76 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



of the Goddards, and, with the help of Mr. Goddard and 

 one or two others, ' A Memoir of the Goddards of North 

 Wilts ' was published (by the author) in 1873. It is a 

 dull and formless book, containing little but facts or 

 fictions from other books. Here and there he shows his 

 own methods, as when he quotes the churchwarden at 

 Aldbourne as remembering a breastplate and pair of 

 gauntlets hanging in what was the Goddards' chapel. 

 He mentions Ossian and Longfellow again, and ' Peveril 

 of the Peak,' and without great labour or success tries to 

 prove that Aldbourne is ' Sweet Auburn, loveliest village 

 of the plain.' H. N. Goddard described Jefferies in 1872 

 as ' a rising young man who is writing a book about the 

 Goddards.' The edition was almost sold out in a few 

 months, and as late as the end of 1875 a new one with 

 exhaustive pedigrees was discussed, but came to nothing. 



Another archaeological product was a paper read before 

 the Wiltshire Archaeological Society on ' Swindon and its 

 Antiquities,' in September, 1873. He gave the inscrip- 

 tions of some Roman coins, and pointed to ' the preva- 

 lence of the pure Welsh or British name of Lydiard in this 

 neighbourhood, both as the name of persons and of places,' 

 as a proof that the Britons long maintained their indepen- 

 dence in Northern Wiltshire. Speaking of the power of an 

 Earl of Pembroke, who set up Swindon Market, to erect 

 a gallows and hang other men on it, he says : ' This irre- 

 sponsible power vested in one man must have led to great 

 abuses. What a contrast to the ballot-box of to-day, 

 when we seem about to err on the other hand by diffusing 

 power too widely !' He ends a lifeless and disjointed lec- 

 ture with another facile piece of Goddardism : 



' In 1772, when Ambrose Goddard was elected as county 

 member, the motto used by his supporters, and worn as 

 a card in the hat, was — " Goddard's the man, and free- 

 dom's his plan." Irrespective of all party politics, I 

 feel that I may confidently say that there are numbers 

 who at the expected election in the spring will repeat 

 that ancient motto, and say — " Goddard's the man." We 



