•/ 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 ARTHUR YOUNG ANNOUNCES 
 
 FOR PUBLICATION DURING 1897. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF MALMESBURY ABBEY 
 by Richard Jefferies, Edited, with Histori- 
 cal Notes, by Grace Toplis. Illustrated by 
 Notes on the present state of the Abbey 
 Church, and reproductions from Original 
 Drawings by Alfred Alex. Clarke (Author 
 of a Monograph on Wells Cathedral). 
 
 London : 
 
 SiMPKiN, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd. 
 
V* THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES 
 
 OF THIS EDITION PRINTED 
 
 FOR SALE 
 
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JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 A History of Swindon 
 and its Environs 
 

 
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JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 A History of Swindon 
 and its Environs 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 RICHARD JEFFERIES 
 
 EDITED WITH NOTES BY 
 
 GRACE TOPLIS 
 
 WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 London 
 
 Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co Ltd 
 Wells, Somerset : Arthur Young 
 
 MDCCCXCVI 
 

 ^y^' 
 
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 y4// Rights Reserved 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 Introduction ..... 
 
 ix 
 
 
 Bibliography ... 
 
 XV 
 
 I. 
 
 Ancient Swindon .... 
 
 I 
 
 II. 
 
 HoLYROOD Church .... 
 
 26 
 
 III. 
 
 Swindon in 1867 
 
 • 51 
 
 IV. 
 
 Upper Upham ..... 
 
 82 
 
 V. 
 
 Liddington Wick . . . . . 
 
 108 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Marlborough Road . . . . 
 
 132 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Devizes Road 
 
 157 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The Oxford Road 
 
 181 
 
 
 Index . . , . . . 
 
 205 
 
 VII 
 
 ;>24!«;<;) 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 1. Ivy-Church. Avebury Font , Fro7itispiece 
 
 2. Jefferies' House, Victorl^, Street, 
 
 Swindon ' I. i 
 
 3. The Lawn, Swindon 
 
 4. Ruins of Holyrood Church 
 
 5. The Reservoir, Coate . 
 
 6. Wanborough Church , . . 
 
 7. Entrance to Swindon from Coate 
 
 8. Marlborough Lane 
 
 9. Day House Farm, Coate 
 
 10. Chisledon Church 
 
 11. Jefferies' House, Coate 
 
 12. West Window, Fairford Church 
 
 Note. — The illustrations are reproductions from drawings 
 by Miss Agnes Taylor, Ilminster, mostly from photographs 
 taken especially by Mr. Chas. Andrew, Swindon. 
 
 viii 
 
 I. 
 
 18 
 
 IL 
 
 26 
 
 . IIL 
 
 56 
 
 . V. 
 
 120 
 
 V. 
 
 128 
 
 . VL 
 
 132 
 
 VI. 
 
 134 
 
 . VL 
 
 140 
 
 . VI. 
 
 15- 
 
 . VIII. 
 
 198 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 T IFE teaches no harder lesson to any man 
 I ^ than the bitter truth — as true as bitter — 
 that ''A prophet is not without honour, 
 save hi his own country, and in his own housed 
 And fo7'ei7iost among modern prophets who have 
 had to realize its bitterness stands Richard 
 Jefferies, the ''prophet'' of '' field and hedge- 
 row " and all the simple daily beauty which lies 
 about tis on every hand. The title of " The 
 Painter of the Doivns " fnight be given to him, 
 as it was to the veteran artist H. G. Hine, for 
 his glorification of his native country in word- 
 pictures as vivid and glowing as the colotirs on 
 the canvas. 
 
 But Wiltshire never realized, during his 
 lifetime, the greatness of the 7nan whom she 
 had reared, and it is open to qztestion whether 
 she honours his memory now. ''I cant see what 
 people find to admire in his books, I can see 
 
 IX 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 nothing in them,'' has been said again and again 
 by those who live among the sights and scenes 
 which he loved so well, and 7nade familiar to 
 jaded readers in the town. 
 
 For Sir Walter Besant was right. It is the 
 Londoner who appreciates what Jefferies has to 
 tell of ''the Life of the Fields!' " Why, we 
 must have bee^t blind all our lives ; here were 
 the most wonderful things possible going on 
 tinder our very noses, but we saw them not. 
 Nay, after reading all the books and all the 
 papers — every one — that Jefferies wrote between 
 the years 1876 aiid 1887, after learning from 
 him all that he had to teach, I cannot yet see 
 these things. I see a hedge ; I see wild rose, 
 honeysuckle, black briony — herbe aux femmes 
 battues, the French poetically call it — black- 
 be7^ry, hawthorn, and elder. I see on the banks 
 sweet wildflowers, whose names I learn from 
 year to year, and st7'aight%vay forget because 
 they gj^ow not in the streets. I know very well, 
 because Jefferies has told me so much, what I 
 should be able to see in the hedge and on the 
 bank besides these simple things ; but yet I 
 ca^inot see the^n, for all his teaching. Mine — 
 alas I — are eyes zvhich have looked into shop 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 windows and across crowded streets for half a 
 century, save for certain intervals every year ; 
 they are helpless eyes when they are turned 
 from 7nen and women to flowers, ferns, weeds, 
 and grasses ; they are, in fact, like tcnto the 
 eyes of those men with whom I fnostly consort. 
 None of us — poor street-struck creatures — can 
 see the things we ought to see!' 
 
 These are the readers who appreciate J efferies. 
 And of these are formed the elect forty thou- 
 sand who feel the char^n of his written words. 
 '^ His own country'^ may question his right to 
 be numbered among her great men, but he is 
 safe in his own niche in the Campo Santo of 
 English Literature, and neither neglect nor 
 disparagement avail now for hurt or wounding. 
 In a handy little Tourist's Guide to Wilt- 
 shire, Mr. R. N. Worth says : '' Wilts hi^x needs 
 not to be ashamed of its worthies !' and gives 
 a list of honoured names; but the 7ia77ie of 
 Richa7^d J efferies is not on his list. '* Save in 
 his own country, and in his own house!' 
 
 The spell of J efferies Land must be so7tght 
 in his later books: Wild Life in a Southern 
 County, Wood Magic, Round About a Great 
 Estate, etc., etc. ; or, better still, it may be 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 sought — and found — 07t a summer s day by any 
 wayfarer on the Downs zvho possesses a seeing 
 heart and eye. But, m his early days, Jefferies 
 could find no utterance for the vision which came 
 to him, and yet, even then, in his crudest and 
 most tmformed period, he was loyal to his 
 country, and desir^ed to do it honour. His 
 History of Swindon and Its Environs was 
 written in the days when he worked for the 
 North Wilts Herald, in which the last pages 
 appeared in June, 1867, when he had but a boy s 
 second-hand acquaintance with the facts and 
 traditions he collected so labo7'iously. ''/ visit 
 every place I have to refer to, copy inscriptions, 
 listen to lege7tds, examine antiquities, meastu^e 
 this, esti77iate that ; a7id a thousajid othe7' e77t- 
 ployments esse7itial to a correct account take tip 
 my ti77te. . . . To give a7i i7ista7ice. There 
 is a book published some tzventy years ago foimded 
 071 a local legend. This I zua7ited, and have 
 actually been to te7i differe7it houses in sea7xh of 
 it ; that is, have had a good fifty miles walk, 
 and as yet all i7i vain. However, I thi7ik I 
 am 071 the right sce7it now, cmd believe I shall 
 get it'' 
 
 There was no spa7dng of ti77ie and labour 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 in this early work of his. Let this be re- 
 membered before it receives harsh judgment. 
 
 In the preface to The Early Fiction of 
 Richard JefTeries, obvious criticisfn is antici- 
 pated, and reasons are given for the reptibli- 
 cation of his boyish writijtgs. The latter may 
 be qttoted in this volume, 
 
 " Why then do these early effoids 7nake their 
 appearance in this permanent book-form ? 
 
 ''For two reasons ; the least worthy of which 
 is, that a book-lover yearns to make his collec- 
 tion co7nplete, and the Juvenilia of other great 
 writers a7X 'taken as read' and placed with 
 their fellows lest one link shotdd be 77tissing. 
 But the reason for the student is that they 
 illust7'ate — as ca7t be do7ie by no com7}ie7it from 
 outsidei^s — the 77ie7ital growth of the 77ia7i, a7id 
 his ttnusually slow developme7it as a write7\ 
 This is why they possess interest in the eyes of 
 a Jefferiesia7i stude7it, and why they are offered 
 to the reading public as intellectual curios." 
 
 The task, therefore, of editing his History 
 of Swindon presented so77ie zmustial difficul- 
 ties, diie to two facts — that it was written 
 during the period of his i77i7naturity ; a7id that 
 thirty years have elapsed sifice he wrote it. 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 The first difficulty lay in the style of his 
 writing, in his authoritative pronouncements 
 on matters antiquaria7i far beyond the bounds 
 of his boyish knowledge of the past ; the second 
 difficulty lay in the chajtges which thirty years 
 have brought to Swindon, and in the difference 
 between the The^i and the Now. 
 
 After m.icch consideration, it seemed better 
 to issue the book as his work, and as he wrote 
 it, with all its merits or faults as the reader 
 may pronotmce. To bring the History of 
 Swindon up to date, to eliminate all the 
 'facts'' which time has disproved, to revise his 
 " antiquarian " statements with the filler know- 
 ledge of a later day, would possibly have re- 
 sulted in a more useful book of reference, but 
 it would not have been the work of Richard 
 Jefferies. The Editors task has been confined, 
 therefore, to mere annotation and explanation 
 of what the yoimg Jefferies wrote; and if 
 local antiquarian societies will do it the honour 
 of rectifying crude judgments, and disproved 
 ''facts,'' so much the better for the wider 
 public of 7^eaders whoin this volume will never 
 reach. 
 
 Grace Toplis. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 In addition to the usual historical works of 
 reference, the following authorities have 
 been consulted : — 
 
 Wiltshire, extracted from Domesday 
 Book . . . . . 
 
 Wiltshire. The Topographical Col- 
 lections of John Aubrey, F.R.S. 
 A.D. 1659-70. Corrected and 
 enlarged by J. E. Jackson. 1862 
 
 Beauties of Wiltshire. 1825 . 
 
 The Natural History of Wiltshire 
 Edited and Elucidated by J 
 Britton. 1847 . 
 
 Tracts relating to Wiltshire. 1856-72 
 
 Annales of England. 1615 
 
 History of England under the Nor- 
 man Kings. Translated from 
 German of Dr. Lappenberg, by 
 Benjamin Thorpe. 1857 . 
 
 Dictionary of National Biography 
 
 Autobiography of John Britton. 1850 
 
 Ancient Hills. Roman Era 
 
 History of the Rebellion. Edited by 
 Macray. 1S88 . 
 
 H. P. Wyndham. 
 
 ( Aubrey, 
 i Jackson. 
 
 J. Br it to 71. 
 
 (^ Aubrey. 
 I Britton. 
 
 J. E. Jackson. 
 Stow — Howes. 
 
 Lappenberg. 
 Thorpe. 
 
 Ed. Leslie Stephen. 
 
 Britton. 
 
 Sir R. LLoai'e. 
 
 Clare?idon. 
 
 XV 
 
XVI 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 History and Antiquities of the Duchy 
 
 of Lancaster. 1817 . 
 Wiltshire Archceological Magazine : 
 
 "The White Horses of Wiltshire." 
 Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. 
 Six Old English Chronicles. (Ethel- 
 
 werd, Richard of Cirencester, 
 
 CvV>'« / • • • • • • 
 
 The Fairford Windows. Monograph. 
 Round the Works of our Great Rail- 
 ways ...... 
 
 Swindon : Fifty Years Ago, More or 
 
 Gregson. 
 
 W. C. F lender leath. 
 Thomas Fercy. 
 
 J. A. Giles, 
 Rev. J. G.Joyce. 
 
 W. Morris, 
 Swindon. 
 
I 
 
HOUSE IN VICTORIA STREET, SWINDON, 
 where Jefferies lived after his marriage. 
 
» > > . 
 
 » » 1 
 
 t i i 
 
 > 1 » 
 
 J ^ i •* If 
 
 
 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ANCIENT SWINDON 
 
 THE early history of Swindon is involved 
 in obscurity. The works by whose aid 
 the mist of antiquity has in many places been 
 considerably cleared away, until the outline at 
 least, if not the details, of the structure our 
 forefathers reared, is perceivable, here give no 
 assistance. There does not appear to have 
 ever been a monastery at Swindon. Its streets 
 no doubt have been perambulated by the mass- 
 thanes, the hooded noblemen of the cloisters, 
 but they do not seem to have ev^er taken up a 
 permanent residence. 
 
 There is no chronicle of Swindon, so the 
 want which the monks supplied in other places 
 is severely felt here. It is impossible to com- 
 
 B 
 
2 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 pile an uninterruj3ted narrative. Facts there 
 are, and traditions there, are, scattered up and 
 down a long vista of years ; but no art, short 
 of fiction, could combine them into a chronicle. 
 It does not appear that any great event of 
 national importance ever took place at Swindon 
 — no royal murder or marriage ; no battle 
 seems to have been fought, no castle built, not 
 even a castrament remains in Swindon itself to 
 bear a witness to bygone deeds of blood — 
 blood which writes itself so indestructibly 
 wherever it has been spilt. Hence no writer, 
 no historian, mentions Swindon, nor gives any 
 account of it as a place the memory of which 
 was worth preserving for what had occurred 
 there. 
 
 Even the etymology of the name Swindon 
 is uncertain. The most probable conjecture 
 assigns its origin to the Danes. In the year 
 993 the celebrated Sweyn,^ king of Denmark, 
 
 ^ Swend was the son of Harold Blaatand, and received 
 at baptism the name of Otto, but he soon cast away the 
 Christian faith, and waged war on behalf of Thor and Odin. 
 He probably took a part as a private Viking in the first 
 three years of piracy which devasted Wessex. Died at 
 Gainsborough, 1014. 
 
 During one of his seasons of adversity he was won back 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 3 
 
 accompanied by Olave/ king of Norway, made 
 his first piratical descent upon the coast of 
 England. Though bought off several times, 
 he invariably returned with increased forces, 
 and at length, coming to Bath, received the 
 homage of the western thanes, or noblemen, 
 and ascended the throne of England. This 
 was in the year 10 13 a.d. Sweyn was much 
 of his time in the western counties, hence it is 
 conjectured that Swindon means no more than 
 Sweyn's-don, dune, or hill— the hill of Sweyn. 
 Dune, now usually pronounced don, was a 
 Saxon word for hill — it survives still in down, 
 of which there is a sufficiency in the neigh- 
 to the faith from which he had apostatized, and became a 
 zealous founder of Churches. 
 
 Danish writers testify to his piety, but German and 
 EngHsh writers are silent on the subject. 
 
 For St. Edmund he had a special hatred. In marching 
 to Bury to plunder the minster dedicated to him, he was 
 suddenly stricken with the malady from which he died. 
 Tradition says he had a vision of the saint riding armed to 
 destroy him. His body was embalmed by an English lady, 
 and taken, at her own cost, to Denmark, where it was 
 buried in his own church of Roeskild. 
 
 Freeman says of Swend that he was a great man, if great- 
 ness consist in mere skill and steadfastness in carrying out 
 an object ; his glory is that of an Attila, or a Buonaparte. 
 
 ^ Olaf Tryggwasson. 
 
4 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 bourhood. Should this conjecture be correct, 
 it would follow that Sweyn must have had 
 some connection with this place, resided here, 
 or made it the scene of some of his exploits. 
 Strange to say, this Sweyn seems to be the 
 first and the last royal celebrity who came 
 into connection with Swindon. In eight cen- 
 turies nothing of national importance is re- 
 corded as taking place here, except this visit 
 of Sweyn, and even that is a matter of supposi- 
 tion. This is tolerably good evidence that the 
 town was for many hundred years of little or 
 no importance. A history of Swindon, pro- 
 perly so-called, would not extend over a period 
 of more than one hundred years : yet the place 
 seems to have existed for eight hundred years. 
 The only way in which its existence can be 
 rendered evident is by tracing the descent of 
 the surrounding landed property from owner 
 to owner. 
 
 The first of whom any record appears to 
 exist as possessing land at Swindon was Earl 
 William, a celebrated nobleman in the days of 
 Edward the Confessor, whose reign extended 
 from 1042 to 1066. The domain of Swindon 
 had in all probability previously belonged to 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 5 
 
 the Crown, since it is mentioned that Earl 
 William held it by right of charter, and to the 
 Crown it again returned about 1050 a.d., that 
 nobleman exchanging it for an estate in the 
 Isle of Wight. In what manner it became 
 sub-divided does not seem recorded, but when 
 Domesday Book was compiled by order of 
 William the Conqueror — between 1082 and 
 1086 — the lands at Swindon were in the pos- 
 session of five persons. Three of these were 
 small, and the remaining" two extensive pro- 
 prietors. All were public men, attendants 
 upon the Conqueror, probably Normans, who 
 came into possession by right of conquest, as 
 a reward for following their master. The first 
 in point of grandeur, celebrity, and the extent 
 of his possessions, was no less a person than 
 Odin,^ chamberlain to the Conqueror. The 
 
 ^ Swindon, as referred to in Domesday Book. "Odinus, 
 the chamberlain, holds Svindone. Torbertus held it, T. R. 
 E., and it was alTeffed at 12 hides. Here are 6 ploughlands. 
 Two of them are in demefne with 2 fervants. And 6 
 villagers and 8 borderers occupy 3 ploughlands. The mill 
 pays 4 fliillings. Here are 30 acres of meadow, and 20 
 acres of pafture. It was valued at 60 Hiillings; now at 100. 
 Milo holds 2 hides of this manor, and he has i ploughland. 
 Odinus claims them."' # 
 
 [Odinus Camerarius tenet Svindone. Torbertus tenuit 
 
6 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 second was the Bishop of Bayeux. Odo, 
 Bishop of Bayeux — of course a Norman, for at 
 that date there does not seem to have been a 
 single British bishop who rendered himself 
 infamous by his tyranny and ambition. When 
 an insurrection broke out in the north, occa- 
 sioned by the intolerable oppression of another 
 Norman bishop, he of Bayeux marched there 
 with an army, slaughtered the Inhabitants, and 
 though an ecclesiastic, actually plundered the 
 cathedral of Durham. He was now found to 
 have a design on the Papacy, and set sail for 
 Rome, attended by a retinue of knights and 
 barons, when King William, who scarcely de- 
 sired to see a vassal of his an infallible pope, 
 met him off the Isle of Wight, and seized him 
 with his own hands. 
 
 The bishop cried out that he was a ''clerk 
 and minister of the Lord." 
 
 " I condemn not a clerk or a priest, but my 
 count, whom I set over my kingdom," replied 
 
 T. R. E. et geldabat pro 12 hidis. Terra eft 6 carucatse. 
 In dominio funt 2 carucatse, et 2 fervi. Et 6 villani et 8 
 bordarii cum 3 carucatis. Ibi molinus reddit 4 folidos. 
 Et 30 acr?e prati, et 20 acrae pafturae. Valuit 60 folidi; 
 modo 100. De hac terra tenet Milo 2 hidas et ibi habet 
 I carucatam. Odinus eas calumniatur.] 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 7 
 
 the king, and he was sent as a prisoner to 
 Normandy.^ 
 
 ^ Stow, in his Aftnaks of England, says : — " About this 
 time many tempests raging in the world, certaine Sooth- 
 saiers of Rome declared who should succeed unto Hilde- 
 brand in the Popedom, they affirmed after the decease of 
 Gregorie, Odo to bee Pope of Rome. Odo Bishoppe of 
 Bayou, hearing this, who (with his brother) governed the 
 Normanes and Englishmen, little esteeming the power and 
 riches of the west kingdome, unlesse by right of the Pope- 
 dom, might largely rule all ye inhabitants of ye earth, he 
 sendeth to Rome, he buyeth a palace, he seeketh out the 
 sena:ors, who with great gifts he given he joyneth with him 
 in amitie, he sendeth for Hugh, Earle of Chester, and a 
 great company, . . . and hartely prayeth them to goe 
 with him to Italy . . . beyond the river of Poo. Pru- 
 dent King William, when hee heard of such great prepara- 
 tions, allowed not thereof, but thought it to be hurtfuU to 
 his kingdome, and many others, wherefore, he hastily saileth 
 into England, and sodenly unlooked for in the He of Wight 
 met with Odo the Bishoppe, and now desirous with great 
 pDmpe to saile into Normandy, and there ye chiefest of his 
 Eealme being gathered together in the king's hall, the king 
 spake in this sort. ' Excellent Peeres, hearken my wordes 
 dligently, I beseech you give unto me your wholsome 
 counsaile. 
 
 " ' Before I sailed over the Sea into Normandie I com- 
 mended the government of England to my brother the 
 Bshoppe of Bayou. . . . 
 
 " ' My brother hath greatly oppressed England and hath 
 spiled the Churches of their lands and rents, hath made 
 them naked of the ornaments given by our predecessors, 
 and hath seduced my knights and contemning me purposeth 
 tc traine them out beyond the Alpes, into foraine kingdomes, 
 
8 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Such was the Bishop of Bayeux, whilom 
 owner of a great portion of the land registered 
 in Domesday Book as vSwindon. His history 
 reveals what will now appear a strange state of 
 matters. When Swindon was in Its infancy 
 eight centuries ago, a bishop commanded an 
 army, and plundered a cathedral, than which 
 two things it would be impossible to name 
 others more opposed to what is at present 
 considered the mission of a clerical dignitary. 
 Moreover, he was the "count whom I set over 
 my kingdom." Here is a bishop, a count, a 
 general, and a robber, all in one. Could any- 
 thing show more conclusively the confusion 
 which followed close upon the Conquest ? 
 
 an over great dolour grieveth my heart ; especially for the 
 Church of God, which he hath afflicted. . . . Consider 
 you worthely what is to be done hereupon, and I beseech 
 you insinuate it unto me.' 
 
 "And when all they fearing so great a performance, 
 doubted to pronounce sentence against him, the valiart 
 king saide, hurtfull rashnesse is alwaies to bee repressed. 
 
 • • • I 
 
 " Now the king committed his said brother Odo to prizoH, 
 where he remained about ye space of foure yeers after, ;o 
 wit, to the death of King William." | 
 
 This is confirmed by Sappenberg, trans. Thorpe, in his 
 History of England^ quoting from William of Malmesbuiy 
 and others. 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 9 
 
 Under the Bishop of Bayeux there were two 
 tenants ; they were named Wadard, hence they 
 were probably related. Alured of Marlborough 
 also held land at Swindon. He seems to have 
 been a very extensive proprietor in North 
 Wilts at that date. One Uluric, too, owned 
 property here, and the fifth was Ulward, the 
 king's prebendary, whatever that may mean. 
 The lands registered as Swindon in Domesday 
 Book afterwards received distinctive names. 
 There was Haute, High, or Over Swindon, 
 Nether Swindon and Even Swindon. Haute, 
 High, or Over Swindon was undoubtedly upon 
 the hill. Over is a prefix not uncommonly 
 found before names of places indicating their 
 position to be over, or above that town whence 
 they drew their origin, or with which they 
 were connected. An instance is Overtown at 
 Wroughton, which still retains its name, and 
 whose position indicates its origin, being 
 situated high up upon the hill over-looking 
 Wroughton. Besides Haute, Nether, and 
 Even Swindon, there was Wicklescote, now 
 known as Westlecott. It may be observed 
 that north-east of Westlecott is a hill known as 
 Iscott hill. Cot comes from a Saxon word 
 
lo JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 meaning habitation, and is still preserved in 
 cottage. It is probable that these two places — 
 Westlecott and Iscott — have been the seat of 
 habitations from the earliest times. Wickles- 
 cote afterwards belonged to persons of the 
 names of Bluet and Bohun. Bohun is a name 
 very celebrated in English History during the 
 reign of Edward I. That monarch proceeded 
 to tax both clergy and laity at his pleasure, 
 heedless of the Great Charter, but was at 
 length compelled by Humphrey Bohun and 
 Roger Bigod,^ two great noblemen, not only to 
 
 1 Roger Bigod, fifth Earl of Norfolk, Marshall of Eng- 
 land, born 1245, son of Hugh Bigod, justiciar. When 
 called upon to serve in Gascony, while Edward took com- 
 mand in Flanders, he refused. 
 
 "By God, earl, you shall either go or hang." 
 " By God, O king, I will neither go nor hang." 
 The Council broke up, and Bigod and Bohun were joined 
 by more than thirty of the great vassals. In answer to a 
 general levy of the military strength, the two earls refused 
 to serve in their offices of marshall and constable, and were 
 therefore deprived of them. 
 
 When Edward sailed for Flanders, leaving the Prince in 
 charge, they made the most of their opportunity, and pro- 
 tested boldly against exactions, being joined by the citizens 
 of London. An assembly of the magnates and knights of 
 the shires was called, Bigod and Bohun appeared in arms, 
 the prince was obliged to confirm the charters. 
 
 Upon the return of the king the earls demanded of him 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON ii 
 
 confirm that charter, but to add a clause to it 
 by which it was provided that the nation should 
 never in future be taxed without the consent of 
 Parliament, a wise enactment which has secured 
 the property of the subject against the rapacity 
 of rulers, and also proved the foundation of 
 England's wealth. All honour to the illustrious 
 Humphrey Bohun. 
 
 Wicklescote was then held under the manor 
 
 a confirmation in person, to which after long hesitation he 
 yielded. 
 
 After this, and the death of Bohun in 1298, Bigod's 
 power seems to have collapsed. 
 
 1 301. He made the king his heir, and gave up his 
 marshall's rod. 
 
 1302. Surrendered his lands and title, receiving them 
 back intail. 
 
 A chronicler ascribes this surrender to a quarrel between 
 Roger and his brother John. 
 
 1306. Bigod died without issue, and in consequence 
 of his surrender his dignities vested in the crown. 
 He married twice : — 
 
 1. Alina, daughter and co-heir of Philip Basset, chiet 
 
 justiciar of England in 1261, and widow of Hugh 
 le Despenser, chief justiciar of the barons. 
 
 2. Alice, daughter of John of Hainault. 
 Humphrey Bohun, fourth Earl of Hereford, son of Bigod's 
 
 colleague, took an active part in opposing the Despensers 
 and Edward H. He was killed at Boroughbridge, 1322. 
 A Bohun held the Basset lands. — Dictiimmy of Natio7ial 
 Biography. 
 
12 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 of Wootton Bassett. Later, In the reign of 
 Edward III., who occupied the throne from 
 1327 to 1377, the Everards and Lovells were 
 proprietors. A Katherine Lovell, seemingly 
 in the reign of Henry IV. (1399 to 141 3), gave 
 certain lands at Wicklescote to Lacock Abbey, 
 which, at the dissolution of monasteries — which 
 took place in the year 1535 — were bought by 
 John Goddard, Esq., of Upper Upham. Sir 
 Edward Darell, of Littlecote, near Hungerford, 
 had lands here In the early part of the reign of 
 Edward VI. John Wroughton had the manor 
 in the seventh year of Henry VI., that is, 
 in 1429. 
 
 The manor of High Swindon was conferred 
 by King Henry III. (reigned from 12 16 to 
 1272) upon a relation of his, in fact, his half- 
 brother, William de Valence, the celebrated 
 Earl of Pembroke, of Goderich Castle. His 
 son, Aylmer de Valence, held It in the year 
 1323. Valence is a name familiar to the 
 readers of Sir Walter Scott's novels. Aylmer 
 de Valence, it will be remembered, is the hero 
 or one of the principal characters in Castle 
 Dangerous ; and is there represented as the 
 nephew of the Earl of Pembroke. The widow 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON \y 
 
 of Aylmer de Valence held the manor in 1377. 
 She was known as Mary de St. Paul, Countess 
 of Pembroke, and her memory has been per- 
 petuated in consequence of her having founded 
 Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Aylmer de Val- 
 ence having died without issue, part of the 
 estate fell to the daughter of his sister, Eliza- 
 beth Comyn. She married Richard, second 
 baron Talbot of Goderich Castle, who thus 
 became owner of this part of Swindon. The 
 Talbots were a celebrated family. Shakes- 
 peare has immortalised the name in one of his 
 historical dramas. Later, in 1473, it belonged 
 to John, Earl of Shrewsbury. At this date the 
 manor was held under what was known as the 
 Honor of Pont'large.^ At length, in the year 
 1560, the estate was purchased by Thomas 
 Goddard, Esq., of Upham, ancestor of the 
 present owner, A. L. Goddard, Esq. 
 
 Phillip x^venell had landed property at Swin- 
 don in the time of Edward I. He held it 
 under the Abbess of Wilton. The names of 
 Avenell, Spilman, and Everard are found here 
 about 13 16 A.D. 
 
 1 Or Pont de I'Arche. 
 
14 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Olivia ^ Basset, wife of Hugh Despenser — a 
 distinguished name — had an estate at Swindon 
 in the seventh year of Edward I., that is, 
 in 1279. The grandson^ of this OHvia Basset 
 married Eleanor, co-heir of Gilbert de Clare, 
 Earl of Gloucester.^ In the thirty-third year 
 of the burly monarch, Henry the Eighth, a 
 Wenman owned the estate known as Even 
 Swindon. The Abbey of Malmesbury, the 
 Monastery of Ivy church, and later, the Ever- 
 ards and Alworths also held portions of these 
 lands, which were originally in the hands 
 of only five proprietors. The Wenman family 
 seem to have purchased their property here 
 about 1 54 1, or soon after the dissolution of 
 monasteries. At the same time. Sir Thomas 
 Bridges bought some lands at Swindon. He 
 was the ancestor of the Duke of Chandos. In 
 the days of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth the 
 woods, "super Rectoriam," were purchased from 
 the Crown by Thomas Stephens, of Burderop. 
 The Viletts also held landed property at Swin- 
 
 ^ Her name is also given as Oliva, or Aliena. 
 
 2 Hugh Despenser, junior 
 
 3 Hence the " Coate of Clare." 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 15 
 
 don; the family is now (1866) represented by- 
 Mrs. Rolleston, of the Square, Swindon. 
 
 At the present day (1866) the largest landed 
 proprietor of Swindon is A. L. Goddard, Esq. 
 He also owns the estate known as Broome. 
 This, in the reign of Edward I., belonged to 
 the priory of Martigny. Afterwards, at the 
 dissolution of the monasteries, it came into the 
 possession of the Seymours, an ancient and 
 widespread family. Later it descended through 
 Katherine, the daughter of Charles, sixth Duke 
 of Somerset, to the Wyndhams of the Egre- 
 mont house ; from whom it was purchased by 
 the present owner. When Aubrey, the wide- 
 famed Wiltshire antiquarian, came to Swindon 
 about two centuries ago, he seems to have 
 visited Broome, since he alludes to it in the 
 following passage : — 
 
 '* Mem. — At Brome, near Swindon, in a 
 pasture ground, near the house stands up a 
 great stone, q. Sarsden,^ called Longstone, 
 about 10 feet high, more or less, which I take 
 to be the remayner of a Druidish Temple ; in 
 the ground below are many stones in a right 
 line, thus : O O O O O O O." 
 
