Wanderings in Wessex by Edric Holmes

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Codford St. Peter, where there is a railway station, has a
much-restored church, practically rebuilt. The ancient sculptured
stonework in the chancel, discovered during the rebuilding, is said to
be Saxon. The font with its curious Norman carvings is noteworthy. On
the other side of the vale are three interesting villages, beautifully
placed--Stockton, Sherrington and Boyton. Stockton Church is
Transitional with an Early English chancel. Its screen was erected by
the former Bishop of Worcester, Dr. Yeatman-Biggs, in memory of his
wife and brother. The wall separating nave and chancel is uncommon in
its solidity, the small opening being more in the nature of a doorway
than of a chancel arch. Two squints made it possible for the people to
see the movements of the minister at the altar. In the north aisle is
the canopied tomb of John Topp (1640) and on the other side of the
church, that of Jerome Poticary. Both these worthies were wealthy
clothiers, and the first-named built the beautiful manor house which
we may still see near by. The old panelling and moulded ceilings of
this mansion are very fine specimens of seventeenth-century
workmanship. Jerome Poticary also built himself a fair dwelling that
is now a farmhouse. The picturesque Topp almshouses and pleasant old
cottages together with the charm of the natural surroundings make this
village a delightful one. Sherrington once had a castle owned by the
Giffards, but all that is now to be seen is the green mound where once
it stood, close to the little old church. Boyton church is a fine
example of the Decorated style. It has some older Early English
portions. The windows in the Lambert chapel are much admired. Here are
also two altar tombs; that with a figure in chain armour,
cross-legged, represents the crusading Sir Alexander Giffard. An
interesting discovery was made of a headless skeleton under the
chancel floor, supposed to have been the remains of a Giffard who lost
his head for rebellion in the reign of Edward II. Boyton Manor, a
beautiful old house, is not far away. It was built in the early
seventeenth century and was for a time the residence of Queen
Victoria's youngest son.

[Illustration: BOYTON MANOR.]

Upton Lovell, about a mile from Codford St. Peter, has a church, the
nave of which was built in the seventeenth century. The chancel
belongs to the original Transitional building. An altar tomb with an
effigy in armour is supposed to be that of a Lovell of Castle Cary.
The manor was held by this family and from them the village takes its
name. An unhappy story is told of one of the family, a participant in
the Lambert Simnel rebellion, who managed to find sanctuary here, and,
perhaps through his retainers being in ignorance of his whereabouts,
was starved to death in the secret chamber in which he had hidden
himself. His skeleton was discovered long afterwards seated at a table
with books and papers in front of it. Knook is the next village, a
mile below Heytesbury. Here is a church that, in spite of ruthless
restoration, has retained its Norman chancel and a south door with a
fine tympanum. Also the old manor house has still much of its former
dignity in spite of its change of station. Away to the north, on one
of the rounded summits of Salisbury Plain, is Knook Castle, a
prehistoric camp that was utilized by the Romans and possibly by the
Saxons after their invasion of the west.

Heytesbury or Hegtredesbyri, seventeen miles from Salisbury, has a
station half-way between the old town and Tytherington on the south,
and is an ancient place that had seen its best days before the dawn of
the nineteenth century. It was another of the "rotten" boroughs and
fell into a period of stagnation from which the railway seems to have
lately rescued it. Many new roads and houses have sprung up without,
however, spoiling the appearance of this pleasant little place. The
church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, is chiefly Early English with
Transitional work in the chancel and Perpendicular in the nave. In the
north transept is the Hungerford chantry, to whose founder is due the
chantry seen in Salisbury Cathedral. The south transept contains a
tablet in memory of William Cunnington (1810), to whose researches the
antiquaries of Wiltshire owe a great deal of their information. This
church was made collegiate by Bishop Joscelyn in the twelfth century.
Heytesbury Hospital was founded by Lord Treasurer Hungerford, whose
badge, two sickles, may be seen over the entrance. In the beautiful
park are some magnificent beeches and a group of cedars below the
fir-clad Copley Hill which is crowned by a prehistoric camp.

