Eight Rev. the Lord Bishop of Bristol. 279 



to pick their blind man for themselves, we have all the elements 

 which would in the opinion of the pagan bystanders, who knew all 

 about it, create the title " the well of deceit." It is not at all 

 necessary to include among our suppositions any conscious trickery 

 on Augustine's part, though I should suppose he had heard of 

 the reputation of the well, and the Britons had not. 



While Mr. Martin Gibbs of Down Ampney, Lord St. Germans 

 the owner of the Oak Farm, and Mr. Gott the Vicar of Latton, 

 have provided me with this information, a very interesting piece 

 of information has reached me from Mr. Stent, the assistant curate 

 of Cricklade. On the road from Malmesbury to Oricklade, by 

 which, no doubt, the Britons went for at least part of the way, 

 there are cross-roads about four miles on this side of Cricklade, 

 where the road from Cirencester, running due south, cuts our road 

 running from west to east. If the Britons diverged from the 

 direct road to Cricklade, in order to get at once on to Hwiccian soil 

 and entirely avoid West Saxon territory, they would take the north 

 road at the cross. About half-a-mile south of the crossing, on the 

 road from Cirencester, is a site called the Gospel Oak. The great 

 oak was famous in times past, but it disappeared long before the 

 memory of man, leaving only its name and the tradition that in 

 past ages a great religious meeting was held there. We can 

 scarcely overlook this record where we are amusing ourselves by 

 guesses as to the exact site of the conference or conferences. I 

 have heard in my time many a worse guess than this, that " Gospel 

 Oak," pronounced indistinctly, has some resemblance to " Gustin 

 Oak," also indistinctly pronounced. The departure from the one 

 to the other in 1300 years is a smaller departure than other names 

 can show us in half the time. The first conference may well have 

 been at the one place, the second at the other. 



Just one more problem, quite short. We are to see to-morrow, 

 if all be well, at Littleton Drew, two massive stones in the church- 

 yard which I recognised two years ago, on a very hurried visit, as 

 two parts of the shaft of a noble pre-Norman cross, its sides covered 

 with arabesques of the foliage character, so far as a rapid glance 

 revealed. [The Bishop of Bristol has twice visited these stones 



