Sarsen or
Grey wether Sandstone are met with everywhere [in the Hampshire
gravel] , and blocks of considerable size are found in the gravel of
the cliffs between Southampton Water and Gosport, and near
Southampton, at 170 feet above the sea. A block of puddingstone
. is stated to have come from the gravel of Hordwell
Cliff." Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxvi., 1870, p. 535.

In the Wilts Mag. (No. 33, February, 1869), vol. xi., p. 348,
Mr. W. Cunnington stated of one of the imposts of the outer
circle of Stonehenge (the only one remaining in situ towards the
north-west), near the trilithon that fell in 1797 — its " upper portion
to the depth of a few inches, consists of a conglomerate of flints and
sand/'' " Masses of Sarsen made up entirely ol a similar conglomerate
of chalk-flints frequently occur in the neighbourhood of Standen,
near Hungerford, but they are not found in the middle or southern
districts of Wilts/' W. C[unnington] .

One such, but much worn, pudding-stone was found by Messrs.
H. Nevil Story Maskelyne and W. Cunnington on Barbury Down in
August, 1886. It is perforated by rootlet pipes between the pebbles
from one face to another.

In the chapter on Erratic Blocks in his " Geology of the S. E.
of England," 1833, pp. 48 — 50, Dr. Mantell noticed the occurrence
of both " blocks " and " boulders " of the Grey wether or Druid
Sandstone (sometimes containing flints l) on the Sussex Downs ;
and many much-worn boulders he observed in the old shingle-bed
or " raised beach " at Brighton. He adds : — " Upon comparing the
sandstone of Stonehenge with that of Sussex no perceptible differ-
ence can be detected ; and in this County, as in Wiltshire, they
have been employed by earlier inhabitants as landmarks to denote
the boundaries of towns and villages, or to commemorate the site
of battles, — as sepulchral stones, to perpetuate the memory of their
chiefs, — and as altars on which to sacrifice to their gods." A
Sarsen " placed at the corner of Ireland's Lane, in St. Ann's parish,
forms the western boundary of the Borough of Lewes/'

1 " The small fragments of a dark-green substance " referred to by Mantell as
occurring in this sandstone may possibly be glauconite.

]86

History of the Sanctis.

In the "Geologist," vol. v., for L862, p. 449, Mr. Bensted states :
"The Druid Sandstone, of which rock Kits Coty House, Stonehenge,
iind other remains are composed, is found scattered in great blocks
over the surface of the Chalk hills (near Maidstone), or buried
superficially in the beds of clay retained in the hollows on the sum-
mits of the escarpments/'' Mr. Bensted also met with fragments
of the flint conglomerate on the Maidstone Hills (p. 450).

The following is an interesting record, by the Rev. Osmond
Fisher, F.G.S., of the conditions under which some Sarsens occur
in Dorsetshire : — " Close to the village of Broad mayne, about five
miles (south-east) from Dorchester, on the Wareham road, are several
blocks of Druid Sandstone, in two fields on each side of the road,
close to a farm-house, marked ' Little Mayne ' on the map. These
blocks have been a puzzle to the local archaeologists, who have en-
deavoured to give them an antiquarian value, and to explain their
arrangement as belonging to some ancient so-called ' Druidical '
work. They are, however, a natural deposit, and, as I conceive, are,
so to speak, in situ ; that is to say, they have not travelled any
distance from the place where they were formed. The locality is
on the line of junction with the Chalk of a small outlier of the
Lower Tertiaries. These beds are extremely variable in character;
and at this spot a fine, sharp, white sand crops out on the north
side of the shallow valley in which the blocks lie. In the side of
the road this sand has been cut into ; and two of the blocks of
sandstone are seen, one partly cropping out on the surface, with its
lower portion embedded in its native sand; the other is entirely
enveloped in the sand, except as far as it has been exposed in cutting
the road. The blocks are evidently indurated masses of this bed of
sand. The denuding forces which have scooped out the valley have
removed the sand and left the blocks behind. There are numerous
other blocks of a similar character on and beneath the lofty hill
called Blackdown, near Portisham (about seven miles S. W. of
Dorchester). These, however, are conglomerates of large flints.
Some lie on the top of the hill on the upper surface of the Chalk,
almost in situ, as at Mayne, and close to the Tertiary beds from
which they came ; others have been carried by some torrential

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., Sfc. 137

action into the deep valleys of Portisham and Bridehead beneath."
rt Geologist/' vol. xvi., 1863, p. 30.

Ori^inatincr as concretions in a bed of sand, the Sarsens had some-
what curved outlines, according to a radial arrangement due to the
chemical process; and usually one face (the under face) has retained
a more marked convexity than the other ; the latter having been
subjected to the wear and tear of water and shingle in the earlier
time of the denudation of the parent bed, and afterwards possibly
to the destructive action of blown sand, when the block lay deserted
by the water. Many a further stage, however, of detrition and
erosion a vast number of the blocks suffered ; for they remained at
levels either continually or occasionally affected by the waves and
tide-line of the sea, or on the shores and banks of lakes and rivers,
influenced by storms and winter-ice. Hence the fragments of
Sarsens, often worn into bizarre forms, and frequently reduced to
mere sub-angular stones, in the various gravels of the country ; the
smaller remnants being in the later gravels, having been subjected
to renewed water-action again and again. " In both sets of gravel
(that of the plateaux and that of the valleys) we find numerous
Sarsens, or blocks of compact sandstone, derived from the Upper
Bagshot Sand. They are broken and water-worn ; but those in the
low-level gravel to a much greater extent than those in the higher
gravel. The breaking up of these masses .... may have
been due to frost rather than to violence; but the surfaces bear
evidence of having been slowly worn by sand and pebbles washed
over them persistently, worrying out cup-shaped hollows and
tunnel-like holes, especially where small trumpet-shaped apertures
of the tubes due to congenital root-marks, or the ends of small stems,
on fractured faces, presented depressions suitable for the erosive
action of eddying sand and water. In some instances a highly glazed
surface occurs on the stones, due to the polishing action of blown
sand. As this latter operation must take place on a shore or shoal
above the water-level, and yet these stones have been imbedded
in strata laid down by water, we have here, as elsewhere, indications
of a lapse of time, while the several natural operations were taking
place, with intermediate oscillations of level, though possibly only

History of the Sarsens.

of the local sand-banks and beach-lines." T. Rupert Jones, Proceed.
Geologists' Assoc., vol, vi., 1880, p. 441.

These erosive processes have brought to view, from out of the
once uniform surface of the block, more or less indications of the
concretionary structure in many instances. Sometimes large
mammillary or lumpy curves of the harder concreted portions,
sometimes small kernel-like structures, are visible. The same cause
has made manifest on the outside edges of some blocks a laminated
structure, due to the successive deposition of limited supplies of
slightly-varying sands in the Tertiary sea ; but almost lost to sight
in a freshly-fractured surface of the stone in the apparent homo-
geneity of the mass. Mr. W, Cunnington, F.G.S., has a collection
of such varieties of Sarsen ; and in the valuable and extensive
collection of Sarsens, accumulated and set out to view, with all their
features preserved, by Prof. H. Nevil Story Maskelyne, F.R.S., in
his garden-grounds at Basset-Down House, these peculiarities can
be readily and fully studied.

A fine mammillated specimen at Mildenhall, Marlborough, has
been noticed by the Rev. C. Soames.1

The well-known "Blowing Stone/' at Kingston-Lisle, at the
foot of Uffington Downs, is a large weather-worn reddish-brown
Sarsen. By the wayside inn it stands on edge, about 3ft. high,
3ift. broad (long), and 2ft. thick. It is traversed by several holes ;
seven appear in front; three on the top; and there are others
behind. At the north end there is also an irregular hollow. The
opening through which it is blown is at the top and about fin. wide.
The sound issues from one side near the top. See the Transact.
Newbury District Field Club, vol. i., 1871, p. 148; and Murray's
" Handbook for Berks," &c, p. 40.

The " King's Stone " or " Coronation Stone," at Kingston-on-
Thames, is a Sarsen, of a light brown colour, irregularly square, as
mounted on (and partly in) its pedestal, and about 2ft. lOin. high,
by about 2ft. square in section. It has a nearly flat, but somewhat

1 The white Lower Greensand of Stone and Hartwell, near Aylesbury, contains
numerous large, sub-globular, boldly mammillated concretions, known as " Bowel-
stones " in the neighbourhood. These are analogous as to structure.

B/j Professor T Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S, Sfc. 139

sloping and undulating top, which has been smoothed by probably
modern wear before its enclosure. The sides are pitted or dimpled
by old weathering, and one side is somewhat furrowed, as it were,
by trickling water. An oblique oval spot on one side (possibly
marking the spot where a fossil stem was once imbedded) is repeated,
of a larger size, on the opposite face. The stone is cracked obliquely.
An incised inscription informs us that it was " Erected A.D. 1850.
William Pamphilon, Mayor " ; and the following, in metal letters—
Eadward, 901; Adelstan, 924; Eadmund, 943; Eadred, 946 ;
Eadwig, 955; Eadward, 975 ; and ^Sdelred, 978, refer to Saxon
Kings and the tradition of Kingston having been the place, and
this stone the seat of their coronation. [Edgar, 958, has been
omitted, having been crowned at Bath].

Looking at the Grey wethers near Clatford we are impressed with
the idea, not only that the old sand-beds once stretched across where
our country now stands, and have since been worn away or denuded,1
but that they must have had far more extensive concretions in one
part than another, and that above where the larger numbers of
blocks now lie, there the hardened patches were strongest, thickest,
and most continuous : and if some be more conglomeratic than others
they were formed where the flint pebbles most congregated as
shingle on the old sea-bed.

The streaming of the stones along the valleys,2 and their unequal
distribution along their sides, suggest that the currents and tides
which wore away the old Tertiary sand-beds had some influence,
aided by prevalent winds, storms, and perhaps by floating ice of a
frigid climate, in shifting the blocks themselves, and leaving them
more in the hollows than on the hills. Such a wonderful field for
study and contemplation as these Valleys of Stones should certainly
be preserved, by parking off some good area of the Greywethers as
a place of National Interest.

1 First recognized, before 1810, by William Smith ("the father of English
geology"), according to Mr. W. Cunnington, F.G.S. ; Wilts Mag., vol. iv.,
p. 334. Mr. Cunnington, F.S.A., the fellow- worker with Sir Richard Colt
Hoare, was a friend of W. Smith, and has left a memorandum in his MSS. to
the above effect.

2 So well described by Mr. W. Cunnington in the " Devizes Gazette " of June,
1852, and the Wilts Mag., vol. iv., 1858, p. 334 (as quoted by Mr. W. Long).

uo

History of the Bar sens.

VI. — Professor Prestwicii and others on Sarsens.
The first exact study of the distribution and origin of the Sarsens
was carried out by Professor Prestwich, E.R.S., as published in the
Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc, vol. x., 1854 (in a paper read May 18th,
1853). At pages 123—130 careful notes on the chief places where
blocks of Druid or Greywether sandstone occur,1 and exact arguments
in favour of the view that they werederived from the Wool wich-and-
Reading Beds, rather than from the Bagshot Beds, to which they
had been previously referred, are clearly and succinctly given. The
possibility that some in Kent might have come from the Thanet
Sands and from one part of the Basement-bed of the London
Clay, is pointed out ; and the " blocks irregularly dispersed, some-
times in the lower, but more especially in the upper division of the
Bagshot Sand between Esher and Strathfieldsaye " (p. 123) are not
lest sight of. The conclusion arrived at was that " the whole group
of the Druid Sandstones of Wilts, Hants, Bucks, and Kent, and of
the Puddingstones of Herts" were derived from the Woolwich-
and-Reading Beds. In the sands of these strata Mr. Prestwich
had observed concretionary blocks in place at Nettlebed Hill, north
of Reading ; also near Chesham, Elstree, Pinner, and elsewhere.
He notes, moreover, similar sands, with concreted blocks, on the
French coast near Dieppe, being a prolongation of the Woolwich
Beds of Sussex. The abundance of Sarsens near Lambourne,
Berks, Mr. Prestwich refers to the former existence there of such
sands (W.-and-R. series) as occur at Wickham, about six miles to
the S.E. ; and in connection with a patch of strata of the same
formation, three miles N.E. of Wickham, a tabular mass of Sarsen
Stone was discovered by the Rev. John Adams at Wei ford- Wood-
lands, near Hangmanstone Lane. " It was 10ft. or 12ft. in width ;
and lay horizontally within a few inches of the Chalk. As its
surface was barely plough-deep, it was thought expedient to get rid
of it ; and after attempts were made in vain to break it up, a pit
was dug on one side of it, into which it was tilted. In making the
excavation the edges of three other tabular blocks were laid bare,

1 Mainly in the Chalk districts of Wilts, Berks, Oxfordshire, Bucks, Herts, and
Kent.

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., RG.S., Sfc. 141

all lying, horizontally at the same depth in reddish clay. One of
them, which I uncovered a short time since, is of enormous dimen-
sions, being 9ft. 6in. by 9ft., and 25in. in thickness. A ploughman
informed me that in cultivating the field the surfaces of others are
sometimes touched near the same spot; and small stones of similar
character abound in the vicinity, especially where pits have been
dug for chalk." The Rev. J. Adams, Transact. Newbury District
Field Club, 1871, p. 107.

Mr. Adams proceeds to describe some large concretionary stones
actually in place in the sand of the Woolwich-and-Reading Beds,
at Langley Park, near Beedon, about four miles E. by N. from
Hangmanstone Lane, as Sarsens also, but, I believe, erroneously.
The chief block is also described in the Catal. Bock-Specimens,
Mus. Praet. Geol., 1862, p. 169, and is referred to by Mr. Whitaker
in the Memoir Geol. Survey for Sheet 13, p. 41, and Q. J. G. S„
vol xviii., p. 272, as a Sarsen; but, as I have explained (Geol.
Ma-., New Series, vol. ii., p. 588, and Trans. Newbury District
Field Club, vol. ii., 1878, p. 249), this has a calcareous (not a
siliceous) cement. It is, therefore, not a « Sarsen/' If it had been
exposed to the destructive action of moving water, like the real
Sarsens have been, it would have been worn away, with the
dissolution of its cement, just as, doubtless, many of its congeners
have suffered.

In the progress of the Geological Survey of England, Mr. W.
Whitaker, F.G.S., noticed the occurrence of Sarsens in places on the
London Clay, thus being above the present position of the Woolwich-
and-Reading-Beds,— that the Lower Eocene strata thin off westward
of Hun-erford, and terminate altogether near Marlborough,— and
that the^Bagshot Sands must have overlapped them there, and rested
directly on the Chalk ; so that when the sands were swept away
by denudation their included concretionary blocks remained on
what are now the Marlborough Downs and neighbourhood.1 As
above-mentioned (page 134), the Sarsens of the Frimley area are
direetly Connected_wlthth^

at length.

142

History of the Sarsens.

Prestwich has so well shown, the Wool wich-and- Heading Beds have
been their chief source. (See also the Appendix.)

VII.-— Fossil Roots in Sarsens.
The general absence of fossils in the Sarsens has been noticed by
Prestwich, W. Cunnington, W. Whitaker, J. Adams, and others.
A few obscure relics (imperfect casts) of shells have been seen; but
fossilized bits of coniferous wood and of more doubtful vegetation
are known, and especially traces of roots and rootlets, abundant in
some of the blocks. A piece of Sarsen Stone collected previous
to 1810 at "Stonehenge" by Mr. William Smith (whom English
geologists delight to honour) is preserved in the British Museum
(Natural History), numbered V. 665. It is full of sub-parallel
cylindrical cavities due to roots (like those in Fig. 3). Wr. Smith's
realization of the geological origin of the Sarsens has already
been alluded to (p. 139). One of Mr. W. Cunnington's specimens
bears a label, written at the time of collecting : " Plants in Sarsen,
near Stonehenge, August 4th, 1847"; and in his paper in the
« Devizes Gazette;3 June, 1852, he alluded to traces of obscure
vegetables in these stones. In his Memoir, read May, 1853 (Q. J.
G. S., vol. x., p. 123), Mr. Prestwich noticed "rootlet-like im-
pressions " in both the Sarsens and the blocks in the Bagshot Sands.
In a paper read at the Salisbury Meeting of the Wiltshire Archaeo-
logical and Natural History Society, Mr. W. Cunnington (quoted
by Mr. W. Long, Wiltshire Magazine, No. 28, July, 1866, vol. x.,
p. 73) remarked "sometimes the masses are formed of unusually
fine sand, and the result is a very dense hard rock. In this variety
are commonly found the remains of what appear to be fucoids or
sea-weeds. They do not exhibit any very marked structure, but are
certainly vegetable/' In the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural
History Society's Magazine, No. 26, August, 1865, vol. ix., pp.
167—193, in his paper on the Geology of the Berks and Hants Ex-
tension and Marlborough Railways, Mr. Thomas Codrington, F.G.S.,
states (p. 168) that "In a valley between Hungerford and Little
Bedwin there are many masses of puddingstone, consisting of rounded
flint pebbles in a base of ferruginous grit. This pudding-stone

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.B.S., F.G.S , Sfc. 143

is generally referred to the Wool wich-and- Reading- beds, and does
not appear to occur westward of Little Bedwin. There the
ground is strewed with blocks of Sarsen stone ; not the ordinary
saccharoidal Greywether sandstone occurring on the Downs, but the
harder, finer-grained variety, of which the blocks in the Vale of
Pewsey also consist." The blocks are irregular in form, rounded
and smoothed as if by water, and often pitted on both upper and
under surface, with small deep holes, caused by the decay apparently
of stem-like objects about the size of a large straw. These were
determined to be of vegetable origin and rootlets, but nothing
further. Fragments of coniferous wood, he adds, have been found
in the Sarsens.

The frequent occurrence of the rootlet-pipes was noticed in my
own papers in the Geol. Mag., Dec. 2, vol. ii., 1875, p. 588; ibid.,
vol, in., 1876, p. 523; Transact. Newbury, District Field Club,
vol. ii., 1878, p. 248; and Proceed. Geol. Assoc., vol. vi., 1881,
p. 441. Camberley (near Frimley), Sandhurst, Long Lane (north
of Newbury), Marlborough Downs, and Avebury, were mentioned
particularly as localities. There are numerous examples in Mr. Nevil
Story Maskelyne's great collection at Basset-Down House, mentioned
above at p. 138 ; and some in Mr. W. Cunnington's collection. In
1885 Col. C. Cooper King, F.G.S., noticed and sketched (Fig. 2)
a very definite root-mark, somewhat different from the usual vertical
straw-like irregularly parallel stems and rootlets (Fig. 3), at Abury;
and Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S., gave the result of his careful ex-
amination of both this drawing and some of Mr. Codrington's
specimens, in the Geol. Mag., Dec. 3, vol. ii., 1885, pp. 361—2.
Referring to the latter, he writes : " These vegetable remains are
certainly roots. The method of branching shown in some of the
specimens, and shown still better in a pencil-sketch by Major [now
Col.] C. C. King, from a Sarsen which has been weathered in a
wall at Abury, leave no doubt as to this. The rootlets leave the
main root in every direction at right angles, The roots are in their
original position. The soft sand, now indurated by siliceous cement,
has been the soil on which the plants grew. An examination of the
preparations show the main stem to have been composed of a small

144

History of the Sarsens.

central vascular bundle, surrounded by a considerable thickness of
soft parenchyma, consisting of uniform cells of short rectangular
shape. The cells have not been distorted Ly pressure, hut retain
the size and form of the original tissue — which is a further evidence
of the roots being preserved in the position in which they grew.
There are not sufficient data in the specimens to enable one to de-
termine with certainty what was the nature of the plants to which
the roots belong; but it appears to me probable that they were
monocotyledonous plants ; and they may have been Palms, a group
represented in the Eocene Flora of England/'' The fossil remains
of palms from the Bracklesham Beds, the southern equivalents of the
Bagshot Beds, are figured and described in Dixon's " Geology of
Sussex/' 2nd Edition, 1878, p. 166, pi. 17.

Pig. 2. Impressions of the Root of a Palm (?) in a weathered Sarsen in a wall
at Abnry. Sketched by Col. C. C. King, F.G.S., in 1885.

[This woodcut has been courteously lent by Dr. H. Woodward,
E.R.S., Editor of the Geological Magazine.]

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.B.S., F.G.S., 8fc. 145

A still more interesting specimen (Fig. 4) of root-marks in Sarsen
stone is in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London;
marked xix ~. Mr. W. Cunningtoti, F.G.S., found it in 1872, on
Lockeridge Down, three miles west of Marlborough, and one mile
north of the main road. The impression, 7?in. long and fin. wide,
represents the lower end of a tap-root, with numerous rootlets going
off from it at angles varying from 5° to 30°. Some, as shown by
the holes on the side of the hollow, are in a definite row, others are
scattered ; and at the lower end a group of twelve or more holes
shows that the root terminated in a brush of rootlets. Some of the
holes in the stone can be penetrated with a wire for several inches.

Fig. 3. Apiece of Sarsen with sub-parallel and sub -cylindrical rootlets of Palm (?)
Collected by T. Codrington, Esq., C.E., F.G.S., in Wiltshire. In the
British Museum (Natural History). Reduced one-half.

Whether some of the perpendicular rootlets, sometimes closely
parallel, or nearly so, belong to water-plants, such as Zostera, or if
all belonged to maritime palms, would be an interesting enquiry.
Both the sand-banks, that are now sands with concretions, and the
shingle, now the pebbly part of the sands, must have been laid down

VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVIII. It

146

History of the Sane

118.

at least in shallow water, and probably at some periods they formed
shoals and sandy shores. The wood recognized as coniferous must
have grown on the land not far off.

Fig. 4. A block of Sarsen, with the impression of a tap-root and rootlets of a
Palm (?). In the Museum of Practical Geology, London Found on
Lockeridge Down, near Marlborough, by W. Cunnington,
Esq., F.G.S. One-half of the natural size.

From that time onward continual changes must have occurred,
slowly, perhaps, but surely, silting up the seas until the land was
at its full, and then bringing the restless and resistless sea again

JBy Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., Sfc. 147

over the district, this time with Arctic ice in winter, if not nearly
all the year through, till the sea-waters finished what the glacier,
rain, and river had begun by furrowing the upraised land with creeks
and valleys, and ultimately leaving hills and dales to be pleasantly
clad with verdure, as we see them now in England. Of these changes
few memorials in the Southern Counties are more persistent than the
Sarsen Stones.

VIII. — Appendix.

To complete a thorough view of the nature and history of the
Sarsens, it is necessary to give the statements of the Geological
Surveyors from researches made in 1858 and following years. Much
of their work has been done in Wiltshire, and their views are largely
based on what they have there made out. Mr. W. Whitaker's
additions to Professor Prestwich's earlier researches have already been
mentioned in a general manner.

I. — Notes from the Geological Survey Memoirs, fyc.
§ 1<

Memoirs of the Geological Survey, &c. Parts of Wiltshire and
Gloucestershire, Sheet 34, 1858, p. 41—43. By A. C. Ramsay and
others. " In many places the surface of the Chalk is strewn with
blocks of hard siliceous grit, known as Druid Stones, Sarsen Stones,
and Grey-wethers. On Marlborough Downs, and the country to the
south near Marlborough and Fyfield, they are especially numerous,
and the walls by the turnpike-road are built of, and the roads mended
with them. Elsewhere on Marlborough Downs they are broken by
the hammer into rectangular blocks for paving-stones. A few of
the places where they are most numerous are marked " large stones "
on the Ordnance Map ; but these yield no idea of their surprising
number, or of the extent of ground they cover, no indication being
given of their occurrence over many large areas, where they strew
the ground so thickly that across miles of country a person might
almost leap from stone to stone without touching the ground on
which they lie. Many of these flat masses of grey grit are four or

L £

148

History of the Sarsens.

five yards across, and they are often about four feet in thickness.
Some of them have little basins on their flat surfaces, similar to the
hollows made on rocks on sea-shores by the gyration of stones set
in motion by the waves. In the present state of our knowledge
their distribution seems somewhat capricious. South of Piggle
Dean they thickly strew the west slope of the valley, the east slope
being bare. Further up they rise on the east side of the valley on
Overton Down ; and. ascending the slope, they gradually get smaller
and more sparingly distributed. In the next valley, near Boughton
[Wroughton] Copse, they lie in great profusion, stretching northwards
towards Toller [Totter] Down, where they are found, but sparingly
[upon the brick-earth and sand] . On Hackpen they also lie on the
surface of the same [brick-earth, &c.]. They occur in quantities on
the Upper Chalk of Marlborough Downs in the valleys east of
Hackpen, and in the country mapped in the neighbouring sheet [of
the Geological Map] . On the Chalk Downs north of the Vale of
Pewsey they strew the surface of many of the valleys in prodigious
quantities. On the high Downs of the Upper Chalk east and north-
east of Ogbourn St. Andrew's, they are comparatively rare.
West of Marlborough Downs there are few or none on the steep
flank of Hackpen by the brick-kiln, but they occasionally strew the
minor valleys that indent the flank of this hill, as for instance,
where a small stream of stones lies in the bottom of the valley of
Monkton Down. On the broad plain of the Lower Chalk they are
scattered on the ground towards Avebury, gradually decreasing in
number to the west. The huge masses of the temple of Avebury
were probably transported by the Druids from the adjacent Downs,
on which they were originally deposited as part of the Tertiary
strata. The Greywethers lying in places on the Plastic Clay
[? sands and brick-earth], there is reason to believe that they belong
to, or else are of a later date than, that formation. In their present
disjointed state it is also clear that they are only the fragments of a
stratum which had a very wide range, and which there is every reason
to believe, along with other Eocene strata, spread over [what are now]
the Chalk Downs of the West of England. That the Lower Eocene
strata once extended over broad areas of the Chalk, from which it

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., Sfc. 149

has been stripped by denudation, is evident from the fact that in
many cases outliers of Plastic Clay [?] , and small portions preserved in
pot-holes, are scattered over the Chalk, and sometimes occur on the
very verge of the Chalk escarpment. It is most improbable, or
rather impossible, that under these circumstances the original edge
of the Eocene beds ran along the edge of the present escarpment ;
and the conclusion seems inevitable, that along with the Chalk the
Eocene beds have been denuded away from above the Oolitic strata
that lie on the north-west. The presence of many large and small
masses of the Greywethers on the surface of the Oolitic plains near
Swindon, and far beyond, would in this manner be easily accounted
for, and also the circumstance that below the Chalk escarpment they
are often apt to be less angular and more water-worn than the slab-
like blocks on the Downs, the reason being that they were probably
much more subjected to the influence of marine denudation during
oscillations of level, much of the Oolitic plains being below water
when the Chalk escarpment formed a late Tertiary line of coast-cliff/'

§ 2.

Memoirs Geol. Survey Gt. Britain, &c. Geology of parts of
Oxfordshire and Berkshire, Sheet 13. 1861. By E. Hull, W. Whita-
ker, and W. T. Aveline, pp. 47 and 48. " Greywethers ....
these remarkable blocks of hard light-coloured sandstone ....
occur in a similar manner to the north-west of Lambourne, a great

part of which town is built of fragments of them

Around Middle Farm, Knighton Bushes, Weathercock Hill, and
Hare Warren they are plentiful." From the measurements mentioned
above (page 124), Mr. Aveline observes "that the majority have a
thickness of about 2ft., as if they had come from one and the same
bed of sandstone. I have noticed similar correspondence in general
thickness in stones, many hundreds in number, covering the bottom
of one of the valleys to the west of Marlborough (in Sheet 34 of
the Geological Map) . Eastward of Lambourne there are often blocks
of sandstone on the Chalk, but no large collections of them, as in
the country to the west. They seem to occur in vast numbers only
where the Chalk is quite bare ; their number decreasing where that

150 History of the Sanens*

rock is covered with Drift. Around the village of Wickharn there
are a great number of Sarsen Stones, all of which have been moved
from their original position. Some of the blocks contain flint
pebbles. I ascertained that they were all got from the neighbouring
fields, and were in no case brought up from a lower level; so that
they must have originally rested on some of the highest parts of
the Reading Beds, if not on the top of them, the Wickharn outlier
being very thick. This does not accord with Mr. Prestwich's
suggestion that they belonged to the white sand at the lower part
of this outlier (Q. J. G. S., vol. x., p. 126). I think, moreover,
that, had these stones been formed from the white sand, some of
them would be still left in place, and, being so hard, would make
some feature and be seen on the sides of the ridge. A large flat
stone near Wormstall Farm must be nearly two tons in weight."
Mr. Whitaker notes : — " Mr. Prestwieh has come to the conclusion
that the Greywethers once formed a part of the Reading Beds, for
the following reasons : — 1 . That their distribution is in accordance
with the range of the Lower-Eocene Tertiaries [see the table at
page 131] rather than with that of the Bagshot Sands, to which
they have been referred ; and having thus limited their age to the
Lower-Eocene Period, 2, that there is no good evidence of their
belonging either to the Basement-bed of the London Clay or to the
Thanet Sand, and therefore that they must belong to the intermediate
Reading Beds. This conclusion is supported by the facts— that the
occurrence of the Greywethers is proportioned to the development
of the sand-beds in that formation ; c that the lithological structure
of each variety is respectively in accordance with the mineral com-
ponents forming the strata [of the Reading Beds] in the immediate
vicinity of the place where these rock-blocks are found ' ; and that
sandstone has been noticed in place in the Reading Beds. Admitting
the force of these arguments, I cannot but think, however, that it
is very probable that some, perhaps very many, of the Greywethers
have once formed a part of the Bagshot Sands (which formation is
known to contain beds of sandstone in places), more especially at
the western end of the London Basin, where the Lower Tertiaries
are thinner than elsewhere, and where, consequently, the Bagshot

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.B.S., F.G.S., Sfc. 151

Sands, had they ever spread over the country, would have been
least separated from the Chalk." . . . . " Blocks of pudding-
stone, or Grey wethers containing" flint pebbles, are of rarer occurrence
in this country [Sheet 13] than those of simple sandstone. They
may be seen in the neighbourhood of Nettlebed 1 and Wickham."
Small pieces of fossil wood " have been noticed in the Grey wethers/'

§ 3.

Descriptive Catalogue of the Rock-specimens in the Museum of
Practical Geology, &c, 1862, p. 163.

" Greywether Sandstone. Overton Down, near Avebury, Wilt-
shire. Map 34. Scattered blocks of this saccharoid sandstone or
grit lie on the surface of the country in Dorsetshire and Wiltshire
sometimes (as in the Valley of Stones, west of Black Down, Map
17, and on the Chalk Downs in the Vale of Pewsey) in such
numbers that a person may almost leap from one stone to another
without touching the ground. The stones are frequently of con-
siderable size, many being four or five yards across, and about four
feet thick. In Bride Bottom (Valley of Stones) they are often
conglomeratic, being composed of rounded, sometimes angular,
Chalk-flints in a base of white siliceous grit ; and in many instances
the same block furnishes an example of this structure, one portion
consisting of sandstone, and another of conglomerate, occurring with
a well-defined line of separation between them. In the village of
Little Bredy they may be seen in the brook which flows by the
side of the road ; and in many instances, when it has been possible
to do so, advantage has been taken of their position to build them
into the walls of the houses." . ..." On the turnpike-road
from Dorchester to Broad Maine [Broadmayne, see above, p. 136]
blocks of this stone are visible (apparently in place), by the roadside
at Little Maine, in sands which rest immediately on the Chalk ;
while several other blocks of it are scattered over the surface of the
adjoining fields."

§ 4.

Memoirs Geol. Survey of Great Britain, &c. Geology of parts
of Berkshire and Hampshire, Sheet 12, 1862, by H. W. Bristow

1 Prestwich, Q. J. G. S., vol. p. 126.

152

History of the Sarsens.

and W. Whitaker, p. 51. " Blocks of hard sandstone, conglomerate
and grit, which are known by the name of Greywethers, Sarsen
Stones, or Druid Stones, are not uncommon in this district. They
are frequently made use of to keep vehicles from running against
the banks by the roadside, or against the corners of houses. "
Holly Wood, N.N.W. of Thateham, and Silchester Common, are
localities mentioned ; also as follows : — " There are a couple of
Greywethers composed of rounded flint-pebbles and angular flints
imbedded in a base of ferruginous grit, by the side of the road from
Odiham to Wanborough [Hants], about a couple of hundred yards
beyond the four cross-roads/-' (Page 51.)

"In a field south of North Standen Farm [near Hungerford]
there are some large blocks of ' pudding-stone/ which seem to be in
place, and are perhaps hardened masses of the ' pebble-beds ' of this
formation" [Woolwich-and-Reading Beds]. (Page 26.)

§ 5.

Memoirs Geol. Surv., &c. Geology of parts of Middlesex,
Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and Surrey, Sheet 7,
1864, by W. Whitaker, p. 71. " Greywethers and Pudding-stones
Mr. Whitaker agrees " with Mr. Prestwich, who has treated of the
origin of these blocks in great detail, that in this district they have
been derived in great part from the Woolwich-and-Reading Beds
although " he has ' ' been led to think that at the western end of the
London Basin, where they are present in greater numbers, their
origin may be traced to the Bagshot Sands/''

Page 72. The " Greywethers are found over the London Clay
country, and far from the outcrop of the Reading Beds, which would
accord with their derivation from a formation above rather than from
one below the London Clay. I am led to think, therefore, that
these loose blocks may have come from various beds, and that in
this district [Sheet 7 of the Geol. Survey Map] their origin may
be traced not only to the Reading Beds, but also to the Basement-
bed of the London Clay and to the Bagshot Sands."

II. — The Guide to the Antiquities of North Wilts.
My attention has fortunately been directed to the magnificent
volume on British and Roman Antiquities of North Wilts and the

By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., Sfe. 153

description of the great Topographical Map illustrating the
archaeology of that district, worked out by the reverend and eminent
Secretary of the Society. Not having formerly more than glanced
at this noble map of North Wilts, and having neglected to read
the text, I missed the points here under consideration. Much
which I have mentioned in the foregoing paper is contained in this
masterly work/ besides many details which I have not dealt with.
I must apologize for not having already mentioned and used the
Rev. A. C. Smith's collection of facts and opinions, and content
myself by stating— (1) that Mr. Smith's elaborate map, above
referred to, defines more particularly the range of Sarsens from the
hills and valleys adjoining Hackpen, namely, Monkton Down, Ray
Down, Rockley Down, Glory- Ann, Totter Down, Temple Bottom,
&c, southward by Abury Down, Wroughton, Ray Down, Overton
Down, Rowden Mead, Piggle Dean, Kennet Down, East Kennet
Field, Stoneyfield, and West Kennet Field, together with the long
N.E.— S.W. stretch of Lockeridge Dean, and Clatford Bottom, a
little further east ; (2) that the Sarsens and their history are
especially treated of or alluded to in many parts of the book itself,
especially at pages 27, 28, 127—129, 134, 150, and 211.

III.— Bibliographic List of Works treating of Sarsens.
1644. Richard Symonds' Diary of the Marches kept by the Royal Army, &c.

Edited by C. E. Long for the Camden Society, 1859, p. 151.
1656-84. John Aubrey's Nat. Hist. "Wiltshire. Edited by J . Britton, 1847, p. 44.
1656-84. John Aubrey. The Topographical Collections, &c, by J. E. Jackson,
1862, p. 314.

1673. Marlborough Corporation Accounts, by F. A. Carrington. Wiltshire
Archseological and Natural History Society's Magazine, vol. in.,
p. Ill, 1857.

1814. T. Webster. Transact. Geol. Soc, London, vol. n\, p. 224-5.
1822. W. D. Conybeare, and W. Phillips. Outlines Geol. Eng. and Wales,
Part I., p, 50.

1833. W. D. Conybeare and G. T. Clark. Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 103,
part 2, p. 452.

1833. G. A. Mantell Geology of the South-east of England, pp. 48—50.
1852-3. W. Cunuington. Devizes Gazette, June, 1852, and June, 1853,
Quoted by W. Long, Wilts Mag., vol., iv., 1858, p. 334, &c.

i Guide to the British and Roman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire Downs
in a Hundred Square Miles round Abury ; being a Key to the Large Map of the
above. By the Rev. A. C. Smith, M.A., &c, &c, 4to, 1884.

154

History of the Sarsens.

1854. J. Prostwich. Quart. Journ. Gool. Soc. (paper read May, 1853), vol. x.,
p. 123, &o.

1858. W. Long. On Abury ; Wilts Mag,, vol. iv., p. 334, &c, quoting W.
Cunnington.

1858. A. C. Ramsay and others. Mem. Geol. Surv., Explan. Sheet 34,

p. 41, &c.

1859. A. C. Ramsay and others. Catal. Rock-Specimens, &c. Mus. Pract-

Geology, 2nd Edit., p. 288.
1859. G. P. Scrope. Wilts Mag., vol. v., p. 110.
1859. J. L. Ross (quoting R. Falkner). Ibid., p. 168.

1861. . E. Hull, W. Whitaker, and others. Mem. Geol. Survey, Explan.

Sheet 13r p. 47, &c.

1862. H. W. Bristow and W. Whitaker. Ibid., Explan. Sheet 12, p. 51, &c.
1862. A. C. Ramsay and others. Catal. Rock-Specimens, &c. Mus. Pract.

Geology, 3rd Edit., p. 163.
1862. W. Whitaker. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xviii., p. 271, &c.

1862. W. H. Bensted. Geologist, vol. v., pp. 449, 450.

1863. 0- Fisher. Geologist, vol. vi., p. 30.

1864. W. Whitaker. Mem. Geol. Surv., Explan. Sheet 7, p. 71, &c.

1865. T. Codrington. Wilts Mag., vol. ix., p. 167, &c.

1866. W. Long (quoting W. Cunnington's paper of 1865, which was not

printed in full). Wilts Mag., vol. x., p, 71, &c.
1866. A. C. Smith. Wilts Mag., vol. x., p. 52, &c
1866. W. T. Nicolls. Geol. Mag., vol. iii., p. 296, &c.
1869. John Adams. Wilts Mag., vol. xi., p. 274, &c.
1869. W. Cunnington. Ibid., p. 348.

1869. Anon. (Stukeley's notes.) Ibid., p. 344.

1870. T. Codrington. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol., xxv., p. 535.

1871. J. Adams. Trans. Newbury District Field Club, vol. i., p. 107, &c.

1872. J. Fergusson. Rude Stone Monuments, pp., 92, 95.

1873. J. Adams. Geol. Mag., vol. x., p. 198, &c.

1873. T. O. Ward. Geol. Magazine, vol. x., p. 425.

1874. Joseph Stevens. Twenty-first Annual Report, Brighton and Sussex

Nat. Hist. Soc, p. 14, &c, read October, 9th, 1874.
1874. R. F[alkner]. Geol. Mag., Dec. 2, vol. i., p. 96.

1874. Bryan King. (Stukeley's notes.) Wilts Mag., vol. xiv., p. 230.

1875. Joseph Stevens. Journ. Proceed. Winchester and Hampshire Scient.

Lit. Soc, vol. i., part 4, p. 224, &c (read March 9th, 1874).
1875. Joseph Stevens. Report of the Marlborough College Nat. Hist. Soc.

1875. T. Rupert Jones, Geol. Mag., Dec. 2, vol. ii., p. 588.

1876. T. Rupert Jones. Ibid., vol. iii., p. 523.

1876. W. Long (quoting Symonds, 1644). Wilts Mag., vol. xvi., p. 68, &G,
1876. H. B. Woodward. Geology of England and Wales, p. 363.
1878. T. Rupert Jones. Trans. Newbury Dist. Field Club, vol. ii., p. 248.
1881. T. Rupert Jones. Proceed. Geol. Assoc., vol. vi., p. 461.

1884. Rev. A. C. Smith. Guide to the Antiquities of North Wilts, pp. 27,

28, 127-9, 134, 150, 211.

1885. W. Carruthers. Geol. Mag., Dec 3, vol. ii., p. 361, &c.

155

jSfoirtton anfo its fj^jj&otttjoofc — §<r. 2.

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.

HE history of Swindon in former times, so far as I have been
able to discover it, does not contain much that would be
very interesting to a general audience. A few particulars relating
to it were read to you at our Meeting here in 1860, in a paper which
was afterwards printed in the seventh volume of our Magazine. Mr.
Richard Jefferies contributed a little more in the fourteenth volume.
And there, so far as I know, our information stops. Those who
lived here before you omitted to record the local events of their own
time and within their own knowledge. They did not recollect, and
people do not now recollect, that what happens to-day, and appears
to us common-place and familiar, will in fifty years time be utterly
forgotten, unless some one has taken the pains to preserve it.

One of the objects of Societies like ours is to prevent things from
being so utterly forgotten, and to encourage the taking of notes and
memoranda about the various families that have held any position
in a place, the various changes that have altered the place itself, and
the like. It is, therefore, with much pleasure that I find you have
among you — whether a native or not I do not know — but at any
rate a resident, who is well acquainted with your modern history,
who has an excellent memory, and the pen of a ready writer, and
moreover has an easy and pleasant way of communicating his obser-
vations and his stories, which ought to make his little book popular.
To Mr. William Morris, therefore, I commend you for the history
of modern Swindon. In truth, its real history is almost entirely
modern. It is within the last fifty years that Swindon has, as we
say, " come out." From being a little quiet, out-of-the-way place
it has grown rapidly to be one of considerable importance. Its
affairs have taken a wonderful turn. Fortune, you all know, stands
on a wheel. Swindon was at the bottom. By a sudden revolution

150

Swindon and Us Neighbourhood — No. 2.

it comes to the top: though, to drop the fable and speak more
practically, it has not been so much the wheel of fortune that has
brought Swindon uppermost as the wheel of the railway engine.

The same kind of thing has happened in many other places.
Mere hamlets have rapidly grown up into large industrial towns.
The old rule has been completely inverted. Formerly, it required a
certain number of people to be brought to live together before a
common carrier with one horse could be persuaded to set up his
business. By and by we arrived at a jaunting car or a van. At
length, but with much misgiving as to its success, we launched a
two-horse coach, a small branch establishment to join us with the
main road to London. So the old rule was for the place to grow
first, and then followed the means of communication. But under
the new system the facility of coming and going is provided first.
Stations and J unctions are settled at certain new points, and round
those points houses, churches, and streets spring up out of the
ground as by magic, and the little village becomes a town.

Having, therefore, nothing fresh to tell you about ancient Swin-
don, and leaving its present history in other more able hands, I
would ask you kindly to listen for a little while to a few stray notices
of things and persons connected with the places you may visit in
your excursions, or, at any rate, with which you may have some
neighbourly acquaintance.

Being archaeologists we should have been in duty bound to pay
our first respects to one of those mysterious groups of large stones
which once stood in a ground at Broome ; but unfortunately their
place knoweth them no more. There was, two hundred years ago,
one called Longstone, about 10ft. high, standing by itself near
Broome Farm-house, and in the ground below were many others in
a straight line. This we are told by John Aubrey, who saw them.
I believe the prevailing opinion to be that the greater part of these
old stone monuments were sepulchral — some may have been memo-
rials of battles or other important events. Poets, when they are in
a difficulty, are at liberty — a liberty which is used very freely — to
invoke the aid of the Muses to help them out of it; and the Muses
seem to be always ready to assist the poet with power of invention

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 157

and imagination. But we dry archaeologists must keep to matter
of fact. Therefore, as there is absolutely nothing historically known
about these venerable monuments, either when they were set up, by
whom, or in memory of what, we need not waste our time in specu-
lation. The one formerly near Swindon may have been the sepulchre
of some Danish Sweyn, who gave his name to the down, and hence
the name of Swindon; but, without fear of contradiction, it may
have been for anybody or anything else. Nor do we know when
it disappeared. Perhaps under the same circumstances as a similar
monument in France lately did, according to a story I read in a
French newspaper a short time ago. An enthusiastic archaeologist,
a worshipper of megaliths, had discovered a magnificent one of that
kind which we call the cromlech, but which the French call a dolmen
— viz., three or four large stones standing in a close group with a
larger slab overlying them. The proprietor's leave having been
obtained, our antiquary gave notice to all the brethren of his society
to assemble on the spot, on a certain day and hour, for examination
; and discussion. The day arrived, the company was punctual, and a
crowd of the curious attended them. The presiding gentleman
pressed towards the spot radiant with joy and hope. Suddenly he
stopped, turned pale, rubbed his eyes— rubbed them again. " The
dolmen !" he called to the proprietor, "where's the dolmen?"
" What dolmen ? " says the man. " Why the one that stood there."
" Oh," said the man, very composedly, " you mean these big stones?
Oh, why you said there was a large company coming, and I thought
• you would have more room to circulate, so I had them broken up
and hauled away to mend the road." " Wretch ! " was all that the
president could utter. The newspaper adds, " This story is scarcely
conceivable, but it is strictly true." 1

There is, about these old grey relics of former days that have
stood out upon our downs so many hundred, perhaps thousand,
| years, something that entitles them to a certain respect : and one
j can only lament the carelessness and stupidity of those who have
1 allowed so many to be destroyed. A stop, to a certain extent, is

1 " Absolument vraie quoique invraisemblable " [Courrier de 1' Europe, 27th
September, 1884],

158

Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No. 2.

now put to this, by a recent Act of Parliament; and it is to be
hoped that the interest created in them by the exertions of Societies
like our own may also help to produce a better feeling*. But it is
difficult to prevent wanton mischief, as witness, only a few months
ago, the upsetting, by a party of perhaps tipsy idlers, of the famous
Kocking-sfcone, called "The Buckstone," near Monmouth, in the
Forest of Dean.

The Charterhouse Landlord.

In glancing over the map for some place to speak about, the eye
falls upon some estates near Swindon that belong to a landlord
called The Charterhouse. It is said that the common people of
India who in former days used to hear so much about that — to them
invisible — authority, the " East India Company-" and its palace in
Threadneedle Street, by a natural association of Ladies with fieedles
and thread, believed " Company" to be some very long-lived Dowager
Princess, to whom their money and allegiance were due. Possibly
some of the tenants under the Charterhouse may have the like
erroneous notion of their landlord, and wonder what he is like, and
how he came by so singular a name. I am the more tempted to
say something about this on the present occasion because in my
school-days I had the pleasure of a very close and intimate acquain-
tance with the subject. The origin of the name was this : — about
eight hundred years ago a French ecclesiastic of the name of Bruno
retired from the world to a place called La Chartreuse, in the
mountains of Dauphine, in the South of France. He there founded
a monastery and an Order, which became very famous. They had
several Houses in England, but the original French name of
Chartreuse very soon became corrupted into Charterhouse. We have
Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath, and a Charterhouse on the Mendip
Hills, near Wells, at both of which places there was a monastery of
this Order. The great establishment in London lay outside the
wall of the old City, and it stands there still, close to Smithfield.
On the dissolution of the monasteries the building, with several
acres of pleasure ground adjoining, was presented by the Crown to
Sir Edward North, whose son, Roger, sold it in 1569 to Thomas

l By tie Rev. Canon J. R Jackson, F.8.A. 159

Howard, Duke of Norfolk, when it took the name of Howard House:
but being spacious, and then very conveniently near the metropolis,
it was occasionally made use of by the Sovereigns for temporary
visits.

When Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne she came there
first, from Hatfield, and remained several days. It was also the
first lodging that James I. occupied on arriving from Scotland.
From the Howard family it was bought by Thomas Sutton.

He was of a Lincolnshire family. Educated at first for the law,
but not liking it, and preferring a more active life, he travelled all
over Europe, and thereby acquired a great deal of information, which
he afterwards turned to very profitable account, and which enabled
him to end his days as a very successful man. In short, he became
one of the wealthiest merchants of the time. One very curious
circumstance in his history is that he was the means of causing the
famous Spanish Armada to be put off for a whole year, which was
done in this way. Philip, the King of Spain, had written a letter to
the Pope about a certain great expedition he was going to undertake,
but he would not publish to the world what country he was going
to attack until he had first obtained the Pope's sanction. So he
wrote the letter, asking for that blessing. Somehow or other
somebody contrived to steal the letter out of the Pope's bedchamber,
and Sir Francis Walsingham, then our minister at Home, also
contrived to get a copy of it, and so found out that it was England
that was to be attacked. The King of Spain wanted money for
his invasion, and Genoa being at that time the great bank of Europe,
King Philip was preparing to draw largely upon that bank. Mr.
Sutton hearing of this, and having very large commercial tran-
sactions, stepped in first, and contrived to draw so heavily on the
Genoa bank, and to drain it so completely, that the King of Spain
was obliged to wait a whole year until he could raise enough some-
where else. This, of course, brought Mr. Sutton into great favour,
and enabled him to add largely to his means.

But he had no children, and apparently no relatives : so what was
he to do with all his money ? There were not wanting plenty of
friends and advisers, ready to supply him with hints, and some rather

160

Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No. 2.

broad ones. The fussiest gentleman upon this occasion appears to
have boen a certain Sir John Harrington, of Kelston, near Bath,
a courtier of some celebrity, who had borrowed money from Mr.
Sutton, and was continually proposing some scheme, in which he
did not neglect his own interests. One was that Mr. Sutton should
leave all his property to the Duke of York (afterwards Charles II.)-
in return for which Harrington undertook to say that Sutton should
be made a peer of the realm. Duke Charles probably made no
objection to this little arrangement : but Mr. Sutton did. A letter
which he wrote upon the subject to the Lord Chancellor is so manly
that I must read it : —

" May it please your Lordship. I understand that his Majesty " [then King
James I.] "is possessed by Sir John Harrington (as I imagine), or by some
other by his means, that I intend to make his son, the Duke of York, my heir :
whereupon it is reported that his Majesty proposeth to bestow the honour of a
Baron upon me : whereof, as I am unworthy, so I vow to God and to your Lord-
ship, I never harboured the least thought or proud desire of any such matter :
and now I am going to my grave, to gape for honours might be accounted mere
dotage in me, so unworthy a person. I confess unto your Lordship that this
knight (Harrington) hath often been tampering with me to that purpose, to
entertayne honour and to make the noble Duke my heir : to whom I made answer
that, if he had due regard to wit or honesty, he would never have engaged him-
self in this business, so egregiously to delude his Majesty and wrong me."

Harrington then suggested a more respectable application of the
money; viz., to the restoration of Bath Abbey Church, which had
been for many years left in a most ruinous and deplorable condition,
and he urged the old gentleman to do it in his lifetime by this
among other pithy arguments : — " Almsgiving in one's life is like
a candle carried before one, whereas alms after death is like a candle
carried behind one." By way of making this hint more palatable,
he at the same time strongly recommended the use of the Bath
waters, as very likely to make a lame old man young again. But
Mr. Sutton had a mind of his own, and had made it up unchange-
ably. This was, to found a " Hospital " and endow it with the
estates he had bought in Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire, and elsewhere.

An idea has been encouraged by some writers that Mr. Sutton
was satirized by Ben Jonson in the character of Volpone, in the
play called " The Fox," and so he has sometimes been spoken of as

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 161

a mere close-fisted money-grabber. But Gifford, the last editor of
Ben Jonson's works, has vindicated him from having" been anything
of the kind. There is, in fact, not the least resemblance between
the two characters, and nothing, says Gilford, but malevolence and
ignorance could pretend to find any. He was a very liberal man,
and could not resist applications for loans from persons of position
and influence who had shewn him courtesy and kindness, and it is
said that there are in the muniment room at the Charterhouse
numbers of bonds given to him for money lent, of which nothing
was ever repaid. The hospital founded by Mr. Sutton was for
eighty decayed and broken-down merchants, tradesmen, and the
like. Each has his separate apartment. They dine in a common
hall, a fine room such as may be found in our colleges at the univer-
sities, and, when times are good, they have a liberal allowance in
money. Besides the hospital for old men, Sutton founded a school,
with maintenance for forty boys, and further assistance to such as
should go to college. The number was increased some years ago,
but whether under the present agricultural difficulties the increased
number is maintained I cannot exactly say. It used to be considered
that the nomination of a boy to the foundation was, from first to
last, as good as putting £L50Q into his father's pocket.

There has been lately, as you may have noticed in the newspapers,
a good deal said about an intention of breaking up the hospital for
old men, and dismissing them, on allowances, to their own homes,
and then to sell the site for building. On the question of such
hospitals there is, as usual, much to be said on both sides. The
maintenance of officers and servants of various kinds necessarily in-
volves considerable expense, and as to the old men themselves, after
having led busy lives in society, the exchange to a monotonous ex-
istence, under a sort of rule, with nothing in the world to do, away from
their old neighbourhood and friends, is apt to render their life dreary
and unsatisfactory. At Greenwich Hospital, for example, it was, in a
sentimental point of view, grand to think of hundreds of veterans, dis-
abled in the service of their country, now maintained in ease and com-
fort for the remainder of their days. But there was another side to
I this pretty picture. When men are lounging about all day long, with

VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVIII. M

102 Swindon and its Neighlourhood — No. 2.

absolutely nothing to occupy them, the lounger has a strong ten-
dency towards the beer and spirit shops, and I believe a principal
difficulty at Greenwich was — and at Chelsea Hospital for old soldiers
still is — to keep the old fellows within the bounds of propriety. At
the same time it must be admitted that to many of them who have
no fortune, no friends, and perhaps no home left, such a hospital may
be a welcome and comfortable refuge.

The scheme lately proposed for doing away with the Charterhouse
as an asylum has been for the present defeated, chiefly on the ground
that it is an interesting feature of Old London and presents a
tolerably perfect specimen of a nobleman's house of the period.
But whatever change may be made as to the actual building and
the site, Sutton's Charity will certainly be continued under different
arrangement. The school has been already removed into the country,
and the site was sold : on the pretence, I believe, of its being un-
healthy. This, I from experience, can vouch to be utter nonsense,
and a further proof of it is that the site was bought by the Merchant
Taylors, who instantly removed their school to the spot.

I have been induced to dwell at some length upon the history
and present condition of the Charterhouse in London, first, because
it is the history of one of the largest as well as most permanent
landlords in North Wilts : and next, because, having been educated
at the school there, I have a vivid and affectionate remembrance of
the old place and all its associations. But I was not on the foun-
dation, and am therefore under no obligation to the rent-payers in
Elcombe, Wroughton, and the other estates in this neighbourhood.

Braden Forest.
Turning northwards, in the direction of the Excursion, you have
before you, as far as you can see, and farther, a large tract of land
formerly called Braden Forest. It was anciently ten times larger
than the part called Braden now. You must understand that in
early days by a forest was meant not merely a continuous tract
of woody country, but a district placed by the authority of the
Crown under the severe forest law. Within the prescribed limits,
any number of miles long, and any broad, the larger game — the

163

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162 Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No. 2.

absolutely nothing to occupy them, the lounger has a strong- ten-
dency towards the beer and spirit shops, and I believe a principal
difficulty at Greenwich was — and at Chelsea Hospital for old soldiers
still is — to keep the old fellows within the bounds of propriety. At
the same time it must be admitted that to many of them who have
no fortune, no friends, and perhaps no home left, such a hospital may
be a welcome and comfortable refuge.

