253 
Andent Chapels, &c., in Co. Wilts. 
By the Rev. Canon Jackson, F.S.A. 
Ale g00D imitations may sometimes deceive even experienced 
(@) judges. The late Rt. Rev. Dr. G. H. Law, Bishop of Bath 
and Wells, being fond of exercise on horseback at a very early 
; 

hour, used sometimes to astonish the clergyman and parish clerk, at 
places so far distant as 15 miles from the Palace at Wells, by calling 
to see their church at 7 o’clock in the morning. Upon one occasion, 
whilst staying at a friend’s, a few miles from Bath, his Lordship 
went off alone upon one of these early excursions, and passing in, 
front of a gentleman’s house in a very pretty park, he saw quite 
close to it, a gabled building with a large Perpendicular window, 
_ surmounted by a little crocketed spire. Naturally supposing this 
_ to be the church of the Manor, he turned off the road into the park, 
and rode up to make a closer inspection. The door being open 
exhibited a row of horses, under the hands of grooms and helpers, 
_ whose surprise at such a visitor at such an hour was not less than 
his own. The history of the matter is of course simply this. In 
order to match a house built in ecclesiastical style, the owner had 
given the same style (though much too strongly) to his stable. 
___ In this instance the whole was modern, built in imitation of o/d,- 
But the imitation was consistently carried out. This modern. 
“country gentleman, as a copyist, truly copied what the old ecclesi- 
_astic had done before him; Le. he made his stables and offices 
match his house. 
In retired villages and at solitary old houses, we often 
_ find a fragment of venerable church-like building, some gable, 
- arch, window or doorway. History it has none, beyond the 
usual tradition ‘that it was said to have been once a chapel or a 
Nunnery, or something of that sort.” Now many of these ancient 
; relics may be accounted for in the way above alluded to. The. 
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