30 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
carriage 12 or 13 Miles, but here we have only Chalk 
and Barr Stone, neither of which suited our ideas for 
durability; their Architects always estimate too low, 
and no one would take the Contracts at his Prices, 
however we have surmounted it all and are at work, 
but there are still many exertions about it which keep 
me in a worry. You are such an anxious minded 
Person yourself that you will perfectly understand 
my feelings on the business; had I my old good health 
and nerves I would gladly have taken the 
responsibilities on myself to have had the power of 
beginning two Months earlier. 
In a pamphlet on Norton Bavant, Watkin (1985) 
recorded that this work in a ‘vaguely Perpendicular 
style’ was completed by William Walker of 
Shaftesbury in 1840; further work was carried out 
in 1863 and the tower was finally restored in 1894. 
Other letters between 1829 and 1838 to the 
Norfolk geologist Samuel Woodward, resulting 
from their mutual exchange of fossil specimens, 
mentioned her interest in collecting seals, for 
several refer to their despatch and receipt. This had 
also been indicated earlier in a letter to Mantel! on 
20 October 1816, in which Miss Benett thanked 
him for the explanation of his own fine seal and told 
him that the one she was using herself was that of 
the first Duke of Richmond & Aubigny according 
to ‘a clever Herald and antiquary’. 
In common with other families during the 19th 
century, the Woodwards endeavoured to gather 
portraits, particularly the fashionable silhouettes, 
of their friends and acquaintances. In fact, it is 
solely through this pursuit that there is a likeness of 
Miss Benett. This is first mentioned in a letter of 6 
May 1834 when Miss Benett promised : ‘I will get a 
sketch of myself when I have an opportunity’. On 
22 Nov. 1835, she wrote: 
I have not had any opportunity of having my shade 
taken and if I ever should get it, I fear, it will only 
disappoint you, as I have no profile, having no 
prominent feature. 
Finally, she was able to send it and wrote on 15 
May 1837: 
I was going to Bath ...and had... determined to 
have a Profile of myself taken, if I could get it done. 
I walk’d one day to find a person . . . till I was ready to 
drop with fatigue. .. . I only succeeded about an hour 
before I left Bath, and such as he has made me in a 
Bonnet Cap and velvet Spencer, you have me; or 
rather I should say, you have me not, for I do not 
think it will give you the least idea of me!; the dress I 
A silhouette of Miss Etheldred Benett. The only known 
likeness of her produced for Samuel Woodward in 1837 
am never seen in but in my Pony Carriage and it 
makes me look at least ten years older than I am; I 
could not alter my dress when IJ found the Man, for I 
had not a moment to spare. 
That profile has featured in every account of Miss 
Benett, since it was used by H.B. Woodward for his 
history of British geology. 
An indication of her wider concerns was 
provided in another letter to Mantell on 22 March 
1841 that mentioned a difficulty she had 
encountered arising from growing national concern 
over conditions in various industries, and the 
passing of an early Chimney Sweeps Bill intended 
to reduce the use of children. Miss Benett grumbled 
about this: 
That stupid Chimney Sweeping Bill engrosses the 
attention of us Inhabitants of old Houses in the 
Country at present, I am certain no Machine can 
clean a Chimney where wood is burnt, for it must be 
scraped and no machine can possibly pull down Jack 
Daw’s Nests, with which the Chimnies [sic] of 
Country Houses are so frequently filled; we are 
obliged to keep copper wire Nets, and strong ones 
too, over the tops of our Chimnies at all times to 
prevent it; fix’d on as fast as possible, and the 
