for unless the players wander abroad, they are not "Rogues." The pillory and whip, as a mode of correcting mere lazy tramps, have long ceased to be called for by the law: but the "cat o' nine tails" has been within the last few years revived, with general satisfaction, as the most wholesome and promising cure for brutal and cowardly ruffians, convicted of cruel assaults with personal injury; "garotters" and the like. In legislating upon this sensitive subject, caution is however needed; so that the punishment may fall upon the proper recipient. A mistake would be awkward. This is suggested by an old story current among lawyers, but whether only one of their jokes or not, I cannot say. In the reign of George III., there was some misdoing or other, becoming frequent, which called for present remedy. A Bill for the purpose was brought into Parliament In the Bill, which as everybody knows, is merely the first and incomplete draught of an Act of Parliament, it was proposed to stop the offence by a fine in money. The person convicted was to pay forty shillings; one half to His Majesty, the other to the informer. The Bill went into Committee, and was altered. Instead of a fine in money, they substituted "a sound whipping:" but they forgot to alter the terms of appli cation; so when the new Act came out, it ran thus:-"For this offence a sound whipping to be administered: one half to His Majesty, and the other half to the Informer." The pillory at Chippenham stood at the churchyard gate. In an old Churchwarden's book of A.D. 1677, are these entries relating to it. "Paid the Mason for stone and work at the Churchyardgate Pillory 1 For hauling stone from Hazlebury for the pillory £ S. d. 2 6 1 6 4 0 8 0 4 0" Whilst we are at the Church-gate, some other notices in the same Account Book may be named. "For mending the clock and watch. For taking down the watch. For money and beer in setting the watch up again. For gilding and painting the watch." The "watch" probably means what we now call the clock-face or dial. Destroying of Vermin. The Churchwardens used formerly also to spend the parish money in destroying vermin; or what they pleased to consider such in those days. In 1705, are several charges to the ratepayers for killing grays (badgers), martins, adders, and foxes. As many as twelve foxes are charged in one year's bill, and the name of the person who seems at that time to have devoted his particular attention to that branch of the subject was John Dunn. But John Dunn carried on his business in 1705, when the fox was an animal which anybody might catch and kill, that could. For there were no foxhounds in this neighbourhood so early as 1705. Among His Grace the Duke of Beaufort's papers is an old account book, containing all the particulars of the first establishment of the hunting there. The book begins in the year 1729; in the time of the third Duke of Beaufort. They kept at that time nothing but hariers. In 1734 deerhounds came in: and the kennel in that year consisted of 61 hariers, and 12 deerhounds. The deerhounds then increased and the hariers fell off; for in 1742 the deerhounds were 61 and the hariers 43. In the next year, 1743, there was another variety introduced for the first time, and the list then stands as "no hariers, 65 deerhounds, and two foxhounds," the names of the two being Thunder and Giddy. So Thunder and Giddy in 1743 were the original founders of the celebrated Beaufort pack. John Dunn, of Chippenham, who amused himself with catching foxes in 1705, might do so without spoiling sport, for there was no pack of foxhounds at Badminton till forty years after his time. The Plague. Two or three occurrences of later date may be mentioned. In the year 1608, and for three years following, a plague raged among the population of England. At Chippenham, fair-days and markets were closed, because in certain towns adjoining, especially in Corsham, the pestilence had broken out, and special constables were set to look after "Nicholas Eaton and his wife," and keep them out of the town, as they were known to be among persons infected with the plague. However, in spite of Nicholas Eaton and his wife, it did break out in the borough, at Whitsuntide, in 1611, and continued for five months, causing much misery and distress many died: and the justices ordered subscriptions to be made for the poor. It broke out again in 1636. No person then was allowed to take lodgers, and everybody was commanded to set water at their doors. The Small Pox. In 1711 the town was severely visited by the small pox. In a printed sermon preached by Thomas Frampton (afterwards Vicar of Shrewton, near Lavington), in Chippenham Church, on Sunday, 18th November, 1711, upon the occasion of the removal of the disease, the melancholy circumstances they had been in all the summer are described. "The last thing we usually heard at night was a Funeral knell, and the first thing that was commonly told us in the morning was the death of some neighbour or friend. We could hardly walk the streets without being, some of us, a terror to our neighbours, nor could many of our neighbours do the same, without being a terror to us. The country about us would neither