During the 17th Century. 111 
- On the 12th May, 1675, the burial of :— 
_ “ Joan wife of Walter Swan beinge travilling to the Bath dyed at the George.” 
_ The house above referred to as the “ George”’ still stands in St. 
Margaret’s district on the left hand of the road leading from the 
railway stations to the town. It is now occupied in cottage tene- 
ments. I have heard it referred to locally as ‘‘ Cromwell’s House,” 
ut do not know upon what evidence it is connected with the 
Protector. The name still survives in “ George Lane,” a highway 
running past one side of the building. The “George” is also 
eferred to in the story of William Houlbrook, the Marlborough 
blacksmith, in 1659. See Waylen, Hist. of Marib., p. 282 et seq. 
On the 11th May, 1643, Thomas Coleman and Katherine Pearce 
are entered as having been married “in.domo.”’ 
The register for 1678 contains the following entry :— 
“The Act for buringe in Wollen began August 24th 1678.” 
The only record of a burial according to the Act is as follows :— 
“1679. Elizabeth the daughter of Robert Messenger & Martha his wife was 
uried accordinge to the late Act May 12th.” 
‘The first mention of the publication of banns occurs on April 
lated to us when we were children by a . little old woman who 
me to our house from time to time to do sewing. Her story was 
a t it always rained when the grass Was mown in a certain water- 
eat low, called Culver’s Mead, in the parish of Preshute, because a 
serter was shot there by some soldiers who were endeavouring to 
ehim. And she used to add that the shot took effect just 
he was leaping one of the ditches or water-carriers. There is a 
lightful “non seguitur”’ in the story, but I give it as she used to 
; f ait. And I may add that we firmly believed in it. 
is a piece of ground in the parish adjoining the Bath Road 