The scheme lately proposed for doing away with the Charterhouse
as an asylum has been for the present defeated, chiefly on the ground
that it is an interesting feature of Old London and presents a
tolerably perfect specimen of a nobleman's house of the period.
But whatever change may be made as to the actual building and
the site, Sutton's Charity will certainly be continued under different
arrangement. The school has been already removed into the country,
and the site was sold : on the pretence, I believe, of its being un-
healthy. This, I from experience, can vouch to be utter nonsense,
and a further proof of it is that the site was bought by the Merchant
Taylors, who instantly removed their school to the spot.

I have been induced to dwell at some length upon the history
and present condition of the Charterhouse in London, first, because
it is the history of one of the largest as well as most permanent
landlords in North Wilts : and next, because, having been educated
at the school there, I have a vivid and affectionate remembrance of
the old place and all its associations. But I was not on the foun-
dation, and am therefore under no obligation to the rent-payers in
Elcombe, Wroughton, and the other estates in this neighbourhood.

Braden Forest.
Turning northwards, in the direction of the Excursion, you have
before you, as far as you can see, and farther, a large tract of land
formerly called Braden Forest. It was anciently ten times larger
than the part called Braden now. You must understand that in
early days by a forest was meant not merely a continuous tract
of woody country, but a district placed by the authority of the
Crown under the severe forest law. Within the prescribed limits,
any number of miles long, and any broad, the larger game-— the

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.

163

deer — belonged to the Crown, and no one, under very heavy penalty,
was allowed to destroy them. I have never seen any ancient map
showing* the limits of the forest when at its largest ; but from what
was called a Perambulation Document, which gives in words and
names the course of the boundary, a rough sketch has been constructed,
enough to show how far it extended in the reign of Hen. III. That
is indicated by the red line. The green line denotes that part of the
country which continued to be called Braden after the disafforesting
in A.D. 1635.1 The hamlet of Braden formerly belonging to the
Duchy of Lancaster, then to the Earl of Clarendon, and now to Sir
John Neeld, is described as "adjoining the Forest of Braden.'"
Speaking generally, it may be said to have reached north and south
from Cricklade to Wootton Basset, if not a little farther, and across,
west to east, from Garsden to Widhill.8

1 Aubrey (Nat. Hist, of Wilts), says :— " Mr. G. Ayliffe, of Grittenham, told
him that at the time of the disafforesting a squirrel might have jumped from
tree to tree between Wootton Basset and Brinkworth Churchyard.

2 The late Mr. J. Y. Akerman, in a valuable paper on the Possessions of
Malmesbury Abbey and the Ancient Limits of the Forest of Braden (Archaeologia,
vol. xxxvii., p. 304), has the following remarks upon the probability of the forest
district having extended, in very early times, far beyond the limits set forth in
the accompanying map, which is constructed from the verbal description of the
bounds as they were in the reign of King Henry III., and recited in a forest
roll of temp. Edward III. : — " Manwood, in his Treatise on the Forest Laws,
observes that the only forests in England of which the period of their formation
is known, are the New Forest, made by William the Conqueror, and that of
Hampton Court, formed by Henry VIII. I shall therefore be pardoned if I
fail in tracing the forest of Braden to its origin. Of its great antiquity, how-
ever, we have evidence in the fact, that in the land limits of the charters already
cited, reference is made to its former name of ' Orwoldes Wood.' It was perhaps
an escheat to the Crown in the days of the Anglo-Saxon Kings which history
has failed to chronicle. Previous to the Norman Conquest its southern limit
included Wootton Basset, according to a charter of Eadwig, which speaks of it

! as 'intra silvam quce vocatur Braden.' It seems probable that the southern
boundary once extended as far as the high road from Wootton to Malmesbury,
where the sterile soil known as 'Braden land' terminates, and is succeeded by

i some of the richest pastures in the county."

Lands in Cliffe Pypard parish are mentioned in old deeds as adjoining Braden:
and Brompton, an ancient chronicler, says that in 905 JEthelwold put to military
execution all " Brytheadune as far as Brandestoke," or, as Higden more cor*

' rectly calls it, Bradenstoke. This seems to bring the forest down much more

, to the south than appears from the perambulation in Hen. III.

M 2

164 Swindon and Us Neighbourhood — No. 2.

The country about the present Braden hamlet is pretty enough,
but it is not quite first-rate for agriculture, and I do not suppose
that when the Millennium of small peasantry sets in, there will be
any very great competition for the much-talked " three acres a-piece "
in that quarter. Yet I remember many years ago a piece of about
five hundred acres, then a sort of common occupied chiefly by squatters
who led a wretched life, which, being taken in hand by a gentleman
with capital, enclosed and divided into farms, now presents a
very respectable appearance. If it should ever come to be sub-divided
again it would probably relapse into its former condition.

If Braden is not fertile in crops, neither is it in topics for archse-
ological disquisition. At Eingsbury you will see one of the great
earthworks so frequent in this county, but I am not aware that
there is any particular history belonging to it. Nor have we about
Braden Forest any sensational or romantic traditions of the Robin
Hood School, or of robbers and marauders of a lower class who used
to haunt such regions. One story only about it is all that I have met
with in ancient records. There was a Wiltshire family in the reign of
King John of the name of Fitzwarren — a name which still survives,
attached to the parish of Stanton, near High worth. Fulco Fitz-
warren had been banished from the Court for treason or some
other intolerable behaviour; so, with a number of fellows, he
took to the highway business in Braden, waylaying and plundering
the King's peaceful travelling subjects. A company of carriers,
with a train of waggons of valuable goods, happening to come along,
Fitzwarren captured the whole party, but on finding that the goods
did not belong to the carriers themselves, but that they were the
King's, and that they were merely being conveyed from one place
to another, he forthwith opened the bales of goods, unpacked
rich stores of cloths and furs, quietly measured these off and divided
them among his troop, and told the drivers they might now turn
their horses' heads back to London, with his dutiful compliments
to His Majesty, and best thanks for the beautiful wardrobes with
which he had so graciously provided them.

On the breaking up of the large forest of Braden, that part which
was the actual property of the Crown, as being part of the Duchy

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.8.A. 165

of Lancaster, was sold to the Hydes, Earls of Clarendon. This was
the present hamlet, or tything, of Braden, six or seven farms now
belonging to Sir John Neeld. There were adjoining it two or three
long narrow strips of land, which went by the elegant name of
Rags. One, from its owner, was called Poucher's Ragj another
and the name still survives, was called Duchy Rag, because it was
the strip that belonged to Duchy of Lancaster. The name is so
odd that I thought it worth while to give this explanation of it.1

Gausden.

The records of the Court of Chancery preserve for us the various
suits that have been brought before the Court from very old times ;
and occasionally they give the particular circumstances that gave
rise to a suit. Among them is a story the scene of which lay at
Garsden, which was jnst within or upon the very border of Braden.
About the year 1580 Charlton Park, near Malmesbury (now Lord
Suffolk's), belonged to one of his ancestors, Sir Henry Knyvett.
Adjoining to that estate is Garsden, then the property of the Moody
family ; and near Garsden is Lea, which belonged to the Hungerford
family. A quarrel arose about some land between Charlton and
Garsden, and, without going to law, Sir Henry Knyvett and Mr.
Moody took upon them to settle it in a way of their own — a way
not uncommon in those days, when gentlemen walked about with
swords by their sides instead of umbrellas or walking sticks. I
give you the narrative in the words of the Record i — " By reason of
mortal and cruel hatred there was a duel, or single combat, in
Garsden Marsh, in which fight Mr. Richard Moody did grievously
and, as was supposed, mortally wound Sir Henry Knyvett, who,
being so wounded, the place of the fight being near the house of
Antony Hungerford, Sir Henry Knyvett was brought thither by
Richard Moody and others. Moody did lead Sir Henry Knyvett

1 It should be observed that the present Duchy'Rag Farm is not the original
one so called. The lands of the forest had been leased by the Crown for very
long terms of years, When the leases expired it was found that things and names
had become so much confused as to make any attempt at identifying the old
lands impossible. An equal quantity was accordingly assigned, outside Braden
hamlet : and the old name was preserved.

166 Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No. 2.

by one of his arms thereunto; and finding Antony Hungerford's
wife there, her husband being absent, Mr. Moody did earnestly and
passionately request her, that Sir Henry Knyvett might lack nothing
that was in her house or that she could do to save his life, and that
he would see her satisfied. He sent her messages after to the same
effect. Mr. Hungerford's wife performed all this. Sir Henry
Knyvett could not be removed for twenty-six days. The physicians
and surgeons sent by the Queen had the whole house. Mrs.
Hungerford provided them with lawns and cambrics, which were
spoiled and stained with blood and worn out. Hay was consumed
to the amount of £30, and many great trees were cut down for
fire- wood. There was a great concourse of friends of Sir Henry
Knyvett, much meat and victuals consumed. The house like to be
burned by reason of the great fires, if Lord Viscount Wallingford,
Sir Wm. Knightley, and others had not been present and by ex-
traordinary pains preserved the whole house. Mr. Moody promised
to recompense Mr. Hungerford for his losses, but the only recompense
Mr. Hungerford got was that one of his (Mr. Hungerford's) sons
was most dangerously and barbarously stabbed by one of the sons
of Mr. Richard Moody, by which young Hungerford was very
likely to have died. He languished of his wounds sixteen years,
costing his father much money. No other compensation being
made for all the expense they had incurred after the duel, an action
was brought and satisfaction sought from the Court of Chancery A
Garsden was at one time the property of the Washington family,
to one branch of which the famous George of America belonged ;
but, much as we might desire the honour, we cannot claim him as
a Wiltshire man. There is also another American celebrity to whom
we have just as little claim, William Penn, the founder of Pennsyl-
vania. The Penns were really a Buckinghamshire family. A
branch of it certainly was settled at Minety, and has left its name
at Penn's Lodge, in Braden ; but they removed to Bristol. Sir
William Penn, a celebrated admiral of Charles the Second's reign,
(often mentioned in Pepys's memoirs) was born and buried at Bristol,
and it was the admiral's son who founded Pennsylvania, but he was
born in London. I think it worth while to name this, because,

Bg the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 167

finding the names of Washington and Penn as at one time among
North Wilts families, we should be glad to claim as Wiltshire men
two such eminent historical characters as the Founder of Pennsylvania
and the Founder of American Independence : but we have no right
to them. In Purton Church, however, you will see the monument
of an eminent man to whom we have a right, Dr. Nevil Maskelyne,
a very distinguished astronomer in his day. You will notice it with
the more interest and respect when you understand that he was
grandfather to the gentleman who is now kindly occupying our
President's chair. Astronomy is the first of sciences ; geology is
the second. If the grandfather was accomplished in the one, I am
not indulging in any idle flattery when I say that he is rivalled by
the grandson in the other.

Wootton Basset.

If to Wood-town, now shortened to Wootton, we add the sur-
name of a family once lords there, we get the name of Wootton
Basset. I need hardly say that many of our places have a double
name, and the second is often that of some ancient family. There
are several Woottons — Wootton-under-Edge, i.e., under the brow
of the Cotswold Hills, on the borders of Gloucestershire ; Wootton
By vers (from the Ry vers family) , near Marlborough ; and Wootton
Basset, sometimes called Wootton Vetus or Old Wootton ; and well
is it entitled to that name, as I have no doubt it is one of the oldest
places in the county. The Bassets were very great proprietors in
Norman times. In Wiltshire they have left their mark at Wootton,at
Winterbourne Basset, Compton Basset, Berwick Basset, and Basset
Down, and that mark — their name — is about all that they have left, for
I have never heard of anything that they did for the perpetual grati-
tude of the county, except to found a small almshouse of St. John the
Baptist at Wootton, which, however, together with its founders,
disappeared long ago. It was in the year 1266 that Philip Basset
and Thomas Gayton, Rector 1 of Wootton, joined together in setting

1 The Church was a Rectory till about A.D. 1363, when the great tithes were
given by the Crown to Stanley Abbey, near Chippenham. From that time it
ber-vme a Vicarage.

108

Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No. 2.

up a small semi-religious, semi-charitable hospital, not for the sick
but (like Mr. Sutton's) for the aged. The Warden or Master was
to be a priest, under whom were to be two or more brethren, Pres-
byters, to be dressed in russet gowns with a cross upon them.
Thirteen poor men of the parish of Wootton, at the least, but more
according to the state of the funds, were to dine together every day
on soup and bread ; with (should the means permit) beer and a dish
of meat. All this implies a certain endowment arising out of lands
or houses.1 The names of six Priors (as they were called) of this
hospital are preserved. They were not of the solitary monastic
order, but secular, married clergy, and two of them were also
Rectors of "Wootton. But it lasted only a century or so. The
lands that provided the income lay about West Tockenham and
Quedhampton, near Basset Down, and were given away in the
reign of Henry IV. to the Priory of Bradenstoke (or Clack Abbey).
The estates of the Basset family passed to the Despensers. I will
not trouble you with all their notorious history ; it is sufficient just
to say that upon their execution in the reign of Edward II. Wootton
Basset was forfeited to the Crown, and under the Crown it was held
by various members of the Royal Family one after another, or
in certain portions by the families of Wroughton, Yorke, and
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The arms of some of these were
formerly in the windows of the old Church at Wootton, but I do
not know that even these families ever left behind them anything
else to be remembered by, except those perishable memorials. For it
is really the fact that over and over again the only information to be

1 In " Dr. Hutton's Collections from the ' Vetus Megistrum ' of Sarnm," now
among the Harleian MSS., is a copy of an order by Bishop Walter de la Wyle,
relating to this foundation : — " Ordinatio Walteri Sarum Episcopi super Hospitale
de Wotton Basset fundatum per dominum Philippum Basset et Thomam de
Gaytune, Eectorem ejusdem Ecclesise Sit unus custos sive Magister, sacerdos.
Habeat sub se unum vel duos fratres Presbyteros, seu plures, in habitu regulari
de russeto ; et crucem deferant in desuper indumentis sicut Magister et Fratres
Hospitalis Sarum, et easdem habeant observantias : 13 pauperes ad minus vel
plures, si facultates Domus suppetant, de Parochia de "Wotton diebus singulis in
dicto Hospitali semel in die refectionem recipiant in pane et potagio sufficienti,
ac in potu et aliquo ferculo, prout status domus poterit sustinere. Dat. apud
Sarum 6. Id: Jun: 1266."

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson F.S.A. 169

gleaned about those who lived before us is derived from the brittle
record of a bit of coloured glass. And so, what often happens ?
The window wants mending, and the glazier, knowing nothing
about the rules of heraldry, brings the window back again with the
family memorial turned topsy-turvy or inside out ; and by and by
comes the inevitable small boy, who shies a stone through it, and
away for ever goes the fame of the once potent landlord, squire,
knight, earl and all, unless some thoughtful member of an ArchaBO-
logical Society had taken the precaution to secure it in his note-book.

We have not time now to go into all the minutiae of the history
of Old Wootton, which would indeed almost require a small volume.
And there is the less occasion for it, as a number of very careful
papers on the subject have been written by one of our Members,
Mr. Parsons, which we hope may pass from their newspaper form
into that small volume. I can only deal with a few principal points
about the town and neighbourhood.

As you go along the railway from Wootton towards Chippenham,
about two-and-a-half miles from Wootton, you may notice, nestling
among trees on a high ground on the left-hand side, a rather
picturesque old house. This about a century ago was the home of
the Jacob family, now represented by Sir Robert Buxton. But there
were two families connected with Wootton whose names stand out
prominently above the rest, the Churchills and the Hydes, Earls of
Clarendon. Sir Winston Churchill, father of the great Duke of
Marlborough, was living at Wootton Basset about the year 1648,
and John, the great duke, ought to have been born there, but his
father being a Royalist in the Civil Wars of Charles I., and
having suffered largely in his fortune from that cause, sought refuge
with his wife among her friends in Devonshire ; so to that county
the hero of Blenheim belongs. The name of Churchill is familiar
at Liddington. Of the Hydes there is more to our purpose. They
were originally of Cheshire, but one Lawrenee Hyde, a lawyer, was
brought into Wiltshire under the patronage of Sir John Thynne,
the builder of Longleat, and settled at Dinton, in South Wilts,
afterwards at Purton. His grandson, Edward Hyde the great Lord
Chancellor, and another of the family, the Earl of Rochester, made

170 Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No, 2.

large purchases of land at Blunsdon, Bradcn, and Wootton Basset.
Laurence Hyde was in the Administration and M.P. for Wootton
in 1678, and obtained a new charter for the town.

The most notorious feature in the history of Wootton is, of course,
its Parliamentary connection.

It is not altogether easy at this time of^day to explain exactly
how certain small, sometimes almost insignificantly small places,
obtained in early days the privilege of sending Burgesses to Parlia-
ment. But of one point we are certain : that the power of the
Crown was far greater then than it is now, and that the Crown
conferred the privilege upon places which were actually the property
of the Crown itself. In this county, for instance, there were within
living memory no less than thirty-four Members of Parliament,
some of them for very small places ; but you will find that those
small places had been Crown property. It is the same with Corn-
wall, which once sent forty-two members. There again most of
them belonged to the Duchy of Cornwall, a Crown estate.

Wootton began to return members in that somewhat vague period
which is often referred to as " time out of mind/'' but the list of
names preserved commences with the year 1446. We know very
little about what took place at the elections till the year 1685, and
therefore out of our abundant charity we will give Wootton the
benefit of the doubt, and will suppose that for that interval of two
hundred and thirty-nine years all was peace, purity, and virtue,
because I am afraid that from and after the year 1685 virtue,
purity, and peace took flight from Wootton Basset elections, and
never came back till the elections were over. The House of Com-
mons must have a cupboard full of petitions complaining of indirect
practices there ; and no great wonder, when the right of voting was
limited (comparatively speaking) to a handful of men, many of
whom were poor labourers in the service, and under the influence,
of neighbouring employers. A newspaper report of the year 1754
gives us, by way of a specimen, the following account of one of
these rather lively displays of peace, purity, and virtue : — " We hear
from Wootton Basset that there has been such rioting about the
election as never was known in so small a town. There are four

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 171

gentlemen put up, and both parties have treated. But last Saturday
se'night they came to such a pitch as to force open a house and take
possession. There were guns, pistols, and swords on both sides,
but nobody was murdered, which it is feared will be the case before
it is over. Eight men are already in Salisbury jail."

In that year (1754) nearly £6000 was spent by one side, of which
£4059 was in direct payment of hard cash to voters at thirty guineas
a man, and £1100 in beer and other dainties called " refreshment/'
at the Horse and Jockey, the Oak, the Cross Keys, and the rest of
them. In 1784 the two principal neighbouring potentates were the
Earl of Clarendon and Lord Bolingbroke. There was the usual
struggle for the two seats, but after that was settled those two
gentlemen came to a quiet understanding to be content with sending
in future one apiece to Parliament, and so harmony did prevail till
1807. In that year a Mr. Kibble white, an attorney, of Gray's Inn,
in London, came forward boldly to fight both the noblemen — two
Philistine Goliaths— at once. He also, like David, armed himself
with a scrip and a few pebbles. David's were only smooth ones,
picked out of the brook, but Mr. Kibblewhite's were heavy ones,
picked out of the bank, for the price of votes upon that memorable
occasion rose up to £45 a man. One of the honourable members
returned by this " free and independent " constituency was a Mr.
Walsh, a London stockbroker, who, it was afterwards ascertained,
had paid £4000 for his success. However he did not occupy his
costly seat very long, for, being entrusted by the Solicitor-General
with £21,000 to be invested in stock, the Hon. Member for
Wootton invested it in uses of his own, and then bolted, under a
false name, for America, but was caught at Plymouth, and of course
expelled from the House of Commons. The other member, who
had succeeded in getting in by the help of Mr. Kibblewhite's scrip
and pebbles, contrived to secure the seat for the future by buying
up no less than a hundred and eight of the houses, all of which he
afterwards sold to Mr. Pitt, of Cirencester, who carried on the war
against the two lords. (Gent. Mag., 1811, Pt. II., p. 582.)

The right of voting belonged there, as at some other places, to
all persons who were classed under the rather forbidding name of

172 Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No. 2.

" pot-walloppers." There has been some discussion as to what that
word really means. To the ear, at first sound, like the word pot-
valiant, it conveys the idea of being connected with that source of
so much vulgarity and misery, the drinking pot. " Wallopping 99
is also a vulgar word, the meaning of which is only too well under-
stood by the tyrants of poor donkeys. But the word pot-wallopper
has really nothing whatever to do either with the beer-pot or with
beating. The real word was pot-waller, and a pot-waller was
simply a person who was the owner of a house with a pot- wall — in
other words a kitchen fireplace for cookery. A wall of that kind
is rather an important one in any house, and in a house without it
no one would be likely to stay very long. A kitchen fireplace,
therefore, always implies housekeeping, and any person who was the
hond-fide owner of such an apartment as a kitchen was a housekeeper
qualified to vote. A lodger might have ten times the intellect of
the owner, but he had no vote, because he was not the proprietor of
the pot-wall. The word pot-waller is formally used in this par-
ticular sense in one of the Reports of a Committee of the House of
Commons sitting upon an election petition. The committee resolved
that a potwaller should be " a person who, having a legal parochial
settlement, should possess the means of providing in his own house
diet for all who might be in it." In Scotland, where the houses
are very high, and divided into flats, each flat having its own kitchen
fireplace and potwall, every kitchen conferred a separate vote.

But these cooking vessels that hung about the wall were now and
then applied to other purposes than those for which they were
intended by the ironmonger. On the eve of an election, when a
visit from the candidate was expected, if the voter had an eye for
money, and intended to have it, he put an empty pot in the fireplace,
and went and looked at the view out of the window. Somehow or
other, after the candidate had taken his leave, the vacuum was
found to be filled, not with a trussed fowl, or bit of beef, but with
ample means of procuring either or both.

All this was put an end to in 1832, when Wootton Basset and
six more Wiltshire boroughs were quietly snuffed out.

Though all these ways of supplying Members of Parliament were

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 173

irregular, or rather, very bad, and called loudly for renovation
at the same time it cannot be denied that a great many valuable
and eminent men were introduced through them. So far as good
English names are an indication of respectability, the list of Mem-
bers for Wootton Basset will, with some few exceptions, bear com-
parison with those of any other place. As for the persons who
accepted bribes, one cannot be much surprised, knowing what human
nature is, and how widely, from various causes, political corruption
was spread. The inferior will follow the example of a superior. It
is a Greek poet who says, in an English dress : —

When base deeds, from those of highest rank
Receive a sanction, all below esteem them
As objects of their honest imitation.

But Wootton Basset is now making a fresh start. The railway
has put some new life into it, and we hope has carried away all bad
habits and associations. A new town hall and a restored Church
have taken the place of decayed buildings, and we expect that with
signs of improvement its future will obliterate the past.

One difficulty in getting at the serious history of the town in
other particulars is that the oldest documents relating to it seem to
have been strangely neglected and lost. They had a Recorder who
has recorded nothing, and the boxes for safety have saved very little.
Nothing of this kind can surprise anybody who has heard of the
shameful way in which, until some few years ago, the National
Records in London were stowed away and then neglected. They
were shut up in boxes in vaults almost under the Thames, and eaten
up by rats, so numerous that the first step in reform was to employ
a number of terriers to clear the room. It was only the other
day that all the valuable records of the old East India Company
were recsued from oblivion. Therefore we must not be too hard
upon small provincial authorities. Queen Elizabeth's charter to
Wootton is said to have been quietly carried away by a former lord
of the manor. King Charles the Second's turned up quite acci-
dentally about twenty-five years ago in the house of a Mr. Owen,
near Denbigh. That gentleman did not know that he had it. The
box had come to him many years before with some papers of a person

174 Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No. 2.

connected with his family who had been steward to the Clarendon
estates. So thing's disappear. They had, I believe, a sword of
state, which used to be carried before the mayor on special occasions.
I do not know another instance of this in a provincial town. The
sword of state, called u Curtana," is borne before a Sovereign at the
coronation as one of those

" attributes of majesty,
Wherein doth sit the fear and dread of kings."

It signifies the power of life and death, the power exercised by
judges under commission from the Crown. This would seem rather
beyond the reach of the Mayor of Wootton Basset. The sword was,
however, not a Royal gift with the charter, but a present from one of
the Members of Parliament, who, I suppose, thought fit to please his
own fancy, without attaching any meaning to his gift, and not
knowing anything about " Curtana." 1 They have also other in-
signia : two small silver maces, of James the First's time. These
are loaded with lead at the top, and are very much battered. Ill-
natured wags say that this battered appearance is owing to their having
been sometimes very freely applied to the pates of Her Majesty's
liege — but sometimes very unruly — subjects, the pot-walloppers.

You will see the Church at Wootton Basset, restored in 1871, at
the expense of Sir Henry Meux. I do not understand that there
was much that was interesting about the old one, except a curious
wall-painting. In the act of cleaning a wall, a piece of plaster had
fallen off, and discovered underneath the armed foot of a man with
a spur. Gradually removing the plaster all round, the workmen
found a painting in water-colours of the murder of Archbishop
Thomas a. Becket. The four knights were nearly perfect, the two
foremost pressing on him with their swords drawn, the others in
the act of drawing. The Archbishop was kneeling before the altar ;
between his hands, in a pious attitude, was the wafer — the cup and
book on the table before him — the crosier and mitre by his side—
the cardinal's red robe and golden band, distinct. His features
were a good deal obliterated, but there was sufficient left to dis-
tinguish that his head was turned round in surprise. This painting

1 On the scabbard are the arms of Kibblewhite, Attersoll, and Hyde.

By tie Rev. Canon J. U. Jackson} F.S.A. 175

had been covered up, but at what time was not known. It would
most likely have been about the year 1539, when Thomas Cromwell
obtained Henry the Eighth's consent to obliterate and put down
everything relating to Becket. Thomas Cromwell was very
enthusiastic in abolishing Roman Catholic practices, and certain
injunctions were issued for that purpose. One of them is so far
curious that it represents Becket's death not as a designed assassi-
nation, but as an accident that happened in a scuffle. It states
that Becket had stubbornly resisted some laws that had been passed for
correcting abuses, and that, having gone to Rome to urge the Pope
to condemn the King's laws, he had thus become a rebel to the King
of England. That these four gentlemen were sent to bring him to
reason — that he called one of them bad names, and struck another
nearly to the ground, and so in the fray was himself killed. That
he was no saint, but a traitor, and, therefore, the King's injunction
required that henceforth he should be called, not Saint Thomas, but
Bishop Becket, and that his images and pictures throughout the
realm should be plucked down out of Churches, and the day used as
his festival should not be observed, but be struck out of all books,
services, and offices. St. Thomas a, Becket's day was the 29th
December, and that day is so marked in all the old calendars pre-
fixed to ancient Church books. I may here mention an odd thing
about this that happened to myself. Two or three years ago I
happened to be on a visit to the Marquis of Bath, at Longleat.
Mr. Gladstone was there at the time, and I was showing him some
of the literary curiosities in the library, and among the rest one of
these old illuminated MS. Church books. He suddenly said, "I
wonder if they have struck out St. Thomas ?" I knew what he
meant, but felt rather awkward, as I did not remember at the
moment in which of the twelve months or three hundred and sixty-
five days to look for it. But he tossed the leaves over, went
directly to the day, and found that it had been struck out with a
pen. I confess I was quite astonished that, with so many vast
matters to think of, he should so instantly, and without the slightest
hesitation, have recollected the very day. But I found out the
reason afterwards. It is Mr. Gladstone's own birthday, so that he

176 Swindon and Us Neighbourhood — No, 2.

had the very best reason in the world for remembering it, and
might well be curious to knew whether Henry VIII. had erased
him as well as Bishop Becket from the calendar.

Fasterne.

One meets all over the county with country houses, that are now
converted into farm-houses, or sometimes divided into labourers
cottages, but which were once occupied by gentry or nobility,
perhaps even by royalty. One of these is Fasterne, a mile or so
from Wootton Basset. There is nothing now very striking in its
appearance, but it becomes interesting when we know its history.
It was once the chief residence, the manor-house, of the Despensers,
the well-known favorites of Edward II., in the middle of their large
property here. The fall of these omnipotent noblemen was owing
to the French lady Isabella, King Edward's wife. Being brought
over to be Queen of England, she determined to be a Queen, and
would never rest till she had got those two out of her way, which
she accomplished at last by promoting them to a gallows 50ft.
high. After their execution all kinds of complaints against them
for arbitrary acts of violence poured in from the neighbourhood.
One Henry of Hook, near Lydiard, had refused to give up his
right to some land, whereupon he had been seized, shut up in a
dungeon at Fasterne, and kept there a whole week till he consented.
On the other hand, the heir of the Despensers had his grievances to
report. He complained that Fasterne had been invaded violently
by his father's enemies, naming men of the Audley, Berkeley, and
Clifford families. They had rifled the house and inmates, carried
off the furniture, arms, armour, &c; had taken the rents from
the tenants, broken up the park, killed the deer, and caught the
fish; total damages estimated at £30,000. Also that they had
forced their way into Stanley Abbey, near Chippenham, and carried
off Hugh Despenser's strong boxes, deposited there for safety, con-
taining his deeds, plate, and money. That they had done the same
to his castle at Marlborough, where the plunder consisted of books,
vestments, sacramental cups, crosses of gold, tapestry, and other
things, to the value of £6000 . The heirs, however, of the Despensers,
did not succeed in recovering the lands that had been forfeited to

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A 177

the Crown. They were bestowed upon Edmund of Langley, fifth
son of King- Edward III. Fasterne was then held by his son,
Edward, Duke of York, who was killed at the Battle of Agincourt,
and some time after that it became dower land to the Queens o£
England. Katharine Parr, widow of Henry VIII., had it, and
leased it to Sir Henry Long, of Draycote. 1 Katharine had re-
married Sir Thomas Seymour, brother of Protector Somerset. The
Protector coveted Fasterne, and negotiated with Sir Henry Long to
resign his lease. Katharine Parr, when she heard of this was
highly indignant. She happened to be on very bad terms with
the Protector, because he kept back from her some valuable jewels
which, as she maintained, King Henry had given her for her
own. She vowed she would stop this Fasterne Lease job, and would
go herself " tomorrow, Saturday, at three o'clock " to the young
King Edward, and give full utterance to her feelings against the
Protector his uncle. But the uncle-Protector of the realm was
rather a formidable person to be meddled with. Whether she kept
her promise, and how far she succeeded in getting the diamonds,
my authority does not say; but Somerset certainly succeeded in
getting Fasterne. Sir Henry Long somewhat unwillingly parted
with it for a sum of money and the office of Ranger of Braden
Forest for his life.

In the reign of Queen Mary Fasterne and Wootton Manor were
bestowed by her upon one of her most zealous supporters, Sir
Francis Englefield. He belonged to an old and distinguished
Roman Catholic family of Englefield House, near Reading. As a
compliment, he had been knighted at the coronation of Edward VI.,
when forty knights of the Bath were created, and fifty-four others
who were called Knights of the Carpet. I do not know exactly
what that means, unless it is that they were a kind of ornamental
knights, to dance attendance at Court, or of those butterfly marquises
of a later reign, whose chief duty was, not to brandish a sword on
horseback, but a knife and fork at the dinner-table. But Sir
Francis Englefield was of a very different quality. He was a deter-
mined and thorough-going Romanist. He had been an officer in

1 Eetrospective Review, vol. i., 208.
VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVIII. N

178

Swindon and Us Neighbourhood — No. 2.

Mary's household whilst she was only Princess, and when he was
charged by the Council to take to her their order, forbidding- mass
to be said in her house, he stoutly refused to carry the message, for
which refusal he was committed to the Tower for three months.
After Mary came to the throne he was present at the trial of Bishop
Hooper, who was burned at Gloucester; was made Master of the
Wards and one of the Queen's Privy Council. I met with a curious
letter among Lord Bath's papers at Longleat, written by a Mr.
Mozley, a lawyer of the Middle Temple in London, in which he
says : — " Master Englefield lyeth at his house at Englefield. He
continueth in great favor, and is like to increase. I have already
sent forth his patent for the inheritance of Great Fasterne, and
well I am at the mill to grind more good grist for him." Mr.
Mozley's mill, however, soon stopped grinding, for Mary dying,
Queen Elizabeth succeeded, and no more good grist for Master
Englefield. He made himself obnoxious as a deadly enemy to
Elizabeth, and consequently got into great trouble. "An evil
custom," says Strype the historian, " prevailed in those days, of
allowing great men to have a number of retainers who were not
menial servants, but wore a distinctive dress, a hat or badge, and
attended on special occasions. Those licenses were given to lords
or gentlemen on purpose for the maintenance of quarrels, and many
murders were committed by their means, and feuds kept up among
the nobility and gentry." Sir Francis Englefield must either have
been very fond of quarrelling, or have been exposed to some ex-
traordinary peril, for he had a body-guard of no less than a hundred
men.1 He had done all he possibly could to injure the celebrated
Eoger Ascham, who had been appointed by Bishop Gardiner Latin
master to Elizabeth when Princess. In the life of Sir Thomas
Smith, Secretary of State, Sir Francis Englefield is described as a
fierce Papist, who had often cried out against Ascham as a heretic
fit to be rejected and punished, but Gardiner would not hear of
Ascham's removal. No wonder, then, that on Elizabeth's accession
Englefield fled to Spain. He was recalled, but refused to come.
His estate at Fasterne was forfeited, but the Queen declined to
1 Strypes Memorials, vol. iii., part ii., p. 161.

By the Rev. Canon J. B. Jackson, F.8.A.

179

appropriate the rents. Englefield continued in league with malcon-
tents abroad, especially with the Duke of Feria, who had married
an English lady, but hated Elizabeth from the beginning, and stirred
up Pope Pius to excommunicate her, and the King of Spain to
be her enemy. Elizabeth allowed Englefield all the rents of his
property, and assured him he would not be meddled with in his owa
country if he would merely be quiet, but the enly reply be sent was
in a bold letter to Dudley, Earl of Leicester, denying the Queens
right to the throne, and, in short, wholly defying her authority.
In 1584 he began a more dangerous game. He entered into cor-
respondence with Mary, Queen of Scots. The letters were intercepted
by Cecil, and the contents were of so treasonable a nature that,
having somehow or other, I don't exactly know how, come within
reach.he was tried and executed in 1 587,along with Lord Paget andSir
FrancisThrockmorton. Hisbody was carried back to Spain and buried
in the College of Valladolid, to which he had been a great benefactor.

Fasterne was restored to the family, and the last Lady Englefield
re-married Sir Robert Howard, who was living there in 1672. It
was then bought by Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, son of
Chancellor Clarendon, and continued in his representatives until
sold a few years ago to the now owner, Sir Henry Meux. About
the middle of the last century it was occupied by a family of the
name of Franklin, and from old letters it appears that it was a
favourite rendezvous for a club of friends and neighbours who used
to meet every fortnight, not for croquet nor yet for tennis, but for
the older game of bowls. The bowling green remains. Of the
original and larger house the foundations are still visible, the
walls are very thick. There is a Tudor door-way left, and in a
chamber on the first-Boor a stone chimney piece and fire-place
surmounted by the arms of the Euglefields. It is worth a visit
from the passer-by, and if he happens to have heard my story and
has not forgotten it, he will look upon the decayed mansmn with a
certain respect; and, as he turns away to leave, perhaps some
thought of this kind may pass across his mind: "There are the
Despensers, there are the Euglefields, and here am I. Upon the
whole I think that ' living dogs are better than dead lions.

N 2

180

An Address by the President, Nevil Story Masxelyne, Esq., M.P., F.R.&J
Delivered to the Annual Meeting at Swindon, August 10th, 1886.

|ARBUBY CASTLE shares with Old Sarum, Carisbrooke
rJ (Wihtgarsesbyrg), and a few more old fortresses, the
distinction of being mentioned in the " Saxon Chronicle" as one of
the scenes of important events in English history. It seems in-
dubitable that Barbury is the Beran Byrig, in the nominative Byrg,
of the Saxon Chronicle (Beran Byrg in the Parker MS.) . Byrg
is, of course, the Old English Burg, Burh, which becomes our
English word borough, and in other cases than the nominative takes
the form of Byrig. The termination Bury for many names of places
is the same word. It implies a fortified place or mound. Beran is,
no doubt, the old Welsh or Celtic name for the place; Beran Byrg
being the equivalent in West-Saxon parlance for the expression
Beran Castle. Beran might be a corruption of Bryn—a hill, in
Welsh— of which a form is Aran connected with the Greek fy0y.
A more probable derivation, however, would seem to be the Welsh
Bur, or Bum, its diminutive— an enclosure or entrenchment— a word
of possibly a similar origin to that of the Saxon word Burh, Burg,
or Byrg. It would mean, then, the camp or castle. The high
ridge of Hakpen dips at its N.E. end into a deep hollow or gap, from
which the steep of Barbury rises somewhat abruptly. A road,
however, leads directly up the face of the hill and enters the circum-
vallation at a gap which appears from the form of the inner mound
to have been an original entrance. The area of the enclosed
space is a little less than twelve acres. The form of the camp
is that of an irregular oval— i.e., a section of an egg, the small
end of the egg-formed area pointing nearly W. The level of the
floor is about 20ft. higher towards the centre than at the western
end. The vallum, where it is very high on the N.W. and S.W.

Barbu r y Castl e

Barhury Castle. 181

ends, has evidently been in part formed by hollowing the ground
within the camp and throwing it up. The shallow depression
so formed served the further purpose of affording an excellent
shelter from the fierce N.W. and S.W. winds, and would conceal
from the commanding height of Hakpen any of the garrison
sheltering in the hollows. The height of the centre of the
camp above high-water datum at Liverpool is 866ft. An en-
trance traverses the eircumvallation at the east, where the outside
and the inside are on a level. The works consist of an outer
and an inner vallum, separated by a deep ditch, the scarp pre-
senting in some places a perpendicular height of about 45ft. (it
is 47ft. even now, measured on the scarp) to the top of the rampart,
which rises to as much as 23ft. in perpendicular height above the
area of the enclosed space. Originally the height and depth of the
vallum and foss were, no doubt, more considerable, but time— or,
rather, the action of gravitation, aided by the rains of ages, rendering
the softer parts of the soil comparatively plastic— has resulted in
filling up a little of the foss at the expense of the earth of the
vallum. The outline of the ridges of the ramparts has also beeome
much broken and irregular. A second ditch of from about 20ft. to
24ft. in depth from the top of the outer vallum, surrounds that
rampart. The eastern and, probably, the chief original entrance to
the camp, was guarded by a barbican or hornwork beyond the outer
ditch, now much reduced in height and depth. It is probable that
a stockade would have been erected on one or both of the ramparts,
with passages for the defenders to pass through at intervals to take
up position on the ramparts to repel an enemy. In the larger and
very complete hill-fort of Sidbury a sort of double way can be traced
on the second vallum, with a trench, no doubt occupied originally by
a stockade between the two ways. Round the north side of the
camp a third ditch and low rampart ran and the ground was ap-
parently shaped as a sort of glacis beyond it, terminating in a small
scarp of 3ft. or 4ft. in height. A profile of the work is given with
the plan of the camp on Plate I. A palisade may have been planted
on this outermost scarp, and so enlarged the defended area of this
formidable little fortress.

182 Bar bury Castle,

Such is a brief description of the ancient hill-fort of Beran Byrg,
one which merited, as well from its commanding- position, from the
depth of its works— the form of which is retained almost unimpaired
—or, again, from its historical interest, the place which was assigned
to it by Sir John Lubbock in the schedule to his Act for Protecting
Ancient Monuments. The side of the down at some little distance
to the east of Barbury is scored with ancient lines of partition, ap-
parently of gardens or other enclosures that bear evidence of the place
having been in early times frequented by a not inconsiderable popu-
lation. In case of the anticipation of danger, or of any sudden alarm,
this local population, as well as those inhabiting the chalk marl plateau
below, could repair within the ramparts for protection.

Directly north, below the hill-fort and distant about half- a-mile,
are some large excavations in the ground, divided into two deep
somewhat rectangular troughs, and on the west of these a shallower
and rounded basin : the whole being enclosed by a ditch, and some
other works which may have carried a protecting fence in former
days. They appear to have enclosed ground occupied for residential
purposes. It is not easy to assign the object of these deep and ex-
tensive excavations. The first idea they suggest is that they were
reservoirs for water on a large scale, kept supplied in ancient days
on the old world " dew-pond " system. But they are very likely
comparatively modern; perhaps connected with some mansion or
religious house, such as tradition states to have been planted on this
site, but of which every other trace has disappeared, except a long
and once fine box hedge that ran as far as the road to Overtown.

Below Barbury Castle, and between it and these hollows, is a
rectangular circumvallation with a very Roman aspect. It is an
enclosure with a ditch and vallum that must once have been a much
deeper and more defensive structure than it is now, for on digging
into the bottom of the foss on the north side, pottery and bones
and moved earth were met with to a depth of 3ft. below the present
level of the bottom. The eastern portion of this circumvallation
has been obliterated, but its position can be just traced. The interior
space is terraced in three shallow terraces running from east to west.
The space enclosed within the vallum measures 292ft. from N. to S.,

By N. Story Maskehjne, Esq., M.P. 183

and about 350ft. from E. to W. It is worth noticing how closely
these measures correspond to 300 and 360 Roman feet respectively.
A Roman foot is estimated as 0-9723 of an English foot, or, accor-
ding to Bockh, it is 0-9705. These give within Bin. the numbers
found. The first explanation suggested by the aspect of the ground
is that it was the site of an extensive Roman villa. More probably,
however, it may have been a small camp or castelhm, such as the
Romans would construct in the neighbourhood of a British oppidum,
intended only to bold perhaps a mcmipulus or a centuna of the
leo-ion that garrisoned the division of the province. Unfortunately,
there remain no traces of building except that some excavations
recently carried on there by myself, with the kind permission and
aid of Mr. H. Kemble, of Overtown, resulted in exposing a sarsen
stone foundation of a wall on the line of the ridge of the second
terrace. Some Samian and other ware turned up in the trenches
duo- confirms the Roman date of the work.

Some other indications of former buildings are seen in a field of
Mr. Kemble's adjoining the road to Prior's Hill. They also are
rectangular in form, and can best be traced by the color of the
ground, or of the crops on it as seen from the camp. Broad bands
that seem to indicate the site of walls are comparatively white with
small scattered flint, the square or rectangular parts of the ground
which they enclose being dark in color and singularly free from the
ubiquitous flint flakes. They appear to have been the result of the
upturning of a layer of flint fragments that lie under the surface
soil, and probably came to the surface when some ditches were dug
on the sites of the present lines ; and on their being filled m again
the flint flakes became strewn on the surface. These foundations are
certainly of considerable antiquity, but there was nothing found in
cutting trenches across them to justify assigning a date to them.
They may have been the site of wooden palisades bounding an
ancient farmstead. Abundant fragments of rude pottery-some
with no glaze, some with a black and others with a bright red glaze,
and red throughout the material-are to be found on both the sites.
A blue bead was met with in the rectangular enclosure first described.
It was in imitation of Lapis-Lazuli, but with a white intermediate

184, Barhury Castle.

layer between a green core and the blue surface layer of the glass;
by removal of the blue layer three white spots are left at equidistant
places on the bead. The occurrence of characteristic Saurian ware
and other forms of Roman pottery was confined to the rectangular
circumvention, the Roman character of which cannot be doubted.
The best of these specimens are now, by the kindness of Mrs.
Kemble, placed in the County Museum at Devizes.

The part which the mounded hill-forts were constructed to play
may be gathered from the history of one of them. Old Sarum was
the Sorbiodunum of the Romans/ a name evidently latinized from a
Celtic one for a dun or fortress— Searo-dwn^erha^a ; as Searo-burh was
its form when Saxons first expressed it in their tongue. Originally
a bold mound of chalk, it stands in a commanding position, and
must have been almost by nature a fortress. The long-head race of
earliest inhabitants of England— the men of the rude stone imple-
ments—may have learned the need of earth defences. They certainly
understood earthworks and the building of barrows, but their works
would needs be rude. It seems not impossible, however, that their
defences in that early stage of fortification were for protection as much
against the larger animals as men, and may have been formed with
the foss inside and the bank or vallum towards the foe. Ringsbury,
Avebury, and Wansdyke, it may be, and some other dykes of this
description, would, in such case, have been the work of this age of
" the old men." After them came other races. A second race, short
of skull and taller of stature, were more refined. Their implements
are worked by art, and they were acquainted with the use of bronze.
But the chronologists and archaeologists have much yet to do to clear
up the obscurity that enshrouds the history and origin of the different
hordes of men that passed over the land before the advent of the
Romans. The earlier race, or races, appear to have been akin to
the Basques— a later one that spread through the northern centre of
England, seems to have had Finnish characteristics. Successive
waves of Gael and Gaul swept over the south and west, probably
enslaving the survivors of the long-head inhabitants, and to the
Gaulish race the Belgse belonged who, shortly before the advent of
the Romans, began a career of conquest over the country in whic h

By N. Story Masieli/ne, Esq., M.P.

185

Old Sarum stands. Perhaps the Gaul would have had a hand, ,f not
L originally cawing out its deep trenches, at least in deepening and
strengthen^ them. It is, however, impossible to say wha amount of
this defensive work came from the hauds of Gael or Gaul or Saxon.
^ Romans next held Old Sarum, and when in 534 Cynnc, the
s„u of Cerdic, became leader of the West Saxons, the Sorbmdunum
of the Romans was in the resolute hands of the more or less
Romanised Britons of Belgic race.

After the battle of Charford (Cerdices ford) m 519 the Saxon
advance had been held in check in no small degree by the formidable
M the Britons showed them in the fortresses they held on he
chalk country, of which Old Sarum was the centre and key Bu y
Hill and Quarley guarded the upper waters o the Teste. Old
Sarum (Sorbio-dunum) barred the way up the Avon. A group o
Long hill-forts round Warminster and others between A and that
fortress were centres of a population ready to Join a muster anywhere
ou Salisbury Plain; and behind Old Sarum agam to the north were
S dbnry, Ambresbury, Chisbury, and, beyond the Yale of Pewsey,
1 ol/ British entrenchment at Martinzell, w,th further north
Cunetio (near Marlborough) and Barbury, and Oldbury-all so
situated as to be able to signal each to the next, and so to pass on
the summons for a muster against the common enemy. In 552
Cyuric burst through the barrier; he fought a battle near the fmt
of Searo Byrig, and in the terse language of the old chronicle, the
Bryts he put to flight." With the intermissions due to two great
waves of Danish conquest, Searo-burh thenceforward contrnned a
Saxon fortress through the remainder of early English history, Alfred
himself having, according to tradition, occupied and strengthened its
defences. And next, when the Normans ru!ed the land a Norman
castle rose within its ramparts, and the lofty mound or lurk rarsed
by the Saxon was crowned with a Norman keep. But keep and
castle, like the cathedral and the town that once were cooped withm
the mounds of Sarum, are gone ; the very stones of whatever existed
there as masonry have been removed, and Old Sarum has remained
a turfy solitude for nearly seven centur.es. But it sent two members
to Parliament till 1832. Such is the history of Old Sarum.

186

Barhury Castle,

Barbury has no such complete tradition as surrounds Old Sarum,
though the vicissitudes of its tenure and its first origin were probably
not dissimilar. The clump of beeches that stand, weird sentries,
just outside its trenches, bears witness to the presence of a thin
capping of tertiary sand and clay overlying the chalk of. the hill,
and suggests the probability that in ancient times a grove of trees
may have sheltered the bleak spit of down. Caasar tells of the
oppida of the Britons as he knew them. The oppidum of Cassivell-
aunus was protected by woods and marshes, and would on occasion
hold large numbers of people with their flocks and herds. Protected
by vallum ^ and foss, and strongly defended by nature as well as by
art, a British oppidum, hidden when possible in the depths of a
forest or crowning some commanding knoll, offered security from
the incursions of foemen, and the inhabitants gathered there from
their villages and huts, together with their moveable property at
the approach of danger. The Roman method of attack on such a
British camp was simple; it consisted in a furious simultaneous
onslaught on the entrenchment in two different places. The Roman
castellum (a diminutive of castrum), when planted in the neighbour-
hood of a British oppidum, was a fortified position generally at some
distance— sometimes as much as two or three miles away from it
Such an oppidum was Barbury Castle, and such a castellum probably
was the intrenchment first described in this notice. The term castle
seems, in its application to a hill-fort, to have been transferred in
later parlance from a neighbouring Roman settlement to what
was originally a British Dun or Caer and afterwards an English
Burh; which, indeed, not unfrequently (as at Marlborough and
Ludgershall) became the site of a Norman castle. It has been
supposed that the earliest form of these hill-forts was that of a single
agger, with its foss— fossa et terreus agger—like the old (supposed)
Belgian boundary, the Wansdyke, and many other so-called walls
and dykes; and that the double mound and ditch and the scarping
of hill sides were the work of later and, probably, of Anglo-Saxon
engineers. This may have been so with some of the great entrenched
works of ancient Wessex like Sidbury and Old Sarum; but it is not
hkely that many of these doubly-mounded entrenchments were

By N. Story Uashelyne, Esq., M.P. 187

entirely fashioned by Anglo-Saxon hands, for such fortresses exist
where Saxon feet never trod : indeed the Saxon Bnrh was in general
characterised by a monnd raised within a previously-extant en-
trenchment, and sometimes on it, while the very names these hill-
forts still bear are often undisguisedly Celtic and prove they were
iu existence before the advent of the Saxons. Where a primeval
or very early defensive work has been modified or strengthened m
later times, a ditch once internal, as at Kingsbury, may have been
deepened to form a bank internal to it, and a double cireumvallation
then constructed ; and on further investigation it may turn out, as
I have hinted, that the oldest work, that of the early neolithic men,
took the former shape, that of the later men the latter and more
defensive form.

In order to realise the situation of our West Saxon ancestors after
the taking of Old Sarum, we must go back in time a little, and
picture to ourselves their bands under Cynric who, in 552, was an
Led man. He had landed a youth with the first of the West Saxon
Marauders, from five ships in 495, at the head of Southampton
Water. New swarms had subsequently joined the first adventurers
from their distant hive, and they had grown into an invading host,
and from invaders into settlers. Now, fifty-seven years after their
first landing, they are masters of a rich and important part of England.
Checked on the west by forest country teeming with their Bryt foes,
they push northward and the commanding position of Sarum has
become theirs. Before them, as they look still to the north, lies
the plain of Salisbury, and, beyond, the rich vale of Pewsey, flanked
and fronted by the forest barrier (then much more extensive han
to-day) of Savernake-a name for which Dr. Guest thought he
had found a derivation, in common with that of the river Severn,
from an Erse word S«5W-a boundary. It took Ceawlm four-
years to conquer and to consolidate the tenure of that intervening
country and to pass the belt of forest (continuous then with Saver-
nake) that divided, as its residue of wood still divides, the north of
Pewsey Vale from the Marlborough Downs. The "Chronicle
maintains its grim silence over the horrors that those four years no
doubt added to the accumulated cruelties of the invaders. Evidently

188

Barhury Castle.

the Saxon men had passed the forest harriers and the Bryts had
given ground • perhaps step by step, perhaps of set purpose, they
had evacuated the country and, having chosen their battle-ground
at the chalk ridge, the Britons had awaited the northward march of
their relentless enemy, and determined— or, in fact, were driven—
to stake all upon a great battle.

The position of Barbury Castle had a special importance from its
neighbourhood to several ancient highways. Following the course
of that most venerable of roads, the Ridgeway, from near Avebury
to the defile at which the Thames breaks through the barrier of
chalk hills at Streatley and Goring, it will be seen that where the
road leaves the high ridge at Hakpen to cross the Og valley, it is
scarped in the steep side of the hill on which Barbury Castle stands ;
and where it leaves the valley to again reach the high level of the
downs, the « Castle" of Liddington— or, as it should be more
appropriately called, of Badbury— stands upon the hill close by.
These twin hill-forts not only stood sentinel over the Ridgeway,
they also guarded what had been a Roman road, a branch from the
Western, so called Ermin Street, that led from Gloucester to
Winchester, and, after cutting the Ridgeway nearly at right angles
at Chisledon, still is a highway as it runs down the Og valley, in
parts of its course from Nythe Farm, near Wanborough, by Chiseldon
to Marlborough. The Old Roman Road, in fact, branched at the
Nythe Farm, the other arm taking a direction through Wanborough
by Speen (the Roman Spinee), and near Newbury on to Silchester.
Other roads converging on the gap, or pass, between Hakpen and
Barbury led southwards. One still connects Wroughton (Elyngdun)
with this gap. Hay Lane, too, is probably a subsidiary Roman or
British road from Cricklade to (Marlborough or) Cunetio. Cricklade
was in Roman times a place of importance.1 It was the first Roman
station on the Ermin Street after it left Corinium (Cirencester). A
low rampart, that no doubt once carried a palisade, still may be
traced round the present town of Cricklade. The continuation of -
Hay Lanejsvould intersectjthe Ridgeway where it threads the gap

1 It must have been a (Roman) walled town^7money^a7coined there in
fcaxon times.

By N. Story Maskdyne, Esq., M.P. 189

between Barbury and Hakpen. Thus, then, Barbury Castle stands
out as one of the great bastions in a line of hill-forts, guarding the
meeting-points of important roads. But of the part that Barbury has
played in history we know no more than that it gave its name to a
great battle which opened to the Saxon hero, Ceawlin, a large part of
the wide plain that the eye ranges over from Hakpen hill, and brought
him in contact with, and far across, the boundaries of what was
subsequently Mercia on the north-east; while, to north-west and west,
the British line of possession and defence was driven back till it rested
on Cirencester and the line of the Cotswolds in the directum of Bath.

It may be relevant to ask of what material, and in what numbers,
the Saxon army would have been composed? We know little
of the size of these armies. Henry of Huntingdon states that
for the attack on Searo-hyrig Cynric collected forces from bis allies
Ceawlin, who at this battle comes to the front as heir to his old
father Cynric's leadership, and was soon afterwards recognised as
Bretwalda of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, would certainly have mustered
some of them as allies in addition to his West Saxon soldiers. The
armies must have been large enough for the defeat of one of them
to be a crushing conquest of a people. It was so with both parties
after Badon Hill,1 where the Britons appear, from lamentations ot
Gildas, to have been only less crushed than the foe they overcame.
It was so after the battle of Barbury, and a few years later Deorham
was in every sense decisive of the fate of the people whose army was
beaten The Briton host before Barbury must therefore have been
drawn from every quarter of that great expanse of field and forest
that the eye looked over then, as we look over it now, from the
crest of Hakpen. Immediately to the north of the escarpment of
the Marlborough Downs stretches the fertile chalk marl region, of
which the edge is seen from the vale of the Thames as one looks
south. It is conspicuous with its picturesqnehangers of wood and
1 1 do not venture to connect this decisive battle wi^hlh^Tt Saxon congests
and decidrX for the Dorset Badbury Kings as the Mom -B«/~ *
Ipounded by Dr. Guest and accepted by Green, or for the view of Mr Skene
S Mr. C7 Elton accepted, that it was the Bonden Hill near Lmhthgow
Zgh on the whole I consider the preponderance of the evidence to be » favour
of the northern site.

