Books: The Natural History of Wiltshire
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John Aubrey >> The Natural History of Wiltshire
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The Indians doe worke for a penny a day; so their silkes are exceeding
cheap; and rice is sold in India for four pence per bushell.
PART II - CHAPTER XL
HISTORIE OF CLOATHING.
[THE following are the only essential parts of this chapter, which is
very short.-J. B.]
KING Edward the Third first settled the staples of wooll in Flanders.
See Hollinshead, Stowe, Speed, and the Statute Book, de hoc.
Staple, "estape", i e. a market place; so the wooll staple at
Westminster, which is now a great market for flesh and fish.
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When King Henry the Seventh lived in Flanders with his aunt the
Dutchess of Burgundie, he considered that all or most of the wooll
that was manufactured there into cloath was brought out of England;
and observing what great profit did arise by it, when he came to the
crown he sent into Flanders for cloathing manufacturers, whom he
placed in the west, and particularly at Send in Wiltshire, where they
built severall good houses yet remaining: I know not any village so
remote from London that can shew the like. The cloathing trade did
flourish here till about 1580, when they removed to Troubridge, by
reason of (I thinke) a plague; but I conjecture the main reason was
that the water here was not proper for the fulling and washing of
their cloath; for this water, being impregnated with iron, did give
the white cloath a yellowish tincture. Mem. In the country hereabout
are severall families that still retaine Walloun names, as Goupy, &c.
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The best white cloaths in England are made at Salisbury, where the
water, running through chalke, becomes very nitrous, and therefore
abstersive. These fine cloathes are died black or scarlet, at London
or in Holland.
Malmesbury, a very neat town, hath a great name for cloathing.
The Art of Cloathing and Dyeing is already donn by Sir William Petty,
and is printed in the History of the Royall Society, writt by Dr.
Spratt, since Bishop of Rochester.
PART II.-CHAPTER XII.
EMINENT CLOATHIERS OF THIS COUNTY.
[IN this chapter there is a long "Digression of Cloathiers of other
Counties," full of curious matter, which is here necessarily omitted.
- J. B.]
.. . SUTTON of Salisbury, was an eminent cloathier: what is become of
his family I know not.
[John] Hall, I doe believe, was a merchant of the staple, at
Salisbury, where he had many houses. His dwelling house, now a taverne
(1669), was on the Ditch, where in the glasse windowes are many
scutchions of his armes yet remaining, and severall merchant markes.
Quaere, if there are not also wooll-sacks in the pannells of glass?
[Of this house and family the reader will find many interesting
particulars in a volume by my friend the Rev. Edward Duke, of Lake
House, near Amesbury. Its title will explain the work, viz.
"Prolusiones Historicĉ; or, Essays Illustrative of the Halle of John
Halle, citizen and merchant of Salisbury in the reigns of Henry VI.
and Edward IV.; with Notes illustrative and explanatory. By the Rev.
Edward Duke, M.A., F.S.A., and L.S. in two vols. 8vo. 1837." (Only one
volume has been published.) - J. B.]
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The ancestor of Sir William Webb of Odstock, near Salisbury, was a
merchant of the staple in Salisbury. As Grevill and Wenman bought all
the Coteswold wooll, so did Hall and Webb the wooll of Salisbury
plaines; but these families are Roman Catholiques.
The ancestor of Mr. Long, of Rood Ashton, was a very great cloathier.
He built great part of that handsome church, as appeares by the
inscription there, between 1480 and 1500.
[William] Stump was a wealthy cloathier at Malmesbury, tempore Henrici
VIII. His father was the parish clarke of North Nibley, in
Gloucestershire, and was a weaver, and at last grew up to be a
cloathier. This cloathier at Malmesbury, at the dissolution of the
abbeys, bought a great deale of the abbey lands thereabout. When King
Henry 8th hunted in Bradon Forest, he gave his majesty and the court a
great entertainment at his house (the abbey). The King told him he was
afraid he had undone himself; he replied that his own servants should
only want their supper for it. [See this anecdote also in Fuller's
Worthies, Wiltshire. - J. B.] Leland sayes that when he was there the
dortures and other great roomes were filled with weavers' loomes. [The
following is the passage referred to (Leland's Itinerary, vol. ii. p.
27.) "The hole logginges of th' abbay be now longging to one Stumpe,
an exceeding rich clothiar, that boute them of the king. This Stumpe
was the chef causer and contributor to have th' abbay chirch made a
paroch chirch. At this present tyme every corner of the vaste houses
of office that belongid to th' abbay be full of lumbes to weeve cloth
yn, and this Stumpe entendith to make a strete or 2 for cloathiers in
the back vacant ground of the abbay that is withyn the town waulles.