 ^ The etymology of this word is uncertain. Aubrey 
 
i6 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 The Stone seems to have disappeared, but to 
 this day the field is known as Longstone field. 
 There still remain a number of Sarsdens scat- 
 tered about, but without any apparent attempt 
 at order. A similar stone is said to have once 
 stood in Burderop Park, about a mile further. 
 Whether Aubrey was right or wrong in his 
 conjecture concerning the Druidical origin of 
 the assemblage of stones which he saw, it is 
 now of course impossible to tell, unless some 
 fortunate discovery should throw light upon the 
 matter. It may be remarked that on the slope 
 of the field known as Brud-hill — some say 
 
 derives it from Sarsden (Cesar'sdene ?) a village three miles 
 from Andover. Other suggestions are A. S. selstan = great 
 stone. A. S. sar = grievous, stan = a stone. A. S. sesan = 
 rocks. Sarsens or sarsdens are also known as grey wethers 
 or Druid stones. — Hunter. 
 
 Canon Jackson comments : "Of the great stones men- 
 tioned by Aubrey none are now remaining." Mr. Morris 
 says : " I resolved on finding out, if possible, what had 
 become of 'the remayner of a Druidish Temple,' and after 
 some years I was rewarded for my trouble by making the 
 discovery that the stones were actually sold to the Way- 
 wardens of Cricklade, and removed to that town, where they 
 were broken up and used to make good the pitching in the 
 streets. ... If this was the use the Swindonians of old 
 were prepared to make of 'the remayner of a Druidish 
 Temple,' the world at large may feel thankful that they had 
 no control over Stonehenge and Avebury." 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 17 
 
 Blood-hill, a name that would indicate fighting 
 — adjoining the Park at Swindon, there is 
 beside the footpath, a similar row of Sarsden 
 stones to those seen at Broome by Aubrey, 
 though these are much sunk in the earth. 
 
 The extent of Swindon, both during the 
 Saxon times and for centuries after, was in 
 all probability inconsiderable, that is, as a town. 
 There were probably a few great mansions 
 scattered here and there, the residences of the 
 tenants under the great families, who from 
 time to time owned the adjacent estates ; and 
 near these the cottages of the labourers. The 
 remains still existing of this period are so very 
 inconsiderable that it is next to impossible to 
 found even a probable conjecture upon them. 
 A few years ago what was considered a Saxon 
 arch or doorway was discovered in a cellar in 
 High Street, and whilst making some excava- 
 tions in the New Road, it was stated that the 
 workmen came upon a Saxon pillar. Remains 
 such as these must ever be liable to suspicion, 
 there being no corroborative testimony in the 
 shape of coins or similar articles. Saxon 
 Swindon seems to have entirely disappeared ; 
 nor has Norman Swindon met with any better 
 
 c 
 
1 8 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 fate. Mediaeval Swindon, may, perhaps, in a 
 certain sense, remain in a few scattered carvings 
 of no importance, but even these are doubtful. 
 It was not until Thomas Goddard, Esq., of 
 Upham, purchased the Swindon estate in 1560 
 that the place emerged from obscurity. The 
 Goddards then became the principal pro- 
 prietors, and the leading family of the town, 
 and have remained so ever since — through a 
 period of three centuries. 
 
 Even during the Civil Wars Swindon seems 
 to have in a general sense escaped notice. 
 Both the Parliamentary forces and those of the 
 King must have marched within a few miles 
 of the place, if they did not pass through ; at 
 any rate it is not improbable that a detachment 
 came here. Just before the first battle of New- 
 bury, which took place in 1644, ^he Earl of 
 Essex fell back before the King from Tewkes- 
 bury, surprised a Royalist garrison at Ciren- 
 cester, and, continues Lord Clarendon, the 
 historian of the war : "From hence the Earl, 
 having no farther apprehension of the king's 
 horse, which he had no mind to encounter upon 
 the open campagne, and being at the least 
 twenty miles before him, by easy marches, that 
 
? I 
 s: 
 
 Z ^ 
 
 H 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 19 
 
 his sick and wearied soldiers might overtake 
 him, moved through that deep and enclosed 
 country, North Wiltshire, his direct way to 
 London," closely pursued by the King and 
 Prince Rupert, who came up with the enemy 
 about seven miles from Swindon, and an 
 action ensued, which turned out in favour of 
 the Royalists. If Swindon ever became the 
 scene of civil contention it was probably when 
 the two hostile armies passed by at such a small 
 distance. Some few years since, while making 
 excavations in the middle of Wood Street, just 
 opposite Mr. Chandler's, the workmen came 
 upon a number of human bones, amongst them 
 a fine skull, which was preserved. A similar 
 discovery was made in Cricklade Street. 
 These remains may have had some connection 
 with those unhappy times when England was 
 divided against itself, but of course this is no 
 more than a conjecture. 
 
 Shortly after the Civil War came to an 
 end, Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary, visited 
 Swindon, and has left the following cursory 
 memorandum of Its condition at that date : — 
 
 " Swindon. This towne probably Is so 
 called, quasi Swine-Down, for It Is situated on 
 
20 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 a hill or downe, as well as many other places, 
 viz., Horseley, Cow-ton, Sheep-ton, etc., take 
 their names from other animals. It is famous 
 for the Ouarrie, which is neer the Towne, of 
 that excellent paveing stone, which is not in- 
 ferior to the Purbec Grubbes, but whiter, and 
 will take a little polish ; they send it to London ; 
 it is a white stone ; it was not discovered until 
 about thirty years agon : and I am now writing 
 in 1672 : yet it lies not above 4 or 5 foot 
 deep. Here is on Munday every weeke a 
 gallant Market for Cattle which encreased to 
 its now greatness upon the plague at High- 
 worth, about 20 years since. 
 
 " Here, at High worth, and so at Oxford, the 
 poore people, etc., gather the cow-shorne in the 
 meadows and pastures and mix it with hay, and 
 strawe, and clap it against the walles for ollit ; 
 they say 'tis good ollit, i.e., fuell : they call it 
 Compas, they meane I suppose. Compost. All 
 the soil hereabout is a rich lome of a darke haire 
 colour." 
 
 It will be observed that Aubrey gives 
 Swindon anything but a dignified origin. 
 Aubrey, however, is by no means an infallible 
 authority. Though an earnest, painstaking, 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 21 
 
 and often most intelligent antiquarian, he 
 often displays a childishness — a gossiping dis- 
 position similar to that which made him labour 
 so hard at the collection of ghost stories — 
 which led him to adopt the first thought that 
 occurred, without investigation, and to take up 
 time and paper, in recording little peculiarities, 
 like that of the '*cow-shorne," which would 
 have been much more usefully expended in 
 giving an account of the condition of the place 
 itself. Swine are not fed as a rule upon 
 downs ; ^ when herds of swine were kept their 
 chief haunts were the forest, — the boar's native 
 home — where acorns, beech masts, and roots, 
 can be found in abundance. Nor, although in 
 later times Swindon has become celebrated for 
 its pig market, could such a circumstance be 
 regarded as having given rise to its name, for 
 the simple reason that the market w^as not held 
 until the middle of the seventeenth century, 
 and the place is registered as Swindon "" in 
 Domesday Book, compiled towards the end of 
 
 ^ Mr. Jackson also questions Aubrey's derivation : A 
 down is not suitable for fattening swine. More likely 
 named from some owner, a Saxon or Danish " Sweyne," a 
 name still well known in the county. 
 
 ^ Svindone or Svindune. 
 
22 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 the eleventh century. Aubrey was probably 
 misled by the sound. Swindon certainly does 
 bear an affinity to Swine-don, when pronounced 
 with the i long. There does not appear any 
 other ground whatever for the conjecture, nor 
 can this ground be admitted. Sweyn-dune is a 
 far more reasonable conjecture. 
 
 Even at that date it seems Swindon was 
 famous for its quarries. The stone was even 
 sent to London. It may be remarked that the 
 spring of water known as the Wroughton 
 spring, It being just out of the town on the 
 Wroughton road, was discovered upon making 
 some excavations in search of stone in the 
 adjoining field ; it is said not much over a 
 century since. It is only necessary to take a 
 glance at these quarries to see to what a won- 
 derful extent they have been worked since their 
 discovery some 200 years ago — a good and in- 
 disputable testimony to the quality of the stone. 
 A few years back an interesting discovery to 
 geologists was made in that quarry known as 
 Tarrant's. It was a stem of a tree fossilized. 
 Scarcely a mantlepiece in the town that was not 
 furnished forthwith with a piece of this fossil 
 tree, so great was the curiosity awakened by the 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 23 
 
 discovery, yet so much larger was the supply 
 than the demand, that two large logs, if such 
 an expression may be used, still remain in Mr. 
 Tarrant's yard. Sands, visible to all passers-by. 
 
 The '* gallant Market " to which Aubrey 
 refers, still continues to be held, though under 
 very different auspices to those beneath which 
 it was then conducted. A magnificent building 
 now shelters corn dealers from the inclemencies 
 of the weather, while in a short time cattle 
 will be accommodated immediately without the 
 town. It appears from these cursory notes of 
 Aubrey that there was a cattle plague in the 
 country to ruin and intimidate farmers two 
 hundred years ago as well as now, or rather as 
 two years since. The market was held on the 
 same day then as now — Monday. This market 
 owes its existence to Thomas Goddard, a de- 
 scendant of the one who purchased the estate 
 at Swindon in 1560. Thomas Goddard, Esq., 
 obtained a charter ^ to hold a weekly market, 
 and two fairs yearly in 1627, which said mar- 
 kets and fairs have been duly observed since in 
 the Square, Swindon. The custom to which 
 
 ^ This charter was printed in the Swindon Advertiser^ 
 1 2th September, 1859. 
 
24 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Aubrey refers with respect to '' cow-shorne " at 
 High worth — if he means that it was used as 
 
 fuel — is remarkable in one way, since a some- 
 what similar one obtains in Palestine, according 
 to travellers — it might there be termed camel- 
 shorne. 
 
 "■ What's one's bane is another's blessing," 
 says the old proverb. The plague which 
 harassed High worth proved beneficial to 
 Swindon, which seems to have escaped the 
 ravages of the cattle disease as well in the 
 seventeenth century as in the nineteenth. It 
 would be interesting to learn the symptoms of 
 that cattle disease which overran the country 
 in the seventeenth century in order to compare 
 it with that which so lately assumed so threaten- 
 ing an aspect. The market, established in 1627 
 by Thomas Goddard, Esq., was probably the 
 making of Swindon. Henceforward it became 
 indisputably a town. He seems to have been 
 the only man in a course of eight centuries who 
 showed anything approaching public spirit to- 
 wards the place. The Goddard family very 
 
 ^ Shard or shorn, by some thought to be the derivation of 
 Shakespeare's "shard-born beetle": /.<?. bred in shard or 
 dung \MacbetK\ (Jackson). 
 
ANCIENT SWINDON 25 
 
 early had a connection of some sort with 
 Swindon. The name is said to be found in 
 deeds relating to the parish so far back as the 
 year 1404 — over four centuries ago. They 
 have been magistrates and members of Parlia- 
 ment for many generations. 
 
 The few preceding facts have been almost all 
 that it has been found possible to gather, which 
 in any way throw light upon the ancient state 
 of Swindon. It is from them, and from their 
 scarcity, very evident that the place was in old 
 times of very little importance as a town. 
 These facts, however few and meagre, are, it is 
 probable, all that will ever be found. Swindon, 
 it must be recollected, never boasted a mon- 
 astery, nor was it ever made into a corporate 
 town. Many places which were once of im- 
 portance sufficient to render a corporation 
 necessary — such as Wootton Bassett — are now 
 declining, or at a standstill, whilst Swindon, less 
 favoured in days gone by, is rapidly expanding 
 and developing its resources. Still, however 
 modern may be its importance, a town that can 
 date from before the Conquest — back to the 
 days of the Danes and the famous Sweyn, can 
 never be despised in point of antiquity. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 HOLY ROOD CHURCH 
 
 ALTHOUGH Swindon had no monastery, 
 yet it had a church from the earliest 
 times, known as Holy rood, or more familiarly 
 spoken of as the " Old Church " to distinguish 
 it from the new ; for Holy rood, as a place of 
 worship, is a thing of bygone days. The bells 
 are silent, the belfry itself has disappeared, and 
 of the body of the church, only the chancel and 
 two ancient ivy-covered arches remain. There 
 were no literary monks at Swindon in the 
 mediaeval ages to leave behind them a curious 
 chronicle for the learned of to-day to decipher 
 — letter by letter and sentence by sentence — 
 but there is the churchyard record with its 
 ever-open pages, all saying the same thing, 
 though in so many different ways ; tombstones 
 and tablets with many a tale of times gone by 
 traced upon them. Here are no gaily-deco- 
 rated manuscripts, but here is the handwriting of 
 
 26 
 
■ 
 
 '■J 
 at 
 
 O 
 O 
 
 
HOLY ROOD CHURCH 27 
 
 death, and its emblazonry of cross-bones, urns, 
 and praying figures. Not a step can be taken 
 through this ancient churchyard that does not 
 tread upon those who have lived and died, and 
 disappeared ; scarce a turf can be turned with- 
 out bringing to light the melancholy and moul- 
 dering remains of mortality. Here the awful 
 line of the poet Young is literally true — 
 
 " Where is the dust that has not been aHve ? " 
 
 Look at the rank, tall grass, damp even at 
 noonday ; its roots are nourished by that v/hich 
 once gaily trod the grass of its day under foot. 
 Look at the dark green moss upon the tomb- 
 stones — shortly it will fill up and hide the last 
 memorial of those who lie beneath ; others 
 there are which have sunk out of sight in the 
 same earth which received those they were in- 
 tended to commemorate — such is the end of 
 man. Even the graven stone cannot perpetu- 
 ate his memory — he dies, and his place knows 
 him no more. Verily this is the home of the 
 dead. 
 
 Why did our ancestors erect their sacred 
 buildings so near their mansions ? Here is the 
 churchyard actually coming up to the very wall 
 
28 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 of the house. The same thing may be ob- 
 served at Lydlard Tregoze, the seat of Lord 
 Bolingbroke, where the church and the manor 
 house almost touch. Probably priestly influ- 
 ence had something to do with it — the present 
 generation would scarcely be gratified with the 
 view of funerals being conducted beneath their 
 very windows. To-day men appear to endea- 
 vour to become fearless of death by placing it 
 out of sight, rather than by familiarising them- 
 selves with its accompaniments — probably on 
 the theory that familiarity breeds contempt. 
 The appearance of Holyrood Church, so far as 
 it is possible to judge from descriptions and 
 drawings, must have been very venerable, 
 though it had not the slightest pretension to 
 architectural beauty. The tower, which was 
 square and dwarfed, as if left unfinished, and 
 much overgrown with ivy, stood at the western 
 end and opposite the chancel. On the northern ^ 
 
 side was a kind of transept. The pillars which 
 supported the nave are of a rather unusual 
 shape, sexagonal. The two arches which re- 
 main have a very ancient appearance, increased 
 by the ivy which encircles them. That portion 
 which has been preserved is simply the chan- 
 
HOLYROOD CHURCH 29 
 
 eel. It originally was in the possession of the 
 Rolleston family, who were under an obligation 
 to keep it in repair, but upon the demolition 
 of the ancient edifice and the completion of 
 Christ Church — the present place of worship — 
 they transferred their rights to the new build- 
 ing, and the parish undertook the charge of 
 maintaining the old church. The old church 
 having been found inadequate to accommodate 
 the constantly increasing population of Swin- 
 don, it was proposed to enlarge and restore it, 
 and the committee appointed for that purpose 
 had agreed to recommend to the parish the 
 adoption of a design by the celebrated architect, 
 Mr. Gilbert Scott, for that purpose. The late 
 Mr. Goddard, however, offering a new site,^ 
 and his son, Mr. A. L. Goddard, promising a 
 donation ^ towards the building, the parish, at a 
 vestry meeting, decided to erect a new church 
 on another site. The donation of Mr. Goddard 
 formed the nucleus of a building fund, the liber- 
 ality of the parishioners and the indefatigable 
 exertions of the Rev. H. G. Baily, the vicar, 
 among his friends, providing the remainder of 
 
 ^ This included ground for a new churchyard. 
 2 ^100. 
 
30 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 the money. The total cost of the church was 
 ^8,000. Mr. Baily^ worked with great energy, 
 and he had a large share in obtaining for his 
 parish the beautiful edifice known as Christ 
 Church.^ The Diocesan Society of that day 
 refused any grant because the living was not in 
 the patronage of the bishop, and the Incorpo- 
 rated Church Building Society were only able 
 to give £\yz>. The materials of the old church, 
 save the chancel, which was preserved, were 
 sold to assist the fund for erecting the new 
 edifice. The bells (the tenor was cracked and 
 re-cast) were removed to the new church, and 
 are those now in the Parish Church. 
 
 Holy rood was not the original designation 
 of the church. In the fourteenth century — and 
 very early in it, 1 302 — it was dedicated to St. 
 Mary. About fifty years after this date, or in 
 the year 1359, the vicarage was first endowed. 
 The monastery of Wallingford had a certain 
 interest in the place, the monks having a pen- 
 sion, which was taken out of the rectorial tithes. 
 Before the dissolution of monasteries — that 
 
 ^ The Rev. H. G. Baily, after nearly forty years' work in 
 Swindon, accepted the Rectory of Lydiard Tregoze, in the 
 gift of Lord Bolingbroke. ^ 1850. 
 
HOLYROOD CHURCH 31 
 
 great blow which was dealt in 1535 to the 
 Roman Catholic religion — the Priory of St. 
 Mary, Southwick, had the rectory. Hence it 
 will be seen that although no monastery was 
 ever in existence at Swindon, it had, through 
 its church, connection with several of those 
 great nurseries of the Catholic faith. The 
 Abbey of Malmesbury, the Nunnery of Wilton, 
 the Monastery of Ivychurch, near Sarum or 
 Salisbury, the Monastery of Wallingford, and 
 lastly the Priory of Southwick, had all, to a 
 more or less degree, some interest in Swindon, 
 whose ancient inhabitants were therefore doubt- 
 less well acquainted with the cowl and its cus- 
 toms. It may be remarked that after a lapse 
 of many centuries the Catholic faith has once 
 again begun to make headway in Swindon as 
 well as in other localities — there beino- a Roman 
 Catholic chapel in Bridge Street, New Swindon, 
 which is quite a modern erection. England 
 is beginning to feel the effects of universal 
 toleration — a great problem which is working 
 itself out around us, and has in America arrived 
 at such startling developments.^ 
 
 ^ It must be remembered that this was written in 1867, 
 soon after the Civil War. 
 
32 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 After the dissolution of the monasteries, the 
 rectory fell, about the year 1560, into the hands 
 of the Stephen family, then resident at Burderop. 
 It continued in their hands until 1584, when it 
 was purchased from them by the Vilett family. 
 
 At least one distinguished man has been 
 Vicar of Swindon. This was no less a person 
 than Narcissus Marsh, who afterwards became 
 Archbishop of Armagh.^ He does not appear, 
 however, to have been a vicar for a longer 
 period than one year, which was 1662. Swin- 
 don has not been noticeable as a prolific place 
 for remarkable men.^ It certainly never had 
 the chance which other places had. There 
 was no monastery to collect or focus the learn- 
 ing and ability of the neighbourhood. Let not 
 then the soil of Swindon be despised on that 
 account. " Blame the culture, not the soil," as 
 Horace puts it. The non-existence of a mon- 
 astery cannot be too much lamented by the 
 antiquarian.^ 
 
 1 Canon Jackson notes : " In the list of Vicars are three 
 pecuHar names — Milo King, Aristotle Webbe, and Narcis- 
 sus Marsh." 
 
 ^ Richard Jefferies himself appears the only literary man 
 of note produced in this locality. (Ed.) 
 
 ^ In his interesting Swindon Fifty Years Ago, Mr. Wil- 
 
HOLYROOD CHURCH 33 
 
 Holyrood Church must have seen some 
 strange changes in that long course of five 
 hundred years. Could the stones speak, what 
 stories might they not tell of times gone by — 
 of armed men, of the knights who fought in 
 the Wars of the Roses ; later, of the quaintly 
 cut beards and curiously slashed garments of 
 Queen Elizabeth's reign ; of the careless cava- 
 liers of King Charles's days ; of monks and 
 mass superseded by surpliced clergymen and 
 their comparatively modern service. The bells 
 — what changes they must have rung : 
 
 "For full five hundred years I've swung 
 In my old gray turret high, 
 And many a changing theme I've rung 
 As the time went stealing by " 
 
 might have been traced upon them. But the 
 stones are dumb, save the records of the dead ; 
 the bells are no longer heard, the belfry is 
 down. The jackdaws have lost their building 
 
 liam Morris devotes two chapters to local " Worthies," 
 amongst whom are Dr. G. A. Mantell, Mr. James Strange, 
 William Pike, etc. But as, with the exception of Robert 
 Sadler, they are literally local worthies, they need not be 
 enumerated here, as Jefferies' statement is at present irre- 
 futable. 
 
 D 
 
34 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 place, though they still remain in numbers in 
 the neighbourhood, and may be seen any day 
 in the adjacent park. There was a very 
 general feeling of regret when the old place 
 was discovered to be doomed. '* I have com- 
 pleted a monument more lasting than marble, 
 more durable than brass," sang Horace on 
 finishing a book, and his words have been 
 fulfilled. So, though Holyrood has gone, 
 there yet remains a record, slight and scanty, 
 but still a record, written upon that apparently 
 most perishable material, paper. Aubrey, who 
 has already been referred to as visiting Swin- 
 don about two centuries ago, did not forget 
 the church. Here is his memoranda con- 
 cerning it : — 
 
 *' Church. In the church is nothing observ- 
 able left in the windowes except in the first, 
 on the south side of the chancell, viz., the 
 coate of Clare. This cross is on a tombe 
 about a foote higher than the pavement on 
 
 the north side of the aisle, belonging to 
 
 Goddard, Esq. ... In the same aisle, 
 beneath his picture, was buried, aged 25, 
 1 64 1, Thomas Goddard, Esq., husband of 
 Jane, daughter to Edmund Fettiplace, Knight, 
 
HOLY ROOD CHURCH 35 
 
 his coate thus, Goddard (diagram). Somebody 
 is buried by. I suppose his wife, but the in- 
 scription is not legible. This on an old free- 
 stone in the chancell, now worne out, Grubbe 
 of Poterne (sinister). Also Stephens of Bur- 
 thorp. The same in other colours and metalls. 
 Near this lye buried two children of William 
 Levet, Esq. They were buried 1667. 
 
 " This under the altar, viz : '' Here lieth the 
 body of Thomas Vilett, Gent. He departed 
 this life the 6th day of November, 1667. On 
 both sides lye buried his two wives.' . 
 
 '' At the upper end of the church this in- 
 scription : ' Christus, qui mortuus est ut per 
 mortem suam superans mortem triumpharet, 
 a mortuis ad vivos exsuscitabit. Buried the 
 5th of June, An. Dom. 16 10, the body of 
 Elenor Huchens, the wife of Thomas Huchens 
 of Ricaston. Shee to this parish twenty pound 
 gave to the relief of the poore, the use for 
 ever. James Lord, and Henry Cus, her hus- 
 bands, twenty pounds each of them gave to 
 the poore of this parish, the use for ever.' 
 
 " This in the chancell : * Hie jacet Henricus 
 Alworth in hac viclnia natus, qui adolescentiam 
 in Schola Wintoniensi juventutem in Academia 
 
36 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 OxonlensI senectutem in Patria Wiltonlensi, 
 fellciter consecravit, ubique, caste, sobrie, pie, 
 sibi parcus, suis, beneficus, egenis effusus, ab 
 omnibus desideratus, Obijt XVI die Augusti 
 1669 T^tatis suae 75.' " 
 
 The first remark that Aubrey makes is, that 
 there was in his time but Httle left in the 
 windows — by the use of which expression he 
 would seem to intimate that there once had 
 been something in them. Now the date at 
 which he passed through Swindon was but a 
 short time after the conclusion of the Civil 
 War, and it is well known that the soldiers 
 of Cromwell's army had a great fancy for 
 smashing everything which in their diseased 
 and heated imaginations they conceived to 
 bear what was called " the mark of the 
 beast," that is, to savour of Rome. Like the 
 iconoclasts of the continent they had a mad 
 hatred of anything approaching an image. 
 May it not then be reasonably conjectured 
 that the Parliamentarian soldiers destroyed 
 whatsoever they possibly could in a hasty 
 visit to Swindon — such as might have occurred 
 when the army of Essex passed through North 
 Wilts in 1644? Aubrey himself, if we re- 
 
HOLYROOD CHURCH 37 
 
 member aright, mentions In another part of 
 his work that such had been their conduct at 
 Bishopstone church — perhaps five miles from 
 Swindon — where they had smashed the stained 
 glass, and left nothing for him to copy. Why 
 may not the same thing have happened at 
 Swindon ? The windows themselves have 
 gone since Aubrey's time, saving one which 
 remains at the eastern extremity of the chancel, 
 in which there is a little, but a very little, 
 stained glass/ 
 
 It was the custom of the Roundheads to 
 stable their horses in the old buildings which 
 had once witnessed the celebration of mass — 
 it is to be hoped no such desecration ever 
 occurred in Holy rood. 
 
 Aubrey observed the ** coate of Clare," that 
 is, the arms of that house, in the first window 
 on the south side of the chancel. In the time 
 of Edward I., about 1279, one Olivia Bassett, 
 as has been already mentioned, held lands at 
 Swindon ; and her grandson formed a matri- 
 monial alliance with Eleanor, the co-heiress of 
 
 ^ Jefferies here, somewhat inconsistently, gives credence 
 to the current traditions of Roundhead irreverence — the 
 Parliamentarian army acting as a convenient scapegoat for 
 the sacrilegious acts of contemporaries. 
 
3S JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, which 
 perhaps may in some way throw light upon 
 this " coate of Clare " which Aubrey saw/ 
 '' Stephens of Burthorp " would mean Stephens 
 of Burderop. Burderop is understood, like 
 Swindon, to have been named by the Danes, 
 thorp being a Danish word for village. This 
 lends strength to the supposition that Swindon 
 was named from Sweyn, since it shows that 
 the Danes had settlements in the neighbour- 
 hood. Levet — two children of which name 
 Aubrey found were buried here 1667 — is an 
 ancient name, and persons of that designation 
 long had some connection with the place. It 
 is said that the name Levet or Leviet occurs 
 in the Domesday Survey of Swindon. Al- 
 worth is also an ancient name, and one early 
 found here. The Viletts then, as now, occu- 
 pied the chancel. It may be observed that 
 Aubrey gives no inscriptions whatever earlier 
 than the century in which he lived — that is, 
 dated before the commencement of the seven- 
 teenth century. Between 1 600 and 1 700 there 
 are numerous interments commemorated with 
 a tombstone and inscription, but earlier than 
 
 ^ See chap, i., p. 14. 
 
HOLYROOD CHURCH 39 
 
 that there does not appear to be any. Those 
 that Aubrey copied, though ancient now, were 
 most of them modern in his time, two hun- 
 dred years ago, yet the church has been in 
 existence full five hundred years. The truth 
 would appear to be that it is only within the 
 last two centuries and a half that Swindon 
 has become the residence of persons wealthy 
 enough to commemorate their losses by the 
 aid of the engraver's expensive art. Such 
 men as Odin the Chamberlain, the Bishop of 
 Bayeux, the Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of 
 Shaftesbury, the Talbots, and the Darells of 
 Littlecot, no doubt had their family vaults 
 elsewhere ; and with the solitary exception of 
 the " coate of Clare" not a memorial of the 
 noble families once connected with Swindon 
 seems to remain in the place. After 1560, 
 when the estate came into the Goddard family, 
 and the adjoining mansion became the resi- 
 dence of the owners, the church was made the 
 sepulchre of persons whose memory was per- 
 petuated by tombs and inscriptions. 
 
 The dimensions of the old church were as 
 follows : The tower was in length 1 8 feet 2 
 inches, the nave 60 feet i inch, the chancel 31 
 
40 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 feet 6 Inches, altogether 109 feet 9 Inches. 
 The breadth of the north aisle was 16 feet 5 
 Inches, the nave 21 feet 5 inches, and the south- 
 aisle also 16 feet 5 Inches, making a total 
 breadth of 54 feet 3 Inches, while the height 
 of the nave was 30 feet. It was, therefore, a 
 structure of some considerable size. The body 
 of the church, which has now disappeared, 
 contained a number of tablets, some near the 
 pillars, others around the walls. Those adja- 
 cent to the three pillars of the south aisle were 
 In memory of William Harding, 1821 ; Gulle- 
 lim Home, 1730; Hannah Nobes, 1807; Rev. 
 John Neate, 1719; James Bradford, 1829; and 
 the Rev. Edmund Goodenough, 1807. Upon 
 and within the south wall of the church were 
 affixed the following : To John Skull, 1755 ; 
 Edmund Goddard, 1776; Joseph Randall, 
 1768; Millicent Neate, 1764; and Thomas 
 Goddard Vilett, 18 17. On or near to the 
 pillars of the north aisle were originally affixed 
 monuments to Elizabeth Slack, 1789 ; Rev. 
 John William Aubrey, 1806 ; Mary Broadway, 
 1747; Francis Miles, 1834; Richard Wayt, 
 1746 ; Ann Yorke, 1807 ; John Smith, 1775 ; 
 and Henry Herring, 1767. Adjacent to the 
 
HOLYROOD CHURCH 41 
 
 wall upon the north side were tablets to John 
 Goddard, 1678; Richard Goddard, 1732; 
 Ambrose Goddard, 181 5 ; Gulielim Gallimore, 
 1697; Thomas Wayt, 1753; Hann^e Tubb, 
 1756; and Elizabeth Evans, 1763. These 
 were carefully removed upon the destruction 
 of the building, and the majority of them are 
 still to be seen preserved in the chancel. 
 
 The stone-paved walk from the Planks up to 
 the chancel is in a great measure composed of 
 gravestones. One may be observed upon the 
 right hand immediately before the entrance, 
 upon which there is cut a simple cross without 
 inscription or date that can be seen — which is 
 perhaps even more suitable than a fulsome epi- 
 taph contradicting its own purpose by a super- 
 abundance of adjectives. The chancel is at 
 present almost completely full of tablets and 
 other monuments of the dead, many having 
 been removed here from the body of the 
 church. Over the high arched doorway with- 
 in may be seen several gloomy hatchments, 
 the monuments of departed greatness, with 
 the usual inscriptions, such as '* Resurgam." 
 Against the wall leans the royal arms detached 
 from its original position ; while upon the ele- 
 
42 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 vatlon afforded by the steps which once ap- 
 proached the altar stand the unused reading- 
 desk and carved communion table. The air is 
 damp and cold, the light dim and gloomy — it is 
 silent, deserted, a fit resting-place for the dead, 
 or for meditation. Here no longer is heard 
 the voice of the warning preacher, no longer 
 rises the hymn of thanksgiving, no longer is 
 received the cup of commemoration ; it is a 
 place of tradition, the dwelling-place of the 
 spirit of the past. A church must ever be a 
 place of gloom to the majority of mankind, but 
 a church which is deserted has its gloom deep- 
 ened tenfold. It seems as though men had 
 deserted that hope with which they formerly 
 reinvigorated themselves within it. 
 
