SltAFTESiJURY. 43 



now reckoned as part of Holy Trinity) ; S. Edward ; and a chapel 

 also dedicated to S. Edward. There were also, in the outpari.sh, a 

 chapel dedicated to S. Anne at Gore, and a chapel at Dlintcslicjld. 

 The parish of Cann S. Paiinhold was not situated within 

 the borough. Of the four surviving parish churches, S. I'etur's 

 alone dates hack to the close of the middle ages, the others 

 having heen rebuilt during the present century. This cliUK/h 

 you will presently have the ph.^xsure of inspecting. Though 

 S. Peter's was reckoned the })rincipal church of the town, the 

 cemetery most used was that attached to the Church of Holy 

 Trinity. The latter church was rebudt in 1842 Ijy (iilbert Scott, 

 and was one of the first churches undertaken by that architect, 

 then famed as the designer of union workhouses. It is said that 

 in after years he was so dissatisfied with his early ellbrts in 

 ecclesiastical architecture that he refused to visit the spot. S. 

 James's Church was also rebuilt in 1866-7. The l)uria] ground of 

 S. John can be S3cn on the hill above it, and its situation has 

 given rise to the proverb that Shaftesbury' was a i)lace where, 

 among other peculiarities, the churchyard was higher than the 

 church steeple. This ground was generally used for interments 

 in preference to S. James's Churchyard, which was not enclosed 

 till after 1724. In S. James's parish lies the Liberty of Alcester. 

 It appears to be so named because the Abbot of Alcester, co. 

 Warwick, held lands here which formed a sei)arate jurisdiction. 

 Hence the name of Alcester, as applied to this jiart of Shaston, 

 must not be taken as indicating any lioman occupation of the 

 spot. I am amused at noting, in a certain itublication, the 

 assertion that Shaston " rose on the ruins of Alcester." The 

 registers of the Shaston parishes begin as follows : — S. James in 

 1559, Cann in 1563, and those of Holy Trinity and St. Peter's in 

 the following century. That of S. James is by fur tlie ino>t 

 interesting. In this [tarish lived the old family of the ^\.id;elils, 

 of Anketil-place, a name still met with in Dorset in the contracted 

 form of Antdl. AVilliam Anketil was M.V. for Shaston s,. far 

 back as 34 Edward I., 1305-G. The family is now represented hy 



