President's Address. 133 



little church of Hilperton before its restoration, and in the aisle 

 arches at Christian Malford. 



At Bradenstoke are the remains of a magnificent decorated tim- 

 ber roof of the Refectory, not visible as a whole by reason of 

 floors introduced, but by the same reason readily accessible to 

 those who may desire to make minute examination. 



But I must be more concise. The perpendicular ecclesiastical 

 buildings of our county are not to me of first-rate interest, except 

 as proving by the rebuilding of naves, and perhaps by chapels in 

 the great vale parishes, the increased population and wealth in the 

 15th century. Of the alterations of earlier buildings, I will only 

 mention the large church at Westbury, originally Norman but 

 perpendicularized, something in the spirit of Wykeham's great 

 work at Winchester. I will add the bold and stately church of 

 Steeple Ashton, the fine but late tower of St. Peter's, Marlborough, 

 and the very fine but late tower of St. Sampson, Cricklade. 



But our domestic buildings of the Tudor period are of endless 

 interest. I do not now speak of large and rich edifices only, but 

 of the tradition of a tolerably pure manipulation of their materials 

 surviving in some instances even to our own day, in the freestone 

 districts of the west of the county. In the great parish of Corsham 

 particularly (where it is said that the tenure in ancient demesne 

 kept up a wealthy class of yeoman), but also in the neighbouring 

 country, they have, not ocly in the farm houses, but in the cottages 

 good models before their eyes. 



Of great Tudor mansions, I will only mention the old house at 

 Wraxall, with its gatehouse, its fine hall, and its other members, 

 both earlier and later, and the grand repose characteristic of the 

 noble house at Littlecot. Whilst we sympathise with the reasons 

 which preclude our access to that without which our meeting here 

 is the Tragedy of Hamlet, the part of Hamlet being unavoidably 

 omitted, we see here the condemnation of the bristling elevations 

 and great proportions of height to length, now called Elizabethan. 

 It is indeed diflBcult to get sufficient height of rooms in that style 

 in a building of little length of front. But that is surely not so 

 much a reason for disfiguring the style, as for not attempting it in 

 buildings where you will have to disfigure it. 



