58 On Parochial Histories. 
interesting historical events have occured, with which so many 
remarkable historical characters have been connected.” One of 
our secretaries, in his address, pointed out what a county history 
ought to be, stated from his own experience the difficulties which 
beset the task, and showed how they could be met and overcome, 
namely, by the power of combination, directed and animated by 
this Society. Mr. Jackson has done more than deliver precepts 
on this subject. ‘He has taught by example, by his various 
contributions to our Magazine, and particularly by his account of 
Farleigh-Hungerford—which may be regarded as the model of a 
parochial history. That parish indeed lies chiefly in Somersetshire, 
though part of it is within the County of Wilts; but we have 
further in our own county the history, by our President, of a parish, 
as rich in matters of historical interest, as happy in its historian. 
A County History then is one of the main objects before the 
members of this Society. 
Now, such a history must, from its very nature, consist of many 
component parts; it will be, if in any way full and perfect, a com- 
bined whole, made up of the histories of a county’s sub-divisions— 
the Parishes: for every parish has a physical, civil, and ecclesiastical 
story of its own,.more or less interesting. Its very name requires 
etymological investigation; it has a certain configuration of surface, 
certain geological strata, certain peculiarities of climate, of drainage, 
of animals, and of plants; certain natives or inhabitants, who, at 
some time may have been historical characters; certain buildings 
of note, public or private: its industry will always repay inquiry ; 
if agricultural, we may ask how many acres under the plough? 
how many in grass, what the management of each, what the rent, 
the produce ? what the condition of the labouring population, their 
amusements, their toils, their habits, the state of the cottages, what 
improvements have been made, what are still wanting? if the 
industry be manufacturing, the questions will refer in our neigh- 
bourhood to the state of the woollen trade in the West, as distin- 
guished from that in the North; the factories and their management, 
the progress of the power loom, the displacement of homemanufactures 
by hand, the effects of this on the physical and moral condition of 
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