Books: The Natural History of Wiltshire
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John Aubrey >> The Natural History of Wiltshire
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CHAPTER III.
RIVERS.
[THE following extracts include the whole of this chapter, with the
exception of a few extraneous passages.-J. B.]
I SHALL begin with the river of Wyley-bourn, which gives name to
Wilton, the shire town. The mappe-makers write it Wyley fulvous, and
joiner a British and a Saxon word together: but that is a received
error. I doe believe that the ancient and true name was Twy, as the
river Twy in Herefordshire, which signifies vagary: and so this river
Wye, which is fed with the Deverill springs, in its mandrels winding,
watering the meadows, gives the name to the village called Wyley, as
also Wilton (Wyley-ton); where, meeting with the upper Avon and the
river Adder, it runnes to Downtown and Fording bridge, visiting the New
Forest, and disembogues into the sea at Christ Church in Hampshire. On
Monday morning, the 20th of September, [1669] was begun a well
intended designe for cutting the river [Avon] below Salisbury to make
it navigable to carry boats of burthen to and from Christ Church.
This work was principally encouraged by the Right Reverend Father in
God, Seth, Lord Bishop of Salisbury, his Lordship digging the first
spit of earth, and driving the first wheeled barrow. Col. John Wyndham
was also a generous benefactor and encourager of this undertaking. He
gave to this designe an hundred pounds. He tells me that the Bishop of
Salisbury gave, he thinks, an hundred and fifty pounds: he is sure a
hundred was the least. The engineer was one Mr. Far trey, but it seems
not his craft's-master; for through want of skill all this charge and
paines came to nothing: but An° Done 16. . .it was more auspiciously
undertaken and perfected; and now boats passe between Salisbury and
Christ Church, and carry wood and corne from the New Forest, the
cartage whereof was very dearer; but as yet they want a haven at Christ
Church, which will require time and charge.
[Of the numerous rivers in Wiltshire only a few are navigable, and
those only for a short distance in the county. This is the consequence
of its inland position and comparative elevation; whence it results
that the principal streams have little more than their sources within
its limits. The project of rendering the Avon navigable from Salisbury
to Christ Church appears to have been first promulgated by John
Taylor, the Water Poet, who, in 1625, made an excursion in his own
sherry, with five companions, from London to Christ Church, and thence
up the Avon to Salisbury. He published an account of his voyage, under
the title of " A Discovery by sea, from London to Salisbury." Francis
Mathew also suggested the improvement of the navigation of the river
in 1655; and an Act of Parliament for that purpose was obtained in
1664. Bishop Ward was translated to the see of Salisbury in 1667,
but the commencement of the works, as described by Aubrey, was
probably delayed till 1669, in August of which year the Mayor of
Salisbury and others were constituted a Committee "to consult and
treat with such persons as will undertake to render the Avon
navigable." Two other pamphlets urging the importance of the project
were published in 1672 and 1675 (see Gough's Topography, vol. ii. p.
366); and in 1687 a series of regulations was compiled "for the good
and orderly government and usage of the New Haven and Pier now made
near Christchurch, and of the passages made navigable from thence to
the city of New Sarum." (See Hatcher's History of Salisbury, pp. 460,
497.) The works thus made were afterwards destroyed by a flood, and
remained in ruins till 1771. Some repairs were then executed, but they
were inefficient; and the navigation is now given up, except at the
mouth of the river; and even there the bar of Christchurch is an
insurmountable obstacle except at spring tides.-(Penny Cyclopædia,
art. Wiltshire.) As the Bishop dug the first spitt, or spadeful of
earth, and drove the first wheelbarrow, that necessary process was no
doubt made a matter of much ceremony. The laying the "first stone" of
an important building has always been an event duly celebrated; and
the practice of some distinguished individual "digging the first
spitt" of earth has lately been revived with much pomp and parade, in
connection with the great railway undertakings of the present age.-
J. B.]
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The river Adder riseth about Motcomb, neer Shaftesbury. In the Legeir
booke of Wilton Abbey it is wrott Noþþre, "a Nodderi fluvii ripa",
(hodie Adder-bourn, Naþþre}, "serpens, anguis", Saxonicè, Addar, in
Welsh, signifies a bird.*) This river runnes through the magnificent
garden of the Earle of Pembroke at Wilton, and so beyond to Christ
Church. It hath in it a rare fish, called an umber, which are sent
from Salisbury to London. They are about the bignesse of a trowt, but
preferred before a trowt This kind of fish is in no other river in
England, except the river Humber in Yorkeshire. [The umber is perhaps
more generally known as the grayling. See Chap. XL Fishes.-J. B.]