190

Barbury Castle.

its villages, extending- from Compton Bassett by Clyffe, Binknoll,
Wroughton, and Chiseldon to Wanborough. Several of these places
were sites of forts in old time. The Ivory at Wroughton (till the
seventeenth century and still, ecclesiastically, known as Elyngdon
or Elyndun) has the appearance of a Dun, with a vallum, now much
broken down, the present road running along its f'oss. In the centre
of the district on a spit of high land, precipitous on either flank,
Binknoll stands conspicuous. It was a strong little fortress, with
one inner and two outer wards, each protected by a single ditch and
rampart and a scarped way all round the edge of the steep cliff,
probably carrying a palisade. It is, further, planted in a most
commanding position, intended to be, as its Saxon name implies, a
Beacon-knoll, beacne-cnoll— an eye to watch and a light to warn the
country far and near of an approaching danger, or of a summons to
assemble; for its bale-fire could be seen from Bath and the long
ridges of the Cotteswold, from Castle Combe and Bury Camp, from
Kingsbury, Cricklade, Bury Hill, Cirencester, and away to the oolite
heights beyond Beady Token, Fairford and Faringdon, all round by
the fatal slope of Wanborough, to Badbury and Barbury Castles.
Binknoll could hardly have been a Danish or Saxon structure;1
and if this little signal station did exist before the Saxon Conquest,
the beacon light blazing from it by night would have been
unseen by the Saxon approaching Barbury from the south, while
it would have aided in summoning the Briton people to arms
from every place in this wide panorama. They would march
along the Eoss-way from the north, along the misnamed Ermin
Way from the west, and along trails through forest and broad grassy
roads, over commons and by cultivated ground, to gather on and

1 I have given a plan of this little » castle " with a few of the now partly-
obliterated works, restored as I well remember them before a tenant of the farm
had quarried away the marl from the northern point of the camp and from two-
places on its flanks. It presented then, as it incompletely does now, a partly-
defended approach to the little bourne that sometimes still flows in the gorge
called the Dip or Dipe and which was no doubt in remote time a more perennial
stream. Such a water-gate exists at Dudsbury, on the river Stour. and also at
feidbury. The inner or most northerly ward has still two deep hollows in it that
were probably once dwellings for the guardians of this grassy watch-tower. Rude
pottery is plentiful under the soil ; confirming its praj-Saxon origin.

Wilts. ArchceologiccJLMagaxirW; Vol 1X111.

B i N K Ni 0 L L

'CAS TIE'

By N. Story Mas/celyne, Esq., M.P. 191

below the down under Barbury.1 In the troubled times of Danish
struggles, in which Wiltshire furnished more than one battle-ground,
the beacon may have often flamed from this little knoll, whether to
gather Englishmen round the greatest and noblest of English Kings
or to warn them, in later days, of the approach of the ruthless
hordes of Sweyne. Dr. Guest, with a tender respect for the au-
thority of Gildas, assigns to Aurelius Conan the descent as great
grandson from Ambrosius Aurelianus, and believes that he may have
been the British ruler who commanded at the battle of Barbury.
Ceawlin, a less mythical personage, commanded under the old king,
his father Cynric, the West Saxon host. Of the battle of Barbury
there are two accounts : the one in the oracular terseness of the
"Saxon Chronicle," says, under the year 556 " Her Cynric and
Ceawling fuhton with Bryttas set Beran Byrg." Now Kynric
and Ceawlin fought with the Brits at Beran Byrig. Henry of
Huntingdon, however, a writer of the twelfth century, who, amid
much apocryphal matter, has preserved in his " Historia Anglorum "
many old traditions and ballads and some valuable records of the
earlier events of our history, gathered by him from sources now
lost, gives a longer and very interesting account of this important
battle, which he puts in error at Banbury from the shape of the
name. Gibbon, who takes the tale from Henry of Huntingdon,
speaks of the circumstances as probable and characteristic, and
likely to have been derived from consulting materials no longer
extant. Professor Freeman, also, accords to the statements of Henry
of Huntingdon greater credibility in proportion as they refer to the
earlier portion of our history. Henry of Huntingdon, Book II.,
Anno Domini 552, says " Kynric in the 18th year of his reign
fought against the Britons who advanced with a great army as far
as Salisbury, but having assembled an auxiliary force from all quarters
he engaged them triumphantly overthrowing their immense army

iThe places in the neighbourhood with names terminating in -thorp, or its
corruption, -throp and -drop, as Burdrop and Salthrop (probably Sa h or Willow-
thorp), remain to remind us that the foot of the Dane was not entirely that of
a passing plunderer. Binknoll and Chisledon, even Barbury and Badbury, may
f or a time have been Danish forts guarding Danish settlements.

»9« Barhurij Castle.

and completely routing and dispersing it. In the 22nd year of his
reign A.D. 556, Kynriek with his son Ceawlin had another battle
with the Britons, wliich was after this manner: to avenge the
defeat which they had sustained five years before, the Britons
assembled vast numbers of their bravest warriors and drew them up
near Banbury. Their battle array was formed in nine battalions—
a convenient number for military tactics— three being posted in the
van, three in the centre, and three in the rear, with chosen com-
manders to each ; while the archers and slingers and cavalry were
disposed after the Roman order. But the Saxons advanced to the
attack in one compact body with such fury, that the standards being
dashed together and borne down and the spears being broken, it
became a hand-to-hand fight with the sword. The battle lasted till
night-fall without either party being able to claim the victory.
Nor is that wonderful considering that the warriors were men of
such extraordinary stature, strength and resolution, while in our
days they are so degenerate, that when armies come into collision
one or other of them is put to flight at the first outset. Kynriek
having reigned 26 years, died A.D. 560, and Ceawlin, his son,
reigned in his stead 30 years." Such is the account, but the issue
of the contest is told in the subsequent history of Ceawlin's conquest.
If Aurelius Conan had commanded the Welsh there would be an
additional reason for believing, with Gibbon, at least the outline of
the story; for Aurelius would have belonged by descent to the
Romano- Brit faction that represented the portion of the people who
had inherited something of the culture and, doubtless, some of the
rules of war from the masters of the world.

Shall we ask where was the field of battle ? Enquiries of this
kind have an interest where there are data on which to found
probable answers to them. All that we have to guide us is the
contour of the ground and the knowledge that Ceawlin's force
was marching from the south and might have aproached Barbury
by one of two routes. But we also may take it for granted
that, other than was the case at the battle of Old Sarum, the
fortress on the hill was not the goal of Ceawlin's march. The
Briton army was the object of his march, and Barbury could have

By Nevil Story Maskelyne, Esq., M.P. 193

held but a single division of it. The battle of Barbury, is also
stated in Ethel werd's Chronicle to have been near, not at, Beran
Byrig. The Brit general, then, may have arranged his nine divisions
in a position covering Barbury, or, what is more likely, leaving a
garrison to hold the rampart, he would have drawn them up in a
position to defend the roads to the north and the old British trackway
over the downs. The slope of the down on the west side of the Og
valley between Barbury and the Swindon road would on this view
have been the probable scene of the struggle. The other approach
from the direction of Pewsey and Marlborough would have led
Ceawlin over the open down by Rockley towards the height of
Hakpen. In this case the battle might have been in the bottom to
the north-east of Rockley and across the line of the present road
from Wroughton by Prior's Hill to Marlborough, the British lines
being in this case drawn up in a position to prevent Ceawlin from
advancing by the ridge of Hakpen, and so to reach the gap between
that ridge and Barbury. Obviously it was for the Briton to choose
his battlefield on that side on which Ceawlin might approach his
position, so soon as he was aware of the direction of that approach,
and of this he would have timely warning while the Saxon host was
marching over the open country. For Ceawlin could not mask the
position, and move onwards to the north, leaving the Briton army
jfn his rear at Barbury. He came to fight, and his enemy had the
choice of the ground. But neither chosen ground, nor cavalry, nor
the tradition of Roman tactics, nor even impulsive Celtic valour, were
of avail against the steady, unrelenting rush and stern fighting of
those terrible West Saxon foot soldiers. So that day's sun set with
the defeat of the Britons, with the presage of doom for their homes
and polity in central Britain: and the next day's sun rose on the
birthday of Wessex as the dominant power in England. It was
this battle that in effect gave Ceawlin the imperial title of Bretwalda
of all the Anglo-Saxon polities within the seas, which enabled him
to sweep the land from the Thames to Bedford and back again over
the vale of Aylesbury, and finally to win the crushing victory at
Deorbam which drove part of the Welsh to what has ever since
been Wales, and cut them off from their kindred in Devon and

VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXVIII.

194

Barhury Castle.

Cornwall who, in after time, shrank into a small population in-
habiting the latter country.

I have spoken of fatal Wanborough. It was there — the Wod-
nesbeorge of the Saxon Chronicle — that Ceawlin, the victor at
Barbury, at Bedford, at Wimbledon, Uriconium, and Deorham, the
second of the Bretwaldas, the greatest of the northmen conquerors
down to the seventh century, fell from his high estate. In the fight
at Faddily, in Cheshire, the Welshmen inflicted heavy loss on him.
It was the first great blow ; and a revolt that followed it under
his nephew, Ceolric, brought the Saxon settlers from the Severn
valley down on Wessex. Again the chalk rampart of the Wiltshire
downs, with its roads and hill- forts, presented a barrier to the ad-
vancing foe — now coming from the north-west. And Wanborough,
at the salient point where the chalk hills end towards the north-
west, and just where the two old roads meet, and behind which ran
the Ridgeway and its subsidiary Ways, was the scene of the last
battle of Ceawlin the Bretwalda in 591. History tells but little of
the cause of the revolt and briefly says that Ceawlin was deposed
and two years thereafter died.

Wanborough was the scene of another battle in 717. One
hundred and twenty -six years after the first, the Kingdom of Mercia,
the consolidation of which had begun about the time of the defeat
of Ceawlin, and which now included the northern part of CeawhVs
conquests, had its frontier conterminous with that of Wessex along
the banks of the Thames, Then, as now, the royal river was the
Mercian frontier, represented by the counties of Gloucester, Oxford,
and Buckingham, and divided it from that Wessex district that now
consists of the shires of Wilts, Berks, and Hants, and again in
after times it was the frontier dividing Dane and English rule. Ine
was King of Wessex when Ethelred's son Ceolred invaded Wessex
and penetrated as far as the junction of the two arms of the ancient
Boman road that has been sometimes called the Ermine way at
Wanborough. But this time the invader from the north was
repelled, and Wessex remained for that time unconquered.

195

4(§\x pxiptoxg aito ct^er Camp m Jtottjf

By the Rev. W. H. E. Mc. Knight.
To the Editor of the Wiltshire Magazine.

Dear Sir, .

You ask me to give you my ideas as to Kingsbury Camp and similar
earthworks that crown the highest points of our downs. I do not know that I
can give you any matter that will be new to your Association, or worthy of their
consideration. I may, perhaps, put together my thoughts which will provoke
discussion, and that is perhaps the chief object of such a paper, on a subject that
must have been well thrashed-out by your Association.

It had frequently occurred to me, as I rode over the downs past Barbury
Castle, that the common idea of that, and the many similar earthworks along
the down-ridge, as well as in the plain below, being military positions or
if camps " was not consistent with the real condition of things at the time when
they must have been thrown up. That they were thrown up long anterior to the
Roman invasion of the island is admitted, and though often mis-called " Roman
Camps," they were— by their irregular construction— such as no Roman engineer
would have made, and though some of them might have been occupied by the
Romans on an occasion, or as a temporary position of conquest, they were never
the works of Roman soldiers, or used by them as permanent military positions.
The Romans found them and left them in their original use, as the secure
dwelling-places of different tribes or families, and as soon as the British tribes
acquiesced in the Roman rule, these " camps " were left in the undisturbed
occupation of their original holders, and so continued during the whole four
hundred years of Roman rule, until the next great invasion of our shores by the
northern tribes from the Baltic coast, when they were found still occupied, and
used by the British. This I think I shall prove by the almost only proof that
is left us from times of unwritten records, namely by the use of " names."

But first I must glance at the probable condition of a people, such as our
forefathers must have been in that most distant age when they built Abury.
For I hold that our forefathers clustered round that great religious centre, and,
as they must have been there in numbers before they built their temple, their
dwelling-place and it (their temple) may very reasonably be regarded as coeval.

We find the foss and mound at Abury, as well as in their dwelling-places, and
that was the limit of their powers of construction. Then their temple shows
that that object, upon which their best skill and devotion would be expended,
could command nothing more than the arrangement of undressed stones in
circular order-erected on end (the very first effort at construction), and the
expenditure of a nation's strength to fulfil its instinct of devotion. If their

O 2

190 On Uingshury and other Camps in North Wiltshire.

temple could witness to no higher effort at construction, it is not likely that any
such was exhibited in their dwellings. A people who had not learnt to put one
stone upon another, and who had not yet used tools to dress stones (if they had
them), must have resorted to other contrivances for that shelter from the weather
which the human frame requires. Whore rocks presented the means, caves
would be hollowed out, or where natural action had already hollowed out the
cave, we have witness that men used them. But where no rocks were to be
found, as on our Wiltshire downs, the only other resource at the hands of such
unskilled men was to imitate the wild animal in his instinct, and burrow their
homes in the earth. That such was the case we know from the ancient British
earth-dwellings that have been discovered on the downs and elsewhere.

Then, in that far distant age, for which the accepted chronology finds no place,
when mankind were in the first rudiments of existence, their temples were stones
raised on end in circular order, and their dwellings were caves or earth-burrows.

And that these vestiges of that far distant age are not local or descriptive of
the condition of mankind in one or two spots on the earth, is evident from the
fact which is gathering strength year by year, that these primitive temples like
A bury are scattered over the face of the earth, witnessing one common religion
for its inhabitants, and witnessing, at the same time, what is more to my point
that the range of civilization was the same everywhere, and rude unskilled man,
whilst rearing such temples to his god, could but " hide himself in holes in the
earth."

The universality of this worship, which tradition, and its most natural
probability, would seem to say was that of the sun, has its witness in circular
megalithic temples in every quarter of the world. The instances, which I have
been able to collect, of such temples prove that the religion, whatever it was,
was once the religion of India, China, Southern Europe, Arabia, North Africa;
and a friend of mine, whilst shooting the " Ovis Ammon " in the wilds of Thibet
came upou a " Druid Temple," as he called it, in perfect circle in the bottom of
a valley remote from all intercourse with the rest of the world. And these
instances are multiplying continually of the existence of these primitive temples
in many unexpected quarters, witnessing, as I have said, not only to a common
worship, but to a strange level of existence of the human race throughout the
world at the time they were building.

Of course this fact, which is assuming a commanding strength of proof, can
find no room for itself in the limited chronology that is generally accepted. But,
if we enlarge the time of man's existence since the Deluge by several thousand
years, we can imagine a state of things in which it would be possible for the
human race to have remained long undeveloped— in one sameness of existence,
with habits of life but little varied, and with one common worship symbolized by
the common temple, found almost everywhere.

If so, then it seems impossible to assign so recent a date as even the most
remote that is given in the many histories of Abury for the building of its temple.
And the original builders must be placed far back in the distant ages, when
mankind were dwellers in caves and earth-burrows, and when the same hands
that dug the foss and reared the mound round Abury, dug the foss and raised the
mounds of Barbury, Kingsbury, and the rest.
It is from these considerations that I draw the conclusion that those many

By the Rev. W. E. E. Mc. Knight.

197

earthworks with which we are so familiar were the dwelling-places of the tribe
or clan which had settled or grown up in the district, and that they were the
earliest and rudest form of town which the people could make for themselves,
who knew not how to build and had no tools for work— but such rough means
as would enable them to throw up the earthen mound.

Then, holding the opinion that these primitive people were housed in the earth,
as the instinct of the animal had taught them, we can understand why, by the
same instinct, they chose the site of their town on the highest points to secure
them against drainage from the heights above. The supply of water would be
of no consideration compared with the dryness of their homes, and indeed would
not be necessary, for they were more harbours or refuges for the night than
dwelling-places for the day. And again, placed high above the surrounding
country, they could command the view of the land below, to be ready against
danger from an enemy or the raid of wild animals upon their flocks.

And the usual formation of these " camps " bears out this idea of them. They
are almost all formed with an inner mound— a foss or ditch— and an outer
mound dying away into the natural level of the ground. For protection against
a human enemy the higher elevation of the earth by being thrown up into one
mound or vallum would have been more effective. But we find the thrown-out
earth distributed into two mounds, a higher and a lower, with a considerable
space often intervening in the foss or ditch. This was not without a purpose.
The double mound, though necessarily lower by the distribution of the excavated
earth, and therefore weaker as a defence, afforded a two-fold shelter from the
wind and weather. If, therefore, we regard these " camps " as the dwelling-
places of the tribe or family, the inner and larger space would contain the earth
burrows of the people, and be sheltered from the wind by the elevated mound.
And this I myself proved to be effective on an early day in March, when I was
glad of its shelter from a bitter north-east wind. And whilst the people dwelt
sheltered in their rude homes within, their flocks were equally sheltered in the
folds or foss between the mounds. And, if we will allow an equal sagacity to
our far distant forefathers with the Maoris of New Zealand, a stockade planted
round the outer mound and a wicket-gate to close the entrance at night would
supply, with the shelter of the mound, the necessary protection also against the
wild beasts, which, as at Kingsbury, were in the impenetrable forest of Ordes-
wold-wod (Braden) and which, in the distant times we refer to, would have
waged a hard struggle with man for the possession of the land.

With this idea of these camps, Bingsbury, about which you ask me, would
be the dwelling of a small tribe, or family, in possession of the surroundiug
country— placed on the high brow of the land above the ancient forest for the
usual security as to dryness.

There was the home of a still smaller tribe at Bury Hill, which the plough has
almost levelled out of sight, and this was the most remote of all those which I
regard as, in some way or other to have had relations with the religious centre at
Abury.

Then, as to the historic evidence in support of this view. The earliest written
records we can go to must be what the Romans have left us, and all that history
has long been familiar to us. It gives, however, no direct reference to these
camps, and this I regard as one point in my favour. Had they been important

198 On Ringsbury and other Camps in North Wiltshire.

military positions they must have engaged the attention of an invader, and wo
should have had some notice of them. Whereas all CsBsar's account of his first
struggle shows that the contest was carried on in the Open plain ; and that the
Britons did not trust to the security of any earthworks, but to the dense woods,
in which they hid themselves, and to the undrained marshes, the track over which
they themselves only knew. And in the later occupation of Britain the Romans
treated these " camps " with that indifference with which we may suppose they
would regard the common dwelling-places of the people, but which they could
not have disregarded as the strongholds of an enemy.

We see their system was to hold the land by strong military positions taken
np at suitable centres, as in the neighbourhood of Ringsbury itself, where we
find lines of military roads connecting their regular stations ; as, for instance,
that from Venta Belgarum (Winchester) passing through Wanborough and
Stratton {within a mile of Bury Town), to Corinium (Cirencester). Another
striking out at right-angles from this at Spinse (Speen) and passing through
Cunetio (Kennet P) to Aquae Solis (Bath), which road, it may be remarked,
turned out of its straight line round Silbury Hill, for it was already there when
the Roman struck out his road, and was in his way. Another from Corinium
to Aqua? Solis (The Foss Way), which, with the other two, already mentioned,
made a complete triangle of roads enclosing the district of Abury and the
"camps" of Liddington, Barbury, Bury Town, Ringsbury, Bury Hill, and
others. But secure in their garrison-stations and keeping their communications
open, they seem to have treated with perfect indifference these camps, which, I
therefore, would not to them have had any military significance, but which, if
regarded as the dwelling-places of the people, they would naturally leave, as they
did leave them, unmolested and in use. And also passing from Kennet to Bath
round Silbury and in sight of Abury, they must have been familiar with it, and
yet they have left no notice of it. Might not the reason be that they, the en-
lightened and civilized race, regarded this superstition of the woad-dyed savage
(barbarian) with the contempt with which Englishmen regard the " fetish " of
the Ashantee, and passed it by ? Added to this the Polytheism of Rome as a
religion was without that conviction of truth which is necessary for proselytism,
and therefore would rather keep its religion to itself as a peculiar privilege and
possession, not to be rashly given to its conquered people. This I think holds
true, notwithstanding the persecutions of Christians by the later Roman Emperors,
for they were clearly political, and only instigated by some of the best Emperors
because they believed that Christianity (as it did) threatened the overthrow of
their power.

I now come to the use of names in confirmation of the above view of these
" camps," and this is, perhaps the only bit of direct evidence that we have.

When the Romans, after a hundred and fifty years of varied struggle, were
fairly in possession of the south of the island of Great Britain, and the inhabi-
tants had patiently acquiesced in the conquest, the Roman names of places and
things would begin to be familiarized among them. Thus the most notable
object connected with the life of the people would be these dwelling-places or
primitive towns. To these the Romans gave their name of " castellum," and
that name we still use in Barbury Castle and Liddington Castle. And I may
add that I found on a recent pleasant visit to Breconshire that within a moderate

By the Reo. W. H. E. Mc. Knight.

199

distance of the line of Roman occupation similar earthworks there, still retain the
name of Castle, or rather " Castell." And that this was the true name for such
earthworks or secured dwelling-places we find from Livy's use of the word in
his account of Annibal's passage of the Alps. In Book 21, chap. 33, he states
that the inhabitants (montani) posted themselves in a strong position over
Annibal's line of march and made it impossible for him to advance He therefore
halted for the night and kindled his camp-fires. On which the inhabitants
withdrew to their own places for the night. In the night he seized upon the
very point of vantage, and in the morning, as Livy writes, "Jam montani, signo
dato, ex castellis ad stationem solitam conveniebant " were assembling when
they found it already occupied. Here the « castella " were the usual dwelling-
places to which for the night they retired, for it is not likely they were earth-
works suddenly thrown up for the occasion, but, as the whole narrative rather
assumes, they were the mountain- villages or dwelling-places through which
Annibal was making his way when he met this vigorous resistance. The Romans,
therefore, would call these - camps " " castella "-not « castra -and they have
left that name, descriptive to them of their real character, to all generations since,
even to our times. ,

But Caesar also from his imperfect knowledge of this country, which we know
was limited to the county of Kent, or, rather to the south of the Thames gives
a description of a British town or dwelling-place of the tribe which tallies re-
markably with these camps, with only the exception of the « woods which our
downs never could boast of. He says, Bell. Gull, Bk. 5, c. M,« <%prihm
autem Britanni vocant cum silvas impeditas vallo atque fossa mumermt. Here,
if instead of woods we substitute down or heights, we have the true description
of the primitive British toim. . . „ 31C, „

The next proof from the names of things we have is in the word bury.
After the Romans had left Britain, and their four hundred years of rule had
disciplined the Britons (now leavened with the influences of the Christian faith)
into the passive acquiescence of a conquered people-after, indeed they had so
long enjoyed the rest and security of that « rule "-they were unfit to meet tha
6tru<-le that lay before them. The northern nations of Europe found the victim
prepared for conquest, and after a hundred and fifty years of varying conflict
the Britons, influenced, as I think, by the strong instinct of their new faith left
their native land for Brittany, or withdrew into Wales and Cornwall, rather
than submit to the rule of pagan conquerors. But during that long struggle
these "camps" assumed a very different character-became of more serious
importance than they had ever been during the Roman conquest. They were
undoubtedly the chief centres on which the new invaders bent their attention,
and they -ave them the distinctive name of their own tongue, and called them
Beore-Burg-Bury-which meant a defended town or dwelling-place. We
may°see why this was so. Unlike the conquest of the civilized Roman who never
meant to occupy the land, but only to hold it for his use and profit, the new
invaders were nearer alike to their foe-nay even inferior in civilization-certainly
without the influence of the Christian faith-and to them, therefore, conquest
meant possession and occupation, and these dwelling-places were to them the
country, and the struggle would centre much around them, as tradition ana
history affirm it did.

200

The Church Heraldry of North Will shire.

But llio only point for my purpose is that tho northern invaders when they
followed the Romans gave their name, as tho Romans had done before them, to
these camps, and that their name of " Bury " had for them the same signifiance
as "castle " had for the Roman, and signified the secured or sheltered dwelling-
place of a tribe or clan, and that they were in fact the primitive towns of the
earliest inhabitants of otir island, and coeval with Abury. Thus Barbury,
Rmgsbury, Bury Town, Bury Hill, bear their silent and lasting witness to the
Saxon use of these ancient dwelling-places, and as their tenure of them was long,
and indeed until civilization superseded them with better towns, their distinctive
name has kept its hold in our common use, whilst the Roman name has lingered
more rarely among us.

I am' well aware that I shall in this lengthy paper have given no new light
to many of your members. All that I can hope to have done is to have brought
together some scattered information and to have shaped it after my own ideas
on this subject.

W. H. E. Mc. Knight.

By Aethub Schombeeg, Esq.
(Continued from Vol. xxiii., p. 50.)
HUNDRED OP POTTERNE AND CANNINGS.
DEVIZES.
St. John Baptist.
Chancel i North Screen,

122. I. — Per pale ermine and ermines, on a chevron between
three fleurs-de-lys five fusils, each charged with an ermine spot, all
counterchanged. Addington,

123. II. — Ermine, on a chief indented gules three estoiles, or.
Estcourt.

124. III. —Sutton (12).

125. IV.— Argent, on two bars azure three martlets or, 2, 1.
Willy.

Eleanor Sutton, 1844.

By A. ScJiomberg, Esq.

201

South Screen.

126. V.— Argent, a chevron between three back's heads
caboshed sable. Bucknall.

127. VI.— Gules, on a bend between six crosses argent three
eagles displayed sable. Sotheron.

128. VIL— Estcourt (123).

129. VIII.— Sutton (12).
Eleanor Estcourt, 1844.

On Floor.

130. IX.— Great Britain and Ireland ensigned with Royal
crown. V.R.

131. X.— Great Britain and Ireland, with label for difference,
quartering Barry of ten or and sable, a bend trefly vert, Saxony,
ensigned with crown of eight arches. A. P.

132. XI.— A castle, Devizes, impaling, three nag's heads couped.

133. XII. Parted per fess, in chief a head in a dish over which
a dagger fess-wise. Symbol of St. John Baptist. In base, a
censer (a pyx?) impaling, between eight mullets, 3, 2, 2, 1, an oak
slip fructed. Phipps.

In East Window.

134. XIII.— Symbol of St. John Baptist (133).

Mural Tablet, South Chapel.

135. XIV.— Argent, on a chevron .... between three
bear's heads erased gules, impaling, sable, an unicorn or, on a chief
of the second three roses slipt proper. Flower.

Elizabeth, wife of John Shergold, ob. 1725-6. M.I.

136. XV.— Flower (135) impaling, argent, a fess engrailed
sable, in chief three fleurs-de-lys. Eyles.

Katharine, wife of George Flower. M.I.

137. XVI.— Ermine, three pommes, each charged with a cross

202 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

or, impaling-, argent, a fess engrailed and in chief three fleurs-de-
lys sable. Eyles (130).
Maria Heathcote, ob. 1792.

On Floor.

138. XVII. An unicorn passant, in chief three gilly-flowers
slipt. Crest. An unicorn passant.

Charles Flower, ob. 1719, and Ann, his wife, ob. 1728.

139. XVIII.— Eyles (136). Crest. A neur-de-lys . .
Mary Eyles, ob. 1744.

140. XIX.— Eyles (136).
Joseph Eyles, ob. 1739.

141. XX. — A lion passant, a chief ermine. Crest. A lion's
head erased ermine gorged and chained.

John Kent, ob. 1630.

On a Shield under North Niche.

142. XXI.— Three gilly-flowers banded.

On Shields under Roof.

143. XXII. — A chalice and host. Symbol of the Blessed
Sacrament.

144. XXIII.— Phipps (133).

145. XXIV. — Monogram of Our Lord.

146. XXV.— Monogram of Our Lady, ensigned with a crown.

147. XXVI.— Fretty, a chief.

148. XXVII. — Per saltire, a heart in base.

On Shields on the terminations of Scroll Moulding of South Door.

149. XXVIII. — A cross flory surmounted by a hand in bene-
diction.

150. XXIX. — A latin cross encircled by a crown.

Mural Tablets, South Aisle.

151. XXX. — Argent, a bend engrailed between two buck's

By A. Schomberg, Esq. 203

heads caboshed azure, impaling sable, an unicorn passant or, on a
chief of the second three gilly-flowers proper (Flower).

Mary, wife of Joseph Needham, jun., ob. 1732. Penelope, wife
of Joseph Needham, ob. 1738. Joseph Needham, ob. 1778.

152. XXXI. — Argent, od a pale azure between two lions ram-
pant gules a tilting spear erect of the first.

Thomas Thurman, ob. 1777.

153. XXXII. Eyles (135) without crest, the fleur-de-lys
obliterated.

John Eyles, ob. 1752.

Mural Tablets, North Chapel.

154. XXXIII.— Quarterly Heathcote (137) and Eyles (136).
Crest. Out of a mural crown azure a pomme charged with a cross
or between two wings displayed ermine.

Josiah Heathcote, ob. 181 1.

155. XXXIV. — Or, three martlets sable, on a chief azure the
sun in splendour, impaling, or, a saltire engrailed between twelve
billets sable. Alworth.

Ann Merewether, ob. 1690.

156. XXXV.— Merewether (155), on a shield of pretence
Alwortii (155) impaling Alworth (155).

John Merewether, ob. 1724.

157. XXXVI.— Heathcote (137) impaling, obliterated [Eyles
(136) M.I.].

George Heathcote, ob. 1768.

158. XXXVII. — Sable, a bend nebuly between two unicorn's
heads erased or.

John Pierce, ob. 1641. Edward Pierce, ob. 1684. Robert Pierce-
ob. 1692. Richard Hope, ob. 1781. Frances Hope, ob. 1770.
M.I.

Mural Tablets, North Aisle,

159. XXXVIII.— Long of Rood Ashton (42) impaling,
Flower (135).

Thomas Long, ob. 1671. M.I.

204 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

160. XXXIX.— Sutton (12), impaling, Addington (122).
Crest. A lion's paw erased gules, armed argent.

161. XL. — Sutton (12).

162. XLI. Sutton (12), impaling, Addington (122).
Children of James Sutton, 1784—1791.

163. XLII.-Sutton (12), impaling, ermine, on two bars vert
three martlets proper, 2, 1. Willy.

Prince Sutton, ob. 1779. and Mary, his wife, ob. 1768.

164. XLIII.— Willy (163).

William Willy, ob. 1765. George Willy, ob. 1770.

On Floor.

165. XLIV.— Long of Rood Ashton (42).
Michael Long, ob. 1691.

Hatchment, East End of Nave.

166. XLV.— Royal arms, temp. James II.1

On shields terminating the dripstone of South Boor outside, a chalice
Our Lord's monogram, ensigned with a crown; on the same of East
Window of South Chapel (148).

St. Mary.
Chancel, North Wall.

167. I.— Sable, a chevron between three bears or, impaling
argent, a lion passant sable between three fleurs-de-lys or.

James Harris, ob. 1695. M.I.

1 Vide Kite's " Churches of Devizes," in Wilts Arch Mnn ™i ^ ,

his « Guild of Merchant," in vol. iv. of the sITe ulXL™

pa nted two coats now preserved in the Devizes Mnsenm ; on the first dexter
rules, a dem^rgm conped below the shonlders, vested, crined or, and crowned
with an Eastern crown (MEecebS- Co.); sinister, harry nebnlv argent and
vert over all a bend gules, thereon a lion of England (hLb C )

Jit' S" a ^ h-d/^-wne(d,with S sbutfle
m the mouth, all or; sinister, vert, an Agnus Dei couchant proper.

By A. Sckomberg, Esq.

205

South Aisle.

168. II. — Or, between three cross crosslets fitchy two lions
passant sable, armed and langued gules, impaling, or, two lions
passant gules, armed and langued azure. Brompton. Crest. On
a mount a goat passant.

John Garth, M.P., ob. 1764.

On Floor.

169. III. — A fess, in chief three lozenges fess-ways, a crescent
for difference. Crest. A bulPs head couped.

Simon Aston, ob. 1638.

North Aisle.

170. IV.— Sable, a" chevron ermine between three talbot's heads
erased argent, langued gules, impaling, or, two ravens closed proper,
within a bordure gules bezanty ; pendant from shield cross of C.B.
Crest. Between two laurel branches proper nnited at the top, a
talbot's head erased argent, langued gules. Motto. Faithful and
Trusty.

William Hull, C.B., ob. 1840.

171. V. Garth (168) with crescent for difference, impaling,
Brompton (168).

Rebecca Garth, d. and coh. of John Brompton, widow of John
Garth, M.P., ob. 1785.

Hatchment.

172. VI.— Royal arms, 1797.1

St. James.
Chancel, South Wall.

173. I. — Argent, three boar's heads erased sable, langued and
tusked proper within a bordure engrailed gules, impaling, in chief,
per pale ermine, and ermines, three crescents counterchanged.

1 Vide Kite's "Churches of Devizes," in vol. ii. of Wilts Arch. Mag.

200 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

HARRIOTT. In base, per pale vert and gules, on a chevron em-
battled between three stags trippant or two leopard's faces affronty
of the second, a crescent for difference. Green. Crest. A boar's
head erased sable, langued and tusked proper.
Robert Parry Nisbet, ob. 1882, set. 89.

Mast Window.

174. II. Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, an anchor azure between
two barbels haurient vert. Colston. 2. Party per bend sinister
ermine and ermines, a lion rampant or. 3. Argent, on a chevron
engrailed azure three cinquefoils or between as many martlets proper.
On a shield of pretence, ermine, a lion rampant or.

Edward Francis Colston, ob. 1847.

North Aisle.

1 75. III. — Vert, a chevron engrailed between three owls closed.1
Robert Nicholas, ob. 1725. Bridget, wife of Edward Nicholas,

ob. 1751-2. Jenny, wife of E. R. Nicholas, ob. 1766.

Hatchments in Nave.

176. IV. — Nisbet (173) impaling, Harriott (173).

177. V.—Nisret (173) impaling, Green (173).

St. Peter.

On Bell-turret.

178. Two keys in saltire. St. Peter.

ROWDE.

South Wall.

179. I. — Argent, an anchor erect sable charged with a lion
passant gules.

John Delme, ob. 1776. M.I.

1 Azure, a chevron engrailed between three owls or. Crest. On a cap of
dignity an owl or. M.I.

By A. Schomberg, Esq. 207

West end of South Aisle.

180. II.— Or, a fess sable. Crest. Out of a coronet argent a
demi-lion rampant sable.

Robert Post, ob. 1786.

West End of North Aisle.

181. III.— Post (180) impaling-, quarterly, or and gules, over
all a bend sable. Crest. Post (180) with the lion gorged.

Walter Post, ob. 1787.

Hatchments.
Over Chancel Arch*

182. IV.— The Royal arms (27).

In Chancel.

\ 83, v.— Or, an anchor sable between two lions passant guardant
gules, a crescent for difference. M.I.

BROMHAM.

Tablet on North Wall.

184. I. — Quarterly, 1 and 4, a chevron ermine gutty or. 2. A
fess, in chief a lion passant guardant, 3. A bend raguly. M.I.
Crest. On a mount a bird rising.

Margery, wife of Robert Segar, ob. 1618.

Tablets on South Wall.

185. II. — Quarterly argent and gules, in the second and third
quarters a fret or, over all a fess azure, impaling, Selfe (92). Crest.
A raven rising proper, armed and beaked or.

William Norris, ob. 1730.

186. III. — Argent, on a bend engrailed, cotised sable three
mullets pierced or.

John Andrews, killed in East Indies, 1763.

On two Shields borne by angels supporting Roof of Nave} a wreath ,
a hammer and three nails, emblems of the Passion.

208

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

On Roof of South Transept, a nag's head couped encircled by four
roaches ; a nag's head couped repeated three times in various places ;
three roaches in pale naiant. Roche.

South or Baynton Chapel. South Wall.

A large Altar-tomb with canopy.

1 187. IV. — Quarterly of six. 1. Baynton (51). 2. Argent,
two bars gules, each charged with three cross-crosslets. Beauchamp.

3. Gules, a fess between six martlets or, within a bordure argent.
Beauchamp of St. Amand. 4. Azure, three roaches in pale, naiant,
argent. Roche. 5. Gules, two lions passant guardant in pale or,
gorged of the field. Delamere. 6. Argent, on a chevron sable
three eagles displayed or. Wanton. Crest. A griffin's head erased
sable, beaked or.

188. V. — The above six quarterings impaling, quarterly, 1 and

4, argent, a chevron sable between three ravens proper. Ryce. 2
and 3. Argent, on a cross sable five crescents or, in dexter chief a
spear-head erect gules. Griffith ap Elider.

189. VI. — The above six quarterings impaling, quarterly, 1 and
4, per chevron sable and argent, in chief three mullets pierced of
the second, and in base as many garbs gules. Pakington. 2 and
3. Argent, on a bend azure three martlets or. Hardinge.

190. VII.— The above six quarterings impaling, quarterly, Ryce
and Griffith ap Elider.

191. VIII. — The above six quarterings impaling, quarterly,
Pakinton and Hardinge.

192. IX. — The above six quarterings impaling, quarterly, Ryce
and Griffith ap Elider. Four empty Shields.

Sir Edward Baynton, ob. . Agnes (Ryce), 1 ux., ob. 1574,
Anne (Pakinton), 2 ux., ob. 1578.

A Tablet.

193. X. — Baynton (51) impaling, on a fess three escallops
between as many griffin's heads erased.

Kite's Monumental Brasses of Wiltshire,

By A. Schomherg, Esq.

209

Lady Anne Wilmot, dau. of Earl of Rochester, wife of Hen.
Baynton and Hon. Francis Greville, ob. 1703.

A Brass Plate.

194. XI. — On a chevron gules between three hunting-horns
stringed of the field, impaling, quarterly, 1 and 4, or, on a bend
sable three dolphins embowed of the field. Rolt. 2 and 3.
Batnton (51).

Constantia, wife of Richard Foster, ob. 1842, £et. 90.

On a Shield of the moulding of Boor.

195. XII. — Three nag's heads couped.

Painted Glass in Window.

196. XIII. — i. Azure, a cross flory between four martlets or.

Anstie.

ii. Quarterly, 1 and 4, azure, three fleurs-de-lys or.
2 and 3. Or, within a bordure two bars gules.

in. Roche (187).

iv. Argent, a chevron between three rose chaplets

gules. Ashton.

v. Roche impaling Delamere, the lions not gorged

(187).

vi. Argent, a chevron between three birds (black
and white, long-legged) gorged and chained or.

vii. Argent, a bendlet gules, over all a lion rampant
azure.

On Shields under Roof.

197. XIV. A bendlet between two tirrets, over all a lion
rampant.

VOL. XXIII, — NO. LXVIII. P

210 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

198. XV. — Two scrolls in saltire.

199. XVI. A chevron between three hart's heads erased.

North Wall.

A large Altar-tomb with canopy; an enamelled Brass.

200. XVII.-Or, fretty azure, on a chief of the second three
bezants. St. Amand.

201. XVIII.— Quarterly, 1 and 4, St. Amand. 2 and 3 Or
seven mascles conjoined gales, 3, 3, 1. Braybrooke, impaW
quarterly, 1 and 4, Delamere (196). 2 and 3. Roche (187)

Five empty Shields.

Elizabeth, dau. of Gerard Braybroke, widow of William
Beauchamp, Lord St. Amand jure uvoris, wife of Sir Roger
locotes, ob. 1492. s

On Shield under Niche.

202. XIX. A chevron gules between three garlands proper
adorned with five roses of the first. Ashton.

On Shields under Roof.

203. XX.— St. Amand (200).

204. XXL— (199).

205. XXII.— Roche (187), the roaches naiant sinister.

On the Floor.
A Brass Plate.

206. XXIII.— Quarterly, 1 and 4. Beauchamp of St. Amand
(187). 2. St. Amand (200). 3. Blank. One empty Shield.

A Brass.

207. XXIV.— Quarterly, 1 and 4, Baynton (51). 2. Dela-
mere (196), 3. Roche (187),

WILTSHIRE

%t(\mb^al an& fatol pfetotrg £««tg.

JANUARY, 1887.

Patron :

The Most Honourable the Marquis of Lansdowne,
President •

The Right Rev. The Lord Bishop op Salisbury.
Vice-Presidents ;

The Most Hon. the Marquis of Bath

William Cunnington, Esq.

Sir Gabriel Goldney, Bart.

The Right Hon. Lord Heytesbury

Sir Henry A. Hoare, Bart.

The Rev. Canon Jackson

Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P.

Sir John Neeld, Bart.

The Right Hon. Earl Nelson

Charles Penruddocke, Esq.

C. H. Talbot, Esq.

Rev. H. A. Olivier

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.

G. P. Fuller, Esq., M.P.

Sir Gabriel Goldney, Bart.

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.

Committee

T. B. Anstie, Esq., Devizes
The Rev. E. L. Barnwell, Melksham
The Rev. W. P. S. Bingham, West-
bury

Henry Browne, Esq., Blacfclands

Park, Calne
Robert Clark, Esq., Devizes

The Rev. E. H. Goddard, Clyffe

Pypard, Wootton Pas sett
The Rev. C. W. Hony, Bishops Can-

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 :
Henry Cunnington, Esq., Devizes
A. B. Fisher, Esq., Potterne

Honorary Local Secretaries :

R. Elwell, Esq., Highworth
H. E. Astley, Esq., Hungerford
W. Eon-ester, Esq., Malmesbury
N. J. Highmore, Esq., M.D., Brad-
ford-on. Avon
H. Kinueir, Esq, Swindon.
Alex. Mackay, Esq , Troivbridge
W. F. Morgan, Esq., Warminster

J. E. Nightingale, EBq , Wilton
The Rev. W. C. Plenderleath, Cher-
hill, Calne
C. E. Ponting, Esq., Lockeridge,

Marlborough
J. Farley Putter, Esq., Mere
J. P. Shopland, Esq., Purton
H. J. F. Swayne, Esq., Wilton

Treasurer :

E. H. A. Colston, Esq., Boundway Park, Devizes

Financial Secretary .•
Mr. William Nott, 15, Sigh Street, Devizes

LIST OF SOCIETIES, &C, IN UNION WITH THE

JBHtejftw %x(\mhm\ aitir f utuul Jiatorj $wwtg,

Mr interchange of Publications, Sfc.

Society of Antiquaries of London.
Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland.
Kent Archaeological Society.
Somersetshire Archaeological Society.
Oxford Architectural and Historical Society.
Belfast Naturalists' Field Club.
Essex Archaeological Society.
Professor L. Jewitt.
Bath Antiquarian and Natural History Field Club.
United States Geological Survey.
Watford Natural History Society.

Powysland Club.
Bristol Natural History Society.
Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society.
Epping Forest and County of Essex Naturalists' Field Club.
Berks Archaeological and Architectural Society.
Bureau of Ethnology, Washington D.C. United States.

~M\$t of ^embers.

Life 1

Bruce, Lord Charles, Wilton House,

Eaton Square, London, S.W.
Clarke, Henry M., 25, Mount St.,

Grosvenor Square, London, W.
Duke, Rev. Edward, Lake House,

Salisbury [Bath
Ellis, Rev. J. H., Stourton Rectory,
Fitzmauri.ee, Rt. Hon. Lord E.,

Bowood

Foljainbe, Cecil G. S., M.P., 2, Carl-
ton House Terrace, Pall Mall,
London, S.W.

Grove, Sir Thomas Fraser, Bart.,
M.P., Feme, Salisbury

Hoare, Sir Henry A., Bart.. Stourhead

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

Annual

Adderley Library, Librarian of,

Marlborough College
Anketell, Rev. H. K. F., Wootton

Bassett
Anstie, E. L., Devizes
Anstie,T.B., Devizes [Gloucestershire
Archer, Col. D., Fairford House,
Armstrong, F.A.W.T., Lyme House,

Wootton Bassett
Armstrong, Rev. H. W., Lacock,

Chippenham
Arundell of Wardour, the Rt. Hon.

Lord, Wardour Castle, Tisbury,

Salisbury
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

Members.

Lubbock, Sir J. W., Bart., M.P., 15,

Lombard Street, London, E.C.
Lushington , Godfrey, 16, Great Queen

Street, Westminster, London, S.W.
Meux, Sir Henry B., Bart., Dauntsey

House, Chippenham
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.
Salisbury, the Rt. Rev. Lord Bishop

of, the Palace, Salisbury.
Selfe, H., Marten, Great Bedwyn
Walmesley, Richard, Luck nam,

Chippenham
Wellesley, Lady Charles, Conholt

Park, Andover
Wyndham, the Hon. Percy, 44,

Belgrave Square, London, S.W.

Subscribers.

Baker, T. H., Mere, Bath
Barnwell, Rev. E. L., Melksham
Barrey, H. G., Devizes
Bath, the Most Hon. the Marquis of,

Longleat, Warminster
Batten, John, Aldon, Yeovil
Bell, Rev. G. C, Marlborough College
Bell W. Heward, Cleeve House,
Seend

Bennett, Rev. Canon F., Maddington,

Shrewton

Bennett, F.J.,M.D.,Wilton,Salisbury
Bennett, W. S., Woodlands, South

Road, Weston- Super- Mare
Bethell, S., the Green, Calne
Bingham, Rev. W. P. S., Westbury
Blackmore, Dr. H. P., Salisbury
Bouverie, Rev. the Hon. B.P.,
Pewsey

Bouverie, the Right Hon. E. P.,
Market Lavington

IV

LIST OF MEMBERS.

Bowes, J. I., M.B., Wilts County

Asylum, Devizes
Bradford, J. E. G., Swindon
Bradbourne, F.A.,Lyburn,Lyndhurst
Brcwin, Robert, Cirencester
Bristol Museum and Library, Hon.

Sec. of, Queen's Road, Bristol
Britton, Mrs. Helen, 39, Croydon

Grove, West Croydon, Surrey
Brodribb, Rev. W. J., Wootton

Rivers, Marlborough
Browne, H., Blacldands Park, Calne
Brown, Henry, Salisbury
Brown, James, South Yiew, London

Road, Salisbury
Browne, Rev. E. Kenworthy, Darley

Chine, Bournemouth
Brown, W., Browfort, Devizes
Brown, W. R.,Highfield, Trowbridge
Buchanan, Ven. Arch,, Potterne
Buckley, Alfred,New Hall, Salisbury
Buckley, Rev. Felix J., Stanton St.

Quintin, Chippenham
Bull, H. F., Devizes
Bullock, William H., Pewsey
Burges, Rev. J. Hart, D.D., The

Rectory, Devizes
Bush, J. J., Hilperton Grange,

Trowbridge
Bush, J., 9, Pembroke Road, Clifton,
Bristol

Butt, Rev. W. A., Minety Vicarage,
Malmesbury

Cailiard, C. F. D., Wingfield, Trow-
bridge

Carre, Rev. F. W., St. Katharine's

Vicarage, Savernake, Marlborough
Carey, Rev. T., Fifield Bavant,

Salisbury
Cary, J., Steeple Ashton, Trowbridge
Chamberlaine, Rev. W. H., Keevil
Chandler, Thomas, Devizes
Chandler, T. H., Rowde, Devizes
Chandler, W., Aldbourne, Hungerford
Cholmeley, Rev- Canon C.Humphrey,

Dinton Rectory, Salisbury
Clark, Robert, Devizes
Clark, Major T., Trowbridge
Cleatber, Rev. G. E., The Vicarage,

Cherrington, Devizes

Clifford, Hon. and Rt. Rev. Bishop,
Bishop's House, Clifton, Bristol

Colborne, Miss, Venetian House,
Clevedon

Colston, C. E. H. A., Round way Park,
Devizes

Colwell, J., Devizes

Cooksey, C. F., Wootton Bassett

Crowdy, Rev. Anthony, Bankton,
Crawley Down, Crawiey

Cunnington, B. H., Devizes

Cunnington, H., Devizes

Cunnington, William, 37, Cold Har-
bour Lane, Camberwell, London,
S.E.

Curtis, C. W., Everley, Marlborough

Daniell, Rev. J. J., Langley Burrell,
Chippenham

Dear, George, Codford St. Peter, Bath

Dixon, S. B., Pewsey

Dodd, Samuel, 27, Kentish Town
Road, London, N.W.

Dowding, Rev. W., Idmiston, Salis-
bury

Du Boulay, Rev. F. H., Heddington
Rectory, Calne

Eddrup, Rev. Canon E. P., Bremhill,

Calne

Edgell, Rev. E. B., Bromham, Chip-
penham

Edwards, Job, Amesbnry

Elwell, Robert R., Highworth, Swin-
don

Errington, Sir George, Bart., Lachlan

House, Chippenham
Estcourt, G. T. J. Sotheron, Estcourt,

Tetbury

Estcourt, Rev. W. J. B., Long
Newnton, Tetbury [botts

Everett, Rev. E., Manningford Ab-

Ewart, Miss, 3, Morpeth Terrace,
Victoria Street, London, S.W.

Ewart, Miss M., Broadleas, Devizes

LIST OF MEMBERS.

V

Eyres, Edwin, Lacock, Chippenham
Eyre, G. E. Briscoe, 59, Lowndes
Square, London, S.W.

Finlay, Eev. E. B., The Lodge, Ave-

bury, Calne
Fisher, A. B., Court Hill, Potterne
Fisher, Mrs., Poulshot, Devizes
Forrester, "William, Malroesbury
Fox, C. F., Strathearne Villa, Old

Swindon
Fry, Dr. J. B,, Swindon
Fuller, G. P., M.P., Neston Park,

Corsham

Gabriel, C. W., Vale Lodge, Weston,
Bath

Gillman, C, Tresco Villa, Devizes
Goddard, Ambrose L., Swindon
Goddard, Rev. E. H., Clyffe Pypard,
Wootton Bassett [Calne
Goddard, Rev. Canon F., Hilmarton,
Goddard, Rev. C. V., Hilmarton

Vicarage, Calne
Goddard, H. Nelson, Clyffe Pypard

Manor, Wootton Bassett
Godwin, J. G., 118, Grosvenor Road,

London, S.W.
Goldney, F. H., Rowden Hill, Chip-
penham

Goldney, Sir Gabriel, Bart., Beech-
field, Chippenham

Gooch, Sir Daniel, Bart., Clewer
Park, Windsor

Gordon, Alex., Seend

Grose, Samuel, M.D., Melksham

Grove, Miss Chafyn, Zeals House,
Bath

Guise, Sir W., Bart., Elmore Court,

Gloucester
G watkin , R. G . , ManorHouse , Potterne
Gwillim, E. L., Marlborough
G.W.R. Mechanics' Institute, Secre-
tary of, New Swindon

Haden, Joseph P., Hill View, Trow-
bridge

Hadow, Rev. G. R., Calstone Rectory,
Calne

Hall, Capt. Marshall, St. John's,
Bovey Tracey, South Devon

Halliday, Edward, Warminster

Harbord, the Hon. Harbord,
Wootton Bassett

Harding, John, 51, Canal, Salisbury

Harmer, G. H., Apsley Villa, Ciren-
cester

Hart, C. F., Devizes

Hartley, Rev. Alfred Octavius,
Steeple Ashton, Trowbridge

Hay ward, Rev. S. C, Les Godaines,
George Road, Guernsey

Haywood, T. B., Woodhatch Lodge,
Reigate

Heard, Rev. T. J., The Rectory,
Sherrington, Codford, Bath

Henly, E. R., Calne

Heytesbury, The Right Hon. Lord,
Heytesbury

Highman, Frank, Salisbury

Highmore, Dr. N. J., Bradford-on-
Avon

Hitchcock, Dr. C, Fiddington,

Market Lavington
Hitchcock, C. K., M.D., The

Lunatic Hospital, Bootham, York
Hobhouse, Sir C. P., Bart., Monkton

Farley, Bradford-on-Avon
Hodgson, Rev. Canon J, D., The

Rectory, Collingbourne Ducis,

Marlborough
Hony, Rev. C. W., Bishops Cannings
Hughes, Rev. J. H.
Hulse, Sir Edward, Bart., M.P.,

Breamore, Hants
Humphries, A.R. ,Fernbank, Wootton

Bassett

Hussey, Mrs.H., The Close, Salisbury
Hutchings, Rev. Canon R. S.,

Alderbury, Salisbury
Hutchinson, Rev. T. N., Broad

Chalke Vicarage, Salisbury

Inman, Rev. E., Gillingham Vicar-
age, Dorset

vi

LrST OF MEMBERS.

Jackson, Joseph, Devizes

Jacob, J. H., The Close Salisbury

Jennings, J. C. S., Abboy House,

Maimesbury
Jones, W. Maimesbury

Kemble, H., Overton, Wroughton,
Swindon

Kemble, Mrs., Cowbridge House,

Maimesbury
Kemm, Thomas, Avebury
Kemm, W. C., Amesbury
Kenrick, Mrs., Keevil, Trowbridge
King, Rev. Bryan, Avebury
Kingdon, The Right Rev. Bishop H.

T., Fredericton, New Brunswick
Kingsbury,Rev.CanonT.L.,Kingston

Deverell, Warminster
Kinheir, H., Eedville, Swindon
Kmneir, R., M.D., Sherborne
Kirwan, F, G., 1, Richmond Gardens,

Bournemouth

Lambert, Rev. R. XL, Christchurch

Vicarage, Bradford-on-Avon
Lansdown, G., Trowbridge
Laverton, W. H., Westbury
Lawrence, W.F.,Cowesfield,Salisbury
Leach, R. V., Devizes Castle
Lewis, Harold, B. A,, Mercury Office,

Bristol 9
Lloyd, Rev. John A., Broad Hinton

Vicarage, Swindon
Long, Frederick W., Court Hill

House, Trowbridge
Long, W. H, M.P., Rood Ashton,

Trowbridge
Long, Col. William, Newton House,

Clevedon
Lowe, Charles H., Rowde
Ludlow, C. H., Baycliffe, Stoke

Bishop, Bristol
Lukis, Rev. W. C, Wath Rectory,

Ripon

Mackay, Alex., Holt Manor, Trow-
bridge

Mackay, James, Trowbridge

Mackay, William, Trowbridge
Maclean, J. C , M.D., Swindon
Magrath. Col., Murhill, Bradford-on-
Avon

Mann, William J., Trowbridge
Marlborough College Nat. Hist.
Society, the President of

i?ke,y«er'., E' Stor^' Hatt Ho™e,
Box, Wilts

Maskelyne, N. Story, F.R.S., M.P.

