By C. H. Talbot. 



15 



which would be a very good subject for a judicious and conservative 

 restoration. In the meantime, I commend it to the notice of artists 

 and photographers. The Members of the Society should, I think, 

 stop, and, at least, view the outside of it. The house is in the 

 parish of Melksham, and, I believe, in the tithing of Woolmer, and 

 is called " Woolmer " by some. The present occupier, I think, 

 calls it " Bower Hill/' A reference to the old map by Dury and 

 Andrews, 1773, seems to show that its old name was "Bower 

 House." It was all built, at one date, in the time of Charles the 

 First, and is very little altered. Over the principal door are the 

 letters G M H above the date 1631, and I expect that investigation 

 will show it to have been built by a member of the Hulbert family, 

 for this reason. A bread charity was left to the parish of Lacock, 

 by George Hulbert, of Covent Garden, which is a charge upon 

 land at Woolmer, in the parish of Melksham. As however this 

 appears to have been founded by will, in 1629, he could not 

 himself be the builder of the house. The house is remarkable, in 

 this part of the country, as being built of brick with stone dressings. 

 It has a range of small gables, at the sides, and a similar range, at 

 the front and back, has either been removed, or intended but never 

 erected. Many of the original fireplaces remain, of good character, 

 and all very similar. 



At Keevil we shall see a timber-built house of the fifteenth 

 century, which has been restored and added to. This is a case in 

 which I think that the restoration was a little too sweeping, and 

 more so, I believe, than was the wish of the owner. The builder 

 employed on the restoration, who also did the Porch House at 

 Potterne, was a very good man for the work, and the only man I 

 ever knew who restored wattle-and-dab properly. Lath-and-plaster 

 is generally substituted for decayed wattle-and-dab, but does not 

 stand anything like as well. The builder was animated by a desire 

 to bring the place back to its original condition, and he removed a 

 stone window of the sixteenth century and a timber porch of the 

 seventeenth century, which it might have been better to have 

 retained. 



Twenty years ago, I first visited Mere, in South Wilts, and in a 



