: 
33 
GHAesthury 
Ander the Plat. 
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jacxson, F.S.A.! 
N the programme of our proceedings the paper now about to 
be read was announced as “Some Notes of Westbury 
History,” simply because its full history down to A.D. 1830 was 
written in the late Sir Richard C. Hoare’s magnificent work on South 
Wiltshire. The authors of county histories are, and must be, always 
largely assisted ; and the best assistants are those who belong to and 
reside in the particular district described, being able to supply local in- 
formation, and having opportunity of access to documents in private 
hands, without which nothing can be done with accuracy. Sir Richard 
was helped, in such portions as related to modern times, by Mr. 
Richard Harris, of Dilton; in his account of ancient times and 
_ families by the officers in charge of the public records in London. 
Such works as his are, no doubt, noble additions to our literature, 
but, unfortunately, it requires a nobility of purse to buy them. 
_ They are very costly, and, thanks to our American friends who love 
to trace their connection with the families and places of the old 
country, and so have raised the market price enormously, such works 
are getting quite out of the reach of ordinary folk—who accordingly 
are not much the better for them. Now, one of your fellow- 
townsmen, Mr. Michael, has, to his great credit, taken pains to 
present you with the main outline and substance of the more 
splendid publication, at a price and in a form which bear a strange 
contrast with the more expensive work—a modest little pamphlet, 
price twopence. But observe the result. Where one person can 
buy Sir Richard, thousands can buy Mr. Michael. At the railway 
stalls among his little publications I observed one with which, as it 
1 Read at the Meeting of the Wilts Archeological Society at Westbury, July 
81st, 1889. 
VoL, YXIV.——-NO. LXXII. D 
