158 Swindon and its Neighbourhood—No. 2. 
now put to this, by a recent Act of Parliament; and it is to be 
hoped that the interest created in them by the exertions of Societies 
like our own may also help to produce a better feeling. But it is 
difficult to prevent wanton mischief, as witness, only a few months 
ago, the upsetting, by a party of perhaps tipsy idlers, of the famous 
Rocking-stone, called ‘‘The Buckstone,” near Monmouth, in the 
Forest of Dean. 
Tur CHARTERHOUSE LANDLORD. 
In glancing over the map for some place to speak about, the eye 
falls upon some estates near Swindon that belong to a landlord 
‘ealled The Charterhouse. It is said that the common people of 
India who in former days used to hear so much about that—to them 
invisible—authority, the “ East India Company ” and its palace in 
Threadneedle Street, by a natural association of Ladies with needles 
and thread, believed “ Company” to be some very long-lived Dowager 
Princess, to whom their money and allegiance were due. Possibly 
some of the tenants under the Charterhouse may have the lke 
erroneous notion of their landlord, and wonder what he is like, and 
how he came by so singular a name. I am the more tempted to 
say something about this on the present occasion because in my 
school-days I had the pleasure of a very close and intimate acquain- 
tance with the subject. The origin of the name was this :—about 
eight hundred years ago a French ecclesiastic of the name of Bruno 
retired from the world to a place called La Chartreuse, in the 
mountains of Dauphiné, in the South of France. He there founded 
a monastery and an Order, which became very famous. They had 
several Houses in England, but the original French name of 
Chartreuse very soon became corrupted into Charterhouse. We have 
Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath, and a Charterhouse on the Mendip 
Hills, near Wells, at both of which places there was a monastery of 
this Order. The great establishment in London lay outside the 
wall of the old City, and it stands there still, close to Smithfield. 
On the dissolution of the monasteries the building, with several 
acres of pleasure ground adjoining, was presented by the Crown to 
Sir Edward North, whose son, Roger, sold it in 1569 to Thomas 
