108 



Swindon and its Neighbourhood — No. 2. 



up a small semi-religious, semi-charitable hospital, not for the sick 

 but (like Mr. Sutton's) for the aged. The Warden or Master was 

 to be a priest, under whom were to be two or more brethren, Pres- 

 byters, to be dressed in russet gowns with a cross upon them. 

 Thirteen poor men of the parish of Wootton, at the least, but more 

 according to the state of the funds, were to dine together every day 

 on soup and bread ; with (should the means permit) beer and a dish 

 of meat. All this implies a certain endowment arising out of lands 

 or houses. 1 The names of six Priors (as they were called) of this 

 hospital are preserved. They were not of the solitary monastic 

 order, but secular, married clergy, and two of them were also 

 Rectors of "Wootton. But it lasted only a century or so. The 

 lands that provided the income lay about West Tockenham and 

 Quedhampton, near Basset Down, and were given away in the 

 reign of Henry IV. to the Priory of Bradenstoke (or Clack Abbey). 

 The estates of the Basset family passed to the Despensers. I will 

 not trouble you with all their notorious history ; it is sufficient just 

 to say that upon their execution in the reign of Edward II. Wootton 

 Basset was forfeited to the Crown, and under the Crown it was held 

 by various members of the Royal Family one after another, or 

 in certain portions by the families of Wroughton, Yorke, and 

 Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The arms of some of these were 

 formerly in the windows of the old Church at Wootton, but I do 

 not know that even these families ever left behind them anything 

 else to be remembered by, except those perishable memorials. For it 

 is really the fact that over and over again the only information to be 



1 In " Dr. Hutton's Collections from the ' Vetus Megistrum ' of Sarnm," now 

 among the Harleian MSS., is a copy of an order by Bishop Walter de la Wyle, 

 relating to this foundation : — " Ordinatio Walteri Sarum Episcopi super Hospitale 

 de Wotton Basset fundatum per dominum Philippum Basset et Thomam de 

 Gaytune, Eectorem ejusdem Ecclesise Sit unus custos sive Magister, sacerdos. 

 Habeat sub se unum vel duos fratres Presbyteros, seu plures, in habitu regulari 

 de russeto ; et crucem deferant in desuper indumentis sicut Magister et Fratres 

 Hospitalis Sarum, et easdem habeant observantias : 13 pauperes ad minus vel 

 plures, si facultates Domus suppetant, de Parochia de "Wotton diebus singulis in 

 dicto Hospitali semel in die refectionem recipiant in pane et potagio sufficienti, 

 ac in potu et aliquo ferculo, prout status domus poterit sustinere. Dat. apud 

 Sarum 6. Id: Jun: 1266." 



