By the Rev. A. C. Smith, M.d. 357 



in " the Street," which alone proclaims the ancient custom, threatens 

 to visit us no more ! 



1 should scarcely be doing' justice to a very important matter if I 

 omitted to mention the various fairs in the neighbourhood, which 

 serve as epochs, from which our villagers usually date : thus instead 

 of specifying the end of November, they would say " about a fortnight 

 or so after Yatsbury Vee-ast." Other noted landmarks of time 

 are Tanhill fair (August 6th) usually called "Tannul Vair " ; Devizes 

 fair (April 20th) generally known as "Vize Vair^'j Calne fair 

 (May 6th) j and Marlborough fair (August 22nd). 



There is yet another subject which demands attention before I 

 take leave of the parish, to wit the winds which at times beset us 

 with more than common violence, as might be conjectured when our 

 position on the broad open table-land of the downs is considered. 

 The winds which chiefly prevail here are the south-west, which come 

 up from the Bristol Channel without let or impediment, and have a 

 fair fling when they reach our downs. These however are soft- 

 hearted well-disposed winds, which, however boisterous and roughs 

 only tumble about the thatch of ricks and cottages in sport, and 

 have no venom in their horse-play. Not so the north-easterly winds, 

 which swoop down upon us in the early spring, and are spiteful in 

 their attacks, bitter in their blasts, and deadly in their continuance : 

 man and beast, animal and vegetable, cower under their influence, 

 and are the worse for their encounter ; and then they often prolong 

 their visits and refuse to depart, however hateful their presence. It 

 is owing to these protracted gales from the north-east that our 

 springs are generally so cold and backward ; though we are com- 

 pensated in the autumn by a prolongation of warmer weather some 

 fortnight or more than in less elevated districts : and in the month 

 of October, as you ascend the downs on an evening from the valleys 

 below, you may often feel a sensible increase of temperature, as you 

 mount to the level of our plain. 



On the 30th December, 1859, our village was visited by the most 

 terrific storm of wind I ever heard of in this country : indeed Capt. 

 Sherard Osborn declared that in all his experience of typhoons in 

 China and southern and tropical countries, he never had any idea of 



