By the Rev. W. C. Plenderleatk, 



261 



which the path runs, seeing a stile without any visible road on either 

 side of it, took it away, and made good the bank and hedge where 

 it had been. The next time I chanced to be going into Calne that 

 way I found myself confronted with an unexpected obstacle. I 

 however got over the hedge, and wrote to the agent. In a week's 

 time I had a reply to say that my correspondent had had no idea 

 that any right of way existed there, but that on enquiry he had 

 found such to be the case, and that he would send a new stile to be 

 put in the place of the old one. Two months elapsed: I had 

 passed several times that way, and had been obliged each time to 

 get over the new-made hedge, so I again wrote to the agent. He 

 courteously replied that he had sent the stile a week after writing 

 to me before, and had been under the impression that it had been 

 duly erected, but that he found on enquiry that it had been placed 

 on another path some hundred yards or so to the right. He would, 

 however, send another stile. Again an interval of six weeks : still 

 no alteration. Again I wrote to the agent, and was told in reply 

 that he had duly sent a second stile, but that this had been placed 

 on a path some hundred yards or so to the left ! He would, how- 

 ever, cause a third stile to be made and would see it fitted himself. 

 This he did, and the way has been open ever since. It is not, as I 

 said, a whit shorter than the present high road, but it is a pleasant 

 change in summer from the dust and hardness of that way, and it 

 was, the old people tell me, a good deal used in the days of their 

 youth. I was coming out this way a few years ago when I passed 

 within a couple of yards of a big dog-fox who was lying curled up 

 in the long grass. He got up and trotted away with the most 

 perfect unconcern, turning before he jumped through the hedge to 

 look back at the person who had taken leave thus to disturb him 

 out of the hunting season. 



Cherhill must have been a place of considerably more importance 

 in the coaching days than it is now. It is stated to have been 

 traversed by as many as thirty coaches daily, either going to or 

 coming from London, besides vans, waggons, post-chaises, &c. 

 And for the accommodation of wayfarers by all these conveyances 

 there were four wayside inns in the parish. One, at the top of the 