At Tytherington there is another church, very small and old and once a
prebend of Heytesbury. In the early days of the last century service
was only performed here four times a year, and a legend was once
related to the writer of a dog that had been accidentally shut up in
this church at one service and found alive and released at the next,
ten weeks later! A mile farther is Sutton Veny, where there are two
churches, a fine new one, and an old ruined building of which the
chancel is kept in repair as a mortuary chapel. The manor house is
picturesque and rambling, as is the village itself, straggling along
the road to Warminster. At the upper end of the street a cross road on
the right leads to Morton Bavant and to the main route on the north
side of the stream. The partly rebuilt church is of little interest,
excepting perhaps the arch of chalk that supports the fourteenth-century
tower, but the village deserves the adjective "sweet." The stream,
although now of small size, and the surrounding hills that rise close
by into Scratchbury Camp, make a lovely setting for the mellow old
cottages and bright gardens that one may hope are as good to live in as
they are to look at. Close by the village certain Roman pavements were
found in 1786, but the site is now uncertain and the mosaics have been
lost. At the cross roads just referred to, the left-hand road climbs
the hill to the Deverills--Longridge, Hill, Buxton, Monkton and
Kingston, pleasant hamlets all, of which the first has the most to
show. Here is a fine church partly built of chalk and containing the
tomb of the Sir John Thynne who made Longleat. The old almshouses were
founded by his descendant, Sir James, in 1665. In Hill Deverill Church
is a monumental record of the Ludlows. To this family General Ludlow,
of the Army of the Parliament, belonged. Beyond the last of the
Deverills is Maiden Bradley, alone with its guardian hills, which ring
it round with summits well over 800 feet above the sea. Long Knoll is
the monarch of this miniature range and well repays the explorer who
climbs to its summit with a most delightful view. In Maiden Bradley
Church is the tomb of Sir Edward Seymour, Speaker of the House in the
reign of Charles II, and a fine Norman font of Purbeck marble.

Resuming the route northwards from Sutton Veny, Bishopstrow is soon
reached. Above the village to the north is the great rounded hill
called Battlesbury Camp, crowned with the usual entrenchments and
surrounded by the curious "lynchets" or remains of ancient terrace
cultivation. Bishopstrow Church dates from 1757, when it replaced a
building with Saxon foundations and east end. The main road is now
taken on the north bank of the stream and in two miles, or twenty-one
_direct_ from Salisbury, we arrive at the old town called, no one
knows why, Warminster. It may be that the Were, the small stream or
brook running into Wylye gives the first syllable, but that St. Deny's
Church was ever a minster there is no evidence, though it is
occasionally so called by the townspeople. Now quite uninteresting,
the church was rebuilt some thirty years or more ago. In High Street,
close to the Town Hall, is the chantry of St. Lawrence, still keeping
its old tower but otherwise rebuilt. For its age and situation
Warminster retains little that is ancient, but it is a pleasant and
very healthy town, 400 feet above the sea. Here, in the early
nineteenth century, two eminent Victorians--Dr. Arnold and Dean
Stanley--received their first education at the old Grammar School.
St. Boniface College, established in 1860, is a famous house of
training for missionaries. Warminster has "no villainous gingerbread
houses running up and no nasty shabby-genteel people; no women
trapesing about with showy gowns and dirty necks, no Jew-looking
fellows with dandy coats, dirty shirts and half heels to their shoes.
A really nice and good town" (Cobbett).

The great show-place and excursion from Warminster is Longleat. To
reach the great house and famous grounds we take the western road
which reaches the confines of the park in a little over four miles and
passes under the imposing mass of Cley Hill, an isolated eminence of
about 900 feet, on the summit of which a curious "ceremony" used to
take place, as at Martinsell, on Palm Sunday. The boys and young men
from neighbouring villages would ascend the hill to play a game with
sticks and balls. Not one could say why, but that it was "always
done." Undoubtedly this was an unconscious reminiscence of a pagan
spring festival.

Longleat is indeed a "stately home of England" and one of the most
famous of those larger mansions that are more in the nature of
permanent museums for the benefit of the public than of homes for
their fortunate possessors. In normal times the galleries are open on
two or three days in the week, according to the seasons, and holiday
crowds come long distances to see the magnificent house and its still
more splendid surroundings, perhaps more than to inspect the art
treasures which form the nominal attraction. Still these are very fine
and should, if possible, be seen.

[Illustration: LONGLEAT.]