 At the east end, beneath the window, is the 
 following inscription upon a stone let in even 
 with the pavement : " Here lieth the body of 
 Anne Vilett, wife of Thomas Vilett, gent, and 
 daughter of Edmund Webb, of Rodbourne, 
 Esqure, who departed this life December 6, 
 1643. Her age 54. She had living of eight 
 children only one." The arrangement of the 
 inscription upon this stone, as well as upon 
 the two following. Is peculiar, and at first sight 
 
HOLY ROOD CHURCH 43 
 
 hardly intelligible ; the graver would seem to 
 have been at a loss how to cut out what he 
 was required without crowding, The stone 
 close by has the following inscription : " Here 
 lieth the body of Thomas Vilett, gent. Hee 
 departed this life the 6th day of November 
 1667 ; also Captn. John, son of ye Sd. Ths. 
 Vilett, who died March ye 17, 1700, aged 70 
 years." The first part of this inscription is the 
 same as that which Aubrey saw and copied 
 when he visited this place two centuries since ; 
 that relating to the son, Captain John, has 
 been added since his time. The third stone 
 is in memory of Thomas Vilett's second wife, 
 whose memory is preserved in these words : 
 *'Aug, 24, 1650, was buried Martha, second 
 wife of Thomas Vilett, gent., and daughter 
 of Thomas Goddard Esqure. She had three 
 children livinge." All three of these stones, 
 besides the inscriptions, have devices graven 
 upon them. On the south wall of the church is 
 a monument to three sisters : Mary, widow of 
 John Broadway, whilom Vicar of the parish, 
 died Jan. 7, 1747, leaving ^20 yearly to the 
 poor of the Parish ; Dorothy Brind died 1 748 ; 
 and Margaret Brind died the same year, leav- 
 
44 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 ing ;^ioo to the poor of the parish. A tablet 
 on the same wall records some benefactions, of 
 the interest of ;^ioo, given by one Home; 
 Joseph Cooper in 1790 gave some lands at 
 Stratton St. Margaret, in lieu of and augmen- 
 tation of the same. Near this is a very ancient 
 and curious tablet which was seen and copied 
 by Aubrey, but the peculiar spelling of which 
 renders it sufficiently interesting to be copied 
 verbatim. It runs thus : '' Bvryed 5 of Ivne, 
 the body of Elenor Hvchens the wife of 
 Thomas Hvchens of Ricaston. Shee of this 
 parish : 20 povnds gave to the releefe of the 
 poor, the vse for ever. James Lorde and 
 Henry Cvs her hvsbandt, 20 povnd each of 
 them gave to the poor of this parish the vse 
 for ever" (v. page 35). 
 
 On the north wall there is a small tablet to 
 the memory of Elizabeth Evans, dated 1763, 
 which appears to have once stood in the body 
 of the church. The inscription contains a 
 memorandum of a rather singular gift, yet no 
 doubt very acceptable to the recipients : '* By 
 her will bearing date IX day of May 1763 she 
 bequeathed ^50 to repair pews of this Church 
 and also the interest of ^70 to purchase six 
 
HOLYROOD CHURCH 45 
 
 gowns to be given yearly in St Thomas' day 
 to six poor women inhabitants of this parish, 
 whose age shall exceed 60 years." The Vilett 
 family appear to have occupied the chancel ; 
 the Goddard vaults are immediately without 
 the remaining portion of the building, on the 
 north side between it and the mansion. The 
 number of interments is evident from the large 
 space covered by the stones, one of which has 
 graven upon it a curious figure, apparently of a 
 person in a long robe, praying. The following 
 is an inscription upon a tablet erected in 1838 : 
 ** Near this place lie the remains of Ambrose 
 Goddard, Esq., and of Sarah Marva, his wife. 
 They lived nearly forty years in the adjacent 
 mansion, happy in the love of each other, and 
 in promoting the happiness of all around them, 
 though severely tried by the loss of many of a 
 numerous family. He represented the county 
 of Wilts in Parliament 35 years, honestly and 
 faithfully, seeking no reward but the testimony 
 of his own conscience and the esteem of his 
 constituents. His wife was highly gifted, and 
 a bright example of Christian grace. They 
 both endeavoured to serve God, by doing good 
 to man. Through the merits of Christ may 
 
46 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 their services be accepted, and their happiness 
 protracted in a blessed eternity." 
 
 *'A. Goddard, died June, 1815, S. M. God- 
 dard, April, 1818. This tablet was erected by 
 their few surviving children as a memorial of 
 their gratitude and affection." 
 
 The Goddards have now sat in Parliament 
 over half a century. It has been remarked of 
 the present head of that family that he is never 
 absent when there is any likelihood of a divi- 
 sion to require his vote. Their policy has ever 
 been a consistent Conservatism. 
 
 One of the tablets originally upon the north 
 wall of the body of the church exhibited the 
 following inscription : " Here lieth the body of 
 John Goddard, gent, died December, 1678." 
 This one may still be seen. It is in memory 
 of John Vilett, Esqr. : '' Deo optimo maximo. 
 Hoc Sacravium instauravit et exoruavit 
 Johannes Vilett armiger, a.d. 1736." 
 
 Another was in memory of Thos. Smyth, 
 D.D., died 1790, aged 86; of whom it was 
 recorded that he was vicar of the parish ; also 
 to Mrs. Jane Smyth, who died in 1787 at the 
 age of 74 ; they having lived happily together 
 for a period of nearly half a century. But the 
 
HOLY ROOD CHURCH 47 
 
 most extraordinary monument is that in 
 memory of one William Noad, and his four 
 wives. Hannah, his first, died in 1733, aged 
 28 years ; Hannah H., died in 1741, aged 29 ; 
 Martha, the third, died 1766, at the age of 62 ; 
 Ann, the fourth, died in 1776, aged 54 years; 
 and finally, William Noad died himself in the 
 year 1781, aged 70. This Noad, one might 
 imagine, was a Mahommedan at least, since he 
 managed to have the solacement of as many 
 wives as is allowed by the Koran to the fol- 
 lowers of the prophet, and a clever fellow, too, 
 to steer clear of bigamy. Four wives — this is 
 the ''Wife of Bath" reversed. If any one 
 understood what matrimonial life is, one would 
 think this Noad must have done so. What a 
 pity he did not write his memoirs for the guid- 
 ance of future husbands ! He died at length at 
 the allotted age of man — three score years and 
 ten — which fact shows what may be done in a 
 lifetime. Noad must have known a ofood deal 
 about womankind. His occupation in life was 
 that of clerk of the parish. Altogether William 
 Noad may be regarded as one of the most 
 extraordinary men Swindon ever produced. It 
 does not seem recorded that any such feat was 
 
48 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 ever performed before or after. Probably we 
 shall never see his like again. Peace be to his 
 ashes, for it is to be feared he had little during 
 his lifetime. 
 
 The office of clerk of the parish seems to 
 have been for a long time hereditary in the 
 Noad family. William Noad comes first, 
 dying 1781 ; Henry Noad occupied the same 
 post in 1752 ; another Henry Noad, in 1790, 
 and a third Henry Noad vacated the office by 
 death in 1848. This last Henry Noad is 
 recorded to have held it for the extraordinary 
 term of 57 years, or over half a century. What 
 births, marriages, and deaths he must have 
 recorded — the population of the place would in 
 that time be almost entirely changed, a genera- 
 tion would pass away and another spring up, 
 and he, clerk still, apparently stationary. The 
 Noad family has been rather a remarkable one. 
 The name is still known in Swindon. Cooper 
 Noad, of Newport Street, makes good barrels, 
 and challenges the world to produce better. 
 All honour to the name of Noad ! 
 
 Swindon seems to be a remarkably healthy 
 situation, since some of the inhabitants have 
 reached ages which might fairly be put into 
 
HOLY ROOD CHURCH 49 
 
 comparison with those of more widely-renowned 
 places. Henry Noad just referred to was clerk 
 for 57 years, and there lie in Holyrood church- 
 yard the remains of four persons, who, with 
 another of the same, only lately [1867], de- 
 ceased, have not inaptly been designated the 
 Five Patriarchs. The name of this remark- 
 able assemblage of aged persons was Weekes. 
 Thomas Weekes died in 1829, at the age of 91 
 years. Hannah Weekes, who departed this 
 life in 1826, reached 82. Ed. Weekes, died 
 1 82 1, aged Z^. Susan in 1820, also 83 years 
 of age ; while John Weekes, died 1866, reached 
 the truly patriarchal age of 92 years. The sum 
 of the lives of these five persons — all of whom, 
 let it be observed, have died in the nineteenth 
 century, and therefore it cannot be supposed 
 that the virtue of Swindon air was better in the 
 olden times than now — the sum amounts to 
 433 years ! Eighty and six years was the 
 average age of this remarkable family. Nor 
 are they single examples of the remarkable 
 longevity attained by the inhabitants of Swin- 
 don. A lady of the name of Read (deceased 
 during the present year) was, if we remember 
 rightly, 91 years of age. Her remains were 
 
 £ 
 
50 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Interred at Wroughton. Mr. Shepherd, still 
 living [1867], is another example — his age is 
 90. Mr. J. Jefferies has reached his eighty- 
 fourth year. On the whole, Swindon can 
 furnish examples of longevity which may 
 challenge, if not defy, competition. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SWINDON IN 1867 1 
 
 WHENEVER a man Imbued with re- 
 publican politics and progressionist 
 views, ascends the platform and delivers an 
 oration, It Is a safe wager that he makes some 
 allusion at least to Chicago, the famous mush- 
 room city of the United States, which sprang 
 up in a night, and thirty years ago consisted 
 of a dozen miserable fishermen's huts, and now 
 counts over two hundred thousand inhabitants. 
 Chicago ! Chicago ! look at Chicago ! and see 
 in Its development the vigour which Invariably 
 follows republican institutions. This is con- 
 founding the effect with the cause. The 
 hundreds of thousands of American emigrants 
 
 ^ Readers are reminded that this chapter has been left as 
 Jefferies wrote it, as, if it had been brought up to date, 
 much of the original matter must have been omitted as 
 obsolete ; whereas the details of thirty years ago are already 
 old enough to be interesting to the historian of the town. 
 
 51 
 
52 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 must have something to do, and somewhere to 
 Hve. Men need not go so far from their own 
 doors to see another instance of rapid expan- 
 sion and development which has taken place 
 under a monarchical government. The Swin- 
 don of to-day is almost ridiculously dispropor- 
 tioned to the Swindon of forty years ago.^ 
 Houses have sprung up as if by enchantment, 
 trade has increased ; places of worship seem 
 constantly building to accommodate the ever 
 growing population ; as for public-houses, they 
 seem without number. A whole town has 
 sprung into existence. The expression New 
 Town is literally true. It is new in every sense 
 of the word. New in itself, new in the descrip- 
 tion of Its Inhabitants. There was no republi- 
 can form of self-government at Swindon forty 
 years ago — on the contrary, the place was 
 decidedly conservative, averse to change, and 
 looking at those who proposed it with sus- 
 picion. It certainly was not owing to repub- 
 licanism that the place developed so fast. 
 That was not the cause, but that has been the 
 effect. New Swindon is as decidedly demo- 
 
 ^ Middlesborough is another famous example of the rapid 
 growth of an English town. 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 53 
 
 cratic in its sentiments as Old Swindon was 
 conservative. The real cause of this enormous 
 development may be traced to that agent which 
 has effected an almost universal change — • 
 Steam. Swindon is going ahead by steam — 
 the phrase is literally and metaphorically 
 correct. Yet the first push was not due to 
 steam. Forty-five years ago, or thereabouts, 
 the Wilts and Berks Canal came along close 
 below the Old Town, cutting right through 
 that flat meadow-land which was, twenty 
 years after, to resound with the hum of men. 
 The calm, contemplative, chew-a-straw steers- 
 man of the barge boats was then first seen 
 slowly gliding past, tugged along by a horse 
 walking on the tow-path. With what amaze- 
 ment and admiration the agricultural labourer's 
 children must have been struck as they viewed 
 the progress of the painted boat ; how they 
 must have envied such an apparently easy 
 life ! These children were designed to see 
 more astonishing things yet. Simple as they 
 were, they have seen in actual existence what 
 the wise men of former ages never dreamt of. 
 That part which it was found necessary for 
 the canal to pass through immediately beneath 
 
54 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Swindon was discovered to be the highest 
 level on its whole course. Here there was no 
 necessity for a lock for a distance of seven 
 miles, and accordingly there is, at this day, a 
 clear stretch of seven miles of water — New 
 Swindon beinof situated somewhere about the 
 middle, and consequently, a capital place to 
 launch pleasure boats could the Canal Com- 
 pany be persuaded to speculate, or allow 
 others to. A canal was something so utterly 
 foreign in its conception to what the country 
 people had been accustomed, that it was 
 dubbed the " river," and goes by that name 
 in the country round to this day. This long 
 stretch of clear seven miles without a lock 
 necessarily intercepted and received the water 
 of numerous streams and rivulets, which — the 
 right of use for certain periods of the year hav- 
 ing been purchased by the Company — are used 
 by them to keep this portion of the canal well 
 filled, in order to supply the loss when a lock 
 is opened. But so great was the traffic in 
 those days, and accordingly so great was the 
 quantity of water required, that it was dis- 
 covered that in the summer, should it chance 
 to be a dry one, there would always be the 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 55 
 
 risk of a deficiency. Moreover, a lock might 
 break, a bank might slip — a hundred possible 
 accidents rendered a constant reservoir at this, 
 the highest level desirable, and Indeed neces- 
 sary to the proper working of the canal. 
 Accordingly the engineers of the Company 
 cast about to find a fit place to construct a 
 reservoir, and at last fixed on a valley at 
 Coate, about a mile and a half from Swindon. 
 This valley was enclosed by a bank at each 
 extremity, and the water of a brook which 
 originally ran through It, together with that 
 from other springs artificially compelled to run 
 here, being allowed to accumulate, formed 
 exactly what was desired ; while the original 
 course of the brook took off" any superfluity 
 that might occur from flooding, and by a 
 branch from It the canal could be always 
 supplied. But the site offered one difficulty. 
 There was a spring rising Immediately without 
 the upper bank of the reservoir, which It was 
 found Impossible to make run into it ; more- 
 over. It was wanted by the farmers and Inhabi- 
 tants of the vale beneath. This, then, must 
 run under the reservoir. A brick culvert was 
 accordingly constructed, but an unfortunate 
 
S6 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 oversight occurred. That part of the bottom 
 of the reservoir over which It was necessary 
 the culvert should be carried at the latter 
 end of Its course, had originally been but one 
 remove from a morass, In short, was very 
 "shaky." Upon this unstable foundation the 
 culvert seems to have been placed, and with 
 the result which might have been anticipated. 
 The weight of the brick-work, with a superin- 
 cumbent load of earth and sand thrown on, 
 proved too great for the soft ooze upon which 
 It was placed. The culvert gradually sank In 
 places, the brickwork cracked, and leaks have 
 ever since been more or less frequent. One 
 occurred of a very serious character, when the 
 meadows below were flooded by the escaped 
 water of the reservoir, and had not a hatch 
 been beaten down by sledge hammers. It has 
 been thought that the reservoir bank must 
 have been washed away, and the thousands of 
 tons of water It contained would have been 
 precipitated into the vale, the effect of which 
 would have been an enormous damage to 
 property and probable loss of life. The reser- 
 voir, when full, covers an extent of seventy-two 
 acres, and is a favourite place for summer pic- 
 

 > 
 
 o 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 57 
 
 nics, being so near the town. Racing boats 
 were formerly kept here, and some exciting 
 pulls occurred, but this has long been discon- 
 tinued. The want of boats — those that there 
 are being utterly insufficient to supply the 
 demand — causes much remark, since they 
 would evidently be a paying speculation.^ It 
 is a beautiful sheet of water, approaching a mile 
 in length, and has so much the appearance of 
 being natural, that it is difficult even upon 
 examination to consider it a work of man. 
 The delusion is kept up by the numerous 
 trees, and the romantic scenery around. The 
 place was completed in 1822. 
 
 The completion of the canal — a wharf being 
 of course constructed opposite Swindon — gave 
 the first noticeable stimulus to the progress of 
 the place. Swindon was a kind of junction, 
 the canal here branching off into two — one 
 going to Bristol, the other to Gloucester — and 
 consequently a most favourable situation for 
 trade. Coal now reached the town in greater 
 quantities, and at a much less cost than pre- 
 viously, and a great carrying trade sprang up. 
 Old inhabitants relate that in winter, when a 
 ^ This defect has long since been remedied. 
 
58 JEFFERIES LAND 
 
 sharp frost — somehow the frosty weather In 
 these modern days never seems to come up to 
 the description of that of yore — had bound the 
 canal as if with iron, there was immediately 
 an apprehension that the price of coals would 
 rise ; which, if the frost continued, and the 
 barges could not come up, it accordingly did, 
 until all that remained upon the wharf being 
 consumed, a coal famine would ensue. Enter- 
 prising farmers, whose teams could not work in 
 that weather, would then dispatch a waggon 
 and a trusty man even down to the very pit's 
 mouth, purchase a load cheap, and make a 
 good profit by retailing It around. These were 
 the good old days ! The poor must have 
 suffered grievously for want of fuel when even | 
 
 the wealthy were straitened, especially in town, 
 for in the country districts wood was plentiful, 
 and the fireplaces adapted for consuming it. 
 These were the halcyon days of the Canal 
 Company. But a new wonder was to come 
 and supplant the old. 
 
 Those who could afford to purchase a paper 
 (for papers were not sold for half-pence then) 
 and who could read It when they got it, had 
 already been wondering over what would come 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 59 
 
 of that new invention — the steam engine. It 
 answered well to pump the water out of the 
 mines in Cornwall, boats had been propelled 
 by it, and finally, a tramway was constructed 
 at Manchester, which was found successful. 
 Then began the mania of railway speculation, 
 which, if it ruined thousands, proved the basis 
 upon which Swindon was to rise. The idea of 
 the Great Western Railway was at last started 
 — a gigantic scheme which was to connect the 
 two great cities of the South of England, 
 London and Bristol, by a level iron road. 
 Men were seen about in all directions, with 
 curious instruments, to the wonder of gaping 
 rustics, and the rage of farmers whose hedges 
 had gaps cut in them to clear the line of sight, 
 or whose property was trespassed upon by 
 enterprising engineers. The plan was looked 
 upon as monstrous by the aristocracy of the 
 country. These iron roads — who could hunt if 
 they intersected the land '^. These screaming 
 engines — where could be found a quiet corner 
 for the pheasants, if they were allowed to roam 
 across the country ? Good-bye to the rural 
 retirement and peaceful silence of the deer- 
 dotted park, if once the white puff of the steam 
 
6o JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 engine curled over the ancient oaks ! Great 
 opposition was offered to the railway bills, but 
 they were passed in spite of all, with a proviso 
 preserving parks ; which, by the way, diverted 
 the Great Western from running immediately 
 by Old Swindon, it having been originally 
 designed to pass somewhere about where the 
 gasometer stands now, that is to say, to intrude 
 on the Goddard property. 
 
 The work was now vigorously proceeded 
 with. On the 26th of November, 1835, the 
 first contract was taken. This was the Wharn- 
 cliffe viaduct. Excepting about four miles in 
 the vicinity of London, the rest was let out 
 down to Maidenhead, during the following six 
 months. The work of the Bristol part was 
 commenced in 1836, and the first contract let 
 was a length of nearly three miles, extending 
 from the Avon to Keynsham. But the most 
 formidable undertaking on the whole line was 
 the celebrated Box tunnel. The shafts were 
 contracted for in the latter part of 1836, the 
 tunnel itself in the following year. Three long 
 years were expended in drilling — if such an 
 expression may be employed — this enormous 
 hole through the hill ; it having not been 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 61 
 
 completed until 1841. The depth which the 
 shafts had to be sunk was on an average 240 
 feet, and their diameter is twenty-eight feet. 
 The tunnel Is straight as a gun barrel, and can 
 be seen through from end to end, which allows 
 the observation of some singular effects of per- 
 spective. Its length Is 3,200 yards, or nearly 
 two miles ; It cost over half a million ; no less 
 than 20,000,000 of bricks were employed In the 
 construction of the arching. The whole length 
 of the line from Paddlngton to Bristol Is 118^ 
 miles, and It was completed In the following 
 order: — Maidenhead opened up to, on June 4, 
 1838; Twyford, July i,^ 1839 ; Reading, March 
 30, 1840^; Steventon, June i, 1840; Farlng- 
 don Road, July 20, 1840; Bristol to Bath, 
 August 31, 1840; VVootton Bassett Road, 
 December 17,^ 1840; Chippenham, May 31,* 
 1841 ; to Bath, June 30, 1841. That part 
 of the line which runs past Swindon Is for 
 several miles remarkably straight. Approach- 
 ing Swindon from London, the rail is carried 
 through a deep cutting, especially near Strat- 
 ton St. Margaret ; but upon the other side 
 
 1 Or 5th. 2 Another date is 6th April. 
 
 3 Or 1 6th. -^ Or I St June. 
 
62 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 it is raised upon an embankment. Much of 
 the earth of the embankment was taken from 
 a field on the slope of Kingshill Hill, at the 
 top of the Sands, Swindon ; the soil being 
 purchased, of course, from the owner for that 
 purpose. A tramway was constructed in such 
 a manner that the trucks running down the 
 hill drew up a string of empty ones — a simple 
 but dangerous proceeding which gave rise to 
 one accident at least. It is to the railway that 
 Swindon owes its importance, and New Swin- 
 don its existence. Swindon now became the 
 emporium of North Wilts and the adjacent 
 counties. When it became a junction, and all 
 trains were ordered to stop here ten minutes, 
 it derived additional importance, and became a 
 place well-known to travellers. The station is 
 itself a fine building, and contains some large 
 refreshment rooms. 
 
 At length it was announced that a factory 
 was to be built for the manufacture of engines, 
 and other requisites of a railroad. This was 
 a good time for landed proprietors at New 
 Swindon. Land which was scarcely worth 
 the trouble of attending to, much of it covered 
 with furze, the retreat of rabbits and game, and 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 63 
 
 playground for boys, was purchased at a price 
 equal to that given for the best in other situa- 
 tions. One or two persons made fortunes. Up 
 rose the factory, and workmen began to pour in 
 from all quarters. Houses were built at a rate 
 which astonished the country, and a new class 
 of men, hitherto unknown in the neighbour- 
 hood, appeared, men who worked hard, earned 
 high wages, and were determined to live upon 
 the best they could afford. The agricultural 
 labourer was content with bread and beer, 
 the mechanic must have meat, groceries, and 
 other comforts.^ The farm labourer bought 
 a smock-frock twice in his lifetime, and used 
 his grandfather s gaiters ; the mechanic dressed 
 smartly. Tradesmen found New Swindon 
 a profitable place — a Wiltshire California. 
 Publicans discovered that steel filings make 
 men quite as thirsty as hay dust. Moreover, 
 the mechanic must lodge somewhere. To 
 accommodate the constantly increasing number 
 of workmen it employed, the company built a 
 place, since known as the Barracks, upon the 
 
 ^ A characteristic feature of New Swindon, worthy of 
 notice in this connection, is the dearth of book-shops. 
 
64 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 plan of French lodging-houses, to have a 
 common kitchen and common entrance, with 
 a day and night porter ; but the thing did 
 not answer, and there stands the Barracks to 
 this day [1867], a great pile of buildings with 
 broken windows, the few inhabitants of which 
 were so dirty in their habits, that a year ago 
 [1866] it was thought to threaten a visitation 
 of cholera, and underwent a thorough clearing 
 under the supervision of the police. The 
 Briton likes to be independent, or what he 
 thinks so. Streets sprang up in all directions. 
 The situation was flat and damp, and there 
 was a deficiency of good water — it did not 
 matter ; the mechanic must have a house, and 
 a house he had. The company built a church 
 and a Mechanics' Institute. The Dissenting 
 community have not been behindhand, and 
 chapels of almost every denomination may be 
 found. Persons of middle age describe the 
 change which has taken place since they can 
 remember as something almost incredible. 
 Streets stand where were formerly meadows 
 and hedgerows. Bridge Street contained two 
 residences. The one was what was considered 
 the manor house — it is now occupied by Mr. 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 65 
 
 Charles Hurt, and stands at the top of Bridge 
 Street on the right hand — the other was a 
 small cottage, a little further down towards 
 the canal. The cottage can still be seen — a 
 strange contrast with its thatched roof, dark 
 with age, and half hidden by weeds, to the 
 red-bricked and slated erections adjoining. 
 Bridge Street now contains three places of 
 worship, — a Methodist Chapel, a Roman 
 Catholic, and a Free Christian Church, — shops 
 and houses in abundance ; while if it be 
 reckoned to extend over the Golden Lion 
 Bridge as far as the Volunteer Inn, it now 
 contains no less than seven public-houses. 
 And all this in the last thirty years ! There 
 is no necessity to go to Chicago for an in- 
 stance of rapid development. New Swindon 
 is the Chicago of the western counties. This 
 Bridge Street, now so much used, was formerly 
 a mere track made by waggon wheels across 
 furrows, which crossed the canal at the Golden 
 Lion Bridge. That bridge, by the bye, is a 
 disgrace to the town. Where thirty years ago 
 stood trees, now stand lamp-posts! Instead of 
 rails and stakes there are now scaffolding-poles ; 
 and what was once turf is now hard road. 
 
 F 
 
66 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 This is what the railroad and factory have 
 done for Swindon. 
 
 This factory is perhaps the largest in the 
 West of England/ Here are employed as 
 
 ^ In a paper by A. H. Mallan, on " The Great Western 
 Railway Works at Swindon," we read : — 
 
 *' In inspecting the works two points impress themselves 
 on the mind : 
 
 " I. The economy of mechanical power, through duplica- 
 tion of work. 
 
 " 2. The giant forces, invisible and unsuspected, literally 
 beneath the feet, only requiring the touch of a handle to 
 exert tremendous power in divers ways and methods. 
 
 "The wood-working department is the most captivating 
 part of the whole works; partly on account of the resin- 
 ous, turpentine smell, deliciously refreshing as compared 
 with the oily atmosphere of the rest. 
 
 ***** 
 
 " In the forges, an elaborate example of welding and 
 building up is met with in the case of engine and truck 
 wheels. These^ in their earlier stages, consist of several 
 sections, which are stamped out in dies under the steam 
 hammer. One section forms a segment of the rim and 
 outer part of the spoke ; another, which is stamped in du- 
 plicate and sawn by a circular saw, gives the inner half of 
 the spoke and segment of the centre. The two sections 
 being then welded together, are ready to be framed for 
 receiving the washers which form the boss. They are tem- 
 porarily held together by an iron hoop, and after being 
 brought to a white heat at the centre, are placed under the 
 bossing hammer ; a white hot washer is then placed on the 
 centre, to be securely fixed by one mighty thump of the 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 67 
 
 many as seventeen hundred hands — an army 
 of workmen — drawn from the villages round 
 about. Here are made the engines used upon 
 the Great Western Railway. It is open to 
 visitors upon every Wednesday afternoon, and 
 is a sight well worth seeing. A person is in 
 attendance to show it. The place seems to 
 be built somewhat in the form of a parallelo- 
 gram. Seven tall chimneys belch forth vol- 
 umes of smoke. The first thing shown to 
 visitors is an engine room near the entrance. 
 Here are two beams of fifty horse-power work- 
 ing with a smooth, oily motion, almost without 
 noise. The yard beneath is, to a stranger, a 
 
 hammer ; another washer is welded, while at white heat, by 
 a hydraulic press known as a veeing machine. The whole 
 operation presents a most picturesque appearance. The 
 men standing round the hammer, with one dazzling spot in 
 their midst, their outlines thrown into highest relief by 
 the strong glare from the neighbouring forges, pose them- 
 selves naturally, and produce an excellent Rembrandtesque 
 effect. 
 
 " Noise there is more or less everywhere ; but the finest 
 effects of genuine ear-splitting clatter are met with in the 
 riveting shops. Hydraulic riveters do all the work within 
 their reach, giving just one noiseless ' squelch ' with their 
 great crab-like callipers upon the red hot iron, and leaving 
 a neatly-shaped head where the long exposed end of the 
 rivet previously protruded." 
 
68 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 vast Incongruous museum of Iron ; Iron In 
 every possible shape and form, round and 
 square, crooked and straight. Proteus himself 
 never changed into the likeness of such things. 
 The northern shops are devoted to noise, and 
 the voice of the guide Is Inaudible. Here is a 
 vast wilderness — an endless vista of forges 
 glaring with blue flames, the men all standing 
 by leaning upon their hammers, waiting until 
 you pass, while far ahead sparks fly in showers 
 from the tortured anvils high In the air, looking 
 like minute meteors. This place is a temple of 
 Vulcan. If the old motto ''Laborare est orare,'' 
 "labour is prayer," is correct, here be sturdy 
 worshippers of the fire-god. The first glimpse 
 of the factory affords a view of sparks, sweat, 
 and smoke. Smoke, sweat, and sparks Is the 
 last thing that Is seen. 
 
 Passing between a row of fiery furnaces seven 
 times heated, the visitors enter the rail-mill, 
 where the rails are manufactured. This place 
 is a perfect pandemonium. Vast boilers built 
 up In brick close in every side, with the steam 
 hissing like serpents in Its efforts to escape. 
 Enormous fly-wheels spin round and round at 
 a velocity which renders the spokes Invisible 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 69 
 
 Steam hammers shake the ground, where once 
 perhaps crouched the timid hare, and stun the 
 ear. These hammers are a miracle of human 
 manufacture. Though it is possible to strike a 
 blow which shall crush iron like earthenware, 
 to bring down a weight of tons, yet a skilful 
 workman can crack a hazel-nut without injuring 
 the kernel. Gazing upon these wonderful 
 hammers the visitor is suddenly scorched upon 
 one side, and turning, finds that a wheel-barrow 
 load of red-hot iron had been thrown down 
 beside him, upon which a jet of water plays, 
 fizzing off into steam. Springing aside he 
 scarcely escapes collision with a mass of red 
 hot metal wheeled along and placed beneath 
 the steam hammer, where it is thumped and 
 bumped flat. His feet now begin to feel the 
 heat of the iron flooring, which the thickest 
 leather cannot keep out. The workmen wear 
 shoes shod with broad headed iron nails from 
 heel to toe. Their legs are defended by 
 greaves — like an iron cricketing pad ; their 
 faces by a gauze metal mask. The clang, the 
 rattle, the roar are indescribable ; the confusion 
 seems to increase the longer it is looked upon. 
 Yonder, a glare almost too strong for the eyes 
 
70 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 shows an open furnace door. Out comes a 
 mass of white-hot metal, it is placed on a truck, 
 and wheeled forward to the revolving rollers, 
 and placed between them. Sparks spurt out 
 like a fountain of fire — slowly it passes through, 
 much thinned and lengthened by the process : 
 which is repeated until at length it emerges in 
 the form of a rail. Here come chips of iron 
 — if such an expression might be used — all red 
 hot, sliding along the iron floor to their destina- 
 tion. Look out for your toes ! In the dark 
 winter nights the glare from this place can be 
 seen for miles around ; lighting up the clouds 
 with a lurid glow like that from some vast con- 
 flagration. The shop known as the R Shop is 
 the most interesting. Here iron is cut, and 
 shaved as if it were wood. A vast hall filled 
 with engines of all stages finishes the factory. 
 