Bsssett Down, Swindon, Wilts '*
Master, Rev. G. S., Bourton Grange,

Flax Bourton, Bristol
Matcham, William E., New House,

Salisbury
Mayo, John H., India Office, Lon-
don, S.W.
McNiven, Rev. C. M., Perrysfield,

Godstone, Surrey
Meade, Rev. de Courcy, Tockenham

Rectory, Swindon
Mead, G. H., Devizes
Mead, Rev. The Hon. S., Frankleigh

House, Bradford-on-Avon
Medlicott, H. E., Sandfield, Potterne
Meek, A., Hill worth House, Devizes
Meek, A. Grant, The Ark, Devizes
Mere wether, Rev. W., North Bradley

Vicarage, Trowbridge
Merriman, E B., Marlborough '
Merriman, R. W.5 Marlborough
Merriman, S. B., Philip Lane, Tot-
tenham, Middlesex
Merriman, T.Mark, 25, Austin Friars,

London, E.G.
Methuen, Right Hon. Lord, Corsham
Court

Milburn, J., Highfield, Marlborough
Miles, Col. C. W., Burton Hill,

Maimesbury
Mitchell, Arthur C, The Ridge,

Corsham

Mitchell, W.R., Salthrop,Wroughton,

Swindon
Morgan, W. F., Warminster
Morrice, Rev. Canon W. D., Holy

Trinity Vicarage, Weymouth
Mullings, Richard B., Woodville,

Devizes

Nelson, Right Hon. Earl, Trafalgar,
Salisbury

LIST OF MEMBERS.

Y13

Nelson, Lady, Trafalgar, Salisbury
Nightingale, J. E., The Mount, Wilton
Normanton, the Eight Hon. the Earl

of, 7, Prince's Garden, Prince's

Gate, London, S.W.
pott, William, Devizes
Noyes, George, 11, Bassett Road,

Notting Hill, London, W.

Oliver, Capt. S. P., F.S.A., F.R.G.S.,
Anglesey, Alverstoke. Hants

Olivier, Rev. Canon Dacres, Wilton,
Salisbury

Olivier, Rev. H. A., Rookery,

Headington, Oxford
Osborne, C. C, Salisbury Journal,

Salisbury
Offer, D. A., London Road, Devizes

Palmer, George LL, Trowbridge
Parsons, W.F., Hunt's Mill, Wootton
Bassett

Paul, A. H., The Close, Tetbury

Pearman, W. J., Devizes

Pembroke and Montgomery, the Rt.
Hon. Earl, Wilton House,Salisbury

Penrose, Rev. J., Potterne, Devizes

Penruddocke, Rev. J. H., South
Newton Vicarage, Wilton

Pinder, R. G., Hernburst, Bourne-
mouth

Pinniger, Henry W., Westbury
Plenderleath, Rev. W. C, Cherhill

Rectory, Calne
Ponting, C. E., Lockeridge Cottage,

Overton, Marlborough
Poore, Major R,, Old Lodge, Newton

Toney, Salisbury
Porter, E. E., Charlton, Kilmersdon,

Bath

Powell, Mrs. M. E. "Vere Booth,
Colewood Park, Bolney, Cuckfield,
Sussex

Preston, Rev. T. A., Thurcaston

Rectory, Leicester
Price, R. E., Broomfield Hall,

Bridgwater
Proctor, W.^Elmhurst, Higher Erith

Road, Torquay
Prower, ^John Elton, Sissels, Purton

Radcliffe, C. H., Salisbury

Randell, J. A., Devizes

Ravenhill, W. W., 10, King's Bench

Walk, Temple, London, E.C.
Read, C. J., St. Thomas's Square,

Salisbury

Richardson, H., Marlborough College
Richmond, George, R.A., 20, York

Street, Portman Square, London
Robbins, Mills, Spitalcroft, Devizes
Rod way, E. B., Adcroft House, Trow-
bridge

Rogers, Walter Lacy, Rainscombe,

Marlborough
Rolls, John Allan, The Hendre,

Monmouth
Rumboll, C. F., Melksham
Rutter, J. F., Mere, Bath

Saunders, T.Bush, Bradford -on- Avon
Schomberg, Arthur, Seend, Melksham
Seymour, A., Knoyle House, Hindon
Seymour, Rev. C. F., Winchnekl

Rectory, Hants
Short, Rev. W. F., The Rectory,

Donhead St. Mary, Salisbury
Shopland, James R., Purton, Swmdon
Shum, F., Belcombe Brook,Bradford-

on-Avon

Shum. F. E., 3, Union Street, Bath
Sibbald, J. G. E., Admiralty, White-
hall, London, S.W.
Simpson, George, Devizes
Skrine, H.D., Claverton Manor, Bath
Sloper, Edwin, Taunton
Smith, Rev. A. C, Yatesbury, Cain©

Vlli

Smith, J. A., Market Place, Devizes
Soames, Rev. C, Mildonhall, Marl-
borough

Stanconib, J. Perkins, The Prospect,

Trowbridge
Stancomb, W., Blount's Court, Pot-

terne

Staples, T. H., Belmont, Salisbury
Stevens, Joseph, 128, Oxford Eoad,
Heading

Stokes, D. J., Rowden Hill, Chip-
penham

Stokes, Robert, Burroughs Hill,

Laverstock, Salisbury
Stratton, Alfred, Rushall, Marl-

borough

Stratton, William,Kingston Deverill,

Warminster
Strong, Rev. A., St. Paul's Rectory,

Chippenham
Strong, Rev. W, St. Paul's Rectory,

Chippenham
Sturton, Rev. J., Woodborough

Rectory, Marlborough
Swayne, H. J. F., The Island, Wilton
Swmhoe, Dr., Park House, New

Swindon

LIST OF MEMBERS.

Veysoy, Rev. J. Purton, Swindon

Tait, E. S., 54, Highbury Park,

London, N".
Talbot, C. H., Lacock Abbey, Chip.

penham

Ta™ei;; R' P' Ogbourne Maizey,
Marlborough

Taylor, G.C., M.D., Lovemead House,

Trowbridge
Taylor, S. W., Erlestoke Park,

Devizes

Thynne, Rev. A.B.,Seend, Melksham
Toppm, Rev. G. Pilgrim, Broad Town

Vicarage, Wootton Bassett
Trotter, Rev. H., The Rectory,

Trowbridge
Tucker, Rev. G. Windsor, Burton

Hill, Malmesbury
Tucker, Silas, Spencer House, Lark-

hall Rise, Clapham, London, S.W.

Wad worth, H. A., Devizes
Wakeman, Herbert J., Warminster
Walker, Rev. R. Z.,Boyton Rectory,
Bath

Ward, Col. M. P., Greenham,

Newbury

Warre, Rev. Canon P., Vicarage,

Melksham
Waylea, G. S. A., Devizes
Waylen, R. F., Devizes
Wayte, Rev. W., 6, Onslow Square,

London, S.W.
Webb, C. W. H., Trowbridge
Weller, Mrs T., 22, Tamworth Road,

Croydon, Surrey
Whinfield, Mrs. M. A., Woodleigh,

Bradford-on-Avon
Willis, F. M.tThe Cedars, Trowbridge
Wilson, J., M.A., Fair Lee, Ramsden

Road, Balham, London, S.W.
Winterscale, Col. J.F.M., Buckleigh,

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.

By A. Schomberg, Esq. 211

208. XXV.— The same impaling Griffith ap Elider (188)
without the spear-head.

209. XXVI.— The same impaling the same.

210. XXVII.— 207 repeated.
John Baynton, ob. 1516.

A Brass Plate.

211. XXVIII.— Gules, a chevron between three lozenges
ermine, impaling, quarterly, Baynton (51) and Rolt (194).

Elizabeth, wife of Henry Stone, ob. 1798.

In centre of chapel a large Purbeck altar-tomb with recumbent
figure of knight in white marble, thereon eight empty shields.
Hanging up in the chapel is some (funeral?) armour, amongst
which is a helmet, thereon the Baynton crest (187).

Oft Shields on the wooden panelled Roof.

212. XXIX.— a. quarterly, St. Amand (200) and Braybrooke
(201). b. Braybrooke (201). c. (196 vn.). d. Anstie (196 i.)
e. St. Amand (200). /. Roche (187). g. Ashton (202). h. (199).
L Beauchamp of St. Amand (187). j. Quarterly Braybrooke
(201) and St. Amand (200). Jc. (196 to.). l> Braybrooke (20)).
m. A cross gules, n. Braybrooke (201). o. (196 vn). impaling
Ashton (202). p. Braybrooke (201). q. Braybrooke (201)
impaling St. Amand (200). r. Beauchamp of St. Amand (187;.
s. (196 vn.). t. A chevron between three hart's heads erased
gules, u. Braybrooke (201). v. St. Amand (200). w. (212 u).
x. Ashton (202). Five empty Shields.

On the Pinnacles and Battlements of the South and East
Walls of the Baynton ChapeL

213. XXX.— A nag's head couped encircled by four roaches.

214. XXXI.— A saltire between four crosses flory.

215. XXXII.— Four fusils, 1, 2, 1.

216. XXXIII.— Two roaches in saltire.

p 2

212 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

217. XXXIV.— Two nag's heads couped and addorsed in fees.
In base a roach naiant to the sinister.

218. XXXV.-Quarterly, 1 and i9 Roche (187), with two fishes
instead of three. 2. St. Amand (200). 3. Buaybrooke (201).

219. XXXVI.— A heart between two hands and as many feet.
Symbol of the Five Precious Wounds. Besides the above Roche
occurs five times; Ashton, three times ; St. Amand, four times ;
Beaybiiooke, once; Beauchamp of St. Amand, twice ; (199) twice;
(195) twice ; (196 vn.) once.

i °n the Shield of dripstone of Door, a rose within a wreath ; the
tirrets are profusely used on the wooden ceiling- and in the moulding,
both external and internal. The wreath is also met with several
times,

Ccntrihtiotts to t\t f xhuti anb ffemm.

The Committee feel great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of
the following articles, presented to the Society.

By Miss M. Ewabt, Broadleas :-Beautiful impression of the Seal of Lacock
Abbey.

K ^TT^i ESq" RS-A*' Wilton:-A Catalogue of the extensive
Library of Mr. Peleg Morris, " which will be sold by auction at Mr. Oak's New
Room, opposite the Castle Inn, Devizes, on Monday, 18th December 1786 "

By Canon Jackson :-The Annals of the Yeomanry Cavalry of Wiltshire
being a complete History ; by H. Graham.

By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. :-Koman indented urn from the New Forest
A mass of Gryphoea vesiculosa-Upper Green Sand, London Road Devizes'
A mass of Gryphoea conica-Upper Green Sand, Cheverell. Cardiaster
fos, arms-Upper Green Sand, Potterne Road, Devizes. Fine piece of silicified
wood, found in digging the railway at Southgate House, Devizes. Two
specimens of Ammonites Reginald!, from the Oxford Clay near Trowbridge
Two small black Roman urns, found in digging in the cemetery, Abingdon '

Deposited in the Museum, by Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. .—Large paintm-
by Barker of the Fossil Ox Horns, found at Melksham, and now in the public
nail ot that town. l

H. F. BULL, Pyinter and Publisher, 4 Saint John street, Devizes.

Just Published, by the Wiltshire Archaeological and
Natural History Society, One Volume, Atlas 4to,
248 pp., 17 large Maps, and 110 Woodcuts, extra
cloth.

SECOND EDITION OF

The BRITISH and ROMAN
ANTIQUITIES of the NORTH
WILTSHIRE DOWNS,

git a pratkeir &vpxt Ipb tomb gilwtg :

BY THE

KEY. ALEEED OHAKLES SMITH, M.A.,

Rector of Yatesbury, Wilts, Son, Sec. of the Wiltshire Archasological and
Natural History Society; Author of " The Attractions of the Nile," " A
Spring Tour in Portugal" " A Modern Pilgrimage through Palestine,"

3fc, tyc.

rpHIS work, the materials of which have been accumulating for twenty-five
-L years, is the result of innumerable rambles and rides over the Downs oi
North Wiltshire, and deals with one of the most important Archaeological Dis-
tricts in Europe.

It consists of a large quarto volume, containing an account of all the Barrows,
Camps, Roads, Dykes, Enclosures, Cromlechs, Circles, and other British and
Roman Stone and Earth-works of a most primitive district, with references to and
extracts from the best authorities, as well as figures of many of the various urns
and other objects found in Barrows, views of Cromlechs, plans of Camps, &c.
Bound up with this volume, in sections, are maps, printed in six colours^ on the
scale of six linear inches, or thirty-six square inches, to a mile, comprising one
hundred square miles round Abury, and including thirteen miles from east to
west and eight miles from north to south, being the great plateau of the North
Wiltshire Downs, on which all the antiquities are shown and may readily be
found, and referred to by means of letters and figures. An Index Map, on the
scale of one inch to the mile, coloured, numbered, lettered, and divided like the
Large Map, accompanies the volume.

This is a reprint, undertaken by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural
History Society, in consequence of more than one-third of the first edition having
been destroyed at the hinders' in the great fire in Paternoster Row in 1883.

The work can be obtained from the Financial Secretary of the Society,
Mr. W. Nott, 15, High Street, Devizes ; or from the following Booksellers :
Mr. H. F. Bull, 4, Saint John Street, Devizes; Messrs. Bbown, Canal,
Salisbury ; and Mr. Bebnaed Qtjaeitch, 15, Piccadilly, London ;

Price £52 2s.

v.

AGENTS

FOB THE SALB OP THB

WILTSHIIIE MAGAZINE.

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Cirencester A. T. Harmer, Market Place.

2em*es H. F. Bull, St. John Street.

Marlborough E. & E. A. Lucy, Post Office.

Melksham J. H. Maggs, Bank Street.

Oxford Jas. Parker & Co., Broad Street.

Salisbury . Brown & Co., Canal.

Trowbridge., B. Lansdown & Sons, 11 Silver Street.

Warminster B. W. Coates, Market Place.

H. *. BUM,, PBINTBB, DBTIZBS,

No. LXIX.

AUGUST, 1887 Vol. XXIII.

THE

WILTSHIRE

Itrjjrtnlogirn! anil Jhtoat listottj
MAGAZINE,

pufiltityett unisex tipe SBtrettOm

OF THE

SOCIETY FORMED IN THAT COUNTY,
A.D. 1853.

DEVIZES:

Printed and Sold for the Society by H. F. Bull, Saint John Street

Price 5s. 6d. — Members Gratis.

NOTICE TO MEMBERS.
Members who have not paid their Subscriptions to the Society/*,
the current year, are requested to remit the same forthwith to
the Financial Secretary, Mr. William Now, 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'
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All other communications to be addressed to the Honorary Secre
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and H. E. Medlicott, Esq., Sandfield, Potterne, Devizes'.

The Rev. A. 0. Smith will be much obliged to observers of birds
m all parts of the county, to forwa«i to him notices of rare
occurrences, early arrivals of migrants, or any remarkable facts
connected with birds, which may come under their notice

THE

WILTSHIRE

IrrfMngiral unit lateral lister^
MAGAZINE.

No. LXIX. AUGUST, 1887. Vol. XXIII.

Contents*

PAGE

Relics of Ancient Population on Oldbitet Hill, Wilts : By

Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S 213

On a Sepulchbal Vessel found neae Mablbobough : By Mr.

Cunnington, F.G.S 222

The Chueches of Pueton and Wanbobough : By C. E. Ponting,

Esq. (Diocesan Surveyor and Architect) 229

Recent Exploeations at Silbuey Hill : By Alfred C Pass 245

Notes on the Manoe of Aldbouene : By the late F. A. Carrington,

Esq 254

Selwood Foeest : By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A 268

Notes on some Ancient British Skulls in the Wiltshiee

Museum, Devizes : By J. G. Garson, M.D., F.Z.S., Vice-Pres.

Anthrop. Inst , London, Hon. Corresponding Mem. Soc. Anthrop.,

Paris 2Q5

The Chuech Heealdey of Noeth Wiltshiee (Continued) : By

Arthur Schomberg 299

The Wiltshiee Compoundees : (communicated by Mr. James Waylen) 314
Donations to the Museum, 1887 347

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Plan of Oldbury Camp

Bronze Penannular Brooch, found within the camp on

Oldbury Hill, in 1858 (full size)

Ring-Dial

Funereal Vessel, found near Marlborough, Wilts, 1807
S. Mary, Purton, Wilts, View from South-West, Plate I.

„ Details of various parts, Plate II.

The Church of S. Andrew, Wanborough, Wilts, Plate III.

Plate IV.

SilburyHill, Wilts— Plan

Silbury Hill, Wilts— Section

Selwood Forest. Its extent temp. Edw. Ill

DEVIZES :
H. F. Bull, 4, Saint John Steeet.

214

216

219
222
229
233
238
239
246
250
282

THE

WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE.

"MULT0RUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR ONUS." — Ovid.

Jtlics of Jttaent J ovulation on (Sl^httg pill

Wilts.

By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S.

ILDBURY 1 is conspicuous amongst the chalk hills of North
|H Wilts, on account of its height, 812ft. above the mean
sea-level at Liverpool. It is also marked by the obelisk erected
by Henry, Marquis of Lansdowne (the first Patron of the Wilts
Archaeological and Natural History Society), to commemorate the
birth of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. This is built of North
Wilts oolitic stone, and is 127ft. in height. It forms a promi-
nent landmark for a great extent of country, and is a very
picturesque object from the grounds of Bo wood Park. But
Oldbury is most remarkable for the grand ancient encampment
which crowns its summit. On this Sir R. Colt Hoare makes the
following" remarks : — " This earthen-work is one of the most in-
teresting in our county, and bears such evident marks of antiquity,
that I make no doubt this hill owed its first agger to the Britons,
and the additional ramparts to the Saxons. Its situation towards
the north-east is rendered particularly strong by Nature, and fortified
by deep ravines, and very indented ground. Though there might
have been some approach to the camp from the north, yet the prin-
cipal entrance is ascertained to have been made to the south-east by
an outwork still visible. The camp is doubly ditched, and contains
within its area twenty-five acres : the circumference of its ramparts
is twelve hundred and seventy-six yards, and the height of them

1 D. v., Rev. A. C. Smith's Map.
VOL. XXIII. NO. LXIX. Q

214 Belies of Ancient Population on Oldbury Hill, Wilts.

fifty feet. A bank and ditch intersect the area of the work, perhaps
the remains of a more ancient agger. This camp appears to have
been made use of as a place of residence as well as of defence, for
the labourers in digging for flints within its area throw up numerous
fragments of animal bones and rude pottery, the certain marks of
habitation. The form of this work is very irregular, humouring
the hill in its numerous sinuosities." 1

Td this the Rev. A. C. Smith adds the following " The division
of the area by a bank and ditch running from north to south, to
which Sir R. Hoare alludes, is a singular feature in this camp, and j
separates the upper and larger portion on the east from the lower
and sloping part on the west ; the area of the western portion being
at a considerably lower elevation than the upper. The returned '
banks at the entrance on the south-east, and the outworks masking
the entrance, are on the principles of modern fortifications, and would i
not disgrace the engineers who constructed Luxembourg and Metz.
The banks and ditches, too, on the least-defensible sides, notably on j
the east, are of very great size and strength, and must have rendered
the camp almost impregnable."

As might have been expected from its commanding position,
Oldbury has been occupied as a stronghold by various successive \
races ; and traces of Ancient Britons and Romans, as well as of j
more modern peoples, have been discovered. We propose to describe j
some of the antiquities ; and it is a pleasure to be able to add that I
most of the specimens found have been presented to the Wiltshire
Museum at Devizes.

Three barrows have been examined within a few hundred yards
of the camp. In the round barrow, marked f. on the plan of Oldbury
here inserted (from Sir R. C. Hoare), the very fine funereal urn
was found which has been engraved and described in the Wiltshire
Magazine, vol. vi., 73.8 It is now in the Museum of the Society.

1 1 ' Ancient Wilts," II.
2 It has since been described and figured in 44 Archajologia," xliii., 334, by
Dr. Thurnam. He speaks of the ornamentation as being " entirely of the stippled
or punctured sort, made with a very fine pin, or with many pins or teeth inserted
comb-fashion, on the edge of a stick."

Oldbury Camp.

cb,Long Barrow. — e, Obelisk,.— J°, Round, Bam^ow.— U Earthwork,,
k, Earthwoj-h.— I, CirouLcur ocuvity. - no, ttlZ, Dw&llunx) Pits.

WriLtr-inan ,<rP, r;s fl'i.jt tit ho London

By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. 215

The second was a long- barrow (marked d. in plan ; see also d. C. v.
North Wilts Map), opened in 1864. An account of this is in the
Wiltshire Magazine, vol. xiii. The measurements of the skulls, as
given by Dr. Thurnam,1 are, for the male 68 — decidedly dolicho-
cephalic— and for the females 71 and 74 respectively. That with
the index 74 must have been a remarkable-looking' old lady, the
teeth on both sides having long been lost; with the curious exception
of the right wisdom tooth, which still remains, though much worn
down. It may be mentioned that the sarsen stone meal-rubber
found here is the only one as yet discovered in a Wiltshire fo^barrow.
It is 5|in. in length.

The third barrow was situated to the south. It was but slightly
raised above the surface of the down. The workmen reached its
contents in the course of their flint-digging, and found a skeleton
and a drinking-cup, besides which, as they said, " there wur a bit
of ould brass" (probably a fragment of a bronze knife or dagger),
near the skeleton. Beyond this nothing is known of the details.
They scattered the bones amongst the flint heaps, and preserved
two small fragments only of the cup. The spot was afterwards
very carefully searched, and other fragments of the cup were found,
sufficient to make a good restoration. It is of the high-brimmed
globose type of drinking-cup, with much ornamentation, though it
is but a very irregular example of " freehand." There are five rows
of chevrons of triple lines of dots, two on the upper and three on
the lower or bulb part of the cup. Between these are two rows of
diamonds, some of them formed of parallel lines, some of three
diamonds one inside the other, some of lines crossing obliquely,
whilst in another part, this ornament suddenly changes into large
irregular zig-zags. The lines have apparently been produced by
pressing on the clay a thin piece of wood or bone, having small
notches cut on the edge. The cup is 6£in. high by him, in diameter.

In 1858 the writer gave instructions to Henry Green,2 flint-
digger, to excavate some hollows which appeared to be traces of

1 " Memoirs of Anthropolog. Soc." L, 473.
s Several of the objects named in the following list were obtained from the
same workman, having been dug up by him in or near the camp.

q a

216 Relics of Ancient Population on Oldbury Hill, Wilts.

ancient pit-dwellings, in the eastern division of the camp beyonc
the main entrance (marked m. 2 on the plan). In one of them he
found a bronze penannular brooch, of good but simple style, and an

Bronze Penannular Brooch,
found within the camp on Oldbury Hill, in 1858 (full size).

iron implement of uncertain use, and a well-used whetstone. There
was also a considerable quantity of wood ashes.

The following' objects have also been found in the excavations in
and around the camp :—

A socketed looped celt of bronze, of full size, length 4£in. [This
may be considered to be the latest improved form of the implement.
They were continued in use even down to Roman times.]

A small bronze armlet.

A spatula or flat knife of bronze.

A bronze fibula of uncertain date.

The disc of a medieval brooch.

An ancient gouge or scoop of bronze. [A well-made implement,
probably of Roman date.]

A bronze square-sided awl, pointed at both ends.
Two iron spear-heads, 4iin. in length.

By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. 217

An iron barbed arrow-head, 2£in. in length.

A circular mass, probably a "pig," 1 of iron, weighing fifteen and
a-half pounds. It is 6in. in diameter, and 2^in. high.

The late Dean Merewether, speaking of Oldbury, says, " I possess
an iron spear-head, and one of those curious circular stones with a
hole in the centre (query, a quern), found here/' 2

Mr. Henry Cunnington has successfully explored two of the pit-
dwellings of Oldbury, and supplies the following report : — " In
August, 1875, a man engaged in digging flints in Oldbury Camp,
within a few yards of the Lansdowne Monument (m., see plan),
found what appears to have been a dwelling-pit similar to many
which have recently been opened near Westbury, Beckhampton, and
other places in the county. It was about 4ft. deep, and 5ft. in
diameter. The floor was covered with a quantity of ashes and burnt
wood, and among them, lying on its side, was a very rudely-formed
bowl-shaped cup or food vessel, in height 4in., by 5^in. in width.
In rudeness of shape and workmanship it resembles vessels which
have been found in some of the Beckhampton barrows ; but it has
been burnt to redness, and has traces on the bottom of having been
used as a cooking utensil. It was not, apparently, made of the
Tertiary clay from the top of the hill, but the numerous spangles of
selenite in it would lead to the belief that the material was obtained
from the Gault, or from Kimmeridge Clay of the neighbourhood
of Rowde. Near this cup we found an implement formed of a
bone, split longitudinally, about 5in. in length ; the inside showing
the natural surface of the bone, while the outside is curiously orna-
mented with a pattern of diagonal lines, and numerous small circles,
each with a dot in the centre. One end has been divided into teeth
like a comb. They were originally seven in number. The other
end has a hole bored as if for suspension. There was also a plain
bronze finger-ring, or link. The pit contained many unburnt bones

1 The Romans smelted iron from the Lower Green Sand, near Heddington,
which is not far from the foot of Oldbury Hill, and very extensively at Wans
House, a few miles further. A circular pig of copper, with a Roman inscription,
has been found in Wales.

2 "Salisbury vol., Archseolog. Institute," 1851, p. 92.

218 Relics of Ancient Population on Oldlury Hill, Wills.

of the domestic animals, but no human bones. A Roman coin was j
found in digging at this spot.

Another pit at a few yards distance has since been opened, and
more carefully examined. This was very irregular in shape, 9ft. in
length, 6ft. wide at one end, and only three at the other; it also I
varied in depth from 3ft. to 4ft. In it were found fragments of
many earthen vessels and a large portion of the upper stone of a
very fine quern, in beautiful preservation, with the grinding surface I
remarkably true. It is but little worn, and appears to have been
broken before it had been much used. It is remarkable in having
a hole cut on one side, for the insertion of a handle for more easily j
working it. It is in thickness 9in., and in diameter 14in. The
Anglo-Saxons used querns of this type — the top stone very conical
and thick. It is formed of IJpper-Green-Sand, having in it
fragments of some of the characteristic fossils of that stratum.
This stone is a very unsuitable material for grinding corn, as, being j
comparatively soft, it would rapidly fritter away ; and the sandy j
grit of which it is composed must have been an unpleasant ingredient j
in the bread of the period. Upper- Green-Sand querns were not j
uncommon in the county,1 and their use for grinding food was
doubtless one of the causes of the excessive wearing away of the j
teeth of the Ancient Britons. There were also found in this pit
two fine mullers of sarsen stone, 3in. in diameter, and much worn;
some worked flints, including a well-made flint knife ; many bones
of ox, horse, sheep, &c, and the usual wood ashes "

Coins found on Oldbury Hill.
Of the fifteen coins from this spot one is a sixpence of Elizabeth
(1592), the rest are Ho man, as follow : — 2
Domitian, A.D. 81 — 96. Rev. fortuna atjgtjsti.
Julia Domna, cir. 200 (wife of Severusj. Rev. venus felix.
Tetricus I., A.D. 268—273. Rev. Emp. holding Victory.
Carausius, A.D. 287 — 293. p. f. avg. Rev. pax.

1 Pen-pits no doubt supplied a considerable quantity of these implements.
There are few other places in Wilts where the stratum yields blocks of a suitable
size.

2 Edward T. Keary,Esq.,of the British Museum,has kindly identified these coins.

By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. 219

Constantino I. (Gt.), A.D. 306—337. [Struck at Treves.]
Constantinus I., A.D. 306— 337. vrbs. roma. Rev. Wolf and
twins.

Constantinus IT., A.D. 337—340. Rev. beata. tranqvillitas.
Constants (?), 327—353.

Constantius II., A.D. 337—361. Rev. fel. temp, reparatio.
Valentinianus I., A.D. 364—375 (two coins). Rev. victoria,
reipvblica.

Gratianus, A.D. 375—383. [Struck at Aries.]
Magnus Maximus, A.D. 383—385. [Struck at Lyons.]
Roman Emperor. [Illegible.]

None of these coins are rare. They are comparatively few in
number, and we may hence conclude that the Romans did not
occupy the spot for a great length of time. It was probably too
far removed from the scenes of their more important operations.

Few traces of any subsequent habitations have been found, nor is
this remarkable, for with the general advance of civilization, it is
improbable that the place was much occupied, either as a residence
or as a military post, after the withdrawal of the Roman power.

Ring-Dial.

We have also to record the finding, within the camp, of a

220

Relics of Anoient Population on Oldbury Hill, Wills.

ring-dial j 1 and as this instrument is not generally known, the fol-
lowing description is quoted from a paper by Thomas A. Couch, Esq ,
of Bodmin.8 It is a brass ring, like a miniature dog's collar; and
having, in a groove in its circumference, a narrower ring, with a
small boss, pierced with a hole so as to admit a ray of light. This
narrow ring is made moveable, to suit the varying declination of
the sun, and accordingly, on either side of it, i.e., on the broad
ring, the initials of the months are cut in ascending and descending
order. On the inside of the great ring, opposite the boss, a scale
of the hours is engraved. It has also the following inscription

'Set me right and use me well,
And i ye time to you will tell.'

In conformity with this direction, we will for instance, move the
boss on the sliding ring to D (December) and suspend it by the
string, directly opposite the sun, when the ray of light, passing
through the aperture, will fall on the inner surface, opposite, and
show, with tolerable accuracy, the time of day. " 8

These instruments were in common use in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, and were also called pocket-dials, journey-
rings {Viatorium— Solarium) , &c. « King Charles the First had a
large one of silver. They were continued in use down to the middle

1 The late Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt kindly gave the writer the wood engraving
which is here printed.

2 From the " Reliquary," No. 7.
3 Mr. Couch gives an interesting illustration as follows " Shakspeare is the
only writer I recollect who alludes to such a form of horologe as having been in
common use; and I regard my curiosity the more, as I believe it illustrates a
well-known passage of our great poet. I am fain to think, and in this I shall
be glad to have any confirmation from my readers, that it was just such another
which gave occasion to the fool in the Forest of Arden ' to moral on the time '
in words ' so deep— contemplative ' ;

' And then he drew a dial from his poke :
And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, It is ten o'clock ;
Thus may we see, quoth he, how the world wags.'

The date of the play of < As You Like It ' is generally referred to the year 1600 ;
and as pocket-watches were not introduced into England until about the year
1577, it is very unlikely that the fool would have been possessed of so novel and
costly a convenience."

By Mr. Cunning ton, F.G.S. 221

of the reign of George the Third, and the latest manufacturers
were Messrs. Proctor, of Sheffield.-" 1

The writer has a specimen which was found in grubbing up a
hedge near Newbury. Mr. Merriman of Marlborough, also pos-
sesses one, exhibited at the temporary museum there, in 1859.

Amongst the numerous bones of the commoner animals which
have been obtained on this spot are a leg bone and six horns of the
roebuck (Genua capreolus), and it is to be noted that they are all
shed horns, that is, they have fallen off in the usual course, during
the life of the animals. This leads to the conclusion that herds of
this deer must have lived in the neighbourhood, in the old times.

A particular account of the Oldbury White Horse, which was cut
in 1780, is given in the excellent paper by the Rev. W. C. Plender-
leath, vicar of the adjoining parish of Cherhill, in the FTitishire
Magazine, vol. xiv.

The Geology of Oldbury Hill is very simple. The upper part of
it, including the whole of the area occupied by the camp, consists
of Upper-Chalk, with irregular traces of Tertiary clays and nu-
merous -pot-holes," some of great size. These are usually filled
with Tertiary clay, containing vast quantities of unrolled flints,2 and
occasional Tertiary pebbles.3 Many hundreds of tons of flints have
been dug for road-metal within the camp, so that the surface is
much disturbed, and the excavations have, alas ! been occasionally
carried to a mischievous extent into the very banks of the fortifi-
cations.

It is not surprising that Sir Richard Colfc Hoare was impressed
with " the deep ravines » which render the camp naturally so strong.
The flanks of Oldbury especially, and of others of the adjoining
hills, present some of the most remarkable examples of the " dry

1 " Athenaeum," March, 1864.

2 We must here remark that some of the rarest of the fossil sponges, for which
Wiltshire is remarkable, have been obtained from the deposit of flints on the top
of this hill. Many of these are now in the Museum in Jermyn St.

3 A remarkable outlier of a bed of clay with flints and similar pebbles occurs
as a deposit of drift, on the top of the hill near Monkton Farleigh. This was
contemporaneous and probably continuous with the beds on Oldbury Hill, but
the intervening strata have since been washed away.

222 On a Sepulchral Vessel found near Marlborough.

coom,bes" of the chalk which exist in the southern district of England.
They are in several instances so steep that it is difficult to stand on
their slopes; sometimes they are scooped out of the sides of the
hills in narrow gorges, as if by the action of torrents; in other
cases they converge in a very remarkable and picturesque manner.
Geologists differ as to the cause of these coombes, and on the 23rd
of February, 1887, a paper on the subject was read at a meeting of
the Geological Society of London, by Mr. Clement Reid, F.G.S.
The general feeling of the meeting was in favour of the opinion
that the phenomena are due to the action of rain, frost, &c, during
the great glacial period. There was, however, so much doubt ex-
pressed by some of the geologists present that it would be premature
to advance any positive view on the subject; we would advise all
who are not familiar with the spot to go and see for themselves.

The downs of Wiltshire, and their associations, are dear to Wilt-
shiremen; and there are some of us to whom these associations,
connected as they are with many a happy day in the past, and with
the memories of dear friends long departed, have a charm deeply
felt, but not easily expressed; by such this record will be valued.

fit a %«Ic{pI Wmd fomtir nmx PsrttoroagJ.

By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S.

@SHE following extract from Hoare's " Ancient Wiltshire/'
llPi IL> 34' gives a11 tne information hitherto published on
this subject " I must not omit to mention a very curious relic of
antiquity, which by the zeal of the Rev. Mr. Francis, of Mildenhall,
was rescued from destruction. It is so unlike any other article we'
have hitherto discovered that I have thought it worthy of an en-
graving. Fortunately, Mr. Francis had an exact drawing made of
it, before it fell to pieces, otherwise I should not have been able to

By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. 223

give a satisfactory delineation of it. It was discovered in a meadow
adjoining Marlborough, called St. Margaret's Mead, which is situ-
ate just beyond the first milestone on the road leading to London.
According to the original drawing presented to me by Mr. Francis,
and drawn upon a scale of three inches to one, the vessel must have
been two feet in breadth, and twenty-one inches in height. It was
formed of substantial oak wood,1 bound with iron hoops, had two
handles of the same, and a hollow bar of iron was placed across the
mouth of the vessel, and affixed to the two square upright pieces
projecting from the circle. It was plated with thin brass,2 and
ornamented with embossed representations of grotesque human
heads and animals. The deposit of human burnt bones which it
contained proved it to have been originally destined to sepulchral
purposes, but I am at a loss even to conjecture the period to which
it ought to be attributed. The labourers employed in digging
gravel for the roads in this mead frequently meet with coins,
pottery, animal bones, &c, which indicate its having been known
to the Romans. To Mr. Francis I am indebted for a beautiful
little cup of bronze-coloured pottery, with six indentures on it 3 3
and in the collection of the same gentleman I observed many coins
of the lower Empire and some fragments of the fine red-glazed,
(Samian,) pottery."

The following letter, hitherto unpublished (now in the possession
of the Society), contains further information on the subject:—

" Mildenhall, May 21st, 1812.
" I should have been much mortified if your stay at Marlbro' would not have
allowed me to fulfil your wish, that Mr. Crocker might take a draft of the
fragments of the vessel, a drawing of which you were so kind to accept * That
drawing was made on the spot, by a scale of, I think, one inch draft to three
inches the object, while it was entire, and freed from the surrounding earth, so
that we had a perfect view of it. As the vessel must have perished if it had
been left where it was found, I was very desirous of removing and possessing it

1 Microscopic examination has proved the wood to be coniferous— fir— not
oak.— W.C.

3 This has been chemically examined, and found to be bronze.— W.C.
3 The Koman ampulla which is engraved on the title-page to the 44 Roman
^Era," Ancient Wilts, vol. ii., was also found in St. Margaret's mead.

• This, the original drawing by Tuck, is also in tne Society'e library.

224 On a Sepulchral Vessel found near Marlborough.

but notwithstanding the utmost care and tenderness it would not bear the smallest
jar or shake, and it fell to pieces. Every bit of it which I could preserve is in
the box I have the pleasure of sending to you ; and what is in the box, not be-
longing to the vessel, was found with several skeletons (human), a Roman
tile, and the piece of pottery (the small cup), in the same field with the
vessel, and only a few yards from it. Several coins, mostly Gallienus, or Valens
or Constantine, were brought to me from the same spot.
" I remain, Sir,

" Your very obedient and humble Servant,
" Chas. Feancis.
P.S.— The person who took the drawing is Mr. Tuck of Marlbro'."

Some extracts from a note-book kept by Sir R. C. Hoare, and
printed in vol. xxii. of this Magazine, confirm the above state-
ments, and show that he was personally acquainted with the spot.
" Walked with Rev. Mr. Francis, of Mildenhall, to a spot on the
left of the road from Marlboro' to London, where several remarkable
Roman antiquities have been found. It is a pasture land, and has
produced many skeletons, and Roman coins are daily found by the
labourers employed in digging and sifting gravel. A most singular
vessel was found there about the year 1807, and the mutilated
fragments are still preserved by Mr. Francis. It contained some
burnt human bones, which seem to prove its having been formerly
appropriated to sepulchral uses." 1

Amongst the packages of antiquities received from Stourhead in
1878 was a box of broken urns and various fragments. A piece of
old bronze awakened a memory, and further examination showed
that here were the remains of the funereal vessel found in St.
Margaret's mead, near Cunetio. On comparing these fragments
with the original drawing, it is satisfactory to find that nearly all

m 1 The notice of this vessel in Wright's " Celt, Roman, and Saxon," p. 433, ig
singularly unfortunate. It is not correct as to the date or as to the circumstances
of the finding, nor is the character of the ornament accurately described ; more-
over, a small engraving of it is given, side by side with an Anglo-Saxon bucket,
" only 7£ inches high," so that the reader is left to infer that the originals are
both of the same dimensions, no mention being made of the greater size of the
Marlborough specimen. This has been very misleading to the readers of that
otherwise very accurate work. Mr. Wright may, however, be fairly excused, as
at the time his book was written, the bucket was in ruins, in a box of broken
pottery at Stourhead.

By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. 225

the remains handed over to Sir E. C. Hoare are still preserved,
and not much the worse for the neglect of nearly three-fourths of a
century. This encouraged an attempt to restore the vessel, and a
large wooden frame of the size given by Sir R. C. Hoare having
been obtained for the purpose, the various fragments were attached
to it, and a restoration made which has at least the merit of ex-
hibiting the ornamentation and fittings, in their original relative
positions.

The further examination of these remains, during the process of
restoration, has brought to light some facts which will here be
recorded.

The vessel itself was made of planks or staves of deal (not oak) ,
and was constructed with much skill. The upright staves of the
sides were fastened together with square dowells ; some fragments
of the wood are preserved showing this mode of construction.
Three iron hoops secured it on the outside, and on a level with the
brim on the inside another iron hoop was added, to assist in keeping
the staves in place. The middle hoop was supported by a close
row of the bronze-headed nails by which the bronze plaques were
attached, as will be seen in the engraving.

Two of the staves projected above the others (as seen in the
engraving), one on each side ; they were not intended to serve as
handles, but to hold the ends of the long bar of iron which fastened
the lid of the vessel. This bar is hollow, and square in section
formed of two long strips of iron beaten up at the edges, and
overlapped, thus, ^ } There was originally a wooden cover,
fitting within the edge to the depth of about a quarter of an inch.
It was formed of boards placed at right angles to the bar; on these
were fixed thick strips of wood, parallel with the bar, and covering
it over. After the bar was passed through the holes m the two
projecting staves the ends were spread out by hammering, so that
it could not be withdrawn, and as the. strips above-mentioned would
prevent any sideway movement of the cover, it would be effectually
fastened. That this was the mode adopted there can be little
doubt, for, although the lid itself does not now exist, the traces of

220 On a Sepulchral Vessel found near Marlborough.

the fibres of the wood, and even minute fragments of it, are so
distinctly preserved on the rust of the iron bar that the arrange-
ment of the strips can be easily ascertained.

There were two well-wrought iron handles, one on either side,
fixed by loops of the same metal passing through the staves, and
bent over, or rivetted, on the inside. The appearance of ornament
on these handles, which the engraving would suggest, is due to a
covering of small pebbles derived from the gravel in which they
were found, agglutinated by the oxide of iron; underneath they are
quite smooth.

The ornamentation consists of three broad bands formed of plates
of bronze fastened to the wood ; one on each side the middle hoop,
and a third covering the space above the upper hoop, just over-
lapping the edge of the vessel, and continued upward so as to
enclose the two projecting staves. On these bands there are
wrought, in repousse, various strange and grotesque figures, some
of them more or less resembling horses. These are generally in
pairs, having a mask of a human face between each. On the lowest
band there are two horse-like monsters, having their noses pro-
longed in a fantastic manner, so as to resemble elephants' trunks.
The figures of the upper band have heads apparently of birds or
griffins ; and the bronze on each of the projecting parts of the staves
is decorated with a pair of quaint faces, in profile. The plates of
bronze here bend round the edge, so that the thickness of the wood
is exactly shown as it was in the original, viz., rather more than
half an inch.

The bronze knobs, or rather the bronze-headed nails with which
these decorations were fastened to the wood were very numerous, as
may be seen in the engraving. They were formed by soldering
small iron nails into the centre of half-spheres of bronze— very
much in the same manner as brass-headed nails were, until lately,
made.1 A fragment of the wood is preserved, in which one of these
nails is still fixed.

Having been buried in a bed of the old river-drift gravel of the

1 We hope to give an analysis of the solder used in making the nails of the
Marlborough bucket further on.

By Mr. Cunnington, F.G.S. 227

Kennet, which is still subject to a considerable influx of water, both
the bronze and the iron fittings have been much oxidized. To such
an extent has this been the case with the iron that there is not
any of it left in the metallic state. Some of the oxide has run
tog-ether in a somewhat stalactitie condition, very hard and brittle.

Judging from the present condition of the remains of some of the
old wood, it seems probable that the vessel might have been
preserved entire, had suitable precautions been taken at the time.
Hot solution of gelatine for wood (or bone), and melted paraffin for
metals, are excellent preservatives.

There is considerable doubt as to the age of this relic. It has
been ascribed to the Saxons, but it differs so materially from the
buckets— situla— of that period that we hesitate to adopt the
opinion. (1) Cremation was practised to a certain extent by the
Saxons, but their buckets were in no case used to contain the ashes
of the dead.1 (2) The capacity of the Marlborough specimen is about
three times as much as that of the largest known Saxon bucket. (3)
The ornamentation is more profuse, elaborate, and costly than in
any other example and no similar designs are known, except on a
1 It has been suggested (see Wright's "Celt, RomaD, and Saxon," p. 434)
that the situlce were for containing the ale, mead, or wine which was to be
served in the Saxon hall ; that they are probably alluded to by Beowulf, where
he describes how

" Cup bearers gave
The -wine from wondrous vats."
An objection to this is their small size, as many of them are only 4in. in height
—few are so high as lOin. In addition to this we venture to suggest that, on
account of their peculiar mechanical construction, they were never intended to
contain fluids. The sides being quite straight " it is impossible," as a cooper
would say, " to make the hoops bind." It is necessary to have a certain amount
of "splay" in the staves in order that the hoops may hold them together water-

^ Of the situlce in the British Museum only one is conical in shape, the rest
are cylindrical, The specimen from the Anglo-Saxon barrow on Roundway
Hill, now in the Devizes Museum, is also cylindrical. The middle hoops are
kept up by means of rivets passing into upright strips of bronze provided for
the purpose. Most of them are very small, capable of holding little more than
a pint • the largest is 16in. in diameter. The references in Beowulf's poem (an
Ano-lo-Saxon poem translated and published by Mr. Kemble in 1837) cannot
bear on the question, for the peculiar use to which the Marlborough vessel was
applied, as a receptacle for the ashes oi the dead, removes it altogether from the
category.

228 On a Sepulchral Vessel found near Marlborough.

small portion of a hoop in the British Museum, which, from the style
of the worked bronze, is considered to be of late Celtic period. (4)
Saxon buckets have one handle only, arched over the top, as in modern
examples, whilst that which we are describing- has two well-formed
handles, one on each side. (5) Our specimen, too, is remarkable for
the curious though somewhat cumbrous contrivance by which the
hollow bar is used for securing the lid.

The circumstances narrated by Hoare, the great number of Roman
coins and other works of art and the numerous skeletons discovered,
seem clearly to prove that the Romans occupied " St. Margaret's
Mead/' and it was apparently used for sepulchral purposes by the
inhabitants of their adjoining stations, Upper, and Lower Cunetio.
The locality is so decidedly Roman, so surrounded by Roman remains
on every side, that the finding of this funereal vessel on the spot
would at once lead to the conclusion that it was of Roman work-
manship. It is true that no other example is known, in this
country at least, of the interment of the ashes of the dead in a
similar bucket-shaped vessel ; but the modes of burial adopted by
the Romans were very varied. This has been exemplified in Wilt-
shire by Mr. Poulett Scrope's discoveries at North Wraxhall
[Wiltshire Magazine, vol. vii., p. 69). It would appear that the
common people were generally interred with little ceremony, whilst
careful cremation and more elaborate forms of burial were practised
at the death of persons of rank or distinction. On the other hand
it is considered by some of our best antiquaries that the style of
the ornamentation is distinct from Roman, and still more distinct from
Saxon art, and that it should rather be referred to a late Celtic period.1
London, March, 1887.

1 Dr. John Evans suggested that this relic should be referred to a late Celtic
period, and Mr. A. W. Franks strongly supports this view, which has been
further confirmed by an examination of the fine series of Celtic remains which he
has presented to the nation : amongst these we would especially mention two
large bronze shields belonging to this period, worthy in beauty of design and
finish to rank amongst the works of art of any time or nation. We would
express sincere thanks to Mr. Franks for his courtesy in affording opportunities
for the examination of the Saxon vessels under his charge, and for the kind
interest he has taken in the subject.

229

fat %(|« of f wstott w& Wanbrattgl :

By C E. Pontine, Esq. (Diocesan Surveyor and Architect).

(These two Churches were visited by the Society on their Annual Excursion, in August, 1886 )

JgSffflB is commonly supposed that there are only three Parish
||j | Churches in this country which have a central spire and
a later western tower, these being Purton and Wanborough in
Wiltshire, and Ormskirk in Lancashire.

Whether the number is thus limited or not, it is certain that
such a combination of features is exceedingly rare : it was, therefore,
a happy circumstance that the two county specimens were selected
for inspection by Wiltshire Arch geologists on two successive days of
the Annual Meeting in August last, as it enabled a comparison to be
formed which could not fail to be interesting and instructive. The
object of this paper and the plates which illustrate it, is- whilst
describing the points of interest in the Churches generally— to
assist such a comparison by drawing attention to the more important
features in each case.

The Church of S. Mary, Purton.
As will be seen on reference to the block plan in the corner of
Plate I., this Church is very symmetrical in form, and consists of
nave with north and south aisles, central tower with north and
south transepts, chancel with north sacristy and south chapel, and
a western tower. There were formerly north and south doorways
in the central bays of the aisles, but the former has been built up :
the south door has a porch with priest's room over.

I will take the various parts of the Church in the order of their
apparent dates.

Twelfth century. The earliest feature in the Church is the Tran-
sitional-Norman impost of the east respond of the south nave arcade,
and this suggests the idea of there having been a central tower of
that date, although this impost, like that on the north side, was

VOL. XXIII.— NO. LXIX. E

230 The Churches of Purton and Wanborough.

evidently removed and reinstated when the present tower was built.

Early thirteenth century. The nave appears to have been re-built
at this period, but of this work only the cylindrical piers of the
two arcades, with their caps and. bases, remain, and the bases are
missing on the eastern responds against the central tower. Although
the north and south piers are evidently coeval, the capitals of the
former are richly carved with conventional foliage characteristic of
the style, whilst those of the latter are only moulded. These piers
were apparently increased in height nearly two centuries later, as
will be presently noticed.

A little later followed the erection of the present chancel, the
walls of which (with the exception of the east wall, which was
rebuilt during the restoration of the Church by Mr. Butterfield, in
1872) are all of this date, though there have been many later
insertions. An original lancet window remains in the north wall
near the central tower, but it is built up and must have been in
disuse since the fifteenth century when the sacristy was erected
against the outside of it : the doorway made at this later period for
communication between chancel and sacristy, cuts into this window :
this is now also built up. In the south wall of the chancel, but
further eastward, are portions of a similar window cut into by the
archway opening into the chapel erected at a later period. In the
south wall of the sacrarium the original Early English piscina
exists : it is of large size and has two shelves.

There is an interesting thirteenth century niche, with foliated
corbel and rich deeply-cut mouldings, built into the later gable of
the south transept : this is shown in the sketch view, Plate I.

Fourteenth century. At about the middle of this century the
chapel on the south side of the chancel appears to have been added,
and the archway referred to above cut through the wall of the
latter. The three-light east window here is a beautiful specimen of
" Flowing Decorated/'' The window and doorway in the south
wall are evidently later insertions, coeval with the aisles. A
" Decorated" piscina with shelf, in the south wall, shows this to
have been a chantry.

The central tower and spire, and the north and south transepts

By C. E. Pouting, Esq. 231

were probably built at about the end of the reign of Edward III.
The tower presents a singular combination of Decorated and Per-
pendiclar forms and details, the alternate sunk-chamfer and hollow
of the piers, and the groining of the lower stage being distinctly
earlier in feeling than the upper stage, which might be taken for
work of the middle of the fifteenth century, though evidently carried
out in continuation of the former, as the spire with its bold roll
indicates. The squinches ©f the spire have square pinnacles within
the parapet. The upper stage of the tower is open to the spire,
and has two corbels low down on the east and west faces inside, and
larger ones at a higher level on the north and south sides, which
probably supported bells before the addition of the western tower.
There is a door opening into the south transept, and lower down
on the north and east sides are built-up windows, the intention of
which is not quite apparent, as they would be blocked by the ad-
jacent roofs, which, as the weather-tablings indicate, retain their
original pitch. There are two-light windows in the four sides at a
higher level. This stage is approached by a turret stair from the
north transept, and the steps are carried on to a second door, above
the higher bell-corbels. A bit of Norman roll-moulding is seen on
the third step from the floor of this stage, which appears to support
the idea that this tower displaced work of that period.

The transepts retain their original roofs. A piscina (which once
had a shelf) in the wall of the south transept indicates the existence
of an altar here, and this is further shewn by the archway in the
east wall, and communicating with the chapel, having evidently
been constructed with regard to it, for the chamfer of the south
jamb is stopped at 4ft. from the floor (which would be about the
level of the mensa including the step), with the apparent object of
the altar coming out to the face of the jamb. Over the position
of the altar is a squint of a triple quatrefoil, with the splay of the
jamb on the east side inclined slightly to the north, in the direction
of the altar of the chapel.

The only probable indications of an altar in the north transept
are the two corbel heads in the inside faces of the jambs of the
later and peculiarly flat archway in the east wall, opening into the

r %

232 The Churches of Pur ton and Wanhorough.

sacristy. These seem to suggest that an altar stood before the
archway. There is a beautiful little Transitional window in the
west wall peeping- out clear of the north aisle.

Fifteenth century. Though the works next in order of date were
probably proceeded with soon after— if not actually in continuation
of — those last described, they were not apparently completed until
early in the fifteenth century . These alterations were very extensive :
the upper part of the walls and the arches of the nave arcades were
taken down, the Early English piers and responds raised about 3ft.,
but the original capitals retained, and new arches possessing the
mouldings of the time, erected on them : the arches, however, do
not grow happily out of the piers, the centres from which they are
struck being below the springing level. The former height of the
piers is easily discernible from the different character of the masonry,
and the clumsy way in which the new stones are fitted to the old.
The mouldings of the capitals appear to have been partially altered
to meet the change of style.

The north and south aisles were re-built, and the south porch
erected at this time, and in the work here many Decorated features
still linger; for instance, the tracery of the west window of the
north aisle, the doorway and niche in the porch, and the rich jamb
and arch-mouldings of all the windows, as well as that inserted then
in the south wall of the chapel — these all possess the " feeling " of
that period in a marked degree.

The south aisle, which is the wider of the two, possesses its
original roof of span form and high pitch.

The south porch is large in size and rich in detail. The outer
doorway is, however, a plain one of two orders of chamfers with
label over. A moulded stone arch of flat form is carried across the
porch from west to east, supporting the floor of the priest's room
over, and dividing the porch into two bays. On the outside of the
east wall there is a buttress to receive the thrust of this arch (the
stair-turret on the west side renders such a provision unnecessary
there), and there are diagonal buttresses at the south-west and
south-east angles : it is remarkable that, with the exception of these
and the angle buttresses of the later western tower, there are no

By C. E. Touting, Usq. 2o3

buttresses to any part of the Church. In the centre of the south
bay of the porch there is on the inside of the east wall a beautiful
niche, which is shown on Plate II., Fig. 1. It consists of a recess
1 1 iin. wide, rectangular on plan, constructed apparently for a single
detached figure : the sides are panelled the full height, as also the
soffit and the part of the back above the figure. The head of the
niche is square and this was richly traceried, the tracery being
carried down to the level of the commencement of the back
panelling (over one-third of the full height), but much of it has
been destroyed. Every part of this niche, as well as the spandrels
of the arch spanning the porch, bears traces of the original colouring
in red, yellow, and blue.

The priest's room over the porch is approached by a turret staircase
at the north-west angle. It retains the original doorway with ogee
head, and fireplace with carved paterae in the mouldings of the
jambs ; but the roof is modern, and its pitch has evidently been
lowered, the original level of it being shown by the weather-mould
on the chimney. The latter is coeval with the staircase, and has a
coping similarly embattled. The window shown in the view was
inserted at the recent restoration, and there is no evidence of what
existed previously. That this room was used for habitation appears
to be borne out by the curious sink-stone at the top of the stairs,
and just outside the priest's room door, with the spout carried
through the wall of the turret to the outside, as shown in the sketch.

