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by taking as wives. The present Rector has recoloured these 
heraldic shields. The church is dedicated to S. James, and 
contains little further of interest. This village is situated on the 
summit of the Cotteswolds, and being some 600 feet above 
sea the air is as bracing as champagne, but the worthy Rector 
would not allow the party to depart without viewing the interior 
of his stone-built Rectory and restoring their nerves with white 
and red Bordeaux. 
Leaving the hospitable Rector, a start was made for Castle 
Combe, which lies in a romantic gully scooped out of the west 
flank of the Cotteswold range. The hills about here make 
travelling, even by well-horsed brakes, a serious matter ; but on 
arriving at the Church of Castle Combe, the party was met not 
only by the squire, Mr. E. C. Lowndes, but by a member of the 
Field Club and his guest, who had managed to reach this pit in 
the oolite hills upon bicycles, direct from Bitton. 
The village of Combe is situated in a deep valley, watered by 
the rapid brook which takes the name of Box brook and joins the 
_ Avon near Bathford. The situation is beautiful and romantic, 
the stone cottages with quaint gables most picturesque, and a 
square market cross stands where the three streets meet. The 
place was a part of the royal domain in Saxon times, and 
so possessed the “jura regalia” up to the time of the 
abolition of feudal rights. These privileges were styled in the 
jargon of the times as “Tol, Them, Sok, Sak, Infangthef,” 
&c., and included the power of punishment by stocks and 
_pillory, pit and gallows. The inhabitants possessed several 
immunities from taxes and tolls, military service and juries, had 
their own courts for justice and probate, bye-laws, and many 
exemptions. 
Castle Combe has an interesting history, which has been left 
to posterity in connected form by the late talented owner, Mr. 
Poulett Scrope, M.P., who printed 150 copies-of his work only 
for private circulation, but an abridgment of the same has been 