 The factory and the place generally will 
 always be connected with the name of Sir 
 Daniel Gooch,^ who was for so long a period 
 
 ^ No engines in the world have so long and so famous a 
 history as the old engines of Sir Daniel Gooch. It is 
 indeed surprising that a type decided upon so early as 1846 
 (*' The North Briton ") should be found capable of perform- 
 ing the duties of express engine in 1891, when the weight 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 71 
 
 intimately associated with it. A vast audience 
 in the hall of the Mechanics' Institute was held 
 in spell-bound silence scarce a twelvemonth 
 since, when that celebrated man gave a short 
 account of his career : how when but a youth 
 he had stood upon a bridge in Newcastle all 
 but despairing, when he chanced to observe a 
 motto cut upon it In large letters : '' Nil desper- 
 andunt' — "Never despair" — which from that 
 moment he adopted as his own. New Swindon 
 will never forget Sir Daniel Gooch, ^ whilst 
 the Mechanics' Institute affords the mechanic 
 a chance of becoming acquainted with litera- 
 ture, and the factory of earning a decent liveli- 
 hood. 
 
 Old Swindon has shared in the change 
 brought about by the enormous influx of popu- 
 lation which followed the construction of the 
 Great Western Railway, But in Old Swindon — 
 a place dating from the Danish times — changes 
 
 of the trains is at least double that which they were de- 
 signed to draw. 
 
 ^ Born 18 1 6, died 1889. Became Chairman of the Great 
 Western Railway when its stock stood at 38J, until it rose 
 to 160. Made a baronet for his services in connection with 
 the Atlantic Cable, 1866. 
 
72 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 and improvements long preceded the very ex- 
 istence of the New Town. The Old Swindon 
 of to-day is very new in comparison with the 
 Swindon of seventy years ago ; for then there 
 was but one Swindon. Immediately without the 
 town is a well-known field called the " Butts," 
 probably the place where archery was practised 
 when the bow and arrow was the principal 
 weapon of the English army. This must have 
 been in use not less than two centuries ago, 
 perhaps more ; for though in the reign of 
 Charles II. archery bands were still formed, 
 the bow and arrow do not seem to have been 
 used in the Civil War, except indeed, perhaps, 
 in the North of Scotland. (See Scott's novel, 
 Montrose, on that point.) The associations 
 then connected with this field belong to a 
 period coeval with that in which the Bell 
 Hotel, High Street, was built, which appears 
 from the date affixed to have been in 1581. 
 Queen Elizabeth then sat upon the throne of 
 England. The Spanish Armada had not yet 
 put forth to sea. Higher up the street, upon 
 the same side, there is a house now occupied 
 by Pakeman Brothers, which bears the date of 
 1 63 1. Mr. Gillett's is dated 1741. Thirteen 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 Ti, 
 
 years after this, or in 1754, a person by the 
 name of Robert Sadler was born in Swindon.^ 
 He made himself in a certain sense notorious 
 by the publication of a work called Wanley 
 Pe7ison ; or, the Melancholy Man. 
 
 Then, and for long after,^ bull-baiting was no 
 
 ^ Sadler lived afterv\'ards at Chippenham and at Malmes- 
 bury. His father, who was a glover and breeches maker, 
 was a member of the Moravian Brethren, and the novel 
 of JVan/ey Pejiso7i deals with the tenets of this sect. He 
 also wrote The Discarded Spinster ; or, a Flea for the 
 Poor, dealing with the effects of the introduction of ma- 
 chinery into the manufacture of cloth. He left two other 
 works in manuscript. The description of his personal ap- 
 pearance so closely resembles that of Richard Jefferies that 
 it is here quoted in full. 
 
 Britton says of Sadler : — 
 
 " He was a man of singular person, manners and abili- 
 ties. Had the same mind been well instructed and dis- 
 cipHned in early life, it might have become eminent in art, 
 in literature, or in science ; for it manifested, on many occa- 
 sions, the rudiments and principles, as well as the union of 
 philosophy and poetry. . . . Like most sedentary, 
 studious persons, his whole frame was morbid, the muscles 
 relaxed and the nervous system deranged, his physical 
 powers were always weak and languid. 
 
 " In person, he was tall, thin, and apparently in a state of 
 consumption. The face was narrow and pale, the cheeks 
 collapsed, his general physiognomy that of an abstracted 
 and melancholy, but highly intellectual man." 
 
 ^ Probably until nearly 181 2. 
 
74 JEFFERtES' LAND 
 
 uncommon thing at Swindon. The sport was 
 carried on in the Square, and the stone post to 
 which the bull was tied was removed in the 
 memory of man ; though it had not been used 
 for some time previously. Swindon once 
 boasted a market-house, just as It now boasts 
 a corn exchange ; the difference being that, 
 whereas the modern building is a substantial 
 erection of stone, the place was supported upon 
 oaken pillars. It was pulled down In the year 
 1793. Close by stood the stocks and whip- 
 ping-post, which were taken down about the • 1 
 same time. 
 
 Wood Street — that fashionable street, the 
 Strand of Swindon — was then known as Black- 
 smith Street. There were three blacksmiths' 
 forges in it, from which it was named, and the 
 noise and smoke from them, when in full 
 vigour, was something Intolerable. Some en- 
 terprising persons actually erected a windmill 
 here, but the speculation was unsuccessful ; it 
 was taken down, and three cottages built with 
 the materials, which three cottages stood where 
 now the King's Arms Inn offers shelter and 
 good cheer to travellers. Wood Street had in 
 the memory of man a very pleasant appear- 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 75 
 
 ance. Trees and shrubs grew In one spot ; 
 and against the walls of the houses on the 
 northern side — that which receives the sun- 
 shine — were trained a number of vines. One 
 of these vines, which were remarkably strong 
 and vigorous, being protected by chains or 
 railings from injury to the stem, grew against 
 the wall of Messrs. Edwards & Suter, the iron- 
 mongers' shop ; another against that of Mr. 
 Pimbury, and a third displayed its tempting 
 clusters of grapes upon the wall of an old 
 cottage which once stood upon the spot which 
 the post-office now occupies. Wood Street 
 has lost this pleasant appearance. At this date 
 there were so many things not to be found at 
 Swindon, that a modern might exclaim there 
 was nothing at all in it. Firstly, there was no 
 railroad, nor canal. There were no banks, and 
 if there were dissenters there were at least no 
 chapels. There were no newspapers, nor any 
 one to print them, nor booksellers to sell them 
 — not even so much as a stationer's shop, 
 which almost every village can now boast. 
 There was no druggist, nor patent medicine 
 dealer — perhaps little the worse for that — and 
 lastly there were no watchmakers. Those 
 
76 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 large brazen-faced clocks, which can be found 
 in almost every farmhouse in the neighbour- 
 hood, never bear the imprint of a Swindon 
 maker. Cricklade and Lyneham were famous 
 places for clocks. At this date progress was 
 indeed slow. In a course of twenty years five 
 new houses were built. No living to be got 
 by house-building ! Contracts are things of 
 modern date. They built houses very leisurely 
 in former times, but they had this advantage, 
 they were built well. 
 
 The railway had one effect at Swindon which 
 was immediately perceptible. It knocked the 
 coaching business on the head. Swindon had 
 been a stage between Cheltenham and South- 
 ampton. The next was Marlborough, whither 
 a coach ran from the Goddard Arms daily. It 
 was long driven by a man of the name of 
 Danvers, and was usually drawn by three pie- 
 bald horses. The starting of this coach was 
 the event of the day in Swindon. The win- 
 dows were crowded by spectators — chiefly 
 ladies — whose curiosity seems to have been as 
 great then as now. The old inhabitants main- 
 tain that Swindon, despite its increased popula- 
 tion, has never seemed so gay as in the 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 77 
 
 coaching times. It was by no means unusual 
 for persons to walk out of town in the after- 
 noon, meet the coach, and ride back in it. 
 There was another coach which went to Hun- 
 gerford, en rotUe for London, a journey which 
 then occupied a whole day, from six in the 
 morning till six at night, and cost a guinea in 
 matter of fare. 
 
 In those times the petty sessions were con- 
 ducted In a small room at the Goddard Arms 
 Inn, with closed doors, only a few favoured 
 individuals being allowed entrance. It was 
 remarked that offences against the game laws 
 were usually visited by severe penalties. There 
 was no police station — the police being repre- 
 sented by a single constable. At night a 
 watchman perambulated the streets, staff in 
 hand, who at intervals cried the hours, adding 
 the state of the weather. Prisoners were con- 
 fined in a place most appropriately called the 
 Black Hole, which was at the top of Newport 
 Street, then known as Bull Street, on the spot 
 now occupied by the engine house. It was a 
 small, damp, and dirty dungeon, half under 
 ground ; lighted by a hole in the door crossed 
 with iron bars, through which those that were 
 
78 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 within might converse with those without, or 
 suck in beer by the aid of a tobacco pipe. For 
 their meals they were conducted to the Bull 
 Inn, thus affording them a capital chance of a 
 rescue. This place was a disgrace to the town. 
 The credit of its removal must in a great 
 measure be given to Mr. C. A. Wheeler. 
 
 Another effect of the railway on Old Swin- 
 don was the building of houses in Prospect 
 Place and the New Road. Swindon, like other 
 places which are progressing, shows a tendency 
 to extend itself westward ; scarcely a house 
 being added upon the eastern side. The 
 Sands has become a fashionable promenade. 
 Persons formerly had to go to Marlborough if 
 they wished to go "shopping"; at present they 
 come to Swindon. Swindon has, in short, 
 become the capital of North Wilts. 
 
 Christ Church is a landmark for miles 
 around. It was consecrated upon Friday, the 
 7th of November, 1852, by the Lord Bishop of 
 Llandaff ; the sermon upon the occasion being 
 preached by the Rev. Giles Daubeney. The 
 length of the structure is 130 feet ; the breadth, 
 exclusive of the transepts, nave, and chancel, 
 50 feet ; and the tower, with the spire, rises 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 79 
 
 165 feet. The great stained-glass window was 
 uncovered on the 7th November, 1855. It 
 consists of five lancet divisions. The small 
 quatrefoils contain the arms of Grooby and 
 Vilett ; the larger have three illustrations taken 
 from the Old Testament — the offering for the 
 cleansing of a leper, the consecration of one 
 bird and the flight of another ; the brazen ser- 
 pent ; and the offering of the first-fruits of the 
 harvest. The five divisions are separated into 
 three horizontal compartments, containing five 
 designs from the Bible — the Parable of the 
 Sower ; the Pearl of Great Price ; the Net cast 
 into the Sea ; the Pharisee and the Publican ; 
 the Good Shepherd ; the Prodigal Son ; and 
 the Good Samaritan. The inscription at the 
 foot states that the window was erected '' to the 
 honour and glory of God, and in memory of 
 the Rev. J as. Grooby, many years vicar of the 
 parish, by his widow, Catherine Mary Grooby, 
 and also to the memory of her brother, Lieut.- 
 Col. Vilett." It was made at Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne, in the manufactory of Mr. Wailes, and 
 was pronounced by him the best he had done, 
 or probably should do. No expense was 
 spared upon the window — carte blanche being 
 
8o JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 given — and it is considered by the admirers of 
 such productions as most beautiful. 
 
 Swindon has now [1867] an increasing popu- 
 lation of 8,000.^ It is lighted by gas, and has 
 many public buildings, of all of which full de- 
 scriptions have appeared in the North Wilts 
 Herald. Its situation is dry and healthy. It 
 stands perhaps upon the highest spot above 
 the sea in the midland western counties ; the 
 neighbourhood being the watershed of three 
 rivers. A spring, passing through Brudhill, 
 and joined by the water from another which 
 rises almost beneath the family mansion of the 
 Goddards, runs down to near the canal, where, 
 falling into a brook coming from Chiseldon, 
 through Coate, it proceeds through Raw- 
 borough and Coleshill to join the Thames or 
 I sis River near Inglesham. That spring, which 
 rises near to the Goddard mansion, formerly 
 supplied a large pond close to the churchyard, 
 which had a very pleasant appearance, and 
 supplied large numbers with good water. 
 Horses could be watered here. The same 
 
 1 The present population (1896) is about 36,000, an 
 increase in thirty years which has been exceeded by few 
 EngHsh towns. 
 
SWINDON IN 1867 81 
 
 Spring drove a water-wheel immediately be- 
 neath. The old mill has been down some 
 years, but the pond has been only lately filled 
 up. A pump stands there now, and a plot of 
 rhododendrons covers the space once occupied 
 by water. A second spring, rising at Wrough- 
 ton, runs through Blagrove and Rodbourne 
 Cheney, on to Cricklade, where it also falls 
 into the Thames. A third spring rises between 
 Lower Upham and Draycott Foliatt, close to 
 the Marlborough Road, runs through 0<g- 
 bourne, and joins the Kennet at Mildenhall, 
 near Marlborouofh. A fourth rises at Hack- 
 pen, passes by Abury, and is the mainspring of 
 the Kennet. Finally, a fifth rises at Solthrop, 
 runs through Wootton Bassett, and at length 
 falls into the Avon. Hence it will be seen 
 that three rivers — the Thames, Kennet, and 
 Avon — receive supplies either from Swindon 
 itself,^ or the immediate neighbourhood. 
 
 1 " Thus the waters of Wiltshire find their wav from the 
 heart of the county respectively to the Atlantic, the English 
 Channel, and the German Ocean." — R. N. Worth. 
 
 G 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 UPPER UP HAM 
 
 " Old John of Gaunt — time-honoured Lancaster." 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
 PPER UPHAM lies about seven miles 
 from Swindon in an easterly direction. 
 It simply consists of a mansion and an adjoin- 
 ing cottage or two, which stands upon the 
 summit of a ridge of downs immediately behind 
 Liddington Castle — that conspicuous and well- 
 known landmark to all the neighbourhood 
 round about. It is so named to distinguish it 
 from Lower Upham — a farmhouse standing 
 beneath in the vale. Here is a strange avenue 
 of sycamore trees, through which runs the way 
 from Marlborough road to Upper Upham. 
 After leaving Lower Upham the ground im- 
 
 82 
 
UPPER UPHAM 3 
 
 mediately commences to ascend. On the left 
 hand there is a conspicuous ** tump " or 
 '* hump," in the language of the locality, that 
 is, a mound covered with turf, which has been 
 considered a tumulus, but is not sufficiently 
 distinct to be so called without further and 
 internal examination. Upon the top of the 
 first ridge of downs, overlooking Lower 
 Upham and the plain of Chiseldon, there is a 
 piece of arable land. Here, some time since, 
 the plough turned up some portions of mosaic- 
 work in a very perfect state of preservation, 
 supposed to have once formed the floor of a 
 Roman villa, or some other structure of the 
 Roman period. This mosaic was formerly in 
 the possession of the present occupier of Upper 
 Upham farm, Mr. Frampton, a courteous 
 gentleman, to whose untiring exertion and 
 intelligent investigations the present author 
 owes most of the facts he is here enabled 
 to lay before the reader. It is much to 
 be regretted that this mosaic has been 
 mislaid, probably through the carelessness of 
 servants, and it is still more to be regretted 
 that no excavations have been made upon the 
 site of the discovery, excavations which might 
 
84 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 be expected to yield much interesting- matter 
 calculated to throw light upon the manners of 
 the Romans during their long stay in Britain. 
 Upper Upham, though a mansion of great 
 extent and height, and though placed upon 
 the summit of a ridge of the downs, is yet so 
 concealed by trees that it is only when standing 
 immediately before it that anything of a view 
 can be obtained. The gabled roof, mullioned 
 windows, and gigantic porch at once convey 
 an impression of antiquity, which is borne out 
 upon investigation. The porch is sufficiently 
 high to enable a person on horseback to sit 
 beneath it as a sentinel, like the Horse Guards 
 at Whitehall. Perhaps in ancient days the 
 door was of a similar height to allow of a 
 horseman riding into the hall of the mansion — 
 an occurrence by no means uncommon if 
 tradition and ballads are worthy of credence. 
 The champion rides into Westminster Hall at 
 the coronation dinner even in the present age, 
 and in the old metrical romance of Kinof 
 Estmere (supposed to have been written late 
 in the fifteenth century, perhaps about 1491), 
 there is a plain allusion to such a custom. 
 King Estmere, in order to obtain entrance to 
 
UPPER UPHAM 85 
 
 his lady love, who Is sitting at her marriage- 
 feast beside the paynim King of Spain — by 
 compulsion be It understood — disguises himself 
 as a minstrel, and, in company with his brother, 
 " Adler Yonge," who carries his harp, rides up 
 to the hall gate. The porter Intimates that he 
 does not recognize them. 
 
 " Then they pulled out a ryng of gold 
 
 Layd itt on the porter's arme : 
 ' And ever we will thee, proud porter, 
 
 Thou wilt saye us no harme.' 
 Sore he looked on Kyng Estmere 
 
 And sore he handled the ryng, 
 Then opened to them the fayre hall yates, 
 
 He lett for no kind of thyng. 
 
 " Kyng Estmere he stabled his steede 
 
 Soe fayre att the hall borde 
 The frothe that came from his brydle bitte 
 
 Light on King Bremor's beard. 
 Saies, 'Stable thou steede thou proud harper, 
 
 Goe, stable him in the stalle ; 
 Itt doth not beseeme a proud harper, 
 
 To stable him in a Kyng's halle.' " 
 
 A fight ensues, in which King Estmere and 
 ''Adler Yonge" vanquish the whole paynim 
 host, by help of " grammarye," that is magic, 
 and finally convey the bride home. 
 
86 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Now upon the arch of the porch is the fol- 
 lowing inscription : — 
 
 which date is not much more than a century- 
 after the date of the above ballad. These 
 initials are those of the Goddards of Cliffe, or 
 Cleeve, who at that time owned the Upper 
 Upham estate. This antique porch being in a 
 very faulty state, and threatening destruction, 
 instead of affording shelter, to those who passed 
 beneath, was some time since repaired, but 
 without altering its original appearance. High 
 over the porch hangs a bell, used for divers 
 purposes — it was cast in the neighbouring 
 village of Aldbourne. The mansion is built of 
 flint and stone, the first being a material easily 
 obtainable upon these downs, whence are taken 
 hundreds of cart-loads in the course of a year 
 for repairing the adjacent highways. The 
 porch before mentioned gives entrance to what 
 was originally one vast hall, extending the 
 
UPPER UPHAM 87 
 
 whole length of the building. At present this 
 enormous apartment is partitioned off into two 
 — a sitting-room and a drawing-room — another 
 portion of it forms a passage ; and a fourth is 
 still used for the purposes for which a modern 
 hall is required. This must have been a mag- 
 nificent apartment in times gone by. Hundreds 
 of retainers might have sat at table in the body 
 of the hall, looked down upon by " my lord," 
 sitting on the dais, or raised portion ; which at 
 this day forms a drawing-room whose floor is 
 still elevated a step or two above that of the 
 other apartments. When the size of this im- 
 mense apartment is thoroughly understood and 
 conceived, it is impossible not to marvel at the 
 vastness of the ideas of our ancestors. Here, 
 perched upon a wild range of down, utterly 
 unseen, and unheard of by the traveller, far 
 distant from any other habitation, is a mansion 
 which might compete, perhaps, with any in 
 North Wilts, for the original extent of its 
 apartments, and most certainly in the traditions 
 and associations connected with them. At the 
 present date the neighbourhood seems deserted, 
 but then it must have been possible to collect 
 hundreds together, since guests to fill the im- 
 
88 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 mense hall must certainly have required to be 
 numbered by the hundred. 
 
 The present sitting-room contains two objects 
 of especial interest. The first Is a carved 
 mantelpiece, of great width, height, and an- 
 tiquity ; there are few things here that are not 
 at the same time ancient and Immense. It 
 takes a tall man to reach anything off this 
 mantelpiece. But above It Is an attraction to 
 the antiquary. It Is a large square tablet — If 
 such an expression may be used — containing a 
 carved coat-of-arms. The centre-piece Is much 
 defaced ; one of the supporters Is completely 
 gone, and the other so much mutilated that It 
 seems Impossible to pronounce it either a griffin 
 or an unicorn ; probably It Is the latter. A ducal 
 crown projects above, with what appear enor- 
 mous oak leaves. Beneath Is a scroll carved at 
 full length with the Inscription : *' Dieu et mon 
 droit." ^ The whole is surrounded by a carved 
 border. This Is considered to be the coat-of- 
 
 ^ Mr. Morris says : " It would seem from this that there 
 is nothing more than tradition for it that Upper Upham 
 was ever a royal hunting seat. And it must be further 
 noticed that the tradition, as handed down by John Britton 
 and the Rev. J. Seagram, does not exactly tally, the former 
 
UPPER UP HAM 89 
 
 arms of Lancaster. When John of Gaunt, the 
 son of King Edward the Third, was created 
 Duke of Lancaster by his father, at the cere- 
 mony of investure he was not only girded by 
 the King with a sword, but a cap of fur under- 
 neath a coronet of gold set with jewels was 
 placed upon his head. He seems to have been 
 the first who was thus, as It were, crowned. 
 Here on this coat-of-arms may still be seen 
 the representation of this ducal crown, which 
 exactly answers the description given of the 
 original. These are the arms^ of the celebrated 
 John of Gaunt, '' time-honoured Lancaster." 
 
 referring to the place as being the hunting seat of King 
 John, who reigned from 11 89 to 11 99, and the latter to 
 John of Gaunt, who died 1398. Of course, it may be that 
 both King John and John of Gaunt made use of Upper 
 Upham as a hunting seat. And this would seem to be 
 very probable. King John's connection with Marlborough, 
 the almost adjoining parish, is well authenticated." 
 
 Mr. Waylen. in his History of Marlborough^ says : " John's 
 connection with Marlborough is still further testified by the 
 fact that he selected it as the scene of his marriage with the 
 heiress of the Earl of Gloucester, which took place in con- 
 formity with Richard's wishes, and in all probability with the 
 sanction of his presence, 29th August, 11S9." 
 
 ^ The arms of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, were : 
 "France and England quarterly, with a label of three 
 points, ermine, with the garter."' 
 
90 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 The motto is that of the monarchs of England : 
 '' God and my right." 
 
 At the back of the hall are the offices and 
 staircase. The staircase is of carved oak in 
 good preservation, and occupies much room. 
 Immediately over the hall is a chamber known 
 as the " banqueting room." This, too, is on 
 the same scale. It is at least thirty feet in 
 length, and of corresponding breadth and 
 height. Here is another carved mantelpiece, 
 considered to be of Jacobean times. It is in 
 excellent preservation. The supporters on 
 either hand are carved figures. What in- 
 describable scenes of revelry this chamber in 
 all probability witnessed in the days of long 
 ago ! Whilst the rude retainers quaffed, and 
 roared forth their drinking songs in the 
 spacious hall beneath, those of more noble 
 birth feasted here. Every window — and there 
 were three to this banqueting room, though 
 now but one — glared forth upon the night with 
 the light of the flames in the fireplace, or the 
 flaring torches. Two cart-loads of wood, says 
 tradition, was the allowance of yonder yawning 
 chimney-place from sunset to sunrise. Here 
 the strangely-dressed courtiers of Queen Eliza- 
 
UPPER UPHAM 91 
 
 beth's time feasted and drank, and discussed 
 court scandal. There is a tradition that Oueen 
 Elizabeth herself once spent a night or two in 
 this old mansion during one of her progresses. 
 Francis Rutland, a courtier who died during a 
 progress, lies buried in Chiseldon Church, not 
 much over two miles distant. Here the 
 cavaliers of King Charles's days roared out their 
 tipsy loyalty, and swore deep oaths of deadly 
 vengeance against " Old Noll," whose soldiers, 
 says tradition, destroyed as far as they were 
 able the carved coat-of-arms in the hall beneath. 
 It bore the royal motto — that was enough — 
 down with it! Musket butt, or pike-end — 
 destroy the idol Baal ! Such was the fierce 
 unreasoning hatred of the Parliamentarian 
 soldiers to everything which symbolized 
 monarchy. King Charles himself may have 
 caught a hurried glance at these ancient walls, 
 for he was often in the neighbourhood, and 
 once or twice passed very near, as will be 
 presently shown. The men of times long 
 before these, men of plate-armour, two-handed 
 swords and battle-axes, may have taken re- 
 freshment here for aught that is distinctly 
 known to the contrary. That old oaken stair- 
 
92 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 case may have felt the Iron tread of mailed 
 men, and re-echoed to the clank of their long 
 swords and jingling spurs. These vast halls 
 carry back the mind to a period of English 
 history long gone by — far back to the days of 
 steel. These are the days of steam. 
 
 The very elevated situation upon which the 
 mansion is built may be easily realized when it 
 is stated that, with the aid of a good telescope, 
 Windsor can be seen upon the one hand, and 
 Brecon, in Wales, on the other. This is, of 
 course, from the upper storeys. 
 
 The mansion, or the estate at least, was In 
 ancient days one of those in the possession of 
 John of Gaunt, the most remarkable man of his 
 age. His relation to royal personages would 
 have been sufficient to have made his name in 
 a certain sense famous, he being the son of a 
 king, the brother of a king, and the uncle of a 
 king. But it was as a military commander that 
 John of Gaunt chiefly shone.^ Shakespeare 
 has Immortalised his name in the historical 
 drama of Richard II. He probably held the 
 
 ^ Historians may be allowed to differ from Jefferies' 
 opinion in this as in other matters noted throughout these 
 pages. 
 
UPPER UPHAM 93 
 
 Upper Upham estate by some form of feudal 
 tenure. 
 
 Now it is very evident that the present 
 mansion of Upper Upham does not date from 
 that remote period. There is a very marked 
 alteration in the face of the country imme- 
 diately upon leaving Upper Upham. Here, 
 perhaps, upon these wild and, to a great extent, 
 unenclosed downs, may be seen the nearest 
 approach to the ancient state of Britain — wide, 
 open campaign country, with clumps of trees 
 and forest glades interspersed, once the resort 
 and favourite haunt of deer. Beneath, in the 
 vale, the country is of an entirely different 
 description. There it is rich meadow land, 
 looking, from the summit of the downs, like 
 one extensive wood, from the numberless trees 
 growing in the thick hedges, together with the 
 interspersed copses. Here is ridge after ridge 
 of down, with an occasional copse, a fir planta- 
 tion, clumps of trees, wild glades, and deep 
 secluded vales, all open and unenclosed, a rare 
 hunting country. Moreover, the down upon the 
 south of Upham is to this day known as ^Ald- 
 
 1 Also spslt in old maps, Auburn, Albourn, and 
 Aldbourn. 
 
94 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 bourne Chace. Chace Is a well-known word 
 meaning wood. Some maps call It the Royal 
 Chace ; but the name most commonly used for 
 the last two centuries has been Aldbourne 
 Chace. There Is a wood there to this day, 
 and It Is a favourite meet for hounds — for such 
 a length of time do customs exist In England. 
 This place, where centuries ago the wild deer 
 ran free, except when the hounds were upon 
 their track, Is to this day famous for hunting. 
 Hence It seems a reasonable conclusion that 
 Upper Upham was a hunting-lodge ; much 
 such another mansion as that which Is familiar 
 to the readers of Sir Walter Scott's Woodstock. 
 The building Itself bears out this conjecture. 
 So vast a hall could never have been needed 
 by a country gentleman, or simple lord of the 
 manor, nor are the other portions of the man- 
 sion In proportion to It. It Is very evident 
 that It was only used on certain occasions when 
 the hunt had run this way. But then comes 
 the Immediate question — to what forest was 
 this a hunting lodge ^ Some say Windsor, but 
 the great distance from that place seems to 
 offer an almost Insuperable objection. Others 
 prefer Savernake, but that forest does not 
 
UPPER UPHAM 95 
 
 appear to have extended in this direction. 
 There remains Braden Forest, which was for- 
 merly of enormous extent, and which even at 
 the present day is a large wood. Braden 
 Forest has this recommendation — it was held 
 by the Dukes of Lancaster by some form of 
 tenure from the Crown, and here at Upper 
 Upham may still be seen the Lancastrian coat 
 of arms. The distance is much less than 
 Windsor. Braden Wood lies immediately 
 below Purton, a little over twelve miles distant, 
 Burderop Wood lies three miles distant, almost 
 in a direct line. At Burderop there were deer 
 no great time ago. Horns are still preserved 
 which were shed by the deer of Burderop. At 
 any rate there can be but little doubt that 
 Upper Upham was a hunting lodge, to what- 
 ever forest it may have been attached. 
 
 The present mansion is certainly a more 
 modern erection than that which belonged to 
 John of Gaunt in the fourteenth century, 
 though some of the material with which it is 
 constructed may have come from the more 
 ancient erection. In the wall of the garden 
 may be seen a stone carved with ovals, evi- 
 dently never intended for its present position. 
 
96 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Similar stones are bailt Into the adjoining 
 stable. One of them has the letter E cut upon 
 it, while the beams of the stable are of black 
 oak, and carved ; nor does the stable appear to 
 have been ever used for any other purpose 
 than that to which it is put at present. These 
 stones and beams may have formed part of an 
 ancient building, the site of which was some- 
 what south of the present mansion. Here, on 
 the edge of the hill, may be seen great irregu- 
 larities and unevenness in the orround. This 
 
 o 
 
 field still goes by the name of the Rookery, 
 though now there is scarcely a tree to be seen 
 in it, and the position of the present rookery 
 is immediately behind the modern mansion. 
 Moreover, on the very edge of the hill, in the 
 south-eastern corner of the field, there may still 
 be seen a hollow in the ground, of a circular 
 shape, which has four well-marked entrances, 
 and three tiers, or steps, like a miniature am- 
 phitheatre. It is, in short, a cockpit. All this 
 would seem to mark the site of an ancient 
 building, and more decided testimony is yet 
 forthcoming. One old lady, who has now been 
 dead many years, but who lived to be ninety, 
 and whose memory might, therefore, commence 
 
UPPER UPHAM 97 
 
 a full century since, used to aver that in her 
 youth there still remained the visible ruins of a 
 building, two or three feet high, upon or near 
 those places now rendered remarkable by the 
 unevenness of the ground. There were also 
 deep caverns underground — vaults, or cellars — 
 in which smugglers were accustomed to con- 
 ceal their goods after a run upon the south 
 coast. That there are caverns and hollow 
 places underground here and near about is a 
 known fact. It is remarkable that at the 
 present day all the water used for drinking 
 purposes here is brought from the village of 
 Shap, at some very considerable distance, 
 where there is a deep well, with a wheel made 
 to revolve by a pony.^ Our ancestors were 
 not usually accustomed to place their habita- 
 tions where there was no water to be got. 
 They always had to face the risk of a siege. 
 It is probable that there was a well here some- 
 where, though it is now choked and the site 
 unknown. There is a tradition that an attempt 
 was once made to get water here by sinking a 
 well, which attempt, after having been carried 
 to a depth of three cart lines, or 1 20 feet, was 
 
 ^ Cf. the well at Carisbrooke Castle. 
 