The north aisle. In the wall of the central bay is the doorway
previously referred to, now built up ; it is remarkable for the high
level at which it is placed, the sill being 3ft. above the floor (and
above those of the other two doorways), and the jambs not being
carried down on the outside shews that this was its original position,
though there is nothing in the fall of the ground or other local
circumstance, to suggest a reason for it. To the west of this, on
the inside, there is a niche of somewhat similar character to that at
the porch entrance, but smaller and plainer, the recess being only
9 Jin. wide, and the back and reveals plain : the soffit is ogee in
form, following the line of the arch in the tracery of the square
head, which is intact. Here, also, there are traces of colour,

234 The Churches of Purton and Wanhorough.

The western tower appears to have been erected at about the
middle of the fifteenth century, and to have been carried out as a
distinct work, rather than as a continuation of those last described.
I am led to this conclusion by the different character of the masonry,
and, in particular, the fact that oyster-shells are employed in forming
the joints, which is not the case with any other portion of the
Church.

I may here mention that since my notice in 1881 of this use of
oyster-shells being confined to the Perpendicular work at Bishops
Cannings, referred to in my « Notes " on that Church in this
Magazine,1 I have made many and close observations of this
peculiarity, which all tend to show that it does not occur (at any
rate in Wiltshire Churches) in work of earlier date than the middle
of the fourteenth century. The earliest authenticated instance of
the use of it with which I am acquainted is that of the well-known
" Transition al" Church of Edington Monastery, which was dedi-
cated in 1361. Here oyster-shells are freely employed in both the
vertical and bed-joints of the masonry in all parts of the building.

The tower is a beautiful specimen of the best period of Perpen-
dicular. It is, as will be seen on reference to Plate L, in four
stages, with angle buttresses carried the full height, and pinnacles
standing square on them. The pinnacles are richly crocketed and
pierced, and a pierced parapet of quatrefoils is carried round between
them. There are three niches of large dimensions on the west
front, and one each on the north and south, at the second stage.
All have crocketed canopies, and the four lower ones have the base
for the figure raised on a low shaft, whilst the upper one is supported
by a carved angel-corbel. Otherwise the niches only differ in the
degree of the richness of their groining, those flanking the west
window are alike in this, and are shown by Fig. 2, Plate II. The
groining of the one over the window is still richer, while those on
the north and south faces are treated quite plainly in this respect.

At the time of the erection of the western tower, the chancel
appears to have undergone considerable alteration, all the existing

1 Vol. xxiiiv p. 3.

By C. E. Pouting, Esq. 235

windows (two on the north, one on the south, and the east window)
beinc insertions of this date. The east end, on the inside, has
niches flanking the window, identical with the one over the west
window of the tower. There are also the remains of a third niche
rising from the centre of the window sill, covered with the ancient
colouring: but the side niches have only traces of this here and
there, much of the stonework having been renewed.

The chancel has sedilia with flat arch, under-and coeval with-
the south window of sacraiium, and the remains of a late altar-tomb
on the north.

The latest addition to the Church appears, from the shape of the
archway between it and the transept, to have been the north chapel
or sacristy ; but this having been almost entirely re-built there is
little to indicate its date.

The large number of niches and corbels for figures, which still
exist in this Church, is remarkable; they occur in the following
places : —

Niches (13).

Outside.

Three on west faces of tower \

One on north do. > Perpendicular.

One on south do. ]

{Transitional
(Decorated to Perpendicular)
/ Early English

One in south gable of south transept | ^replaced here)

Inside.

One in east wall of porch Transitional
One in centre of north aisle do.
Two in east wall of chancel Perpendicular
One on sill of east window of do. do.
One cut in east respond of j ^
south arcade of nave '

236 The Churches of Burton and Wanbofough.

Corbels (6).

Inside.

One in east wall of south transept

One in east wall of north transept

Two in jambs of archway in east wall of do.

Two in west wall of north aisle.

Aubrey, writing of this Church, 1659-70, says 1 " This is a
very faire Church, sometime doubtless a place of great devotion, as
appeares by those many niches in the walles within and without to
set images in, &c. At the East end of the Chancell without are
two Angells holding some kind of vegetative between them, which
I suppose to be either a laurel or olive branch.

" All the windowes in the Chancell are seminated all over with
estoiles or starres of 6 points.

" On the North side of the Altar, in the wall, is an old marble
tombe, but the Inscription with coates of armes being in brasse, on
purpose to perpetuate the memories of the dead, gave occasion to
sacrilegious hands to teare them away.

" In this Church have been very fine paynted glasse, but now so
broken and mangled, that there is little to be recovered."

The sculptured panel, 15iin. high and 13in. wide, under the east
window outside, which Aubrey describes as " Angells holding a
laurel or olive branch," is shewn in Plate II., Fig. 3. The subject
appears to be, undoubtedly, the Annunciation, and a flat cusped
canopy (now much mutilated), projects over the figures. This
panel, which is coeval with the window above, possibly commemo-
rates a re-dedication of the Church, and there appears to be some
doubt as to the former dedication.

Canon Jackson2 states that in a Fine of Edw. III. (1336) the
Church is called St. Nicholas, whilst local tradition ascribes it to
St. Michael, and the fact that the village feast falls on the Sunday
within the octave of St. Michael's Day seems to lend colour to
this view.

There are fragments of fifteenth century glass in the windows of

1 Jackson's Aubrey, p. 155.
2 Ibid.

By C. E. Pouting, Esq. 237

the north and south transepts, and in two windows of the north
aisle, the latter having figures of bishops.

Considerable remains of colour are still to be found in the Church.
The most remarkable is a fresco over the doorway in the south wall
of the south chapel. The whole of the walls here have traces of
colouring, but the only subject now decipherable apparently repre-
sents a scene not often the subject of medieval art, the raising of
the daughter of Jairus. The recumbent female figure is fairly well
preserved and well drawn ; she is lying on the ground with her feet
towards the east, and her hands resting at her sides, clothed in a
long garment, but exposing her head and neck, with flowing hair.
The other figures are only visible by indistinct outlines, but there
are sufficient to shew Our Lord, with a nimbus, standing by the
side of the female figure, with one hand outstretched over her, and
seven attendants standing by.

On the east wall of the south transept, over the archway and
above the position of the altar, are other traces, the latter shewing
an archway, but the subjects are not decipherable. There are
indistinct traces on the walls of the north aisle, also on the columns
of the south arcade, and on the east wall of the nave over the
archway of the central tower.

Over the doorway in the south aisle wall there are remains of
some colouring of later date ; a panel containing some inscription
now indistinct, enclosed by a border of Elizabethan character,
having a male figure on each side, the one on the west holding a rod.

The remarkable colouring of a part of the south arcade is said to
be a reproduction of ancient work, traces of which were found by
the architect in the late restoration.

The ruined steps, base, and stem of a churchyard cross remain by
the side of the pathway opposite the door of the south chapel.

Wanboeotjgh Church, S. Andrew.1
This Church, though more simple in plan than Purton, possesses

a similar general symmetry of arrangement.

> I have availed myself of two drawings of details of this Church, already

prepared, which have been placed at my disposal

238 The Churches of Purton and Wanborough.

The plan consists of nave with north and south aisles, north and
south porches, chancel, and western tower. There is also a sacristy
on the north side of the chancel. Although there is a spire between
the nave and chancel there can hardly be considered to be a central
tower on plan. The roofs of nave and aisles are continued through,
and the easternmost bays of nave and aisles, which are narrower
than the rest, are cut off from them by archways, that across the
nave forming (what for want of a better term I will call) the lower
part of the lantern, and those across the aisles, north and south
chapels.

From fragments of Norman work to be seen in the walls of the
nave, it is evident that the present Church is built on the site of an
earlier one, and partly of the same materials.

The earliest parts of the present Church are the nave, aisles, and
lantern turret with spire. These all appear to have been erected at
the same time, and afford an interesting study, and a conspicuous in-
stance of the superior value of mouldings over all other architectural
features as a guide to the date of the work.

At a first glance the square-headed windows of the aisles, with their
flat cusping, and those of the lantern might be taken for Perpendicular
work of a late, almost debased, type; but, on a closer inspection, it
will be found that these are almost a century earlier, probably not
later than 1380 to 1400, and that this is another instance of Tran-
sitional work embracing features of both the period preceding it
and that which followed. Thus the strings of the lantern at I. and
K., Plate III. (the latter shewn in detail by Fig. 5, Plate IV.) ;
the plan of the piers of nave arcade, with their bases (Figs. 3 and
4) ; and the necking and abacus of their caps (Fig. 2, Plate IV.) ;
as well as the two boldly-projecting square buttresses ; the moulded
copings at L., Plate III., and the buttress weatherings, Fig. 7,
Plate IV., are distinctly " Decorated " in type, and the peculiar
character of the cusping to the lantern windows, Fig, 6, redeems
them from the late period which might otherwise be assigned to
them.

The lantern, with its lower lights, spire, and dormers, is an un-
usual and very striking feature, and the manner in which it is

The Church of 5: Andrew,
Waiiborough , Wilts:

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Nove Arcade. fferv5. Piers.

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lower .stm »o" Heacfe lower

o£ <5bire. K fttfhte to (3pire

Vtfeatberitig" or? diagonal
buttresses toN^S.AUtes.

ovfcr head of doonvov JEscutfyeoi) on <5oor
at bottom oj* lower sfcejte. afr* bottorn of "Tower steps.

Measured and drawn »y
H . Mace.

Wteman&Bass./WalZi'rt,,, London

By C. E. Ponting, Esq.

239

supported is ingenious and effective. As before observed, the
easternmost bays of the nave and aisles are narrow, about 6ft. 9in.
wide, and arches are carried across to screen them off, massive
buttresses being1 erected on the outside of the aisle walls to resist
the thrust. The lantern is hexagon on plan, having flat sides on
the north and south, and angles towards the east and west, the latter
resting on the east wall of the nave and the arch thrown across as
before described. To receive the north and south sides (M. and N.,
Plate III.) arches are thrown across at a high level between the
east and west walls of this bay. The lantern is entirely open to
the interior, and there is no indication of the use to which it was
applied, for I can discover no trace of bells, not even the sanctus
bell, having been hung in it. The general effect is very happy,
and the bays of the aisles thus separated from the body of the
Church form very perfect chapels, one of which, at least (the
south), is shewn by the coeval piscina in the south wall (Fig. 1,
Plate IV.) and the corbels remaining over the position of the altar
to have been designed for and used as a chantry.

The nave originally had clerestory windows, the jambs of which
are discernible on the interior, but these appear to have been built
up when the present Post -Reformation roofs were put on the nave
and aisles. This roof of the nave is of flatter pitch than that of
the original, as indicated by the weather-mould on the lantern.

Fifteenth century. The western tower is early fifteenth century
in date, having been commenced, as the inscription tells us, in
1435. The mouldings of this tower are of a bolder and earlier
type than those of Purton, but the proportions are very similar,
and the hollow-sided shaft forming the pedestal of the charming
niche over the west window, has exactly the same H feeling." Below
this niche the symbol of the patron saint, a St. Andrew's X, occurs
on each side of the west window, as shown in the view. To form
these the stone projects from the face of the wall about half-an-inch,
and, this, together with their plain form, has led to their being
mistaken for the iron X plates of tie-rods, inserted to brace the
tower. The angle buttresses are, like Purton, carried the full
height, but the pinnacles are set to the angle of the buttresses

240 The Churches of Purlon and Wanborough.

instead of square with the tower. The north-east and south-east
buttresses are carried up inside the aisles to the same form and
dimensions as the outer ones.

The north porch is coeval with the tower : it has a niche over
the doorway and a stoup on the right-hand side. The inner door-
way in the north aisle wall is, however, an insertion, and earlier in
date than the wall in which it is placed, and the inner arch which
occurs over it ; it is, moreover, awkwardly inserted out of centre
with the latter. A stoup of large size occurs westward of it on
the inside. The south porch is a plain one of late date.

The chancel and its coeval sacristy opening out from the south
side of the sacra rium were apparently erected at about 1490.

A glance at what is known of the mediaeval history of Wan-
borough, as given in Canon Jackson's "Aubrey/' appears to throw
some light on certain parts of this Church.

There appear to have been three chapels in Wanborough. Aubrey1
refers to a tradition that Viscount Lovell, favourite to Richard IIlJ
had a house in the parish, with chapel adjoining; he also speaks of
another chapel at Hall Place, near, dedicated to St. Ambrose, both
house and chapels having been pulled down, and the materials
carried to build the tower of the parish Church. (Canon Jackson,
however, calls attention to the inconsistency of this statement, as
Lovell did not own the estate till 1464, whereas the tower was
begun in 1435.)

Captain Symonds, of King Charles's army who visited Wan-
borough in 1644 mentions a "Church of St. Margaret's/' that
stood by Lovell's House, which is probably identical with the St.
Ambrose above-mentioned, the latter dedication being probably the
correct one, as a field at Hall Place is still called by that name.

The third chapel, that of St. Katharine, appears to have been
one of great importance, having two foundations within it by
separate families, five priests in its service, a choir who kept the
obits, more than one altar, and bells. This had hitherto been
commonly supposed to have been the building on the north side of

1 Jackson's Aubrey, p. 196.

By C. E. Ponting, Esq. 241

the chancel of the parish Church, to which I have given the name
of sacristy. But, as Canon Jackson points out, a chapel so richly
endowed, served, and appointed, must have been a more important
structure than this, and he considered that it was an edifice altogether
separate from the parish Church, and probably in quite a different
part of the parish.

Canon Jackson, however, incidentally mentions that St. Katharine's
chapel and its lands became the property of Magdalen College,
Oxon, in 1483, when the former was suppressed and its services
discontinued, and he also says, " Captain Symonds, too (1644), was
told that the chancel had been a chapel, and the body added since/'

Is it not possible that the chapel known as St. Katharine's was
the one last referred to, that it stood on the site of the present
chancel, that the " body of the Church " was added to it at about
1400, making it the chancel of the parish Church, and that it (the
chapel) was pulled down on the suppression of tbe chantries in
1483, the present chancel being erected in its place ? If this were
so, the early fourteenth century doorway, which is inserted in the
later wall of the north aisle (and not built into it at the time of the
erection of the wall) was most probably taken from the chapel at
this time and placed here to supersede a plainer doorway more like
that on the south side. It is much richer in detail, as well as being
earlier in date, than any other part of the Church. Then Aubrey
states that in the glazing of the east window, which then (1659-70)
existed, this inscription occurs : — -l

"(©rate p. ©naa .... que fjanc fimestram fieri fecit,
too Wni. mOUtfimo. mmM^M"

And adds : —

" a Emma Fisher, as I am informed."

Canon Jackson says : — " This is probably Alice Fisher, elected
Prioress of Ambresbury, 16th May, 1486, who becoming thereby
Rector of Wanborough, may have adorned her chancel with the
window."

1 Jackson's Aubrey, p. 199.

242 The Churches of Purton and Wanborough.

But this window is coeval with the rest of the work of the chancel,
and the date (1490) which I have before assigned to it, taken to-
gether with this inscription, points to the probability that it was
entirely re-constructed in I486, and I think supports the idea that
St. Katharine's chapel, which fell into disuse three years before,
was pulled down to make way for it.

The only obstacle which presents itself to the acceptance of this
theory is the question of how the liability to repair this part of the
Church became separated from the lands held by Magdalen College,
but this does not appear to be a serious one.

The following memorandum from Bishop Chandler's Register of
Sarum (1417-1426) i might refer to one of the other chapels I have
alluded to Wanborough Capella non est dedicata : altare tamen
pnneipale consecratum est in honorem gloriosai Virginis."

A restoration of the Church was made by the late Sir Gilbert
Scott in 1843, when the stonework of the nave arcades was given
its present new appearance. At this time the stone effigies now in
the south porch were discovered lying on their faces, the backs of
the stones forming part of the pavement near the south door.
Canon Jackson observes that they are illustrated in the Journal of
the ArchaBological Institute, April, 1851, where they are described
as representing Lady Emmeline Longespee (obit. 1331) and her
husband Fitzmaurice (obit. 1291). But on the margin are plainly
the words "Eitz-william et sa femme," and there was a family of
this name here in 1341, in 1378, and temp. Henry IV.

The Church appears to have owed a great deal to the Polton
family : a brass plate set in a stone in the north wall of the tower
bears a Latin inscription, which may be read thus « Pray for
Thomas Polton and Edith his wife, deceased; for Master Philip
Archdeacon of Gloucester, Agnes, and fourteen other of their sons
and daughters; for Sir Robert Everard, Vicar, and all his parish-
ioners, who began this tower Anno Domini 1435."

In the pavement of the chapel at the east end of the south aisle

1 Jackson's Aubrey, p. 198.

Ill

By C. E. Pouting, Esq. £43

is a brass with the demi-effigies of Thomas and Edith Polton, and
the following inscription : —

"Iflarmoreo lapfoe Efjomas jaeet fjtc & ©ritfja
©ue f olton bita qutsque bocafaat tta
®uos mors expitltt ijmc mtlleno Hirsts atma
©uatirmgenteno tiecto qutfms atiim* octo,
SEnUetta luee Septemfcrtg fjunc, tiuotiena
pjane ffeforui, gratuens funKas pcamma plena,
©cto q^ nator' totqj; sttarum
CMlestum earum ctreuetmti0 Sarum
5£x Obtcu quor' aHatifcerg curatus Ijafcelut
©uatuor atqj. tiecem numos que rite tenetitt
$ogt ortu matrts tint tmtca Hie sequente
ISllermts &e & Salle plage Manners retmente*"

It would appear from this that both died in the same year, " the
year of the Virgin, 1418/' leaving eight sons and eight daughters.

It is probable that the Thomas and Edith Polton who are thus
commemorated erected the "body of the Church " referred to by
Captain Symonds and to which I have assigned the period of 1380
to 1400.

I was recently consulted as to a repair of the Church, and amongst
other things the state of the inside plastering of the walls had to
be considered ; this was very thick and had apparently been done
when the roofs were renewed : it had become much perished, and
the surface had been recently distemper-coloured. On removing a
portion of the plastering we found that the joints of the masonry
in the nave and aisles had originally been struck on the inside, the
surfaces to be treated in colouring having been subsequently pre-
pared by a thin coating of white mortar laid over this pointing.
This determined the course to be adopted, the plastering was stripped
off and the defective pointing renewed. In doing this traces of
colouring were found on the east walls of the two chapels, but this
had been so much injured in erecting tablets and in plastering the
walls that it was impossible to decipher or preserve any parts of it.

244 The Churches of Purton and Wanhorough,

We were able, however, to successfully open out and secure (by
pouring- in thin cement) nearly the whole of a beautiful fresco to
the west of the north doorway, near the font. It is of fifteenth
century date, and is now a sort of palimpsest, having had a seven-
teenth century or Elizabethan covering- of scrollwork enclosing
black lettering, painted over it. The portion of the fresco left
represents Our Lord's entry into Jerusalem. The upper part of the
principal figure, who is riding on a yoked ass, is nearly obliterated,
but the lower parts are sufficiently clear. To the right is a some-
what indistinct figure laying down garments on the approach of
the cavalcade, whilst above a figure is seen as if throwing down
flowers or leaves ; the latter is well preserved. The whole is en-
closed under an arcade of two bays, which was apparently carried
further westward; and the head of a second ass following is dis-
cernible.

A comparison of these two Churches will at once show that their
both having a spire at the east end and a tower at the west end of
the nave is an accident so far as the earlier features — the spires-
are concerned, or at any rate that there was no intention of making
the one like the other. Purton has a central tower, of ordinary
construction, carried up directly from piers, and finished above the
roof as a tower, and the spire placed within its parapet : whilst the
corresponding feature at Wanborough is little more than a turret,
resting on arches, not growing out of any direct support from the
ground, and capped with a spire. They are, moreover, quite
different in detail. It is curious, however, that the central feature
and the western tower of each should be so similar in style, and by
inference near in date, to the corresponding part of the other. The
central and western steeples of each Church belong, however, to
periods sufficiently far apart to entirely discredit the local legend
which accounts for the double-steepled arrangement. This venerable
fiction makes it the result of a compromise between two sisters,
founders of the Church, one of whom wanted a tower, and the other
a spire, the difference being happily settled by adorning the building
with the favourite feature of each.

■245

geant Colorations at &tttwg pill.

By Alfeed C. Pass.

iilLBURY HILL has been described so accurately by the
J Rev. A. C. Smith, in the " Wiltshire Magazine" for 1861,
ST has been so frequently referred to in this Magazine, that a
detailed description of the hill itself would be superfluous, But
before describing- my recent excavations I will refresh the memories
of readers by remarking that it is stated to be the greatest artificial
mound in Europe, covering about five acres of ground, it is 125ft.
high, and is level on the summit, where it measures 103ft. diameter.

It is composed chiefly of chalk rubble, which was obtained by
excavating the solid chalk rock from the land surrounding the base
of the mound.

In the belief that this great mound had been raised as a sepulchral
tumulus, it has been twice excavated and explored. In the year
1777 the Duke of Northumberland brought miners from Cornwall,
and sunk a shaft from the summit to the base of the hill. In 1849
the Archaeological Institute caused a tunnel to be made from the
south side to the centre of the hill, when the original nucleus or
central point was found, but no trace of sepulture was discovered.
A few fragments of deer's horns and some pieces of twisted grass
only rewarded their search. The deer's horns were, perhaps, the
broken tools used in excavating the chalk rock, of which the hill is
chiefly composed, and the twisted grass may have been remains of
the baskets in which the chalk was carried on the heads of the
builders. From the results of this examination, it may be inferred
that the mound is not sepulchral. If it had been, then, surely, in
the central point from which the hill was started, one would expect
to find some remains of the great dead in whose honour it was
erected.

In describing the tunnel of 1849 the Dean of Hereford, in his
" Diary of a Dean/' says "Nothing could be more evident than the

VOL. XXIII. NO. LXIX. S

246

Recent Explorations at Silbury Hill.

existence of the primary heaping- of the mound, through the centre
of which, or very nearly so, the elevated tunnel was cut.

" At the floor of this, was traceable the line of the original turf
of the natural hill, and it was clear to demonstration that this had
not been cut through. No cist, therefore, had been found beW
that line in any part yet examined. One thing is manifest, that
the examination of 17 77 did not hit the actual centre of the tumulus,
whilst we had excavated its very core'3

Now, had this mound been erected simply as a monument, we
should expect to find it placed on an elevated situation, where it
could be seen from afar; but, on the contrary, it was erected upon
very low ground, at the very bottom of a gently rising down, and
this fact has been referred to by Duke, who, in his " Druidic
Temples/' says :— « This peculiar spot is a hollow nearly surrounded
on all sides with moderately rising ground/' and also by the Rev. :
A. C. Smith, who, in his " Silbury/' says « Standing as it does
on comparatively low ground, and surrounded with undulating
downs, which tower above it, very limited indeed is the view from
the summit.- Had it been raised on the summit of one of these
"undulating downs » it would have been visible for many miles
around. The barrows in this neighbourhood are situated on the
hill tops, and form remarkably prominent objects in the landscape.

A special survey of Silbury Hill has been made for me by
Messrs. Ashmead & Son, of Bristol, and the accompanying plates
are copied from the plans prepared by them. It will be seen that
the boundary line of the excavated area (from whence all the ma-
terial used for building the hill was obtained) extends in the form
of a circle nearly surrounding the base of Silbury Hill at a distance
of about a hundred feet on the north and east, but on the west it
includes a much larger area. The southern boundary of the meadow
west of the hill, is a steep escarpment formed by the removal of the i
chalk from the rising down. Here chalk has been removed to a
deptn of over 40ft. from the original surface of the down (as shown
on Plan 2).

On the south of the mound, a deep trench separates the mound
from the adjacent high ground, but across this trench a narrow

LAVA R5. LITH. BROAD ST BRISTOL

246 Recent Exploration* at Silburg Hill

existence of the primary heaping of the mound, through the centre
Of which, or very nearly so; the elevated tunnel was cut.

" At the floor of this, was traceable the line of the original turf
of the natural hill, and it was clear to demonstration that this had
not been cut through. No cist, therefore, had been found beW
that line in any part yet examined. One thing is manifest, that
the examination of 17 77 did not hit the actual centre of the tumulus,
whilst' we had excavated its very core'3

Now, had this mound been erected simply as a monument, we
should expect to find it placed on an elevated situation, where it
could be seen from afar; but, on the contrary, it was erected upon
very low ground, at the very bottom of a gently rising down, and
this fact has been referred to by Duke, who/ in his " Druidic
Temples/' says :— « This peculiar spot is a hollow nearly surrounded
on all sides with moderately rising ground/' and also by the Rev.
A. C. Smith, who, in his - Silbury/' says :— « Standing as it does
on comparatively low ground, and surrounded with undulating
downs, which tower above it, very limited indeed is the view from
the summit." Had it been raised on the summit of one of these
"undulating downs 33 it would have been visible for many miles
around. The barrows in this neighbourhood are situated on the
hill tops, and form remarkably prominent objects in the landscape.

A special survey of Silbury Hill has been made for me by
Messrs. Ashmead & Son, of Bristol, and the accompanying plates
are copied from the plans prepared by them. It will be seen that
the boundary line of the excavated area (from whence all the ma-
terial used for building the hill was obtained) extends in the form
of a circle nearly surrounding the base of Silbury Hill at a distance
of about a hundred feet on the north and east, but on the west it
includes a much larger area. The southern boundary of the meadow
west of the hill, is a steep escarpment formed by the removal of the I
chalk from the rising down. Here chalk has been removed to a
deptti of over 40ft. from the original surface of the down (as shown
on Plan 2) .

On the south of the mound, a deep trench separates the mound
from the adjacent high ground, but across this trench a narrow

I

it

1

tl

ll

ft

11

ll
I

ill

By Alfred C. Pass. 247

ridge of chalk rock was allowed to remain, when all the rest was
removed. This formed a causeway, and appears to have been the
only way of approach to the hill from the adjacent high ground.
Even between tire end of this causeway and the hill, there was a
great gap of some depth.

The bottom of the deep trench, to the south of the mound, has
been considerably raised by infilling of earth washed from the
turnpike road, which runs alongside it. This land belongs to
another owner, so that I could not dig here ; but I would suggest
to the Wiltshire Archaeological Society the desirability of sinking
two or three shafts through the wash, down to the chalk, and thus
to find the original depth of the trench here ; and also to ascertain,
by digging, whether the eastern causeway or projection forms any
part of the original structure. I am inclined to think this may
simply be composed of material deposited here, when the level of the
turnpike road was lowered in the last century. This could easily
be proved by ascertaining whether this projection is composed of
solid chalk rock, or of loose material which has been brought here.

A little below the top of the hill, and nearly surrounding it, is
a ledge or terrace. This may be either a part of the original design,
and may have formed the base of a stockade or defence of some kind;
or it may have been formed by the slipping down of the outside
materials of the hill. This point deserves examination. Fer-
gusson, in "Rude Stone Monuments," says " Nothing would
surprise me less than if five or six entombments were found arranged
around the upper plateau, at a small depth below the surface."

The mystery of its origin; Who built it? For what purpose?
When? were questions which vividly presented themselves tome
the first time I visited Silbury Hill, some years ago, on a lovely
brilliant day in June. When looking down from the summit of
this great mound, I was struck by the well-defined line, plainly
marking out the limit of the space, from whence the materials had
been excavated for making the hill. This area is below the level of
the adjacent ground, and the grass grows there of a brighter green,
perhaps owing to a greater amount of moisture in the soil. Since
then it occurred to me that an excavation in this meadow at the

s %

34,8 lieceul Exploration* at Silbury mil.

base, would disclose the depth from which the chalk had been
removed, and might also throw some light on the origin of the hill •
so last summer (1886) I applied to the owner of the meadow, Mr'
Pmmger, who readily gave me leave to sink a shaft there, and
afterwards he very kindly extended this permission, so that in the
autumn I was enabled to have ten shafts sunk in the meadow, to
the west and north of the hill.

In sinking all the shafts, the men first dug through about a foot
of dark surface-soil, and then through white clay until the undis-
turbed chalk rock was reached, this solid chalk being, of course, the
limit of the depth of the excavated material originally used in con-
structing the mound. At the bottom of two of the shafts (Nos.
1 and 8) marks of the original workers were distinctly visible in
the form of notches or steps in the chalk rock. The measurements
of these holes, show that the chalk had been removed in most places
to a depth of about 15ft, hut near the foot of the hill this depth
suddenly increases to about 21ft., below the present surface, and thk
has all been replaced by alluvium.

Near the mound, the alluvial clay in the moat contained a We
admixture of chalk rubble, which has rolled from the hill- but
further from the mound, at shaft No. 6, not one fragment of chalk
rubble could be seen; the entire depth of 15ft. consisted of fine
white tenacious clay, with a few fractured flints, and some bones.

The only large stones found were met with in shaft No. 2, near
the causeway : here, mingled with the clay and chalk rollings,' were
many sarsen stones, lOin. to ]4in. in diameter.

A very large part of the chalk used in making Silbury Hill was
obtained from the west side ; where, in addition to the trench 100ft.
wide, a large area has been excavated to a depth of 15ft. or 16ft.

All the chalk and earth required for making this great mound
was probably carried in baskets, on the heads of men, women, and
chddren, from the trench, although it could have been obtained with
far less labour from the high ground to the south, had there not
been some motive which led the builders to obtain the materials
from this great depth, near the base of the mound.

It may appear strange that the hill was formed by this method,

By Alfred C. Pass. 249

but in our own day vast railway embankments, in Europe and India,
have been thus formed. Sir Thomas Brassey, in his book, " Work
and Wages/' refers to " The Italian villagers, men, women, and
children, carrying earth in baskets on their heads " to construct
railways.

My excavations were commenced in the month of September,
after a long continuance of dry weather, so that the adjacent little
stream— the Kennet— had been dried up for more than two months ;
yet water continually stood to the depth of 8ft. in the deep holes
which were sunk in the trench, at the foot of the mound, and I
think it would never at any time of the year fall below that level.

The large area to the west of the hill, although not excavated to
so great a depth as the trench, must necessarily have been a pond
of water during a great part of every year.

These facts have hitherto escaped observation, but it was from a
surmise that such would prove to be the case that I was first led to
attempt these explorations.

It is clear that the intention of the builders was to completely
isolate the hill, and prevent all approach to it from the surrounding
ground .

For what purpose was this moat intended ? There is one reason
probable, and that is for the purpose of defence. By surrounding
the hill with water, it could be approached only by the narrow
causeway situate on the south side, and this could have been
stockaded as a further defence. The top of the hill, also, may have
been surrounded by a stockade, and the hill would then have some-
what resembled a New Zealand pah. My conclusions are, that the
builders of this mound, selected its peculiar low situation, for the sole
purpose of obtaining the line of defence furnished by the water in
the surrounding moat ; and that Silbury Hill was erected as a tribal
stronghold, or place of retreat and defence, in case of a sudden
attack by enemies. If not meant for defence, for what purpose was
this deep trench intended ?

The mound at Marlborough strongly resembles Silbury Hill, and
was erected in a similar low situation, near the same stream— the
Kennet— possibly by the same race of men, for the same purpose ;

250 Recent ExplomUom at Silbury Hill.

and it would be a matter of much interest to ascertain whether the
base of the Marlborough mound had been originally surrounded by
a deep trench, in depth so far below the level of the Kennet as to
have always contained water. This could be ascertained by sinking
some shafts there.

In the course of these explorations an unexpected and interesting
discovery was made, which throws light on the date of the erection
of the mound. In shaft No. 5, after passing through 9ft. of white
alluvial clay, the men came to a distinct blackish layer about a foot
in thickness, consisting of the usual tenacious clay, with a large
admixture of charcoal, fractured flints, bones, and small burnt sarsen
stones, all evident indications of human occupation. The whole of
this layer I had carefully set aside, and then washed it in water
through a sieve. By this means all the clay was separated, and the
residue was then carefully examined for traces of human workman-
ship. Besides many other flints, one well-worked/^/! implement
rewarded this search {see plate). Also in another shaft (No. 6)
flint flakes were found in the alluvium. These flints I sent to the
great authority upon flint implements— Mr. John Evans, D.C.L.,
P.S.A., who kindly examined them, and wrote as follows " The
flints from No. 5 shaft are, 1 think, all artificial. One, which is
very well wrought, may be either an unfinished arrow-head, as you
suggest, or a small knife such as is sometimes found in the inter-
ments in barrows. The flakes are probably the waste pieces from
chipping out some large tools, though some of them have been used
as instruments for cutting and temping. The evidence you have
obtained shows that flint has been in use, since Silbury Hill was
formed, for cutting instruments, for I think that the knife or arrow-
head from shaft No. 5 must be accepted as probably not later than
the Bronze Period, to which most of our flint arrow-heads belong"; j
and further:— "I think that any doubt that may have existed as
to the mound being pre-Roman may now be dispelled."

These finds reveal the important fact, that long after Silbury Hill
had been erected, the neighbourhood was inhabited or visited by a
people who made and used flint weapons. The date was so long
after the formation of this mound that not less than 5ft. of alluvium

251

Worked Flint, N° 5 Shaft.

LAVA R5 LiTH. BKOAD S" BRISTOL

250

Recent Explorations at Silbury Hill.

and it would be a matter of much interest to ascertain whether the
base of the Marlborough mound had been originally surrounded by
a deep trench, in depth so far below the level of the Kennet as to
have always contained water. This could be ascertained by sinking
some shafts there.

^ In the course of these explorations an unexpected and interesting
discovery was made, which throws light on the date of the erection
of the mound. In shaft No. 5, after passing through 9ft. of white
alluvial clay, the men came to a distinct blackish layer about a foot
in thickness, consisting of the usual tenacious clay, with a large
admixture of charcoal, fractured flints, bones, and small burnt sarsen
stones, all evident indications of human occupation. The whole of
this layer I had carefully set aside, and then washed it in water
through a sieve. By this means all the clay was separated, and the
residue was then carefully examined for traces of human workman-
ship. Besides many other flints, one well-worked/^ implemed
rewarded this search (see plate). Also in another shaft (No. 6)
flint flakes were found in the alluvium. These flints I sent to the
great authority upon flint implements— Mr. John Evans, D.C.L.,
P.S.A., who kindly examined them, and wrote as follows :— " The
flints from No. 5 shaft are, 1 think, all artificial. One, which is
very well wrought, may be either an unfinished arrow-head, as you
suggest, or a small knife such as is sometimes found in the inter-
ments in barrows. The flakes are probably the waste pieces from
chipping out some large tools, though some of them have been used
as instruments for cutting and scraping. The evidence you have
obtained shows that flint has been in use, since Silbury Hill was
formed, for cutting instruments, for I think that the knife or arrow-
head from shaft No. 5 must be accepted as probably not later than
the Bronze Period, to which most of our flint arrow-heads belong";
and further:— "I think that any doubt that may have existed as
to the mound being pre-Roman may now be dispelled."

These finds reveal the important fact, that long after Silbury Hill
had been erected, the neighbourhood was inhabited or visited by a
people who made and used flint weapons. The date was so long
after the formation of this mound that not less thitn 5ft. of alluvium

SILBURY MULL

WILTS.

Sections

i West ho East

From North ho South

level of <j -round

NOTE

Ground unxlistu-rbed shewn/ th,us

Ground/ once- excavated , stnce/
filled/ -in/ hy Alluvial deposit.

- Scale of Reel".

Yforked Flint, N° 3 Shaft.

6C Ashmead { Son Bristol

By Alfred C. Pass. 251

had accumulated in that part of the trench which these flint-workers
occupied when they temporarily encamped there, lighted their fires,
cooked their food, and formed their flint weapons; and the depth of
this accumulation would imply a considerable lapse of time.

The time of their stay must have been either summer or autumn,
for in the spring and winter months the level of their encampment,
which is 9ft, under the present surface of the meadow, would be
always under water, because it is much below the level of the ad-
jacent stream, which forms the only drainage for this district. In
the winter of every year this meadow is, even now, frequently
submerged by the overflow of the stream.

Besides their weapons, these flint-men left behind some remains
of the animals which supplied them with food, and Professor Lloyd
Morgan has identified the bones of deer, ox, and pig; also of man's
faithful companion, the dog. We may infer that some of their
food was cooked by boiling, for the small sarsen stones found
associated with the other remains have all been burnt, and probably
have been used as pot-boilers.

More remarkable still, there was found, in this black layer, a
human bone which had been broken into two pieces. It is a femur
possessing peculiar characteristics of some interest, from the fact of
the linea aspera being developed to a very unusual extent.

I wish to direct attention to the lower jaws, and to the fragments
of bones, from this black layer. These fragments are just such
small hard pieces as we now see left uneaten by dogs ; and they are
evidently the dogs' leavings. Sir John Lubbock, in his account of
the Danish kitchen-middens, describes a similar fact, and he alludes
to the frequent occurrence of the lower jaws of animals which the
dogs had there left uneaten.

In every shaft but one, many bones of animals were found in the
alluvium, at all depths. Professor Lloyd Morgan has kindly
examined these, and, with the exception of those bones found m
the black layer, pronounces that they belong exclusively to ox and
deer. It is remarkable that not any bones of sheep were found m
these excavations, although that animal has for many centuries been
most abundant in Wiltshire.

252 Recent Explorations at Silbury Kill.

In addition to the objects already referred to, a brass coin of
Marcus Aurelius was found, oft. under the surface, in shaft No. 2,
and in another shaft an iron arrow-point was found; these things'
however, bear but little on the date of the mound.

The idea entertained by some antiquarians, that the shape of the
summit and slope of the hill were altered owing to the large
quantity of material excavated from the shaft in 1777 is not borne
out by the fact. This shaft was 4ft. in diameter, and the whole of
the chalk debris removed could not have exceeded forty cubic yards,
and this would occupy but a small space in the centre of the summit
of the hill-over 100ft. diameter, so that none of it would have
rolled down the hill sides. In fact all this material appears to have
been refilled into the hole, excepting a small bank which is still
visible on the flat summit.

As the outcome of these excavations I have ascertained that
Silbury Hill was originally surrounded by a deep trench, or moat,
at all times containing water.

Also, that it was erected by a people, probably a rude race of
hunters, so little advanced in civilization, that they were using flint
implements a long time after the hill was built; this discovery
places the date of the erection of Silbury Hill at a very early period,
probably some centuries before the arrival of the Romans in
Britain.

It does not follow that the builders of Silbury Hill were actually
the same race as the flint- workers, whose traces were found in the
trench. A long interval of time must have necessarily elapsed to
account for the deposit of 5ft. of alluvium ; so these men may have
supplanted some previous race of dwellers ; but, if this be so, it
carries back the date of the erection of Silbury Hill to a still more
remote period.

Not*.— All the objects of interest found in these excavations have
been sent to their proper resting-place, the Devizes Museum.

Appendix.

Details of the ten shafts. The numbers refer to the numbers on
the annexed plan, and the depth of water stated is the height to

By Alfred C. Pass. 253

which water stood in those shafts, at the end of the long dry season,
before the rains commenced.

Shaft No. 1. — 19ffc. to 20ft. deep. White alluvial clay with a
i large admixture of chalk rollings. In this shaft stags' horns were
found, and in no other. At the bottom the chalk rock showed
traces of the original workers, the chalk being notched into steps,
about a foot difference in level. The same kind of marks was found
in shaft No. 8.

Shaft No. 2. — 2 lift. deep. White alluvial clay containing much
chalk rubble, also some sarsen stones lOin. to I4in. diameter. In
this shaft, at 6ft. under the surface, was found a brass coin of
Marcus Aurelius. Water rose in this shaft 8ft. deep.

No. 3.— Sift, only !

No. 4. — 4ft. only !

A projecting mass of chalk for some reason has not been removed
at this point. Was this left as a sloping access to the hill, for
carrying the material during the erection ?

No. 5— 15ift. This was the first shaft sunk The first 3ft. to
4ft. under the soil was white alluvial clay, then clay with a mixture
of chalk rubble. At 9ft. under the surface a distinct black layer,
about 1ft. thick, containing fractured flints, bones, burnt sarsen
stones, and charcoal. Then, below this layer, 5ft. of alluvial clay
j and chalk rubble to the bottom.

Shaft No. 6.— 15ft. deep. This shaft, after the surface soil,
passed only through a fine tenacious white clay, containing no
chalk rubble. A few flints, flakes and broken flints, and some
bones, were scattered through this clay. The bottom 9in. contained
a large quantity of flint fragments. The absence of chalk rollings
or rubble may be attributed to the great distance of this shaft from
Silbury Hill. The white fine clay, when analysed, was found to
consist of chalk 88^%, insoluble silica Hi%.

No. 7. Sunk at the extreme west limit of the meadow, was

only 6ft. deep. White alluvial clay and chalk rubble. No bones
were found in this shaft.

No. 8. 16ft. deep. Upper half tenacious discoloured clay, not

pure white; lower half white clay, containing some chalk rollings.

254

Notes on the Manor of Aldbourne.

The bottom of this shaft showed traces of the old workers, in the
form of notches or steps.

No. 9.— Was sunk 164ft., and then a bar driven a further 5ft.
did not reach solid chalk. This shaft and No. 10 had to be
abandoned before completion, owing to the rain in November
rendering the sides unsafe for the workmen. Passed through only
alluvial clay, discoloured and containing many freshwater shells.

No. 10.— As far as sunk all alluvial clay, pale brown colour,
containing many shells, no chalk rubble. This clay evidently was
mixed with earthy deposit from the stream. Animal bones were
found in the alluvial deposit in every shaft excepting No. 7 only.

ftotes on % fpaitar of gMounte.

By the late F. A. Caebington, Esq.*

HIS manor comprises within its bounds the Church and
town of Aldbourne, and Aldbourne Chace, said to be a
favourite hunting-ground of John of Gaunt, which he held in
right of his wife, and who — as I was informed by the late Vicar
(the Rev. J. Seagram)— partly resided in the ancient house at
Upper Upham, mentioned in a previous volume of this Magazine
(vol. ii., p. 128), and partly at the Court House, adjoining the
churchyard, now the residence of the Rev. Gr. P. Cleather, the
present vicar, because the house at Upper Upham has only pond
water, the Court House having an excellent spring.

The Chukch.

This is a very large and beautiful structure, which cannot be

• These notes were prepared by Mr. Carrington prior to 1860, when he died, and were for-
warded to the Editor some time since by Canon Jackson.

By the late F. A. Car ring ton, Esq.

255

adequately described in a note. It contains fine stone mouuments
of the Goddards and the Waldrons, with figures in the costume of
the reign of James I., all painted ; a large incised altar-tomb of
the date of 1501, to " Magister Johannes Stone/' a chantry priest;
and a small brass, the demi-figure of another chantry priest, Henry
Frekylton, with chalice and book in the corners above him, which
will be given in Mr. Kite's work on the brasses of Wilts.

In the oldest parish register there is written in a cotemporaneous
hand the following order :

" A copy of the Order sent from the Right Reverend father in God the Bishop
of Saram to the Parish of Alborne for the placing of the Holy Table and
administration of the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

"John [Davenant, consecrated 1621, ob. 1641] by divine Prouidence Bishop
of Sarum To the Curate and Churchwardens with the Parishioners of Awborne
in the County of Wilts and our Diocese of Sara, greeting.

" Whereas his Matie hath beene lately informed that some men factiously dis-
posed have taken upon themselves to place and remove the Communion Table in
the Church of Awborne and thereupon his highnes has required me to take prsent
order therein These are to let you know that both according to the Iniuncsions
given out in the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth for placing the Communion Table
in Churches, and by the 82 Canon agreed vpon in the first yeare of the Raigne
of King James of Blessed Memory, it was intimated that those Tables should
ordinarily be sett and stand with the side to the East wall of the Chauncell I
therefore require you the Churchwardens and all other persons not to meddle
with the bringing down or transposing of the Communion Table, as you will
answere at yor owne perill and because some doe ignorantly suppose that the
standing of the Communion Table where Altars stood in times of Sup.stition has
some relish of Poperoy and some p.chance may erroniously conceive that the
placing thereof otherwise when the Holy Communion is administered savors of
Irreuerence. I would have you take notice from the forenamed Iniunction and
Canon from the Rubricke prefixed before the administracon of the Lords Supper
and from the first Article not long since enquired of in the Yisitacon of our most
Revered Metropolitan [Archbishop Laud] that the placing of it higher or lower
in the Chauncell or in the church is by the iudgment of the church of England
a thing indifferent and to be ordered and guided by the only rule of Convenientie .
Now because of' things of this nature to iudge and determine what is most con-
venient belongs not to private persons but to those who have Ecclesiasticall
authority— I inhibit you the Churchwardens and all other persons whatsoever to
meddle with the bringing downe of the Comunion Table or with altering the
place thereof at such times as the Holy Supper is to be administered And I
require you herein to yeeld obedience unto what is already iudged most con-
venient by my Chancellor vnless upon further consideration and viewe it shall be
otherwise ordered.

" Now to the end that the Minister may neither be overtoyled nor the people

I

256 -Notes on the Manor of Aldbourne.

indecently and inconueniently thronged together when they are to drawe neiro
and take the holy sacrament and that the frequent celebratio. thereof may never
the lesse be continued I doe further appoynt that thrice in the yeare at least
there be pubhque [notice] given in the Church for fower Comunions to be held
vpon fower Sundaies together and that there come not to the Comunion in one day
above two hundred at the most. For the better observation whereof and that
every man may know his proper time the Curate shall divide the parishioners
into fower parts according to his discretio. and as shall most fittingly serve to
this purpose.

" And if any turbulent spirit shall disobey this our Order hee shall be proceeded
against according to the quality of his fault and Misdemeanor.

'■ In wittnes whereof I have herevnto set my hand and seale Episcopall this
seventeenth day of May, 1637, and in the yeare of our consecration the sixteenth."

This order is referred to, and its date mentioned, by Archbishop
Land—" Laud's speech at the censure of Basterwick," in his works
(vol. h\, p. 58, of the ed. of J 637)— and is printed in the Oxford
edit, of Archbishop's Laud's works, edited by the Bev. James Bliss,
A.M., vol. vi., p. 60.

The population of the parish of Aldbourne in 185 I consisted of
one thousand six hundred and twenty-two inhabitants, and it would
hardly be supposed that the number of communicants would be so
large as it would seem to be from Bishop Davenant's order. But it
appears from the certificates of Chantries (2 Edw. VI.) that the
number of communicants in the parishes in the Wiltshire Towns
was then very considerable. It appears from the certificate of
chantries of Wilts, in the General Record Office, No. 58, that in
2 Edward VI. (1548) the number of communicants at

St. Edward's, Sarum, was

1700

800

Chippenham ...

667

Calne

860

Malmesbury ...

860

Devizes

900

Bradford [on Avon]

576

Marlborough ...

1057

and with respect to Aldbourne it is there stated as follows :— « Also
there be wthin the p.isshe of Alborne the number of 400 people
wiche receyve the blessed Communion and no preest to helpe the

By the late F. A. Carrington, Esq, 257

Vicar there in administration of the Sacraments savinge the sayd
Incumbent [of the Chantry J whereupon the Vicar wth all the reste
of the Parissheners desyre the Kingis moost honble Councell to con-
sider them accordingly."

This is accounted for by the practice of the Romish Church, which
prevailed here down to the time of the Reformation, that every
person above 14 years old — the age of confirmation— who did not
confess and receive absolution in Passion Week was not allowed to
receive the holy sacrament on Easter Day, and if he or she did not
do so, and died within the year, such persons would not have been
allowed Christian burial, except for some very special cause.

The parish registers commence in the year 1637, and there are
no entries from 1640 to 1645, both inclusive, and with the date of
1642 there is written : — " Times of Civil Disorder no Register kept,"
but in one of the register books is found the following entry : —

" Buried Anno Dni 1707 Wm Wild was born on Easter Eve being in ye year
1590 died ye 29th of June 1707 in ye hundred and sixteenth year
of his Age & was buried .... July 1st."

The Chantry .

At Aldbourne there was a Chantry called " Our Lady's Guild."
Its possessions are described in the Certif. of Chantries (Certif. 58,
No. 56), where it is stated that " Landes were gyven to the
ffrat.nytie of 0r Lady in Aldborne, Adam Herryett Incumbente."

Church Goods.

In the return of the Commissioners of Church Goods is the fol-
lowing entry : —

41 Alborne delivered to Thomas hatte and to William Sexton") viij ovnc. di. bellis
won Cvppe or Challis by Indenture of viij ovnc di. and \ iij and a sanct3
iiij bells J belL

The Chace.

From the census of 1851 it appears that the parish of Aldbourne
is 8495 acres in extent ; and from the " Survey of Sir John Poyntz "
in the Duchy of Lancaster Record Office, 33 Eliz., from which
the account of the boundaries is taken/ it is stated that the
1 Printed in Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. vi., p. 188.

Notes oil the Manor of Aldbourne.

Manor of Aldbourne, which appears to be coterminous with the
parish, consisted of 2680 acres, exclusive of the chace, warren, and
wastes, which would give an extent of 5815 acres for the chase,
warren and wastes.

That there were deer in Aldbourne Chace in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth is quite manifest from the records I have after cited,
which still remain in the Duchy of Lancaster Office in Lancaster
Place, London : —

29 Jan., 1578 :—

" Bil1 hy George Bramley, Esq., Attorney General of the Duchy in the Duchy
Court of Chancery, against Walter Browne of Ockbourne St. George blacksmith
that being a coen. [common] Hunter and Killer of deere and conies within the
said Chace [Aldbourne Chace] aboute the xv of November last he did hunte take
and kill une doe and on the 25 day mcbe [March] last past and on dyuerse and
sondry other tymes before and sithens did ferrett and kill diverse and sondry
great noumbers of the connyes within the said Chaee and warren."

Duchy of Lancaster Records, 20th Eliz., vol. 66, A. 3.

In the 22nd Eliz. (1580) a bill was filed in the Duchy Court of
Chancery by Waldron, lessee of the Earl of Pembroke, that King's
College, Cambridge, had brought an action against him for taking
wood and rabbits in Priors Woods, which he claims as part <Tf
Aldbourne, and he states that King's College are instigated by
William Younge, of Ockbourne St. George (the tenant of King's
College Farm there), and that he and others took six couple of
rabbits and a deer called a sore.1 Duchy of Lancaster Records, 22
Eliz., vol. 79, W. 6.

Prior's Wood was a wood which formerly belonged to King's
College, Cambridge, situate where the small entrenchments, No. 1
and 2 are, which are mentioned ante, vol. ii., p. 127, and it was
stated by the Rev. John Legh, A.M., formerly Bursar of the
College, that this wood and short wood near it were given up as
common to the inhabitants of Aldbourne, the inhabitants giving up
a right of common which they had in the Chace woods which be-
longed to the College.

1 A buck of the fourth year. " A buck of the first year is a fawn ; the second
year, a pnekett ; the third year, a sorrell ; and the fourth year a soare." Return
from Parnassus (1606).

By the late F. A. Canington, Esq.

259

The site of Priors Wood now forms part of the glebe of the Vicar
of Ogbourne, under the Aldbourne Enclosure Act of 1805.

In 22 Eliz. (1580) : —

" Bill in the Duchy Court of Chancery by John Brograve Attorney General
of the Duchy against William Younge sone vnto Willm. Younge Gentleman
Farnio1' of the Mannor. of Ockporne St. George and John Pitte s.vante to the
said William Younge for that he on the 27th of December in the seaven and
twentie yeare of the Quenes Maties raigne wth John Laythton Thomas Fisher and
Kite wth divers other p. sons unknown did wth doggs and grey hounds huntetake
and kill one of the Queene's Maties Deare and on the 20th day of May last past
did take and kill another."

Duchy of Lancaster Records, 22 Eliz., vol. 79, A. 21.

(In the last instance their taste could not be commended, a deer
in May would be about as good to eat as a dead dog.)

4 Nov., 1584 :—

" Bill in the Duchy Court of Chancery by John Brograve Attorney General of
the Duchy against Walter Browne of Ockbourne St. George Blacksmith and
Vincent Dixon of the same place husbandman for that they on the 6th of June
last did hunt and carry away one of the Queen's Maties deere and on divers other
dayes since kill and carry away deere and conyes and also then and theare did
very Ryotously and vnlawfullie assemble themselves and beate wounde and evell
intreate George Mills and Edward ffynche twoe of the Reapers of the said Chace
and warren."

11 Feb., 1585:—

" Bill in like form by John Brograve Attorney General against Vincente
Dixon of Ockborne St. George husbandman, and Vincent Eyre of the said Towne
and county husbandman for killing on the 21st of Maye divers Conyes in Aid-
born Chace."

Duchy of Lancaster Records, vol. 92, A. 20 a.

Deer must have been in Aldbourne Chace till 11 Charles I.
(1636), as in Rushworth's Collections, vol. iii., p. 74, is a report of a
case in the Star Chamber of : —

" Bond Esq , v. Goddard, and others.

" Goddard the elder being a copyholder of lands in Eylden within the Manner
of Ogburne near adjoyning to His Majesties Chace being a place that m winter
time was a special and usual succour for preserving the breed of young deer be-
lono-ino- to the Chace and where the Keepers do usually lodg and go m and out

200 Note* on the Manor of /Melbourne.

and with their leash hounds have without interruption from time to time used to
drive aud re-chace his Majesties deer.

" Goddard the younger, under colour of going to kill conies in the said Eylden
grounds and with his father's privity and command did assemble to himself the
delendant Cox and another and in the night go towards the said grounds and in
their way in another man's coppice about half-a-mile from the Chace with dogs
kill one of the Chace deer and carried it to Goddard the elder's house where it
was eaten and at another time they killed another of the deer of the Chace, in the
said Goddard the elder's ground and carried it home to his house and he disposed
of part qf it and after this they had a Rascal Deer and part of it was eaten in
Goddard s house boiled. Goddard's wife to keep it from being discovered told
her servants it was mutton, and for this they were all committed to the Fleet
and the two Goddards fined 500£ a piece Goddard's wife 50J and Cox 300* and
the two Goddards and Cox to make their acknowledgment and satisfaction at the
Assizes and be there bound to their good behaviour."

It should be observed that very few, if any, of these absurd Star
Chamber fines were ever paid. The person fined petitioned the
Crown, and compounded for the fine— generally at less than one
tenth of the amount. I once heard the late Rt. Hon. Charles
Williams Wynne say that his ancestor, Speaker Williams, was
fined £10,000, but that no part of it was ever paid. That fine was
not imposed by the Star Chamber, but the practice seems to have
been continued.

The deer in Aldbourne Chace do not seem to have survived the
Civil Wars, as Aubrey, in his "Natural History of Wiltshire/' p.
59, speaks highly of the rabbits in Aldbourne Warren, but does not
mention any deer in the Chace.