There be made now every yere in the town a 3,000 clothes." See
"Memorials of the Family of Stumpe", by Mr. J. G. Nichols, in
"Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica", vol. vii. - J. B.]
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Mr. Paul Methwin of Bradford succeeded his father-in-law in the trade,
and was the greatest cloathier of his time (tempore Caroli 2nd). He
was a worthy gentleman, and died about 1667. Now (temp. Jacobi II.)
Mr. Brewer of Troubridge driveth the greatest trade for medleys of any
cloathier in England.
PART II.-CHAPTER XIII.
FAIRES AND MARKETTS.
FAIRES. The most celebrated faire in North Wiltshire for sheep is at
Castle Combe, on St. George's Day (23 April), whither sheep-masters
doe come as far as from Northamptonshire. Here is a good crosse and
market-house; and heretofore was a staple of wooll, as John Scrope,
Esq. Lord of this mannour, affirmes to me. The market here now is very
inconsiderable. [Part of the cross and market-house remain, but there
is not any wool fair, market, or trade at Castle Combe, which is a
retired, secluded village, of a romantic character, seated in a narrow
valley, with steep acclivities, covered with woods. The house,
gardens, &c. of George Poulett Scrope, Esq. M.P., the Lord of the
Manor, are peculiar features in this scene. - J. B.]
At Wilton is a very noted faire for sheepe, on St. George's Day also;
and another on St. Giles's Day, September the first. Graziers, &c.
from Buckinghamshire come hither to buy sheep.
Wilton was the head town of the county till Bishop Bingham built the
Bridge at Harnham which turned away the old Roman way (in the Legier-
booke of Wilton called the heŝepath, i. e. the army path), and brought
the trade to New Sarum, where it hath ever since continued.
At Chilmarke is a good faire for sheep on St. Margaret's day, 20th
July.
Burford, near Salisbury, a faire on Lammas day; 'tis an eminent faire
for wooll and sheep, the eve is for wooll and cheese.
At the city of New Sarum is a very great faire for cloath at Twelf-
tyde, called Twelfe Market. In the parish of All-Cannings is St Anne's
Hill, vulgarly called Tann Hill, where every yeare on St. Anne's Day
(26th July), is kept a great fair within an old camp, called Oldbury.*
The chiefe commodities are sheep, oxen, and fineries. This faire would
bee more considerable, but that Bristow Faire happens at the same
time.
* [Aubrey errs in stating "Oldbury Camp" to be on St. Anne's Hill;
those places being nearly two miles apart. - J. B.]
At the Devises severall faires; but the greatest is at the Green
there, at Michaelmas: it continues about a week.
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MARKETTS. - Warminster is exceeding much frequented for a round corn-
market on Saturday. Hither come the best teemes of horses, and it is
much resorted to by buyers. Good horses for the coach: some of 20li. +
It is held to be the greatest corn-market by much in the West of
England. My bayliif has assured me that twelve or fourteen score
loades of corne on market-dayes are brought thither: the glovers that
work in their shops at the towne's end doe tell the carts as they come
in; but this market of late yeares has decayed; the reason whereof I
had from my honored friend Henry Millburne, Esq. Recorder of Monmouth.
[The reason assigned is, that Mr. Millburne "encouraged badgars" to
take corn from Monmouthshire to Bristol; whereupon the bakers there,
finding the Welsh corn was better, and could be more cheaply conveyed
to them than that grown in Wiltshire, forsook Warminster Market. - J. B.]
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My bayliff, an ancient servant to our family, assures me that, about
1644, six quarters of wheat would stand, as they terme it, Hindon
Market, which is now perhaps the second best market after Warminster
in this county.
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I have heard old men say long since that the market at Castle Combe
was considerable in the time of the staple: the market day is Munday.
Now only some eggs and butter, &c.
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Marleborough Market is Saturday: one of the greatest markets for
cheese in the west of England. Here doe reside factors for the
cheesemongers of London.
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King Edgar granted a charter to Steeple Ashton. [Aubrey has
transcribed the charter at length, from the original Latin. - J. B.]
The towne was burnt about the yeare ....... before which time it was
a market-town; but out of the ashes of this sprang up the market at
Lavington, which flourisheth still. [Lavington market has long been
discontinued in consequence of its vicinity to the Devizes, which has
superior business attractions.-J. B.]
