By the Rev. Canon Eddnip, 



277 



leaves and dirt and other pollutions, down to Stanley : the direct 

 distance is about two miles, but the length of the aqueduct must 

 have been considerably more than this. 1 



There are extant very complete and valuable collections of charters 

 and other documents relating* to Stanley Abbey, some of which have 

 been printed in Dugdale and in the History of Bremhill by my 

 predecessor, Canon Bowles ; and others in the fifteenth volume of 

 the Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine by Mr. W. de Grey Birch. 

 In this volume, pp. 239—307 (No. xlv., December 1875) Mr. Birch, 

 has collected much interesting information relating to Stanley Abbey 

 and its possessions, supplementing the notices given by Canon 

 Bowles. Copies are given of various seals of the abbey ; one— a 

 very fair impression of the common seal (which is also less accurately 

 engraved in Bowles, p. 83), attached to a deed dated in 1363— 

 remains in the Augmentation Office (Birch, p. 303). It is round, 

 and has for its subject the Blessed Virgin and Child on one side, 

 and on the other St. John the Baptist ; between the two figures is 

 a small tree, which Mr. Birch describes as an olive tree. 



As might have been expected from the circumstances of the 

 foundation of the abbey, the charters show that it was much, 

 favoured by the early Plantagenet Kings. There are charters of 

 Henry II. ; one before he became Duke of Normandy and Count of 

 Anjou ; another, after his accession to these titles ; and another 

 after he became King of England. There is a grant from William, 

 Earl of Gloucester, the son of Roger, the illegitimate brother of the 

 Empress Matilda, and her chief supporter in the contest with 

 Stephen, in which he grants to the monks of Stanley, near 

 Chippenham, freedom from toll in his town of Bristol for all 

 things that they might buy for the special use of their Church. 

 There are various charters and confirmations by Richard I. One 

 given at Messina, in Sicily, in 1191, when he was on his way 



1 Bowles, in his History of Bremhill, p. 123, says that "part of this aque- 

 duct was discovered very lately by a heifer falling into the drain." This history 

 was published 1827 — more than sixty years ago — and, as far as I know, no 

 further discovery has been recorded. 



