272 Potterne. 



whether under King or Protector, under Monarchy or Commonwealth. 



(A.D. 1700-1874). — A very few words more are necessary to 

 bring down our narrative to the present time. At the commence- 

 ment of the eighteenth century we find the lordship of the manor 

 in the hands of Edward Nicholas, of the Roundway family, who 

 held it under Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury. 



Amongst worthies of this century, I may mention Dr. Kent, an 

 eccentric but large-hearted clergyman, who lived at Whistley. The 

 interest attaching to his memory consists not a little in the fact of his 

 having been the friend of one who, though then in complete obscurity, 

 rose afterwards to great eminence, I mean Sir Thomas Laurence. 

 The father of the future President of the Royal Academy kept the 

 Bear Inn, in Devizes. He shewed Dr. Kent on one occasion a 

 sketch, on a wall in his son's bed-room, of the " Doctor " himself 

 on a favorite white horse which he always rode. The sketch so 

 pleased Dr. Kent, that he at once presented young Laurence with a 

 box of colors, the first he ever possessed, and always afterwards be- 

 friended him. In truth he was the means of giving him that fii*st 

 start in life, which enabled him to persevere successfully till he found 

 himself at the very head of his honorable profession. 



It would be wrong to pass over without one word the well-known 

 story of Ruth Pierce of Potterne, whose sudden death in the Market 

 Place of Devizes in the very act of telling a lie, is held forth as a 

 solemn warning of the dangers of untruthfulness by an inscription 

 on a stone pillar recording the circumstances. The circumstances, 

 as stated on the east panel of the market cross, were as follows : " On 

 Thursday, the 25th of January, 1753, Ruth Pierce, of Potterne, in this 

 county, agreed with three other women to buy a sack of wheat in the 

 market, each paying her due proportion towards the same. One of 

 these women, in collecting the several quotas of money, discovering a 

 deficiency, demanded of Ruth Pierce the sum which was wanting 

 to make good the amount. Ruth Pierce protested that she had paid 

 her share, and said she ' wished she might drop down dead if she had 

 not.' She rashly repeated this awful wish ; when, to the consterna- 

 tion and terror of the surrounding multitude, she instantly fell down 

 and expired, having the money concealed in her hand." 