* [Adar is the plural of Aderyn, a bird, and therefore signifies
birds.-J. B.]
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The rivulet that gives the name to Chalke-bourn,† and running through
Chalke, rises at a place called Naule, belonging to the farme of Broad
Chalke, where are a great many springs that issue out of the chalkie
ground. It makes a kind of lake of the quantity of about three acres.
There are not better trouts (two foot long) in the kingdom of England
than here; I was thinking to have made a trout pond of it. The water
of this streame washes well, and is good for brewing. I did putt in
craw-fish, but they would not live here: the water is too cold for
them. This river water is so acrimonious, that strange horses when
they are watered here will snuff and snort, and cannot well drinke of
it till they have been for some time used to it. Methinks this water
should bee admirably good for whitening clothes for cloathiers,
because it is impregnated so much with nitre, which is abstersive.
† Bourna, fluvius. (Vener. Bed. Hist. Eceles.) As in some counties
they say, In such or such a vale or dale; so in South Wilts they say,
such or such a bourn: meaning a valley by such a river.
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The river Stour hath its source in Sturton Parke, and gives the name
[Stourhead.-J. B.] to that ancient seat of the Lord Sturtons. Three of
the springs are within the park pale and in Wiltshire; the other three
are without the pale in Somersetshire. The fountaines within the parke
pale are curbed with pierced cylinders of free stone, like tunnes of
chimneys; the diameter of them is eighteen inches. The coate armour of
the Lord Sturton is, Sable, a bend or, between six fountaines; which
doe allude to these springs. Stour is a British word, and signifies a
great water: sc. "dwr" is water; "ysdwr" is a considerable, or great
water: "ys", is "particula augens". [The Stour rises near the junction of
the three counties, Wiltshire, Somersetshire, and Dorsetshire. Its
course is chiefly through the last mentioned county, after leaving
which it enters Hampshire, and flows into the South Avon near
Christchurch.- J. B.]
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Deverill hath its denomination from the diving of the rill, and its
rising again. Mr. Cambden saieth, In this shire is a small rill called
Deverill, which runneth a mile under ground,* like as also doth the
little river Mole in Surry, and the river Anas [Guadiana ?-J. B.] in
Spain, and the Niger in Africk. Polybius speakes the like of the river
Oxus, "which, falling with its force into great ditches, which she
makes hollow, and opens the bottome by the violence of her course, and
by this meanes takes its course under ground for a small space, and
then riseth again." (lib. x.)
* I am informed by the minister of Deverill Longbridge, and another
gentleman that lived at Maiden Bradley thirty years, that they never
knew or heard of this river Deverall that runs underground.-(BISHOP
TANNER.) [Yet Selden, in his "Notes to Drayton's Poly-Olbion", makes the
same statement as Aubrey does respecting the Deverill.- J. B.]
"Sic ubi terreno Lycus est epotus hiatu,
Existit procul hinc, alioq{ue} renascitur ore.
Sic modò combibitur, tecto modò gurgite lapsus
Redditur Argolicis ingens Erasinus in arvis:
Et Mysum capitisq{ue} sui ripaq{ue} prioris
Pœnituisse ferunt, aliò nunc ire, Calcum."
- OVID, METAMORPH. lib. xv.
In Grittleton field is a swallow-hole, where sometimes foxes, &c. doe
take sanctuary; there are severall such in North Wiltshire, made by
flouds, &c.; but neer Deene is a rivulet that runnes into Emmes-poole,
and nobody knowes what becomes of it after it is swallowed by the
earth.
[The reader will find a full account of the remarkable "swallows", or
"swallow holes", in the course of the river Mole, in Brayley's History
of Surrey, vol. i. p. 171-185, with a map, and some geological
comments by Dr. Mantell. The river, or stream designated by Aubrey as
the Deverill, is probably the principal of several streams which rise
near the villages of Longbridge Deverill, Hill Deverill, Brixton
Deverill, Monkton Deverill, and Kingston Deverill (in the south west
part of Wiltshire), and, after running through Maiden Bradley, flow
into the Wyley near Warminster.-J. B.]
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At the foot of Martinsoll-hill doe issue forth three springs, which
are the sources of three rivers; they divide like the parting of the
haire on the crowne of the head, and take their courses three severall
wayes: viz. one on the south side of the hill, which is the beginning
of the upper Avon,† which runnes to Salisbury; on the other side
springes the river Kynet, which runnes eastward to Marleborough;‡ from
thence passing by Hungerford, Newbury, &c. it looses itselfe and name
in the river of Thames, near Reading. The third spring is the
beginning of the stream that runnes to Caln, called Marden,§ and
driving several mills, both for corne and fulling, is swallowed up by
the North Avon at Peckingill-meadow near Tytherington. [See also
Aubrey's description of these three springs, ante, page 24.- J. B.]