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At Highworth was the greatest market, on Wednesday, for fatt cattle in
our county, which was furnished by the rich vale; and the Oxford
butchers furnished themselves here. In the late civill warres it being
made a garrison for the King, the graziers, to avoid the rudeness of
the souldiers, quitted that market, and went to Swindon, four miles
distant, where the market on Munday continues still, which before was
a petty, inconsiderable one. Also, the plague was at Highworth before
the late warres, which was very prejudiciall to the market there; by
reason whereof all the countrey sent their cattle to Swindown market,
as they did before to Highworth.
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Devises. - On Thursday a very plentifull market of every thing: but
the best for fish in the county. They bring fish from Poole hither,
which is sent from hence to Oxford.
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[At this place in Aubrey's manuscript is another "digression"; being
"Remarks taken from Henry Milburne, Esq. concerning Husbandry, Trade,
&c. in Herefordshire". - J. B.]
PART 1I.-CHAPTER XIV.
OF HAWKS AND HAWKING.
[A PAPER "Of Hawkes and Falconry, ancient and modern", is here
transcribed from Sir Thomas Browne's Miscellanies, (8vo. 1684.) It
describes at considerable length (from the works of Symmachus,
Albertus Magnus, Demetrius Constantinopolitanus, and others), the
various rules which were acted upon in their times, with regard to the
food and medicine of hawks; and it also narrates some historical
particulars of the once popular sport of hawking.-J. B.]
QUĈRE, Sir James Long of this subject, for he understands it as well
as any gentleman in this nation, and desire him to write his marginall
notes.
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[From Sir James Long, Dracot.] Memorandum. Between the years 1630 and
1634 Henry Poole, of Cyrencester, Esquire (since Sir Henry Poole,
Baronet), lost a falcon flying at Brook, in the spring of the year,
about three a'clock in the afternoon; and he had a falconer in Norway
at that time to take hawks for him, who discovered this falcon, upon
the stand from whence he was took at first, the next day in the
evening. This flight must be 600 miles at least.
Dame Julian Barnes, in her book of Hunting and Hawking, says that the
hawk's bells must be in proportion to the hawk, and they are to be
equiponderant, otherwise they will give the hawk an unequall ballast:
and as to their sound they are to differ by a semitone, which will
make them heard better than if they were unisons.
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William of Malmesbury sayes that, anno Domini 900, tempore Regis
Alfredi, hawking was first used. Coteswold is a very fine countrey for
this sport, especially before they began to enclose about Malmesbury,
Newton, &c. It is a princely sport, and no doubt the novelty, together
with the delight, and the conveniency of this countrey, did make King
Athelstan much use it. I was wont to admire to behold King Athelstan's
figure in his monument at Malmesbury Abbey Church, with a falconer's
glove on his right hand, with a knobbe or tassel to put under his
girdle, as the falconers use still; but this chronologicall
advertisement cleares it. [The effigy on the monument here referred
to, as well as the monument itself, have no reference to Athelstan, as
they are of a style and character some hundreds of years subsequent to
that monarch's decease. If there were any tomb to Athelstan it would
have been placed near the high altar in the Presbytery, and very
different in form and decoration to the altar tomb and statue here
mentioned, which are at the east end of the south aisle of the nave.-
J. B.] Sir George Marshal of Cole Park, a-quarry to King James First,
had no more manners or humanity than to have his body buried under
this tombe. The Welsh did King Athelstan homage at the city of
Hereford, and covenanted yearly payment of 20li. gold, of silver 300,
oxen 2,500, besides hunting dogges and hawkes. He dyed anno Domini
941, and was buried with many trophies at Malmesbury. His lawes are
extant to this day among the lawes of other Saxon kings.
PART II.-CHAPTER XV.
THE RACE.
HENRY Earle of Pembroke [1570-1601] instituted Salisbury Race;* which
hath since continued very famous, and beneficiall to the city. He
gave ..... pounds to the corporation of Sarum to provide every yeare,
in the first Thursday after Mid-Lent Sunday, a silver bell [see note
below], of ...... value; which, about 1630, was turned into a silver
cup of the same value. This race is of two sorts: the greater,
fourteen miles, beginnes at Whitesheet and ends on Harnham-hill, which
is very seldom runn, not once perhaps in twenty yeares. The shorter
begins at a place called the Start, at the end of the edge of the
north downe of the farme of Broad Chalke, and ends at the standing at
the hare-warren, built by William Earle of Pembroke, and is four miles
from the Start.
