253 



atacljial pi$taiie$ of fflilts aiA ^oxBtt 



SHE following "Heads of Parocliial Information" have been 

 /jLiil compiled and are now put into circulation in pursuance of 

 X plan originally brought under the notice of the Wilts Archaeolo- 

 gical and Natural History Society, by the Rev. John Wilkinson of 

 Broughton Gifford, at the general meeting, September, 1855. The 

 object in view and the means of attaining it, were fully stated in 

 a paper which appeared in the seventh number of the Society's 

 Magazine. 



The histories required were said to be pictures of the parishes at 

 the present time, and, as far as possible, in past times. The pa- 

 rochial clergy were suggested as the historians ; not because they 

 are in all cases supposed to be necessarily and exclusively the best 

 qualified for the work, but because to them and to them alone 

 among the more educated classes, the several parishes are places of 

 constant residence and spheres of duty, with the past records and 

 present condition of which they have the best opportunity of be- 

 coming familiar, and in which they would naturally be interested, 

 as well from the love of their parochial charge as for the benefit of 

 their successors. Some of the clergy may be able and willing to 

 undertake the task of writing a complete history; others may be 

 80 much occupied with their professional and other more immediate 

 duties as to be unable to do more than answer queries, or heads of 

 parochial information, and so furnish (what the French aptly call) 

 memoires pour sertir d i' Imtoire ; and even those, who may them- 

 selves be wholly without taste or leisure for pursuing such inquiries, 

 may still be able, without much personal trouble, to obtain from 

 competent local authorities, the needful information. Indeed, in 

 any parish, so many and so difterent are the topics which will como 

 under notice, and so varied the accomplishments required for their 

 complete treatment, that it will always bo desirable, and in the 

 larger districts it will be necessary, to organise a committee, so to 



