still attached to a well in a bottom east of the Manor House, in a fold of the downs. The tithes were formerly paid to the Prebendary, who was Rector; in 1818 they were leased on three lives to the Duke of Somerset ; the last life dropped in 1895, and as an Act had been passed in 1839 vesting the estate of non-residentiary prebends in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the tithes fell to them. The ecclesiastical patronage, however, is transferred by the same Act from the suppressed prebendaries to the Bishop of the Diocese, who exchanged it with the Marquis of Bath, in 1877, for the patronage of Imber. The endowment consists of land bought by Queen Anne's Bounty in the parishes of North and South Barrow, in Somerset. There is a mill mentioned in Domesday, and again in 1342. The farm-house which goes with the mill was formerly a poor-house in the days when each parish kept its own poor, that is, till the reforms in 1834. The first cottage on the right as one enters the parish is very substantially built: one of its walls must be 5ft. thick. Probably it was at one time a farm-house. The first cottage on the left in the parish is said by tradition to have been the first cottage built. The row of cottages beyond the mill is called the Malthouse. Some of the names of the fields are interesting. The following are all on Rye Hill Farm, but the names point to a time when the land was much different in appearance; in the days of high farming and high prices the hedge-rows, planted when the Enclosure Acts were passed at the end of the last century, were grubbed up, and the small fields were thrown into large ones. Mr. Edward Jefferys, who died in 1870, is said to have added twelve acres to the arable part of the farm in this way, by grubbing thickets and undergrowth. The names are:-"Devil's Parrick" (A.S. pearroc), so called "because horses, when ploughing or going alone in the drove, would run away, for summat did gally [scare] them"; "Pot-hole Thicket"; "Fiery Corner"; "Upper Spix." The only industry besides farming was glove-making and buttonmaking by the women. Dim historical traditions still remain of Alfred, the scene of whose exploits is near; a faint reminiscence of the Danes in the expression "a Daner," or "Dane," for a red-haired man; and of a mysterious past "when there was a king in every county." Traditions of the Civil Wars, too, survive, as we have seen above. Lastly, there is a fair amount of folk-lore still remaining; white ladies and headless men; appearances of dead inhabitants round their old haunts; buried treasure (the hiding of Church plate); the appearance of the dead on Midsummer Eve; of a coach with a headless driver; and the laying of spirits. Of spirit-laying, and phantoms of the night, thrilling stories are still told in a circumstantial and vivid way. A place with a lonely situation, an old house and Church possessing every accessory of mystery and romance, an old-established family, and a population of Teutonic descent, are materials for creating an atmosphere of mystery. But these stories cannot here be entered upon; the spirit of romance flies before the cold light of names, dates, and documents. This paper was written in September, and was revised by the late Rev. John Powell. Notes, Archæological and Historical. THE CHALYBEATE SPAS OR SALINE SPRINGS AT WHITEHILL FARM, WOOTTON BASSETT, AND AT CHRISTIAN MALFORD. In the notes appended to the "Perambulation of the Park of Fasterne in 1602," which appeared in the last number of the Magazine, I omitted to mention that about a hundred and fifty yards to the east of the site of the moated resi dence of the Ranger, mentioned therein, is the remarkable saline spring, which is of such repute amongst the inhabitants of that part of Wilts. In the summer months large quantities of the water are taken away by visitors from the towns and villages within a radius of ten miles or more. On Sunday mornings, especially, in May and June, there may sometimes be seen as many as thirty persons at one time drinking the water or filling their various vessels. On one occasion (in May, 1879) the present tenant of the farm (Mr. Hathway) had the number who came during the day counted, and they amounted to near upon four hundred. The public have full and free permission to visit the place and take the water at all times. The well is enclosed with brick, and the water comes up slowly through an iron pipe, the length of which is not known. The field in which the spring is situated is usually reserved for the pasturage of young cattle, as it has been long known that they enjoy there an immunity from the disease known as 66 quarter evil," or inflamatory fever, to which young stock are frequently subject. It has been stated that Queen Elizabeth once paid a visit to the place from Fasterne-about a mile southwards, but it is doubtful if there is any truth in the assertion. The great and little parks of Fasterne, with the manors of Tockenham, Ashton Keynes, Rowde, and Chilton Foliatt were part of the dower and jointure of the Queens of England, commencing with Elizabeth of York (mother of Henry VIII.), and ending with Queen