254 Maud Heath’s Causey. 
Aylesbury’ and Wendover. Praiseworthy too was the act of 
Walter Lord Hungerford who'a little earlier, “for the health of the 
soul of the Lady Katherine his wife,” first’made a safe footing over 
Standerwick Marsh between Beckington and Warminster. Nor 
let Sir Ralph Verney, Knight, be forgotten, who gave £10 by 
will; to amend “noyous and ruinous ways,” in that same rich but 
dirty vale of Aylesbury aforesaid. 
Instances of perpetual endowments for the repair of roads or 
footpaths are by no means common. In Wilts there are only one 
or two. Cricklade has its “Wayland Estates,” given in the reign 
of Queen Elizabeth, for the repair of highways about that town, and 
for no other purpose: These are of considerable value; consisting 
of about 30 houses, and 50 acres of land, worth together, in 1833, 
about £95 a year. And at Devizes, so late as a.p. 1641, as appears 
by a memorandum in a council book, John Pierce, gentleman, a 
chief burgess, paid £50 into the borough purse, the use thereof to 
be bestowed yearly at the discretion of the Mayor and Recorder, 
on the maintenance of the causeways. 
The benefaction of Maud Heath was earlier than these, and if 
the tradition about her is true, its history is a curious one. She is 
said by common report to have been a market woman, who having 
long felt by sad experience the inconvenience of a swampy walk, 
especially in the conveyance of such perishable ware as butter and 
eggs, devoted the savings of her life to the laudable purpose of 
providing a good footing for her successors in all time to come. 
She made no will: (at least we have not been able to hear of one 
either in the registers at Salisbury or in London) but during her life 
time, about the year 1474, in the reign of K. Edw. IV., she gave to 
certain trustees, some houses and land in and near Chippenham to 
carry out her intentions, How much, if any, of the causey was 
finished before her death, or whether it was begun at all, we have 
no account. 
It commences about 44 miles from Chippenham, on the eastern 
side of the town, at the top of Bremhill Wick Hill. The hill itself 
is a high and pleasant ridge capped with dry iron sand, but im- 
mediately at the foot of it, upon the northern side, lies a low and flat 
