The Natural History of Wiltshire Part 20

(Lansdowne MSS. No. 231,) portions of which have been printed in Mr.

Thoms's Anecdotes and Traditions (1839). The pa.s.sage corresponding with the above is quoted by Mr. Charles Knight from the ma.n.u.script referred to, in ill.u.s.tration of the character of "Mad Tom," a.s.sumed by Edgar, in Shakspere's play of King Lear.- J. B.]

PART II. - CHAPTER V.

ARTS: LIBERALL AND MECHANICK.

CRICKLAD, a market and borough town in this county, was an University before the Conquest, where were taught the liberall arts and sciences, as may appeare by the learned notes of Mr. Jo. Selden on Drayton's Poly-Olbion, and by a more convincing and undenyable argument out of Wheelock's translation of Bede's History.

This University was translated from hence to Oxford. But whereas writers swallow down the old storie that this place takes its name from certain Greek philosophers, who, they say, began here an university, it is a fond opinion.

[Aubrey here quotes Fuller as to the etymology of the names of Cricklade and Lechlade. That author, on the authority of Leland, had a.s.serted in his Church History that the one was originally called Greek - lade, and the other Latin - lade, from "two schooles, famous both for eloquence and learning", which existed there anterior to the Conquest. But, on the report of his "worthy friend Dr. Peter Heylin,"

he afterwards stated in his Worthies that "Cricklade was the place for the professors of Greek; Lechlade for physick (Leech being an old English word for a physitian), and Latton, a small village hard by, the place where Latin was professed." It will be seen by the next sentence that Aubrey disputes even the amended theory of Fuller, and, with more probability, derives the names of the towns in question from words indicating the natural features of the localities.-J. B.]

But, as the saying is, "Bernardus non vidit omnia". Had the learned Dr. Heylin (that is Hoelin, little Howell) had a little knowledge of his ancestors' Welsh, he would not have made such a stumble, and so forced these etymologies; but would easily have found that Cricklad comes from kerig, stones; and glad, a country; which two words give a true description of the nature of the country on that side of Cricklad, which is, as wee term it, a stone-brash. Likewise Lechlade, from llech, plank-stones, or tile-stones. As for Latton, it may very well come from laith, which signifies a marsh, and is as much as to say Marshton, as there is a parish thereby called Marston. Hereabout are some few other places which retain their British names with a little disguise.

Without the close of Salisbury, as one comes to the town from Harnham- bridge, opposite to the hospitall, is a hop-yard, with a fair high stone wall about it, and the ruines of an old pidgeon house. I doe remember, 1642, and since, more ruines there. This was Collegium de Valle Scholarum (College de Vaux). It took its name from Vaux, a family. Here was likewise a magister scholarum, and it was in the nature of an university. It was never an endowed college. (From Seth Ward, Bishop of Sarum.)

[Some historical particulars connected with this scholastic establishment or college will be found in Hatcher's History of Salisbury, pp. 50, 92, 232, &c. The author gives a different etymology of its name to the above. Quoting Mosheim, cent. 13, p. ii. he states that the Professors of Divinity in the University of Paris, in the year 1234, a.s.sembled their pupils and fixed their residence in a valley of Champagne, whence they acquired the name of Valli-scholares, or Scholars of the Valley. Mr. Hatcher adds, that the College at Salisbury, which was founded about 1260, derived its name, and probably its system of instruction, from this community in France.

- J. B.]

The consistorie of this church (Salisbury) was as eminent for learning as any in England, and the choire had the best method; hence came the saying "secundum usum Sarum". Over every stall there was writt "hoc age". These old stalles were taken down about 1671, and now they sitt in the quire undistinguisht, without stalles.

But it was at the Abbey of Malmesbury where learning did most flourish in our parts, and where most writers were bred, as appeares by Pitseus, Baleus, &c.

MECHANICALL ARTS.- Cloathing. [See also subsequent chapters on this subject] At Salisbury the best whites of England are made. The city was ever also famous for the manufactures of parchment, razors, cizers, knives, and gloves. Salisbury mault is accounted the best mault, and they drive there a very considerable trade in maulting.

