Mrwhrrs of Parliament for Ludgcrshall. 151 



fulness of his knowledge in the racy manner which is peculiarly 

 his own, the excursions were voted by all who took part m them 

 both pleasant and profitable. The first day, it is true, was over 

 old ground, l)ut it was full of interest for all that, and the second 

 day, if not so interesting, or so full, was over ground that most 

 people had never visited before, or were likely to have the op- 

 portunity of visiting in any other way. The numbers attending, 

 though not up to the abnormal standard of Warminster, were— 

 except at the second evening meeting— up to the average; the 

 weather was brightly propitious, and Marlborough itself is as 

 pleasant a centre as any in the county to meet in. 



■^^' 



embers of farliiimeiit for f w^ersljall' 



The Borough of Ludgershall, the population of which in 1801 was four 

 hundred and seventy-one, was anciently a town of considerable extent and 

 importance, and is said to have been the residence of some of the Saxon 

 monarchs. It is situated on the border of the county, adjoining Hampshire, 

 about sixteen miles from Salisbury. The only architectural remairis of its 

 former grandeur are some slight vestiges of a castle which was built soon 

 after the Norman Conquest, but at what precise period is unknown, in 1141 

 the Empress Maud took shelter in the castle in her flight from Winchester 

 to the Castle of Devizes. The next record of it is that it was given by Richard 

 the First to his brother John. In 1225 Jollan de Nevill, principal Warden 

 of the King's Forests, was nominated Governor of Ludgershall Castle ; and 

 in 1259 the governorship was held by Robert de Waleran, who shortly after 

 vacated it to make room for Roger, Lord Clifford, the last governor on record 

 —and, as no mention is subsequently made of the fortress, it is thought that 

 it was dismantled in the reign of Edward the First, when so many of our 

 fortified places suffered a similar fate in order to diminish the power of the 

 barons. In 1415 the manor and lordship was granted to George, Duke of 



'This list, printed many years ago by "W. A. W.," in the Salisbury 

 Journal (?), has been kindly communicated by Mr. E. Doran W'ebb. 



