148 



The Thirty-Fifth General Meeting. 



took the way to Wans Corner, where the line of Wans Dyke was 

 pointed out, and then on to the village of Bromham. They were 

 met at the Church by the Rector, the Rev. E. B. Edgell, who gave 

 an interesting description of the fabric and its history, and this was 

 supplemented by some valuable remarks by Mr. Ponting, the very 

 able architect and Diocesan Surveyor. The painted windows, erected 

 in memory of the Poet Moore and his widow, and the tomb under 

 which they and some of their children repose, were regarded with 

 especial interest. The detour was too great to go round by Sloperton 

 Cottage, which had been their residence for many years, so this part 

 of the programme was abandoned. 



From Bromham, after a passing glance at some of the picturesque 

 old houses, it was a toilsome drive up and down the formidable hills 

 of this district to Melksham, where the Vicar, the Rev. Canon 

 Warre, courteously received them at the Church, to whose excellent 

 condition he has done so much, and here Mr. Ponting read a 

 carefully-prepared paper, detailing the history, and calling attention 

 to the more interesting and noteworthy portions of the architecture 

 of the building. After inspecting the curious Church plate at the 

 vicarage, the party left for Lacock, and a drive of four miles brought 

 them to that most charming old village, where almost every house 

 is a picture and a good specimen of a mediaeval dwelling. There 

 was, however, no time to delay over these lesser points, of which 

 only a passing glimpse could be afforded ; for of course the principal 

 object of interest, and a very great one, too, was the Abbey, the 

 residence for many generations past of the Talbots, the present 

 representative of whom, C. H. Talbot, Esq., very kindly took the 

 Society through the building and explained its most salient features. 

 This Abbey was founded in the year 1232, by Ela, Countess of 

 Salisbury, in memory of her deceased husband, William Longspee. 

 The Church has disappeared, having probably been destroyed when 

 the Abbey passed into the hands of Sir William Sharington, by 

 purchase from Henry VIII., but the principal domestic buildings 

 remained, and the whole place was converted into a manor house. 

 From the cloister court several features of interest were pointed out 

 —the nun's dormitory, with fifteenth century roof and chimney of 