That stolen deer from Aldbourne Chace were brought to Ogbourne
St. George is further proved by the fact that when Mr. Carrington
re-opened an old well, nearly opposite his house, which had been
filled up more than half-a-century, three deer's horns were found at
the bottom— no doubt horns of stolen deer thrown in by persons
passing along the adjoining street.

Mr. Church, of Hillwood, who died in 1852 at an advanced age,
told Mr. Carrington that he remembered the Chace before The
inclosure in 1804, and that it then was a wild thick jungle of
brambles, briars, and bushes, and that no one could then drive,
walk, or ride in it in any direction except along drives which were
cut in such directions as were needed.

By the late F. A. Carrington, Esq.

261

Since LSO-1 the Chace has ceased to exist, except in farms and
enclosures, but some of the farm-houses which were keepers' lodges
still retain their original names.

Copyholds and Woods.

In the survey of the manor by John Twynyho, Surveyor of the
Manor 6 Edw. VI. (1552) the jury present as follows: —

"It. that Evy [every] yardland cont. xxiiij acres may kepe [to turn on the
wastes] lx shepe and vij horse and Kother best [horned beasts]

" It. Evy custome yard land must worke iiij mens worke with the f armour
in mede harvest and carr. one [load] of lorde hey and to wasshe and shere xv,
shepe apece and evy. halfe yarde lande do half the like.

" Item ther be wthin the Chace vj copic [coppices] one called hillwood cont
xvj acr. of vij yeares growth — Middlerudge cont. vij acr of vi yeres growyth —
Standen cont x acr. of xl yeres growyth— The pke [park?] of Snape cont xx acr.
of x yeres growyth — Highwichell cont. xx acr iiij yeres growyth — Lower Wichel
cont. v. acres of xxx yeres growjth — Sm. [sum] of the acres of woode wthin the
sayed Manner and Chace of Alborne iiijIX [four score] vij acres."

The Town.

In Sir John Poyntz's survey, 33 Eliz., in which the jury present
the boundaries of the manor of Aldbourne, they also present that
there are two lairs at Aldbourne, one on St. Edward's Day, and the
other on St. Mary Magdalene's Day, and "a weekly Tuesdaie
market kept in the Town of Alborn till within ten years last past
[1581] and sithence the same is and hath been discontinued.''''

The Cross.

In what was the market square is a handsome cross, raised on
three steps. It was restored in the last century by a citizen of
London, but in the restoration the crucifix is placed at an angle
with the shaft to answer the purpose of a sun-dial, showing that
sometimes at least Eternity is made subservient to Time.

The Battle.

This occurred September 17th, 1643, between the raising of the
siege of Gloucester by the Earl of Essex and the Battle of Newbury
in which the Earl of Carnarvon, the Earl of Sunderland, and Lord
Viscount Falkland were killed.

VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXIX. T

202 Notes on the Manor of Aldbounie.

Lord Clarendon, in his History, Book 7, states that after the |
raising- of the siege of Gloucester, the Earl of Essex proceeded I
to Cirencester, and " moved through that deep and enclosed county \
of North Wiltshire, his direct way to London, and that Prince
Rupert, with near five thousand horse, marched day and night over
the hills to get between London and the enemy before they should
be able to get out of those enclosed deep countries in which they j
were engaged between narrow lanes, and to entertain them with
skirmishes till the whole army should come up. This design, pur-
sued and executed with indefatigable pains, succeeded to his wish,
for when the van of the enemy's army had almost marched over
Awborne Chace, intending that night to have reached Newbury, (
Prince Rupert, beyond their fear or expectation, appeared with a
strong body of horse so near them that before they could put them-
selves in order to receive them he charged their rear and routed
them with good execution, and though the enemy performed the parts
of good men, and applied themselves more dexterously to the relief
of each other than on so sudden and unlooked-for an occasion was j
expected, yet with some difficulty, and the loss of many men, they
were glad to shorten their journey, and, the night coming on, took
up their quarters at Hunger ford.

u In this conflict, which was very sharp for an hour or two, many
fell of the enemy, and of the King's party none of name but the
Marquis of Vieu Ville, a gallant gentleman of the French nation,
who had attended the Queen out of Holland and put himself as a
volunteer upon this action in the Lord* Jermyn's Regiment. There
were hurt many officers, and among those the Lord Jermyn received
a shot in his arm, with a pistol, owing the preservation of his life
from other shots to the excellent temper of his armour; and the
Lord Dig by a strange hurt in the face, a pistol .being discharged at
so near a distance upon him that the powder fetched much blood
from his face, and for the present blinded him, without further
mischief, by which it was concluded that the bullet had dropped out
before the pistol was discharged, and may be reckoned among one
of those escapes of which that gallant person hath passed a greater
number in the course of his life than any man I know."

By the late F. A. Carrington, Esq.

263

The Mustek,.

On the 10th of April, 1644, the army of King Charles I. mustered
on Aldbourne Chace, and Captain Richard Symonds (Symonds,
p. 3), an officer of the King's army, who was present, gives an
account of the regiments there assembled, the names of officers,
and, in many instances, the devices on their flags (Harl. MS., in
the Brit. Mus., No. 986). The same MS. book also contains
similar information respecting a muster of the Trained bands of the
Metropolis in Moor Fields, on the z6th of September, 1643. From
this it appears that each field-officer and each captain had a flag,
with a difference in each, of which the flags of the Blue Regiment
of the train bands are an example : —

Colonel ... A plain blue flag.

Lieut. -Col. ... Ditto, with a canton gules, bearing St.

George's cross, argent.

Sergeant-Major ... The like, with a plate in centre of the flag,

1st Capt. ... The like, with two plates.

2nd Capt. ... three plates.

3rd Capt. ... four plates.

The King's army being over-officered, had fewer companies in
each regiment than were in the Trained bands.

The following is extracted from Capt. Symonds' account of the
muster : —

" These Regiments of Horse and Foot were at the Rendezvouz neare Awborne
Wednesday, April ye Tenth. 1644.

" Foot.

"1st Reg. — The Kings liefe guard comanded by yc Earle of Lindsey

[4 flags, no device on any except the 2nd— party per pale arg. and gu. — on the
dexter a cross gu.]

" 2 Regim1 was the Lord Hopton's blew coats
[5 flags gu. with mullets arg. for difference]

¥ 3d Reg. Colonel Apsley Red Coates

| 6 flags. 1 sable. 2 sable with canton arg. and cross gu. 3 gu. with canton
and cross and issuing from the cross a pile or. 4 gyrony of 4 sa. and arg. with
canton and cross and 5 the like but with gyrony of 6. 6 the like but gyrony
of 8]

T %

264

Notes on the Manor of Aldbourne.

" 4th Keg. Colonel Talbott Yellow Coates. (5 colours Arg. 3 Or. toto 9

[9 Hags G arg. with Talbots passant proper for difEerenee. 7Ul Or. 8 Or with
canton and cross. 9 the like with a roundel ]

" 5 Reg. Col. Ashley s

[8 flags vert with Piles wavy for difference]

" 6 Reg. Colonel Cooke eldest son to Cooke of Cheshull Magna Com. Essex
[3 flags blue with plates for difference]

" 7 Reg. Colonel Sr. Jacob Astleye and Colonel StradKngs vnited
[5 flags blue with cinquefoils arg. for difference]

" 8 Reg. Col. Sr. James Penniman

"I think this Reg. had 10 colors v* [vert] and stars argent

"9 Colonel Lisle
[7 flags— 1 arg. 2 canton and cross 3—7 no devices]

" 10 Reg, Col. T. Selwel

[4 flags blue with Piles wavy arg. for difference]

" 11th Reg. Sr. Lewis Dyves Colonel

[4 flags or with Roundels gules for difference]

" At Edghill were these officers 1642 in this Regiment
" Leif1 Tho. Shirley

"Maior— Gervas Holies of Grimsby Com Lincoln Esq. now Colonel 1644

" 1 Capt John Smyth of Somersetts Com Lincoln Gent

11 2 Capt Gabrel Savell of Wakefield in Yorksh. Gent

" 3 Capt. Henr. Peyton

"4 Capt. Rich. Nevill

"5 Cap Rich. Slingsby

" Sr Lewis Dives was Govenor of Abingdo. this yeare 1644

" 12 Reg. Colonel Charles Gerald had xii Ens.

[2 flags. 1 only without colour 2 gyrony of 4. Gules and Or, with the
canton and cross]

" These 2 Regiments following marched with the Traine of Artillery

" Colonel Henry Lord Percye's Reg.

[3 flags. 1 Arg. 2 with canton and cross 3 the like with a crescent for
difference blewish white]

" Colonel Sr. Hen. Bard who was taken Prisoner at ye late fight wth Waller at
Alresford These Ensignes marched out of Oxford the Satterday before this
Rendezvous this was Colonel Pinchbeck's Regim*

[5 flags Arg. with a cross crosslet betw. 4 cross crosslets for difference]

Zfy the late F. A. Carrington, Esq.

265

"These marched out of Oxon wth His Maj Apr. 7 176 These 2 Regiin*1

were commanded men out of all ye Yorks. Reg and comeng wth. a Convoy of
Ammunacion to Oxford was putt into 2 Regim19

" The Duke of Yorke his Regim* of Foote

"Commanded by Colonel Sellbger was not at the Rendezvous but lay at
Marlingsborongh a full Reg.

"This had but two Ensignes at ye slighting of ye garison [abandonment of
the town] of Reading

[2 flags — both alike— gyrony of 4. gules and sable — with canton and cross]

" The Horse were in three Bodyes at this Rendezvous

" The first body was the Lord Wilmott's Brigade and almost consisting of as
many men and horses as did the other 3 [sic] Brigades wherein were

" 1 Reg. Prince Charles his Regim* now commanded by the Lord Wentworth.
formerly by Sr. Tho. Byron till he dyed 100

I 2 Reg. The Lord Generall ye Earle of Forth 300

" 3 Reg. Prince Maurice 7 Cornets Red 300

" These officers was of this Reg. when they were in Cornwall
" Leift. Col. Molsworth

" Major Robt Legg brother to Maior Legg in the North

" 1 Capt Wolley Lee of in Suit, dyed in Oxford about Dec. 1644

2 C. Sheldon Com Wigorn

" 3 C. James Eliott *

"4 C John Freaks

" 5 Capt. Leif* * Hugh Williams

V 4 Reg. Lord Wilmotts 250

" Lieu* Col. Paul Smith

" Sergeant Major Aymes Pollard

" 1 Capt John Harvey his lieu* Fitzwilliams

" Cornet Mr John Phill who was shott in y8 Knee at Roundway Downe
" Capt. Duplant a frenchma.
" Cap Baskervile
" Capt Lieuten* Wilmott
[3 flags no devices]

" 5 Reg. Ja. Earle of Northamptons —250

[4 flags— the 1st blue edged with fringe— the 2nd edged with frynge the 3rd
and 4th no device]

"6th Reg. Henry Lord Percyes 300

[7 flags. 4 Gules. 3 Argent no Canton or cross]

• At this date, and until the end of the last centurv, the Colonel had a company or troop in his
regiment. It was commanded by a lieutenant who was called » Capt.-Lieut," as he bore the rank
of captain with the pay of a lieutenant.

206 Notes on the Manor of Ahlhourne.

" 7 Reg. Sr Arthur Aston now Governor of Oxford 120

[4 flags— no Canton or Cross Sable Cross Patee Arg.]
" 8 Reg. Col. Charles Gerard 150

[3 flags gules no canton or Cross]

" 9 Reg. Colonel Thomas Howard 2d son to the Earle of Berks 300
[8 Flags Vert]

" ^n^8 001 Th° We8ton which R°gimt formerly was the Lord Digbies 100
[Two flags argent]

" ^ ReS' CoIonel Nevills wnich was the Earle of Caernarvons Regiment 200
[5 flags— no colours or devices]

"12 Reg Colonel Gerrard Croker Com Oxon 100

[2 Flags 1 Vert edged with fringe 2 no device or colour] 2 Troopes

" Sume total of this Brigade of Horse 2470

"Colonel Caryes Brigade of Horse consisted of these Regiments formerly
comanded by the Lord John Stuart
" 1 Reg. Sr Horatio Caryes wh. was ye Ld. John's Reg,

" Col. Caries Cornet

" Left. Col Fleetwood

" Srjeant Maior Pickar goldsmith London

" 1. Capt Benett On his banner the figure of a cavalier pulling a Round-
head by the ears : motto 4 Come out you cuckold.' 2. Capt Myles
Gierke was vintner Lond. 3. Capt Barbir

" 2 Reg* Sr- Nicholas Crispes consisting of 4 Troopes but one Cornet
[One flag no colour or device]

3d Reg. S\ Edward Ford son of S*. W- Ford. This S'. Edw. was Sheriffe of
Sussex 1643. 4 Troopes
[3 flags — no colours no devices]

" Sr- Edward Stowels Brigade of Horse consisted of these Regimts
" 1 Reg. Ye Lord Hopton Colonel no Cornet

" Lieut*. Col Tho. Seymo' major formerly to the Lord Marquis of Hertfo.
"S'iant Major Tho. Bishop
" Capt Davys

" 2 Reg. S*. Edw. Stowel Colonel
[2 flags argent— no devices]

" 3 Reg. Colonel Gunter and Colonel Apsleys vnited
[2 flags sable no devices]

" 4 Reg. Colonel Peirce
[2 flags— no colours no devices]

" Toto of this Brigade

By the late F. A, Carrington, .Esq.

267

" Colonel Bennetts "Brigade of Horse consisted of these Regiments
" 1 Reg. Col. Bennet high Sheriffe of South*, had 9 Troops in the feild almost
full but 2 Colo''8
[2 flags gules no devices]

" Lieut Col Verney son to Sr. Edm. V. who was slayne at Edghill
" Srt. Maior Richard Aldworth

"1 Capt. Mr. Rob1. Smyth brother to Colonel Smyth who was taken
prisoner w,h. Sr. Alex Denton, Hilsden House, Com Buck

« 2 Reg. Sr. Geo Vaughan Colonel Sr. Robt. Welsh Lieut Colonel but 2
Troopes 80

[2 flags— 1 blue— 2 blue— with on a scroll argent 6 Experto crede Robto. for
ye lieut Colonel ']

tt 3 Reg< Colonel Sr. Edw. Waklgrave of Staninghall Com. Norfolk Kt 211
[3 flags arg. under the 2nd and 3rd ' leiftant Col, Ennys Scotus ' ' Sergeant
Maior London ']

" Below these

" Capt leiftf. Whale Com. N"orf. Civis Lond.
<l 1 Capt Tho Catelyne Com. Norf Esq.

" 2 Capt Chevingham who was Major to Colonel Playter brought in 60

men ard horse since ye fight at Alresford
"2 Capt Warren killed at Alresford Capt Cotton and Capt Cornwalliss

both cashiered by ye Lord Hopton before the fight at Alresford

« At the side of this page is a shield party per pale arg. and gules and on an
escutcheon a hand gules for a Bavant and over it written < S'. Edw Waldegrave
dyed at Oxon after ye Mach. [March ?] out of ye W. R. [West Riding of York?]
and buried at 8*. Maries Dec. 3 or 4 1644 "

" 4 Reg. Colonel Lindsey one of the Quartermasters Gen11, of the Kings Army

" Toto of this Brigade —

" Sunie Total of this Muster

The Infantry in all about 5000

in the feild besides Bellingers &c
■ The Horse which lay 3 deepe the front were numbered 1300
: So with Officers in all they were full

4000

' ' Toto in the feild besides &c

9000 ,:

208

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.

f||2|HE district now generally known as Selwood lies between
£|g| Warminster and Frome, Longleat and Witham. You
may have a bird's eye view of it from the top of Cley Hill; only,
the whole country before you is so thickly covered with hedgerow
timber, that, to verify the old saying, one is hardly able to see the
wood for the trees. But the fact is that you only see from that point
a very small part of what was once included under the name of
Selwood, though where it began and where it ended is not easy to
say, owing to want of ancient maps and distinct records. We have
no account of the original formation of any forest, except the New
Forest, in Hampshire, and one at Hampton Court.

I will divide my story into two periods— (1) The Dark one, and
(2) The Lighter one. I mean by the dark one that very obscure
time in the history of our country when we find Selwood mentioned,
but without any precise information as to its extent ; by the lighter
one, that in which we do get a few authentic accounts of it.

Some of our modern historians— as the late Dr. Guest, of Cam-
bridge—have taken infinite pains to clear the indistinct and foggy
atmosphere of early British history. They have tried to reconcile
conflicting statements, to explain old names, and to suggest which
way such and such armies moved, or where such and such battles
were fought, and to identify such and such a camp as the camp of
Chlorus or Vespasian, or somebody else. But there is in these
researches so much that is merely plausible, so much that is mere
guessing and supposing, that the result cannot be called very
satisfactory. The material to work upon often consists of little
else than a string of obsolete names, old Welsh names, spelled
differently in different chronicles. Sometimes there may be a
slight resemblance to our modern names ; and, in such cases, con-
clusions and theories are occasionally presented to us which it is not

Selwood Forest.

269

quite easy to accept as history. On the other hand, researches of
this kind may be successful, and to one instance of this kind I will
first call your attention, because it relates to a curious place within
the district of Selwood Forest, and therefore properly belongs to
our subject, and to the darkest part of it.1

A mile or two beyond Stourhead, there is, as some of you may
be aware, on the high ground thereabout, a large square-shaped
piece of table-land, a sort of platform, the sides of which are steep
declivities. On .this platform stands the little scattered village of
Penselwood. Pen is a very commonly found Welsh word, meaning
head, and so the name signifies, not improperly, the head of Selwood.
On the slope of this platform, facing east, lie the celebrated Pen
Pits. Of these I must attempt some description.

You are aware that the river Stour rises from six springs, on a
hillside within the demesne of Stourhead. It flows down into a
valley towards the south. Follow the stream for about a couple of
miles : the ground on both sides slopes up to a considerable height.
The slope on the right hand is Pen Common. This reaches the
table-land, or platform, on which is the hamlet of Penselwood. The
boundary of Pen Common on the south is a high ridge which runs
all the way down from the top of the hill to the brook at the bottom.
It forms a kind of spur or promontory jutting out from the great
platform. The lower end of this ridge has been used for a fort.
It has been partly heightened by heaping soil on to it, and it is
cut off from the rest of the ridge by an artificial gap or ravine, for
security. Immediately after this ravine is another portion of the
same ridge, that has been used for an outer court, or baily, to the
fort or castle, and this outer court is in like manner cut off from the
rest by another gap or ravine for further security — the whole
showing, beyond a doubt, that the lower part of the ridge has been
at some time or other used for some purpose of defence ; all this is

1 This paper formed the subject of a lecture delivered at the Warminster
Athenseum in February last- The writer expressed at that time an opinion upon
the Penselwood question which he has since seen reason to change. He was not
then aware of the extent to which the controversy had been carried, and had not
seen some of the publications relating to it.

270

Selwood Forest.

plain enough. But it is farther up, beyond the outer court or
baily, that our puzzle begins. The surface of this ridge-part of the
common is scooped out very irregularly into hollows or pits —some
large, some small, some roundish, basin-like, others more of a square
or oblong shape. They are in no sort of order, but occur at inter-
vals ; some are close together, divided by a partition bank, along
which you find your way about from one to the other. It is not
fair to' compare them to a honeycomb, because that is constructed
with surpassing evenness and regularity, but there is a distant and
rough likeness. The pits on this ridge are said to be spread over
about one hundred acres. But they did — and this is very curious —
they did, within memory, spread also over the platform at the top,
covering altogether seven hundred acres ; a vast number have been
filled in and levelled for agricultural use. There are similar pits,
but fewer in number, on the other side of the valley, over the brook,
and some in the plantations in the demesne of Stourhead. A person
might walk or ride over Pen-common a thousand times without
seeing anything at all of these pits, or being even aware of their
existence, because, on the ridge, they are completely hidden from
view by very thick underwood, brambles, and shrubs, so dense that
it is very difficult to force one's way along it in some parts.

Now what were these pits ? The late Sir Richard Colt Hoare,
the celebrated Wilts historian and antiquary, lived twenty-five or
thirty years at Stourhead. The greater part of the pits were on his
land. He gave a great deal of consideration to the subject. He
never quite made up his mind ; but proposed three explanations,
either (1) they were excavations for the simple purpose of procuring
stone ; (2) that the ancient Britons may have made them in searching
for mill or grind-stones {querns used for bruising corn) ; or (<3) that
they were inhabited as places of refuge in times of danger. Now,
as to digging for stone, either for building or grinding, no doubt
stone fit for grinding is very valuable. If you can find on your
land a bed, for instance, of what the French call buhr-stone,
your fortune is made much safer than by finding a gold mine.
Underneath the surface of this hill there is a layer of this useful
stone; and an examination of the floor of some of the pits has

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 271

brought to light many portions of this stone, shaped into querns,
but left on the spot as if they had been found to be of inferior
quality and unsuitable to the purpose required. Many persons,
therefore, have accepted as an explanation of the pits that they
were simply excavations for getting grindstone. But a great and
almost insurmountable objection to this is that no people in their
senses would ever have worked a bed of stone in such a way. To
die: hundreds — it is said there have been thousands — of fresh holes
one after another, instead of working on continuously, as all stone
quarries are worked, would be a mode of operation unheard of. It
seems impossible to accept this explanation.

Then, were the pits human habitations ? We read of people in
underground dwellings not only in old times but even now. The
Greek poet iEschylus, in the play called " Prometheus," puts into
the mouth of his hero these words : — " Before my time men knew
nothing about houses built of brick, or carpenters' work ; but they
dwelt in excavations in the earth, like tiny emmets in the sunless
depths of caverns." In Kamschatka and the Arctic regions these
huts are dug underground for warmth. I read the other day of a
specimen in California of a round hole dug in the ground ; poles and
slices of bark formed a conical roof supported by other upright poles;
and there are in England, indeed in Wilts, on the downs, groups of
such holes, supposed to have served the same purpose. But the
question is, were these Pen pits made and used for permanent occu-
pation, so as to form (as from their great number they must have-
done) a very large and populous British settlement? From the
present appearance of the place this sounds at first incredible. But
that it really was the case is the opinion of Mr. Thomas Kerslake^
of Bristol, who has maintained it by very able and ingenious
arguments, set forth in pamphlets which he has published upon the
subject.

The matter was taken up by the Archaeological Society of Somer-
setshire : an examination of the ground was made by a committee,
but funds being wanting to carry it on to any great extent the
result was not decisive. Another examination on a larger scale was
then made under the direction of General Pitt Rivers, whose duties

272

Selwood Fared.

as Inspector of Ancient Monuments appeared to make a formal
enquiry necessary, in order to pronounce whether this place were or
were not the remains of a British city : because, if so, it might have
to be taken under Government protection. The General's report
was unfavourable. He could find no signs of ancient habitation.
It is very likely that most persons, upon a mere cursory inspection,
of the ground, would be of the same opinion, and would leave it
with the full persuasion that the pits never could have been human
dwelling-places. There is no trace of street, no regularity, no
vestige of foundation of houses to be seen. The idea of these holes
having been used for occupation by families, without any appearance
of arrangement for proper drainage : and accessible only by steep
descent of many feet, conjures up before the mind nothing but a
vision of unwholesomeness, a huge collection of human cesspools,
sinks of abomination and disease.

But it is a case which ought not to be judged of too hastily, upon
mere appearances, and without some calm consideration. Mr.
Kerslake's arguments are so strong that it is difficult to refuse
assent to them. His statement is, in brief, that the platform of
Penselwood was once a strongly-fortified place, and that these pits,
taken in connection with that fact, are the sites of dwellings of
some kind, occupied by a large population. His pamphlets upon
the subject are convincing, however, at first sight, startling.

The story is this. You will remember that the Roman Emperors
were a long time getting possession of this country, and that several
expeditions failed. About A.D. 47, Vespasian, then only a general,
afterwards Emperor, landed with an army at some place on the
south coast, fought thirty battles, took more than twenty hill forts,
and the Isle of Wight. That is really all the Roman historian tells
us, which certainly is as brief an account as could be given of such
long and large military transactions — thirty battles described in less
than thirty words. He does not mention a single name of any one
of these hill forts. Comes next a very old Welsh history. It
mentions just what I have quoted from the Roman historian, and,
oddly enough, gives the name of one, and only one, of the hill forts
so taken ; the name he gives is Caer-Pen-hwil-goit. Come next

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 273

other old Welsh writers, and they spell the name with a slight
variation, as Pen-huel-goit. Besides, there is, in one of the most
ancient Welsh histories, a list given of some thirty of the then
principal cities and towns in Old Britain, and among them is this
same place reckoned, but it is spelled Pen-sauel-coit. 1 should say
that all the thirty names begin with Caer, but as Caer only means
Castle, and is the same in every case, we may throw that aside, and
deal only with Pen-sauel-coit. Now it so happens that the last
syllable, Coit, a Welsh word, means wood; so if Pen-sauel-ctf^
means Pen-sauel-wood, a very slight change in the pronunciation of
the name produces our Penselwood.

Mr. Kerslake very fairly contends that the Pen Pits are not to be
judged of by themselves, but that they form only a part of a larger
story : and that, taken in connexion with the large fortress at the
top, and the smaller one at the foot, of the hill, they were unquestion-
ably used in some way for the accommodation of the inhabitants.

It is not necessary to suppose that the people actually lived in
these holes. There were, no doubt, superstructures, houses probably
of wood. The destruction by exposure to the weather for fifteen or
sixteen centuries will fully account for the total effacement of every
token of habitation. How little, Mr. Kerslake observes, is left in
the numerous camps and earthworks all over the country, even in
Old Sarum itself, to explain to us what was the actual arrangement
of buildings within them. " We have had lately [he says] a rare
opportunity, in the site of the New Law Courts, of seeing what
central London looks like when its buildings are levelled : and the
difference was not very great of the aspect of that clearance and
the present appearance of this ancient city/'' 1

An illustration occurs to me which may be intelligible to those
who know the City of Edinburgh. The castle there, with some
buildings around it, stands on the top of a high hill with precipitous
sides. The approach to it is along the main street of the Old Town
which slopes upwards from Holyrood palace at the foot of the
street. Supposing the castle and Holyrood to have been entirely

1 " Primaeval British Metropolis," p. 16.

274

Selwood Forest.

demolished, and the inhabitants of the street which connects the
two to have forsaken, or to have been driven away from, their homes,
or, perhaps, to have removed the materials, to build the New Town
on another site, and that all the vaults and cellars of the Old Town
had been left; gaping holes in the ground, never filled up and
levelled ; the general appearance of the Old Town, after the lapse
of sixteen hundred years would have been not much unlike the old
hill fortress of Penselwood, the smaller fortress at the foot of the
hill, and the Pen Pits between them.

But it is impossible in a short paper to discuss this question fully.
Those who may take an interest in it should read with care Mr.
Kerslake's publications, as well as those that are adverse to his
views.1

The choice, as to what the Pen Pits really were, seems to be
this. They were either quarries or the sites of ancient habitation.
The former appears to myself untenable : and Mr. Kerslake's view
more likely to be the true one.

I have dwelt upon this part of my subject perhaps rather too
long, but it is really the only thing I have to say about Selwood in
the very darkest period.

We must now leave this obscure atmosphere, and pass to another
not quite so dark, but still dark enough. You must skip over a
trifle of a few hundred years, during which the name of Selwood is
never met with. What is the reason of these long silent blanks?
We have no local information because either nobody took the trouble
to write it, or, if they did, it has perished. The most likely persons
to write it were, of course, the monks in the monasteries. But we
have a curious bit of testimony from one of them, who had a turn
for history and topography, that though he desired to write he was
stopped by his Superior. This would-be writer's name was Richard
of Cirencester. About 1350 he was a monk in the great abbey

1 Mr. Kerslake's views are contained in three pamphlets :— " A Primeval
British Metropolis," 1877; "Caer Pensauel coit, a long lost un-Romanised
British Metropolis, a Re-assertion, with a Map," 1882; " The Liberty of inde-
pendent Historical Research," 1885. The adverse opinion is to be found in
two reports in Somersetshire Archaeological Society's Proceedings, and one by
Lt.-Gen. Pitt-Rivers, F.R.S. J

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 275

there, which possessed, amongst other things, the rectory and tithes
of the parish of Frome Selwood. In return for that benefit it would
not have been unbecoming if he had left some particulars of the
state of things hereabout that he had heard or read of, or that hap-
pened in his own time. But what says Richard of Cirencester five
hundred years ago : — " Such was the negligence and inattention of
our ancestors that hardly anybody thought of writing history but
men in holy orders, and even they esteemed it inconsistent with
their sacred office to engage in such profane labours. My own
abbot did all he could to dissuade me, telling me that such occupa-
tions were of no service, it was only deluding the world with un-
meaning trifles/' Richard then ventured to argue with his Superior
that such histories were important, and did not in any degree clash
with more sacred employment; but in deference to his Superior's
opinion, he humbly acquiesced and gave over writing, and the con-
sequence is that he has left us only a few pages. Of course we
have general histories of England (such as they are) in the Anglo-
Saxon period, but I am not here to-night to give you the general
history of England, but the particular history of a very small part
of it. S el wood Forest is my text, and I want to stick to my text,
and all I can find about it in this period amounts to two solitary
facts, or to two individuals connected with its name.

The first of these is the famous Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury,
who founded two small subordinate houses, one at Frome and the
other at Bradford-on-Avon. At Bradford he also built a small
Church, which exists there to this day— that little ecclesiola which
was recovered from utter destruction chiefly by the late Canon
Rich- Jones, and which is now put into such a state of substantial
repair— not restoration— as will ensure its safety for many years to
come.

I may just say in passing, that I lived near Bradford many
years ago, and have walked by that building five hundred times
without thinking anything of it. Moreover, Canon Jones told me
that he himself had lived seven years at the vicarage house, which
is close by it, and had seen it every day without taking more notice
of it than I had done. The fact is, it was so completely built

278

Sclwood Forest.

It puzzled me for some little time to find out who lie was, because
he does not find a place in Butler's "Lives of the Saints. ,J The
proper name was Adelgar, or Athelgar, and he was one of the
earliest Bishops of Creditor^ in Devonshire. I found from an old
record at Longleat that he was lord of the manor where the farm
now is, then called Langley, and that he gave it to the Abbey of
Cirencester-to which, as I have mentioned, the rectory and tithes
of Frome belonged— on condition of their building a chapel at
Langley and endowing one or more chaplains. Leland mentions this
chapel, and says that the bones of St. Algar were preserved there,
and that the people used to make pilgrimages to it and used to pull
the chapel bell-rope with their teeth. Without wishing to make
any remark upon the abuses and silly practices which, through long
lapse of time, had crept into the then dominant religion, it is only
just and fair to the Roman Catholics to say that whilst their religion
was dominant they did not neglect to provide means of civilising
by religious instruction, even in the most remote and out-of-the-way
places. Some years ago I printed in the Wiltshire Magazine an
account of a great number of these chapels, which were all put
down at the Reformation. But what took their place ? For a long
time nothing, so that the inhabitants of these forests and lonely
places were left to their own wild and independent way, without
even any outward emblem of religion, any building to remind them
of God or to put serious and solemn thoughts before them. So
lawless had they become that the first Lord Weymouth, with the
hope of reform, built a Church in the Woodlands, and endowed a
clergyman. Since that time another chapel has been erected at
Gaer Hill, and those two may be considered as now supplying what
old St. Algar in his day supplied to the foresters of Selwood.

Another blank of one hundred years, and we come to the days of
King Alfred, who must have known his way about Selwood very
familiarly. There are two particular points about his history in
which his name, rightly or wrongly, has been often connected with
it. The first is the battle of Ethandun, in which he defeated the
Danes. We will not go into that disputed question, as to where,
really and positively, the great fight took place, except to say that

By the Eev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A

279

I do not think it could possibly have been at Edington, near here.
There are four or five different claims, each of which looks so
probable that, if you were to examine them and read the arguments,
you would very likely find yourself in the same situation as King
James I. once did. He was a learned man, much of a pedant, and
fancied that he understood the laws, and the story is that, being a
king, he thought he would preside in his own King's Bench, and
decide a case. But the ingenious arguments and speeches on both
sides so bewildered him that he took up his hat in a hurry, saying,
<f Well, mon, I think ye are both right, and I'll have nothing more
to do with it." The latest claim to the site of the battle that I
have seen is made by Bishop Clifford, of Clifton, near Bristol, who
puts it at another Edington, in Somerset, near Athelney and Bridg-
water, and his statements and arguments are certainly very strong.
The public who are curious in the matter can study all these claims,
and are at full liberty to select which they think most likely.

The other event in Alfred's life, which some have supposed to be
connected with Selwood, is that story so dear to the juvenile mind
of England, of the king and the burnt cakes in the herdsman's
cottage. There is no doubt that to keep out of the reach of the
Danes he skulked about the forest, and among the then inaccessible
swamps towards Bridgwater, and if he had only happened to go to
the Pen Pits to hide, I am sure all the Danes in Denmark would
never have been able to find him. It is the fashion with some
people to treat the cake story as nonsense and false, and till I was
preparing this paper I never knew what was the very earliest
authority for it. I find it comes from an Anglo-Saxon homily,
written upon the life and virtues of St. Neot. St. Neot was a
learned and pious man, who gave Alfred, when young, much good
advice about governing his people. Alfred, it seems, had not paid
much attention to the advice, so the saint warned him of the trouble
and distress which were in store for him. And (says the homily)
-so it came to pass," and then, as an example of the distress that
followed, it gives the adventure in the cottage. The story comes
in so artlessly and simply that I see no reason in the world for
doubting it. Another authority, Asser, who wrote the life of Alfred,

u 2

282

Selwood Forest.

Beverill to build another house. There are some old gnarled oaks
scattered about near a brook which were part of the original park.
The old road from Longleat to Warminster lay along- there, as may-
still be seen. The hills round the present park did not at that time
belong to the estate. The present beautiful entrance and the road
down the steep hill are of comparatively modern date.

As to- the full size and extent of Selwood Forest, when at its
largest, I do not pretend to be able to follow the outside boundary
with precision. Having never met with any old map of it at any
period my only authorities are Perambulation deeds, or other docu-
ments that happen to allude to it : and in these so many of the
old names that occur are now lost that one must be content with
as near an approach to the real state of the case as the circum-
ances will permit. This has been attempted in the small map that
accompanies this paper : and in the appendix to it are given the
principal documents that have supplied the names of the places that
were once within the limits of the forest.

The forest lay in two counties, and having been at first of
moderate size in each county, was enlarged from time to time by
royal encroachments, chiefly between the reigns of Henry II. and
Edward III. Owing to these encroachments, the Wiltshire
part— at first much smaller than that in Somersetshire— became
at length much the largest. Speaking briefly, the old Somerset
forest began near Bruton and ran up to Frome and Roddenbury
Hill. The old Wiltshire began at Roddenbury and went up
only as far as Penleigh and Brook House, near Westbury.
But in course of time the Wiltshire part had been actually
carried up as far as Whaddon, where it joined Melksham Forest,
and then back, along the line of the downs, to near Shaftesbury,
where it would touch Cranbourne Chase. The tyrannical forest
law and the great annoyance to private property — such as not being
able to cut your own trees without leave — and the damage and in-
convenience of having hundreds of deer ranging at will over your
farm, destroying the corn and the turnips, created at last such a bad
feeling, perhaps a rebellious one, that the kings were obliged to
reduce them, and let them be limited to the original known size.

282

Selwood Forest.

Peverill to build another house. There are some old gnarled oaks
scattered about near a brook which were part of the original park.
The old road from Longleat to Warminster lay along there, as may-
still be seen. The hills round the present park did not at that time
belong to the estate. The present beautiful entrance and the road
down the steep hill are of comparatively modern date.

As to the full size and extent of Selwood Forest, when at its
largest, I do not pfretend to be able to follow the outside boundary
with precision. Having never met with any old map of it at any
period my only authorities are Perambulation deeds, or other docu-
ments that happen to allude to it : and in these so many of the
old names that occur are now lost that one must be content with
as near an approach to the real state of the case as the circum-
ances will permit. This has been attempted in the small map that
accompanies this paper : and in the appendix to it are given the
principal documents that have supplied the names of the places that
were once within the limits of the forest.

The forest lay in two counties, and having been at first of
moderate size in each county, was enlarged from time to time by
royal encroachments, chiefly between the reigns of Henry II. and
Edward III. Owing to these encroachments, the Wiltshire
part — at first much smaller than that in Somersetshire— became
at length much the largest. Speaking briefly, the old Somerset
forest began near Bruton and ran up to Frome and Roddenbury
Hill. The old Wiltshire began at Roddenbury and went up
only as far as Penleigh and Brook House, near Westbury.
But in course of time the Wiltshire part had been actually
carried up as far as Whaddon, where it joined Melksham Forest,
and then back, along the line of the downs, to near Shaftesbury,
where it would touch Cranbourne Chase. The tyrannical forest
law and the great annoyance to private property — such as not being
able to cut your own trees without leave — and the damage and in-
convenience of having hundreds of deer ranging at will over your
farm, destroying the corn and the turnips, created at last such a bad
feeling, perhaps a rebellious one, that the kings were obliged to
reduce them, and let them be limited to the original known size.

S 0 M E R S ET. Hie Boundary of the Forest proper .•-■.«-•., is taken, from a Perambulation Deed of AD. 1297, [26.Edw.IJ Tfu?
places outside the •i«cft*i line had been once included />/// <tlh t wards disafforested.
W I LTS. 77ie evidence for this part, of the Map is an Iuj^ uis iUon by the Crown taken atZongbridge-Deverel AD. 1322.

["36.Edw.HJ At "that date, only the places witfun the boundary were pronounced 'to be within the Forest.

77te names of all die rust aret/ivcr* uritl thi^- arc declared t<> luive bt-i-rt di.se J /lb rested..

1

I

1

I

I

I

i
]

I

I

I

I
I

I

1

By the Bev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.J.

Of the reduction of the Wiltshire forest to its original small
dimensions, when, and by whom effected, I have no account : nor
can I say exactly when this part so reduced was finally disafforested ,
but it seems to have been in the beginning* of the reign of James I.:
for in some legal evidence about forest rights taken about the year
1640, an old man remembered the king's deer still running about
Dartford Woods, Chapmanslade, and as far as Brook House, and
they were, he said, so tame that they would hardly get out of his
way.

The proper size of Somersetshire Selwood is described in a
perambulation deed of A.D. 1297/ and of the final breaking up of
this we have some account. In 1683, King Charles I., wanting
money, resolved to raise a little by selling his royal rights. The
Earl of Pembroke was at that time chief forester, and Sir Thomas
Thynne, grandson of the founder of Longleat, was his deputy for
the upper part about Frome. Sir Thomas received an order from
the Crown to make a survey and return of the lands within that
part. For some time he did not move in the matter, as the business
was not at all to his liking. It would deprive him of certain in-
fluence and dignity, as the King's representative, and he was rather
disposed to let the matter drop, but sundry peremptory reminders-
were sent to him, and so it went forward. The tract to which the
papers I have seen refer was what are now called the East and
West Woodlands, with part of Marstou. The arrangement was to
divide the whole into three parts. One part was to go to the
Crown, in consideration of giving up all rights ; one part to Sir
Thomas Thynne and other landowners ; and the third to sundry
commoners who had certain privileges of turning cattle in to feed
on the open part of the forest. The King then sold the one-third
assigned to him, and so got the money he required. The other part
ultimately came by purchase to be merged in the Longleat estate :
and there was the end of Selwood Forest. Among the landowners
was the Lord Arundell, of Wardour, who was then the owner of

1 Printed in Collinson's " Somerset," vol. ii., 195, and vol. iii., 56. Also in
Phelps's " Somerset," i., 147.

284

Selwood Forest.

Woodhouse, just on the skirts of Longleat — a house which became
afterwards the scene of a lively military transaction in the Civil Wars
— of which you have a full account in Mr. Darnell's book.

Before concluding I would just say a word about the timber of
Selwood. Generally speaking we expect to find in historical forests
very old trees — old fellows that have stood the storms of centuries
without flinching, and have gone on growing as if nothing was the
matter. Some people, in trying to explain the name itself, have
imagined that the first syllable is the Anglo-Saxon seala, a willow,
as if it had been remarkable for that kind of tree more than any
other. It may have been so in the great flat marshy lands of
Somerset, which were anciently forest, but about Selwood, as we
know it, the willow, I should say, was rather remarkable for its
absence—just as in Wilts I know a farm in the stone wall country,
upon which there is really hardly a bush ; still it glories in the
name of Thickthorn Farm. Other people, finding that the old
Welsh name for Selwood was Coit-maur — which means great wood
— will have it that Sel means great, though in the meanwhile they
can produce no language in the world where such a word existed
with such a meaning. Now as to the timber. Almost all the
venerable, really patriarchal, trees have disappeared. The oak at
Woodhouse, on which the unlucky Warminster men were hanged,
was cut down. John Aubrey, our Wiltshire antiquary, saw the
tree and described it. He says " Three score and ten carts could
stand under it, and from the body of it to the extreme branch
Captain Hampden made nineteen paces, and his paces were not
less than a yard/' There used to be a famous oak, called the Hey
Oak, which stood near a lodge of Lord Heytesbury's, in Sowley
Wood. An old man told me he remembered it. It was at this
tree that the sheriff of the county used to hold his court in the open
air, at what was called the Sheriff's Farm, for maintaining certain
rights, and receiving certain old payments due to the Crown. An
old and remarkable tree, used for this purpose, often gave the name
to the hundred in which it stood, as in Yorkshire there is the hundred
of Barkstone Ash, and in Wilts we have the hundred of Elstub,
which is really Ellen-stub, an old elder tree. There was, again, at

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 285

Bishopstrow, an old tree which must have been of great age, for
it was made use of for parlour and kitchen and all by that eccentric
— probably half-crazy — lady, Miss Juliana Pobjoy, who, having been
a leading character and partaker of all the dissipations of Bath, about
a hundred years ago, did penance by living and dying in a hollow
tree at Bishopstrow. At Longleat, if anywhere, one would expect
to find very aged trees. There, as you all know, are timber trees
of many kinds, and all seem to thrive equally well, very noble
and beautiful. There used to be, as I have seen on old maps, at
the extreme point of a narrow strip of Warminster parish, which
ends just beyond the Stalls Farm, an oak, called " The Wiltshire
Oak," marking exactly the boundary between the two counties.
That has disappeared, for though there are several fine oaks
scattered just about there, there is none that could have been a
very conspicuous tree three hundred years ago. But if you wish to
see, and it is well worth going to see, a real old original patriarch,
put the pony in the carriage some summer's evening, and drive over
to Corsley. At the hamlet of Whitborn, in a lane that leads from
Longleat park to Corsley, just about a mile below Sturford, General
Feilding's residence, you will see a yew tree, a genuine veteran,
certainly the oldest inhabitant of Selwood Forest. I have measured
him round the waist, and his girth is the small circumference of
twenty-five feet! He looks uncommonly well and hearty, and
shows no signs of that decrepitude which we feeble human beings
begin to feel at three score and ten, if not much sooner. And
yet I cannot put the age of that tree at less than a thousand
years. If he only had but a tongue and could speak, what a
valuable historian he would make. He might, and probably would,
say to you : — " I be main ould, I can't say that I mind any ould
British settlement at Penselwood, but I do mind King Alfred, very
well. I have got a lot of old stories about Selwood shut up in my
trunk ; but as for that Mr. Jackson, he don't know nuffin about it."

286

Selwood Forest.

Appendix.

Documentary evidence as to the extent of Selwood Forest when at
its largest, as shewn in the map.1

The Wiltshire Bailiwick of Selwood Forest had been leased by
King Edward I. to one William Le Wolf, at the'rent of ten marks
per annum; the profits of the office being derived from tolls paid
on horses and carts passing through certain parts of it, and from
payments for the feeding of goats, pigs, &c. On William le Wolf's
death the office of bailiff or forester was granted to Reginald de
Kingston (whose family lived at Corsley, near Warminster), at ten
pounds per annum. Having held it for a short time without re-
ceiving any benefit from it, Reginald de Kingston petitioned to
have the rent reduced, on the ground that the extent of the forest
had been so much reduced as not only to yield no profit, but to put
the bailiff to expense and loss. The matter was referred to the
Barons of the Exchequer. An Inquisition by a jury of landowners
and tenants was then held at Longbridge Deverel, Saturday after
Michaelmas, 16 Edw. II. (A.D. 1322), whereby it was found that
all the places named in the list following had once been within the
forest, but were then no longer within the limits. (The names are
here given in the original spelling of the document.)

Cnowell Episcopi [East Knoyle]
Cnowell Abbissse [The Abbess

of Wilton's— part of West

Knoyle]
Upton Cnowell

Cnowell Odierne [ West Knoyle]

Chadenwich

Seles [Zeals]

Stourton

May den Bradley

Hull [Hill Deverel]

Kingston [Deverel]

Norrigg

Upton Skydemore

Peortworth
Bratton

Muleburne [Milbom]
Stoke parva
Edyndone
Steepel Ashton
Chapel Ashton [Rood]
Gildene's Ashton
Kyvele [Keevil]
Brichtrichston [Brixton Deve-
rel]

Monketon Deverill
Heightesbury
Sutton Magna

Collected from the Marquis of Bath's papers at Longleat.

By the Rev. Canon J.

E. Jackson, F.S.d.

2-87

Sutton Parva

Tuderington [ Tilheringtori]
Newnham

Norton Skidmour [i.e., Scuda-

more: now Norton Bavent]
Middleton
Bishopstrowe
Smal broke
Sandbourne
Crokerton
Warmestre

Baillesclive [Baycliff]
Aslegh

Horningsham Magna
Parva

Bogeleigh [ Bugley]

Tholveston [Thoulston]

Westbury

Heywode

Haukridge

Brooke's Lie

Bremelrigg [ Bremridge]

Dulton [Bilton]

Sheater Street [Short Street]

Bradeford

Kyvele Wick

Hulprington [Hilpertort]

Henton

at

Littleton

Semelton [Semington]
Packles-croft [Paxcrqft]
Waddon

North Bradleigh
Corridge [Coleridge]
Honibrigg [Honey bridge]
Brokevere
South wyke

Langenham [Langham
Road]

Bode in Com: Wiltes [another
part being in Somerset]

Pembury [Pomeroy: Winhjield]

Wenefield [Winhjield]

Witenham [Name now lost : but
near Farley and Westwood]

Trol [Trowle : between Wink-
field and Trowbridge]

Muteford in Cora: Wilts [Mit-
ford : partly in Co. Somerset]

Ferstragh [Probably Fershaw,
now a wood between Westwood
and Bradford]

Hanging Stoke [Limpley SlokeJ

Westwoods

Boule [Rowley : between West-
and Farley Castle]

All the above had been disafforested.
M Aud the Jurors say that
Penlegk
Marsh
Chaldecote
Brokeway
Stone

Whiteborn
Corslegh magna
Parva

Chapmanslade in Westbury Hundred
With the Woods of Wermenstrey [War-
minster] juxta Radenburie

Are within the Forest."

288

Selwood Forest.

Further, it is stated that the ten pounds per annum paid as rent by
the bailiff or forester was found to have been raised only by violent
proceedings of sub-foresters and other petty officers seizing- poor
people's grain, and by other extortions : and if those practices were
put an end to, the office would not be worth half a mark per annum.1

The Barons of the Exchequer then decreed that Reginald de
Kingston should for the future, dating from 1326, hold the office at
the will of the Crown, by payment of one mark a year : and should
be excused all arrears, which were above £50.

Notwithstanding the above declaration as to the places dis-
afforested, and therefore no longer within his jurisdiction, Reginald
de Kingston seems to have been either inattentive or aggressive, for
after his death another Inquisition by a jury of twelve " good and
free men" was held "concerning the state of Selwood Forest, and
the transgressions of Reginald de Kingston late custos."

By this it was found " That the Manor of Deverel Lane-brio;^
belonging to Glaston. Abbey was of the demesne of our Lord the
King : so also Knoyle Hodierne belonging to the Abbess of Wilton :
also Ashton Manor belonging to Romsey Abbey : also Stourton
Fitzpayne : the manor of Knoyle belonging to the Bishop of Winton
was of the Lordship of the Earl of Warwick who held mediately of
the King as of his demesne. Wynfeld manor belonging to Keyn-
sham Abbey was of the Lordship of the Earl of Gloucester who
held of the King. Cuvele [Keevil], a manor of the Earl of Arundell
was of the demesne of the King. All which manors with the
woods adjacent were, before the Perambulation, within Selwood
Forest, but since had been disafforested. "

From an earlier Inquisition, in 56 Hen. III. (A.D. 1272), it

1 One of the bad customs connected with the forest law was the ' ' Scot Ale,"
"Pilson Ale," or "Outlaw's Ale": some kind of assembly for administration
of the law. The inferior bailiff, for the occasion, extorted money or grain,
lambs or young pigs, from the poor people, both within and adjoining to the
boundaries. They made a great brewing of beer, and then compelled the
people to attend, consume the article, and pay for it. The Wiltshire sub-
foresters are particularly named as guilty of this oppression. [Hundred Ralls,
vol. ii., 249, quoted in Archdeacon Hale's Domesday of St. Paul's, p. cvii.]

Bj/ the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.

289

would seem that the bounds of the forest were altered from time to
time as suited the caprice of the Crown or its representative. A
jury being summoned of various forest officers to decide whether
the woods of the Abbess of Ilomsey in Ashton and Edington were
without the view and bounds of Selwood, report that they were
without down to the time of Alan Neville, Royal Justiciary of the
Forest, who, of his own accord had made them part of it. After
his time certain knights and others came forward and subscribed a
hundred pounds of silver to have a Perambulation made : when the
aforesaid woods were excluded from the forest down to the time of
Robert Passelewe, who had again made them forest. (Wiltshire
Fines.) By two later Inquisitions these woods were pronounced to
be out of the bounds.

The following depositions as to the extent of Selwood Forest appear
to have been taken about A.B. 1620 — 30, when King Charles I. was
preparing the final dis afforestation.

"A Declaration of the Boundes of the Forest of Frome-Selwoob
oe Wiltshire Walke a member of the said Forest, togeather with such
proofs as will manifest the same.

"Imprimis. That ye same begins at the higher end of ^
Whitemarsh bordering upon a Coppice called Bales Oopice,
and from thence to Fayrebowd Oak, and so downe to White-
marsh untill you oome to Wiltshire Oak and so to Hunters
path, and from thence to a bound-stone y* standeth betweene
Dafford's Wood that is parish to Norton, and Wine-hill,
parish to Warminster, and so along Redford Water untill you
come to the bounds of the parish of Corsley, and so along as
the bounds of Corsley goeth untill you come to Shire-stone
which is ye bounde betweene the parishes of Corseley and
Barkeley and boundeth likewise Somerset and Wilts.

"From thence to a little Oake betweene the bounde of ^
Westbury and Mr. Newborough's woode in Barkeley in the
Co. Somerset, and so alonge by the Three Turrets, then to
a mere-stone between Westbury and Berkeley : from thence Rob. Tucker
to another bound-stone in Westbury Common, then to an old ' als Cowch
starved bound oake and thence to Tennes corner, and so as
the bounds of Westbury goeth to Rudge Lane and to the
stone by the bridge there.

Edw. Salisbury
Thos Carre
Y George Lambe
Edw. Darnall
Wm. Andrewes

21)0

Selwood Forest.

" Then coraeth in the bounde of North Bradley wh. be-
ginneth from Budge Lane end and goeth alonge by the Shire }* Rich
hedge with Somerset and Wilts.

J

M orris

" From thence unto a stone called ye Shire-stoue in Roade
Heath, lying neere Greenclose hedge, from thence to another
shire-stone in the same heath that lyeth flatt North from
the aforesaid stone ; and then the bounds turn west along as
the bank in that Heath goeth unto the top of Road hill unto
another shire-stone, and so along West into Road street unto
the bound-stone in the East side of Slatts brooke, and thence
along on the South east side of Slatts-brook unto Otts meadow?
through that meadow unto the shire-stone on the midst of
Road bridge ; from that bridge northwards on the East of
Rode next unto Tellesford bridge, then northwards on the
east side of the same Rine unto the furthest end of Peter
Crooke's meadow and so eastward unto the top of Vagg's
Hill as the bounds goe between the sd. P. Crooke's and John
Bissy's, and then goeth Eastward unto a bound oak called
Rumsey Oak. And from that oak Northeast unto Swine's-
brooke and from thence down the brooke East unto Acrefield.

Thos: Puckrk

" From thence it goeth downe the little brook plaine east'
unto Hooke woods and then it turneth South East up the
lake toward White Trowe and so East taking the circuit of
South wick's Court-grounde to Woodmarsh and so goeth East
by Studleye's ground and incloseth all the common called
Woodmarsh and from thence to Drynam and alonge still
Eastward compassing all Drynam untill you come to Yarn-
brooke Rine at the East end of Drynam.

" From thence Northward towards Trobridge town's-end
and then turneth Eastwards as the Common called Slowgrove
bendeth to Hagg-Hill and from Hagg-hill it bendeth north-
wards to Semington towne's-end and from thence Eastward
to Littleton's wood and from thenc South East unto Steeple
Ashtou's town's end.

y Mr. Reynold

Mr. Blanshard
Robert Smale

" That all the groundes above bounded have been accounted
Forest and that all the contrey from Little Marsh on the
East side of Hagg-hill neere Semington. unto Algar's neere
Frome were open within memory, and no parte thereof either
impaled, ditched, or otherwise inclosed.

^Wm. Blanchard
Rob. Smale
Wm. Styleman
Wm. White
Geo. Lambe
Wm. Pearce
Edw. Couch

bThos. Stanshall

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.

291

" That all the Common of Westbury is within the bounds
of the Forest, Rob1. Hopkyns and Edw. Couch say, that
there being heretofore a controversie betn. Sr. Thos. Thynne
and the Tenants of the Lord Ley at Westbury and Lye con-
cerning putting cattle into the common Sir Thos. Thynne
did then say that if they were sterne he wd. fetch a drift on
all their commons once a year as Ranger of the Forest : and
that there hath bin marking of sadles at Lyppyeate beyond
Westbury.

f Edw. Couch
Rob. Hopkins
The Perambn.
taken in Edw.
III. time — in
the disposition
taken in the
Court of Ward,
Edw. Staples
and ors agst
Wm Carter als
Smyth 20 June
36 Eliz , testi-
fied by Clement
Trether Wra.
Prior John
Kipping Wm.
Rawlins

11 That sixty years since one John Couch did keepe deere | Vincent
in Chapmanslade Wood for Sir John Thynne and the deer •{ ga]iSDur
did graze as far as Brooke. I Lambe

als

" That one Thos. Venny did keepe deere in Dafford's wood r^-m "White
for Sir John Thynne about sixty years ago and that all the ] jj Vincent
deere did go through all the grounds and commons betn. «{ ^ ' jjam|)e

Chapmanslade wood and Dafford's
Wood-gate and unto Brooke.

wood as far as Brookes 1^

E. Couch

f H. Salisbury

" That there was a Lodge heretofore in Dafford's Wood » -^y White
for a Keeper and that the aforesaid Thomas Venny did dwell "j q. jiambQ
therein and kept deer in the said wood. L E. Couch

"That about sixty years ago one Edw. Couch did keep ("H. White
deer for Sir John Thynne in Chapmanslade Woods and that ■{ G. Lambe
the same lay all open unto the Forest. L E. Couch

1 1 That there is one Whitemarsh now inclosed within Long- '
leat Parke and that there is another Whitemarsh adjoyning
thereunto within the Mannor of Horningsham, wh. lieth
without Longleat parke and that both the sd. Whitemarshes
are forest up to Fairbowd Oake and that the Ld Mount] oy
was Ranger and dwelt in Brooke House and that Corseley
is forest and that the deere of the Forest did ordinarily lie
in the Whitemarshes and other grounds now enclosed within
Longleat Parke before the sd. Parke was enclosed.