Also it is not to be forgotten that the bottle ale of Salisbury (as likewise Wilton, upon the same reason, sc. the nitrous water) is the best bottle ale of this nation.

Malmesbury hath been an ancient cloathing town; where also is a considerable manufacture of gloves and strong waters. Also Troubridge, Calne, and Chippenham are great cloathing townes.

The Devises is famous for making excellent Metheglyn. Mr. Tho. Piers of the Swan did drive a great trade in it. [See ante, p. 68.]

Amesbury is famous for the best tobacco pipes in England; made by ....

Gauntlet, who markes the heele of them with a gauntlet, whence they are called gauntlet pipes. The clay of which they are made is brought from Chiltern in this county. [See ante, p. 35.]

In King James the First's time coa.r.s.e paper, commonly called whitebrowne paper, was first made in England, especially in Surrey and about Windsor.

At Bemarton near Salisbury is a paper mill, which is now, 1684, about 130 yeares standing, and the first that was erected in this county; and the workmen there told me, 1669, that it was the second paper mill in England. I remember the paper mill at Longdeane, in the parish of Yatton Keynell, was built by Mr. Wyld, a Bristow merchant, 1635. It serves Bristow with brown paper. There is no white paper made in Wilts.h.i.+re.

At Crokerton, near Warminster, hath been since the restauration (about 1665) a manufacture of felt making, as good, I thinke, as those of Colbec in France. Crokerton hath its denomination from the crokery trade there; sc. making of earthen - ware, &c. Crock is the old English word for a pott.

It ought never to be forgott what our ingenious countreyman Sir Christopher Wren proposed to the silke stocking weavers of London, Anno Domini 16-, viz. a way to weave seven paire or nine paire of stockings at once (it must be an odd number). He demanded four hundred pounds for his invention; but the weavers refused it because they were poor; and besides, they sayd it would spoile their trade. Perhaps they did not consider the proverb, that "light gaines, with quick returnes, make heavy purses." Sir Christopher was so n.o.ble, seeing they would not adventure so much money, he breakes the modell of the engine all to pieces before their faces.

[This chapter contains many other remarks on trades, inventions, machinery, &c. similar in character to the above.- J. B.]

PART II - CHAPTER VI.

ARCHITECTURE.

[IN this chapter, the account of Aubrey's visit to Old Sarum, and the traditions connected with the erection of Salisbury Cathedral, although they furnish no new facts of importance, will be read with interest; especially on account of the reference they bear to the enlightened and munificent Bishop Ward. A memoir of that prelate was published by Dr. Walter Pope, in 1697 (8vo); and some further particulars of him, as connected with Salisbury, will be found in Hatcher's valuable History of that City. - J. B.]

THE celebrated antiquity of Stonehenge, as also that stupendious but unheeded antiquity at Aubury, &c. I affirme to have been temples, and built by the Britons. See my Templa Druidum. [The essay referred to was a part of Aubrey's Monumenta Britannica, the ma.n.u.script of which has strangely disappeared within the last twenty yeares. I have given an account of its contents in the Memoir of Aubrey, already frequently referred to,(page 87). Aubrey was the first who a.s.serted that Avebury and Stonehenge were temples of the Britons. He was also the first person who wrote any thing about the forms, styles, and varieties of windows, arches, &c. in Church Architecture, and his remarks and opinions on both subjects were judicious, curious, and original.

- J. B.]

Here being so much good stone in this countrey, no doubt but that the Romans had here, as well as in other parts, good buildings. But time hath left us no vestigia of their architecture unlesse that little that remains of the castle of Old Sarum, where the mortar is as hard as a stone. This must have been a most august structure, for it is situated upon a hill. When the high walles were standing, flanked at due distances with towers, about seven in all, and the vast keep (arx) in the middle crowned with another high fortification, it must needs afford a most n.o.ble view over the plaines.

