Ixx. 



MEETING IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF 

 SALISBURY. 



The Club was again favoured with exquisite weather for the 

 last of the outdoor meetings of the season, which was held on 

 Wednesday, September i8th, in the neighbourhood of Salisbury. 

 On that day a large party assembled at the Salisbury Railway 

 Station, where carriages were in waiting to convey them to Brit- 

 ford, Longford Castle, and Downton. 



The route led them by "The Moat," a picturesque old 

 mansion house near Britford Church, still encircled by the 

 ancient girdle of water from which the house derives its name. 

 Of this house and its inhabitants in the reign of Queen Eliza- 

 beth the Hon. Treasurer, Captain Elwes, afterwards related a 

 romantic and interesting story. At 



BRITFORD CHURCH 



the party were received by the Vicar, the Rev. T. J. Woodall. 

 Here Lord Eustace Cecil, who was President for the day, called 

 upon Mr. Doran Webb to speak upon the church. In the 

 course of his remarks, Mr. Doran Webb said the church was 

 restored in 1873 by Sir Edmund Street. The present building is 

 in the main Decorated, but there are remains of earlier work in 

 the nave, the arches on either side being Saxon work. The 

 present nave stands practically on the foundation of the old 

 Saxon church which stood there ; the two arches representing 

 the small transepts such as are to be seen at Breamore. The 

 old chancel probably had an apsidal end, the church then 

 consisting of a long nave, a short apse, and transepts. The 

 earliest part of the church, which was first swept away, was the 

 nave, this part being altered and recast. The high windows are 

 proof that there has been a Norman building here, for the 

 windows, although presenting unmistakeable Decorated features, 

 are yet on the plan and line of older Norman windows, which in 

 turn took the place of the Saxon windows before them. Then, 

 in the fourteenth century, came the destruction of either side of 