G. Lambe
W. Salisbury
E. Daniell
W. Pearce

292

iSelwood Forest.

" That the Copices within the sd. parke now called by the
name of Blacke Copice, and the Grubbings were heretofore
called the King's woods and were indeed the King's woods,
but there were new names put upon them by Sir John Thynne
of purpose that the old names ml. be forgotten.

" That the groundes of the Farm of Eodmister were within
the forest and did reach down within a furlong of Longleat
House, and that it hath bin reported that there were but
xvi acres belonging to the house that heretofore was called
Longleate House ; and that all the grounds of Eodmister
farm were inclosed in the parke, and part of Horningsham
grounds and also of Warminster Common, and the copices
commonly called King's wood togeather with Whitemarsh
which is part of Corseley Common. And that at Eodmister
Farm there was a great Dairy of Kine kept before the Park
was made, and that Eodmister farm howse was standing in
the sd. parke untill Sr. Thomas Thynne caused the same to
be taken down and carried away unto Deverell Longbridge
where he built a house with the timber and stones thereof. _

"Thos. Carr, that
his father told
him so, and bid
him remember
it, for he m*
live to see it
called in ques-
tion.

Edw. Daniell

Edw. Daniell
Geo. Lainbe

" That heretofore Corsley Woods were uninclosed and deere
kept there and in ye winter time they did give them mast
and they were so tame therewith that they wd scarce goe out
of the way.

"W. White

G. Lambe

Jo. Watts ; .that
Corsley Woods
were full of
oakes before
the inclosure,
and thick of
underwood.

The same— ^and
Thos. Marchant

" That the Servants of Sir John Thynne did in the fence-
moneth marke sadles and waynes at Brooker's yeate, Pippin,
in Lye within the parish of Westbury, Kingsbridge and
Lippyeate and at all the gates of Brooke, and that the heirs >
of Sir John Thynne have farmed out the marking of Sadies ( PhiliP KiPPing
Waynes and cartes unto Edw. Couch untill within these five ^ Norris
or six years. j

" That Sadies have been marked by the servants of the said ^
Sii John Thynne and Sir Thomas Thynne upon Wyne-hill in
Warminster Heath and Dafford's woods, untill within this
five or six years.

The same

" That Sir John Thynne did inclose his parke at Longleat ")
out of the Forest, aud did impale Corsley Park likewise [ G' Lambe
within memory. J w- Pearce

By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.

293

w That about sixty years since the Lord Audley that was
the Lord of Warminster did make a warren at Wynehill
upon Warminster heath, since wh. time there hath bin a
warren of coneys, and a lodge built for a warrener, and a
warreoer have lived there and the coneys have spread over
all Dafford's woods and Wyne hill to the great prejudice of
the feeding of the deere within the sd forest, before wch.
time there were neither Coneys nor Lodge there.

" That since Longleat Park was inclosed Sir John Thynne"^
and my Lord Studley and Sir Thos. Thynne did inclose out
of the Forest one hundred acres of ground or thereabout and
lett the same to severall Tennants that have built twelve j
cottages upon and about Rottenbury Hill within the same |
being forrest as abovesaid. J

4< That about twenty years since a Warrant was sent under ^
my Lord of Nottingham's hand that was Ld Chief Justice in
Eyre directed unto the bayliffe or ranger of Dafford's Wood
in Wiltshire Walke commanding him to serve him his Fee -
bucke and upon that warrant Sir Thomas Thynne's keeper
of that walke did kill a warrantable bucke and delyvered it
to the messenger and one Arthur Grymes had the bucke. J

" That Sir Thomas hath ever since his father's death kept ")
deere in Darforde wood. y

" That Roade Heath Southwicke and Langham were here-
tofore reputed forest.

Henry and Ed-
ward Salisbury

Wm. Whytehead

Jo. Whately

E Salisbury
that there are
12 cottages

Jos. Symes

W. White and

others
Wm. White
Phi. Kipping
That he heard
60 years since
that the deer
of the Forest
did use to feed
in a meadow
betweenAshton
& Trowbridge

Wa. Clarke
Phi. Kipping

tt That for two years since Road Heath and all that is
called by the name of Slowe grove and the rest of the com-
mon woode and grounde between Road heath and Hagg hill
was reputed forest. J

"That about twenty-three years since deere did ordinarily | Wm Bighop
feed and ly in Keevil woods and Littleton wood. )

» That there is signe upon Hagghill where the lodge stood 1
and it was reported that the herd of bucks did usually ly in J Do
the plain near adjoining. -n

"That Mr. Long and Mr. Martin have cut within these 1
sk years within Slowgrove and Ammer acre vi hundred J Mr. Styleman
oakes and have inclosed contrary to the forest laws.

« That in a copice of my Lord Ley's that lyeth on the north-
side of Mr. Sloper's Copice which is called by the name of
Jebbett Copice there is signe of the inclosure of the 1113 part
of an acre of ground square where, as it hath bin reported
by ancient men, a Lodge stood.
VOL. XXIII. — NO. LXIX.

Robert Tucker
alias Couch

. Henry Salisbury

E. Daniel]
Thos. King
Tho. Carr

294 Selwood Forest.

{Perambulation,
capt. temp E.

m ■,: ,, <• n ■] ■■■ ., , , i:

ashes in a great piece of ground on the North West of
Longleat Howse to be felled and grubbed up, and the mootes
[stumps] were so many that he (not knowing what to do
with them) caused them to be burned there, and since the
grubbing thereof it is converted to a meadow now called The
Grubbings but before called the King's Woods.

" That the farmer Carr did serve his cattle in Whitemarsh
divers times and claymed it as his common.

" That the Bay lift' of Steple Ashton hath usually heretofor^
made his Drift from Road Heath to Southwick and so to I w
Coneyhayes receiving for every beast tooke in by Jeastment j tyleman
viV viijd., and a penny for every severall marke of the rest. J
"That Walter Longe Esq. did about four or five years "1
since fell in Brookes woods three or four hundred oaks and r Eichard Norris."
sold them away. J
Miscellaneous Notes.
In 1286 (15 Edw. I.) Reginald Kingston, Gustos of Selwood,
complained that in Easter Week, Nicholas de Montford of Tellisford
and Richard le Vag, both outlaws, entered the forest at La Frith
near Tellisford, and took with nets a stag in the water of Tellisford.

In 1366 (40 Edw. III.) John Wyion, Jun.,and Richard le Vernon
Jun., came to La Langlete Heme, outside of the forest, on Monday
before the Feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, and there took a doe
with bow and arrows and harehounds.

In 1427 (6 Hen. VI.) Lord Stourton's park was considered to be
no longer part of the forest.

Among items of an account in 1563 is : —

" Paid for the Forest custom for the passage of four waynes
whereof three were laden with timber, 12d."
In 1618 a license was granted by James I. to John Sykes to fell
trees on his land at Marston Bigott, within the Royal forest of
Selwood. Countersigned by William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke,
Lord Chamberlain and Chief Ranger.

There were three " Walks " in the Somersetshire part, viz.,
Stavordale, Brewham, and Erome Selwood. The last was claimed
by Sir Thomas Thynne as his inheritance.

John de Selwood, Abbot of Glastonbury from A.D. 1457 to A.D.,
1493, was a native of East Woodlands (Dugdale's Monasticon **) .

* ♦",«., the woods in Westbuvy parish that formerly belonged to the Priory of Monkton Farley.

295

gotes on some gbttettt gtiiwj §Mk m
tin Wttatfctt lltuscunt, §coijCS.

By J. G. Gaeson, M.D., F.Z.S., Vice-Pres. Anthrop. Inst., London, Hon.
Corresponding Mem. Soc. Anthrop., Paris.

*£HE skulls from various parts of Wiltshire which I have had
the opportunity of examining through the kindness of Mr.
Wm. Cunnington are those of five adult males and one female. In
general form they are long and narrow as compared to the mean
average form of the skull in the human race, with two exceptions,
namely, that from Overton, and one of those found at Oldbury Hill.
The mean average proportion which the breadth of the human skull
bears to its length is as 77 to 100. Investigation has proved that
in some races the proportion is less than this, whilst in others it is
greater. The general form of the skull is, therefore, an important
feature in determining the physical characters of a race, and com-
paring races one with another. The relative proportion of breadth
to length constitutes what is called the cephalic index. Skulls which
range from 65 to 70 are of a long narrow form, and are consequently
called hyperdolichocephalic. When the index is between 70 and 75
the skulls are termed dolichocephalic. Skulls with a cephalic index
varying from 75 to 80 are considered to occupy a mean position in
the human race, in respect of form, and to these the name mesati-
cephalic is applied. The next group contains skulls with indices
from 80 to 85, and is known as the brachycephalic. Beyond this is
the hyperbrachyeephalic, the roundest skulls, with indices from 85
to 90. 1 The average forms of the present existing race in Britain

1 They may be thus tabulated : —

Gbotjp. Indices.

Hyperdolichocephalic from 65 to 70

Dolichocephalic „ 70 „ 75

Mesaticephalic » 75 „ 80

Brachycephalic „ 80 „ 85

Hyperbrachy cephalic „ 85 „ 90

X %

2D0

Notes on some Ancient British Skulls

are mesaticephalic. Of these ancient skulls only the two referred
to belong to the latter group; the other four are dolichocephalic,
having indices ranging between 70 and 75. In the fundamental
form of the head the majority of these ancient skulls therefore,
differ from the form of the skull in the present race of the British
Isles. The long-shaped skulls are chiefly found in the long barrows.
They also occur occasionally in round barrows; but in the latter the
predominant form of skull is brachy cephalic, and no br achy cephalic
skulls are found in the primary interments in long harrows. In long
barrows hyperdolichocephalic skulls are often found, and in the
round barrows the hyperbrachycephalic form as frequently occurs.
The skulls interred in the long barrows are usually found associated
with worked flints of a more or less rough character, while in the
round barrows metals are not infrequently found, indicating that
the dolichocephalic race were tjie inhabitants of the country anterior
to the brachycephalic. The various objects found in the numerous
barrows of this later race indicate that it must have invaded and
conquered, or driven before it, the dolichocephalic race ; and hence
we are able to account for the presence of dolichocephalic skulls
occuring in round barrows, as in the case of the skull from the
round barrow at Shalbourne.

In all the skulls, as far as could be determined (some of them
being in a broken condition), the height is less than the bread th,
with one exception, namely, the skull from Aldbourne. This is
what usually exists in the human race.

When we examine more particularly the characters of these
crania, we find that there are two different types. The two
skulls from Oldbury are what is termed coffin-shaped, that is
to say the sides of the skull are flat from the point of greatest
width towards the front and back, in the others the side walls are
curved regularly and so that the skull is of a markedly ovoid form.
The two forms can be easily distinguished by placing one of the
Oldbury skulls side by side with that from Monkton cist and viewing
the two from above. The want of sufficient material prevents the
determination of the degree of importance of these two forms being
properly estimated, but it seems not unlikely that the long barrow

in the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes.

297

people consisted of two different races. In all exploration of long
barrows it is most desirable that the character of the finds associated
with each of these forms of dolichocephalic skulls should be most
carefully noted, as well as all circumstances connected with their
interment.

In the character of the nasal portion of the face, the skulls
complete enough for examination conform to the usual type (except
the skull from Monkton, which is broader in proportion to its length
than usual), and the same may be said regarding the orbit. In
only the skull from Overton and that from Shalbourne could the
general form of the face be compared ; in the former the narrowness
o£ the lower portion of the face across the lower jaw is noticeable.

The imperfect condition of the facial portion of the majority of
these skulls renders a comparative study of the face impossible. It
may be noted, however, that the prominence of the forehead above
the nose (called the glabella) is little marked, except in the Overton
skull. This smoothness of the forehead is very characteristic of the
long barrow race and contrasts strongly with the prominent glabella
of the round barrow race.

[For Table of Measurements and Indices of these Skulls see next

page-]

298

Notes on some Ancient British Skulls.

I— 1 I— 1 o- l— 1

O O o O

I I

> ^ W t-l

O -z? 55 ^

: : g^g

^ p-«

to
O

B '

Bi-goniac i— > to i— •
Breadth JO O 00 00
(Mandible). 50 150

Total Facial
Height (from
Symphysis to
iNasion),

£>> ox
to o

Length.

Breadth.

■<* - T •<! -<r -<T «<T

M iEj> to Co ox «<r
tC^ co co o © go

Cephalic
Index.

^ O 00

IT eight
Index.

84-9

about
100

Gnathic
Index.

J CO 1 tf*. | -<f
M CO k£

Nasal
Index.

| GO 1 1 1 CO
O M

Orhital
Index.

i i ? i i ■?

-<r co

Total
Facial.

ii Ox ox . cn
|| *<r to 05

CO CO OS

Mid-
Facial.

ii ^ ^» 1 ^

^ go cn

tronto
Zygo-
matic
Index.

1 1 ? | | ?

Zygo-
matico-
Goniac

Index.

118-8

113-2
1132

Palatal
Index.

Ovoid form

Coffin-shaped

Ditto

Ovoid

Ditto
Ditto

o

3f

© fJ.
■""* o
05 £

FT SB

£ I I

00 1 1

Ox Ox ox Ox rr Ox Ox
^ 05 t>3 to o tO ^
CH tO 00 GO 00

Height.

Minimum
Frontal Width

Circumference
(horizontal;

Basio-nasal
Length.

Basio-Alveolai
Length

Alveolo-Na
Length (Mid
Facial Height)

Bi-zygomatic
Breadth.

1 to

1 05

to
to

to to

£». •<*

Inter-Orbital
Width

1 $ 1

CO

o

I CO
1 00

Width.

I

1 §S 1

1

I CO

1 o.

1 Height. 1

y Orbit.

1

Nose.

299

Cjre Cjmrdj ftralkg of fort| TOtsJirt

By Arthuu Schomberg.
(Continued from Vol. xxiii., ^. 212 J

HUNDRED OF POTTERNE AND CANNINGS.
POTTERNE.

North Chapel.

220. I. —Quarterly of six, 1 and 6, vert, on a chevron argent
three cross crosslets of the field between as many demi-lions rampant
or, langued gules. 2. Sable, a stag at gaze argent. 3. Azure,
on a bend between two water bongets or three leopard's faces gules.
Hunt. 4. Or, three lions rampant sable, langued gules. 5.
Ermine, three crescents gules. Kenn.

Thomas Hunt Grubbe, ob. 1868; Elizabeth, his wife, ob. 1824;
William, their son, ob. 1853.

221. II.—Grubbe (220) impaling, Kenn (220).
Francesca, wife of Thomas Hunt Grubbe, ob. 1767.

222. III.— Grubbe (220), on a shield of pretence, Argent,
two bars sable between three demi-lions rampant or.

Walter Grubbe, ob. 1715; Rebecca, his wife (generosa Brere-
tonorum familia in agro Lincolniensi), ob. 1713.

223. IV. — Long impaling azure, a chevron ermine between three
cross crosslets fitchy or. M.I.

William Long, Sen., ob. 1706, set. 81 ; Bathsheba, his wife, ob.
1696; William Long, Jun., ob. 1721 ; Elizabeth, his wife, ob. 17...

224. V. Argent, three Moor's heads in profile proper couped

at shoulder. Crest. A Moor's head affronty proper.

Jane Tanner, ob. 1789 ; Martha Tanner, ob. 1794.

300

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

225. VI.— Nothing visible but two rooks and a lion. Non male
nota.

Richard Rooke, ob. 1723 ; Marianna, his wife, ob. 1765 ; Richard,
their son, ob. 1736.

North Aisle.

226. VII. — Azure, on a chief or three martlets gules.
Charles Wray, ob. 1791; near the same place lie the remains of

Thomas and Ann Byng, his grandfather and grandmother. M.I.

Nave.

227. VIII. — Azure, a lion passant guardant or, a chief ermine
(141).

Henry Kent, ob. 1759; Christian, his wife, ob, 1763; Henry
Kent, D.D., ob. 1799.

On Moor.

228. IX.— Flower (138).

John Flower, ob. 1723 ; George Flower, ob. 1746; Joseph
Spearing, ob. 1774; Jenevera, his wife, ob. 1775. M.I.

Painted Glass in West Window.

229. X.— Quarterly 1 and 4, England. 2. Scotland. 3.
Ireland.

230. XI.— See of Salisbury (67).

Hatchment in Belfry Room.

231. XII.— Quarterly, sable and argent, in the first quarter a
lion rampant of the second langued and armed gules. Byng; im-
paling, azure, a swan resting on the ground, wings elevated, all
proper. Crest. An heraldic antelope trippant, ermine, maned,
horned, tailed flasked and hoofed or, langued gules.

232. XIII.— Royal arms (27).

Hatchments in Chancel.

233. XIV.— Grubbe (220), impaling, azure, on a chevron
argent three mill-rinds sable, on a canton or a trefoil of the third ;
impaling also for Grubbe and Long. M.I.

By Arthur Schomberg.

301

234. XV.— Grubbe (220), impaling, argent, a chevron gules
between three buck's heads caboshed sable. M.I.

CHITTOE.

WORTON.

HIGHWAY.

BISHOPS CANNINGS.

Chancel.

235. I. — A brass plate. Quarterly, I., quarterly, 1, argent, a
lion rampant. 2. Or, a dexter hand in armour holding a cross
crosslet fitchy. 3. Or, a lymphad, sails furled. 4. Vert, a salmon
naiant. II. Quarterly 1 and 4. Argent a human heart proper
crowned or, on a chief azure three mullets of the field. Douglas of
Tilwhilly. 2. Argent, on a chief therefrom three pyles gules two
mullets of the field. Douglas of Lochleven. 3. Argent, three
mascles sable, on a chief of the second as many lions passant guar-
dant of the field. Ogstoun. III. Quarterly 1 and 4. Douglas
of Tilwhilly. 2 and 3. Ogstoun. IV. Sable, on a bend en-
grailed argent three birds of the field, a crescent for difference ;
impaling, quarterly. 1. Sable, on a bend engrailed argent three
birds of the field. 2. Vert, a chevron between three mullets
pierced or. 3. Gules, a chevron between three mullets argent, in
dexter quarter an arrow, point downwards. 4. Azure, a bend or.
On a shield of pretence, quarterly, 1 and 4. Gules, a fess cheeky
azure and argent between in chief eight fusils, four and four, and in
base five fusils, three and two, all fess-ways. 2 and 3. Argent, a
chevron between three leaves slipt, within a bordure sable. Sup-
porters, two birds closed. Per mare, per terras. Crest. A dexter
hand in armour holding a cross crosslet fitchy. Nec spe, nec metu.

William Macdonald, Archdeacon of Wilts and Canon of Sarum,
ob. 1862.

302

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

South Chapel.

236. II.— Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, on a bend sable, three
eagles displayed or. 2 and 3. Sable, two bars argent, in chief
three plates. Hungerford. Over all the badge of Ulster. Crest.
A man's head in profile, crined and bearded sable, wearing a long
cap bany of six or and of the first, banded tied and tasseled of the
first.

Edward Ernie, ob. 1656 ; Edward Ernie, ob. 1675.

237. III. — An altar-tomb with canopy. Quarterly, 1 and 4,
Ernle (236), 2 and 3. A cross patonee. Malwyn. This coat is
repeated four times. Crest. Ernle (236).

John Ernele, ob. 1571.

On a helmet (funeral ?) the crest of Ernle.

Carved on Seats under Tower.

238. IV.— -See of Salisbury (67), impaling, argent, a chevron
gules, on a canton of the second a cross crosslet fitchy. Moberly.

239. V. — Our Lady crowned and enthroned under canopy
nursing her Divine Child. Church of Salisbury1; impaling,
quarterly, 1 and 4, or, an eagle displayed. 2 and 3. Boyle (43),
on a shield of pretence, or, three boughs slipt within a bordure
bezanty.

On other seats in the Nave are carved the symbols of the Evangelists,
Agnus Dei, and a pelican in its piety.

In the Churchyard, South -West.

240. VI. — An altar-tomb. On a chevron three fusils between
as many griffin's (?) heads erased (135), impaling, two lions com-
battant. Crest. A griffin's (?) head erased.

.Richard Cooke Shergold, ob. 1727.

WEST LAVINGTON.

Chancel.

241. I.— Quarterly, 1 and 4, Hunt (220). 2 and 3. Vert, on

1 Vide Seal No. 2, Hatcher's Salisbury.

By Arthur Schomberg.

303

a chevron ermine three cross crosslets between as many demi-lions
rampant or ; impaling- Smith (104).
Margaret Hunt, ob. 1731. M.I.

South Chapel.

242. II. — Or, a chevron between three lion's heads erased

argent (?). impaling Tanner of Penleigh.

Thomas h Beckett, ob. 1792; Philippa, his wife, ob. 1791;
William Beckett Turner, ob. 1846, set. 87.

South Aisle.

Painted Glass in the east window the symbols of the four Evangelists,
emblems of the Passion, Agnus Dei, and a pelican in its piety.

243. III. — 1 a saltire crescent gules, impaling, a fess

ermine between three nags courant. Stampe. M.I.

244. IV. — 2. A saltire, in chief a crescent and label gules, on
a shield of pretence a cross patty. Bower.

William Yorke, ob, 1659. M.I.

On Floor.

245. V. — A saltire, in chief a crescent, impaling Stampe (243).
Anna Yorke, hie sita est. M.I.

246. VI. — Yorke (244), on a shield of pretence Bower (244).
Willus Yorke, hie situs est. M.I.

Dantsey Chapel.

On a large black altar-tomb with white stone recumbent figure of a
woman two empty shields.

247. VII. — A large handsome marble monument with recumbent
figure. I. and IV. grand quarters — 1 and 4. A chevron between
three mullets of six points pierced. 2 and 3. A saltire thereon an
amulet. II. and III. grand quarters— 1 and 4. Per pale three
bars indented. 2 and 3. A lion rampant supporting a wyvern.
Dantsey. Crest destroyed.

Henry Danvers, ob. 1654.

304 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

248. VIII.— 1. A large black altar-tomb with white marble re-
cumbent figure of a woman. Quarterly, 1 and 4, DANVERS (247).
2 and 3. A saltire thereon an annulet, impaling, quarterly 1 and 4
a lion rampant supporting a wy vern. 2 and 3. Per pale three bars
indented.

249. IX.— 2. A saltire thereon an annulet, impaling, a lion
rampant supporting a wy vern.

Elizabeth, wife of John Dantsey, ob. 1636.

Painted Glass in South Window.

250. X.— 1. Gules, on a chief argent three bombs fired proper.

251. XI. 2. Argent, on a bend sable three stag's heads erased
o£ the field.

252. XII.— 3. Quarterly, or and azure a cross quarterly gules
and argent between in dexter chief and sinister base an eagle dis-
played, in sinister chief and dexter base a water bouget all counter-
changed. Maims. On a shield of pretence, or, on a chevron
engrailed sable three birds rising between as many griffin's heads
erased argent. Dieu aide.

253. XIII.— 4. Sable, crusilly argent a lion rampant ermine.

254. XIV.— 5. Sable, a fess between three lions rampant
argent.

William Mairis, D.D., ob. 1828 ■ Anne, his wife, ob. 1841.

255. XV.— Metal shields fixed to four seats, inscribed " The
Dantesey Charity." Gules, a lion rampant argent, langued or,
supporting a wyvern of the second, winged and langued vert.

North Chapel.

256. XVI.-Hunt (220), impaling, vert, on a chevron ermine
three cross crosslets between as many demi-lions rampant or (241).
Crest. A talbot sejant or, gorged gules. Veritas .et Constantia.

Thomas Hunt and Mary, his wife, 1732.

Painted Glass in North Window.
257. XVII.— 1. Or, a fess between three stag's heads erased

By Arthur Schomberg. 305

sable, impaling, argent, on a chevron engrailed azure three estoiles
or, between as many greyhound's heads erased sable.

258. XVIII. — 2. Argent, an unicorn's head erased gules, on
a chief wavy azure three fusils conjoined in pale or, on a shield of
pretence, or, a fess between three stag's heads, erased sable.

259. XIX. — 3. Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, an unicorn's head
erased gules, on a chief wavy azure three fusils conjoined in pale
or. 2 and 3. Or, a fess between three stag's heads erased sable.

Ann, widow of Isaac Wylde, ob. 1835, set. 86; Hannah, widow
of Thomas Smith, ob 1863, set. 86.

On Floor of North Aisle.

260. XX. — A brass plate. Argent, a fess gules between three
garbs. Crest. A garb.

John White, ob. 1693.

261. — XXI.— A brass plate. White (260).
Thomas White, ob. 1675. M.I.

Over the Door (outside) of South Chapel.

262. XXII.— Gules, three bars or.

263. XXIII. — A Latin cross engrailed.

HUNDRED OF SWANBOROUGH.
ALL CANNINGS.

Chancel.

264. I. — Gules, a lion passant guardant between three roses or
William Fowle, ob. 1770.

265. II. — A brass plate over North Door. On the breast of a
two-headed eagle displayed sable. Argent, three wolf's heads erased,
proper. Crest. A wolf's head couped proper. Methuen.

This chancel was re-built by the Rector, Thomas Anthony
Methuen, and his sons, 1867.

South Wall of Nave.

266. III. — Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, a cross of St. George
thereon the royal crown or, in dexter quarter a torteau (M.I. a

306 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

crescent). 2 and 3. Argent, a f'ess sable between three choughs
proper.

John Nicholas, ob. 1737.

267. IV. — Gules, a fess ermine between three talbots trippant
proper, in their mouths an arrow sable, leathered argent, on a shield
of pretence Nicholas (without the torleau) with its quartering (266),

Richard Riggs, ob. 1774; Penelope, his wife, ob. 1772.

West Wall.

268. V. — A large monument surmounted with three eagles, wings
elevated. Quarterly, 1 and 4, Ernle(237). 2 and 3. Malwyn
(237), with crescent for difference. Crest. Ernle (236).

William Ernele and lone, his wife, 1597.

269. VI.— Fowle (264).
William Fowle, ob. 1796.

270. VII.— Crest, Ernle (236).

Sir John Ernie, Bart.,ob, 1734; Elizabeth, his wife, ob. 1729.
North Aisle.

271. VIII. — Azure, two bars embattled argent.
Daniel Cosens, ob. 1730. M.I.

Over Chancel Arch.

272. IX.— Royal arms (27).

On the Battlements of South Chapel.

273. X.—St. Amand (200).

274. XL-— Beauchamp of St. Amand (187).

CHEVERELL PARVA.
Over Tower Arch.

275. Quarterly 1 and 4, France quartering England. 2.
Scotland. 3. Ireland.

By Arthur Schomberg .

307

CHEVERELL MAGNA.

North Aisle.

276. Azure, a chevron erminois between three escallop shells or,
impaling, gules, two chevronels argent between three birds or.
Crest. A stag's head or.

James Townsend, ob. 1730 ; Katherine, his wife, ob. 1731, set. 84.

MARKET LAVINGTON.
Chancel.

277. I. — Merewether (155).

John Merewether, ob. 1665; Mary, his wife, ob. 1665, and
several of their children.

278. II.— Azure, a bend lozengy within a bordure inverted or,
impaling, azure, a saltire couped. Crest. An antelope's head
(looking sinister.)

William Sainsbury, ob. 1704; Grace, his wife, ob. 1726.

279. III.— Sainsbury (278) [bordure j» lain) , impaling, argent,
on a pale sable three crescents of the field. Hayward. Crest. A
demi-antelope gules.

Samuel Sainsbury, ob. 1748; Elizabeth, his wife, ob. 1765 ;
Samuel, their son, ob. 1768.

On Floor.

280. IV.— Sainsbury (278). Crest. Sainsbury (279).
John Sainsbury, ob. 1735 ; Mary, his wife, ob. 1731; John,

their son, ob. 1736.

Nave.

281. V.— Azure, a stag's head caboshed argent (M.I. or).
Crest. Out of a coronet argent, a plume of five ostrich feathers,
alternately of the first and azure.

Richard Legg, ob. 1778, set. 81; Jane, his wife, ob. 1777;
Richard, their son, ob. 1880 ; Bridget, his wife, ob. 1810 ; Elizabeth
Ford, their daughter, ob. 1849.

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

North Aisle,

282. VI. — Cheeky argent and gules, a lion rampant guardant
or, impaling, argent, on a chevron between three lion's heads erased I
gules, as many fusils of the field. M.I. Crest. A bear's (?) head \
couped or, between two wings displayed argent.

John Shergold, ob. 1788; Catherine, his wife, ob. 1810; E)iza
Ford, ob. 1797 ; Joseph Barwell, ob. 1792 ; Eliza, his wife, ob. 1793.

283. VII.— Hayward (279), impaling, or, fretty azure. Crest,
a demi-horse, hoofed aud maned or.

Robert Hayward, ob. 1726 ; Sarah, his wife, ob. 1745, jet. 85 ;
Alice, their daughter, ob. 1769, set. 82.

South Aisle.

284. VIII.— Argent, on a fess between three saltires couped
sable as many fleurs-de-lys of the field, impaling, Sainsbury (279).

John Smith, ob. 1713.

Hatchments.
In Vestry.

285. IX.— Merewether (155), impaling, Townsend (276).

Under Tower.

286. X.— Royal arms (27).

287. XI. — Quarterly of three. 1. Per fess or and argent, a
two-headed eagle displayed sable on its breast the arms of Bouverie,
viz , gules, a bend vair ; a crescent for difference. 2. Bouverie.
3. Argent, a bend gutty d'eau between two choughs proper, a
chief cheeky or and sable, Pleydell, impaling, gules, a fess between
eight billets, four and four, or.

288. XII. — The same impaling the same. Crest. A demi-
eagle with two heads displayed sable, ducally gorged and beaked or,
on its breast a cross crosslet argent. Patria cara, carior libertas.

There is another, too high up and too indistinct to blazon.

STERT.

By Arthur Schomberg.

309

CHIRTON.

Painted Glass in the East Window of Chancel ; the symbols of the
Four Evangelists.

North Aisle.

289. I. — 1. Ernle (236), on a shield of pretence Hungerford
(236).

290. II. — 2. Quarterly of six, 1 and 6. Gules, a fess cheeky
or and ermine between two antelopes courant argent crined and
horned of the second. 2. Ernle (236). 3 and 5. Hungerford
(236). 4. Vert, on a bend engrailed argent three human hearts
proper.

291. III. — 3. Ernle (236), on a shield of pretence, Vert, on
a bend engrailed argent three human hearts proper.

292. IV.— 4. The same as No. 1.

293. V. — 5. Warriner (290), on a shield of pretence Ernle
(236) impaling Long of Hood Ashton (42).

Isaac Warriner, ob. 1752, set. 84; Gertrude, his wife, ob. 1709;
Gifford, their son, ob. 1787; Elizabeth, his wife, ob. 1757, and
Anna, his wife, ob. 1791; Gifford Warriner, ob. 1820; Elizabeth,
his wife, ob. 1824; Ernie Warriner, ob. 1850.

Hatchments.

Under Tower.

294. VI.— Quarterly, 1 and 4, Ernle (236). 2 and 3. Hunger-
ford (236). Crest. Ernle (236).

295. VII. — Per fess or and argent, a lion rampant azure (?)
langued gules ; impaling, quarterly, 1 and 4, Ernle (236) . 2 and
3. Hungerford (236). Crest. A demi-lion rampant or.

296. VIII.— 295, on a shield of pretence Ernle (236), im-
paling, Long of Rood Ashton (42) .

297. IX. — The same. Crest. A demi-lion rampant or. Mors
janua vitas.

298. X.— Quarterly, 1 and 4, Warriner (290), with crescent

YOL. XXIII. NO. LXIX. T

310

The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

for difference. 2 and 3. Ernle (236), impaling, or. Crest. Out
of a lantern (? a crown vallery sable) a demi-eagle displayed or,
semee of pellets. Decus semulatus avitum.

In Vestry.
299. XI. — Royal arms (44).

WILSFORD.

CHARLTON.

Chancel.

300. I. — Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale argent.
Adjutor.

Francis Giffard, ob. 1802, set. 80.

301. II. — Or, a fess lozengy gules. Crest. A griffin's head
erased.

William Pinckney, ob. 1698 ; his wife, ob. 1709 ; Charles
Pinckney (Marshall of the Horse to Queen Anne and George I.), j
ob. 1716; Robert Pinckney, ob. 1747, set. 83; Martha, his wife,
ob. 1752; William Pinckney, ob. 1779; Sarah, his wife, ob. 1756.

302. III.— Pinckney with crest (301).

Sophia Hearne Pinckney, ob. 1862, set. 82; Jane, widow of John j
Fisher, ob. 1873, set. 86.

Under Communion Table.

303. IV.-— Pinckney (301).
William and Sarah Pinckney.

Nave.

30 i. V. — On a chevron engrailed a fusil between two fleurs-de-
lys. Crest. A lion rampant ducally gorged and chained.

Henry Wansbrough, ob. 1875 ; Mary, his wife, 1877.

305. VI. — Fowle (264), impaling, gules, a chevron paly or and
azure between three mullets of the second. Springsbelt. (?)

Thomas Fowle, ob. 1783; Henry Fowle, ob. 1803 ; Jane, his
wife, ob. 1780; Sarah Fowle, ob. 1850, ast. 86.

By Arthur Schomberg. 311
North Chapel.

1 306. VII. — A brass. Quarterly, 1 and 4, a chevron gules
between three escallop shells, a crescent for difference. 2 and 3. A
chevron between three demi-eagles displayed.

William Chancey, 1424, and Marion, his wife.

307. VIII. — Under a niche, Chancey without crescent (306)
impaling', a chevron between three castles Dunch (?).

308. IX. — Under a niche, a chevron between three birds. Thorn-
hill.

On shields borne by angels supporting Hoof of Nave, the symbols
df the Four Evangelists and emblems of the Passion.

Outside the Church.
Door of North Porch.

309. X.— Thornhill (308). Crest. A tree.

310. XI. — Chancey (307), impaling, Dunch (307).

311. XII.— Thornhill (308) impaling, Chancey (307). Crest.
Thornhill (309).

North Window.

312. XIII.- Chancey (307).

313. XIV.— Thornhill (308), impaling, three bars between
twelve escallop shells. Moulton (?).

314. XV.— Hungerford (236), impaling, Moulton (313).

315. XVI.— Moulton (313), impaling, a dolphin naiant em-
bowed. FlTZJAMES.

ETCHILHAMPTON.

Chancel.

316. I.— A brass plate. Arms and crest of Methuen (265).

1 Vide Kite's " Monumental Brasses of Wiltshire" p. 49.

Y 2

312 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.

1869. This Chancel and Vestry are dedicated by Thomas ;f
Plumptre Methuen as a memorial of his father, Thomas Anthony |(
Methuea, the Rector. •

On the Floor.

317. II.— Ernle (236), quartering Hungerpord (236). Crest.
Ernle.

Walter Ernie, ob. 1732.

On the north side of the chancel is a stone altar-tomb, thereon
two recumbent figures of a knight in armour and his wife. Around
the sides are several figures of men and women ; on the north side
a male figure holding a shield, the arms, however, are worn away.

Nave. 1

318. III.— Arms obliterated. Crest. Ernle (236).
Gertrude Ernie, ob. 1662.

On Floor. 1
339. IV. — On a chevron three quatrefoils, on a shield of
pretence, Or, on a fess engrailed azure three fleurs-de-lys of the
field, between as many nag's heads couped sable. Bayley. M.I. I
Crest. A man's leg couped at thigh and spurred.
Honoria, wife of Henry Eyre, ob. 1685,

ERCHFONT. ji

Chancel.

320. I. — A fess nebuly gules, in chief a helmet between two i
lion's heads erased. Crest. Out of a coronet a plume of five ostrich |
feathers.

n

John Townsend Compton, ob. 1852 ; William, his son, ob. 1852.

321. II. — Arms and crest of Compton (320).

Daniel Compton, ob. 1817 ; Harriett, his wife, ob. 1827. j,

322. III. — A large white marble monument with black marble is
sarcophagus, standing thereon two white marble busts of a man and I
woman; on either side a white marble statue of a boy; one weeping
and holding a torch reversed, the other holding an hour-glass. |

By Arthur Schomlerg.

313

Azure, on a bend argent cotised or a lion rampant sable ; impaling1,
or, on a fess between three lions rampant sable as many mullets
argent. M.I. Crest. On a mount vert a dove holding an olive-
branch proper.

Robert Tothill, Senior Clerk of the Privy Seal to George II., ob.
1753 ; Olive, his wife, ob. 1731.

323. IV. — Arms and crest of Compton (320).

Richard Compton, ob. 1823; Henry, his son, ob. 1843; Ann,
his daughter, ob. 1853 ; Richard, his eldest son, ob. 1868.

Hatchments.

324. V. — Quarterly, 1 and 4, gules, a chevron engrailed between
three estoiles argent. Pynsent. 2 and 3. Ermine, a lion rampant
sable, armed gules. M.I.

325. VI. — The same quartered coat with badge of Ulster; im-
paling, argent, a bend cotised sable, in chief a cross crosslet of the
second. M.I.

North Chapel.

326. VII. — Argent, a chevron gules between three boar's heads
couped sable, tusked and langued proper (11).

Seymour W rough ton, ob. 1789.

327. VIIL— Wrougiiton (326), impaling, Long of Rood
Ashton (42).

William Wroughton, ob. 1750 ; Sarah, his wife, ob. 1777.
South Chapel.

328. IX. — Long of Rood Ashton (42). Crest. A demi-lion
rampant argent.

James Long, ob. 1768.

329. X — Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent. 2 and 3. Hungerford
(236). Over all on a bend sable three eagles displayed or. [This
is, doubtless, meant for Ernie quartering Hungerford.] Crest.
Ernle (236).

Thomas Ernie, ob. 1725.

(To be Continued.)

314

(Communicated by Mr. James Waylen.)

HE fines imposed on the Royalists of this county at the
conclusion of the war between Charles I. and his Parlia-
ment form the subject of the ensuing papers. The schedules of
estates (called "particulars"), on which those fines were adjudicated
and levied in Goldsmith's Hall, are preserved in the State Paper
Office. Fully to exhibit all exactions of that nature occurring in
Wiltshire during the progress of hostilities would necessitate a
transcript of the journal kept by the local committee acting in the
Parliament's behalf, and holding their sittings at Ealstone House,
a castellated mansion a little south of Wilton. But this would be
an endless task; and therefore the final settlements effected in
London will, with a few additions, be alone exhibited. No doubt
some of the details will, to the ordinary reader, be dry enough; but
the genealogist will, it is hoped, find himself remunerated by the
discovery of a variety of matters of family interest.

Richard Aldworth, of Hinton-Pipard, Esq. His petition to
the Committee of Sequestrations sheweth — That he, having his
education in the affairs of the council chamber, and being with His
Majesty during these unhappy wars, did, by royal authority, com-
mand a troop of horse in that service ; — That he is included in the
articles for the surrender of Oxford ; though he admits that he has
taken neither the National Covenant nor the Negative Oath. He
is seised in fee to him and his heirs in possession of and in the manor
of Hinton-Pipard called Stanlake's farm, bequeathed to him by his
father, Richard, in 1638, worth before the troubles £160 per annum.

He craves allowance in respect of £1200, which by his father's
will is charged on the said manor for portions of £200 apiece to the
six younger sons, Thomas, Robert, Henry, George, John, and
William, who are all living, but the money unpaid ; — also in respect

The Wiltshire Compounders.

315

of £300 charged on the same as the portion of Anne, his daughter,
still unpaid ; — also, from the same source, £100 a year to Amy, his
mother, who is still living and in actual receipt of the same also,
£6 a year to the poor of Reading, — one pound to Joan Wheeler,
and thirty-one shillings to the lord of the fee, all chargeable on the
same estate.

Fine, £200, declared 4th May, 1649.

All these liabilities, added to his personal expenses in the war,
must have gone far to make Mr. Aid worth's birthright a profitless
attribute ; besides the risk, as in many similar cases, of alienating
his family relations by compromising their interests. And, on his
remonstrating, the next year, on the score of the legacies not having
been fairly taken into consideration, the only reply he gets is as
follows at the foot of his memorial " First fine to stand. 10
April, 1650."

Sir Edward Alford, of Offington, Co. Sussex, M.P. for Arundel,
disabled in 1644, held in Wilts a farm and other lands at Whitsbury,
for the remainder of a term having eighty years to run, held of Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper, worth per annum before the troubles £194.
Fine on his entire estate at first declared at £2908, and reduced
upon the Articles of Exeter to £1284. But he appears to have paid
more eventually, besides being compelled to endow ministers (a
frequent form of penalty) in Cheltenham, Charlton, and Market
Harborough.

Thomas, Lord Arundel, second baron of Wardour, died in his
sixtieth year at Oxford, on the 9th of May, 1643, from wounds
which he had received a few days previously, presumably at the
skirmish near Launceston (but certainly not at Lansdowne fight, as
has been frequently stated, for this latter event did not occur till
two months later. The mistake may have arisen from the resem-
blance in sound between the two places. It is true Lord Clarendon
speaks of a Lord Arundel of Wardour being wounded, though not
fatally, at Lansdowne, on the 5th of July, but this must have been
Henry, the third baron. There is abundant proof that his father,
Thomas, was not then alive) .

Shortly before Lord Thomas's death his castle of Wardour was

316

The Wiltshire Compounders .

attacked and captured by Sir Edward Hungerford and Edmund
Ludlow at the head of a body of local troops ; and Ludlow being-
then left in command had himself to sustain a siege of several
months from the Royalists under Doddington and the young Lord
Arundel, a detailed narrative of all which may be seen in Ludlow's
Memoirs and the Seward Anecdotes, but cannot be here recited, as
our present subject has reference mainly to the penalties enforced by
sequestration.

Henry, Lord Arundel of Wardour. The proceedings against
this nobleman were instituted by virtue of an Act passed in 1652 ,
long after the conclusion of the war, and styled an " Additional
Bill for the sale of several lands and estates forfeited to the Common-
wealth for treason."" The first notice we have is the following
letter having reference to the late lord, sent to the London com-
mittee by the sequestrators at that time acting in the south of Wilts,
viz., William Ludlow, of Clarendon Park ; Nicholas Green, of
Winterbourne Stoke ; and Bennet Swayne, of Wilton (ancestor of
the late clerks of the peace for this county) : —

" Sarum, 21 June 1652

" Honotjbable In answer to your desire of 10th June last concerniDg the
time of sequestering the estate of Thomas late Lord Arundel of Wardour, he was
never sequestered for delinquency before his death, for we find no such thing
upon record : And we are well informed that he died at the beginning of the
year 1643 at Oxford, at the time when his house was made a garrison, and before
the sitting of any committee in this county. Signed by Ludlow, Green, and
Swayne."

As three-fourths of the estates of those convicted of the two-fold
offence of recusancy and delinquency were sold absolutely, though
frequently under circumstances which favoured their easy return to
the right owners, it becomes impossible in a case like the present to
give even an approximation to the total loss sustained by the se-
questrated party. Absolute ruin was often averted by the inter-
position of friends or relatives who became the nominal purchasers ;
while the sums given were probably never publicly known. In the
case of Henry, Lord Arundel, the following conveyances were all
declared in 1653 as made to Humphrey Weld, his brother-in-law,
Walter Barnes, and William Hurman, Esquires.— The manors of

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 317

Melbury Abbess, in Dorset, and of Kingsdown, in Somerset, in
April— Wardour Park, consisting of two divisions, the fallow-deer
park and the red-deer park, 17 July— Tollard-royal with its tene-
ments and appurtenances in Wilts and Dorset, 16 August — South
Petherton, in Somerset, 18 August— Bridzor, 19 August— Mes-
suages and lands in Sutton Mandeville and Donhead manor, all in
Wilts, 2 September— Manor of Goddington, in Oxon, 13 September
— Semble, in Wilts, 15 September— Somerton, in Oxon, 28 Septem-
ber—Humphrey Weld and Walter Barnes bought the manor of
Font-Mell in Dorset, 22 June ; and Nicholas Green bought, 30
July, Meere Park, with the lodge, in Wilts. A fine was adjudged
16 June, 1653, of £711 14*. 6d.} as applicable to two-thirds of the
estate.

The adjustment of Lord Arundel's sequestration, like that of
many other sufferers by the protracted and vexatious delays at
Goldsmith's Hall, was apparently facilitated by the personal ad-
vocacy of Oliver Cromwell. Indeed it became a common practice
for the petitioning Royalists to make their appeal to him as to a
common deliverer, as the one person who would get justice done for
them if possible. Lady Chandos once presented a petition to him
on her knees, in behalf of her husband, who, together with Lord
Arundel of Wardour, was to be tried on the following day. This
was in 1653, when so many were anticipating his assumption of the
supreme power. With the tenderness towards women which he
habitually manifested he courteously rebuked her for exaggerating
his supposed influence. With his action in Lord Arundel's affair it
even looks as though a sentiment of mutual courtesy had become
mingled. The ensuing document may partly indicate this, as also
the testimony of John Aubrey when he tells us of Lord Arundel's
dining with Oliver one day at Hampton Court

" Whebeas it hath appeared to his Highness the Lord Protector and his
Council that Henry Lord Arundel ought by virtue of an Act of the late Parlia-
ment published 22 November 1652, to have been admitted to compound for his
estate according to certain rules in the said Act mentioned :— And whereas his
estate being nevertheless exposed to sale, it further appeared that the money by
him or in his behalf paid in towards the purchase thereof to the trustees for sale
of delinquents' lands for the use of the Commonwealth, doth exceed the fine

318

The Wiltshire Compounders.

which by the rules aforesaid tlie same would have amounted unto. — Be it there-
fore ordained by his Highness the Lord Protector by and with the advice and
consent of his Council, that in pursuance of the said Henry Lord Arundel's desires
and consent declared, and in the consideration of the money which hath been
already paid unto the trustees for sale of delinquents' lands by or in behalf of
the said Henry Lord Arundel whereof the £4785 18-s. 3d. deposited in the hands
of the Registrar of Drury House are to be accounted part and to be applied to
the use of the Commonwealth :— The said Trustees be and are hereby authorised
and required absolutely to grant and convey all the lands and estates of the said
Henry Lord Arundel which are vested in the said trustees unto Humphrey Weld
esq. Walter Barnes and William Hurman gent and their heirs ; and to deliver up
and release unto the said persons afore-named, having purchased the premises,
all such grants and securities as have been given by them to the said trustees
for sale of delinquents' lands for or towards the second moieties of any part of
the said estate in such and the same sort as if the whole purchase money con-
tracted and due for the same had been paid and satisfied to the use of the
Commonwealth.

" Henet Scobell,

"Passed, 11 April 1654. » Clerk of the Council."

The Hon. William Arundel, of Horningsham, second son of
Thomas, the first Lord Arundel of Wardour.

So far back as the winter of 1640-41, William Arundel and the
Lady Mary St. John, his wife, then in London, had addressed a
petition to the Lords, setting forth that at the recent sessions in
the County of Wilts they had both been indicted for recusancy
(Romanism) ; whereunto if they failed to appear personally at the
next sessions they would be convicted unless the same were removed
by certiorari. And forasmuch as their place of appearance was
distant from London eighty miles, and the said William Arundel
being a man of weak and infirm body was unable to perform so
long a journey without imminent danger, and for divers other
causes expressed in the petition ; therefore they prayed that a certiorari
might be allowed, to remove the said indictment out of Wiltshire
into the King's Bench. To which the Lords assented. Various
other petitions of his are extant, their general tenour being that in
consequence of a deposition made in his favour by the Wilts Com-
mittee in 1650 his estates were sequestrable as those of a papist
only, and not of a delinquent. Two-thirds of his estate in Wilts,
which county he observes was his constant residence, were now
sequestered, but this was for recusancy only. He was never a

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen.

319

delinquent to the Parliament, nor so adjudged by any committee ;
nevertheless, from some mistake in the duplicate of a rental (sic)
from the late committee of London, where he was altogether un-
known, certain houses on Tower Hill were described as sequestered
as the estate of William Arundel, a delinquent, which occasioned
the petitioner's name to be returned as a papist-delinquent, and his
estate to be put into the bill of sale, to the ruin of the petitioner and
his posterity, if not speedily relieved by the interference of the new
commissioners. Endorsed thus : — " It appearing that he is seques-
tered for delinquency, the committee can do nothing in it." His
fine was set at £333 6s. 8d., from which it may be interred that the
estates were not sold.

In proof of William Arundel's delinquency it was stated that he
had been a colonel in the King's army, a report which the Wilts
Committee appear to have discredited. Neither did they deem
sundry depositions which were made with the same object at Devizes
in 1650 sufficient evidence of active personal hostility to the Parlia-
ment. Those depositions were as follows : —

"John Oliver, of Horningsham, yeoman, saith : — that in the time of the late
war, Mr. Arundel kept a garrison in his house at Woodhouse, and did send
letters to and inform the King's Commissioners against this deponent, declaring
that he was a Roundhead ; and he took a warrant from the tythingman of
Horningsham, sent by the King's party, and conveyed the same to Sir Edward
Hungerford. Moreover he enforced this deponent to pay unto him, Mr. Arundel,
and to his son, ten quarters of oats and £3 10s. in money ; and did several
times use this deponent very inhumanely for his affection to the Parliament."

" Richard Millard, of Horningsham, saith : — that Mr. Arundel rode armed
with his sword and pistols to Oxford, then a King's garrison, and carried with
him six horses, and this deponent, armed likewise with a carabine, rode with
him as his servant from Woodhouse to Oxford, although Mr. Arundel had
promised to go to Sir Edward Hungerford with the said horses. And Mr.
Arundel was at the garrison of Bristol at the time when Major Wansey with his
forces came to Woodhouse."

"John King, of Horningsham, saith: — that he being a weaver and servant
to Mr. Beard, a clothier, Mr. Arundel came to his house at nine or ten at night,
and, with a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, asked what rebel rogues
he kept in his house, threatening that if he would not deliver up the rebel Beard
he would lay him the deponent in gaol for three months, and afterwards deliver
him up. He then demanded a green-grey cloth of Mr. Beard's, or stuff to make
it ; and this he did because Beard was well affected to the Parliament. This

320

The Wiltshire Compounders.

was at the time when Colonel Ludlow was besieged in Wardour Castle by the
King's forces. Ho further saith that by the report of the country Mr. Arundel
kept a garrison in his house against the Parliament."

" Alexander Pearce, of Horningsham, saith :— that the said Mr. William
Arundel being on a certain day during the time of the late war at Horningsham
in company with Sir Robert Welch, with his sword and pistols, met this de-
ponent and desired Sir Robert Welch to hang him for being in arms against the
King. The said Sir Robert Welch answered that if it were so he had the King's
broad seal to do it [to hang him]. And by threats between them they enforced
this deponent to serve the King against the Parliament, to save his life. And
this was when Colonel Ludlow was besieged in Wardour Castle."

" Anthony Sweet, of Horningsham, saith :— that he being a workman to the
said Mr. Arundel, when Sir Edward Hungerford came against Woodhouse, Mr.
Arundel called this deponent, and delivering to him a musket, desired him to
stand for him in defence. And Mr. Arundel, after he had compounded with Sir
Edward Hungerford, brought forth other arms and desired the company which
was at his house to stand with him and fight for the King, or else to go out of
his doors ; whereupon this deponent went away."

" Roger Trollop saith :— that Mr. Arundel promised to come to Sir Edward
Hungerford at [Maiden] Bradley and to bring in his horses ; instead of which
he rode to Oxford, and this deponent accompanied him as his servant."

" Edward Adlam saith :— that Mr, Arundel sent his son to Oxford with two
men and two horses and arms, for the King's service against the Parliament.
Mr. Arundel was always at home when the King's forces were in the country,
but never when the Parliament's forces were there. He sent ammunition to his
tenants at Horningsham with directions to keep his house against the Parlia-
ment, but Major Wansey being gotten in before, he then said that he wished all
his tenants' throats might be cut.' '

" The above depositions were sworn to at Devizes, 7 May, 1650 [when Mr.
Arundel was making his final composition with the sequestrators] in the presence
of

" William Ludlow.
" Nicholas Green.
" Bennet Sway.ne."

His neighbours in Wiltshire were evidently resolved that Mr.
Arundel had sustained sufficient damage as a " recusant " : and
therefore, as above stated, they treated these depositions as frivolous.
The following " mem/' points to one of the annoyances to which
sequestration was subjecting him. Franklyn, the farmer by whom
the two-thirds portion of his estate was rented from the State,
pretending that he had made a dear bargain, it was reported con-
cerning him that he was making great havoc and spoil by carrying

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen.

321

away and embezzling the timber and stone and other materials from
the mansion-house (of Hook?), to the great prejudice both of the
Commonwealth and of Mr. Arundel. And the said Franklyn doth
also threaten to cut the woods and to plough up the pasture grounds.
An order was thereupon sent down to the Wilts Committee (ap-
parently by Mr. Squibb) to prevent future mischief by Franklyn^
and to keep him rigorously to the terms of his lease .

" Tishury Parsonage [or Rectory}.
" To all officers and soldiers under my command. In case one William Langley
of Tytherington in Wilts or any tenant under him claiming in the rectory of
Tisbury belonging to William A.rundel Esq. be interrupted or disturbed in their
possession thereof by any soldier whatsoever, without order from the Lords and
Commons for sequestration or myself, you and the soldiers under yon are hereby
required to be aiding and assisting to the said William Langley and the tenants
aforesaid for the quieting them in their possessions, if need require. Given under
my hand and seal at Turnham Green this 8th October, 1647.

"Thomas Fairfax."

