By C. H. Talbot, Esq. 



325 



entrance of the park, near Bowden Hill. We should be better 

 pleased now, if it still stood in its original situation ; but, very pro- 

 bably, we owe it to this removal that it has not been entirely 

 destroyed. 



About this gate-house there is a confusion of traditions, taking 

 apparently these two forms ; 1 — that it was brought from Corsham 

 where it formed part of the king's house ; 2 — that it was brought 

 from Devizes Castle. There can be no doubt, however, that it is a 

 relic of Bromham Hall which was destroyed in 1645 ; and an exam- 

 ination,, of the arms upon it shows that it was built by Sir Edward 

 Baynton, who died in 1544 or 1545, and whose first wife was Elizabeth 

 daughter of Sir John Sulliard of Suffolk. 



The traditions are easily explained. Leland, living at the time, 

 is a good authority ; and he describes Corsham as " sl good uplandish 

 toun, wher be ruines of an old maner place : and therby a park 

 wont to be yn dowage to the Quenes of Englancle. Mr. Baynton, 

 yn Quene Anne's dayes, pullid down by licens a peace of this house 

 sumwhat to help his buildinges at Bromeham." x Also, speaking of 

 Devizes Castle, he says " It is now in mine, and parte of the front 

 of the towres of the gate of the kepe and the chapell in it were 

 caried,full unprofitably, onto the buyldynge of Master Bainton's place 

 at Bromeham scant 3 myles of. 2 " 



It is evident, therefore, that this Sir Edward Baynton, in the 

 reign of Henry VIII, built Bromham Hall with stone obtained from 

 the ruins both of Devizes Castle and of the king's manor house 

 at Corsham, the latter when Anne Bol eyn was queen. 3 Aubrey, 

 speaking of Bradenstoke, says " Broad-Hinton House, Bromham 

 house and Cadnam House were built of the Ruines of Bradstock 

 Abbey .^^ It seems that, on the dissolution of that priory, Edward 



^eland's Itinerary, vide vol. i., p. 143, of this Magazine. 

 zjbid., vol. i., p. 181. 



3 The family tradition is this, that the gate was given to Sir Edward T5ayn- 

 ton, by queen Catherine of Aragon. If Corsham manor was, as Leland says, 

 " yn dowage to the Q,uenes of Englande," a grant of the stone may have been 

 made by queen Catherine, and the work have been carried out in the time of 

 Anne Boleyn. 



4 Aubrey's ,{ Wiltshire Collections" by the Rev. Canon Jackson, p. 189. 



