By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 293 



ai-tist, has been, for some generations at least, passed by the many 

 without admiration or remark. Now and then its timbered walls, 

 its old-fashioned windows, and its overhanging roof might have 

 arrested the momentary notice of the traveller, as he wended his 

 way through the village street, but it was forgotten almost as soon 

 as seen.' Occasionally its picturesque outline might have tempted 

 the sketcher's pencil, or invited the photographer to halt ; but by 

 the great majority of passers by, I will venture to say, it was wholly 

 unnoticed. 



And yet on examination this was no ordinary house, such as the 

 other houses all around it were. Its formation, its material, its open 

 porch, its gables, its bay window, its barge boards, its projecting 

 story, all proclaimed it the work of a former age : while if one en- 

 tered it and peeped behind the plaster and ceilings which concealed 

 them, beautiful tracery of windows and fine open roofs rewarded the 

 zeal of the curious, and invited to further research. 



And thus unheeded, or at least unrecognized, it might have 

 remained to this moment, gradually succumbing to neglect and 

 the wear and tear of ages, had it not attracted the artistic 

 eye of a gentleman, to whom to see was to admire, and to 

 admire was to purchase, with a view to its restoration : and to 

 whose loving carefulness and reverent regard for antiquity, 

 scrupulous adherence to the most rigid laws of preservation, and de- 

 termination to admit of no renovation, which was not (presumptively 

 at least) warranted by precedent; we of this county and neighbour- 

 hood, and above all the Members of the Wiltshire Archaeological 

 Society, are indebted for the very interesting specimen which we 

 may now see, of a timber house, whose antiquity we may safely 

 estimate at three hundred, and not improbably at near four hundred 

 years, or perhaps more. 



Waiving however for the moment the important question whether 

 it may fairly lay claim to date from the sixteenth or from the fifteenth 

 century, let us proceed to examine its more modern history and its 



> An excellent illustration of the Old House, as it stood about eight years 

 ago, may be seen in the frontispiece of the eleventh volume of the Magazine. 



VOL. SVI. — NO. XLVIII. U 