† Avon, a river, in the British language.
‡ Cynetium, Marleborough, hath its name from the river. The Welsh
pronounce y as wee doe u.
§ Quaere, if it is called Marden, or Marlen? [Marden is the present
name.- J. B.]
The North Avon riseth toward Tedbury in Gloucestershire, and runnes to
Malmesbury, where it takes in a good streame, that comes from
Hankerton, and also a rivulet that comes from Sherston,* which
inriching the meadows as it runnes to Chippenham, Lacock, Bradford,
Bath, Kainsham, and the city of Bristowe, disembogues into the Severne
at Kingrode.
* [The Sheraton rivulet, and not that which rises near Tetbury, is
generally regarded as the source of the North, or Bristol Avon.-J. B.]
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The silver Thames takes some part of this county in its journey to
Oxford. The source of it is in Gloucestershire, neer Cubberley (in the
rode from Oxford to Gloucester), where there are severall springs. In
our county it visits Cricklad, a market towne, and gives name to Isey,
a village neer; and with its fertile overflowing makes a most glorious
verdure in the spring season. In the old deeds of lands at and about
Cricklad they find this river by the name of Thamissis fluvius and the
Thames. The towne in Oxfordshire is writt Tame and not Thame; and I
believe that Mr. Cambden's marriage of Thame and Isis, in his elegant
Latin poem, is but a poeticall fiction: I meane as to the name of
Thamisis, which he would not have till it comes to meet the river
Thame at Dorchester.
[The true source of the river Thames has been much disputed. A spring
which rises near the village of Kemble, at the north-western extremity
of Wiltshire, has been commonly regarded, during the last century, as
the real "Thames head". It flows thence to Ashton Keynes, and onward
to Cricklade. At the latter place it is joined by the river Churn,
which comes from Coberly, about 20 miles to the northward, in
Gloucestershire. Aubrey refers to the latter stream as the source of
the Thames; and, on the principle of tracing the origin of a river to
its most remote source, the same view has been taken by some other
writers, who consequently dispute the claims of the Kemble spring.
- J. B.]
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The river Thames, as it runnes to Cricklad, passes by Ashton Kaynes;†
from whence to Charleton, where the North Avon runnes, is about three
miles. Mr. Henry Brigges (Savilian professor of Geometrie at Oxford)
observing in the mappe the nearnesse of these two streames, and
reflecting on the great use that might accrue if a cutt were made from
the one to the other (of which there are many examples in the Low
Countreys), tooke a journey from Oxford to view it, and found the
ground levell and sappable and was very well pleased with his notion;
for that if these two rivers were maried by a canal between them, then
might goods be brought from London to Bristow by water, which would be
an extraordinary convenience both for safety and to avoid overturning.
This was about the yeare 1626. But there had been a long calme of
peace, and men minded nothing but pleasure and luxury.
"Jam patimur longæ pacis mala, sævior armis
Luxuria incumbit."- LUCAN.
+ [If Aubrey was right in the preceding paragraph in regarding the
stream which rises at "Cubberley" in Gloucestershire as the source
of the Thames, he is wrong in stating that "the Thames" passes by
Ashton Keynes. It is the other brook, from Kemble, which runs through
that village; and the two streams only become united at Cricklade,
which is some distance lower down, to the eastward of Ashton Keynes.-
J. B.]
Knowledge of this kind was not at all in fashion, so that he had no
encouragement to prosecute this noble designe: and no more done but
the meer discovery: and not long after he died, scilicet Anno Domini
1631, January 31st.; and this ingeniose notion had died too and beene
forgotten, but that Mr. Francis Mathew, (formerly of the county
of Dorset, a captain in his majestie King Charles I. service), who was
acquainted with him, and had the hint from him, and after the wars
ceased revived this designe. Hee tooke much paines about it; went into
the countrey and made a mappe of it, and wrote a treatise of it, and
addressed himselfe to Oliver the Protector, and the Parliament. Oliver
was exceedingly pleased with the designe; and, had he lived but a
little longer, he would have had it perfected: but upon his death it
sank.