 H 
 
98 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 abandoned, and the excavation walled over. 
 Some while afterwards a carter was driving a 
 loaded wagon over the spot, utterly ignorant of 
 what was beneath, when he was alarmed by a 
 horrible noise, felt the ground tremble, dropped 
 his whip, and ran for his life. Looking behind 
 him, he found that his team and wagon had 
 disappeared down a chasm in the earth — the 
 old lost well. Later, whilst making a hole 
 with an iron bar in the present yard, the bar 
 suddenly sank through, and a hazel rod of 
 great length having been procured, was let 
 down without reaching the bottomx. In the 
 vale beneath the ground still known as the 
 Rookery, tradition states that there was once 
 a magnificent row of oaks extending to the 
 village of Aldbourne, and the place to this day 
 is known as Fair-Oak Vale. 
 
 Near the present mansion, in a field known 
 as the Longfield, on the edge of the hill over- 
 looking Aldbourne Warren, there are some 
 more unmistakable traces of ancient habitations. 
 The ground is very uneven, mounds running 
 across it in all directions, though seeming 
 chiefly to enclose parallelograms. On one spot 
 there grows a large quantity of daffodils, so 
 
UPPER UPHAM 99 
 
 firmly rooted that it has been found impossible 
 to eradicate them. They cover a considerable 
 space of ground, and can always be discovered 
 on account of the sheep refusing to eat the 
 leaves, and treading them under foot. This 
 was probably a garden. There does not 
 appear to have been any tradition concerning 
 this place, whence it may be concluded that if 
 habitations were to be found here it was at a 
 time long previous to the erection of those 
 whose ruins were seen by the old lady who has 
 been mentioned. 
 
 Hence there are three different periods, as it 
 were, represented at Upper Upham.^ The pre- 
 
 ^ Mr. Morris writes, in Swindon Fifty Years Ago : " This, 
 then, is what I would suggest as the probable history of 
 Upper Upham, and the interesting old mansion there, and 
 it vnW be allowed that the suggestion has the advantage of 
 admitting the possibility of all the things we have heard 
 about the place. That there was a mansion or hunting 
 seat which belonged to either King John or John of Gaunt, 
 and possibly to both ; that this house fell into ruins ; that 
 in 1 54 1 John Goddard, of Aldbourne, acquired the lands 
 at Upper Upham on which the ruins were, along with lands 
 in Wanborough, Wiclescote, and Wroughton, which lands 
 had previously belonged to Lacock Abbey, through a grant 
 from the Crown ; and that John Goddard's successor to the 
 property, Richard Goddard, built the present house, not 
 far from where the old royal hunting seat had stood, and 
 
100 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 sent mansion carries the mind back three cen- 
 turies ; the ruins of the Rookery to a time that 
 survives only in tradition ; the traces in the 
 Longfield to a period of which nothing is 
 known, and but Httle conjectured. 
 
 Coins of almost all periods of English his- 
 tory have been found upon the Upper Upham 
 estate, and are in the possession of the present 
 occupier. The Britons are represented by a 
 gold coin, whose intrinsic value — that is, as 
 simply a piece of gold — is estimated at 135". 6d. 
 It is a coin of a very early period, being 
 without inscription, and may probably have 
 been made before Christ. It is decidedly con- 
 cave on one side, and convex on the other. 
 The device is in excellent preservation, and 
 consists of the rude figure of a horse — much 
 like a miniature representation of the sculp- 
 
 using therefore in the building such stones and material as 
 was available from the ruins ; and that probably, some 
 thirty years afterwards, the entrance porch not satisfying 
 the critical eye of Sir Christopher Wren, was altered as it 
 now stands in accordance with his designs. I am unable 
 to say how long the property remained in the Goddard 
 family after 1599, but I believe I am correct in saying it 
 was repurchased some years ago by the present representa- 
 tive of the family, Mr. A. L. Goddard." 
 
UPPER UPHAi\n . \ > loi 
 
 . > .■> ' » * 
 
 ,'•11 ■> > 
 
 tured horse on the down 'at W6Gilst<kirr^anx;.l 
 two chariot wheels, one above and the other 
 beneath the horse. A few uncertain flourishes 
 are scattered about. These coins are con 
 sidered to be rude imitations of the '' Philips," 
 issued by the Macedonian monarchs, long be- 
 fore Christ, and which went all over Europe. 
 These Philips had on one side Apollo driving 
 a chariot. British coins have been found 
 which illustrate the gradual decline of the 
 imitation from the artistic excellence of the 
 original to the rudeness of conception which 
 characterizes this coin discovered at Upper 
 Upham. It may be a coin of the Belgse, men- 
 tioned by Richard of Cirencester as a tribe 
 holding a large part of Wiltshire, who were 
 foreigners arriving in Britain from Gaul before 
 the advent of Caesar. 
 
 Two Roman copper coins, with illegible in- 
 scriptions, a gold crown of Henry the Eighth, 
 one with a large P with two cross-bars, others 
 marked with a dragon, a medal of Elizabeth 
 with an inscription stating that she was a rose 
 without a thorn, and several others of later 
 date, have been found here, and are preserved 
 together with a very fine barbed arrowhead. 
 
102 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 i^:nD':h^ej* "'Roihan ^eilc i-s also carefully kept. It 
 is a brass ornament of a trumpet with an in- 
 scription in very primitively formed letters — 
 Gaudeamus — that is, '' Let us rejoice." 
 
 The village of Aldbourne (pronounced Aw- 
 borne) lies at a short distance from Upper 
 Upham. ''Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of 
 the plain," is the opening line of Goldsmith's 
 ''Deserted Village." Aldbourne lies in a plain, 
 and it has been thought that this is the spot 
 alluded to by the poet,^ who allows that the 
 misery he sings of only existed in his imagina- 
 tion. Aldbourne is a very ancient place. John 
 of Gaunt gave a charter to Aldbourne, in which 
 he gave eighty acres to the poor of the parish, 
 which exists to this day in much the same state 
 as it may be supposed to have been then — wild 
 and uncultivated. Aldbourne was once famous 
 
 ^ This is only a fancy. Auburn was a mere name, 
 which may have referred to Lissoy, Co. Westmeath, but in 
 all probability referred to a place which only existed in the 
 poet's imagination. Macaulay says : " The village, in its 
 happy days, is a true English village; the village in its 
 decay is an Irish village. The felicity and the misery 
 which Goldsmith has brought together belong to two 
 different countries, and to two different stages in the pro- 
 gress of society." There is nothing in this locality to lend 
 colour to Jefferies' theory. 
 
UPPER UPHAM 103 
 
 for its bell foundry ; but this is a thing of the 
 past. A fine set of bells cast here is in the 
 church tower. Old Swindon chime is said to 
 have been cast at Aldbourne. Aldbourne 
 Warren was once a famous place for rabbits. It 
 was let out and rented like a farm. In winter, 
 in frosty weather, it was often found necessary 
 to take a wagon load of hay out, which the 
 rabbits would follow by the thousand, like a 
 flock of sheep, and no sooner was it flung 
 down than it was devoured. Aldbourne rabbits 
 were in great favour in the London markets, 
 and rabbits are said to be still sold there under 
 that name, though perhaps in reality no rabbit 
 has been sent there in the present century from 
 Aldbourne. 
 
 The following extract from Lord Claren- 
 don's history of the Rebellion relates to Ald- 
 bourne Chace : — 
 
 ** So that the Earl of Essex was march'd 
 with his whole army and train from Tewkes- 
 bury, four-and-twenty hours before the King 
 heard which way he was gone ; for he took 
 advantage of a dark night, and having sure 
 Guides, reached Ciciter before the breaking of 
 the day ; where he found two regiments of the 
 
I04 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 King's horse quartered securely ; all which, by 
 the negligence of the officers (a common and 
 fatal crime throughout the War, on the King's 
 part), he surprised, to the number of above 
 three hundred ; and, which was of much 
 greater value, he found there a great quantity 
 of provisions, prepared by the King's commis- 
 saries for the army before Gloster, and which 
 they neglected to remove after the siege was 
 raised, and so most sottishly left it for the relief 
 of the enemy, far more apprehensive of hunger 
 than of the sword ; and indeed this wonderful 
 supply strangely exalted their spirits, as sent 
 by the special care and extraordinary hand of 
 Providence, even when they were ready to 
 faint. 
 
 *' From hence the Earl, having no farther 
 apprehension of the King's horse, which he 
 had no mind to encounter upon the open Cam- 
 pania, and being at the least twenty miles 
 before him, by easy marches, that his sick and 
 wearied soldiers might overtake him, moved, 
 through that deep and enclosed country of 
 North Wiltshire, his direct way to London. 
 As soon as the King had sure notice which 
 way the enemy was gone, he endeavoured by 
 
UPPER UPHAM 105 
 
 expedition and diligence to recover the advan- 
 tage which the supine negligence of those he 
 had trusted had robbed him of; and himself, 
 with matchless industry, taking care to lead up 
 the foot, prince Rupert with near five thousand 
 horse, march'd day and night over the hills to 
 get between London and the enemy, before 
 they should be able to get out of those en- 
 closed deep countries, in which they were 
 engaged between narrow lanes, and to enter- 
 tain them with skirmishes till the whole army 
 should come up. This design, pursued and 
 executed with indefatigable pains, succeeded to 
 his wish ; for when the van of the enemy's 
 army had almost marched over Awborne 
 Chase, intending that night to have reach'd 
 Newbury, prince Rupert, besides their fear or 
 expectation, appear'd with a strong body of 
 horse so near them, that before they could put 
 themselves in order to receive him, he charged 
 their rear, and routed them with good execu- 
 tion ; 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 unlook'd for an occa- 
 sion was expected, yet, with some difficulty and 
 
io6 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 the loss of many men, they were glad to 
 shorten their journey, and, the night coming 
 on, took up their quarters at Hungerford. 
 
 "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 into the lord Jermin's regi- 
 ment. There were hurt many officers, and 
 among those the lord Jermin received a shot 
 in his arm with a pistol, owing the preserva- 
 tion of his life from other shots to the excellent 
 temper of his armour ; and the lord DIgby, a 
 strange hurt in the face, a pistol being dis- 
 charged at so near a distance upon him that 
 the powder fetch'd much blood from his face, 
 and for the present blinded him without 
 further mischleve ; by which it was concluded 
 that the bullet had dropped out before the 
 pistol was discharged. And it may be 
 reckoned amongst 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." 
 
UPPER UPHAM 107 
 
 This skirmish in"Awborne Chace"so delayed 
 the Earl of Essex that the King was enabled 
 to come up, when ensued the battle of New- 
 bury/ A memento of those bloody times was 
 picked up in Aldbourne Chace, not long since, 
 in the shape of a cannon ball, thought to weigh 
 about 8 lbs. A boy more lately made a very 
 fortunate discovery in the same Chace. He 
 saw something glitter upon the ground, picked 
 it up, and found it was a coin, which he sup- 
 posed was a very old shilling. On further 
 investigation he discovered nearly two hundred 
 similar coins, and carried them home in a sack. 
 These coins are said to be of the reign of King 
 Charles ; hence they were probably hidden in 
 the Chace about the time of the Civil Wars. 
 
 ^ September 20th, 1643. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 LIDDINGTON WICK— THE LONDON AND 
 FARINGDON ROAD IN 1866 
 
 THE direct road to London from Swindon 
 passes through Coate. Shortly after 
 leaving that village, there may be seen at a 
 little distance upon the left hand a long, low- 
 roofed, ancient slated farm-building, known as 
 Liddington Wick. It is now in the occupation 
 of Mr. Reeves,^ and is conspicuous for a great 
 way, on account of a magnificent yew growing 
 immediately before the house. Tradition states 
 that Liddington Wick was once a Roman 
 Catholic chapel or oratory, though to what 
 monastery or nunnery it belonged is not said. 
 It is evidently an ancient building, from the 
 thickness of the walls, and that it was not 
 originally destined for the purpose to which it 
 is applied may be inferred from the fact that in 
 
 ^ Its present occupant is Mr. J. Smith. 
 
 ■A 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 109 
 
 the memory of man the front door resembled 
 that of a church — heavy, and studded with 
 nails. Moreover, the drawing-room contains a 
 carved ceiling, cut in plaster of Paris or some 
 similar material, which is said to be unique of 
 its kind, and is of considerable antiquity. This 
 ceiling was originally picked out in blue and 
 gold, but is now a plain white. The pattern is 
 that which is known in embroidery as the 
 wheel. Liddington Wick is interesting, since it 
 appears to be almost the only remaining vestige 
 of Roman Catholic times in this neighbourhood. 
 One version of the tradition makes it a nunnery. 
 The fine yew immediately before the door 
 gives it still a sombre appearance, suitable for 
 a house used for religious purposes. This tree 
 may date from the days of the nuns. It is 
 evidently some centuries old. Before the man- 
 sion there is a field known as the home field. 
 Through it the footpath to Lower Wanborough 
 passes. Here there are unmistakable traces of 
 ancient habitations, the ground being full of 
 irregularities. While digging drains here coins 
 were found, stated to be Roman. Liddington 
 Wick is a place of great antiquity, and has 
 been inhabited from time immemorial. A field 
 
no JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 near by here affords a curious fact to the lovers 
 of natural history. It is covered with what 
 appears at first sight simply small turfy and 
 thymy hillocks of earth, but which turn out 
 upon investigation to be ant-hills, placed so 
 close together that it is possible by springing 
 from one to the other to pass from one side of 
 the ground to the other without setting foot on 
 the level earth. These hillocks represent the 
 industry of millions — countless myriads — of 
 ants, continued, no doubt, for years, since the 
 fields seem to have presented this appearance 
 from time immemorial. 
 
 Liddington Wick is the outlying habitation 
 of the ancient village of Liddington. Lidding- 
 ton is a well-known place. It has figured in 
 novels ere now. A Mrs. May, the wife of a 
 former rector of Liddington, combined the 
 legends of Liddington into a tale of fiction 
 some twenty years ago, and issued it to the 
 public under the title of The Abbess of Shaftes- 
 bury, which work made a great noise in the 
 neighbourhood at the date of its publication, 
 but has now become rare. The plot circles 
 round Liddington Manor-house. This mansion 
 lies at the extremity — the mouth — of a narrow. 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK in 
 
 winding vale, sheltered from the north-easterly 
 winds by the downs, and has a beautiful view 
 of the vale beneath from the western windows. 
 A spring rising near forms some large ponds, 
 which give the place the appearance of being 
 surrounded with water, while a rookery and an 
 ancient water-wheel add to the old English look 
 of the place. It is certainly the most romantic- 
 ally-situated mansion in the neighbourhood. 
 The many-gabled roofs and mullioned windows 
 proclaim its antiquity. It has been described 
 as Elizabethan, and such may be the style of 
 the building, but the inscription upon the 
 chimney-top is A. V. 1670. C. V., at which date 
 Charles II. was upon the English throne. 
 Here are supposed to take place the main 
 incidents in The Abbess of Shaftesbury, which 
 also contains allusions to John of Gaunt and 
 his mansion of Upper Upham. Liddington 
 Manor-house was well known to all the neigh- 
 bourhood as the residence of the venerable Mr. 
 Brind. A carved mantelpiece here is said to 
 be of great age. 
 
 Liddington Church contains two tombs 
 which have caused much discussion in anti- 
 quarian circles. They are side by side, placed 
 
112 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 near the present vestry-room, and are In 
 memory of some departed dignitaries of the 
 church, as is evident from the foliated crosses. 
 There is neither inscription nor date. Tradi- 
 tion says they are the tombs of the Abbot and 
 Abbess of the suppressed Abbey of Shaftes- 
 bury. Liddington, then, in all probability, 
 once belonged to that ancient monastery. Lid- 
 dington Wick may have had some connection 
 with it also. Liddington Church is a prebendal 
 church. 
 
 High above the village towers Liddington 
 Hill, well known to dwellers in the locality, 
 and conspicuous to all from the Folly, or group 
 of trees at one end, and the well-marked 
 '* castle," or entrenchment, at the other. Lid- 
 dington Camp is usually considered as Roman, 
 but it may nevertheless have afforded defence 
 to both Briton and Roman, Saxon and Dane. 
 It is of great extent, and somewhat of a square 
 form- — probably the largest in North Wilts. 
 Each side may measure tv/o hundred yards. 
 This camp was placed upon a very command- 
 ing spot. The view from here is magnificent. 
 Flint-digging has been carried on within the 
 entrenchment, and resulted in the discovery of 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 113 
 
 numerous coins, said to be Roman, spear-heads 
 and arrow-heads, together with pieces of rusty 
 iron, now of no particular form, but supposed 
 to be broken sword-blades. Here also was 
 found a kind of bodkin with a square head, 
 engraved with characters. Liddington Camp 
 consists of only one fosse, which is, however, 
 of great depth. It is very evident that this 
 place was never thrown up by a passing army 
 for a night's defence — it is too kirge and sub- 
 stantial. It was probably a station, and well 
 garrisoned. The Ridge Way, an ancient 
 British road, runs at the foot of the hill ; and 
 the Ickleton Way passes through Badbury and 
 Chisledon almost immediately beneath. A 
 memento of battle-fields, fought in days long 
 after those of spear and arrow-head, is said to 
 have been picked up upon this hill in the shape 
 of a cannon ball. It was probably sent upon 
 its errand of destruction in the times of the 
 Civil War. 
 
 The road to Farlngdon branches off from the 
 London road at Liddington, and passes through 
 Wanborough. Wanborough is a place of great 
 antiquity, and played a distinguished part in 
 the early history of England. '' a.d. 592," 
 
 I 
 
114 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 writes Ethelwerd,^ '* there was a great slaughter 
 on both sides, at a place called Wodnesbyrg, 
 so that Ceawlin was put to flight, and died at 
 the end of one more year." Ceawlin was a 
 Saxon king of Wessex. He It was who, in 
 conjunction with Cenric, another Saxon chief, 
 routed a British army near Barbury. His life 
 seems to have been spent In one continued 
 round of fighting, in which he was generally 
 successful, until this fatal battle of Wanborough. 
 Fuller accounts state that he had contrived to 
 make himself obnoxious both to the Britons 
 and Saxons, who joined their forces and de- 
 feated him. This was over twelve centuries 
 ago. The same chronicler states that "a.d. 
 715 Ina and Ceolred (Ceolric ?) fought against 
 those who opposed them in arms at Wothnes- 
 beorghge," ^ that is, Wanborough.^ Wan- 
 
 ^ Ethelwerd dedicated his work to, and wrote it for the 
 use of his relation, Matilda, daughter of Otho the Great, 
 Emperor of Germany, by his first Empress Editha, who is 
 mentioned in the Saxon Chron., a.d. 925. His chronicle 
 is called, " The Chronicle of Fabius Ethelwerd, from the 
 beginning of the world to the year of our Lord 975.' 
 
 ^ Wodnesburie = Wodensburgh (?). 
 
 3 " Dr. Guest remarked that the great highways of Wes- 
 sex all converge on Wanborough." — Worth. 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 115 
 
 borough has, then, witnessed at least two severe 
 contests. Somewhat more than a mile from 
 Lower Wanborough, near Stratton St. Mar- 
 garet, is a place known as Wanborough Nythe. 
 This may have been once a Roman station, 
 the site of which was upon Covenham Farm, 
 near to the edge of the Nythe brook. Numer- 
 ous remnants of the Roman occupation have 
 been found here — chiefly coins.^ It is recorded 
 that in the year 1689 as many as sixteen 
 hundred or two thousand coins were dis- 
 covered here in a single vessel. They were 
 no doubt of various descriptions, but it is stated 
 that they were Roman, and none of a later date 
 than Commodus. Commodus became Em- 
 peror of the Roman Empire about 180 a.d. 
 An ancient Roman road runs close by, coming 
 from the direction of Wanborough, and going 
 towards Cricklade and Cirencester. It is re- 
 markably straight. The word Nythe is thought 
 to be a corruption of the Latin Nidus, which 
 might perhaps mean home, or station, an in- 
 habited spot. 
 
 In Domesday Book Wanborough is written 
 Wembergh. It was held by the Bishop of 
 
 ^ And pottery. 
 
ii6 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Winchester for the support of the minster. In 
 the days of Henry II., who reigned from 1154 
 to 1 189, It belonged to William Longespee, 
 then Earl of Sarum, or Salisbury. The brother 
 of this earl was, In the thirteenth year of Henry 
 III., Justiciary of Ireland. Wanborough be- 
 came his by gift from the Earl of Sarum, in 
 the year 1245, on the condition that it was 
 to be held under Longespee's descendants. 
 Stephen, Justiciary of Ireland, got, in 1252, a 
 grant enabling him to hold a market and fair 
 at Wanborough. He died in 1260. Wan- 
 borough then fell to his widow Emmeline, 
 called the Countess of Ulster, by right of a 
 former husband, and to his two daughters, Ela 
 and another Emmeline. Ela was the wife of 
 Roger le Louche, and had a son Alan. Em- 
 meline was married to one Maurice Fitz 
 Maurice, but left no issue. Alan, however, 
 had a daughter and heiress, Matilda, who be- 
 came the spouse of Robert de Holand. A 
 grand-daughter of theirs, called Lady Wan- 
 borough, brought the place, by marriage, to 
 John, fifth Baron Lovel of Titchmarsh. This 
 was in the year 1375. From him descended 
 Francis, Viscount Lovel, the favourite of 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK u; 
 
 Richard III., of whom more presently. Francis 
 left no issue, and was attainted in 1487. From 
 that year to a.d. 15 15 the manor was held by 
 John Cheyne, Knight. Cheyne is a name still 
 known in North Wilts. There is a village 
 near Swindon called Rodbourne Cheyne. It 
 is a name known to the readers of Scott. 
 Elspeth in The Antiqtiary sings several old 
 ballads about a gallant Roland Cheyne : 
 
 " To turn the rein were sin and shame, 
 To fight were wonderous peril ; 
 What would'st thou do now, Roland Cheyne, 
 Wert thou Glenallan's earl ? " 
 
 Roland Cheyne is all for fighting, though the 
 odds of numbers be immense against them. 
 After Sir John Cheyne, the manor of Wan- 
 borough was enjoyed by Sir Edward Darell, of 
 Littlecote. He was owner at the date of his 
 death in 1549. A grandson of his sold it to 
 Sir Humphrey Forster, of Aldermaston, about 
 1665. Afterwards, in Queen Anne's reign, it 
 was purchased from Sir Charles Hedges by 
 Samuel Sharp, Esq., of Bath. 
 
 In the days of Edward I., Sewale d'Oseville 
 and Fitz-Geoffrey were great men at W^an- 
 borough. Under them were Foliott, Turnville, 
 
ii8 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 and others. Wroughton was a name which 
 had some connection with Wanborough in the 
 reign of Henry IV. Brynd is a Wanborough 
 name. Thomas Brynd was here in 1665. He 
 was the patron of the rectory of Stanton Fitz- 
 warren. A Brynd was murdered here in 1571. 
 J. Goddard had a grant in Wanborough and 
 Upham in the days of the burly monarch, 
 Henry VHI. There is a long list of noble 
 names, celebrated in their day, which once had 
 some connection with Wanborough. How 
 little is remembered of them there now ! Aubrey 
 visited Wanborough, as he did so many other 
 places in North Wilts, nearly two centuries 
 since, note-book in hand. Here is a curious 
 extract from his memoranda: '' Wanboro'. 
 Here is a Latt Mead celebrated yearly with 
 great ceremony. The lord weareth a garland 
 of flowers ; the mowers at one house have 
 always a pound of beef and a head of garlic 
 every man . . . with many other customs 
 still retayned. It is sufficiently well known to 
 the neighbouring gentry for revelling and horse- 
 racing." 
 
 What was meant by a *' Latt Mead " can 
 now only be conjectured. It is supposed to 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 119 
 
 have been a ceremony which originated when 
 Britain was partially a wild, unenclosed, and 
 uncultivated country. The enclosing of a 
 piece of ground would in such times be an 
 event to the neighbourhood, and likely to be 
 commemorated by a festival, or mumming. 
 There are many meadows hereabout known 
 as Lot Meads. The character which Aubrey 
 gives Wanborough is still retained ; Wan- 
 borough is still a well-known place for revel- 
 ling, though horse-racing seems to have 
 declined. Aubrey elsewhere mentions a tra- 
 dition that a moat which was shown him at 
 Wanborough originally surrounded a mansion 
 once inhabited by the famous Francis Lovel, 
 the favourite of Richard III. The mansion 
 had disappeared even then. Who does not 
 remember the rhyme — which, by-the-bye, cost 
 its composer his life : 
 
 " The rat, the cat, and Lovel the dog, 
 Rule all England under the Hog," 
 
 alluding to King Richard's crest, which was a 
 boar's head, and to his ministers, Ratcliffe, 
 Catesby, and Lovel. This moat was in a 
 field called Court Close, or Cold Close. A 
 
120 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 moat, which is supposed to be the same seen 
 by Aubrey, Is still very plainly perceivable 
 at Lower Wanborough. It is now dry, and 
 partially surrounds a farmhouse occupied by 
 Mrs. Thorn. A curious discovery was made 
 in the garden of this farmhouse by Mr. H. 
 Thorn, who was digging potatoes, when his 
 spade struck against something, and turned up 
 a quantity of mosaic-work — or what was called 
 mosaic-work — on which the form of a dog was 
 depicted. Beneath this was a leaden coffin, 
 extremely thin, and corroded with age. On 
 being opened it was found to contain a skele- 
 ton, supposed to be that of a woman. This 
 has been pronounced a Roman interment by 
 some ; others assign it to a later date. Leaden 
 coffins were much used by the Romans, but 
 were not confined to them. This had evi- 
 dently been In the earth for a great period of 
 time, on account of its extreme thinness ; so 
 that the sides fell in on attempting to move 
 it. The teeth in the skull were still perfect. 
 There is a tradition that the moat was once 
 crossed by means of a copper {^) drawbridge, 
 close to the entrance to the present farmhouse. 
 In the memory of man another field, now 
 
^^ 
 
 ■1- 
 
 
 /,; ,. f * 
 
 t # 3= 
 
 ,*SVj* 5 ^ 
 
 
 r. 
 
 2 
 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 121 
 
 known as the Warnedges, contained ruins, 
 supposed to be those of an ancient mansion. 
 They have now disappeared. They had then 
 an ill name, on account of a murder committed 
 there. 
 
 Wanborough Church is a peculiar structure. 
 It has both a square tower and a spire — one 
 at either end, and of about equal height.^ 
 It is a very ancient erection. The tower bears 
 the date of 1435 — more than four centuries 
 since. The same form of church architecture 
 may be seen at Purton. Wanborough was 
 visited by Captain Symonds, of King Charles's 
 army, in 1644. 
 
 After leaving Wanborough, the Faringdon 
 or Wantage road runs along the edge of the 
 down to Hinton, allowing a beautiful view of 
 the Vale of Shrivenham. Hinton Church, 
 some time since, was taken possession of by 
 a swarm of bees, which it was found im- 
 possible to dislodge, and so much did the 
 bees annoy the congregation, that service was 
 held in the porch during the summer. From 
 
 ^ According to the story, there was a dispute between the 
 two sisters who built the church on the subject of Tower 
 versus Spire. This was how they settled it. 
 
122 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 HInton the road winds away to Bishop, or 
 BIshopstone, a large and pleasant village. 
 The church contains a remarkably fine arched 
 door in the chancel, which Is of great anti- 
 quity. Aubrey came to BIshopstone. He ob- 
 serves that the church windows were broken by 
 the soldiers In the Civil Wars — probably by the 
 army of the Earl of Essex, in its retreat through 
 Wiltshire towards London. Aubrey also re- 
 marks that they had here a '' Hocker Bench." 
 How this custom originated, or, indeed, what 
 it consisted of here, seems unknown — lost in 
 a dim antiquity. In other places it appears 
 to have been a kind of game, which consisted 
 In running after strangers or passers-by, snar- 
 ing them in a rope, and not allowing them to 
 proceed until they had paid a forfeit. Here, 
 also, says Aubrey, was a *' Paradise" or Sanc- 
 tuary — a place wherein It was reported men 
 were free from arrest. At BIshopstone there 
 was recently a very ancient mansion, but it 
 is now pulled down. BIshopstone Is a famous 
 place for ducks and watercress. 
 
 Ashbury, the next village, is a very ancient 
 place. It was formerly spelt Asshebury, and 
 Is mentioned in a Charter of King Edred of 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 123 
 
 the date 947 a.d., as situated upon the ex- 
 tremity of Ashedoune (now Ashdown), which 
 then seems to have been the name of a dis- 
 trict, but is now that of a single down or hill. 
 Icknield Street (a Roman road) runs through 
 Ashbury, and winding round the brow of 
 the adjacent down, passes immediately under 
 White Horse Hill. It has been conjectured 
 that the Icknield Street was so named from 
 being constructed or repaired by the Roman 
 general Agricola, who was in Britain about 
 the year 80 a.d., the letters *'a" and ''g" 
 being dropped, and the name otherwise cor- 
 rupted in the course of so many centuries.^ 
 At any rate, there can be no doubt that this 
 road once echoed to the tramp of the Roman 
 legions. 
 
 The next village to Ashbury is Woolston. 
 It is said that Woolston is a shortened form 
 of Wulferithstone, a great Saxon chief, who 
 lived in the days of King Alfred, and was 
 rewarded for efficient services rendered to that 
 monarch with the present of some land here- 
 
 1 "Iken.yld.strset. A Roman road in England, so-called 
 because it passed through the Iceni, or Norfolk, Suffolk, 
 etc." — Bosworth. 
 
124 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 about. Wulferithstone seems to have been 
 Duke of Hampshire, and to have died a.d. 
 897. The village of Woolston lies exactly at 
 the foot of the White Horse Hill, just at the 
 mouth of that steep-sided, narrow valley which, 
 commencing below the sculptured form of the 
 white horse, goes by the name of the White 
 Horse Manger. This sculptured white horse ^ 
 is of gigantic size, and is represented at full 
 gallop. It may be seen fourteen or fifteen 
 miles off, it being formed by cutting away the 
 turf down to the white chalk. The length 
 from the eye to the commencement of the 
 
 ^ The White Horses. 
 
 " The White Horse at Uffington would appear to be the 
 great sire and prototype of all. Tradition ascribes it to 
 Alfred (871). 
 
