319 



I Mdtl of tlje farblj d fate^tiirg.' 



By the Rev. A. C. Smith, M.A. (Bector). 



Introduction. 

 DO not think there could have been found a more retired 

 village in the county of Wilts a hundred years ago than 

 the^yTllage of Yatesbury. It may, indi!ed, with truth be said that it 

 is retired enough now, but compared to what it was a century ago, 

 it is now quite in the world. Of late years Imber, on Salisbury 

 Plain, has claimed this distinction, and asserted its rights in the 

 well-known couplet : — 



"Imber on the down. 

 Four miles from any town," 



and in truth Imber has had some qualifications for this post of 

 honour, inasmuch as it was not, until quite recently, approachable 

 by a hard road : and that means, that so far as carriages with springs 

 are concerned, it was isolated throughout the winter at least, cut off 

 from lie rest of mankind, and dependent on its own resources for 

 its budget of news. 



But a hundred years ago neither had Yatesbury any hard road 

 leading to it : and inasmuch as its population was one third less 

 than that of Imber, it is clear that it had so much fewer resources 



* Having been appointed in 1862, by our late revered diocesan, " Good " Bishop 

 Hamilton, as Secretary to the Parochial History scheme, which was instituted 

 under his auspices for this diocese, and having been re-appointed to the same 

 office by our present Bishop, I have, in pursuing my duty, been not unfrequently 

 met with the remark from Incumbents of our smaller rural parishes, that in their 

 insignificant villages there was really nothing to record ; and I have been often- 

 times invited to lead the way, by publishing some account of my own little parish. 

 It is then with the hope that others may follow in wi-iting down all they can discover 

 of the past and present histoiy of their several villages, that I have ventured to 

 print these scanty records of one of the smallest, humblest, and most retired 

 parishes on the Wiltshire downs. 



