200 Recent Books, Pamphlets, Articles, §c., on Wiltshire Matters. 
be a guide book to the Cathedral, it is a memento which many who visit 
the great Church will be glad to carry away with them. Noticed in Devizes 
Advertiser, May 13th, 1897. 
The illustrations are as follows :—Cathedral from the N.E.; W. Front; 
S. Aisle, looking W.; Turret of the W. Front; N. Porch; Longespee Tomb ; 
View from the Meadows; Inverted Arch ; Audley Chantry; Cloister and 
S. Transept; Great Transept; Chapter House; view through Grille to the 
Bridport Tomb ; Lady Chapel ; Consecration Cross on Chapter House. 
Old Wiltshire Market Towns and Villages, by M. K. Dowding. 
Illustrated by M.E.Sargent. London: Houlston & Sons. Chippenham 
and Bath. 1896. Sm. 4to. Pp. vi. 92. Cloth. Price 5/- nett. With 
frontispiece and 35 illustrations in the text from pen drawings. 
This is a nicely-printed and well-got-up little book, written in an easy 
and not unpleasant style, and illustrated with numerous sketchy pen drawings 
which here and there—as in the case of the old Shambles, now destroyed, 
at Chippenham—illustrate some point of interest, but for the most part are 
but too vague “impressions ”’ of buildings, or picturesque “ bits,” of little 
value from a topographical point of view. The letterpress contains outlines 
of the history of the places treated of, and of their prominent characteristics 
in modern times. As far as the history is concerned, this seems taken as a 
rule from the recognised authorities—though even here there are too many 
slips. The people of Wilts were hardly called “ Wilscetas ” in Cesar’s time 
—the Saxon Archbishop’s name was Theodore, not “ Theodosias”—and the 
great castle-building bishop, Roger of Salisbury, did xo¢ bear the surname 
of “Poore,” by which he is mentioned three times in this book. In the 
matter of architecture the authoress has apparently the vaguest ideas, as is 
sufficiently evident from such statements as that the bell-cots of Biddeston, 
Leigh Delamere, and Acton Turville are “ considered to be Saxon ”—that 
the outside of Box Church displays the Norman style—that the “ massive 
Blind House on the Bridge at Trowbridge ”’ is connected with the ancient 
castle—and that the existing chancel of the old Church at Swindon is about 
eleven hundred years old. The derivations of place names given in the 
book, as for instance, the identification of Warminster with Westminster, 
are in several cases not convincing—and where the authoress (as at Swindon 
and Box) ventures on a remark on the local geology it is but too evident 
that she is out of her depth. It is a pity that so pretty a book should be 
marred by such mistakes as these. 
The following is a list of the illustrations :—Salisbury Cathedral, E. Gate 
of the Close, Butter Cross; Warminster from New Road, The Minster ; 
Trowbridge Parish Church, Almshouses ; Bradford-on-Avon Bridge, Saxon 
Church, View of from Railway Station ; Melksham Church, Old Houses ; 
Devizes—St. John’s, Virgin and Child at St. Mary’s, Old Town Hall; Calne 
Church, Green with School-houses ; Marlborough High Street; King Oak 
Savernake Forest ; Swindon View from, Chancel of Old Church ; Chippenham 
Parish Church, the Old Shambles, Old Town Hall ; Corsham Church Porch, 
Hungerford Alms Houses; Box Church, Bridge and Blind House ; 
Biddestone St. Nicholas, Belfry of St. Peter’s; Malmesbury Abbey Porch, 
