264 The Death of the Earl : — St. Margaret's, Marlborom/h. 



height of 4ft. Gin. above the plinth. Within the house there are 

 pieces of mediteval moulded oak serving as supports behind and 

 beneath the staircase. There is also a section of a stone door-head 

 of the fourteenth century lying loose upon the ground, and it seems 

 probable that soon after the Daniel family acquired the premises 

 (which was about 1539 — 42), they altered the buildings to make 

 them suitable for a dwelling-house, and then introduced the Tudor 

 details which still remain. We noticed as such the barge board and 

 pendant, three stone fireplaces, and a long beam with stop-moulding, 

 one end of which shows that it once spanned a narrower chamber 

 than it does at present. There are also two or three Tudor doors, 

 and doorways, of oak. Considerable changes were made (if we 

 conjecture rightly) about 1680 (the date of the slab in the south 

 wall, exterior, with the initials " H. G."). To that later alteration 

 belong the earliest details in the present windows, a door with 

 wrought iron handle, the mitred oak panels, the earliest cupboard, 

 and the staircase. 



In the early years of the nineteenth century the present house 

 was occupied as a farm-house, and was known as "St. Margaret's 

 Farm." Probably such was the nature of its occupation throughout 

 the eighteenth century. 



The old high road, now part of Mr. Merriman's field, ran to the 

 west of the farm-house. The present main road from Marlborough 

 to Everley was constructed under the powers of an Act of Parlia- 

 ment, passed in 1821. Previously to the construction of the 

 turnpike road, the meadow to the north of the present building, 

 and the meadow to the east of the present road, were an undivided 

 enclosure having the name of " Priory Mead." 



Up to the present time no trace has been discovered of the site 

 of the Priory Church, but there seems no reasonable doubt that 

 the burial ground of the priory lay immediately north of the 

 building still standhig. 



When about the year 1889 the ground on the west of the main 

 road was trenched, three graves were disturbed by the spade — one 

 of them in the immediate line of the trench. The remains in this 

 instance were wholly destroyed before their character was observed. 



