WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE, 
‘““MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR ONUS.’”’—Ovid. 
NOTICE. 
Tuts History of the Parish of Broughton Gifford is arranged in accordance with 
the Heads of Parochial Information contained in the 12th Number of the Wilts 
Archeological and Natural History Magazine. My first duty and pleasure must 
be the offer of my best acknowledgments to those who have helped me; specially 
to Mr. Wm. Phelps, Mr. P. Cox, and Mr. C. E. Ward for their communications 
of the deeds relating to the properties which they respectively administer, 
Lord Broughton’s, Dr. Keddle’s, and E. D. Talbot Jones, Esq’s. But above all 
am I indebted to my friend T. Herbert Noyes, jun., Esq., of the Home Office. 
If there be anything noteworthy in this history, it is this, that the present Lord 
of our Manor can here trace his title to the property from the time of the Con- 
queror to the present day. 
Such a result, however remarkable, offers to the eye no perceptible proportion 
to the knowledge and skill employed. A name and a date show little, but 
signify much; and nobody who has not himself gone record hunting can appre- 
ciate the patience, labour, critical accuracy, and special attainments required to 
produce this mu/tum in parvo. I may the more pardonably glory, since the 
eredit is Mr. Noyes’ and not mine. I was able to furnish him with little more 
than references to the meagre abstracts of the public records; and the faultiness 
of these, published at a great cost by Parliament, has again and again come to 
light in the course of this inquiry. 
Such a history as this, extending through eight centuries, being a narrative 
of events of no public importance, compiled at a distance from public libraries, 
must be full of imperfections, I look to my successors to supply deficiencies 
and correct mistakes. The account, such as it is, proves, however, what 
materials do exist for histories of this kind, even in respect of petty parishes 
which pretend to no importance social or political. 
Still, notwithstanding the insignificance of our village, we can point with 
pride to great names among our lords, to gentlemen and gentlewomen, of high 
blood and higher aims, whose true feelings and brave deeds have made England 
what she is. ‘‘Down those slopes of old renown,” we trace a Neville, from 
whose house sprang nine Earls, one Marquis, Barons many, one Queen, and 
VOL. V.—NO. XV. t 
