1 0 4 Congress of British Archaeological Association at Devizes. 



day, in a favourable light, some years ago, I detected the arms of I 

 Sherington over the doorway, but I should not have recognised them 

 if I had not been familiar w T ith them. Shortly after that, I obtained 

 a copy of Dingley^s ( History from Marble/ in which he has given 

 a sketch of the arms of Sir William Sherington, impaled with 

 those of his third wife, Grace Faringdon (three unicorns, passant) 

 as being then in glass at the Abbey, and he says the very same are 

 cut in stone over the door of the Conduit on Bowden Hill. This 

 was in 1684. The glass is now gone, but I have specimens of the 

 same arms on tiles. It may be further remarked that Sberington's 

 buildings are of particularly solid and beautiful construction, and, in 

 some respects, very similar to mediaeval work. Indeed, a friend of 

 mine, an architect, on seeing a pair of octagonal chimneys, at the 

 Abbey, could not at first believe that they were not part of the 

 monastic building, but erected after the dissolution. I consider, 

 then, that Sherington re-built the Conduit House of the nuns, for 

 we know that they drew their water-supply from Bowden Hill, from 

 a very early date, and, if so, it follows that the building cannot be 

 earlier than 1540, nor later than 1566. Conceiving that Sherington 

 would hardly be able to erect it in the reign of Henry VIII., I 

 suggested that it was probably built in the reign of Edward VI., 

 but it may possibly be later. After writing so much of my letter,, 

 I have re-examined the Conduit House carefully to-day. I have no 

 hesitation, whatever, in maintaining my previously-expressed opinion, 

 and will undertake to prove it to anyone who will take the trouble 

 of going into the evidence. The transverse arches which support 

 the roof, five in number, are all constructed with large key-stones. 

 If they had been of the fourteenth century they would probably 

 have been constructed with centre joints. 



" Had I been able to accompany the members of the Association 

 when they visited the Churches of Devizes, I should have called 

 attention to a fact which does not appear to have been noticed, 1 viz., 

 that the tower of St. John's Church has been partly re-built. This 

 is not apparent on the outside of the building, but on the inside the 



1 Mr. Talbot subsequently writes, " Mr. Brock has informed nie in a letter that 

 he did call attention on the spot to some of the evidences of such re-building." 



