Wiltshire

by Edith Olivier

  It is curious to learn that the law insisting on marriage by bans in this country came as a result of a romance connected with the village of Mere.

  LACOCK

  Lacock is planned like a small and very dignified township, its stone houses in formal rows, its streets laid out with regularity. It does not look as if it had grown casually as do most villages, nor is it all agricultural in appearance. Yet it may perhaps be called the most beautiful village in the county, and somehow its formality has an effect of supreme individuality. It is infinitely worth visiting, quite apart from the abbey which gave it its first claim to fame.

  The manor of Lacock was given by the Empress Maud to Patrick D’Evreux, whom she created Earl of Salisbury, and after two generations the family came to be represented by an heiress, the famous Ela, Countess of Salisbury. She married William Longspee, the son of Henry II and Fair Rosamund, and seven years after his death in 1226 she gave the estate to the church, and founded in Lacock the famous abbey, of which in 1238 she became Abbess. The countess succeeded her husband as sheriff of Wiltshire, and this is why Lacock possesses one of the three original copies of Magna Carta confirmed by Henry III and endorsed in a contemporary hand. It was left in the abbey by Countess Ela, and has since been carefully preserved by everyone possessing the place. At the moment of writing, it is loaned to America by Miss Talbot, the present owner of Lacock.

  In all the country there is no abbey in such a wonderful state of preservation. It was the last of the Wiltshire religious houses to be abolished by Henry VIII, and Sir William Sharington (said to be “ a great speculator in the possessions of dissolved monasteries”) bought it promptly from the King. He made it into a manor-house for himself, preserving almost intact the cloisters, the library, chapter house, sacristy, the nuns’ dormitory, the kitchen and other rooms exactly as he found them. His additions to the place were also extremely good ones, and to quote Mr C. H. Talbot, include

  “a perfect and valuable specimen of early Renaissance. Some of the windows of his work are very remarkable for the fusion of English and Italian features. All the old chimneys are of the same work, and also a fine fireplace in the Stone Gallery. The buildings of the court, to the north, comprising stables, brew-house, bake-house, etc., were not part of the monastery, but were built by Sir William Sharington. They are of very fine workmanship, and the roofs are remarkable for being constructed on the modern scientific principle of a truss, being the earliest example of the kind known to me.”

  Other additions were made from time to time, and finally there is an extremely successful piece of nineteenth-century Gothic.

  Aubrey describes the manner in which this wonderful possession passed from the Sharingtons to the Talbots who now possess it. Sir Henry Sharington had an only daughter Olivia, who fell in love with John Talbot. Her father, a typical parent of the period, did not approve of this love affair, and the girl was shut up in a room high in the abbey. Then, says Aubrey:

  “Discoursing one night with her lover from the battlements of the abbey, said she, ‘I will leape downe to you.’ Her sweetheart answered he would catch her then; but he did not believe she would have done it. Nevertheless she leapt down and the wind which was then high came under her coates and did something break her fall. Mr Talbot caught her in his arms but she struck him dead; she cried for help and he was with great difficulty brought to life again. Her father theron told her that since she had made such a leap she should e’en marrie him.”

  A later owner of Lacock, William Henry Fox Talbot, who died in 1900, was the discoverer of photography. After his death, The Times wrote this about him:

  “It seems strange that the Inventor of Photography who was prominent in every step of its progress for forty years should have received so little public recognition, while Daguerre has received so much. The explanation lies in the characters of the men. Daguerre, the successful showman and painter of dioramas, versed in the methods of advertisement, secured the dramatic reclame of his Government’s vigorous recognition and support. Fox Talbot, a man of ancient family and reasonable wealth, distinguished as a mathematician, orientalist, botanist, chemist, and astronomer, received the recognition of the scientific world, but is practically unknown to the public.”

  The county of Wiltshire owes a great debt of gratitude to the Talbot family for the public-spirited manner in which they have preserved the village of Lacock to this day.

  FARLEY

  Farley is a village on the edge of Clarendon Forest, and possesses a very remarkable parish church. This is not only memorable for its architecture, but for the two great men with whom it is connected. It was built for Sir Stephen Fox by no less an architect than Sir Christopher Wren, for though Mr Ponting said in 1910 that “the personality of the architect does not appear to be known”, it is impossible not to think of St Paul’s as we first see this exquisitely symmetrical little village church, and appreciate (to quote Mr Ponting again) “ the generous scale on which it has been carried out and the purity of its details”.

  Sir Stephen Fox was born at Farley, and began life as a chorister in Salisbury Cathedral. In 1717 there appeared an anonymous memoir of Sir Stephen, and all the quotations used in the following pages are taken from this.