The origin of "Long Leat"--the long shallow stream of pond and
lakelets artificially widened and dammed--was, like that of so many
other great houses, a monastic one. An Augustinian Priory stood here
before the Dissolution, but when the Great Dispersal took place it had
already decayed and no great tragedy occurred. Protector Somerset had
a young man attached to his retinue, and in his confidence, named Sir
John Thynne who, when his master lost his head, very adroitly kept his
own, afterwards marrying the heiress of a great London merchant--Sir
Thomas Gresham. This enabled the husband to add greatly to the small
property he had already purchased, which included the old priory
buildings, and the altered state of his fortunes prompted him to erect
a stately residence on the old site. His first efforts were destroyed
by a disastrous fire, but in 1578 the stately house was finished and,
as far as the exterior is concerned, was practically as we see it
to-day. The interior was entirely remodelled at the beginning of the
nineteenth century by Sir Jeffrey Wyatville. James Thynne--"Tom of
Ten Thousand "--was the Lord of Longleat in 1682. He was engaged to
the beautiful sixteen-year-old widow of Lord Ogle, when she had the
misfortune to attract the attention of Count Konigsmark, a Polish
adventurer, whose hired assassins waylaid and shot Thynne in Pall
Mall. The Count escaped punishment, but his instruments were hanged
upon the scene of the crime. The property then passed to a cousin who
became the first Viscount Weymouth. The third Viscount was made
Marquis of Bath when he was the host of George III in 1789. A famous
guest of the first Viscount was Bishop Ken, who stayed at Longleat for
many years as an honoured visitor.

Amongst the treasures on the walls of the corridors and saloons are
several Holbeins, portraits of contemporaries of his, including Henry
VIII. There are also a number by Sir Peter Lely, one being of Bishop
Ken and another of his friend and host; several interesting paintings
of celebrated men of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and some
good representative examples of great artists from Raphael to Watts.
The grand staircase and state drawing-room are of admirable
proportions and form part of the work of Wyatville. In the
drawing-room is treasured a cabinet of coral and a writing tablet
which belonged to Talleyrand. The great hall, which contains a
collection of armour and ancient implements of war of much importance
and value, has a fine wooden roof and minstrels' gallery. Among the
stags' horns that decorate the walls will be seen two mighty
headpieces that once belonged to Irish elks and were discovered in a
peat bog. The chimney-piece here belongs to the period before
Wyatville began his transformation of the interior.

Not least of the attractions of Longleat are its surroundings. The
park is sixteen miles round, and a large portion of this great space
is taken up by garden and pleasaunce, as distinct from the deer park
itself. The approach from Warminster and the north is by a wooded
ascent with Cley Beacon to the right and past "Heaven's Gate," a
favourite view-point with Bishop Ken, who, it is said, composed the
morning hymn associated with his name while contemplating the
inspiring scene before him. Almost as fine is the approach from the
south through the arched gateway on the Horningsham road. This route
passes through groves of magnificent timber and by the string of
delightful ponds that give the place its name.

The road that hugs the Plain on its western side goes almost directly
north from Warminster and, passing Upton Scudamore, reaches Westbury
in less than four miles. The history of this old town is closely bound
up with that of the kings of Wessex and at Westbury Leigh is a site
called the "Palace Garden," encircled by a moat said to have once been
the residence of these monarchs. The Westbury White Horse is supposed
to have been cut as a memorial of the great victory of Alfred over the
Danes in 890 (or 877). In the later Middle Ages, this town, like many
others in the west, was a centre of the cloth trade, and, later, iron
foundries were a feature of the place.

The handsome cruciform church, in the midst of its fine chestnut
trees, is of much interest. Originally Norman, the greater part of the
present building is early Perpendicular. The dingified central tower
and the spaciousness of the interior will be admired. On the south of
the chancel is the Willoughby Chapel, on the north, that of the
Maudits. The south transept contains a monument of Sir James Ley,
created Earl of Marlborough by Charles I. The chained book, a copy of
Erasmus' _Paraphrase_, and also the fine, though modern, stained glass
in the east and west windows is worthy of notice.

A new suburb has grown up on the western side between the original
town and the railway junction nearly a mile away and the immediate
surroundings of the station, as we enter it from the south, are
reminiscent of a northern industrial town. Smoke and clangour, and
odours not often met with in Wiltshire, are very insistent. Not so
many years ago Westbury was in a backwater, if that term may be
applied to railways, but now that it is on the new main route to Devon
and Cornwall the industrial aspect of the town may increase greatly
during the next few years.

