
Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 315 
Illustrated by Mary F. May, &c., and from photographs. Calne: 
Robert S. Heath. London: Castle, Lamb, & Storr, 133, Salisbury 
Square, E.C. 82 x 53. pp. xxvi. 388. [1904.] Subscriber's edition 
on thick paper, limited to 75 copies, £1 1s.; ordinary edition, 10s. 6d. 
For this stout and valuable addition to its topographical literature 
the County of Wilts is indebted to the public spirit of Mr. R. 8S. Heath, 
of Calne, the publisher, and of Mr. A. E. W. Marsh, the author, both of 
whom have spared neither expense nor trouble in its preparation. It is 
to be hoped that its sale may be sufficient in some measure to recoup 
them. As it stands it is an important looking volume, well printed and 
lavishly illustrated, and it is within the knowledge of the writer of this 
notice that when Mr. Marsh first undertook the task of writing it, the 
work that he proposed to himself to compile was a very different thing 
from the book which has now, after an interval of several years, been 
published. 
Starting with the idea of writing something in the shape of a popular 
sketchy guide book to the Calne neighbourhood he soon found that the 
material for the history of Calne itself which had never hitherto been 
dealt with was sufficient to demand a far fuller treatment than he had 
at first contemplated. The consequence has been that a great portion 
of the book has been entirely re-written, and many parts of it not once 
nor twice. It is indeed perhaps a pity that having departed so far from 
the original design he did not go a step further still and give us an entire 
volume devoted to Calne itself, in which points which, as it is, are but 
touched on, such as the history of the various families who owned 
property in the parish, might have been dealt with as fully as is the 
later history of the borough. The necessarily more superficial sketches 
of the neighbouring villages and other places, such as Lacock, which 
have really nothing to do with Calne, might with advantage have been 
relegated to another volume altogether. For the real value of the book 
lies in the 1st part, consisting of 216 pages, and in the appendices, pp. 
330—377, all of which are concerned with the history of Calne itself. 
In one other respect, too, the book misses being quite as useful as it 
might have been. An index to a topographical work of this kind should 
contain all the names of persons or places mentioned in the book, and 
in this case it does not by any means do so. If it had been merely a 
popular compilation from works of reference already published this 
would not have been necessary, but when we have charters, lay subsidy 
rolls, lists of guild stewards, Members of Parliament, and Mayors, and 
of those who in 1643 swore the covenant, extents of manors, and so 
forth, which are to be found nowhere else in print, one cannot but regret 
that sucha richmine of information is not made as completely available 
as possible by a really full index. 
Of the neighbouring places many are treated in a somewhat unsatisfying 
“guide booky”” way. At Bremhill Maud Heath’s column and causeway, 
the Moravian settlement at East Tytherton, founded by John Cennick 
in 1742, and Stanley Abbey are the chief subjects touched on. At Lacock, 
however, Mr. Brakspear’s architectural notes on Church and Abbey 