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*[In the civic archives of Salisbury, under the date of 1585, is the
following memorandum:- "These two years, in March, there was a race
run with horses at the farthest three miles from Sarum, at the which
were divers noble personages, and the Earl of Cumberland won the
golden bell, which was valued at 501. and better, the which earl is to
bring the same again next year, which he promised to do, upon his
honour, to the mayor of this city". See Hatcher's History of
Salisbury, p. 294. In the Appendix to that volume is a copy of an
Indenture, made in 1654, between the Mayor and Commonalty of the city
and Sir Edward Baynton of Bromham, relative to the race-cup. It
recites that Henry Earl of Pembroke in his lifetime gave a golden
bell, to be run for yearly, "at the place then used and accustomed
for horse races, upon the downe or plaine leading from New Sarum
towards the towne of Shaston [Shaftesbury], in the county of Dorset".
This would imply that the nobleman referred to was not the founder of
Salisbury Races. - J. B.]
It is certain that Peacock used to runn the four-miles course in five
minutes and a little more; and Dalavill since came but little short of
him. Peacock was first Sir Thomas Thynne's of Long-leate; who valued
him at 1,000 pounds. Philip Earle of Pembrock gave 51i. but to have a
sight of him: at last his lordship had him; I thinke by gift. Peacock
was a bastard barb. He was the most beautifull horse ever seen in this
last age, and was as fleet as handsome. He dyed about 1650.
"Here lies the man whose horse did gaine
The bell in race on Salisbury plaine;
Reader, I know not whether needs it,
You or your horse rather to reade it."
At Everly is another race. Quĉre, if the Earle of Abington hath not
set up another?
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Stobball-play is peculiar to North Wilts, North Gloucestershire, and a
little part of Somerset near Bath. They smite a ball, stuffed very
hard with quills and covered with soale leather, with a staffe,
commonly made of withy, about 3 [feet] and a halfe long. Colerne-downe
is the place so famous and so frequented for stobball-playing. The
turfe is very fine, and the rock (freestone) is within an inch and a
halfe of the surface, which gives the ball so quick a rebound. A
stobball-ball is of about four inches diameter, and as hard as a
stone. I doe not heare that this game is used anywhere in England but
in this part of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire adjoining.
PART II.-CHAPTER XVI.
OF THE NUMBER OF ATTORNIES IN THIS COUNTIE NOW AND HERETOFORE.
[A STATUTE was passed in the reign of Edward I. which gave the first
authority to suitors in the courts of law to prosecute or defend by
attorney; and the number of attorneys afterwards increased so rapidly
that several statutes were passed in the reigns of Henry IV. Henry VI.
and Elizabeth, for limiting their number. One of these (33 Hen. VI. c.
7) states that not long before there were only six or eight attorneys
in Norfolk and Suffolk, and that their increase to twenty-four was to
the vexation and prejudice of those counties; and it therefore enacts
that for the future there shall be only six in Norfolk, six in
Suffolk, and two in Norwich. (Penny Cycle, art. Attorney.) Aubrey
adopts the inference that strife and dissension were promoted by the
increase of attorneys; which he accordingly laments as a serious evil.
He quotes at some length from a treatise "About Actions for Slander
and Arbitrements, what words are actionable in the law, and what not",
&c. by John March, of Gray's Inn, Barrister (London, 1674, 8vo.);
wherein the great increase of actions for slander is shewn, by
reference to old law books. The author urges the propriety of checking
such actions as much as possible, and quaintly observes, "as I cannot
balk that observation of that learned Chief Justice (Wray), who
sayes that in our old bookes actions for scandal are very rare; so I
will here close with this one word: though the tongues of men be set
on fire, I know no reason wherefore the law should be used as
bellows". Aubrey remarks upon this:- "The true and intrinsic reason
why actions of the case were so rare in those times above mentioned,
was by reason that men's consciences were kept cleane and in awe by
confession"; and he concludes the chapter with an extract from
"Europĉ Speculum", by Sir Edwin Sandys, Knight, (1637,) in which the
advantages and disadvantages of auricular confession are discussed.
- J. B.]
ME. BAYNHAM, of Cold Ashton, in Gloucestershire, bred an attorney,
sayes, that an hundred yeares since there were in the county of
Gloucester but four attorneys, and now (1689) no fewer than three
hundred attorneys and sollicitors; and Dr. Guydot, Physician, of Bath,
sayes that they report that anciently there was but one attorney in
Somerset, and he was so poor that he went a'foot to London; and now
they swarme there like locusts.
Fabian Philips tells me (1683) that about sixty-nine yeares since
there were but two attorneys in Worcestershire, sc. Langston and
Dowdeswell; and they be now in every market towne, and goe to
marketts; and he believes there are a hundred.
