304 The Vale of Warminster. 
The “fossels’”? means the fold-shores, or the stakes to which the 
hurdles are shored up, and fastened with a loose twig wreath at the 
top, 
Of course one might continue these examples of provincialism to 
any extent. It really takes a very long time to learn all the words 
and phrases of the country ; and even now, after a good many years’ 
familiarity with Wiltshire pronunciation, I am sometimes: still 
obliged to return the compliment originally paid to myself, and to 
say to some old fellow, if not in words, at least in my thoughts, 
what an old fellow once said to me— What's that as you do say, Sir? 
TV. Tue Porvutation. 
Taking a farewell glance at the whole of the Vale of Warminster, 
containing (to speak m round numbers) say twenty-eight or thirty 
parishes—more or less: all of which lie in a contiguous chain, owing 
to the geological necessity of the case, there is one question arises, 
and it is the last which I have to submit to your judgment, viz. : 
whether there are more people living in it now than there were five 
hundred years ago? Our cities and towns have, of course, increased 
enormously: but is the agricultural population, in this, and similar 
districts, greater, or is it less, or is it about the same ?—and I apply 
the question to other similar districts pure/y in the country. My own 
opinion upon the matter is, that the rwra/ population was quite as 
large, and, in some parts, larger than it is now. One reason for my 
saying so is this:—In examining the old records, such as the very 
ancient rental books and court rolls of some monasteries, especially 
Malmesbury Abbey (once owner of almost every parish in its im- 
mediate neighbourhood, all of which I am tolerably familiar with) : 
in examining the rental books, which gives the name of every tenant, 
I have noticed, that in some very small hamlets there were, in 
Edward the Second’s reign, five hundred years ago, more persons 
paying rent than there are in those very hamlets now. When people 
pay rent it is generally for something which they occupy in the 
place—cottage, house, or land. So, as there were more rent-payers, 
I suppose there were more people. 
Another reason why there should have been more, is this :—The 