store our markets, nor frequent our shops: our expenses every day increased, our gain diminished: we got little and spent much." In token of gratitude for their deliverance, the preacher then properly laid before them certain amendments, which it was a good and becoming opportunity to carry into effect. One of these was that the parish should meet together, and make some orders for the better observation of the Lord's Day, and see those orders duly executed. The Church also appears to have been not then in such good order as it might have been. He therefore proposed that they should agree to the adorning of the House of God. "This would be," he says, "a brave act of piety, and would shew the Parish thoroughly affected with the mercy received, and heartily inclined to make a suitable requital." Another suggestion made by him seems to imply that in those days there was no school in Chippenham for children of the poorer parishioners: as he exhorts them to set up and promote a Charity School. In all these matters Chippenham, in the year 1711, appears to have been in need of the spur. Mr. Frampton proceeds to apply it, telling them very plainly, "For your interest, you ought to promote these designs, and also let me add for your credit. Ill things have been spoken of you. I wish by such good actions you would shew you deserve it not." The Civil Wars. A few notes have also been met with relating to the town during the war between Charles I. and the Parliament. It would seem that upon the breaking out of the war in 1642, the good people of Chippenham did not give themselves much trouble about the matter, and displayed no special zeal either for the one side or the other. But this indifference did not save them from undergoing the operation of being bled-in the pocket if not in the person; and the Borough accounts show that neither party spared them. Accordingly, whether the one or the other army lay near the town, it made no difference, money was called for. Colonel Lunsford, commanding the garrison at Malmesbury for the King, inflicts what he was pleased to call a Fine upon the Corporation of Chippenham of £30, besides 10s. for watching the Foss road. Then followed a rate levied by Sir Edward Hungerford, the commander of the Wilts forces on the side of the Parliament; a second and a third rate for the same, all in one year: and besides this, provisions of bread, hay, malt, &c. Prince Maurice, for the Crown, requires a month's pay and quarters for Colonel Butler's soldiers: Colonel Howard, for maimed men carried through the town. The Marquis of Hertford, for the Crown, levies £200 on the parish. £1200 a week is required from the county; and the constables come to Chippenham for its proportion. John Wilcox is paid for the carriage of a great piece of ordnance to Devizes, 23s.; John Gale for carrying three barrels of gunpowder, and John Flower for looking after prisoners. Sir William Waller, for the Parliament, levies a rate for buying horses. Colonel Chester presses soldiers. These and similar rates are repeated over and over again during the three years of the war: and as it drew to an end in 1645, a contribution was required for demolishing the military works at Lacock. Nevertheless, in 1648, in order to bury the past in oblivion, and to show that Chippenham was ready to forget and forgive, it paid 4s. 8d. to Robert Smith for a bowl of sack and a bottle of claret, which was presented to General Cromwell when he dined at the White Hart, on his way towards Bristol for Ireland. In 1650, when a fresh struggle began between Cromwell and Prince Charles (afterwards Charles II.), the county was put to further expense, and the Corporation of Chippenham subscribed, out of the borough fund, £2 8s. 8d., towards one horse sent to the fight at Worcester, and 15s. 8d. for a sword and saddle for ditto. A great many sums were advanced for the Commonwealth. But in 1656 the Commonwealth came to an end. The Bells of Chippenham Church rang out: and Oliver Cromwell was proclaimed at the White Hart, Lord Protector of England: Edward Hawkins being then Bailiff of Chippenham. Three years afterwards, on the 12th of May, 1660, King Charles II. was proclaimed: and the drinking of his good health by the soldiers in the town, cost the borough £4 12s. The townsmen who were musketeers consumed 10s. extra, and the gunpowder cost £4. But at the coronation, the gunpowder, the rockets, the ringers, and the beer, came to £11 19s. 8d. Soon after King James II. succeeded to the throne, he passed through the town, and exacted from the corporation what was called a homage fee, of £36 6s. 8d. This was probably a sort of payment expected in return for a new charter which he granted them. The Causeway and Hermitage. On going out from Chippenham, on the way towards Calne, 300 or 400 years ago, the public road must have been at times very little better than what Wiltshire people call a "gogmire." The ground slopes beyond the New Cemetery, and is very flat towards the Swan public house. A little stream there, called the Pewe, was always in former times flooding the road. There were constant complaints against the Abbot of Stanley, to whom the land belonged, for not |