 '"'■ Bratton Hill Horse^ near Westbury. Again ascribed 
 to Alfred, after Ethandun. Repaired and partially re-cut, 
 1778. [Also repaired in 1873, at a cost of £,^o.\ 
 
 " Cher hi II Horse, close to reputed Danish camp of Old- 
 borough, but cut in 1780. The scouring done by the Lord 
 of the Manor. 
 
 " Small horse at Miwlboroiigh, on the hill behind Pre- 
 shute. Cut by Mr. Greasley's schoolboys, 1804. 
 
 " Pewsey Valley Horse, southern slope of Marlborough 
 Downs, in the parish of Alton Berners. Cut 18 12 by John 
 Harvey. Smaller insignificant horses at Winterbourne Bas- 
 sett, Roundway Hill (Devizes), and Broad Town, near 
 Wootton Bassett." — Wilts Magazine. 
 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 125 
 
 tail is nearly eighty yards, and the tail itself 
 reaches forty-eight yards. Tradition asserts 
 that it was made by order of King Alfred, to 
 commemorate his victory over the Danes at 
 i^scdun, in the year 871. A white horse was 
 the standard of the Saxons, as a raven was 
 that of the Danes. Tacitus relates that the 
 Germans held white horses in the highest 
 veneration, and drew predictions of the future 
 from their neighs or motions ; just as the 
 ancient Egyptians did from the bull-god Apis. 
 White horses among the Romans were sacred 
 to the sun. There would be, then, nothing 
 improbable in the Saxons carving the emblem 
 which they bore on their standards as a me- 
 morial of their victory. Tradition further states 
 that a custom was instituted of scouring the 
 horse — that is, clearing away the turf which 
 had accumulated once in so many years — a 
 kind of Saxon Olympiad, the length of which 
 appears to be now unknown. Certain it is 
 that the custom has survived until the present 
 day, although performed at very irregular in- 
 tervals. On such occasions a feast or fair is 
 held in the intrenchment upon the summit of 
 the White Horse Hill. Last time the huge 
 
126 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 wagons of Wombwell's Menagerie were dragged 
 up. A cheese, by tradition, ought to be rolled 
 down the slope of the White Horse Manger, 
 to be run down after by those venturesome 
 enough to risk their necks ; but a cart-wheel 
 was started at the last scouring, and the cheese 
 preserved whole and sound, to be presented to 
 the racer who first touched the wheel after its 
 descent. One of the racers on this occasion, 
 instead of running, jumped at starting and 
 rolled headlong down — a most dangerous feat, 
 which might have cost him his life. Several 
 other amusing customs used to be put in prac- 
 tice, which are to be found described at length 
 in a very pleasant style in the Scouring of the 
 White Horsey s. work published some time 
 since. 
 
 ^scdun or Esc'sdune, now Ashdown, was 
 early a place of importance, as is evident by 
 its being so frequently mentioned by the old 
 chroniclers. Ethelwerd alludes to it a.d. 648, 
 661, and 871. In the year 871, according to 
 Asser, the Saxons, having been driven from 
 Reading by the Danes, re-assembled their 
 forces four days afterwards under King Ethel- 
 red and his brother Alfred. The pagan army 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 127 
 
 of Danes occupied the "higher ground" — 
 probably the present intrenchment on the 
 summit of the down — the " Christians," or 
 Saxons, divided their army into two portions, 
 one under King Ethelred, and the other 
 under Alfred. The pagans had also divided 
 their forces into two ; one commanded by 
 their kings, and the other by five earls. The 
 Saxons arranged that their king, Ethelred, 
 should attack the Danish monarchs, and Alfred 
 the earls. One night is said to have been 
 spent encamped — the Danes above on Esc's- 
 dune, or Ashdown, i.e. *' the hill of the 
 ash," King Ethelred with his division in 
 Hardwell Camp, which still remains imme- 
 diately above Woolston, and is defended by 
 two fosses. Alfred lay near the present wood 
 of Ashdown, in a slighter intrenchment, prob- 
 ably thrown up for the occasion ; some vestiges 
 of which still remaining are known as Alfred's 
 Camp. On the morrow King Ethelred en- 
 gaged in prayer, and refused to set on until 
 he had heard mass. Meantime the pagans 
 poured down the hill, placing Alfred in such 
 a position that he must either charge without 
 waiting for his brother or else retreat. 
 
128 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 " At length he bravely led his troops against 
 the enemy," entirely unsupported, and Chris- 
 tians and pagans mingled in battle. A single 
 hawthorn tree grew upon the slope — there are 
 some near now — and around this tree was 
 waged the thickest of the battle. It seems to 
 have been undecided until Ethelred, having 
 finished his devotions, came up with his fol- 
 lowers, when the Danes were immediately 
 routed, and fled towards Reading. " All the 
 flower of the barbarian youth was there 
 slain," says Ethelwerd, "so that never before 
 nor since was ever such destruction known 
 since the Saxons gained Britain by their 
 arms." There fell of the Danes, King Bagsac, 
 Earl Sidrac the elder, and Earl Sidrac the 
 younger, Earl Osbern, Earl Frene, and Earl 
 Harold. 
 
 Away to the east of White Horse Hill, the 
 direction in which the battle rolled, may still 
 be seen seven barrows, supposed to be the 
 burial-places of those who fell in the engage- 
 ment. Close behind the Ridge Way road, about 
 a mile from the brow of Ashdown, may be 
 seen a cromlech, by some thought to be the 
 sepulchre of the above-mentioned King Bag- 
 
 3 
 

 )' 
 
 ^*^'^«s^ 
 
 1 ■'!' 
 
 '41; 
 
 ■1^ 
 
 
 
 o 
 u 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 
 z 
 
 c/} 
 
 Z 
 
I 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 129 
 
 sac ; it being a Danish custom to Inter their 
 nobility in such a manner. This monument is 
 now hidden in a beech-copse, and consists of 
 three stones set on edge, supporting a fourth — 
 a broad covering-stone. More are scattered 
 round, forming an oval. Altogether, there are 
 now about thirty stones here which are 
 visible. It has much the appearance of an 
 altar. Sacrifices may have been offered to the 
 deceased Dane. Some think it a work of the 
 Druids. It is evidently very ancient, being 
 mentioned in a Saxon charter as a landmark. 
 The country people call it Wayland Smith's 
 cave, and tell a story of an Invisible smith, 
 who shoed travellers' horses, on condition of 
 their laying a groat upon the altar-stone, and 
 then retiring out of sight — whistling when 
 hid, as a signal, and leaving the horse near. 
 Presently there would be a tinkling of ham- 
 mers, and on returning to the spot the horse 
 would be found shod and no one In sight. 
 This legend came under the notice of Sir 
 Walter Scott, who is said to have visited the 
 place. He has embodied it in the novel of 
 Kcnihvorth, The legend is thought to have 
 originated in a Danish superstition concerning 
 
 K 
 
I30 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 spirits who dwelt in rocks, and were cunning 
 workmen in iron and steel. 
 
 The memory of King Alfred still lies here. 
 His bugle-horn is shown at a wayside inn 
 called the '* Blowing-Stone," about a mile 
 from the White Horse Hill. It is a large 
 Sarsden, with many holes, one of which, being 
 blown through, causes a noise which may be 
 heard at a great distance. 
 
 Uffington, a village near by, is thought to 
 be a corruption of Ubba's meadow-town. 
 Ubba, or Offa, was a celebrated king in the 
 time of the Heptarchy. Some have supposed 
 it to be Glevum, a Roman station mentioned 
 in the Itineraries. 
 
 Immediately beneath the figure of the horse 
 is a conical mound, or barrow, known as the 
 Dragon's mound ; from a tradition that here 
 St. George slew the dragon, whose blood was 
 of so poisonous a nature that nothing has since 
 grown upon its summit, which is bare, expos- 
 ing the chalk. Here, so it is supposed, fell 
 one of the Pen-dragons of the British, their 
 chief of chiefs, whom their ordinary kings 
 elected to lead them against the Saxons, and 
 whose name, abridged of the "pen," may 
 
LIDDINGTON WICK 131 
 
 have had some share in the legend. Natan- 
 leod, or Nazan-leod, a name meaning the same 
 as Pen-dragon, was slain in these parts, say 
 the chroniclers, with 5,000 British under him, 
 about the year 550, by Cedric the Saxon. 
 This barrow may have been raised over his 
 remains, as was the British custom. 
 
 Wantage, formerly Wanating, was the birth- 
 place of the renowned King Alfred, who was 
 born here, according to Asser, in 849 — over a 
 thousand years ago. It was a royal residence 
 then. The Saxon palace stood on a place 
 called High Garden. Roman remains have 
 been found at Wantage in a place known as 
 Limborough. Coins also have been found 
 there. In the last century a place was dis- 
 covered to which the name of "Alfred's cellar" 
 was given. It was bricked, and appeared to 
 have been a bath. Wherever the Romans went, 
 there they built baths, if it were possible. In 
 a place like Wantage — whose hero is Alfred — 
 anything that savoured of antiquity would be 
 ascribed to that renowned monarch. Wantage 
 is in Berks, "which county," writes Asser, 
 " has its name from the wood of Berroc, where 
 the box tree grows most abundantly." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 
 
 THERE are two distinct roads from Swin- 
 don to Marlborough, on both of which 
 may be found objects of antiquarian interest, 
 one known as Marlborough Lane, the other as 
 Coate Road. Coate is at a distance of about 
 a mile and a half from the town, and has been 
 much visited on account of the reservoir. The 
 etymology of the name would seem to make it 
 a place of considerable antiquity, being pro- 
 bably derived from the Anglo-Saxon cot, a 
 cottage, or dwelling-place. In Percy's Reliques 
 of Ancient Poetiy there is an old ballad written 
 by Michael Drayton, and published about 1592, 
 in one of his Pastorals, which contains the 
 following verse. The ballad is called *' Dow- 
 sabell," and a shepherd-swain is complaining of 
 
 the coldness of his fair one : 
 
 132 
 

 
 e 
 o 
 
 o 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 133 
 
 " My coate, sayeth he, nor yet my foulde 
 Shall neither sheep nor shepheard hould, 
 Except thou favour me." 
 
 The glossary affixed to the end of the 
 volume has *' Coate, cot, or cottage." The 
 spelling, it will be observed, is identical with 
 that by which the village is now represented. 
 The '* coate," or cot, was the residence of the 
 " shepheard." His pathetic appeal was not 
 unsuccessful : — 
 
 *' With that she bent her snow-white knee 
 Downe by the shepheard kneeled shee, 
 
 And him she sweetely kist ; 
 With that the shepheard whooped for joy, 
 Quoth he, ' Ther's never shepheard's boy, 
 
 That ever was so blist.' " 
 
 The broad country pronunciation, however, 
 makes it Cawt, which does not sound like Cot, 
 or Cote. This more approaches the Welsh 
 w^ord cwt, a hovel. Now the Welsh language 
 is that of the ancient Britons. If this deriva- 
 tion be correct, Coate would date back to 
 them.^ There is some reason for supposing 
 
 ^ Though hitherto " unknown to fame," future students 
 of English literature will not be likely to forget that Richard 
 Jefferies was born, and lived the greater part of his life, at 
 Coate. 
 
134 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 that the village was once more extensive than 
 at present, and that it could show a church. 
 From time immemorial a cow-pen upon land 
 in the occupation of Mr. H. Brunsden has 
 gone by the name of church-pen. The reason 
 is obvious. Here are six pillars about eight 
 feet high, by two in diameter, circular, and 
 formed of hewn stone. At present they simply 
 support the roof of a shed ; but it does not 
 seem probable that such substantial pillars were 
 originally erected for this purpose. They are 
 nearly east and west. Bones, it is said, have 
 been dug up in the adjacent ground, but such 
 testimony is very unreliable until examined by 
 a person learned in anatomy. The road from 
 Coate makes a wide semi-circle round to Chisle- 
 don. Day-house Lane cuts off the angle, and 
 was formerly much used, until the road was 
 widened and macadamised. There may be 
 seen on the left side of Day-house Lane, 
 exactly opposite the entrance to a pen on Day- 
 house Farm,^ five Sarsden stones, much sunk 
 in the ground, but forming a semi-circle of 
 which the lane is the base-line or tangent. 
 
 ^ The early home of Richard Jefferies' wife. 
 
nil s 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 135 
 
 There was a sixth upon the edge of the lane, 
 but it was blown up and removed, in order to 
 make the road more serviceable, a few years 
 ago. Whether this was or was not one of 
 those circles known as Druidical, cannot now be 
 determined, but it wears that appearance. It 
 would seem that the modern lane had cut right 
 through the circle, destroying all vestige of one 
 half of it. In the next field, known as the 
 Plain, lies, near the footpath across the fields to 
 Chisledon, another Sarsden of enormous size, 
 with two smaller satellites of the same stone 
 close by. If the semi-circle just spoken of 
 was a work of the Druids, or of the descrip- 
 tion known as Druidical, which some think a 
 very different thing, it may be just possible 
 that these detached stones in the Plain had 
 some connection with it. 
 
 A little further up the same line is a place 
 known as Badbury Wick. Wick is an old 
 Saxon word having a loose meaning, but gene- 
 rally indicating a habitation. Here, on the 
 left-hand in a field, there are deep and wide 
 grass-grown fosses, having a remarkable like- 
 ness to a moat. A moat does not of necessity 
 denote the position of a fortified building. In 
 
136 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Roman Catholic times — three centuries since 
 and more — when fish was the diet of all who 
 could get it at certain periods of the year, a 
 moat would answer a double purpose — that of 
 defence, and that of a fish pond. Badbury 
 lies partly upon the side of a hill and partly in 
 a deep valley. There is a large elm tree in 
 the middle of the village ; here stood the stocks 
 within the memory of man, and a small portion 
 still remains. Badbury is a very ancient vil- 
 lage, and dates from the Saxon times at least. 
 One enthusiastic antiquarian of the last century 
 was of the opinion that here, or upon the hill 
 immediately above it — well known as Lidding- 
 ton Hill and famous for its camp — was the 
 identical spot where the renowned King Arthur 
 won his twelfth battle in the year 520, or 
 thereabout. If this conjecture be true, Bad- 
 bury was a known place more than thirteen 
 centuries since. According to Nennius,^ the 
 ancient British historian, it was even longer 
 ago than this. About the middle of the fifth 
 
 ^ Nennius, the supposed author of Historia Britonum^ 
 bringing the chronicle to 655 a.d. He is said to have been 
 a Welsh monk at Bangor, but all so-called facts about him 
 are open to as much question as is his history. 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 137 
 
 century he writes thus : '' There it was that the 
 magnanimous Arthur, with all the kings and 
 military force of Britain, fought against the 
 Saxons.^ And although there were many more 
 noble than himself, yet he was twelve times 
 their commander, and was as often conqueror." 
 Giving the places where he was victorious in 
 eleven battles, Nennius proceeds : *' The 
 twelfth battle was a severe contest, when 
 Arthur penetrated to the hill of Badon. In 
 this engagement, nine hundred and forty fell 
 by his hand alone, no one but the Lord afford- 
 ing him assistance." A wonderful feat, equal- 
 ling that which Samson executed upon the 
 Philistines. This '' hill of Badon," or '' mons 
 Badonicus," has perhaps caused more discussion 
 and disagreement than any other single doubt- 
 ful point in the early history of England. 
 Some unhesitatingly place it at Bath ; Baydon- 
 hill near Aldbourne has had its claims put 
 forward ; others prefer Badbury, it being a 
 place of undoubted antiquity, and in the im- 
 mediate neighbourhood of places very cele- 
 brated in days gone by. Nor is King Arthur 
 
 1 Under Cerdic (?). 
 
138 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 the only personage of antiquity with whom 
 Badbury has been in some degree connected. 
 Who has not heard of St. Dunstan ? Dunstan,^ 
 Abbot of Glastonbury — whose salntship is so 
 much doubted, and whose fame approaches in- 
 famy. Dunstan first became celebrated in the 
 reign of King Edred, in about the middle of 
 the tenth century. Edred's reign ended in the 
 year 955. He gave in the same year the 
 manor of Badbury to St. Dunstan. A charter 
 is said to be still preserved, containing the 
 boundaries. It mentions the "Ten Stones" as 
 a landmark. Much later, the RIdforms, or 
 Ridferns, became lords of the manor. A 
 monument to one of them was in Chisledon 
 church. 
 
 Chisledon, which lies somewhat to the right 
 of the Marlborough road, is a very ancient 
 village. There is a place here known as Black- 
 man s barrow ; and barrows are considered to 
 be the burial places of the Britons. A Roman 
 road — the Skelton Way — passes through the 
 place, as does also a British track, known as 
 the ** Rudgeway," that is, the Ridge Way, or 
 
 ^ Dunstan, b. 925, d. 988. 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 139 
 
 road running along the ridge of the hills. The 
 Ridge Way branches off from the Skineld 
 Street at Streetly, passes by White- Horse Hill, 
 and, after leaving Chisledon, runs to Avebury. 
 It was probably the ancient military road con- 
 necting the fortifications upon the downs with 
 each other. On the north of Chisledon frowns 
 Liddington Castle, a well-preserved earthwork 
 upon the brow of the hill. On the south, at a 
 greater distance, may be seen another entrench- 
 ment, that of Barbury. The downs fall back, 
 forming a semi-circle through which the Marl- 
 borough road passes, by means of a vale and 
 pass at Ogbourne, and thus enclose a wide plain 
 — a most fit and proper place for a town in an- 
 cient times. Here accordingly stands Chisledon, 
 on the very edge of the plain, giving the inhabi- 
 tants the vantage ground of the hill in case of 
 attack from the vale beneath. The etymology 
 of the name shows Its great antiquity ; Ceasel- 
 dene — ceasel Is an Anglo-Saxon word for 
 gravel, sand, or rubble, of which there is a 
 sufficiency at Chisledon, and dene, meaning 
 plain. Hence Ceasel-dene would mean per- 
 haps the gravel or rubble plain, and the name 
 of the plain would be quickly applied to the 
 
140 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 village upon it. The Saxon ce, has in several 
 instances been changed into ch, in the lapse of 
 centuries. A familiar example is the word 
 churl — meaning a rude, uncivil fellow, a rustic 
 — derived from the Saxon word laborer, or serf, 
 rude as the soil he cultivated. Charles ^ is said 
 to have come from the same root, meaning a 
 husbandman. Chisledon Church was visited by 
 Aubrey two centuries since. Here are his 
 memoranda concerning it : — 
 
 " By the communion table a gravestone of 
 marble, with brasses, with this inscription : 
 * Here lyeth the body of Francis Rutland, 
 Esquler, sonne and heir to Nycolas Rutland of 
 Micham In the countle of Surrie esquler, who 
 marryed the daughter of Thomas Stephens 
 esqr., and had four sonnes and two daughters. 
 He died XXVH of August, 1592.' The 
 escutcheon's lost : he was a courtier and died 
 in the progress. 
 
 ''In nave ecclesiae : ' Here lieth the body of 
 Rich. Harvey gentlemen, who departed this 
 
 ^ "Charles, originally man, male — akin to A. S. ceorl^ 
 freeman of the lowest rank, man, husband ; and perhaps to 
 Skr.y^ra, lover." — Webster. 
 
G 
 
 s. 
 
 ^ 
 
 f. 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 141 
 
 life January 16 and was buried Jan. 1668 
 
 set suae 80.' " 
 
 Francis Rutland, esquire, who '* was a cour- 
 tier and died in the progress," was probably 
 one of the court of Queen Elizabeth, and died 
 whilst accompanying her in one of her annual 
 journeys through her dominions. Stephens 
 is a name that was formerly connected with 
 Burderop. There is a tradition that Queen 
 Elizabeth slept a night or two at a mansion at 
 Upper Upham, about two miles from Chisle- 
 don. The Galleys of Burderop have their 
 family vaults in the church. The name was 
 well known in the time of the Civil Wars. On 
 the death-warrant of Charles I. is the signature 
 of ** Will Cawley." He was for a long while 
 considered the ancestor of the present owner of 
 Burderop, but this has been shown to have 
 arisen from a mistake, the ''Will Cawley" 
 named above belonging to another family. 
 Chisledon can still show a stocks in first-rate 
 order, and perfectly capable of confining a 
 malefactor, should that ancient mode of punish- 
 ment ever come again into use. They stand 
 immediately beneath the churchyard wall, 
 close to the gate ; a pleasant situation for 
 
142 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 an incarcerated offender, especially upon a 
 Sunday. 
 
 The Ridge Way road when it leaves Chisle- 
 don winds away to Draycott Foliatt. Here 
 there once stood a church, but it has disap- 
 peared, and a part of the woodwork was 
 probably used in building an adjacent house. 
 The churchyard may still be seen — no building 
 is allowed to be erected upon it — and bones 
 were dug up when a saw-pit was being made 
 there. A clergyman still receives a stipend 
 from the inhabitants of Draycott, and preaches 
 a sermon once a year in the adjoining church 
 of Chisledon in return. Leaving Draycott 
 Foliatt, the Ridge Way — now broad, and only 
 shown to be a road by the waggon tracks on 
 the turf — runs under Barbury Castle. Here 
 in days gone by was Burderop racecourse. 
 Silver cups which were won upon this springy 
 turf are still preserved here and there about the 
 country. Burderop Races were celebrated in 
 former days. Now the greater portion of the 
 course is ploughed up, and the remainder 
 occupied by furze. 
 
 Upon the summit of Barbury may be seen 
 one of those numerous camps or entrench- 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 143 
 
 ments scattered about at various points upon 
 the downs. This is a peculiar one. It con- 
 sists of two fosses, or ditches, one within the 
 other. If we remember rightly, such was the 
 Saxon method of encampment ; but it by no 
 means follows that Barbury Castle was origin- 
 ally fortified by them. In all probability these 
 posts, known as castles, have been successively 
 occupied by Briton, Anglo-Saxon, Roman, and 
 Dane ; each and all of whom altered the form 
 of the fortification to suit their peculiar require- 
 ments, so that each camp would bear the out- 
 line given It by its last occupants. The inner 
 fosse here is very deep, and its sides are nearly 
 perpendicular — it was carried deeper and was 
 cut more steep than that at Liddington, though 
 the ground enclosed may not be so extensive. 
 The outer fosse is by no means so broad. It 
 must have required a large number of men to 
 defend such fortifications as these, and es- 
 pecially in times when fighting was carried on 
 hand to hand — when every foot of ground 
 would be occupied by a warrior. It is very 
 evident that these fortifications were con- 
 structed before missile weapons were employed. 
 Here is no attempt at flanking. The defenders 
 
144 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 have no advantage excepting those of two deep 
 ditches, and an embankment between them and 
 the assailants. They cannot deliver a cross 
 fire. They must stand face to face, and hand 
 to hand, and side by side all along the edge of 
 these embankments. Nor must the fosses be 
 left empty. The defenders of such a fortifica- 
 tion In those days would need to be counted by 
 thousands. But where could thousands of 
 warriors be got from } North Wilts could not 
 supply, or certainly could not spare them 
 now. 
 
 Nor is this the only camp In this part of the 
 country. Look away to the north-east. Two 
 may be seen in a line with each other and with 
 Barbury, capping the crown of the hills. They 
 are Liddlngton and White Horse Hills. There 
 Is a general Impression that In ancient days 
 Britain was a mere wild waste, unpeopled, one 
 vast extent of forest and mountain. This cer- 
 tainly was not the case with North Wilts and 
 that part of Berks joining its north-eastern ex- 
 tremity. The place, so to say, is literally alive 
 with the dead. Not a step can be taken which 
 does not lead to some token of antiquity. Turn 
 up the turf and you shall find coins, arrow- 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 145 
 
 heads, and bones. Walk In the fields and you 
 shall see the traces of moats and ancient build- 
 ings. Ascend the downs and pause in astonish- 
 ment before the vast fortifications of a former 
 era. These downs were once trodden by the 
 bold Britons ; the Roman soldier lav down to 
 rest upon the thymy turf; the Saxon stretched 
 himself at ease on yonder embankment ; the 
 Dane imbrued his weapon In the blood of the 
 Saxon on yonder hill. North Wilts must have 
 been as populous then as now, the difference 
 being simply in the change of the spots in- 
 habited. 
 
 Barbury has been considered to have been 
 the scene of a terrible battle, recorded in the 
 ancient Chronicles. Ethel werd writes thus : — 
 ''a.d. 552, Cenric,^ fought against the Britons 
 near the town of Scarburh (Old Sarum, near 
 Salisbury), and having routed them, slew a 
 large number. The same, some years after 
 (559)' fought with Ceawlln against the Britons 
 near a place called Berin-byrig." Berin-byrig 
 certainly might in the course of centuries 
 become changed to Barbury. It would 
 
 ^ Or Cynric. 
 
146 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 merely require the dropping of the second 
 syllable, *' in," and the broadening of the 
 vowel e. The letter g Is properly y. Cenric 
 and Ceawlin were two Saxon chiefs. If 
 this be a true conjecture, Barbury Castle or 
 camp has probably been In existence for more 
 than thirteen hundred years ; and yet it is still 
 in a condition which might, In an emergency, 
 afford a good shelter to a considerable garrison, 
 and will probably remain thus whilst the hill 
 stands. These works of the ancient inhabi- 
 tants of Britain were by no means so slight and 
 insignificant as has been supposed. It must 
 have required an enormous amount of labour to 
 dig out these deep fosses, more especially with 
 the tools of that day. Probably much of the 
 earth was carried up In baskets. The Ridge 
 Way runs from Barbury away to Avebury. At 
 the foot of the hill close to the Marlborough 
 road stand two tumuli. Tumuli accompany the 
 Ridge Way the whole course of its length. It 
 was not a method of burial singular to the 
 Britons. Homer makes mention of tumuli. 
 Hector offers single combat to the Grecians in 
 the Iliad, promising should he be successful to 
 restore the dead body of his assailant : — 
 
(( 
 
 THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD n? 
 
 Whilst to his friends restored, funereal rites 
 The sorrowing Grecians at their ships perform : 
 And on the Hellespont's resounding shore 
 Erect the tumulus that future times 
 May know, and late posterity remark, 
 Ploughing the briny wave ; Behold the tomb 
 Of some illustrious chief by Hector slain ! 
 So shall my glory brave the wreck of years." 
 
 The British chiefs, or whoever they may be 
 that lie buried at the foot of Barbury, have not 
 been so fortunate as Hector. Their glory has 
 not braved the wreck of years. Their very 
 names are unknown. Conjecture itself can go 
 no further than to suppose that the bodies of 
 those slain in the battle with Cenric and 
 Ceawlin lie here. They had no Homer. 
 Richard of Cirencester, describing the funeral 
 rites of the ancient Britons, proceeds thus : — 
 '* Their interments were magnificent ; and all 
 the things which they prized during life, even 
 arms and animals, were thrown into the funeral 
 pile. A heap of earth and turf formed the 
 sepulchre." Here there is another analogy 
 with the customs of the Greeks, as recorded by 
 Homer. At Patroclus's funeral, after certain 
 ceremonies, — 
 
148 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 " Then in the pyle 
 Four generous steeds they cast still groaning loud ; 
 And add to these two of nine faithful dogs, 
 Whilom their master's care ! " 
 
 — " the things which they prized during life " of 
 the Cirencester chronicler. 
 
 When Burderop races were run immediately 
 beneath the slope of the hill, Barbury was 
 covered with spectators, but at present the hill 
 is deserted, save by the flint-diggers, the shep- 
 herds, and an occasional traveller. Burderop 
 can be distinctly seen at a distance of two good 
 miles. Adjoining Burderop is a place called 
 Hodson — a small village which, like the towns 
 of the Britons, is situated in a wood. Hodson 
 is said to have been formerly spelt Hoddesdon, 
 and, if so, may be the place alluded to in the 
 following verse of a sonnet which may be found 
 in Laura ; or. Select Sonnets and Quartorzans, 
 published early in the present century. The 
 same work contains a sonnet written after 
 walking across the Marlborough Downs to 
 Midenhall, on a stormy night. The sonnet is 
 addressed to the pimpernel : — • 
 
 " Gem of the fields, whose form and hues first gave 
 The sense of beauty to my childish eye, 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 149 
 
 If many a traveller pass unheeding by, 
 
 To me thou wilt not in oblivion's wave 
 
 Sink ; could my muse thy beauteous flow'rets lave 
 
 In brightest tints of immortality 
 
 Thou hast deserved. Whate'er on earth or sky 
 
 Wafts the delighted thought beyond the grave. 
 
 From such beginning dawned upon the mind 
 What time my infant feet on Hoddesdon's ground 
 First learnt to pace. With what new joy I saw 
 Thine azure eye with golden summits crowned 
 And scarlet leaves, which coming tempests bind 
 Cinquefolded close, warm suns to fair expansion draw." 
 
 SeptefJiber 9/y^, 1805. C. L. 
 
 A note added states that the country name 
 of the pimpernel is wincopipe, probably from 
 " wind, go pipe," the closing of the flower being 
 a well-known sign of tempest. 
 
 Perhaps two miles from Barbury, upon the 
 Marlborough road, is a small village — actually 
 without a public-house — called Ruckley. On 
 the down above this place there are a number 
 of Sarsden stones. Nine of these seem to 
 form an oval, and there are four more within, 
 placed two by two. This may be another of 
 those works commonly ascribed to the Druids. 
 The ends of the oval point nearly east and 
 west. Marlborough race ground is immediately 
 
ISO JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 beneath this hill. Some distance further Is a 
 place known as the " Devil's Den " ^ among 
 the country people, where are a number of 
 stones, and amongst them two of great height, 
 placed on end, with a third across, like a beam, 
 forming a kind of portal. It may be observed 
 that the so-much admired Grecian architecture 
 in Its severest form was but an ornamental Im- 
 provement upon this simple erection : the 
 pillars were fluted, and capitals added, but the 
 Idea was the same In the Druldlcal temples, 
 such as Stonehenge. The arch seems to have 
 come from the Goths. Not a great distance 
 from the " Devil's Den " Is a place known as 
 Temple Bottom, where were a number of 
 stones, which of late years have been broken 
 up and removed. Hewlsh,^ near which these 
 remains of a period which preceded history 
 may be seen, is a place which became known 
 to the London reading public through the 
 medium of No. 237 of Household Words, pub- 
 lished Saturday, October 7th, 1867. In that 
 number may be found a most amusing article 
 
 ^ " A cromlech or dolmen." — Worth. 
 ^ Hewish Hill bears traces of having been a British 
 village. 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 151 
 
 headed ''The Ghost of Pit Pond." The writer 
 takes up his residence at Marlborough, at the 
 ''Castle" Inn, which was then famous for roast 
 capons, and while amusing himself by strolling 
 over the adjacent downs he meets with an old 
 shepherd, and from him learns several legends, 
 amongst which " The Ghost of Pit Pond, 
 Hewish," occupies the most space. The action 
 takes place about fifty years previous to the 
 writer's arrival at Marlborough, which was 
 twenty years ago ; consequently it must have 
 been nearly a century since. A Mr. Reeves, of 
 Hewish Farm, says the legend, hung himself 
 for the love of an equestrian actress, whose 
 w^onderful horsemanship he had seen displayed 
 in a leap of twenty-five feet. The ghost of the 
 suicide being reported to walk, a clergyman 
 was called in, and the spirit laid in Pit Pond 
 close by, which previously was clear as crystal, 
 but immediately afterwards became muddy and 
 green, nor would the beasts drink from it. 
 The shepherd finishes his tale by remarking 
 that " You may believe I haven't told you a 
 word but what's been told to me for true." 
 
