146 Leland’s Journey through Wiltshire. 
caullid Long Thomas, Long after was usurpid for the name of the 
family.! 
were once in the windows, but have now entirely perished. Its history and antiquities 
have been described in a volume upon the subject by Mr. Thos, Larkins Walker; with 
views of the exterior, and of the principal apartment upstairs, containing a very fine 
chimney piece and ornamented ceiling, together with details of the architecture, and 
of various devices sculptured in stone. The oldest parts are the Hall and Porch. The 
original builder is not particularly known, but some additions were made by Sir Robert 
Long, about 1566. There is a carefully-written Memoir both of the House and 
Church in the Gent. Maa., June 1835. 
1 “‘Long.’* There certainly is a tradition appurtenant to the ancient family of Long 
of Wraxhall, that, at some remote period which their Pedigree does not fully elucidate, 
the name was Prevx. To this some countenance is given by a resemblance in the 
arms of Long to those of Preux, and by the use of the motte “‘ Preux quoique pieux.” 
But Mr. Bonham’s story of the first introduction of the name of Long by a Lord 
Hungerford, does not appear very consistent either with fact or probability; for the 
name of Long occurs in the lists of Wiltshire landowners, before that of Hungerford. 
The connexion of the Hungerfords with Wiltshire, as a recognized family, does not date 
earlier than 1350: and the first of them who became a Baron, lived a.p. 1440—1449. 
The public records of the county, on the other hand (See the Inquisitions P.M. and Wilts 
Fines), show Longs as landowners in several places at a much earlier period: as at Alton,: 
and Ablington, near Figheldean, in 1258; at Coulston near Lavington, in 1267; at 
Bratton and Westbury, in 1279. Being then an already appropriated name, it is not 
likely that a stranger would adopt it, unless he had some substantial right to do so, 
either by a marriage or other intelligible process. 
The next part of the story (viz; as to the advancement of some earlier member of this 
family by one of the Hungerfords) perhaps contains more, though it is now difficult to 
say how much, of truth. 
The first Long who appears in the authenticated account of the family as owner of 
Wraxhall, is Robert, a.p. 1400—1440. His son John Long married Margaret Wayte, 
and by that marriage obtained the Draycote estate. Wraxhall therefore, of the two, 
came first into the Long family: but in what way Robert had obtained it, whether by 
marriage, purchase, or inheritance,is unknown. The names of his wives have been given 
in the pedigrees with some variety, as Bradley, Popham, or Hering, but none of these 
alliances throws any light upon the acquisition of South Wraxhall. It is, in fact, not 
exactly known whose property it was immediately before the Longs. In the Beauties of 
Wilts (11. 226.) the Hungerfords are named: but no authority for this is given, nor do 
the evidences of that family (very ample at this period) allude to the manor as theirs. 
There is some reason for believing that it may have been part of the estate of the St. 
Maurs, who had property near Bradford; that from St. Maur it passed to Berkeley, and 
from Berkeley, by marriage, either to the father of Robert Long, or, perhaps to Robert 
Long himself: and that this alliance may have been in some way promoted by the first Lord 
Hungerford, who had himself married, for a second wife, a Berkeley of Beverstone. In 
the church of South Wraxhall there is a monument which from the peculiarity of its 
character and situation seems to favour this suggestion. At any rate it testifies to. an 