Frome, six miles away over the border in Somersetshire and on this
same new way to the west, has shaken off its ancient air of bucolic
peace and now prints books and weaves cloth and does a little in the
manufacture of art metal work. The town, nevertheless, is very
pleasant despite its strenuous endeavour to make money in a way
Mercian rather than West Saxon. Its broad market place and steep and
picturesque streets leading thereto, especially that one named
"Cheap," and the rural throng that congregates on market and fair days
is distinctly that of Wessex. Frome Church is more beautiful within
than without. It is approached, however, by a picturesque and steep
ascent of steps, on the left-hand wall of which are sculptures of the
Stations of the Cross. The church is extraordinary for the number of
its side chapels and its amazing mixture of styles, but the interior
has an air of much dignity and even beauty, which was greatly added to
by a restoration which took place during the fifties of the last
century. Perhaps the most interesting item about the church is the tomb
of Bishop Ken, who was brought here from Longleat "at sunrising." His
body lies just without the east window and the grave is thus described
by Lord Houghton:--

A basket-work where bars are bent,
Iron in place of osier;
And shapes above that represent
A mitre and a crosier.

[Illustration: FROME CHURCH.]

Again we have been tempted too far afield and must return to the
eastern road out of Westbury that follows the Great Western Railway to
Bratton, not far from Edington station. Above to the right, on one of
the western bastions of the Plain, is the White Horse just mentioned.
It is of great size--180 feet long and 107 in height. It was
"restored" many years ago and the ancient grotesque outline altered by
vandals who should have known better. Above the figure is the great
entrenched camp called Bratton Castle, containing within its walls 23
acres. Bratton Church is built in a peculiar situation against the
side of the Down. The fine cruciform structure, with a handsome four
storied central tower, dates from about 1420 and occupies the site of
an older building, probably Norman. The brass to Seeton Bromwich
(1607) should be noticed. We now proceed by the northern foot of the
hills to Edington, where is one of the most beautiful churches in
Wiltshire, exceeding in its proportions and dignity some of our
smaller cathedrals. It was originally the church of a monastery of
Augustinians founded in 1352 by William of Edyngton, Bishop of
Winchester. A tragedy took place here in 1450 during the Cade
rebellion, when the Bishop of Salisbury (Ayscough) was seized by the
rioters while he was celebrating mass, taken to the summit of the
Downs and there stoned to death. A chapel was afterwards built on the
spot, but the exact site is uncertain. The Bishop's fault was that,
being constantly with the Court, his diocese was neglected and his
flock suffered.

The church was both conventual and parochial; the nave, as usual in
such cases, being the people's portion. The chancel, both in
proportions and detail, is a very fine example of the Decorated style.
In the south transept is a beautiful altar tomb with a richly carved
canopy; the occupant is unknown. So is the resting-place of Bishop
Ayscough. Another fine monument is that in the nave to Sir Ralph
Cheney (1401). The beautiful and original fourteenth-century glass
should be noticed and also the Jacobean pulpit. Of the conventual
buildings nothing remains, but a few fragments of the succeeding
mansion of the Pauletts are now incorporated in a neighbouring
farmhouse. A magnificent yew in the churchyard probably antedates the
present church, and may have been contemporary with an earlier parish
church of which all record has been lost.

[Illustration: WESTBURY WHITE HORSE.]

The road goes onward through the charming villages nestling under the
northern bastions of the Plain that is still on the right hand as it
was at Heytesbury. We are now on the opposite side with lonely Imber
four miles away over the hills, the only settlement between the former
town and Edington. "If one would forsake the world let him go to
Imber," says a modern writer, and an old couplet runs "Imber on the
Down, four miles from any town." After passing Coulston and Erlestoke
(a gem among beautiful hamlets), from rising ground near by, may be
obtained truly glorious views of the west country toward Bath and
Bristol and the distant Severn Sea. A lane now turns left to
Cheverell, where is a fine old mansion with an interesting courthouse
and cells for prisoners, and an Early English church with a
Perpendicular tower. Within the church is a tablet to Sir James
Stonehouse, of interest to those who have explored the Plain, for this
was the "Mr. Johnson" of Hannah More's _Shepherd of Salisbury Plain_
and the cottage in which the shepherd--David Saunders--lived is still
shown in the village.