 Marlborough lies a short distance from 
 Ruckley. The following extract is from Lord 
 
152 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion, 
 and relates to the siege of Marlborough during 
 the Civil Wars. 
 
 ''The king was hardly settled in his quarters 
 (at Oxford) when he heard^ that the Parliament 
 was fixing a garrison at Marlborough in Wilt- 
 shire, a town the most notoriously disaffected of 
 all that county ; otherwise, saving the obstinacy 
 and malice of the inhabitants, in the situation 
 of it very unfit for a garrison. Thither the 
 Earl of Essex had sent one Ramsay (a Scotch- 
 man, as most of their officers were of that 
 nation), to be governor, who, with the help of 
 the factious people there, had quickly drawn 
 together five or six hundred men. This place 
 the king saw would quickly prove an ill neigh- 
 bour to him, not only as it was in the heart of 
 a rich county, and so would straiten, and even 
 infect, his quarters (for it was within twenty 
 miles of Oxford), but as it did cut off his line 
 of communication with the west, and therefore, 
 though it was December, a season when his 
 tired and almost naked soldiers might expect 
 rest, he sent a strong party of horse, foot, and 
 dragoons, under the command of Mr. Wilmott, 
 the lieutenant-general of horse, to visit that 
 
< 
 o 
 u 
 
 O 
 
 C/3 
 
 '.Li 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 153 
 
 town ; who, coming thither on a Saturday, 
 found the place strongly mann'd ; for, besides 
 the garrison, it being market-day, very many 
 country people came thither to buy and sell, 
 and were all compell'd to stay and take arms 
 for the defence of the place ; which, for the 
 most part, they were w^illing to do, and the 
 people peremptory to defend it. Though there 
 was no line about it, yet there was some place 
 of great advantage upon which they had raised 
 batteries and planted cannon, and so barri- 
 cadoed all the avenues, which were through 
 deep narrow lanes, that the horse could do little 
 service. 
 
 *' When the lieutenant-general was with his 
 party near the town, he apprehended a fellow 
 who confessed upon examination that he was a 
 spy, and sent by the governor to bring intel- 
 ligence of their strength and motion. When 
 all men thought, and the poor fellow himself 
 fear'd, he should be executed, the lieutenant- 
 general caused his whole party to be ranged in 
 order in the next convenient place, and bid the 
 fellow look well upon them and observe them, 
 and then bid him return to the town, and tell 
 those that sent him what he had seen, and 
 
154 fEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 withal that he should acquaint the magistrates 
 of the town that they should do well to tract 
 with the garrison to give them leave to submit 
 to the king ; that if they did so, the town 
 should not receive the least prejudice ; but If 
 they compeird him to make his way, and enter 
 the town by force, it would not be in his power 
 to keep his soldiers from taking that which 
 they should win with their blood ; and so dis- 
 mlss'd him. This generous act proved of some 
 advantage ; for the fellow, transported with 
 having his life given him, and the numbers of 
 the men he had seen (besides his no experience 
 in such sights), being multiplied by his fear, 
 made notable relations of the strength, gal- 
 lantry, and resolution of the enemy, and of 
 the impossibility of resisting them ; which, 
 though It prevailed not with those In authority 
 to yield, yet it strangely abated the hopes and 
 courage of the people. So that when the 
 king's soldiers fell on, after a volley or two, in 
 which much execution was done, they threw 
 down their arms, and ran Into the town; so 
 that the foot had time to make room for the 
 horse, who were now entered at both ends of 
 the town, yet were not so near an end as they 
 
THE MARLBOROUGH ROAD 155 
 
 expected ; for the streets were in many places 
 barrlcadoed, which were obstinately defended 
 by some soldiers and townsmen, who killed 
 many men out of the windows of the houses ; 
 so that, it may be, if they had trusted only to 
 their own strength, without compelling the 
 countrymen to increase their number, and who, 
 being first frighted and weary, disheartened 
 their companions, that place might have cost 
 more blood. Ramsey, the governor, was him- 
 self retired into the church with some officers, 
 and from thence did some hurt ; upon this, 
 there beinp- so many kill'd out of windows, fire 
 was put to the next houses, so that a good part 
 of the town was burn'd, and then the soldiers 
 enter'd, doing less execution than could reason- 
 ably be expected, but what they spared in 
 blood they took in pillage, the soldiers in- 
 quiring little who were friend or foes. 
 
 '' This was the first garrison taken on either 
 side (for I cannot call Farnham Castle in 
 Surrey one, whither some gentlemen who were 
 willing to appear for the king had repaired, and 
 were taken with less resistance than was fit, by 
 Sir William Waller some few days before it 
 deserved the name of a garrison) ; in which 
 
156 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 were taken (besides the governor and other 
 officers, who yielded upon quarter), above one 
 thousand prisoners, great store of arms, four 
 pieces of canon, and a good quantity of amu- 
 nition, with all which the lieutenant-general 
 returned safe to Oxford." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE DEVIZES ROAD 
 
 THE first place of interest to an anti- 
 quarian upon the Devizes road from 
 Swindon is the village of Wroughton, about 
 three miles distant. It is the largest village in 
 the neighbourhood, and is placed in a most 
 beautiful situation. Wood, water, dell and 
 down, combine to render it a most attractive 
 spot. Recently the operations of the Sw^indon 
 Water Works' Company have completely 
 altered the aspect of one of the romantic 
 valleys of which there are several in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Wroughton ; but the memory of 
 the Seven Springs will not quickly die away 
 from the remembrance of its inhabitants. 
 Wroughton has long retained its celebrity as 
 a beautiful place. Aubrey, who came here two 
 
 hundred years ago, says that around here was 
 
 157 
 
158 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 the garden of Wiltshire, meaning to Intimate 
 its fertility and high state of cultivation. It is 
 an ancient place. Some say that one of the 
 downs immediately over the village was orig- 
 inally called Ellandune. Ellandune was once 
 the scene of a severe contest. The Chronicle 
 of Ethel werd contains the following passage : — 
 *'A.D. 823 . . . King Egbert fought a 
 battle against Burnulf, King of the Mercians, 
 at Ellandune, and Egbert gained the victory ; 
 but there was a great loss on both sides ; and 
 Hun, duke of the Province of Somerset, was 
 there slain ; he lies burled in the city of Win- 
 chester. Egbert was king of the West Saxons, 
 and became a very celebrated monarch." This 
 battle took place over a thousand years ago, in 
 which time great changes might be expected to 
 occur in the names of spots once well known as 
 the scenes of strife, and a consequent difficulty 
 to arise in fixing their exact situation. Hence 
 Ellandune has been also considered to be near 
 Wilton. If the battle really did take place 
 near Wroughton, upon a down called Ellan- 
 dune, it was probably at no great distance from 
 the spot where the church now stands. The 
 vale beneath still goes by the name of Ell- 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD 159 
 
 comb, in which is preserved the first syllable of 
 Ellandune. "En" has been frequently dropped 
 in the course of centuries, as Oxenford, Oxford. 
 Comb would seem to come from an ancient 
 British word, still preserved in the Welsh 
 cwm, meaning a vale. Ellcomb would naturally 
 be the vale beneath Ellandune. This is, 
 however, merely a conjecture. Wroughton 
 churchyard is remarkably crowded with grave- 
 stones, which cluster so closely around an 
 ancient yew that its stem can scarcely be seen. 
 The support of a sundial still remains, but 
 the gnomon and hour-circle have disappeared. 
 Close by the portal is a tombstone with the 
 following curious inscription : — 
 
 "John Dvcke, departed this hfe the i6th day August, 1666, 
 Who lived well to die never, and died well to live ever." 
 
 Broad Hinton is the next village. By the 
 side of the road thither, there may be observed 
 crosses cut deep into the turf, and kept clean 
 by the roadmenders, in order to commemorate 
 the spots where accidents or murders have 
 taken place. Broad Hinton is on the plain 
 beneath the swelling downs. Here may be 
 seen cut out on the turf, on the slope of the 
 
i6o JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 down, close beside the Marlborough road, 
 another white horse, though of far less size 
 than that at Ashdown. These horses are far 
 from uncommon upon the Marlborough Downs, 
 and may, perhaps, indicate the strong hold 
 which the Saxons had gained upon this part 
 of Britain. Besides this, there is the cele- 
 brated white horse at Ashdown, and the almost 
 equally well known white horse at Marl- 
 borough, which the scholars take a delight In 
 cleaning — three, perhaps, within ten miles of 
 each other. Broad Hinton has its legend as 
 well as other better known places. Somewhat 
 apart from the village stands a magnificent 
 yew-tree, and near by it a cottage. Part of 
 this cottage is built over a large well of enor- 
 mous depth, the chain to which the two 
 buckets are attached, one going up as the 
 other goes down, is said to be two hundred 
 feet in length. The chain runs over a shaft, 
 turned by a large wheel, which can be set 
 revolving by a man standing within it — a giddy 
 operation to those unused to such exertion. 
 A testimony to the depth of the well is easily 
 obtained by dropping a stone down, when 
 several moments elapse ere it touches the 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD i6i 
 
 water, causing a noise which, reverberating 
 from the sides, resembles thunder. At the 
 bottom of this well lies wealth in the shape of 
 plate, says tradition. This plate, according to 
 the same authority, was thrown down here in 
 the time of the Civil War. So strong is the 
 belief amongst the common people of the 
 truth of this story that some men, no great 
 while since, offered to undertake the arduous 
 work of cleaning it out, for what they would 
 find at the bottom — which offer was, however, 
 declined by the owner, who considered the 
 operation too dangerous. Near by this cot- 
 tage the ground is uneven and irregular, 
 generally a sure sign of having once been 
 built upon, and accordingly here, says tradition, 
 once stood a noble mansion known as Broad 
 Hinton House. 
 
 Broad Hinton Church is a very ancient 
 erection.^ It was visited by Aubrey in the 
 seventeenth century, who therein copied an 
 inscription which time has now rendered nearly 
 illegible, though sufficient remains to identify 
 
 1 The modem glass in this ancient church deserves 
 notice. 
 
1 62 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 the monument to which he refers. It Is upon 
 the north side of the chancel, facing the com- 
 munion table, and consists of a slab let Into 
 the wall. Here Is Aubrey's copy : — 
 
 *' Here lyeth Syr William Wroughton, 
 knight, who dyed in the 50 yeare of his age 
 In Anno Dom. 1559 ; and left jssewe of his 
 body by Dame Elinor his wife, daughter of 
 Edward Lewknor, esq., 4 sonnes and 3 
 daughters ; and built the house at Broad- 
 hinton, Anno Domini 1540." 
 
 This house at Broad Hinton, built by Syr 
 William Wroughton, Is undoubtedly the same 
 of which tradition says that It stood near the 
 well above-mentioned, which well was probably 
 dug to supply it with water, so necessary In 
 those days, when no one knew how soon It 
 might be before his house would be besieged. 
 Syr William Wroughton flourished in the reign 
 of Henry the Eighth, and built his house 
 whilst that monarch sat upon the throne, 
 though he did not die until the first year of 
 Oueen Elizabeth. Those were stirring times. 
 In the fifty years of his life, Syr William 
 Wroughton had seen four occupants of the 
 throne — Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD 163 
 
 Queen Mary and, lastly, Queen Elizabeth. 
 He could have related, no doubt, the rumours 
 of Henry's cruelty and love of change — witness 
 thereto his many wives ; of Edward's piety, of 
 the persecution of the reformers by Queen 
 Mary, and of the glory of the nation after the 
 accession of Elizabeth. He could remember 
 the short reign of Lady Jane Grey, and her 
 unfortunate end. Syr William Wroughton 
 lived in dangerous days, and doubtless had his 
 share in the convulsions which agitated Eng- 
 land. Wrouehton is an ancient name. Per- 
 sons bearing it held property at Wanborough 
 in times long gone by. Other members of the 
 family lie buried in Broad Hinton church. On 
 the opposite side of the chancel there is a 
 monument, said to be that of Syr Thomas 
 Wroughton, son of the Syr William mentioned 
 above. A figure of the knight, somewhat 
 under full size, kneels upon a cushion, facing 
 the altar, as if praying, though the hands are 
 now broken off. He is in armour. Immedi- 
 ately behind him kneels his lady, wearing a 
 head-covering of the most extraordinary shape. 
 To-day satire is directed against the feminine 
 sex on account of the small size of their 
 
1 64 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 bonnets, neither defending the head against 
 wind nor rain ; then the case was precisely the 
 reverse. Fashions In their changes often re- 
 vert to those of times gone by. Pray heaven 
 the fickle goddess of fashion may never startle 
 the affrighted world by reproducing the head- 
 covering of Lady Wroughton ! Over the 
 knight and his lady is a kind of canopy, and 
 beneath them small carved figures of their 
 eight children — four boys, and as many girls ; 
 the boys beneath their father^ the girls beneath 
 their mother. 
 
 Broad HInton estate formerly belonged to 
 the Wroughton family, from whom it was pur- 
 chased by Sir John Glanvllle, second son of 
 John Glanvllle, Judge, P.C., In 1640. He was 
 a very celebrated Sergeant-at-Law, and still 
 more famous as the Speaker of the House of 
 Commons during the agitation which preceded 
 the Civil War. He is mentioned by Lord 
 Clarendon In his Lllstory of the Rebellion. 
 Glanvllle, says tradition, burned Broad Hinton 
 House, in order to prevent Its being used as a 
 garrison by the Parliament.^ If there be any 
 
 ^ And afterwards lived in the gatehouse. 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD 165 
 
 truth in the tale, it was probably at this time 
 that the plate which has already been alluded 
 to was cast down the well, that it might not be 
 seized by the Parliamentarian soldiers, and 
 converted into the means of carrying on the 
 war against King Charles. There are several 
 monuments to the Glanville family in Broad 
 Hinton church. On the left side of the 
 chancel, facing the altar, stands a full-length 
 statue of one of them in armour, and holding a 
 gilded staff in one hand, the end of the staff 
 resting upon his thigh. The crest is a stag. 
 This statue is of alabaster, and well executed. 
 The date is a.d. 1645 — the days of King 
 Charles and the Civil War — and there is a 
 long Latin inscription running up the wall on 
 each side of the statue, in a most awkward 
 manner for the reader. Sir John Glanville, 
 eldest son of the famous Sergeant-at-Law, was 
 a lieutenant in the service of King Charles the 
 First, and died at the siege of Bridgewater, in 
 Somerset, in 1645. Beyond the monument 
 and inscription to Syr William Wroughton, on 
 the same side of the chancel, is a monument to 
 the memory of Johannes Glanville, son of John 
 Glanville, of Tavistock. He lived temp. 
 
i66 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 Charles I. and II. The date is 1661. Near 
 by is another monument to another Glanville, 
 dated 1673. Here is suspended high up, im- 
 mediately beneath the roof, a large helmet, 
 with a pair of gauntlets, somewhat mutilated, 
 as if they had seen service, and been where 
 
 " With many a thwack, and many a bang, 
 Hard crabtree and old iron rang." 
 
 The Glanville crest was evidently a stag, 
 miniature representations of which can be seen 
 in numerous places. The coat-of-arms of the 
 Wroughtons interred here bears three boars' 
 heads, whose tusks can still be seen, though 
 they have been sculptured here these three 
 centuries and more. 
 
 John Evelyn once came to Broad Hinton. 
 His memoirs have been since published, and 
 contain much amusing matter concerning the 
 court of Charles II. Sir John Evelyn (?) was 
 a person so deeply implicated in the rebellion 
 that he was excepted by name in King 
 Charles's proclamation of pardon to Wiltshire, 
 according to Lord Clarendon. 
 
 Some distance beyond Broad Hinton lies 
 Avebury, a place which is perhaps the most 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD 167 
 
 fertile spot in objects of antiquarian interest of 
 any in North Wilts. Avebury is best ap- 
 proached — that is for a view — by the Ridg 
 Way road, which runs there along the ridge 
 or summit of the downs from Barbury. From 
 the last down, Avebury,^ or, as it is more 
 usually spelt and written, Abury, can be seen 
 to great advantage. Probably to a stranger it 
 would be invisible, however, the village being 
 concealed by trees, and a vast mound of earth 
 thrown up which surrounds it. Abury is in 
 the middle of a plain, and seems to have been 
 approached by an avenue of stones much more 
 than a mile in length. A similar approach to 
 the temples of their gods marked the Egyptian 
 places of w^orship, although in their case, the 
 
 ^ " Aubrey has strong claims upon us touching Avebury, 
 for he ' discovered ' it in an accidental view during a hunt- 
 ing excursion in 164S, and he returned to its study again 
 and again. It was fortunate that he did so, for the cha- 
 racter of the monument was unnoticed in the only previous 
 record, Holland's Ca?nde?i ; and he has left us accurate 
 descriptions and plans as in the day when he took ' this 
 old, ill-shapened monument to be the greatest, most con- 
 siderable, and least ruinated of any of the kind in our 
 British isle.' ' Most ruinated ' as it now is, without his help 
 a very inadequate idea could be formed of its pristine 
 character." — i?. N. Worth. 
 
i68 JEFFERIES' LAAD 
 
 Stones Instead of being merely placed on end 
 were carved into the likeness of sphinxes, 
 many of which remain to this day to testify to 
 the grandeur with which the Egyptian priests 
 surrounded their mysterious religion. The 
 stone avenue at Abury commences on the slope 
 at the entrance to a deep-sided narrow valley 
 east of the village, and does not simply consist 
 of two rows of stones : nor is the appearance 
 of regularity always visible, nor invariably pre- 
 served during the whole distance. At the 
 commencement of the avenue the stones seem 
 scattered about without any attempt at order ; 
 in a short distance they assume a more regular 
 appearance, being placed upon the bottom of 
 the valley.^ Here and there lie as many as 
 three or four huge stones, thrown almost one 
 upon the other, and partially overlapping. 
 These would seem to have been originally 
 cromlechs — stones set on edge and covered in 
 with one broad flat stone. That this was the 
 case appears to be still more evident in other 
 stone groups, where the cromlechs seem to 
 
 ^ Avebury, like Stonehenge, possesses a literature of its 
 own, from which the reader can expand the somewhat 
 meagre details mentioned by Jefferies. 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD 169 
 
 have sunk bodily into the earth, though still 
 sufficiently above ground to enable their origi- 
 nal position to be conjectured. If these were 
 cromlechs they probably served the double 
 purpose of at once forming a monument to 
 some departed worthy of renown, and at the 
 same time that of an altar for sacrificing to his 
 manes or spirit, as seems to have been the 
 custom amongst numerous nations of antiquity. 
 Several of these stone groups seem to have 
 been originally surrounded with a stone circle, 
 which circles have been almost always re- 
 garded as monuments to the dead. Ossian 
 frequently alludes to the custom of the ancient 
 inhabitants of the Highlands — the Celts — of 
 marking the resting-place of their departed 
 heroes. *' Four grey stones mark the grave of 
 the hero," are lines often occurring with slight 
 variations in the poems of the Gaelic Homer. 
 These stones here at Abury immediately give 
 rise to the idea of their being monuments of 
 the dead — they look like grave-stones, especi- 
 ally at a distance. Perhaps here lie buried the 
 priests who formerly ministered in the ancient 
 temple of Abury. Here their successors may 
 have sacrificed to the soul of the deceased. 
 
I70 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 That the Druids believed In the doctrine of 
 immortality is supported by the witness of 
 ancient writers. So did the race who In- 
 habited Britain immediately after their religion 
 had been swept away — if there be any truth in 
 Ossian. But when the Druids had gone, the 
 Idea of an Immortal soul became a very dif- 
 ferent conception — merely a shadowy being 
 seen in the mist rising in the vale or heard In 
 the wind of night. The Druidical doctrine of 
 immortality w^as far more inspiring. Here It Is 
 In the lines of Lucan, a Roman poet : 
 
 " The Druids now, while arms are heard no more, 
 Old mysteries and barbarous rites restore, 
 A tribe who singular religion love, 
 And haunt the shady coverts of the grove. 
 To these, and these of all mankind alone. 
 The gods are sure revealed, or sure unknown. 
 If dying mortal's doom they sing aright. 
 No ghosts descend to dwell in dreadful night ; 
 No parting souls to grisly Pluto go. 
 Nor seek the dreary silent shades below ; 
 But forth they fly immortal of their kind. 
 And other bodies in new worlds they find ; 
 Thus life for ever runs its endless race. 
 And Uke a line death but divides the space, 
 A stop which can but for a moment last, 
 A point between the future and the past. 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD 171 
 
 Thrice happy they beneath their northern skies, 
 Who that worst fear — the fear of death — despise. 
 Hence they no cares for this frail being feel, 
 But rush undaunted on the pointed steel \ 
 Provoke approaching fate, and bravely scorn 
 To spare that life which must so soon return." 
 
 Rowers '■^ Luca?i.^^ 
 
 The passage is quoted by Richard of Ciren- 
 cester in his Ancient State of Britain. It has 
 been noted by travellers in Persia that there 
 are in that country somewhat similar remains 
 to these at Abury — large stones standing on 
 end in groups. In connection with this a 
 passage of Pliny is interesting : '' But why 
 should I commemorate those things with re- 
 gard to a thing which has passed over sea, and 
 reached the bounds of nature } Britain at this 
 day celebrates it with so many wonderful cere- 
 monies that she seems to have taught it to the 
 Persians." As the stone avenue approaches 
 Abury the stones are found placed closer to- 
 gether, seemingly in two rows. In one or two 
 places a row of stones crosses the avenue. 
 There may be seen around numerous tumuli, 
 sometimes scarcely elevated two feet above the 
 earth, at other times visible for miles ; here 
 
172 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 single and alone, yonder in groups of two or 
 three ; some on the downs, some in the vale. 
 These may, perhaps, commemorate secular 
 chieftains, if the stones be held to be in 
 memory of priests. This plain of Abury seems 
 to be one vast graveyard. The Celts had a 
 custom, it is said, of spending a night on or 
 near the tumuli raised over their ancestors, in 
 order to receive communications from their 
 departed spirits. Such things may have been 
 practised here. Wiltshire was originally in- 
 habited by a tribe of Britons called the 
 Belgae. 
 
 "All the Belgae," writes Richard of Ciren- 
 cester, *'are Allobroges or foreigners, and de- 
 rived their origin from the Celts. The latter, 
 not many ages before the arrival of Caesar, 
 quitted their native country, Gaul, which was 
 conquered by the Romans and Germans, and 
 passed over to this island." But the Celts 
 were not the original inhabitants of Wiltshire, 
 since, in another passage, he states that in the 
 year of the world 3,600, or four centuries be- 
 fore Christ, the Senones emigrated from 
 Britain, and in 3,650 the "• Belgae entered this 
 country, and the Celts occupied the region 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD 173 
 
 deserted by the Senones," who had gone to 
 "invade Italy and attack Rome." Hence it is 
 a question whether these memorials were 
 erected by the Senones or the Celts. They 
 may, perhaps, be the result of the labours of 
 two different tribes : the stones being the 
 monuments of one age, and the earth mounds, 
 or tumuli, of another. 
 
 The village of Abury is completely sur- 
 rounded by a deep fosse and steep embank- 
 ment, the latter outermost, hence it could never 
 have been constructed for defence. It is nearly 
 circular, very deep, and would enable a vast 
 multitude of people standing upon the mound 
 to witness the rites and ceremonies performed 
 at the altars by the priests within the circle, 
 the ditch being the division between the un- 
 initiated and the initiated. It may be observed 
 that when the fosse was duQf the earth was 
 not thrown up exactly at its outer edge but 
 somewhat back, thus leaving a portion of 
 ground between the fosse and embankment. 
 The fosse was probably destined to answer the 
 same purpose as the stones which Moses is 
 recorded to have placed around Mount Sinai 
 to keep the assembled multitude from the sacred 
 
174 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 ground within. There are at present four 
 entrances through the embankment to the 
 village. They are formed by as many roads, 
 on each side of which stand at this day huge 
 stones set on edge, like pillars. Some of these 
 stones are diamond-shaped. Abury Church 
 stands Immediately without the embankment. 
 Somewhere about the centre of the enclosed 
 ground there stand three huge stones of great 
 height, some of which might form the end wall 
 of a good sized house, of such height and 
 breadth are they. They stand close to some 
 cottages, the grey, weather-beaten mxemorial of 
 former ages, that has stood the storms of twenty 
 centuries, beside the whitewashed, thatched, 
 perishable erections of the present, or at most 
 the last, generation. To the south of them, 
 In a field nearer the embankment, stand four 
 or five others, perhaps not so high, but broader, 
 and of a squarer shape. These may be from 
 fifteen to eighteen feet high. One of them 
 seems to have a hollow beneath It, Into which, 
 an old man Informed us, he had crept, when 
 a boy, but found It not to extend above the 
 length of his body. He was nearly suffocated 
 havlnof found It difficult to withdraw without 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD 175 
 
 assistance from the small size of the aperture 
 into which he had imprudently advanced. Im- 
 mediately without the embankment, further 
 south beside the Marlborough road, stand two 
 stones of smaller dimensions, but still large, 
 which seem disposed there to indicate the 
 direction of Silbury Hill. Other stones are 
 scattered about within the fosse, some so much 
 sunk in the ground as to be hardly visible. 
 There may not now, perhaps, be more than a 
 score of stones remaining within the fosse, but 
 these are of the largest size. Wonder has 
 been expressed at the raising of such large 
 stones to a perpendicular position. It merely 
 required the command of unlimited labour. 
 They were probably raised by heaping earth 
 beneath them, by a combination of the Inclined 
 plane, wedge, and lever, in the same way as 
 were the colossal statues of Egypt. The 
 original form In which these stones were placed 
 appears from a diagram, made some two hundred 
 years since by Aubrey, to have been one large 
 circle, inclosing two smaller ones ; the large 
 circle of stones being set around immediately 
 upon the inner edge of the fosse. The larger 
 stones now remaining seem to have been the 
 
176 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 nucleus of the smaller circles, which were within 
 the larger. 
 
 It is impossible to over estimate the solemn 
 effect which this arrangement must have had 
 when perfect, especially upon a rude and com- 
 paratively illiterate people. Even at this day, 
 these venerable monuments of an age of which 
 nothing is known with certainty, cannot be gazed 
 upon without a sense of wonder almost amount- 
 ing to awe. There they stand — the inscrutable 
 sphinxes of England. What was the purpose 
 for which they were erected ? What have they 
 witnessed } What is their meaning ? Anti- 
 quarians seem to concur in assigning them an 
 earlier date than Stonehenge since the stones 
 at Salisbury bear the marks of tools — and these 
 are unhewn — but they concur in nothing more. 
 A Phoenician, a Celtic, a British, a Saxon, and 
 even a Hindoo origin has been assigned them, 
 the last by a writer in the Philosophical 
 Magazine who produces many arguments in 
 favour of his theory. He states that Britain 
 was designated as the '' White Island" in some 
 sacred writings of the Hindoos. Britain is 
 termed the White Island in several old Welsh 
 documents. Richard of Cirencester states 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD \11 
 
 that Britain was first cultivated and inhabited 
 one thousand years before Christ, "when it was 
 visited by the Greek and Phoenician merchants." 
 The Danes had a custom of performing great 
 judicial ceremonies in stone circles, but they 
 do not appear to have held this part of Britain 
 long enough to warrant the assignment of 
 Abury to them. It is mentioned by no ancient 
 writer. A Roman road runs close by, but their 
 historians say nothing of it. Abury is still a 
 mystery. 
 
 A short distance from Abury is Silbury Hill,^ 
 another standing puzzle to antiquarians. It is a 
 conical hill, very steep-sided, perhaps a hundred 
 paces in circumference, and of great height,^ 
 having much the appearance of a barrow, and 
 is evidently a work of man, since the places 
 from whence the earth was taken can still be 
 traced. It has been twice opened, once^ by a 
 shaft from the top, once by a horizontal open- 
 ing* — but without leading to any discovery 
 
 1 " The hugest tumulus, not only in Britain, but in 
 Europe/' — Worth. 
 
 2 According to Dean Merewether, it is 125 feet high and 
 1,550 feet rounds and covers nearly five acres. 
 
 ^ 1777. ^ 1849. 
 
 N 
 
178 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 that threw light upon the subject. A tradition, 
 mentioned by Aubrey, states that it was raised 
 as a monument over King Lil or Sil, who was 
 buried on horseback, and this whilst a posset 
 of milk was seething. The tradition may 
 contain the germs of truth. It does not seem 
 to have been connected with Abury, since it 
 is not visible from there. The earth was pro- 
 bably carried up in baskets, and the enormous 
 number of men employed in the work is 
 intimated by that part of the legend which 
 says it was thrown up in the short time that 
 a posset of milk took in seething. King 
 Charles II., in company with the Duke of 
 York, once ascended this remarkable mound. 
 The king commissioned Aubrey to prepare an 
 account of Abury, which he accordingly did, 
 and states therein that, in his opinion, the church 
 and many of the houses may have been built 
 of the stones which were found, the circles 
 having been broken for that purpose. It may 
 be mentioned in connection with the legend of 
 King Sil that Herodotus mentions a custom 
 of burial on horseback as prevalent amongst 
 the Scythians, though not practised towards 
 the persons of their kings. He also states that 
 
THE DEVIZES ROAD 179 
 
 they threw up a heap of earth over the de- 
 ceased. 
 
 Ancient coins, supposed to be British, are 
 said to be frequently picked up by the plough- 
 boys in the adjacent fields, especially after the 
 heavy rains have washed away the soil. At 
 a distance of perhaps two miles south of Abury 
 there runs along the ridge of the downs a fosse 
 and embankment, called Wansditch or dyke, 
 more commonly the " Devil's Dyke." The 
 country folk maintain that it runs through 
 England. It was probably the boundary-line 
 of an ancient kingdom. Upon the summit of 
 a down at some distance can be seen a pillar. 
 It w^as erected by the Marquis of Lansdowne. 
 Here is Oldbury Castle another ancient en- 
 campment, and further on lies Heddington, a 
 place which is a mine of wealth to an archse- 
 oloo^ist. 
 
 Abury is by some supposed to have been 
 a temple erected by worshippers of the snake, 
 by others as a temple of the sun. Both may 
 be right, since snakes are remarkably fond of 
 sunshine, and were the emblems of health, of 
 which the sun was, and is, the great dispenser. 
 Yet both may nevertheless be wrong, so im- 
 
i8o JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 penetrable Is the mist of antiquity which hangs 
 over this mysterious monument of bygone 
 times. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE OXFORD ROAD 
 
 ONE mile below Kingshlll Hill, Swindon, 
 a footpath branches off from the road 
 upon the right hand. It leads to Lydlard 
 Tregoze. It Is a strange and very ancient 
 village. Modern Improvements and modern 
 innovations do not seem to have penetrated 
 here, though red- bricked houses may be seen 
 at Shaw, a short distance away. Here, deep 
 in a combe, or valley, half hidden by trees, 
 stand three or four old houses, whose stone 
 tiling immediately renders evident their an- 
 tiquity. The church is invisible until the 
 pedestrian arrives before it, so numerous are 
 the trees. It stands exactly in front of the 
 seat of Lord Bollngbroke, much in the same 
 way as did the old church at Swindon, though 
 this is even nearer. Lydlard Park lies just 
 
 i8i 
 
1 82 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 beyond. It was formerly famous for the rear- 
 ing of '' young things," i.e. cattle. 
 
