216 Some Account of the Parish of MonJdon Farleigh. 



directly after he was found, and described him as a perfect skeleton . 

 In further confirmation of the story I may add that a person coming 

 from Kingsdown to Monkton Farleigh would naturally skirt Ashley 

 Wood, and that a very slight, and yet, in the nutting season, a very 

 natural divergence, would place a traveller in a position where he 

 might not be found for weeks, and where yet he might naturally be 

 lighted upon after the commencement of the partridge season. 



Conclusion. 



The origin of this compilation — for it is nothing more, is simply 

 this. The late Mr. Wilkinson wrote a history of the neighbouring 

 parish of Broughton Gifiord, in which I have an interest. This 

 suggested to me that something similar might be done for our own 

 parish, and I then discovered that Canon Jackson had written a 

 history of our priory (see Wilts Arch. 31agazine, vol. iv., pp. 267 — ■ 

 284), and that Mr. Powell, when a curate amongst us, had collected 

 materials for a more complete account of the parish. This history 

 and these materials were placed unreservedly at my disposal, and 

 my principal work has been simply to vex'ify the materials, as far as 

 I had the means of doing so, and to put them together. 



To this end I have carefully examined and analysed the parish 

 registers, and I have consulted Domesday, Leland, Dugdale, Tanner, 

 Hoare, and other minor authorities, and, through the kindness of 

 Mr. Henry Hancock, I have had access to such of the manorial 

 papers as are still in existence. 



I have thus been enabled to arrive at some new facts, and I have 

 ventured to introduce a few veiy obvious remarks and comparisons. 



I have not the knowledge nor the materials that would have 

 enabled me to write a history of so complete a character as that o£ 

 Mr. Wilkinson's, and in speaking of persons or of events I have 

 endeavoured as a rule to speak of them only to the extent that they 

 were connected with our parish, and if at any time I have ventured 

 to introduce any extraneous matter, it has been because I thought 

 it had some more or less direct bearing upon the history of the 

 parish, or was a matter deducible from facts relating to it. 



I do not suppose that more than half-a-dozen persons out of the 