After his Majesties restauration, I recommended Captain Mathew to the
Lord Wm. Brouncker, then President of the Royall Societie, who
introduced him to his Majestie; who did much approve of the designe;
but money was wanting, and publick-spirited contributions; and the
Captain had no purse (undonn by the warres), and the heads of the
Parliament and Counsell were filled with other things.- Thus the poor
old gentleman's project came to nothing.
He died about 1676, and left many good papers behind him concerning
this matter, in the hands of his daughters; of which I acquainted Mr.
John Collins, R.S.S. in An°. 1682, who tooke a journey to Oxford
(which journey cost him his life, by a cold), and first discoursed
with the barge-men there concerning their trade and way: then he went
to Lechlade, and discoursed with the bargemen there; who all approved
of the designe. Then he took a particular view of the ground to be
cutt between Ashton-kaynes and Charleton. From Malmesbury he went to
Bristoll. Then he returned to Malmesbury again and went to Wotton
Bassett, and took a view of that way. Sir Jonas Moore told me he liked
that way, but J. Collins was clearly for the cutt between Ashton-Kayns
and Charleton.
At his return to London I went with him to the daughters of Mr.
Mathew, who shewed him their father's papers; sc. draughts, modells,
copper-plate of the mappe of the Thames, Acts of Parliament, and
Bills prepared to be enacted, &c.; as many as did fill a big
portmantue. He proposed the buying of them to the R. Societie, and
tooke the heads of them, and gave them an abstract of them. The
papers, &c. were afterwards brought to. the R. Societie; the price
demanded for all was but five pounds (the plate of the mappe did cost
8li.) The R. Societie liked the designe; but they would neither
undertake the businesse nor buy the papers. So that noble knight, Sir
James Shaen, R.S.S., who was then present, slipt five guineas into J.
Collins's hand to give to the poor gentlewomen, and so immediately
became master of these rarities. There were at the Societie at the
same time three aldermen of the city of London (Sir Jo. Laurence, Sir
Patient Ward, and .... ....), fellows of the Society, who when they
heard that Sir James Shaen had gott the possession of them were
extremely vex't; and repented (when 'twas too late) that they had
overslipped such an opportunity: then they would have given 30li. This
undertaking had been indeed most proper for the hon{oura}ble city of London.
Jo. Collins writt a good discourse of this journey, and of the
feazability, and a computation of the chardge. Quaere, whether he
left a copie with the R. Society. Mr. Win, mathematicall instrument
maker in Chancery-lane, had all his papers, and amongst many others is
to be found this.
I have been the more full in this account, because if ever it shall
happen that any publick-spirited men shall arise to carry on such a
usefull work, they may know in whose hands the papers that were so
well considered heretofore are now lodged.
Sir Jonas Moore, Surveyor of the Ordinance, told me that when the Duke
of York sent him to survey the manor of Dauntesey, formerly belonging
to Sir Jo. Danvers, he did then take a survey of this designe, and
said that it is feazable; but his opinion was that the best way would
be to make a cutt by Wotton Bassett, and that the King himselfe should
undertake it, for they must cutt through a hill by Wotton-Basset; and
that in time it might quit cost. As I remember, he told me that forty
thousand pounds would doe it.
But I thinke, Jo. Collins sayes in his papers, that the cutt from
Ashton-Kains to Charleton may bee made for three thousand pounds.
[Some of the above facts are more briefly stated by Aubrey in his
"Description of North Wiltshire" (printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps,
Bart.) They are however sufficiently interesting to be inserted here;
and they clearly shew that, notwithstanding Aubrey's credulity and
love of theory, he was fully sensible of the beneficial results to be
expected from increased facilities of conveyance and locomotion. On
this point indeed he and his friends, Mr. Mathew and Mr. Collins, were
more than a century in advance of their contemporaries, for it was not
till after the year 1783 that Wiltshire began to profit by the
formation of canals.
Sanctioned by the approval of King Charles the Second, for which, as
above stated, he was indebted to Aubrey, Francis Mathew published an
explanation of his project for the junction of the Thames with the
Bristol Avon. This work, which advocated similar canals in other parts
of the country, bears the following title: "A Mediterranean Passage by
water from London to Bristol, and from Lynn to Yarmouth, and so
consequently to the city of York, for the great advancement of trade."
(Lond. 1670, 4to.) An extract from this scarce volume is transcribed
by Aubrey into the Royal Society's MS. of his own work; and a copy of
Mr. Mathew's map, which illustrated it, is also there inserted.