We now approach a parting of the ways. The Salisbury-Devizes road
crosses that we have been travelling, which runs west and east from
Frome to Andover. Southwards toward Salisbury is the pleasant little
town of West Lavington. Here is a famous college for farmers known as
the Dauntsey School. It was endowed in 1895, partly from certain
moneys left by Alderman Dauntsey who flourished in the fifteenth
century. The Dauntsey almshouses were also an institution associated
with this benevolent merchant. The church is an interesting building
of various dates, from Norman to Perpendicular. The Dauntsey chapel
was erected on the south side in the early fifteenth century for the
family of that name; another, called the Beckett chapel, stands to the
south of the chancel. A fine altar tomb, one of two in the south
transept, bears a recumbent effigy of Henry Danvers. Among other
objects of interest is the memorial of Captain Henry Penruddocke, shot
by soldiers of the Parliament, while asleep in one of the houses of
the village. The road through West Lavington leads to the heart of the
Plain at Tilshead, passing at its highest point St. John a Gore Cross,
where a chantry chapel once stood, a shrine where travellers might
make their orisons before braving the terrors of the great waste.
Tilshead met with a curious misfortune in 1841, according to the
inscription on one of the cottages. A great flood, caused by a very
sudden thaw which liberated some miles of snow-water on the higher
portions of the Plain, tore down the narrow (and usually waterless)
valley and caused great destruction in the tiny village; the old
Norman church being the only building that was quite undamaged. Market
Lavington is farther east on the Pewsey road. It was once of some
importance and is one of those decayed towns that almost justify
Cobbett's claim that the population in the valleys around the Plain
was very much greater in olden days. The church here has a fine
Perpendicular tower, and is partly of this style and partly Decorated.
Within will be observed a squint, an ancient credence table in the
chancel, and a stoup in the vestry.

[Illustration: PORCH HOUSE, POTTERNE.]

Our road now runs northward past Lavington station to Potterne, three
miles from the Lavington cross roads and eleven from Westbury. This is
one of the most attractive villages in Wiltshire; remarkable for its
half-timbered houses of the fifteenth century, especially that known
as "Porch House," purchased and restored by the late George Richmond.
This is supposed to be identical with the old Pack Horse Inn that once
stood in the village. Potterne Church is a fine example of Early
English, and the natural dignity of the building is enhanced by its
domination of the village around it. It is said to have been built by
the same Bishop Poore who erected Salisbury Cathedral, and is the only
church on the present site. An earlier building was once in the old
churchyard. The Perpendicular tower will be admired for its
proportions and detail. When restorations were in progress in 1872 the
archaic tub-shaped font, now standing at the end of the church, was
discovered under the present font. Around the rim are inscribed the
words of the ancient baptismal office:--SICUT. GERVUS. DESIDERAT. AD.
FONTES AQUARUM. ITA. DISIDERAT. ANIMA. MEA. AD. TE. DS. AMEN. (Psalm
xlii. 1). There are several interesting brasses and memorials in the
church and outside on the north side will be seen an old dole table
for the distribution of alms.

Two miles of pleasant undulating road now bring us to Devizes upon its
hill beyond the railway. The town kept, until about a hundred years
ago, its old style "The Devizes"--Ad Divisas,[4] the place where the
boundaries of three manors met. This is the generally accepted
explanation of the name, though there is still room for conjecture.
Remains, considerable in the aggregate, of the Roman period have been
discovered in the town and immediate neighbourhood. It is quite
possible that a Roman origin of the town itself may be looked for; but
it is as a feudal stronghold hold that Devizes began to make its
history and as a humble dependency of that stronghold the modern town
took its beginning. The castle was built by Bishop Roger in the early
years of Henry I, and its chief function seems to have been that of a
prison. Robert, the eldest son of the Conqueror, was shut up in it.
Soon afterwards, its builder, having taken the side of Maud in her
quarrel with Stephen, was imprisoned in a beast house belonging to the
castle, when the king, in one of his smaller successes, took
possession. Another notable prisoner was Hubert de Burgh, who escaped
and flew to St. John's Church for sanctuary; his gaolers recaptured
him at the altar, but soon afterwards gave him liberty on being
threatened with the wrath of the Church. During the reign of Edward
III the nephews of the French king were kept here as hostages. Its
last appearance in history was during the Civil War, when the keep was
defended by Sir Edward Lloyd for the King, but according to Leland it
must by that time have fallen into evil state, for, in 1536, he
writes: "It is now in ruine and parte of the front of the towres of
the gate of the kepe and the chapell in it were caried full
unprofitably, onto the buyldynge of Master Baintons place at Bromeham
full four miles of," and after Cromwell had "slighted" it, the
remnants, goodly enough even then, were used as a free quarry by
anyone desiring to build. The mound and ditch that surrounded the
outer walls and a few fragments of the masonry of a dungeon is all
that can be seen to-day, but the mound is crowned by a modern and
rather imposing castellated building.

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