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Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No. 2. 



now put to this, by a recent Act of Parliament; and it is to be 

 hoped that the interest created in them by the exertions of Societies 

 like our own may also help to produce a better feeling*. But it is 

 difficult to prevent wanton mischief, as witness, only a few months 

 ago, the upsetting, by a party of perhaps tipsy idlers, of the famous 

 Kocking-sfcone, called "The Buckstone," near Monmouth, in the 

 Forest of Dean. 



The Charterhouse Landlord. 



In glancing over the map for some place to speak about, the eye 

 falls upon some estates near Swindon that belong to a landlord 

 called The Charterhouse. It is said that the common people of 

 India who in former days used to hear so much about that — to them 

 invisible — authority, the " East India Company-" and its palace in 

 Threadneedle Street, by a natural association of Ladies with fieedles 

 and thread, believed " Company" to be some very long-lived Dowager 

 Princess, to whom their money and allegiance were due. Possibly 

 some of the tenants under the Charterhouse may have the like 

 erroneous notion of their landlord, and wonder what he is like, and 

 how he came by so singular a name. I am the more tempted to 

 say something about this on the present occasion because in my 

 school-days I had the pleasure of a very close and intimate acquain- 

 tance with the subject. The origin of the name was this : — about 

 eight hundred years ago a French ecclesiastic of the name of Bruno 

 retired from the world to a place called La Chartreuse, in the 

 mountains of Dauphine, in the South of France. He there founded 

 a monastery and an Order, which became very famous. They had 

 several Houses in England, but the original French name of 

 Chartreuse very soon became corrupted into Charterhouse. We have 

 Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath, and a Charterhouse on the Mendip 

 Hills, near Wells, at both of which places there was a monastery of 

 this Order. The great establishment in London lay outside the 

 wall of the old City, and it stands there still, close to Smithfield. 

 On the dissolution of the monasteries the building, with several 

 acres of pleasure ground adjoining, was presented by the Crown to 

 Sir Edward North, whose son, Roger, sold it in 1569 to Thomas 



