By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 



293 



fourteen years. Of which long connection all that the place retains 

 is a tradition or two, passed on from one who was in his day the 

 "oldest inhabitant/' to somebody else who in course of time became 

 the same : that the Duke used to employ running footmen, who, 

 being trained to their long-winded duties on meat half raw, kept 

 a-head of his carriage, with a bell in one hand and pole in the other, 

 to assist His Grace out of difficulties by the way. Also that they 

 had, between Edingdon and Tynhide, in order to ascend to the plain, 

 a private road called " Coach Hollow.' - ' An inn at Tynhide, now 

 pulled down, used to be called " Tbf Three Daggers/'' a popular 

 name for the Powlett arms, three swords in pile, which are still to be 

 seen on the north side of the farm-house part of the monks' dwelling. 



In 1768, during the life of Harry, the sixth Duke, the manor, 

 4094 acres, was sold by the trustees of his late brother Charles, fifth 

 Duke, to Peter Delme (of Erlestoke), for £72,100, but no convey- 

 ance was made. In 1782 Joshua and Drummond Smith purchased 

 it out of Chancery : and in 1784 an Act of Parliament was found 

 necessary to complete the title. 1 



Joshua Smith, Esq., was M.P. for Devizes in 1788, 1796, 1802, 

 and 1806. He was owner also of Erlestoke. He left four daughters 

 no male heirs. Much of the old Monastery was taken down by 

 him, and the materials were used in building his house at Erlestoke. 



1820. Mr. Joshua Smith's executor sold Edingdon, and with it 

 Erlestoke and Coulston, total eight thousand acres, to the executors 

 of Simon Taylor, Esq. : in settlement upon his niece, Mrs. Watson 

 Taylor, sole heiress to her uncle on the death of her brother, Sir 

 Simon R. B. Taylor, Bart., unmarried. The price 250,000 guineas. 

 These estates are now the property of Simon Watson Taylor, Esq., 

 of Erlestoke. 



1 Charles, the fifth Duke, by will, 1763, had charged his estate with payment 

 of his debts, and then assigned them to trustees to the use of his brother, Lord 

 Harry (sixth Duke) and his heirs male : remainder to Jean Mary (wife of Thomas 

 Orde, Esq.), in the will called Jane Mary Powlett Brown and her heirs in tail 

 male : then to the testator's right heirs. The testator died 1765. The mother 

 of Mrs. Orde had been Mary Banks Brown, the fifth Duke's housekeeper at 

 Edingdon. Since the purchase by Joshua and Drummond Smith, Mrs. Orde had 

 given birth to a son, and hence the necessity for an Act of Parliament. 



