2IO THE BATH ROAD 



are Conservative) as tliougli some vampire were 

 seated near, sucking away the life-blood of the 

 place. 



There are two hills just out of Calne ; Black Dog 

 Hill, and Derry Hill, and they lead the traveller 

 through picturesque scenery, past one of the lodges 

 of Bowood, and so down into the flat alluvial lands 

 where the Avon flows, and now and again floods out 

 all the dwellers in those levels. The road down 

 there is dreadfully dull to the pedestrian. To the 

 cyclist, on the other hand, who has for these miles 

 past been struggling up hills he cannot climb, and 

 walkino* down others he dare not coast, the change 

 is one from a penitential pilgrimage to Paradise. 



The entrance to the " ancient and royal " borough 

 of Chippenham is hatefully like that into Calne, 

 whose paltry houses are reproduced there. The centre 

 of the town is, however, of a better character, although 

 the streets are cramped and narrow. A singularly 

 foreign air is given to the place by its balustraded 

 stone bridge across the Avon, and if one cares to 

 pursue the Continental tone further it may be found 

 in the huge factory near by, where " Swiss " Con- 

 densed Milk, of the " Milkmaid " brand, is manu- 

 factured on an immense scale. For the rest, its 

 cheese and corn markets and bacon-curing keep it 

 very much alive, and a modern (and brutally ugly) 

 Town Hall, built in 1856, shows suflicieutly well 

 how trade has grown since the time when the pic- 

 turesque old Town Hall, still standing, was built in 

 the sixteenth century. 



The most interesting thing in Chippenham is (to 