 Lydiard and the neighbourhood are remark- 
 ably well wooded. Oak is abundant, though 
 it is observed that the trees never reach that 
 enormous size which astonishes one in other 
 localities. There is a curious legend about 
 these oak trees. Ages ago a member of the 
 Bolingbroke family rendered some important 
 service to an English monarch. In return he 
 received a grant of the lands of Lydiard until 
 he should have taken three crops off them, 
 after which they were to revert to the Crown. 
 The wily nobleman had the lands sown with 
 acorns and hazel nuts, which shot up into oaks 
 and hazel woods, and the Bolingbrokes have 
 not cleared their first crop yet. Such is the 
 story. The Bolingbrokes have certainly been 
 connected with Lydiard Tregoze from time 
 immemorial. The name of Bolingbroke is very 
 celebrated, and frequently occurs in English 
 history. Shakespeare has immortalised it in 
 Richard II. It was then borne by a son of 
 John of Gaunt, who afterwards became king. 
 St. John is the family name. It was from the 
 Lord Bolingbroke of his day that the poet 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD 183 
 
 Pope derived much of that philosophy which 
 he has embodied in the Essay on Man. That 
 poem opens with these Hnes : — 
 
 " Awake, my St. John ! leave all meaner things 
 To low ambition, and the pride of kings." 
 
 It is probable that the concluding lines in 
 the fourth Epistle of that celebrated Essay 
 were addressed to his friend St. John, Lord 
 Bolingbroke : — 
 
 " Come then, my friend, my genius, come along ; 
 Oh master of the poet, and the song ! 
 And while the Muse now stoops, or now ascends, 
 To man's low passions, or their glorious ends, 
 Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise, 
 To fall with dignity, with temper rise ; 
 Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer 
 From grave to gay, from lively to severe ; 
 Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, 
 Intent to reason, or polite to please. 
 Oh ! while along the stream of time thy name 
 Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame ; 
 Say, shall my little bark attendant sail. 
 Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale ? 
 When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose 
 Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes, 
 Shall then this verse to future age pretend 
 Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend ? 
 That, urged by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art 
 From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart ; 
 
1 84 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 For wits' false mirror held up nature's light ; 
 Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right ; 
 That reason, passion, answer one great aim ; 
 That true self-love and social are the same ; 
 That virtue only makes our bliss below, 
 And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know." 
 
 These lines finish the Essay, and contain the 
 essence of that philosophy which he had before 
 presented In a more expanded form. St. John, 
 Viscount Bollngbroke, was a celebrated mem- 
 ber of the ministry of Queen Anne. Pope was 
 several times In North Wilts, and resided for 
 a considerable period at Cirencester w^Ith his 
 friend, Lord Bathurst. In Bathurst Park Is 
 still shown the poet's seat. 
 
 The game-preserves of Lydlard are now 
 much noted, so that It Is a common observation 
 that In driving along the roads near by It is 
 necessary to go slowly and whip the pheasants 
 out of the way, as If they were a flock of sheep. 
 As many as 800 head of game have been shot 
 in a single battue. 
 
 Lydlard Is a very ancient place. It Is now 
 known as Tregoze, but was formerly Lydlard 
 Ewyas. Lydlard was an inhabited spot in the 
 days of William the Conqueror, as appears 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD 185 
 
 from the following ancient lines copied from a 
 genealogical tablet In the church, of which more 
 presently. The verses are somewhat strangely 
 distributed in the original, and there are divers 
 opinions as to the proper manner of reading 
 them ; but the following disposition seems most 
 natural. The same tablet states that they are 
 *' Some ancient remains of Sir Richard St. 
 George, Knight, Garter King-at-Arms, relating 
 to ye pedigree of St. John, written in the year 
 161 5, and transcribed in this present year, 
 1694 " : — 
 
 " When conquering William won by force of sword 
 The famous island, now called Brittan's land, 
 Of Lydiard then was Ewyas only Lord, 
 Whose heir to Tregoz, linckt in marriage band : 
 That Tregoz, a great Baron in his age. 
 By her had issue the Lord Grauntson's wife; 
 Whose daughter PatshuU took in marriage 
 And Beauchamp theirs ; Beauchamp, with happy life. 
 Was blessed with a daughter, whence did spring 
 An heir to St. John who did Lydiard bring. 
 Thus course of time, by God's almighty power, 
 Hath kept this land of Lydiard in one race, 
 Five hundred forty-nine years, and now more. 
 Where at this day is St. John's dwelling-place ; 
 Noe ! noe ! he dwells in heaven whose anchored faith 
 Fixed on God accounted hfe but death." 
 
i86 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 " Five hundred and forty-nine years " have 
 now (1867) increased to eight hundred and 
 one — a long, long vista of years to look back 
 upon. 
 
 There are numerous monuments to the 
 Bolingbrokes, or rather the St. Johns, in 
 Lydiard Church. The church is ancient, and 
 contains several stained glass windows. The 
 windows of the north aisle contain a small 
 quantity of very old stained glass. Over the 
 entrance door there is a carved figure of a 
 woman, pinched and miserable, as if in the last 
 agonies of starvation. The legend runs that 
 it is in memory of a person who died from, 
 toothache. The chancel is supported upon 
 pillars, and the roof presents the likeness of the 
 sun, moon, and stars ; it is, in fact, a repre- 
 sentation of the sky. The chancel forms a 
 vast canopy over the monuments of the St. 
 Johns, whose remains lie mouldering in the 
 extensive vaults beneath. 
 
 A full-length gilt statue of a St. John, in 
 the dress and with the flowing locks of the 
 Cavaliers, stands against the south wall of the 
 chancel. Two smaller figures are on either 
 hand, drawino^ back a curtain which reveals the 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD 187 
 
 cavalier. Tradition tells a strange tale about 
 this statue, which is said to represent a Royalist 
 warrior, who had constructed for himself a 
 dress, or armour, of brass, impervious save in 
 one spot, and who passed safely through the 
 dangers of the Civil War, until he was at 
 length betrayed by his servant. In the chancel 
 itself, somewhat to the south of the communion 
 table, is a magnificent monument to John St. 
 John, knight and baron, and his two wives, 
 Anna and Margarita. It is dated a.d. 1634. 
 
 Beneath a canopy, itself ornamented with 
 divers small figures, lies the effigy of the baron, 
 apparently executed in alabaster, and at full 
 length. He is in armour. Full-length figures 
 of his two wives lie, one on either side, and on 
 the breast of one lies an infant. All three are 
 in an attitude of repose. The execution is 
 excellent, and so marked are the features that 
 it may be conjectured they are, to a certain 
 extent, correct copies of the originals. Five 
 sons kneel at the head of their parents, and 
 three daughters at their feet.-^ It is, perhaps, 
 
 ^ " At their feet are a spread eagle and three figures of 
 girls kneeling, and at their heads are five boys in the same 
 attitudes. From the tomb rise eight Corinthian columns 
 
i8S JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 the most magnificent monument In the neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 Near by, on the north wall, at a considerable 
 elevation. Is a monument to another St. John 
 and his lady, dated 1633.^ The figures here 
 
 of black marble, supporting an arch and entablature, with 
 several figures and armorial bearings. On the entablature 
 is the following inscription : — 
 
 " D. S. 
 
 " Johannes St. John Miles et Baronettus, annum agens 
 XLIX um, mortalitatis suae memor H. M. M. P. C. Anno 
 M.D.C.XXXIIII et sibi et Uxoribus suis Annae sc. et Mar- 
 garettag. Anna Filia fuit Th. Leyghton Eq. Auae, ex Eliz. 
 Conjuge Gentis Knowleisae, et Reginae Elizabeth setam 
 virtutis quam cognationis ergo in Deliciis. Vixit annos 
 XXXVII eximiis animi et corporis et gratiae muneribus 
 datata, rarum virtutis et pietatis exemplum ; XIII Liberorum 
 superstitium mater, tandem arumnosis ultimi puerperii 
 agonibus diu confl.ictata et demum victa, fugit in coelum 
 XIII Cal. Octob. M.D.C.XXVIII. — Margaretta Filia 
 fuit Gul. Whitmor, Armig., de Apley, Provinciae Salop. 
 Vivit LVIII um agens annum, virtutis laude spectabilis et 
 bonis operibus intenta ; in istud hujus familiae Requiet- 
 orium, suo tempore (ni aliter ipsa olim statuerit), aggre- 
 ganda." — (Britton's Beauties of Wiltshire.) 
 
 ^ M.S. Foeminarum optimse Dominas Katherince Mompesson^ 
 forma, pudicitia constantia, pietate, omni virtutum genere, 
 praestantissimae, Johannis St. John de Liddiard Tregose, 
 Baroneth Sororis natu maximae, Egidii Mompesson ex 
 antiqua Familia de Bathampton in Comitatu Wiltis Equitis 
 Aurati Conjugis charissimae, qui quidem Egidius viginti sex 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD 189 
 
 are not full size. The knight is seated facing 
 his lady, with an open book before him, which 
 he appears to be silently regarding. His lady 
 is also seated, in an attitude of melancholy re- 
 flection, with her left hand upon a skull, which 
 rests upon her knee, and the other supporting 
 her head. Monuments to later members of the 
 St. John family adjoin these. In the body of 
 the church, but against the south wall, is a 
 canopied monument to Nicholas Seynt John^ 
 
 annorum Matrimonii faeliciter peractus, minime oblitus 
 (adhuc superstes) hoc Sepulchrum condidit, ubi suas etiam 
 cineres (quum occiderit) reponi jussit. Obiit XXVIII. 
 Mart. A.D. 1633, 
 
 ^ Jacent hie, Optime Lector, sub spe beatse Resurrectionis, 
 reposita corpora Nicholai Seynt Jhon^ Armigeri, et EHza- 
 bethae conjugis suae, Regi Edoardo, Reginae Mariae, et 
 Reginae Ehzabethae e selectorum stipatorum numero, quos 
 vulga pentionarios vocantur : fuit cumque apud Principem 
 locum obtinens mortem obiit, EHzabetha ipsius Uxor filia 
 fuit Richardi Blunt, Militis ; ex esque genuit tres filios et 
 quinque filias ; Johannem, Oliverum, Richardum ; Eliza- 
 betham, Catherinam, Helinoram, Dorotheam, at que Janam. 
 Johannes filius natu maximus in Uxorem duxit filiam Gual- 
 teri Hungerford, Militis ; Oliverus et Richardus vivunt 
 adhuc coelibes. Elizabetha filia natu maxima nupsit Seynt 
 George, Comitatus Cantabrigiensis ; Catharina Webb ; 
 Helinora Cave, Comitatus Northamptoniensis ; Dorothea 
 Egiocke, Warvicensis ; Jana vero Nicholas, Comitatus 
 Wiltesiensis. Ipse Nicholas Seynt John ex hac vita dis- 
 
I90 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 and his lady, dated 1522. Beneath the canopy 
 kneel the figures of the knight and his lady, 
 but they are not full size. He Is in armour, 
 and has a sword girded to his side. It may be 
 remarked that the spelling of the name here 
 •* Seynt John " Is a nearer approach to its or- 
 dinary pronunciation In the neighbourhood 
 than St. John. Close to the monument there 
 Is a brass plate affixed to the wall In memory 
 of George Richard St. John, dated 1824. 
 
 The genealogical tablet, which has been 
 already referred to. Is affixed, together with 
 several others, to the south wall of the chancel, 
 within the rails around the communion table. 
 Above the tablets is a portrait of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, evidently Intended to represent her In her 
 earlier days. Over this stands a gilt imperial 
 
 cessit octavo die Novembris, Anno Domini 1589 ; Eliza- 
 betha vero ipsius Conjux ex hac vita discessit undecimo die 
 Augusti Anno Domini 1587 ; insignem reliquentes trop- 
 haeum posteris suis et famae purse et vitae integrae. Johannes 
 Seynt John illorum filius hoc illis de se optime mentis et 
 finis parentibus pietatis ergo Monumentum posuit. 
 
 Anno Domini 1592. 
 Nobis est Christus et in vita et in morte lucrum. Tem- 
 pera qui long^ speras felicia vitas, Spes tua te fallit, testes 
 utrique sumus. 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD 191 
 
 eagle. The first tablet brings down the genea- 
 logy of the St. Johns from the days of William 
 the Conqueror, 1066 a.d., and from William 
 Rufus, 1083 A.D., to 1654. All these tablets 
 are covered with escutcheons and heraldic de- 
 vices, the coats of arms of the persons referred 
 to, which devices would themselves fill a 
 volume, and exhibit every form of heraldic 
 imagery. Another shows their alliance, 
 affinity, and consanguinity to Henry VII. and 
 to Queen Elizabeth, beneath whose portrait are 
 the words '' Thirty-two Ancestors." The third 
 tablet reveals the alliances which the St. Johns 
 have made w^ith other noble families during the 
 course of so many centuries. The ''ancient 
 remains of Sir Richard St. George," already 
 given, are inscribed at the foot of the centre 
 tablet. It Is, no doubt from — 
 
 " That Tregoz, a great Baron in his age," 
 
 that Lydiard takes Its present name of Lydlard 
 Tregoze, in order to distinguish it from 
 Lydlard Millicent, another village near by. 
 All these tablets open, and reveal other genea- 
 logies beneath. The two centre ones when 
 thrown open reveal a life-like portrait of John 
 
192 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 St. John, knight and baron, full length, with 
 his wife Lucy, daughter of Sir Walter Hunger- 
 ford.^ Six children, of divers ages and heights, 
 cluster round upon the right hand. This Lucy 
 married again after the death of St. John, and 
 the two figures upon the left hand are probably 
 herself and her second husband. The date is 
 1594, though the same Inscription states that 
 the tablet was not erected until 161 5. These 
 portraits are remarkably life-like, and have none 
 of that stiffness which usually gives family 
 paintings so disagreeable a harshness. The 
 colours are still fresh and well preserved. The 
 smiling, blue-eyed, brown-haired, hearty, En- 
 glish-looking John St. John seems almost 
 about to start forward from the wall. The 
 description which Sir Walter Scott gives of 
 
 1 " Here lieth the body of Sir John St. John, Knt., who 
 married Lucy, daughter and coheire of Sir Walter Hunger- 
 ford, of Farley, Knt., by whom he had issue Walter, that 
 died young, Sir John St. John, Knt. and Baronet, Oliver, 
 that died young, Katherine, Anne, Jane, Elinor, Barbara, 
 Lucy, and Martha, that died a child. He deceased 20th 
 September, 1 594. She was secondly married to Sir Anthony 
 Hungerford, Knt., by whom she had Edward, Briget, and 
 Jane, and then died the 4th June, 1598. This was erected 
 by Sir John St. John, Knt. and Baronet, in the year 1655, 
 the 20th of July." 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD I93 
 
 King Richard Coeur-de-Lion might have been 
 taken from this portrait of St. John, so singular 
 is the coincidence. There is the same fearless, 
 open, frank look which is said to have charac- 
 terized the English hero of the Crusades. 
 
 On the floor of the chancel is a very ancient 
 stone slab to one Kiblewhite, the figures much 
 worn with feet. Several helmets are sus- 
 pended in divers parts of the church. The 
 effect of these numerous monuments to de- 
 parted greatness is very solemn, and is 
 increased by the dim light from the stained 
 glass windows. Here sleep the warrior and 
 the statesman, men celebrated in their day, 
 their names in all men's mouths, now only 
 known by the epitaph and escutcheon. Who 
 remembers the great baron Tregoz ? Who 
 thinks of him when he hears of Lydiard Tre- 
 goze } Ewgas is still less remembered. The 
 St. John commemorated by Pope runs the 
 best chance of immortality. Those who fought 
 with doublehanded swords, with battle-axe and 
 lance, have long been forgotten ; it is only the 
 Muse who confers immortality. Ink is more 
 durable than iron. Yonder hang the heavy 
 helmets of a forgotten generation. Who re- 
 
 o 
 
194 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 member the wearers ? None but the genea- 
 logist, and he only after much cogitation. 
 Eight hundred years is a long time to look 
 back upon. What innumerable events must 
 have been witnessed by those who bore the 
 name, or were the ancestors of the St. Johns in 
 that long course of centuries ? They seem to 
 have shared in the bounty of William the Con- 
 queror ; they no doubt fought in the French 
 wars, in the Wars of the Red and White 
 Roses ; they were not backward in the times of 
 the Great Rebellion. They have escaped all 
 dangers, and survive yet. For those who 
 sleep beneath the cold stone pavement of this 
 ancient church the lines might make a good 
 epitaph : — 
 
 " The knights are dust, 
 Their good swords are rust, 
 Their souls are with the saints, we trust ! " 
 
 Lydiard is now rarely the residence of the 
 present Lord Bolingbroke. Lydiard Millicent 
 is a pleasant village. Purton lies immediately 
 beyond it. It is a large place, and dates from 
 very ancient days. In Domesday Book ^ the 
 
 1 "The same church (S. Mary at Malmesbury) holds 
 Piritone." — Do7nesday reference. 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD I95 
 
 name is spelt Pirltone. It is considered to 
 mean Pear-tree town. A considerable part of 
 Purton then belonged to the Abbey of Malmes- 
 bury. Purton Church is a peculiar structure, 
 somewhat resembling Wanborough, there being 
 both a tower and a spire. There are several 
 large niches outside the tower, which probably 
 once contained images, which have now dis- 
 appeared. Purton was once the residence of 
 Edward Hyde, who afterwards became the 
 celebrated Earl of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor 
 in the time of King Charles II. His His- 
 tory of the Great Rebellioii is the basis of all 
 other histories of that great period. He was 
 peculiarly qualified from his attendance upon 
 the king, and from the ready access which he 
 had to State documents, to perform such a task. 
 It is an enormous work, judged by the modern 
 standard, and extends to over two thousand 
 closely printed pages. Whilst residing at Pur- 
 ton, in the character of a private person, he was 
 chosen a member of Parliament both by the 
 adjacent town of Wootton Bassett, and a more 
 distant place, but preferred " serving his neigh- 
 bours " of the former place. The house in 
 which he lived is, or was lately, the property of 
 
196 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 the Earl of Shaftesbury. Purton has been in 
 some sense connected with another distin- 
 guished man. The celebrated Lord Clive 
 married Margaret Maskelyne, daughter of 
 Edmund Maskelyne, of Purton. Anthony 
 Goddard was of Purton, in 1737. 
 
 Purton was formerly famous for its morrice- 
 dancing,^ an old English pastime which has 
 almost died out. The old custom of mum- 
 ming^ at Christmas seems also rapidly going 
 out of date, though it is still kept up in the 
 outlying country districts. Hand-bell ringing 
 will probably follow, and then there will be 
 little left indeed that savours of the pastimes of 
 old England, Many lament the change, which 
 is charged upon the railroads and canals. 
 
 There is a splendid view from the summit 
 of Pevenhill, Purton. It is said that no less 
 than twenty-six church towers, or spires, can 
 be counted on a clear day. BIrdllp Hill, in 
 Gloucestershire, is then visible. Immediately 
 
 ^ Douce's Illustrations of Shakespeare^ published in 1839, 
 has some good notes on morris-dancing. 
 
 2 There is an excellent chapter on the Wiltshire Mum- 
 mers in Mr. Morris's Swindon Fifty Years Ago. 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD 197 
 
 beneath lie Braden Woods. Braden Forest 
 was anciently of great extent, and was part 
 of the property of the Duke of Lancaster. 
 Monarchs hunted the deer in the depths of 
 Braden Forest. King Henry the Eighth 
 "rode a-hunting " there. It is still a large 
 wood. 
 
 The village of Fasterne lies at no very 
 great distance from Purton. Here, says tradi- 
 tion, was born King Richard, or else a Duke 
 of York, probably the latter. 
 
 Cleeve Pipard is a village lying between 
 Broad Hinton and Purton. It is an ancient 
 place. The pronunciation is Cliff. The manor 
 of Cleeve Pipard was, in the year 1530, on 
 the thirteenth of April, transferred from 
 William Dauntsey, Alderman of London, to 
 John Goddard, gent, of Aldborne. John God- 
 dard, Esq., was the ancestor of the present 
 owner of the estate, H. N. Goddard, Esq. 
 The old Swindon family of the Bradfords is 
 connected by marriage with the Goddards of 
 Cleeve Pipard. 
 
 Most of these places — Lydiard Tregoze, 
 Lydiard Millicent, Purton, Cleeve Pipard — 
 were visited by Aubrey, when he passed 
 
198 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 through North Wilts, about two centuries 
 since. 
 
 Fairford Hes at a considerable distance from 
 Swindon, and in another county, but is of a 
 celebrity so great that it can scarcely be passed 
 over in silence. 
 
 The church is the cause of Its fame. It is 
 a fine old structure, built more than three 
 centuries ago by a person of the name of John 
 Tame, in the year 1493. John Tame was a 
 merchant and seafaring man, and chanced to 
 take a prize ship destined for Rome. The 
 prize was highly valuable on account of a 
 quantity of magnificent stained glass which 
 was found on board, and so greatly delighted 
 was Tame with his capture that, bringing it 
 to England, he built a church to put it in. 
 The church was then dedicated to the Virgin 
 Mary, and the stained glass has remained ever 
 since, the wonder and admiration of all who 
 have seen it. The design is said to have been 
 that of Albrecht Durer, the celebrated artist,^ 
 but doubt has been thrown upon this by the 
 
 ^ Jefferies described Diirer as an Italian artist, but he 
 was German by birth, and did not go to Italy till 1505. 
 
WEST WINDOW, FAIRFORD CHURCH. 
 
.-i-^ 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD 199 
 
 fact that at the date when this glass was made 
 he had not yet reached his twentieth year, 
 while it is well known that a length of time 
 is necessary to complete such work. These 
 windows number no less than twenty-eight, 
 and the paintings are from scenes in the Bible. 
 The choir windows contain the various 
 events that attended the crucifixion of Christ ; 
 these windows, together with some upon the 
 western side of the church, are somewhat 
 larger than the others. Other windows portray 
 the apostles, prophets, martyrs, fathers, con- 
 fessors, and persecutors of the church, in short 
 a sort of ecclesiastical history. These figures 
 are full size. Hell and damnation are repre- 
 sented at the w^est end with such horrible 
 minuteness of detail that we understand this 
 window is usually kept covered. The paintings 
 are well preserved and the colours fresh, while 
 so excellent is the execution that Sir Anthony 
 Vandyke was of opinion that they could not 
 be surpassed by the pencil. It is scarcely 
 probable that Durer could have designed these 
 extensive windows ere he had attained his 
 twentieth year ; or, if he had designed them, 
 that they could have been executed in so short 
 
200 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 a time as must necessarily have elapsed from 
 the date of the design to the capture of the 
 ship by John Tame. In all probability the 
 fame of Diirer has usurped that of another 
 less celebrated. During the Civil Wars, when 
 such articles ran a great risk of destruction at 
 the hands of the Parliamentarians, these paint- 
 ings were turned wrong side uppermost, and 
 so escaped being smashed. Bishop Corbett, 
 who died on January 28th, 1635, and was, 
 says one contemporary, " the best poet of all 
 the bishops of that age," seems to have visited 
 Fairford, since the following two poems are 
 supposed to have been written by him upon 
 Fairford windows : — 
 
 " Tell me, you anti -saints, why brass 
 With you is shorter lived than glass ? 
 And why the saints have scap't their falls 
 Better from windows than from walls ? 
 Is it because the Brethren's fires 
 Maintain a glass-house at Blackfryars ? 
 Next which the church stands north and south, 
 And east and west the preacher's mouth, 
 Or is't because such painted ware 
 Resembles something that you are, 
 Soe pyde, so seeming, soe unsound, 
 In manners and in doctrine found. 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD 23i 
 
 That out of emblematick witt 
 
 You spare yourselves in sparing it ? 
 
 If it be soe, then, Fairford boast 
 
 Thy Church hath kept what all have lost ; 
 
 And is preserved from the bane 
 
 Of either war, or Puritane : 
 
 Whose life is coloured in thy paint 
 
 The inside dross, the outside saint." 
 
 "UPON FAIREFORD WINDOWES.*' 
 
 " I knowe no painte of poetry 
 Can mend such colore'd imagry 
 In sullen inke, yet (Fayreford) I 
 May relish thy fair memory. 
 Such is the echoes fainter sound, 
 Such is the light when the sunn's drown'd, 
 So did the fancy look upon 
 The work before it was begun. 
 Yet when those showes are out of sight. 
 My weaker colors may delight. 
 Those images doe faith fuUie 
 Report true feature to the eie, 
 As you may think each picture was 
 Some visage in a looking-glass ; 
 Not a glass window face, unless 
 Such as Cheapside hath, where a press 
 Of painting gallants, looking out. 
 Bedeck the casement rounde about. 
 But these have holy phisnomy ; 
 Each paine instructs the laity 
 With silent eloquence ; for heere 
 Devotions leads the eie, not eare. 
 
2C2 JEFFERIES' LAND 
 
 To not the cathechisinge paint, 
 Whose easie phrase doth soe acquainte 
 Our sense with Gospell, that the Creede 
 In such a hand the weake may reade, 
 Such tipes e'er yett of vertue bee, 
 And Christ as in a glass we see — 
 When with a fishinge rod the clarke 
 St. Peter's draught of fish doth marke. 
 Such is the scale, the eye, the finn, 
 You'd thinke they strive and leap within ; 
 But if the nett, which holdes them, brake 
 Hee with his angle some would take. 
 But would you walke a turn in Paules, 
 Looke up, one little pane inrouls 
 A fairer temple. Flinge a stone. 
 The church is out at the windowe flowne. 
 Consider not, but aske your eies, 
 And ghosts at midday seem to rise ; 
 The saintes there seemeing to descend, 
 Are past the glass and downwards bend. 
 Look there ! The Devill ! all would cry, 
 Did they not see that Christ was by. 
 See where he suffers for thee ! See 
 His body taken from the tree ! 
 Had ever death such life before ? 
 The limber corps, be-sully'd o'er 
 With meagre paleness, does display 
 A middle state Iwixt flesh and clay. 
 His arms and leggs. His head and crown, 
 Like a true lamb-kin dangle downe ; 
 Whoe can forbeare, the grave being nigh. 
 To bringe fresh ointment in His eye ? 
 The wondrous art hath equal fate, 
 
THE OXFORD ROAD 203 
 
 Unfixt, and yet, inviolate. 
 
 The Puritans were sure deceav'd 
 
 Whoe thought those shaddowers mov'd and heav'd 
 
 So held from stonnige Christ ; the winde 
 
 And boysterous tempests were so kinde 
 
 As on His image not to prey 
 
 Whome both the winde and seas obey. 
 
 At Momus bee not amaz'd ; 
 
 For if each Christian's heart were glaz'd 
 
 With such a windowe, then each brest 
 
 Might be his owne evangehst." 
 
206 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Despenser, 14. 
 Devizes Road, 157. 
 Domesday Book, 5, 115, 
 
 194. 
 Down, dun, dune, 3. 
 Draycott Foliatt, 81, 142. 
 Diirer, 198. 
 
 Edmund, St., 3. 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 91, 141. 
 Estmere, King, 85. 
 Ethelwerd, 114, 126, 145, 
 
 158. 
 Evelyn, 166. 
 
 Fairford, 198. 
 Flint digging, 112. 
 Folly, The, 112. 
 Frampton, Mr., 83. 
 
 Gaunt, John of, 89, 92, 95. 
 Goddard, 12, 13, 23, 24, 
 
 29. 34, 45, 46. 
 Gooch, Sir D., 70, 71. 
 
 Great Western Railway, 59. 
 
 Hewish, 150. 
 Highworth, 20, 24. 
 Hocker Bench, 122. 
 Holy rood Church, 26. 
 
 Ickleton Way, 113. 
 Icknield Street, 123. 
 
 Inglesham, 180. 
 Iscot, 9. 
 Isis, 80. 
 Ivychurch, 14, 31. 
 
 Jackson, Canon, 16, 21, 
 32. 
 
 Kennet, 81. 
 King Milo, 32. 
 
 Lacock Abbey, 12. 
 Latt Mead, 118. 
 Levet, 35, 38. 
 Liddington Camp, 113. 
 Liddington Church, iii, 
 
 112. 
 Liddington Hill, 112. 
 Liddington Wick, 108, in. 
 Littlecote, 12. 
 Longstone, 15. 
 Lovel, 12, 119. 
 Lydiard Tregoze, 28, 181, 
 
 184. 
 
 Malmesbury Abbey, 14, 31. 
 Marlborough Road, 132. 
 Marsh, Narcissus, 32. 
 May, Mrs., no. 
 Morris, William, 16, 32, 88, 
 
 99. 
 Morris-dancing, 196. 
 Mumming, 196. 
 
INDEX 
 
 207 
 
 Nennius, 136. 
 Noad, 47, 48. 
 
 Odin, 5. 
 
 Odo of Bayeux, 6, 7. 
 Olaf, 3. 
 
 Ogbourne, 139, 
 Overtown, 9. 
 Oxford Road, 181. 
 
 Pont'large, 13. 
 Pope, 184, 193. 
 Purton, 95, 121, 194. 
 
 Richard of Cirencester, 171, 
 
 176. 
 Ridge Way, 113, 142, 146. 
 Rutland, Francis, 91, 140. 
 
 Sadler, Robert, 73. 
 
 Sands, 23. 
 
 Sarsdens, 15, 134, 149. 
 
 Shrivenham, 121. 
 
 Silbury Hill, 175, 177. 
 
 Southwick, 31. 
 
 Sweyn, 25. 
 
 Swindon, Haute, etc., 9. 
 
 Uffington, 130. 
 Upper Upham, 82, 141. 
 Uluric, 9. 
 Ulward, 9. 
 
 Valence, de, 12. 
 Vilett, 14, 32, 35, 42. 
 
 Wadard, 9. 
 
 Wallingford, 30, 31. 
 
 Wanborough, 113, 116. 
 
 Wanborough Nythe, 115. 
 
 Waniey Pen son., 73. 
 
 Wantage, 131. 
 
 Wayland Smith's Cave, 129. 
 
 Webbe, Aristotle, 32. 
 
 Weekes family, 49. 
 
 Wenman, 14. 
 
 Westlecott, 9. 
 
 White Horses, 124. 
 
 Wick, 135. 
 
 Woolston, 123. 
 
 Wootton Bassett, 12, 25, 
 
 81. 
 Wroughton, 9, 22, 81, 157. 
 Wroughton, Sir W., 162. 
 
PUBLISHED BY 
 
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