52 Bradford-upon-Avon. 
me that in the Church here is nothing of antiquities to be found,” 
and so, trusting implicitly to the word of his friend, Aubrey did 
not himself take the trouble of looking into it. He speaks, more- 
over, of a large house in Pippet street, which is still standing,— 
“Tn this towne is a faire old built house of the family of Rogers? 
of Cannington; here are many old escutcheons (which see); now 
it is the seat of Mr. Methwyn’ the cloathier.”” However, so far as 
any record of the house, as it then was, is concerned, Aubrey, if he 
even did visit it, might as well have staid away, for he says not a 
syllable about it. He adds further, “On the top of the North Hill 
above Mr. Methwyn’s is the finest hermitage® I have seen in Eng- 
land: several rooms and very neat chapel of good free-stone. This 
high hill is rock and gravel, faces the south and south west: there- 
fore is the best site for a vineyard of any place I know: better in 
England cannot be.” On the same subject in his ‘Natural History 
of Wilts,’ he says, (ch. ix.) “Elders grow everywhere. At Brad- 
ford all the side of the high hill, which faces the south, above Mr. 
Paul Methwin’s house, is covered with them. I fancy that that pent 
might be turned to better profit, for it is situated as well for a 
vineyard as any place can be, and is on a rocky gravelly ground. 
The apothecaries well know the use of the berries, and so doe the 
vintners, who buy vast quantities of them in London, and some doe 
make no inconsiderable profit by the sale of them.” All else that 
1 Rogers of Cannington.—-This was a junior branch of the family of Rogers of 
Bradford, the first of whom, Sir Edward Rogers of Cannington, in Somerset, 
was Comptroller of the Household to Queen Elizabeth, and a Member of the 
Privy Council. Thomas Rogers of Bradford, was a Serjeant-at-Law, 1478, 
and married one of the heiresses of William Besil of Bradford; the other 
heiress, Margaret, being married to Nicholas Hall. The ultimate heiress of the 
elder branch of the Rogers family, viz., Dorothy, daughter of Anthony Rogers, 
married Sir John Hall, Knt. of Bradford (circ. 1570). Arms of Rogers, Arg. 
a chevron between three stags courant sab. 
2 This house is still commonly called by the older inhabitants ‘ Methwins,’ 
and they pronounce it, as though it were spelt, ‘ Methins.’ Within the last 
few years the name of ‘ The Priory’ has been chosen for it, As there is no 
trace of the house ever having been used, in olden times, for any religious 
society, it is almost to be regretted that a name has been adopted which after a 
few years might be calculated to mislead enquirers. 
’ The Hermitage. Aubrey here alludes to the ‘ Tory Senet which we have 
described in page 35. 
