Recent Wiltshire Boohs, Pamphlets, and Articles. 315 



Illustrated by Mary F. May, &c, and from photographs. Calne: 

 Kobert S. Heath. London : Castle, Lamb, & Storr, 133, Salisbury 

 Square, E.C. 8£ X 5f. pp. xxvi. 388. [1904.] Subscriber's edition 

 on thick paper, limited to 75 copies, £1 is. ; ordinary edition, 10s. 6d. 



For this stout and valuable addition to its topographical literature 

 the County of Wilts is indebted to the public spirit of Mr. R, S. Heath, 

 of Calne, the publisher, and of Mr. A. E. W. Marsh, the author, both of 

 whom have spared neither expense nor trouble in its preparation. It is 

 to be hoped that its sale may be sufficient in some measure to recoup 

 them. As it stands it is an important looking volume, well printed and 

 lavishly illustrated, and it is within the knowledge of the writer of this 

 notice that when Mr. Marsh first undertook the task of writing it, the 

 work that he proposed to himself to compile was a very different thing 

 from the book which has now, after an interval of several years, been 

 published. 



Starting with the idea of writing something in the shape of a popular 

 sketchy guide book to the Calne neighbourhood he soon found that the 

 material for the history of Calne itself which had never hitherto been 

 dealt with was sufficient to demand a far fuller treatment than he had 

 at first contemplated. The consequence has been that a great portion 

 of the book has been entirely re-written, and many parts of it not once 

 nor twice. It is indeed perhaps a pity that having departed so far from 

 the original design he did not go a step further still and give us an entire 

 volume devoted to Calne itself, in which points which, as it is, are but 

 touched on, such as the history of the various families who owned 

 property in the parish, might have been dealt with as fully as is the 

 later history of the borough. The necessarily more superficial sketches 

 of the neighbouring villages and other places, such as Lacock, which 

 have really nothing to do with Calne, might with advantage have been 

 relegated to another volume altogether. For the real value of the book 

 lies in the 1st part, consisting of 216 pages, and in the appendices, pp. 

 330 — 377, all of which are concerned with the history of Calne itself. 

 In one other respect, too, the book misses being quite as useful as it 

 might have been. An index to a topographical work of this kind should 

 contain all the names of persons or places mentioned in the book, and 

 in this case it does not by any means do so. If it had been merely a 

 popular compilation from works of reference already published this 

 would not have been necessary, but when we have charters, lay subsidy 

 rolls, lists of guild stewards, Members of Parliament, and Mayors, and 

 of those who in 1643 swore the covenant, extents of manors, and so 

 forth, which are to be found nowhere else in print, one cannot but regret 

 that such a richmine of information is not made as completely available 

 as possible by a really full index. 



Of the neighbouring places many are treated in a somewhat unsatisfying 

 " guide booky " way. At Bremhill Maud Heath's column and causeway, 

 the Moravian settlement at East Tytherton, founded by John Cennick 

 in 1742, and Stanley Abbey are the chief subjects touched on. At Lacock, 

 however, Mr. Brakspear's architectural notes on Church and Abbey 



