48 SHAFTESBURY. 



Some ancient Avells of great depth exist, but water was principally 

 brought by horse or manual labour from below the liill. Some 

 years before Maton wrote (1797) engines had been erected to raise 

 water 300 feet to the summit of the hill, but these had become 

 disused, and recourse again had to the older plan. Enmore. Green 

 was one -of the sources of the supply. There was an ancient custom 

 for the mayor and burgesses to repair to the springs of water at 

 Enmore Green on the Monday befure Ascension Day — (previous 

 to 1663 the day had been the Sunday after 3rd May, Holy Cross 

 Day) — and dance liand-in-hand round the green to the sound of 

 music, bringing with them " a staff or besome adorned with 

 feathers, pieces of gold, rings, and other Jewells, called a prize 

 besome, or bezant, and to present to the bailifif of the Manor of 

 Gillinghara, in which the springs were situated, a pair of gloves, a 

 raw calf's head, a gallon of ale or beer, and two penny loaves of 

 white wheat bread." The cost of the decoration of the bezant itself 

 varied from £2 12s. 9d. in 1703 to £4 4s. lid. in 1706, but it was 

 often adorned with loans of plate and jewellery to a considerable 

 value. The original bezant, of gilded wood in the form of a palm 

 tree, about three feet in height, was exhibited at the meeting of the 

 AVilts Arch. Society in August, 1861, by Kobert Swyre, Esq., of 

 Shaftesbury. It is now kept at Inwood. 



SHASTONIAN LITIGATION. 



The unfortunate series of law suits in which the town found 

 itself involved from the date of the Charter of James I., and 

 which for so many years troubled the corporate life of the 

 burgesses, arose from the strained relations existing between the 

 borough and the lord of the manor. These proceedings are scarcely 

 alluded to in the county history. In the middle ages, during the 

 sway of the lady abbess, this friction had not arisen; but after the 

 dissolution, when the manorial rights had passed into the hands of 

 a non-resident lay owner, they came to be regarded only as a source 

 of revenue, and were leased out to an underling with but little 

 regard to the interests of the burgesses. At the same time 



