200 Recent Rooks, Pamphlets, Articles, 8fC, on Wiltshire Matter*. 



be a guide book to tbe Cathedral, it is a memento which many who visit 

 the great Church will be glad to carry away with them. Noticed in Devizes 

 Advertiser, May 13th, 1897. 



{The illustrations are as follows :— Cathedral from the N.E. ; W. Front ; 

 S. Aisle, looking W. ; Turret of the W. Front ; N. Porch ; Longespee Tomb ; 

 "View from the Meadows; Inverted Arch; Audley Chantry ; Cloister and 

 S. Transept ; Great Transept ; Chapter House ; view through Grille to the 

 Bridport Tomb ; Lady Chapel ; Consecration Cross on Chapter House. 



Old Wiltshire Market Towns and Villages, by M. K. Dowding. 

 Illustrated by M. E. Sargent. London : Houlston & Sons. Chippenham 

 and Bath. 1896. Sm. 4to. ' Pp. vi., 92. Cloth. Price 5/- nett. With 

 frontispiece and 35 illustrations in the text from pen drawings. 



This is a nicelv -printed and well-got-up little book, written in an easy 

 and not unpleasant style, and illustrated with numerous sketchy pen drawings 

 which here and there — as in the case of the old Shambles, now destroyed, 

 at Chippenham — illustrate some point of interest, but for the most part are 

 but too vague " impressions " of buildings, or picturesque " bits," of little 

 value from a topographical point of view. The letterpress contains outlines 

 of the history of the places treated of, and of their prominent characteristics 

 in modern times. As far as the history is concerned, this seems taken as a 

 rule from the recognised authorities — though even here there are too many 

 slips. The people of Wilts were hardly called " Wilscetas " in Csesar's time 

 — the Saxon Archbishop's name was Theodore, not " Theodosias" — and the 

 great castle-building bishop, Roger of Salisbury, did not bear the surname 

 of " Poore," by which he is mentioned three times in this book. In the 

 matter of architecture the authoress has apparently the vaguest ideas, as is 

 sufficiently evident from such statements as that the bell-cots of Biddeston, 

 Leigh Delamere, and Acton Turville are " considered to be Saxon " — that 

 the outside of Box Church displays the Norman style — that the " massive 

 Blind House on the Bridge at Trowbridge " is connected with the ancient 

 castle — and that the existing chancel of the old Church at Swindon is about 

 eleven hundred years old. The derivations of place names given in the 

 book, as for instance, the identification of Warminster with Westminster, 

 are in several cases not convincing— and where the authoress (as at Swindon 

 and Box) ventures on a remark on the local geology it is but too evident 

 that she is out of her depth. It is a pity that so pretty a book should be 

 marred by such mistakes as these. 



The following is a list of the illustrations : — Salisbury Cathedral, E. Gate 

 of the Close, Butter Cross ; Warminster from New Road, The Minster ; 

 Trowbridge Parish Church, Almshouses ; Bradford-on-Avon Bridge, Saxon 

 Church, View of from Railway Station ; Melksham Church, Old Houses ; 

 Devizes— St. John's, Virgin and Child at St. Mary's, Old Town Hall ; Calne 

 Church, Green with School-houses ; Marlborough High Street ; King Oak 

 Savernake Forest ; Swindon View from, Chancel of Old Church ; Chippenham 

 Parish Church, the Old Shambles, Old Town Hall ; Corsham Church Porch, 

 Hungerford Alms Houses ; Box Church, Bridge and Blind House ; 

 Biddestone St. Nicholas, Belfry of St. Peter's ; Malmesbury Abbey Porch, 