(The following account I had from the right reverend, learned, and industrious Seth Ward, Lord Bishop of Sarum, who had taken the paines to peruse all the old records of the church, that had been clung together and untoucht for perhaps two hundred yeares.) Within this castle of Old Sarum, on the east side, stood the Cathedrall church; the tuft and scite is yet discernable: which being seated so high was so obnoxious to the weather, that when the wind did blow they could not heare the priest say ma.s.se. But this was not the only inconvenience. The soldiers of the castle and the priests could never agree; and one day, when they were gone without the castle in procession, the soldiers kept them out all night, or longer. Whereupon the Bishop, being much troubled, cheered them up as well as he could, and told them he would study to accommodate them better. In order thereunto he rode severall times to the Lady Abbesse at Wilton to have bought or exchanged a piece of ground of her ladys.h.i.+p to build a church and houses for the priests. A poor woman at Quidhampton, that was spinning in the street, sayd to one of her neighbours, "I marvell what the matter is that the bishop makes so many visits to my lady; I trow he intends to marry her." Well, the bishop and her ladys.h.i.+p did not conclude about the land, and the bishop dreamt that the Virgin Mary came to him, and brought him to or told him of Merrifield; she would have him build his church there and dedicate it to her.

Merrifield was a great field or meadow where the city of New Sarum stands, and did belong to the Bishop, as now the whole city belongs to him.

This was about the latter end of King John's reigne, and the first grant or diploma that ever King Henry the Third signed was that for the building of our Ladies church at Salisbury. The Bishop sent for architects from Italy, and they did not onely build that famous structure, and the close, but layd out the streetes of the whole city: which run parallell one to another, and the market-place-square in the middle: whereas in other cities they were built by chance, and at severall times.

I know but one citie besides in England that was designed and layd out at once as this was; and that is Chichester: where, standing at the market-crosse, you may see the four gates of the city. They say there that it was built about the same time that New Salisbury was, and had some of those architects.* The town of Richelieu was built then by the great Cardinall, when he built his august chasteau there.

*[Salisbury has little parallelism to its neighbour Chichester, which is of Roman origin: the former being truly English, and perfectly unique in its history and arrangement. Aubrey has omitted to notice the rapid streams of water flowing through each of the princ.i.p.al streets, which form a remarkable feature of the city.

- J. B.]

Upon the building of this cathedrall and close the castle of Old Sarum went to wrack, and one may see in the walles of the close abundance of stones, finely carved, that were perhaps part of the church there.

After the church and close were built, the citizens had their freestone, &c. from thence. And in Edward the Sixth's time, the great house of the Earle of Pembroke, at Wilton, was built with the mines of it. About 1660 I was upon it. There was then remaining on the south side some of the walles of the great gate; and on the north side there was some remaines of a bottome of a tower; but the incrustation of freestone was almost all gone: a fellow was then picking at that little that was left. 'Tis like enough by this time they have digged all away.

Salisbury. - Edw. Leigh, Esq. "There is a stately and beautifull minster, with an exceeding high spered steeple, and double crosse aisle on both sides. The windowes of the church, as they reckon them, answer just in number to the dayes; the pillars, great and small, to the houres, of a full yeare; and the gates to the moneths." - ["England Described; or, Observations on the several Counties and s.h.i.+res thereof, by Edw. Leigh." 1659. 8vo.]

"Mira canam, soles quot continet annus, in una Tam numerosa ferunt sede fenestra micat.

Marmoreaq{ue} capit fusas tot ab arte columnas Comprensus horas quot vagus annus habet.

Totq{ue}patent portae, quot mensibus annus abundat, Res mira, et vera, res celebrata fide." - DANIEL ROGERS.

'Tis strange to see how errour hath crept in upon the people, who believe that the pillars of this church were cast, forsooth, as chandlers make candles; and the like is reported of the pillars of the Temple Church, London, &c.: and not onely the vulgar swallow down the tradition gleb, but severall learned and otherwise understanding persons will not be perswaded to the contrary, and that the art is lost.[Among the rest Fuller, in his Worthies of England, gave currency to this absurd opinion.- J. B.] Nay, all the bishops and churchmen of that church in my remembrance did believe it, till Bishop Ward came, who would not be so imposed on; and the like errour runnes from generation to generation concerning Stoneheng, that the stones there are artificiall. But, to returne to the pillars of this church, they are all reall marble, and shew the graine of the Suss.e.x marble (sc. the little c.o.c.kles), from whence they were brought. [These pillars are not made of Suss.e.x marble; but of that kind which is brought from a part of Dorsets.h.i.+re called the Isle of Purbeck.- J. B.]