  “At the Age of Fifteen, after he had run through the usual Exercises preparatory to the understanding of Accounts perfectly well (for his Genius led him wholly and solely to the Acquisition of some Publick Station that way) he for the Beauty of his Person, and Towardliness of his Disposition, was recommended to some Employment or other under the then Great Earl of Northumberland.… Mr Fox, at the Martyrdom of the King, was in the 21st Year of his Age,”

  and when Charles II “went on his travels”, Fox was recommended to him as “ a Person fit to manage the Domestick Cash; and to do it in such a manner, as the Servants of inferior Rank might be paid their respective Salaries and the necessary Expences of the Houshold carefully defray’d.”

  When the party settled in Brussels, the memoir says:

  “the King lived very uneasie there, and more like a private Man, than one Invested with a Sovereign’s Authority; and could not have maintained his little Court, which was then reduced to very few Attendants had not Mr Fox, who we find then went by the Title of Clerk of his Majesty’s Kitchen, distinguished himself by such Thrifty Precautions, as to make the Expences of the Family so far from being superior to the Revenue, that when his Majesty was once put to a Pinch, by losing a Sum of Money to a Walloon Count, and in vain apply’d to him that had the care of his Privy-Purse, to keep his Honour with that Nobleman; the King was agreeably surprized with the Tender of that, and as much more, by this frugal Servant.”

  The money which Fox offered the King was out of his own savings, and he

  “told his Majesty, that he accounted himself very fortunate, in having it in his power to give back so much of his own Money (for he had sav’d it for none but his Majesty’s own use) on so necessary an Occasion as the Preservation of his Royal Credit.”

  Fox was the first to tell the King of the death of Oliver Cromwell, for

  “Mr Fox received the News of that Monster’s Death, six Hours before any Express reach’d Brussels; and while the King was playing at Tennis with the Archduke Leopold, Don John, and other Spanish Grandees, he very dutifully accosted his Majesty, upon his Knee, with the grateful Message; and begg’d leave to call him really King of Great Britain, etc., since he that had caus’d him to be only Titularly so, was no longer to be number’d among the Living.”

  This economical man also well understood how to arrange Court functions with dignity and beauty, and when (after negotiations in which Mr Fox took considerable part) Charles at last sailed for England, it was Fox who “adjusted the Ceremonies to be observ’d in his Majesty’s Passage from Breda”, and he arranged that

  “The Body of the Vessel was garnished with Tapestry, its Mast carried the Royal Flag, and its Yards were loaden with Garlands and Crowns of Verdure and Flowers, among which there wa
s one fastned, and accompanied with a Streamer, which had for its Device, Quo Fax et Fata, to denote that the King embarking, went to the Place where his Right, and the Providence of God call’d him.”

  On their return to England, Sir Stephen was knighted, and given several important appointments, including the post of Paymaster to the Forces. Here he again showed that he was not only a very able economist, but that he possessed what is a rare combination with ability of that kind, immense and very imaginative generosity and kindness of heart. He contributed thirteen thousand pounds out of his own money to the building of Chelsea Hospital for “the Relief of the Brave inferior Soldiery”. In connection with this his name appears

  “in a curious Copper Plate; wherein is caus’d to be Engrav’d a very fine Prospect and Description of Chelsea College, inscrib’d to the Right Honourable Sir Stephen Fox, in Conjunction with the late Earl of Ranelagh, and Sir Christopher Wren, with their several Coats of Arms annex’d to the same.”

  Fox had now bought the estate of Farley, his birthplace, and from 1665 onwards he was the Member for Salisbury. About the time of Queen Anne’s accession,

  “he built a new Church at Farley, the Place of his Nativity, entirely from the Ground, at his own Expence”, and also built “a very handsom Dwelling-House for the Vicar”. It is this fine group of buildings which will always be the pride of Farley. Outwardly the Almshouses and the Wardenry have a quiet simplicity, but the interior work in the Wardenry is very enchanting with its oak panelling and elaborate plaster ceilings.

  Sir Stephen’s wife died in 1696, and all his children predeceased him, so when “ he was now advanc’d to very near Four-score Years of Age”, he decided that it was his duty to marry again, and proposed to a young woman, Mrs Margaret Hope, the daughter of a clergyman.

  “The Lady who at the first Motion took it to be only a Piece of Gallantry, was to Discreet not to give her Acceptance of; and which, within Twelve Months after, was attended by the Birth of Two Twins, one of which, or both, is now living, and of a healthy and sprightly Constitution.”

  The healthy and sprightly offspring of this second and belated marriage were the founders of the Ilchester and Holland families; and where would be the Tory party of the eighteenth century but for the descendants of Sir Stephen Fox of Farley in Wilts?

  BOWERCHALKE

  The Chalke Valley to the south-west of Salisbury has a character of its own. It is in some ways more bleak than the other river valleys in South Wilts, but it leads by slow degrees to the high downs by Shaftesbury, and each mile of it is more fascinating than the last. Bowerchalke is about halfway up the valley, and it is now famous for its water-cress beds, but early in the eighteenth century there lived a native of Bowerchalke connected with a rather more exciting aspect of country life than this simple greenery.

