By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 311 
the petitioner was soon observed, visited, and relieved. In the 
course of his frequent rides and walks through the villages adjoining 
his demesne it was his custom to lift the cottage latch, enter and 
look about him, and many a new thatched roof, and ancient wall 
repaired, were owing to these quiet visits. ‘ When the ear heard 
him, it blessed him; when the eye saw him, it gave witness to him.” 
I trust this passing allusion will not be considered irrelevant to our 
subject. For though we are here to-day to inspect by kind per- 
mission the grounds and mansion of Longleat, you will, I am sure, 
feel with myself, that, after all, the noblest ornaments of a house 
are the good names that belong to it. You will feel, that in the 
review we are now taking of the various handy-works of liberality 
and taste, with which its former owners have embellished this place, 
it would have been ungraceful to omit all reference to the amiable 
qualities that may have adorned those owners themselves. 
The noble Marquis to whom I have just alluded, about the year 
1808, employed Mr. Wyatt, (afterwards Sir Jeffrey Wyatville,) in 
certain alterations within the house, principally in the construction 
of the present grand staircase and galleries. Into further details 
it is needless to enter. So many plans and accounts have been 
published of this as of other large mansions, that the very number 
and dimensions of the rooms are almost as well known to the 
public, as they are to the proprietor himself. It was during the 
repairs made by Mr. Wyatt, as appears from a memorandum in his 
writing, that the discovery already mentioned at the beginning of 
this paper was made in excavating the ground under the staircase; 
of a number of coffins containing the presumed skeletons of the 
ancient Priors and Canons of Longleat,—the wearers during life of 
those strange clerical costumes which were described. A second 
and rather smgular discovery was made at the same time, showing 
that those reverend gentlemen, whether living or dead, were never 
allowed to have the Priory all to themselves. 
There is a bird who by his coat, 
And by the hoarseness of his note 
Might be supposed a crow: 
A great frequenter of the church, 
Where canon-like he finds a perch, 
And dormitory too. 
to 
na 
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