In Henry 6th time (q. if not in Hen. 7?) there was a complaint to the
Parliament by the Norfolk people that whereas formerly there were in
that county but five or six attorneys, that now they are exceedingly
encreased, and that they went to markets and bred contention. The
judges were ordered to rectify this grievance, but they fell asleep
and never awak't since. - Vide the Parliament Roll. [See the above note.
In page 12 (ante) Aubrey states that the Norfolk people are the "most
litigious" of any in England. - J. B.] 'Tis thought that in England
there are at this time near three thousand;* but there is a rule in
hawking, the more spaniells the more game. They doe now rule and
governe the lawyers [barristers] and judges. They will take a hundred
pounds with a clarke.
*[There are now upwards of three thousand attorneys in practice in
the metropolis alone, to whom the celebrated remark of Alderman
Beckford to King George the Third may be justly applied, with the
substitution of another word for "the Crown", - "the influence of
lawyers has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished."
- J. B.]
PART II.-CHAPTER XVII.
OF FATALITIES OF FAMILIES AND PLACES.
[NEARLY the whole of this chapter, with some additions, is included
under the head of "Local Fatality" in Aubrey's Miscellanies. 12mo.
1696.-J. B.]
"Omnium rerum est vicissitudo". Families, and also places, have their
fatalities,
"Fors sua cuiq' loco est." OVID, PAST. lib. iv.
This verse putts me in mind of severall places in this countie that
are or have been fortunate to their owners, or e contra.
The Gawens of Norrington, in the parish of Alvideston, continued in
this place four hundred fifty and odd yeares. They had also an estate
in Broad Chalke, which was, perhaps, of as great antiquity. On the
south downe of the farme of Broad Chalke is a little barrow called
Gawen's-barrow, which must bee before ecclesiastical lawes were
established. [Aubrey quotes a few lines from the "Squire's Tale" in
Chaucer, where Gawain, nephew to King Arthur, is alluded to.-J. B.]
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The Scropes of Castle-Comb have been there ever since the time of King
Richard the Second. The Lord Chancellor Scrope gave this mannour to
his third son; they have continued there ever since, and enjoy the old
land (about 800li per annum), and the estate is neither augmented nor
diminished all this time, neither doth the family spred.
The Powers of Stanton St. Quintin had that farme in lease about three
hundred yeares. It did belong to the abbey of Cyrencester.
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The Lytes had Easton Piers in lease and in inheritance 249 yeares; sc.
from Henry 6th. About 1572 Mr. Th. Lyte, my mother's grandfather,
purchased the inheritance of the greatest part of this place, a part
whereof descended to me by my mother Debora, the daughter and heire of
Mr. Isaac Lyte. I sold it in 1669 to Francis Hill, who sold it to Mr.
Sherwin, who hath left it to a daughter and heir. Thos. Lyte's father
had 800li. per annum in leases: viz. all Easton, except Cromwell's
farm (20li), and the farmes of Dedmerton and Sopworth.
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The Longs are now the most flourishing and numerous family in this
county, and next to them the Ashes; but the latter are strangers, and
came in but about 1642, or since.
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Contrarywise there are severall places unlucky to the possessors.
Easton Piers hath had six owners since the reigne of Henry 7th, where
I myself had a share to act my part; and one part of it called Lyte's
Kitchin hath been sold four times over since 1630.
'Tis certain that there are some houses lucky and some that are
unlucky; e.g. a handsome brick house on the south side of Clarkenwell
churchyard hath been so unlucky for at least these forty yeares that
it is seldom tenanted; nobody at last would adventure to take it. Also
a handsome house in Holbourne that looked into the fields, the
tenants of it did not prosper; about six, one after another.
PART II.-CHAPTER XVIII.
ACCIDENTS.
["ACCIDENTS" was a term used in astrology, in the general sense of
remarkable events or occurrences. From a curious collection of
Aubrey's memoranda I have selected a few of the most interesting and
most apposite to Wiltshire. Several of the anecdotes in this chapter
will be found in Aubrey's Miscellanies, 12mo. 1696. J. B.]
IN the reigne of King James 1st, as boyes were at play in Amesbury-
street, it thundred and lightened. One of the boyes wore a little
dagger by his side, which was melted in the scabbard, and the scabbard
not hurt. This dagger Edward Earle of Hertford kept amongst his
rarities. I have forgott if the boy was killed. (From old Mr. Bowman
and Mr. Gauntlett)
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The long street, Marleborough, was burned down to the ground in five
houres, and the greatnesse of the fire encreased the wind. This was in
165-. This account I had from Thomas Henshaw, Esq. who was an eye-
witness as he was on his journey to London.
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