At every nine foot they are jointed with an ornament or band of iron or copper. This quarrie hath been closed up and forgott time out of mind, and the last yeare, 1680, it was accidentally discovered by felling of an old oake; and it now serves London. (From Mr. Bushnell, the stone-cutter.)

The old tradition is, that this church was "built upon wooll-packs", and doubtlesse there is something in it which is now forgott. I shall endeavour to retrieve and unriddle it by comparison. There is a tower at Rouen in Normandie called the b.u.t.ter Tower; for when it was built a toll was layd upon all the b.u.t.ter that was brought to Rouen, for and towards the building of this tower; as now there is a [duty] layd upon every chaldron of coales towards the building of St Paul's Church, London: so hereafter they may say that that church was built upon New- Castle coales. In like manner it might be that heretofore, when Salisbury Cathedral was building, which was long before wooll was manufactured in England (the merchants of the staple sent it then in woolpacks beyond sea, to Flanders, &c.), that an imposition might be putt on the Wilts.h.i.+re wool-packs towards the carrying on of this magnificent structure. There is a saying also that London Bridge was built upon wooll-packs, upon the same account.

The height of Our Lady steeple at Salisbury was never found so little as 400 foot, and never more than 406 foot, by the observations of Thom. Nash, surveyor of the workes of this church: but Colonell John Wyndham did take the height more accurately, An 1684, by a barometer: sc. the height of the weather-dore of Our Lady Church steeple at Salisbury from the ground is 4280 inches. The mercury subsided in that height 42/100 of an inch. He affirms that the height of the said steeple is 404 foot, which he hath tryed severall times; and by the help of his barometer, which is accurately made according to his direction, he will with great facility take the height of any mountain: quod N.B. [Col. Wyndham's measurement has been adopted as correct by most authors who have written on the subject since.- J. B.]

Memorandum. About 1669 or 1670 Bishop Ward invited Sir Christopher Wren to Salisbury, out of curiosity, to survey the church there, as to the steeple, architecture, &c. He was above a weeke about it, and writt a sheet or a sheet and a halfe, an account of it, which he presented to the bishop. I asked the bishop since for it, and he told me he had lent it, to whom he could not tell, and had no copy of it.

'Tis great pity the paines of so great an artist should be lost. Sir Christopher tells me he hath no copie of it neither.

This year, 1691, Mr. Anth. Wood tells me, he hath gott a transcript of Sir Chr. Wren's paper; which obtain, and insert here. I much doubted I should never have heard of it again.

[Soon after writing this pa.s.sage Aubrey probably obtained a copy of Sir Christopher Wren's report, which he has inserted in his original ma.n.u.script. It is dated in 1669, and occupies eleven folio pages. In The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral of Salisbury, &c. (1723, 8vo.), it is printed, and described as "An Architectonical Account of this Cathedral", by "an eminent gentleman". Part of the same report was printed in Wren's Parentalia (1750); and a short abstract of it will also be found in Dodsworth's Salisbury Cathedral (written by the late Mr. Hatcher), p. 172. In a communication from the last named gentleman in 1841, when he was engaged upon his History of Salisbury, he wrote to me as follows: "I have lately fallen upon what appears to have been Sir C. Wren's original report relative to the cathedral; a very elaborate report on the state of the building in 1691, by a person named Naish; some good observations on the bending of the piers (anonymous); and several estimates and observations made by Price.

What I shall do with them I have not yet determined." - J. B.]

Wardour Castle was very strongly built of freestone. I never saw it but when I was a youth; the day after part of it was blown up: and the mortar was so good that one of the little towers reclining on one side did hang together and not fall in peeces. It was called Warder Castle from the conserving there the ammunition of the West.