First Bays' Proceedings. 127 



the town as to the date at which it became a corporation : for he 

 could not imagine that a town which required two such large 

 Churches as St. John's and St. Mary's — even supposing that St. 

 John's was a little less in size than it is now — had, just at that 

 period, if they were to believe all that was told them, received its 

 first charter. He thought those facts pointed very conclusively to 

 the existence of a large population before the building of the castle ; 

 and instead of the population being the result of the castle, the 

 castle was rather the result of there being a population here. 

 Amongst other peculiarities which Mr. Brock pointed out was the 

 lowness of the chancel arch, which was attributable to the size of 

 the beautiful semi-Norman chancel which has the square end so 

 common at that period ; and if they found in any Church in this 

 locality a circular apse, they might attribute its foundation to a 

 period anterior to Norman times, or showing some influence different 

 from that of the district. 



The party then proceeded to The Castle, where they were most 

 courteously received by Mr. Leach, and conducted over the grounds 

 and the building; and here Mr. Brock again addressed them, 

 pointing out with the skill of an able connoisseur the principal 

 features worthy of observation. He said that having been asked by 

 Mr. Leach to say a word or two on the matter, he should perhaps 

 in doing so start a theory which would be new to them. An archse- 

 ologist who endeavoured to compare one building with another 

 might very often, by the knowledge he possessed of works of different 

 periods, throw light on that immediately before him ; and he had 

 therefore no hesitation in saying that they must look for a British 

 origin for that great earthwork. The county of Wilts had one of the 

 finest earthworks remaining in the country, at Old Sarum — a work 

 that was known to have been commenced by the Ancient Britons, 

 used by the Romans, occupied by the Saxons, and afterwards held 

 by the Normans. In the earthwork now before them they had 

 precisely the same outline as at Old Sarum. Any person who took 

 the trouble to examine a map of Devizes would readily see how all 

 the lines of thoroughfare converged round the castle just as they did 

 at Norwich, where there were similar earthworks to this, and most 



