58 



NA TURE 



NoVEMliEK 2 I, 1907 



Wishford and the other to Barford, to make merry 

 withal amongst the neighbours. And the Ranger is 

 to have from each of the Manors of Wishford and 

 Barford one white loaf and one gallon of beer and 

 a pair of gloves, or twelve pence in money for the 

 whole, and if the Ranger do not bring nor send the 

 fat Buck then the inhabitants of any of the said 

 Manors or any of them, after that day may go into 

 the said forest and kill and bring away a Buck for 

 each of the said parishes at their pleasure, and then 

 the Ranger is not to have anything." "The custom 

 is and ever time out of mind hath been, that the 

 lords and freeholders of Wishford Magna, and Bar- 

 ford St. Martin, and their tenants, by themselves, 

 their servants and assigns, may take and fetch in 

 the woods of Grovely, speeke rods (probably spicks 

 or spars for use in thatching) and breeding rods, for 

 their houses standing in the said manors of Wishford 

 and Barford, and also fould shears (stakes for sup- 

 porting hurdles) and wreethrs (long rods for turning 

 into hurdles) to be employed within the said manors 

 at all times without controulment, and every one of 

 the said lords and tenants that do use to fetch such 

 ought to give the Ranger one hen yearly if he require 

 and send for the same." "The ancient custom is 

 that at all Courts holden for Grovely the Jury and 

 Homage for the said forest -hath ever been made, and 

 in Right ought still to be made, of the freeholders, 

 tenants, or inhabitants of. Wishford Magna, or Bar- 

 ford St. Martin aforesaid and of none other." 



.Among the entries in the Rector's book is the 

 following : — " Whereas tlie lord of the manor and 

 parishioners of the parish of Wishford aforesaid did 

 time immemorial use and enjoy laudable custom 

 vearly in the month of May to cut down and carry 

 away boughs of trees growing in the Chase of 

 Grovely in the said county of Wilts (being part of 

 the estate of the Earls of Pembroke) therewith to 

 adorne the said Church of Wishford, and whereas 

 the right honourable Philip, late Earl of Pembroke 

 (probably seventh Earl, 1647-S3), finding that the said 

 usage and entrv on the said Chase in the said month 

 of Mav was a prejudice to his deer in that Chase, it 

 being about fawning time. Did come to an agreement 

 with the said Richard Howe, lord of the said manor 

 of ^\'ishford, and the parishioners of the said parish, 

 and did grant to the said parishioners an annual rent 

 charge in fee simple of si.\ pounds a year issuing out 

 of a meadow called Burdenball Meadow in the parish 

 of Wilton in the said county of Wilts. And whereas 

 the said rent of six pounds has been much in arrear 

 and the right honourable Thomas, now Earl of Pem- 

 broke (Thomas Herbert, Sth Earl of Pembroke 

 1683-1733, Lord High .Admiral 1702-1708, Lieut, of 

 Ireland 1707), hath agreed with the said lord of the 

 said manor and parishioners to give them the sum 

 of 260L of lawful money of Great Britain, in case 

 thev would release their right of the said rent of six 

 pounds of the arrears." 



Here we see how dates are changed, and we get 

 a new reason for the abolition of an ancient custom. 

 But this is not all. There is a suggestion of the old 

 stone worship at Salisbury, the spire of which, as 

 we have seen, is exactly in the line Stonehenge-OId 

 S.irum prolonged. 



" The lords, freeholders, tenants and inhabitants 

 of the Manor of Great Wishford, or so many of 

 them as would, in ancient time have used to go in 

 a dance to the Cathedral Church of our Blessed Lady 

 in the city of New Sarum on Whit-Tuesday in the 

 said County of Wilts and there made their Claim 

 lo their custom in the forest of Grovely in these 

 words, 'Grovely! Grovely j ! and All Grovely!!! '" 

 With reference to the last extract. Canon Words- 



XO T986. VOL. ']']'\ 



worth remarked that the dance to the Mother Church 

 of Salisbury might have been connected with the 

 procession to pay chimney-money, " smoke-farth- 

 ings," or Pentecostal oblations. But after the 

 Restoration of Church and King in 1660 the date 

 was changed to May jg in connection with the annual 

 thanksgiving then instituted. The custom was kept 

 up until the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

 The last survivor who took part in it died in i8gi, m 

 her eighty-eighth year, and she described It to 

 Mr. Hill (the rector in 1885) as a regular revel, with 

 booths and shows erected in the Close. It was 

 therefore suppressed, but still two women, as a 

 deputation from the bough-bearers, went in with oak 

 branches, which they reverently laid on the altar of 

 the Cathedral Church. The last person who per- 

 formed this ceremony died so lately as 1853. The 

 people taking part in the procession used to dress in 

 white, and they assembled first at Townsend's Tree, 

 at the south end of the village street. They still in 

 1885 carried oak boughs in procession, but only as 

 far as the Rectorv, and performed their dance there. 



Cheap and Handy Instruments. 



L'ndoubtedly for final observations at any monu- 

 ment a theodolite must be employed, using the sun 

 or Polaris in order to avoid all magnetic difficulties, 

 and reversing the telescope to secure the correct alti- 

 tude of the horizon. 



But for rapid survivs there are many handy forms of 

 instrument bv means of which preliminary informa- 



FlG. 5. — M. Hue's combined compass and clinometer. 



tion can be gathered, both with regard to azimuth 

 and, what is equally important, the angular height 

 of the horizon. In a reconnaissance lately among the 

 .Aberdeen circles I employed a clino-compass of 

 Barker's pattern ; this weighs only a few ounces 

 and is carried in a sling over the shoulders; even a 

 tripod can be dispensed with, though it is much better 

 to have one ; the lightest form is that used by the 

 Kodak Coinpany for their cameras. In the clino- 

 compass, as the name implies, both azimuths and 

 altitudes are measured by the same instrument, the 

 level being replaced by a pendulum; in this form, 

 especially in the case of the altitudes, the meari of 

 several observations should be taken. In my opinion, 

 a desideratum for such work is a simple small instru- 

 ment with level and reversible telescope for small alti- 

 tudes only — a miniature dumpy level, fitting on to 

 the same tripod which carries the azimuth compass. 



We learn from the " Manual of Prehistoric Re- 

 searches " published by the Socii^t^ pti^histonque de 

 France that the Frencli archjeologists are much more 

 thorough and philosophical in their inquiries than 

 their British brethren. It is not a question of the 

 spade versus the theodolite, but Of the spade and the 