Katherine Parr. In the Privy Purse expenses of the former, mention is made that in 1502 and 1503 many deer were taken from Fasterne to other royal parks, and venison supplied from it to her house in the Minories, in London. All the six wives of Henry VIII. were successive owners in their turn, no doubt, for long or short periods, and it is recorded in a document unearthed at Longleat by the late Canon Jackson (of which the writer has, by his kindness, a copy), that Katherine Howard (during her brief career of two years as Queen) received of Dionisia Person (Parsons) of Queen's Court Farm, Tockenham, the sum of £13 6s. 8d. "in the name of a fine" for that farm, which sum she also subsequently paid to Katherine Parr, besides having to find "man mete, horse mete, and lodging for one night" for the Queen's surveyors when they came; but the audits were held at Fasterne. If Elizabeth ever came to Fasterne it was probably in her infancy, with her mother, Ann Boleyn (who was executed when she was three years old), after whom the road between Coped-Hall and Baynard's-Ash appears to be named, as mentioned in the perambulation. It is not at all probable that Elizabeth came to Fasterne in her later years, as Sir Francis Englefield, who resided there (being a Catholic) was regarded, and treated, as one of her enemies. To return, however, to the particular subject of this paper, it may be mentioned that about forty years ago an analysis of this saline water was made for the Earl of Clarendon, then owner, by the late Mr. Gyde, of Painswick, which was as follows: "Analysis of Water at Whitehill, Wootton Bassett. Specific gravity at 60 degrees carbonic acid and traces of nitrogen. Solid contents (dry) obtained by actual experiment 83·7 in a pint, Gases in solution consisting of : (equal to 128 grains of crystallized sulphate of commerce) The analyst further stated that there was only one other saline spring known to exist which was richer in sulphate of soda, namely, that of Leidchutz, in Germany. According to an analysis of the mineral water at Purton, the total solid residue per gallon was 341·728, and of sulphate of soda 112-239-temperature 58) degs. Sir H. B. Meux, Bart., has also on his estate at Christian Malford another chalybeate spring, which the people there aver to be superior even to that at Whitebill in its curative properties. It is situated in the meadow between the residence known as "The Comedy" and the road leading to Chippenham. In a most interesting work (in four vols., London, 1742), intituled "A Tour through the whole of Great Britain by a Gentleman," this spring is incorrectly stated to be in the parish of Dauntsey, of which place it has a long and amusing account. The spa is thus alluded to:-"Tho' this place is often overflowed with water, yet there is none good either for brewing or washing, or any spring of sweet water. Here is a spring of a chalybeate kind which would turn to good account were it not in such a distant and almost inaccessible part of the country occasioned by bad roads, which were a great protection to the inhabitants in the late Civil Warrs, who were never visited by either party, but injoyed an easy and uninterrupted repose, whilst their neighbours, on all sides, were involved in the calamities of that unnatural war." The cheese made at Dauntsey is very highly praised, being considered as equal to Cheddar, and it is stated that there was not a single acre of arable land in the parish, nor any which did not belong to Lord Peterborough, who was so much cheated and imposed on by the widows of his deceased copyholders that he recommended in a humorous way “his manor of Dauntsey to all such as were apprehensive of dying." The author, who was the celebrated novelist, Samuel Richardson (the author of Pamela," &c.), describes the tower of Dauntsey Church as one of the best built he had ever seen. Aubrey, in his "Collections for North Wilts," relating to Wootton Bassett, mentions that at the parke here there is a petrifying water which petrifies very quickly." This petrifaction is a calcareous deposit from the water derived from the coral rag. The spring is situated on the north side of the town at a short distance from it, on a piece of land originally of a hundred acres, called the 66 Lawn," or Lawnd," mentioned in the petition to Parliament from the inhabitants in the time of the Commonwealth as being assigned to them for pasturage by Sir Francis Englefield, when he deprived them of their supposed rights in Fasterne Great Park. 66 Aubrey also mentions "that at Huntsmill there is a well where the water turns the leaves, &c., of a red colour." He probably saw this spring on his visit to Oxford from Draycot, by the side of the road, before the latter was diverted in 1793, at the time of the introduction of turnpikes. The water has still that property from its ferruginous nature. From a quarry being opened in 1832 on the other side of the road it now rises there. W. F. PARSONS. THE FIRE AT COLERNE, 1774. The dreadful fire that happened at Colerne, in the County of Wilts on the 1st of April, 1774, reduced to ashes forty-two dwelling-houses, two malt-houses, |