254 Ancient Chapels, &c., in Co. Wilts. 
Abbots and Abbesses of the older days were not only large land 
owners, but great and good builders, and they gave to their farm 
houses, their barns and mills, &c., a solidity and character of orna- 
ment in keeping with the profession of the owners. So it often 
comes to pass that what was only a substantial kitchen or hall in 
a dwellinghouse, or a granary or stable in a court-yard, on outlying 
estates that formerly belonged to a monastery, is often now supposed 
to have been part of a chapel or other building appertinent to the 
residence of the Monks themselves. 
At the same time there may be many fragments of real chapels 
and the like, that might perhaps be identified, if there were any 
ready means of knowing, in each county, the names of all the places 
at which any ancient structure connected with religion is known to 
have once existed, besides the ordinary Parish church. For the 
county of Wilts, the following Alphabetical List may be of use. 
It includes all such parish churches, conventual churches, chan- 
tries, chantry chapels, &c., as underwent some change when 
the religion of the country was changed in the reign of Henry 
VIII., and his immediate successors. Some were altogether des- 
troyed: others allowed to go to decay ; but the larger part of the 
chapels having been deprived of their endowments, were in most 
cases allowed to remain, either as burial places for particular 
families, or for the general purposes of the parish church to which 
they were attached. 
The number of Parish churches that have ever, at any time, been 
bodily removed without being replaced, is, as might be expected, 
not very large. The few that have disappeared were of a very 
humble kind. 
Of the Conventual churches, three have survived : Malmesbury 
(mutilated), Ambresbury, and Edingdon. These perhaps were 
partly indebted for their safety to their size. All the rest have so 
absolutely disappeared that, except by some casual excavation, not 
a trace of them is to be found. Nor is there any description, still 
less any illustration, (such as a general view or ground plan,) left to 
give us the slightest idea of what they were like. But their names 
and localities are upon the whole, well ascertained. 
