260 



Clierhill Gleanings. 



accordingly by his executors to the grandfather of the present 

 owner, Major Heneage, of Compton Bassett. 



Some of these squires and lords of the manor of former days 

 must have lived in the village, for a piece of the old manor house 

 is still in existence in the shape of the eastern portion of what is 

 now known as the Church Farm, and which is only separated from 

 the Church by a roadway some 10ft. wide. This was by no means 

 an uncommon arrangement in those times. You will see at Blackland 

 Park, separated only by a clump of shrubs from the drive up to the 

 hall door, the minute structure which serves as a Church to that 

 parish. Again, at Compton Bassett the Church stands in a little 

 oasis in the grounds of the owner of the village, and access to it 

 can only be gained by passing through what would look to a chance 

 visitor like his own private gate. Both these villages are in our 

 own neighbourhood, but I have seen the same arrangement in many 

 other places in different parts of the county. 



"Whether in those days there was a resident clergyman at Cherhill, 

 who acted as chaplain to the lord of the manor, and dined at his 

 table, being careful to depart as soon as the pudding was served — as 

 Steele tells us in the Tatler that it was the chaplain's duty to do — 

 I cannot say. But at a time not quite yet out of the reach of 

 human memory we know that divine service was said by a clergyman 

 who lived at Calne, and came out on Sunday morning for one service 

 at Cherhill ; then went on for another service at Berwick Bassett : 

 the next Sunday vice versa, and so on. Of the antiquity of this 

 arrangement I find, I imagine, an indication in the name of an old 

 green road between Calne and Cherhill which is called in the parish 

 map " Parson's Lane." This road is in a direct line between the 

 two places, and was, I doubt not, largely used until the straightening 

 of the high road in the neighbourhood of Blacklands, which only 

 took place towards the close of the last century. Since then, as 

 the high road is quite as direct a way into Calne as the field path, 

 the latter has been so little used that the track is, over a great part 

 of its course, absolutely invisible, although all the stiles remain, 

 and one of them, I was glad to see, has been repaired quite recently. 

 A good many years ago, the agent of one of the properties through 