" By the Committee of Lords and Commons for sequestration, 19 Dec. 1649.
By virtue of an Order of Parliament of 2 May, 1646, in regard the parish of
Tisbury in Wilts containeth a great market town it is therefore ordered that the
yearly rent of £16 16s. \0d. reserved to the Dean of Bristol out of the im-
propriate rectory of Tisbury aforesaid be paid to and for increase of the main-
tenance of Mr. John Barnes minister of the parish church of Tisbury aforesaid,
over and above the £80 a year granted unto the said church by a former order
of this Committee."

The expression " a great market town " occurring in the above
document would seem to indicate that Tisbury was formerly of more
relative importance than at present. This was made the basis of a
query some years back, in our Magazine, but elicited no response.
The present Lord of Wardour could possibly throw light on the
question.

The Hon. William Arundel died in 1653, aged 62. His son,
Charles, had pre-deceased him, but left issue. By his will, dated
1651, William Arundel constitutes his brother-in-law, Francis
Cornwallis, his executor, and bequeaths two thousand pounds apiece
out of his personalties to each of his two daughters, Mary and
Elizabeth, to be paid on the day of their marriage, if such marriage
be with the consent of their mother, the Lady St. John; or at the
age of twenty-one \ the residue of his goods and chattels to his

322 The Wiltshire Compounders.

wife, the Lady St. John. His daughter, Mary, became the wife of
Sir Henry Tichborne, Bart.

Iu March, 1655, a petition was presented in behalf of Charles
Arundel, an infant, by John Talbot, his guardian, to allow his title
to certain lands, parcel of the manor of Hanley, in Dorset, coming
to him as heir of his father, Charles Arundel, deceased (son of
William, of Horningsham), but now sequestered for the delinquency
of the occupant, Henry Butler, who hath no right or title thereunto.
Here the legal ownership was the point in dispute. It was shewn
that Thomas, Lord Arundel, in 1632, for one thousand pounds
granted the portion now claimed by Butler to Thomas Shergoll, of
Ebbesbourn, in Wilts, for ninety-nine years, if either of ShergolFs
three sons, William, Thomas, and Robert, should so long live,
rendering £20 a year. Robert, the last survivor of the race, fell at
Edgehill, as ensign to Captain Loftus, in Colonel Essex's Regiment ;
but Butler, who held the estate under Shergoll, continued in pos-
session, pretending belief that Robert was yet alive, though no one
had ever seen him since the Battle of Edgehill, in 1642. As for
the entire manor of Hanley, this, with some adjacent lands, had in
1637 been demised by Thomas Lord Arundel, to Sir Thomas
Reynell, Kt., Henry Sandys, and William Sandys, Esquires, for
the use of himself during life, and after that to the payment of
debts and of portions to Frances Countess of Shrewsbury, Margaret
Lady Fortescue, and Clara wife of Humphrey Weld, the residue to
be assigned as Lord Arundel should in his will direct. Now, the
portions to the Ladies Clara and Margaret being paid, and Lord
Arundel having by deed directed other portions to be given to the
Lady Anne, wife of Cecil Lord Baltimore, Mary Lady Somerset,
and Katharine Ewer, others of his daughters, and appointed that
when all was paid the lands should be conveyed to William Arundel
his second son, and to his heirs male, they came eventually to be
claimed, as above shown, by Charles the grandson of this William.
Lord Arundell had died in 1637, only two years after making the
above disposition, upon which Sir Thomas Reynell and his co-trustees
entered upon the manor, kept courts there, and took the rents and
profits, among others £20 from Butler himself; and on the death

Communicated by Mr. James IF ay ten.

823

of the last of the Shergolls at Edgehill, William Knipe (professional
agent for the Arundels) made, in Reynell's behalf, an entry on a
portion of the estate called Berryfield Corner, Butler resisting the
attempt and continuing in possession, till, after several hearings,
judgment was awarded in favour of Sir Thomas Reynell, and Butler
was ordered to pay to the Dorset Committee arrears at the rate of
£100 a year. It was finally decreed that as soon as Sir Thomas
Reynell could remove all outstanding incumbrances the manor
should be conveyed to William Arundel's heir. The next document
shows that this was effected in 1656 : —

" Since the delivery of this report there is produced to me the affidavit of Sir
Thomas Reynell Knt, sworn before Mr. Hobart one of the Masters of Chancery
18 June 1656 who deposeth that all the debts and sums of money owing and
appointed to be paid by Thomas Lord Arundel grandfather of Henry now Lord
Arundel of Wardour out of certain lands conveyed by the said Thomas Lord
Arundel by indenture dated 2 July, 1637 unto him the deponent and unto Henry
and William Sandys Esquires are satisfied and paid according to several decrees
made in the High Court of Chancery, except a debt of £500 claimed by Walter
Fowler Esq. and another debt of £100 claimed by the poor of the parish of
Tisbury in the Co. of Wilts (for which last debt there is depending a suit in the
said Court of Chancery whether the same ought to be satisfied out of the said
trust or not). 24 June 1656.

" John Beadinge."

Miscellaneous papers relating to the Arundel estates in sequestration.
In February, 1648, a petition was presented to the Peers from
John Earl of Shrewsbury, and Frances his wife, in behalf o£ them-
selves and other co-heirs of Anne Lady Arundel of Wardour,
deceased, with a view to recover from Cecil Calvert Lord Baltimore,
certain estates at Christchurch and Westover, in Hants. It is
stated that Thomas the first Lord Arundel of Wardour long before
his death settled the honour and hundred of Christchurch and
Westover to the use of himself for life, with remainder to Anne
Lady Arundel, and her heirs. The lady died in 1637, leaving issue
Katharine Ewer, widow, the Lady Mary Somerset, the Lady Balti-
more, Frances Countess of Shrewsbury, Margaret the wife of Sir
John Fortescue, and Clara, the wife of Humphrey Weld, Esq. Of
these, the Lady Fortescue died in the same year, leaving issue
Frances her daughter, an infant. Thomas Lord Arundel, died two

324

The Wiltshire Compounders.

years later, when, by distinct offices in 17° and 18° Caroli, the
title and estate of the co-heirs were found, and the King became
entitled to the wardship of the said infant Frances and to livery
and primer seisin of the residue. But the Lord Baltimore, not
content with his part in right of his wife as co-heir, brought forward a
deed made by the said Thomas, Lord Arundel, in his sickness shortly
before his death, when his memory failed him, which deed, being
got secretly and by surprize, was void in law. The other co-heirs,
therefore, exhibited an information in the Court of Wards, to which
Lord Baltimore responded by a cross bill against the co-heirs ; but
when respective answers had been put in, issues joined, witnesses on
both sides examined, publication passed, and the cause ready for
hearing, the affair was brought to an abrupt termination by the
court itself being dissolved by ordinance of Parliament. This was
in 1642, when graver matters of public concernment were about to
be put in issue, and Lord Baltimore, taking advantage of the times,
proceeded to cut down woods and levy fines and rents to his own
use. This lasted till 1648, when the co-heirs petitioned; but as the
remnant of the House of Peers then sitting were soon after silenced
by the Commons, the result was postponed.

In the meanwhile Thomas Blandford, of Semley, had made oath
before the Wilts Committee to the following effect, that about the
beginning of November, 1645, John Weekes, of Shaftesbury, in
the capacity of steward, held a court-baron in Hook-house at
Semley, for the Lord Baltimore, as lord of the manor; and sum-
moned all the freeholders, and demanded of one Haskell whether he
would be sworn to serve as a homager, who answered that he would,
if it might do him or his neighbours no hurt — that Lord Baltimore
was himself present at the court, and took notice who were absent,
threatening that he would re-enter on their tenements. The said
Weekes being asked by some of the tenants by what authority he
kept the court for Lord Baltimore, answered " by order from the
committee/' yet would not show it. Falstone Day Book, \§th
November j 1645.

By an indenture made in 1643 between John Arundel, Esq.,
Robert Hyde, Serjeant-at-Law, Mr. Whitaker, John Ffoyle, and

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen.

325

William Hurman, of the one part; and Henry Lord Arundel of
Wardour, son and heir of Thomas Lord Arundel, and Anne and

J Katharine, daughters of Thomas Lord Arundel, of the other part;
it was agreed that an annuity of £120 a year, besides a further
sum of £3000 in ready money should be paid to each of the two
Ladies, Anne and Katharine, aforesaid, to be raised out of the manors
of Anstey in Wilts ; Melbury- Osmund, and Margaret Marsh, in

I Dorset ; Clist and Limbury, in Devon ; and Allowinshaw, in Som-

J erset. But by a codicil to his will the late Lord Arundel directed
that out of those same estates the sum of £1500, due on a mortgage,
should first be paid to Sir John Penruddocke, and that the bequest
to his daughters should be simply £4000 each. Francis Cornwallis,
of Beeston, in Norfolk, Esq., having married the Lady Katharine,

j aforesaid, was anxious at once to establish his claim to her jointure
of £4000, but sequestration and the expenses of the war long
stood in his way, till, losing all patience, he commenced (some time
after the war was brought to a conclusion) a suit in Chancery
against Henry, now Lord Arundel, and against Robert Hyde and
William Hurman, the two surviving trustees of the will, in order

I to recover the amount.

" Charles Cornwallis, of Rock in the county of Worcester maketh oath — That
he being desired by his brother Mr. Francis Cornwallis to serve or shew your
order of* 15 Dec. 1652 unto Mr. Hurman one of the two surviving trustees, the
said Mr. Hurman, after sight and reading thereof, declared he could do nothing
in it, the power being taken out of his hands by the said Order. He had already
offered land to sell, but knew not where to get purchasers. The manor of Anstey
had long since been conveyed and settled for the portion of Mistress Ann Arun-
del, whose husband receives the rents, and the trustees have a full discharge of
the said portion."

" A petition of Francis Cornwallis to the Committee for compounding, dated
17 August, 1653, Sheweth— that the manor of Horningsham and other lands in
' Wilts having been granted by William Arundel Esq. deceased to the petitioner
and others, — which lands being under reference for the proving of their title,
your petitioner prays your Order addressed to the Committee for Glostershire to
take the proof that shall be produced, that Mr. Dutton did lend or become en-
| gaged for six thousand pounds or more for the said William Arundel ;— That upon
' that consideration, and no other trust, was that grant made. And the said Mr.
Dutton hath not received any satisfaction for the said money or engagement, and
that he hath not re-conveyed or released the same.'J {Endorsed^ " Referred."
VOL. XXII. — NO. LX1X. Z

320

The Wills/dre Compounders.

Elizabeth Arundel, widow of a recusant, paid £60.
James Awdley, Earl op Castleiiaven.

In respect of the Wiltshire estates in this sequestration, no other
papers have been found but a schedule of meadows at Eyford, and a
petition from Elizabeth, Countess of Castlehaven, 9th April, 1652,
praying that, as her life interest in the manors of Compton Basset,
Studley, and Baverstock, in Wilts, and others in Kent, parcel of
the lands of James, Earl of Castlehaven, delinquent, had been
recognised by the Committee of Obstructions, she might be allowed
to enjoy them without further molestation. No composition men-
tioned.

Hartgild Baron, of Mere, gentleman. He adhered to the forces
raised against the Parliament ; for which his delinquency he humbly
prays permission to compound; — petition dated 22nd August, 1650.
Fine, £1 135. 4sd. His own mode of spelling his Christian name
has been here preserved; though Hartgild be only another variety
of Hartgill, the name of the victims in the Stourton tragedy ;
otherwise spelt in still earlier documents, Hardgull, and latterly
Hargill. This gentleman's losses in the royal cause appear to
have been amply made up to him. As the ag-ent in " hazardous
secret service" he actually got a promise from Charles II. when at
Breda, for a pension of £200 a year for thirty-one years ; which
was duly ratified some time after the King's return, about 1662.
At the same time he also acquired the office of Steward of the Court
of Record in Windsor Castle ; and the reversion (after John Hill)
of that of ranger and bailiff of Battle's Walk, Windsor. He was
the first to announce (so it is stated in one of his petitions) to the
exiled Court at Breda the determination of the Parliament of
England to declare for a Restoration.

John Bennett, of South Marston, gent. He rode in arms as a
captain of horse for the King, but rendered himself to the Wilts
Committee in 1644, when for further satisfaction he took both the
National Covenant and the Negative Oath. Edmund Martyn,
Robert Brown, Thomas Goddard, and William Jesse, of the Wilts
Committee, testify that as to Captain Bennett's estate, real and

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen.

327

personal, in this county, they cannot discover that he hath any at
present, and in reversion hath only £50 per annum, fee simple, after
the decease of his father, William Bennett, o£ South Marston,
aforesaid, viz , £40 there, and £10 at Stratton. His father dying
some few years after, he petitioned to compound for the said estates
in July, 1650, and paid, " at a sixth/' £150.

Thomas Bennett, of Pyt House, Esq., and his son, John Bennett,
gent. The most weighty charge against Mr. Bennett was his
having sat with the judges on the illegal Salisbury Commission of
1643. Another was contained in a letter sent from Falstone
garrison to the effect that, notwithstanding that he had appeared
before the Wilts Committee at Falstone, and made for his delin-
quency, which was great, some compensation; yet both himself
and his son were known to be great sticklers and ringleaders in the
Club-business, especially at Shaftesbury, where he and others met
to concert measures for resisting Sir Thomas Fairfax's army at
Sherbourn, and was along with the rest taken prisoner. In his
defence Mr. Bennett admitted that, being aged, and living in the
King's quarters, he had been overruled to sit in some commissions
for the King rather than forsake his house and family with his wife
and thirteen children ; but he afterwards repaired to the Committee
sitting at Fallersdown (Falstone) where he disbursed for his five-
and-twentieth part, and for other matters objected against him, the
sum of £67 ; and he also lent to Edmund Ludlow, to sustain his
garrison at Wardour Castle, £100, receiving in return a warrant for
his protection and indemnity for the future. Nevertheless, shortly
after, by the menaces and threats of the country-people he was
enforced to shew himself sometimes at the club-meetings ; but he
never thought of doing anything against the authority of Parlia-
ment ; and after General Fairfax had declared his dislike of them he
abstained, and caused his neighbours to refrain. He craves dispatch,
as his long abode in London is very prejudicial to his age and con-
stitution ; and he hopes that consideration will be had to his great
charge of children, to the harmlessness of his intentions, and to his
former disbursements for the service of the Parliament. Signed,
1st November, 1645. In another petition he protests that when

z 3

o28

The Wiltshire Compounders.

taken prisoner at Shaftesbury he was not acting in opposition to
the Parliament, but was merely attending- the market. " His fine
was at first set at £2000, not according4 to the condition of his estate,
but according" to the nature of his offence, for which, at that time
[just after the club-rising], there was no certain rule given by the
Parliament, by which he and those in his condition should compound.
But since the fine was set an Order of the House of 4th May 1646
has directed that such of the clubmen as come in to compound shall
have the benefit of the Propositions as other delinquents, according
to their respective comings in ; and he having come in before 1 st
of December and taken the Oath and Covenant, and his estate
according to the e particular 9 returned out of the county appearing
to be as follows."

He is seised of a freehold for life; remainder to Anthony Bennett,
his son, for life, and to his first son in tail, &c. — of and in divers
messuages, lands, and tenements in the parishes of Tisbury, Knowell,
Donhead, Gillingham, and Shaftesbury ; annual value before the
troubles, £370. A like estate of old-rents issuing out of lands and
tenements in the said parishes, £25 12*. 4^. He is possessed of
the remainder of a farm for ninety- nine years, if three lives shall
so long live, of certain lands and tenements lying and being in
Savernak, holden by demise of and from the lord Marquis of Hart-
ford, at the yearly rent of 2*. §d.} and worth, over and above this
reserved rent, £100 before the troubles. The reversion of this is
settled on Christopher Bennett, his son. He is possessed of the
remainder of a term for ninety-nine years determinable upon three
lives, of and in Penley Farm, in Wilts, for which he pays to the
Lord S tour ton per annum £10 and two capons, and to the Earl of
Marlborough £20. Over and above these sums it was worth £109
before the troubles. He is possessed of a like estate for ninety-nine
years, with like provisions, in lands at Hatherley, in Somerset,
holden of Mr. Gawen at a rent of forty shillings ; worth more, £14.
And a similar estate at Semley, at a rent of twenty shillings; worth
more, £13. The like at Chilmark, holden by demise from William
Jessie, formerly worth £16 a year. The remainder of a term having
twenty-two years to run, in a tenement at Hatch, for which there is

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen*

329

a rent of £3 6Y Sd. paid to the lessor, before the troubles worth
more, £36.

Out of this estate Mr. Bennett pays yearly to his son, Anthony,
£160, settled by deed dated 2nd October, 17th Car., and to his
sister, Mrs. Jessie Bennett, to hold during the term of her life, £3 ;
to his aunt Mrs. Jane Hunt, widow, during her life, if the com-
pounder so long live, an annuity of £8.

The following entry respecting his fine is dated 18th September,
1646, "On reviewing his whole case, £1000." This thousand
pounds, therefore, was probably advanced by his kinsman, William
Hitchcock, Esq., of Miles's Court, Essex, as may be inferred from
the following letter, dated some months previously, to the com-
pounding committee sitting at Goldsmith's Hall : —

" Honoured Gentlemen. Be pleased to take notice that whereas one Mr.
Thomas Bennett my kinsman hath desired me to make composition with your
honours, for the delinquency of him and of his son John Bennett, I have ac-
cordingly spent what time I could possibly spare three or four several days
within these fourteen days last past at your committee-room, to be heard ; but
could not obtain the favour, in regard your honours have been so full of business.
My humble desire is that now, seeing my occasions call me into the country, my
cousin may not suffer for my absence. One Mr. Coombes who knoweth my
cousin Bennett will attend ; and when by him I may know your honours' pleasure
what the fine to be imposed shall be, I will speedily apply myself to procure the
money. My cousin is out of a good sum of money already, which I trust your
honours will tenderly consider of, together with his condition, having ten children
and no estate in any thing but only for his own life, which humbly premising,
I rest, your servant to be commanded. Dated from Myies's in Essex, 26 Dec.
1645.

"William Hitchcock.

John Bennett, of Pyt House, gentleman. He was iu arms
against the Parliament, having ridden as a trooper in Colonel
Strangway's regiment. He submitted before the 1st of December,
1645, and presented his first petition in the following July, having
taken both the oaths.

He is seised of a freehold during three lives (if he shall attain
the age of 21, being now only 18), of and in Critchell Farm, in
Dorset, held of Lord Arundel, yielding before these troubles a yearly
rent of £27 6«s. 8d. over and above a reserved rent of £2 13s. M,
He is seised of a like estate in a tenement called Hatchfield, in

330

The Wiltshire Compounders.

Wilts, worth £1G 8s. over and above the reserved rent, paid to the
Lord Cottington, of £3 12s. He craves allowance for forty shillings
a year, payable out of Critchell Farm to Eleanor Miles, widow.
Fine, £65. Dated, 6th August, 1646.

Pyt-house, the seat of an ancestor styled Pytt, alias Bennett,
remained in the family till sold in 1669 to Peter Dove, of New
Sarum. ' In 1725 it was bought by Thomas Bennet, of Norton
Bavant (nephew of Colonel Thomas Bennett, the secretary to Prince
Rupert), who married Ethelred, daughter and co-heir of William
Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was grandfather of the late
John Bennett, so many years M.P. for the county.

"William Bennett, of Heytesbury, gent.

The petition " Sheweth— That your petitioner's estate being, by an order of
the Committee for advance of moneys, dated 10 July last, seized for the use of
the State, upon pretence of delinquency discovered by Mrs. Margaret Mounsell
administratrix of Captain Peter Mounsell deceased, for the payment of his arrears,
according to an ordinance of Parliament : — In obedience unto which order, your
petitioner submitting himself to the favour of this honourable Court, humbly
confesseth that for about the space of two months he rode in the troop of Sir
George Vaughan the High Sheriff of this county for the late King ; which he
was enforced to do for the preservation of himself, and of his wife and children,
who must otherwise have perished, because your petitioner had formerly engaged
for the Parliament, and durst not stay at home : — which your petitioner leaves
to your favourable consideration, humbly praying to be dismissed of his charge-
able attendance here ; and hath hereunto annexed his particular. Your petitioner
humbly prays your honours that if in your grave judgment you think him worthy
to pay any fine at all, you will please in the settling thereof to consider his wife
and children and many debts and to be favourable unto him.

"He is seised of a messuage or tenement in Heytesbury of the yearly value
of £40. He hath several small tenements in Heytesbury in reversion of his
mother, annual value £3 16s. His goods and personal estate he estimates at
£102 19s. 4>d. In abatement he affirms that £30 a year is made over to friends
in trust for the use of his wife in consideration of marriage ; that he payeth to
his mother an annuity of £12, and that the messuage is mortgaged to William
Adlam of Crockerton for a debt of £320."

" 15 Nov. 1849. The fine at a sixth is £154 ; but if there be legally settled
on his mother for life £12 per annum and he can make it appear, then the
abatement is £18. And if the estate be legally charged with any debt, then
abatement to be made accordingly, provided the same be made to appear unto
this committee. This the compounder hath undertaken to do within one month,
and if not performed the fine to stand at £154."

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 331

Walter Bockland, of Downton, in Wilts, and of Trotton, in
Sussex, Esq. He was in arms against the Parliament during the
first war; he petitioned before 6 December, 1645, but was refused
composition on the alleged ground that he had been a papist in
arms. To purge himself he signed the oath of abjuration before
Alderman Adams, Lord Mayor of London, 4th June, 1646, received
the sacrament at St. Margaret's, Westminster, from the hands of
Dr. Samuel Gibson, and exhibited proof that he had also taken it
at Salisbury in 1641, from Benjamin Blaxton, of Westhorny.
Moreover, in August, 1646, he took both the Covenant and the
Negative Oath. His estate in Sussex he estimates at £190 10*.
per annum ; that in Wiltshire, consisting of demesnes and quit
rents in Downton, is of the yearly value of £186, but a third of it
is his mother's dowry. He therefore compounded for two-thirds,
though £20 additional was charged on it for his uncle, Walter
Bockiand. Total fine for Wilts and Sussex, put at a sixth, but
afterwards at a tenth, was £696 ; declared 7th December, 1649.

Andrew Bowerman, of Stratford-under-the-Castle, D.D. He is
seised for the term of two lives in being, of and in the rectory and
parsonage impropriate of Stratford ; also a farm and mill there,
held under the Dean and Canons of Sarum, worth £100 a year over
and above the reserved rent of £46 Vs. Sd. Fine at a tenth,
£125.

Sir William Button, of Shaw, otherwise o£ Alton Priors,
Bart. His delinquency. That he voluntarily left his habitation,
resided at Oxford, adhered to the King's party, and hath taken
neither the Negative Oath nor the National Covenant. He was at
Oxford at the surrender, and is to have the benefit of the articles
thereof. He is seised of a frank patent for life in land at Shaw, in
Overton, and at Phillips-Norton and Welbecke, with remainder to
his son, Robert Button, annual value before these troubles, £170.
Also old rents in Wilts, Somerset, and Hants, £75 ; the above being
settled by Sir William Button by deed dated 5th August, 19th
Car. (with a clause of revocation), in consideration of natural love
and affection. He is seised of a freehold for life in the demesne of

332 The Wiltshire Compounders.

Tockenham, remainder to his eldest son, William, then to William's
first son, and so on in tail, burdened, however, with a rent charge
of £100, being thus settled on the marriage of his said son to
Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Rolle, of Steventon, in Devonshire,
16th April, 16 Car. Annual value before the troubles, £400. Other
lands at Tockenham, £72 Us. M. He possesses the term of a lease
having five years to run of the manors of Alton and Stowell,
£214 4*.6<*. Old rents there, £15 I5s,6d. He is seised of a
freehold during the term of his life in other lands, parcel of his
manor of Wraxhall, remainder to his son William as above, annual
value £40. His personal estate in cattle, goods, aud household
stuff he estimates at £700, and there is £700 owing to him in
debts. Fine, at a tenth, £2380. Dated 2nd January, 1646.

17th October, 1648, Sir William Button petitioned the Lords,
desiring to be heard before his ordinance of composition passed the
Houses, who thereupon recommended the commissioners at Gold-
smith's Hall either to give him the benefit of a review, or, if that
might not be, to allow as part of his fine the sum of £300 which
the Committee of Wilts had already seized. He complained that,
having but a life estate in the greater part of the lands expressed
in his " particular/' and his own submission being based upon the
Articles of Oxford, the benefit whereof he was entitled to enjoy, he
had nevertheless been assessed in two years' value for the demesnes
and six years' value for the old rents, though having no greater
estate therein than for life. The moiety he had already paid, and
secured the remainder according to the rules in force. The appeal
seems to have been unheeded. At least I have met with no subse-
quent document. Sir William Button's house of West Tockenham
Court (says Canon Jackson's account) was twice stripped. In
June, 1643, Sir Edward Hungerford made a foray, and carried off
three hundred and eighty sheep, sixty-nine beasts, one hundred and
sixty [pounds ?] weight of wool, besides the beds and hangings from
the rooms, and the pewter and brass from the kitchen— total value,
£767. In the following June, 1644, a party of horse from
Malmesbury garrison repeated the invasion, making spoil of four
hundred and forty sheep, fifty beasts, sixty-two mares and foals ;

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 333

and, from the house itself, damask curtains, scarlet cloth, silver
plate, one fair gridiron, one hundred cheeses, and all the butter,
together with the apparatus for making it, out of the dairy — total
value, £526 6s. On the 22nd November, same year, Sir Edmund
Fowell, president of the Committee of Sequestrations, was constituted
" tenant to the State" for Sir William Button's lands at Tockenham,
paying £320 a year. Sir William appears afterwards to have lived
at his manor of Shaw, near Overton; and in 1646 was fined £2380
for delinquency. He died in 1654. He had been educated at
Exeter College ; and attended Sir Arthur Hopton in his embassy
through France and Spain. His hospitality is said to have been
exemplary to poor scholars, poor ministers, and cavaliers. Aubrey
and Jackson, 190. The acts of plunder recorded in the above docu-
ment, which is evidently a private family memorial, are quite within
the range of credibility, but they form no part of Sir William's
plea for clemency when exhibiting his "particular" before the
London Commissioners.

This family claimed descent from Sir Walter Button, or Bytton,
a knight who flourished in the reign of Henry III. Sir William
Button of the Civil War period, in conversation with Aubrey, the
antiquary, once informed him that their ancestors had held Tocken-
ham four hundred years. The lease of this inheritance expiring in
1652, it fell to the Earl of Pembroke. This Sir William, who had
been created a baronet by James I. in 1621, married Ruth, daughter
of Walter Dunch, of Avebury, Esq., by whom he had seven children.
Three of his sons, viz., William, Robert, and John, successively
inherited the baronetcy ; but dying without issue the title became
extinct in 1712. Their sister Mary, married to Clement Walker,
Esq., of Charterhouse Leadon, in Somersetshire, Usher of the
Exchequer, came in modern times to be represented by George
Heneage Walker-Heneage, of Compton Basset, in Wilts, and M.P.
for Devizes. Sir William, the compounder, died in 1655, and was
buried in a vault which he had caused to be constructed in the
north aisle of North Wraxhall Church ; where also lie his son
William, aforesaid, and William's wife, Dame Anne (Rolle) Button.
In 1667 Sir Robert Button sold the manor of North Wraxhall,

334

The Wiltshire Compounders.

advowson excepted, to William Grove, of Broadchalk. It now
belongs to the Metliuen family.

Robert Bynge, of All Cannings, D.D. He left his habitation,
repaired to the King's quarters, and adhered to the forces raised
against the Parliament. He is seised during the life of his wife,
who holds the same "as jointeress " to a former husband, of and in
lands and messuages at Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire, of the
yearly value before the war of £35. Fine, at a third, £87 10,?.
Dated 16th May, 1649. Dr. Byng's wife was the daughter of
John St. Loe, of Broadchalk, by Elizabeth, the daughter of Lawrence
Hyde, of Hatch, Esq.

Robert Chandler, of Wilton, gent. The father of this com-
pounder, namely, Richard Chandler, the Rector of St. Mary's, in
Wilton, was a presbyterian in principle and a friend to the Parlia-
ment's cause. His gift of £10 to the Wilts Committee is recorded
in their day book 16th May, 1645. But shortly after this we find
him in trouble, as testified by the following entry : —

" 19 Nov. Robert Chandler, son of Mr. Chandler, the minister of Wilton,
hath been before us for his delinquency, and subscribed the sum of £40 to be
paid in ten days. He hath also taken the Negative Oath."

This young man greatly distressed his father by quitting his
studies at Christ Church, Oxford, to join the Royal standard. He
served under Lord Hertford till the fiercely-contested fight at
Lansdowne, in 1643, which seems to have amply satisfied his martial
appetite, for from that date he sought the shelter of his father's
roof. But he was not to escape the scrutiny of the local seques-
trators, when, at the conclusion of the first war, the Falstone
Committee took his case in hand. As he had no estate of his own,
and as he was able by way of palliation to exhibit credentials of
having taken the Covenant in the presence of the minister of St.
Saviour's, Southwark, and also the Negative Oath, some of his
Salisbury neighbours came to his aid, to wit, Humphrey Ditton,
John Redes, and Robert Good, who, by means of a representation in
his favour, induced the London Committee to accept £50 from his
father as a quietus ; allowing, apparently, for the £40 already paid.

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen.

235

Geoege Lokd Chandos, of Sudeley Castle, took the oaths and
delivered himself up to Lord Grey, Speaker pro tern, of the House
of Lords, in April, 1644. His estates lay principally in Gloucester-
shire. In Wilts he was seised in the manor of Pirton, valued at
£105 per annum. His fine, at a tenth, was estimated at £4976,
but an attempt was made to lay it at a third, thus raising it to
£12,440, a scheme which his lordship had the good fortune to upset.
He came in, he says, within a month after the Declaration of
the 1st of March, 1644, and the Committee of Gloucestershire
acknowledged that had they not been bound by rules they would
have discharged the petitioner from paying anything ; but con-
sidering themselves responsible, they concluded his fine at a tenth,
as agreeable to the rules of the Propositions applied to those coming
in after and not having the benefit of the said Declaration. To
this Lord Chandos submitted, and having paid down a moiety and
entered into a bond for the rest, the sequestration was discharged
from his estate. Now, the rule of the propositions for paying a
third, he contended, was applicable only to such members of either
House as rendered not themselves before the last day of October,
1644, whereas he had come in long before the first of that month ;
he therefore desired the justice of the Committee, &c. His fine was
settled at the lower figure ; and the Parliament moreover voted that-
he should receive compensation for the destruction of his castle at
Sudeley, and that £1000 of his fine should be respited till the House
had satisfaction concerning the same ; to which end the Committee
of State were directed to make an estimate of the damage.

John Chappel, of Earnham, in the county of Lincoln, clerk, M.A.
His delinquency was shown by his having left his dwelling-place,
and gone to live in Newark while it was a King's garrison. On
his submission to the Parliament, at the conclusion of the first war,
he took the Covenant and also the National Oath on the 23rd
July, 1646. Touching his estate in Wilts it appeared that John
Penruddocke, Esq., and William Smegergill were trustees for the use
of him, John Chappel, to hold during the life of his wife, Elizabeth,
and of his two sons, John and Edward, of and in lands and tene-
ments in the towns and fields of Coombe and West Harnham, both

336

The Wiltshire Compounders.

in Wilts, being parcel of the prebend there, demised by the said
prebend to hold under the rent of £32 3*. 4>d. Yearly annual value
before the troubles, £167 16s. Hd. Out of which he presents a
claim of £40 a year paid to a curate. Fine, £100, because he
came in before the issue of the Propositions. Dated 6th July,
1649. Mr. Chappel not only had a son a captain in the Royal
army, but he had himself served in a military capacity.

Henry Clarke, of Enford, Esq., second son of Sir Henry Clarke,
Knight. Having admitted in his petition that he was in arms
against the Parliament, he goes on to observe that he had never
been sequestered nor judicially impeached, but doubting that he
might be considered liable for something said or done by him in
relation to the second war (that of 1646), he desires to compound.
His petition is dated 4th May, 1649.

Upon his marriage with Isabella Warwick, and upon the securing
of a thousand pounds by Philip Warwick, esq., to be afterwards
paid by the compounder to his father, and which was subsequently
secured by himself as soon as he came of age, 6th September, 1642,
his father, by deed dated 7th June, 1639, settled the lands here-
after mentioned, in manner following : — one moiety to the use of
himself, the said Sir Henry Clarke, for his life, remainder to the
compounder and his right heirs by his wife Isabella, remainder to
the heirs of Edward, third son of Henry; and the other moiety
upon the said Sir Henry Clarke during the joint lives of himself
and the compounder, for the use, after their lives, of Isabella herself
and the heirs of her body. The estate in question consisted of the
manor of Enford, with messuages, lands, and tenements there, worth
in demesnes, £177 a year, and in old rents, £6 15s. a year. The
only personal property he acknowledged, was a gelding and wearing
apparel to the value of £20. The fine was declared at £98 10s.,
but he appears in the following year to have paid £80 more.

Sir Henry Compton, of Brambletye, in Sussex, Knight of the
Bath, was reported as a recusant (Romanist) not in arms, though
he declares in his petition that he took the Covenant before the war
broke out. He is seised in Wilts of and in the manors of Plaitford,

Communicated ly Mr. James Waylen.

337

Grimstead, and Moor Overton, witb their demesnes and tenements^
worth £173 9s. 2d. per annum ; old rents belonging thereto, £22 ;
dry freehold rents, do., £12. His fine was at first declared at
£5134 165.76?., but on his settling ministers in four rectories, it
was reduced to £1459 16s. 7d. See further in the Falstone day
book, under date 3rd December, 1645.

Francis, Lord Cottington, of Fonthill, was the fourth son of
Philip Cottington, of Godmanstone, in Somerset, Esq. Having
held the offices of Clerk of the Council in the reign of King James
and Secretary to Prince Charles, he was created a baronet in 1623,
and after Charles's accession became Chancellor and Under Treasurer
of the Exchequer, and eventually Lord Treasurer and Master of the
Wards. For some years he was ambassador at the Court of Madrid,
where he acquired an attachment for the country, and perhaps also
a touch of Spanish manners, for during the wars which followed
he was frequently satirised as " Cottington the Spaniard " and " Don
Diego Cottington." The able sketch of his character in Lord
Clarendon's History exhibits that combination of stateliness and
drollery which sufficiently accounts for the above sobriquet. On
his return from Spain he was elevated to the peerage in 1631 as
Lord Cottington, Baron of Hanworth, in Middlesex. It is hardly
necessary to say that throughout the war he was Charles's un-
flinching adherent, or rather, perhaps, a steady hater of the Re-
publicans, for he was too old to have wantonly courted the collision,
and was hardly capable of a generous enthusiasm in any man's
behalf. After the King's death he went into exile with the young
Prince, and in 1653 died at Valladolid, in Spain, having outlived all
his children, whereby his title expired, and Fonthill with other
estates passed to his nephew, Charles Cottington, Esq. In 1716
this nephew, or his son, was nominated a peer with the title of
Baron Cottington, of Fonthill, by James Stuart, known as the
elder Pretender, but the next representative died, s.p., in 1758 ;
previously to which he had, as is supposed, alienated Fonthill to
William Beckford, the London alderman. The lady of the first
Lord Cottington was Anne, daughter of Sir William Meredith,
Knight. Fonthill had been in possession of the Mervins ever since

338

The Wiltshire Compounders.

1471, when the previous proprietor, Lord Wenlock, was slain at
Tewkesbury fight. About 1633, which was soon after the execution
at Salisbury of the Earl of Castlehaven for adultery, his son and
heir, James Mervin, commonly known as Lord Awdley, alienated
the family estates, for what consideration cannot now be known, to
Sir Francis (afterwards Lord) Cottington. Whatever actually passed
between the covenanting parties, it is notorious that Lord Awdley
some years afterwards sought to cancel the transaction, and the
attention of the House of Lords was at intervals occupied with the
affair for more than half-a-year. First, there was the petition in
1640 of James Lord Awdley, Earl of Castlehaven, praying that he
might be restored to the manor of Fonthill, Hatch, and other lands
in Wilts, with damages. Two months later he lodges a complaint
that someone had stolen (" defaced 33 in the margin) from Fonthill
Church the sepulchral monument of his mother, and obtains an
order directing the Bishop of Sarum to enquire and make report.
Then, in order to ground his action on a two-fold basis, he offers to
assign errors in the attainder of his late father. This move was
promptly set aside as reflecting on the Crown; and in June, 1641,
it was resolved that Lord Cottington having fully established the'
integrity of his bargain, this cause be dismissed out of the House.
Lords' Journals, iv., 279.

Subsequently another claimant to a portion of the Fonthill estate
appeared in the person of James Risley, on the following plea.
Upon the attainder of the above Mervin Lord Awdley, Earl of
Castlehaven, Fonthill Farm, having escheated to Richard, Bishop
of Winchester, had by that prelate been leased to James Risley
aforesaid, and in 1648 he was carrying on a suit for the same at
the Salisbury spring assizes. But this and all other obstructions,
it is presumed were silenced by the Parliaments' Order in September',
1646, to sell all the Cottington estates ; and three years later the
same authority conferred them, in their entirety, as a gift on John
Bradshaw, who had sat as president of the court which condemned
the King.

Outline of an Act passed 15th August, 1649, for granting unto
the Lord President Bradshaw, of the Council of State, £2000 a

Communicated by Mr. James Waylen.

339

year out of the estates of Francis Lord Cottington and Ulick Earl
of St. Albans : —

" Be it enacted that he be actually possessed and seised of the manors of
Han worth and Feltham, in the county of Middlesex, late the inheritance of
Francis Lord Cottington ; the manors of Fon thill, alias Nether-Fonthill,
Fonthill-Gifford, Fonthill-Charter-house, Fonthill Delawarre, East Hatch, Week,
and Fernhill, all in Wilts ; the advowson of the Church of Fonthill ; and the
enclosed parks, lands, woods, and hereditaments either in Wilts of Ashellsdown ;
the manor of Bluberry, in Berks, Freemantle Park, in Hants ; Brewham and
Brewcombe Walk and Lodge, in Frome Selwood, lately divided from Selwood
Forest. Also the manors of Timberwood and Baynhurst, in Kent, with the
tenements in Eastchalk and Westchalk there. Somerhill Park, at Tunbridge
(late the inheritance of Ulick Earl of St. Alban's, a papist now in arms in
Ireland). To have and to hold in as ample and beneficial a manner as the said
Lord Cottington, Ulick Earl of St. Albans, or any person or persons in trust for
either of them, enjoyed or might have enjoyed the same before their respective
delinquencies."

We have now to picture to ourselves the ex-President seeking to
recruit his broken health by perambulating the beautiful domain of
which he had become the owner. He was at Fonthill when the
news reached him of Richard Cromwell's deposition, and of the
restoration of the Long Parliament ; and, anxious to take part in
the revival of his beloved Commonwealth, he hastened to London,
where in a few weeks he expired, in November, 1659.

Edward Cresset, of Marlborough, Esq., M.A., of Oriel College,
Oxford, and a practiser of physic. As a prominent Royalist he
compounded at an early date for " delinquency » with the county
committee, to what amount uncertain, but he escaped the ordeal of
Goldsmith's Hall. His epitaph in St. Peter's, which describes him
as a most affectionate son of the Church of England, states that he
had bequeathed £160 for the equal and perpetual benefit of the
ministers of the two Churches of St. Peter and St. Mary, so long
as they should continue as then by law established, but when
otherwise, then to go to the almshouse in the Marsh. He died in
1693, at the age of a hundred and seven years.

Thomas Lord Cromwell, Baron of Ockham, in Surrey, petitioned
the Peers in November, 1646 : —

" Shewing, that whereas your petitioner, being a peer of this realm, ought by
the laws of the land and the undoubted customs of the kingdom to have his

310

The Wiltshire Compounders.

person freed from arrests or restraint upon any civil actions or attachments— Yet
Thomas Shergold, of Hindon, in Wilts, gent., did confederate with the Sheriff of
Middlesex and with Daniel Marwood and Thomas Gardiner, of Sarum, and put
an open affront on him by arresting him and carrying him prisoner to the under-
sheriff then sitting in Westminster Hall. And your petitioner having sold a
small estate which he had in Wiltshire in order to pay his composition at
Goldsmith's Hall, and deposited the money with Mr. Robert Gall, a London
merchant, one William Moyle, your petitioner's late servant, taking encourage-
ment by Shergold's example, hath attached the said money in Gall's hand, and
goes about to condemn it in the sheriff's court. Your petitioner, therefore, prays
that such reparation may be made him and such punishment inflicted on the
offenders as your wisdoms may deem agreeable to justice and honour."

No farther notice occurs.

Gregory Cromwell, Baron Cromwell of Ockham, the only son of
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex (Henry the Eighth's minister),
married Elizabeth Seymour, of Wolfhal], sister of Queen Jane
Seymour, in whose posterity the title of Lord Cromwell remained
for several generations. This accounts for estates in Wilts being
held by the Lord Cromwell of the Civil War era, such as Countess
Farm, near Amesbury, and others. They are referred to in the
Falstone day book, 3rd October, 1645, and 1st April, 1646.

The following letter, written in 16i6, in behalf of Thomas Lord
Cromwell, by his kinsman, Oliver Cromwell, was addressed to
Robert Jenner, M.P. for Cricklade, as a member of the Goldsmith's
Hall Committee. From a subsequent letter of Cromwell's to Jenner,
and to John Ashe, the Member for Westbury, it would almost seem
that these two Wiltshire gentlemen were the Duumviri of the Court
of Sequestrations. The letter here following has never yet been
published.

The Lieutenant- General Oliver Cromwell, "To my loving friend Mr.
Jenner, at Goldsmith's Sail. 29th October, 1646.

" Sir, My lord Cromwell upon the putting in of his ' particular ' into Gold-
smith's Hall, knowing what the whole value of his estate amounted unto yearly,
gave it in at £470 in general ; which was the true value of the whole lying in several
counties. But not being so perfect in the particular values of the several parcels
of his estate, having trusted it constantly to the managing of others, did give in his
lands in Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Cheshire at £350 per annum, whereas the
true value is but £255, and his lands in Wiltshire but £120, whereas the true
value is £215 per annum, both amounting to the said sum of £470, for which
he. compounded. My Lord desires that he may have liberty to set the several

Communicated ly Mr. James Wai/len.

341

values upon his several parcels of land, all amounting to the said sum of £470,
and that he may have his letters to the several counties accordingly. What
favour you shall shew my Lord Cromwell herein you shall oblige.

" Your very loving friend,

" Olivee Ceomwell."

Mr. Ashe endorses Cromwell's letter thus : — " If it appears that
there be such a mistake as is here alledged, let it be amended as is
desired. John Ashe."

Henry Danvers Earl of Danby, a native of Dauntesey, in
Wilts, where also he lies buried, was born in 1573, and lived to see
the breaking out of the Civil War, dying in January, 1643; described
as a nobleman " of a magnificent and munifical spirit/'' and one of
the most eminent of the Elizabethan statesmen. He commenced
public life in a military capacity in the Low Countries and in
France, afterwards served the Queen in Ireland, and at the age of
twenty-five was said by the Earl of Nottingham to be the best
sea-captain in England. James I. created him Baron of Dauntesey,
and Charles I. elevated him to the earldom of Danby. His income
latterly was supposed to be nearly £12,000 a year, equivalent to
more than £60,000 in modern money (?) . His portrait by Vandyke,
formerly in Lord Orford's collection, now belongs to W. H. H.
Hartley, of Lye Grove.

Earl Danby died before Parliamentary sequestrators sat in
judgment ; but eventually Acton Drake, his executor, had to
exhibit a "Particular" of the estate, and a nominal fine of £21,597
was declared; but the claims of his brother, Sir John Danvers the
regicide, and of his sister, Lady Katharine Gargrave, having also
to be investigated and adjusted, nothing positive can be affirmed.
It will only be necessary in this place to state that the Earl by his
last will had nominated as heir to the bulk of his vast fortune his
nephew, Henry Danvers, son of Sir John Danvers by his second
wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Ambrose Dauntesey, of West Lavington,
of which more hereafter. Great part of the Earl's estate lay in
Oxfordshire. In Wiltshire he held the manors of Rusball, Radborne
cum Cowfield, part of Bradenstock and Clack, the manors of Whit-
church cum Milbourn, and of Lea and Cleverton, parcel of the

VOL. XXIII. — SO. LXIX. 2 A

344

The Wills/lire Compounders.

were not long- in exchanging civilities with him. As the war
advanced he found it necessary to quit Wiltshire and retreat to his
Chelsea home, and there he remained till his death in 1655, the
second year of the Protectorate. He had married, too, in his
seventy-seventh year, only a few days before the King's execution,
a third wife, Grace Hewes, by whom he had a son, John, But the
most interesting event connected with this closing episode of his
life was his alliance with Dr. Thomas Fuller, the Royalist divine
and eminent ecclesiastic historian ; just showing how much the
sentiment of good neighbourhood and mutual esteem could in some
instances survive the rival factions of the day. It may seem strange
that the Doctor should close such a prominent literary and warlike
career as he had led by accepting the position of domestic chaplain
to a Regicide ; but Fuller was eminently a philosopher of the class
who adopt the French maxim, " Fully to know all is to pardon all."
Here, at Chelsea, he might be heard from time to time delivering
sermons commemorative of domestic events in his patron's family ;
and we can hardly doubt that it must have been a favourite enter-
tainment for strollers of the Pepys stamp to paddle up the river on
Sunday mornings to see how the Royalist Doctor would construct
his phraseology on these occasions, and have a look at the old
Regicide himself, enthroned in the manorial pew with his third
youthful wife. This state of things lasted till the eve of the
Restoration. Had Sir John Danvers survived that crisis he would
no doubt have shared with his associates the tragic penalty of
Tyburn. This he escaped, but his person was regarded as " attaint,"
and his possessions were to a great extent confiscated.

Brief notice, in conclusion, must now be taken of the three children
by his second wife. Of these, Elizabeth married the notorious
Robert Wright, alias Villiers, alias Danvers, who levied a fine to
be excused taking the title of Viscount Purbeck, and assumed the
maiden name of his wife. After her husband's death she used the
title of Viscountess Purbeck, and her son attempted to substantiate
his claim, but without success. The case is reported in Sir Harris
Nicholas' Adulterine Bastardy. Sir John's other daughter, Anne,
was in June, 1655, married at Lavington to Sir Henry Lee, of

Communicated hy Mr. James Waylen. 345

Ditchley, Oxon., Bart., before William Yorke, Esq., one of the
justices of peace for Wilts. This was in accordance with the
marriage law just then in force, but the parties deemed it prudent
to renew the contract in the orthodox form on reaching" their Ox-
fordshire home. To this lady her brother Henry, who died just
before his father, had just bequeathed the great estate which he
derived from his uncle, Earl Danby. What he thus left to his sister
Anne would not legitimately be affected by that father's attainder,
seeing it had come direct to himself from his uncle. Apprehensions,
nevertheless, as to the possible fate of sundry of the estates issued
in the application in 1661 for a Crown grant conveying them to
Henry Hyde, Lord Oornbury, and others, who thus became trustees
to carry out young Henry's intentions. This applied to sundry
manors in Wilts, already recited, besides property in Northampton-
shire and at Chelsea. Some of these eventually were divided between
Lady Lee's two sons-in-law, James, first Earl of Abingdon, and
Thomas, fifth Lord Wharton. Sir John Danvers's West Lavington
estate, which he obtained with his second wife, Elizabeth Dauntesey,
aforesaid, appears also to have escaped confiscation, and to have
been shared between his two daughters, Viscountess Purbeck and
Lady Lee. But the Dauntsey estate was entirely lost, being granted
in 1662 to James Duke of York, afterwards James II.

There are three Dan vers portraits at Witham Abbey in Berks,
the seat of the Earl of Abingdon, naturally attractive by the names
they bear, but requiring a word or two of caution. The first to be
noticed is that of Sir John Danvers the regicide. This, certainly,
is a misnomer. Neither features, dress, nor apparent age, permit
us for a moment to accept it as his likeness. Neither can it be the
portrait of his son, John Danvers, Esq., if that son bore the
slightest resemblance to his father. The engraved print repre-
senting Sir John Danvers in youth, though it hardly sustains the
reputation for manly beauty with which his friend, John Aubrey,
credits him, has not a line in common with the Witham portrait.
This latter is the effigy of a middle-aged man of vulgar type,
crowned with a heavy peruke, and dressed in the costume of Charles
the Second's time — belonging, in fact, to a period when Sir John

34(3

The Wiltshire Compounders.

would have been a hundred years old. The next portrait to
be noticed is called Lady Dan vers; certainly not the mother of
Lady Anne Lee; the style of dress, which, like the above, is that of
Charles the Second's Court, quite forbids this assumption ; but it
may creditably pass for Sir John's third wife, who we know long*
survived him. The third portrait is that of Lady Anne Lee
herself, ' Sir John Danvers's daughter and the mother of the first
Countess of Abingdon, an innocent-looking' young creature in
Restoration costume, and painted, we may presume, not long after
her marriage with Sir Henry Lee. This picture may be accepted
without hesitation. The marble memorials of Henry and Anne in
West Lavington Church complete our list of family portraits ; for
it cannot now be expected that any credible representation of the
old knight himself in his later days, will ever crop up.

The above is but a scanty gathering from a field which the late
Rev. Edward Wilton, of Lavington, had crowded with abundance.
Born in the neighbouring priory of Edington, his early rambles
among the Churches of that district were not long in forming his
archaeological bias ; and in after years, following on the lines of
John Aubrey, he made it one of his favourite pursuits to exhaust
the annals of the house of Danvers. To analyse the mass of
materials thence resulting would involve indefinite expansion. The
materials are still extant, but this is not the place to display them.
The most instructive parts of Mr. Wilton's utterances were his
peripatetic comments on the family history, while traversing and
deciphering its local vestiges in company with friends who aspired
to share his enthusiasm. Possibly the traditions which he contrived
to exhume may yet be formulated into a systematic narrative.

Donations to the Museum. 847

J ©nations to i\t Unburn, issi.

A series of small objects, mostly of Roman date, including a curious razor-like
knife, with ornamented bronze handle, found near Manton, Wilts. Presented
by W. Tayloe, Esq.

Two skulls from the long barrow on Oldbury Hill ; described by Dr. Thurnam
in Memoirs of Anthropological Soc, and by Dr. Garson in the present number
of the Magazine, p. 295. Presented by Mr. Cunnington, F.G S.

Also, (obtained by purchase from the workman who found them in digging flints
near Tan Hill, on the Beckharnpton side of Wansdyke : — )

A molar tooth of rhinoceros — the first instance recorded of the finding of remains
of this animal in the thin superficial layer of splintered flints on the chalk hills.

A specimen of socketed looped bronze spear-head — of the form figured by Dean
Merewether in the Salisbury volume of Archaeological Institute (which, also,
was found at Beckharnpton). It is the same, too, as the specimen found near
Stonehenge and figured in vol. xxi., p. 262, fig. 5, Wiltshire Magazine.

An iron socketed spear-head, 6in. in length.

A square iron awl, pointed at both ends, 3in. in length.

Horse-shoe of old form.

Iron spiked knife.

Some fine specimens of ' ' Cycadeoidea Microphylla," from Portland Beds, Swindon,

Wilts. Presented by the Rev. H. G. Tomkins, in memory of his late father,

Charles Tomkins, Esq., M.D., of Devizes.
An interesting collection of skulls and other bones, obtained from Bowles*

Barrow. Presented by Lord Heytesbury.
A copy of the Stourton Registers from 1570 to 1800. Presented by the Editor^

(the Rev. J. H. Ellis, Rector of Stourton).

END OF VOL. XXIII.

H. F. BULL, Printer and Publisher, 4, Saint John Street, Devizes.

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Just Published, by the Wiltshire Archaeological and
Natural History Society, One Volume, Atlas 4to,
248 pp., 17 large Maps, and 110 Woodcuts, extra
cloth.

SECOND EDITION OF

The BRITISH and ROMAN
ANTIQUITIES of the NORTH
WIL TSHIRE D O WNS,

§Jn a pmikeir jjqnsw Piles wok Jfotg :

BY THE

REV. ALFRED OHAELES SMITH. M.A.,

Sector of Yatesbury, Wilts, Hon. Sec. of the Wiltshire Archaeological and
Natural History Society; Author of " The Attractions of the Nile " "A
Spring Tour in Portugal," " A Modern Pilgrimage through Palestine,"

fyc, <$fC.

rpHIS work, the materials of which have been accumulating for twenty-five
-L years, is the result of innumerable rambles and rides over the Downs of
North Wiltshire, and deals with one of the most important Archaeological Dis-
tricts in Europe.

It consists of a large quarto volume, containing an account of all the Barrows,
Camps, Roads, Dykes, Enclosures, Cromlechs, Circles, and other British and'
Eoman Stone and Earth-works of a most primitive district, with references to and
extracts from the best authorities, as well as figures of many of the various urns
and other objects found in Barrows, views of Cromlechs, plans of Camps, &c.
Bound up with this volume, in sections, are maps, printed in six colours, on the
acale of six linear _ inches, or thirty-six square inches, to a mile, comprising one
hundred square miles round Abury, and including thirteen miles from east to
west and eight miles from north to south, being the great plateau of the North
Wiltshire Downs, on which all the antiquities are shown and may readily be
found, and referred to by means of letters and figures. An Index Map, on tne
scale of one inch to the mile, coloured, numbered, lettered, and divided like the
Large Map, accompanies the volume.

This is a reprint, undertaken by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural
History Society, in consequence of more than one-third of the first edition having
been destroyed at the binders' in the great fire in Paternoster Row in 1883.

The work can be obtained from the Financial Secretary of the Society,
Mr. W. Nott, 15, High Street, Devizes; or from the following Booksellers :
Mr. H. F. Bull, 4, Saint John Street, Devizes ; Messrs Bkown, Canal,
Salisbury ; and Mr. Beenaed Quaeitch, 15, Piccadilly, London ;

Price £2 2s.

IN THE PRESS.

To be Published in the Autumn,

The Bitp£ of ■ Wiltshiqb.

BY THE REV. A. C. SMITH.

AGENTS

70R THE SALE OF THE

WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE

Bath C. Hallett, 8 Bridge Street.

Bristol James Fawn & Son, 18 Queen's Road.

„ C. T. Jefferies & Sons, Redcliffe Street.

Calne A. Heath & Son, Market Place.

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Devizes H. F. Bull, St. John Street.

Marlborough E. & E. A. Lucy, Post Office.

Melhsham J. H. Maggs, Bank Street.

Oxford Jas. Parker & Co., Broad Street.

Salisbury Brown & Co., Canal.

Trowbridge B. Lansdown & Sons, 11 Silver Street.

Warminster B. W. Coates, Market Place.

B. P. BULL, PBINTER, DEVIZ8S.

Ha