  This was Mr Henry Good, the Gentleman Poacher of Cranbourne Chase, who was “ well versed in history, never forgot anything, had a taste for poetry, was particularly fond of Milton and Hudibras. He was well skilled in the science of music and a good performer on various instruments”.

  Mr Chafin gives the following account of him:

  “My good friend was much respected by the neighbouring clergy and the principal inhabitants of the parishes near; many of whom had a talent for music and were much devoted to it. They established a musical club at a little inn called The Hut, situate on Salisbury South Plain on a little eminence which gave a commanding prospect of the Chase, and extensive view of a fine country even as far as the Isle of Wight rocks. The meetings of the members of the club for their concerts were on Mondays, every other one in summer, and monthly in winter. My friend was the leader of the band, notwithstanding the great contrariety in the mode and manner of execution. It was his usual custom, on the Sunday before the club-day, to walk to the Hut, and arrange the musick-books and instruments for the next day: but this he never did till after he had attended divine service in his parish Church which he never neglected. He was no bigot, but truly religious and a strict adherer to the Established Church.

  “In the two pursuits of which he was the leader (i.e. the deer catching and the music) he never suffered them to be entirely disunited: but generally carried in his pocket some wire nooses of his own composing, intermixed perhaps with music of his own composing also.

  “On a certain Sunday, after his religious duties had been duly performed, in the middle of the month of August, on a very hot day, he took his customary excursion to the Hut; and while he was standing at the door with the host for the benefit of the air, and admiring the beautiful prospect, a more interesting one arrested his attention; for he spied a herd of fat bucks leave a large wood where they had been much exposed to the sun and annoyed by flies, and enter a small detached cover, for shade. After a very short conversation, therefore, with the host, who had not seen the deer, but perhaps was gazing at the rocks of the Isle of Wight, he wished him good morning, and made a circuit to the place where the deer entered and near which he judged that they were then lodged. With great caution and profound silence he drew out his nooses from his musical papers, and set them with great dexterity at every pathway within the border of the wood. He then filled his pockets with pebbles, and went quietly round to the opposite side, when he began the operation of throwing the pebbles, jerking one at a time into the wood at a short distance, just to stir the deer without much alarming them: and, by making approaches to them in this manner, to keep them in motion, that, whilst they were attending to the falling of the pebbles, they might heedlessly run their heads into the nooses, in which, when he came to examine, he found that he had been successful, and had got three of the finest deer suspended by their necks: whose throats he immediately cut. Knowing that there was an old saw-pit in the wood, full of leaves, he dragged them thither: and having paunched them, concealed the bodies in the pit, and covered them with leaves. He then mounted an oak tree which commanded a view of the whole Walk, took his Hudibras out of his pocket and amused himself by reading it, until nights fall; when, having made his success known to his confederates, a small party of them went with a cart and brought home their booty without interruption, or even suspicion. The two bands, the hunters and the musicians, had fine feasting: for it was a leading and strict rule that no plunder of this kind was ever sold: unless to pay the penalty if they were detected.”

  Mr. Henry Good’s hunters wore a special uniform, one suit of which is still in existence. They wore

  “a kind of helmet in shape and material not unlike a beehive. It was made of wreaths of straw or wire and well padded within. The body armour of the deer hunting gentlemen was made of the strongest canvas well quilted with wool to lessen the effect of heavy blows. They wore also a short sword, a hanger, and carried a quarter staff.”

  OTHER VILLAGES

  Downton stands on the Avon a little below the point where it is entered by the Ebble, or Chalke, Water. The broad village street lies on either side of a long stretch of grass, and the peacefulness of this village has been rather interfered with by a factory at the point where the Avon crosses the street. But the distinctive feature in Downton is the Moot, an ancient Saxon meeting-place. This is a most striking earthwork, grass seats raised one above the other in a semicircle round a little piece of water, beside which some eighteenth-century proprietor built a little summerhouse. The whole thing now forms part of the garden of the late seventeenth-century house.

  Among other remarkable villages is Castle Combe, in the extreme north-east of the county. Its poetic beauty has often been described, and for close on six hundred years it has been in the possession of the Scrope family. Its most famous personality, however, was not a Scrope, but the husband of Lady Millicent, widow of Sir Stephen Scrope. This is Sir John Fastolf, the original of Shakespeare’s Falstaff. The turbulent relations between Fastolf and his stepson, Stephen Scrope (whom he deprived of his possessions for about fifty years), make a truly Shakespearian story.

  The interesting church is filled with memorials of the
Scrope family, and Britton describes their house in his day as “ a respectable-looking old edifice, modernized”.

  Britton also describes, in his curious flat, conventional style, the parish church at Hardenhuish. He says it is “a small, but neat, modern structure, built by Mr Colbourne, from designs by Wood, the Bath Architect. At the time of its erection, it attracted much notice and admiration, and is still entitled to both, from its novelty of design, picturesque plan and form, and classical character.” Today it still attracts much notice from anyone who appreciates the classical architecture of the eighteenth century, which is very rare among ecclesiastical buildings.