The liberality of Sir James Shaen in the purchase of Mathew's papers,
and the apathy of the London aldermen, until too late to secure them,
are amusingly described. Similar instances of civic meanness are not
wanting in the present day; indeed the indifference of corporate
authorities to scientific topics is strikingly illustrated by the fact
that the Royal Society has not at present enrolled upon its list of
Fellows a single member of the corporation of London; whereas in
Aubrey's time there were no less than three.
The short canal projected in the seventeenth century to connect the
Thames and Avon has never been executed: subsequent speculators having
found that the wants and necessities of the country could be better
supplied by other and longer lines of water communication. Hence we
have the Thames and Severn Canal, from Lechlade to Stroud, commenced
in 1783; the Kennet and Avon Canal, from Newbury to Bath, begun in
1796; and the Wilts and Berks Canal (1801), from Abingdon to a point
on the last mentioned canal between Devizes and Bradford.- J. B.]
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Mdm.-The best and cheapest way of making a canal is by ploughing;
which method ought to be applied for the cheaper making the cutt
between the two rivers of Thames and Avon. The same way serves for
making descents in a garden on the side of a hill.- See ......
Castello della Currenti del Acquo, 4to; which may be of use for this
undertaking.
Consider the scheme in Captain Yarrington's book, entitled "England's
Improvement", as to the establishing of granaries at severall townes
on the Thames and Avon; e. g. at Lechlade, Cricklade, &c. See also
Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 11.
At Funthill Episcopi, higher towards Hindon, water riseth and makes a
streame before a dearth of corne, that is to say, without raine; and
is commonly look't upon by the neighbourhood as a certain presage of a
dearth; as, for example, the dearness of corne in 1678.
So at Morecomb-bottome, in the parish of Broad Chalke, on the north
side of the river, it has been observed time out of mind, that, when
the water breaketh out there, that it foreshewes a deare yeare of
corne; and I remember it did so in the yeare 1648. Plinie saieth (lib.
ii. Nat. Hist.) that the breaking forth of some rivers "annonæ
mutationem significant".
[At Weston-Birt, in Gloucestershire, near the borders of Wiltshire,
water gushes from the ground in spring and autumn, and at other times,
in many hundred places at once, and continues to flow with great
rapidity for several days, when the whole valley, in which the houses
are placed, is completely filled. The street of the village is
provided with numerous rude bridges, which on these occasions become
available for purposes of communication.-J. B.]
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'Tis a saying in the West, that a dry yeare does never cause a dearth.
Anno 1669, at Yatton Keynel, and at Broomfield in that parish, they
went a great way to water their cattle; and about 1640 the springs in
these parts did not breake till neer Christmas.
CHAPTER IV.
SOILES.
[THIS and the three succeeding chapters, on "Mineralls and Fossills,"
"Stones," and "Formed Stones", comprise the Geological portions of
Aubrey's work. In a scientific view, these chapters may be regarded as
of little value; though creditable to their author as a minute
observer, and enthusiastic lover of science. It has been necessary to
omit much which the progress of scientific knowledge has rendered
obsolete; and in the passages quoted, the object has been to select
such as possessed the most general interest, as well as having direct
application to Wiltshire. A good summary of the Geological
characteristics of the county will be found in the article
"Wiltshire," in the Penny Cyclopædia. Mr. John Provis, of Chippenham,
contributed a similar sketch to the third volume of the Beauties of
Wiltshire; and the geology of Salisbury and its vicinity is described
in Hatcher's History of Salisbury, by the son of the historian, Mr. W.
H. Hatcher.-J. B.]
THIS county hath great variety of earth. It is divided, neer about the
middle, from east to west into the dowries; commonly called Salisbury-
plaine, which are the greatest plaines in Europe: and into the vale;
which is the west end of the vale of Whitehorse.
The vale is the northern part; the soile whereof is what wee call a
stone-brash; sc. red earth, full of a kind of tile-stone, in some
places good tiles. It beareth good barley. In the west places of the
soile, wormewood growes very plentifully; whereas in the south part
they plant it in their garden.
The soile of Malmesbury hundred, which is stone-brash and clay, and
the earth vitriolish, produces excellent okes, which seem to delight
in a vitriolate soile, and where iron oare is. The clay and stones doe
hinder the water from sinking down, whereby the surface of the earth
becomes dropsicall, and beares mosse and herbs naturall to such moist
ground. In the ploughed fields is plenty of yarrow; in the pasture
grounds plenty of wood wax; and in many grounds plenty of centaury,
wood sorrell, ladies' bed-straw, &c., sowre herbes.
I never saw in England so much blew clay as in the northern part of
this county, and it continues from the west part to Oxfordshire.
Under the planke-stones is often found blew marle, which is the best.
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