By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 



137 



whose name that church bears, was the celebrated strong man who 

 carried off the gates of Gaza. Saint Sampson was a native of 

 Glamorganshire (and therefore a true Briton), born A.D. 496. 

 He was trained in Ireland to a life of extreme holiness and self- 

 denial ; went over into Continental Britany, then under the same 

 dominion as this country, and there became founder of the Abbey, 

 and Bishop, of D61. 



How he came to be selected for the Patron Saint of a church in 

 "Wiltshire is quite another question. Perhaps the reason may be 

 this. Among several derivations that have been suggested for 

 the difficult name of the town of Oricklade, one is that it is a cor- 

 ruption of the Welsh words " Kerig-glad," meaning stone country. 

 If this is so, then the place itself may have been of Welsh origin and 

 associations, and under those circumstances nothing would be more 

 natural than that they should select as their Patron Saint, one, of 

 whose kindred, and of whose eminence, they had in those days 

 reason to be proud. 



There ought also, but there is not, to be seen at Cricklade, a 

 Hospital of St. John the Baptist ; and there ought likewise to be 

 seen, but likewise there is not, a Castle. No work on Wiltshire 

 makes any mention of Cricklade Castle : but that there once was 

 one so called, appears from the ancient history called a The Acts of 

 K. Stephen." Speaking of the wars between Stephen and the 

 Empress Matilda, the latter of whom was chiefly supported by the 

 then Earl of Gloucester, the historian says : "At that time, 1142, 

 William of Dover, a skilful soldier, and an active partisan of the 

 Earl of Gloucester, took possession of Cricklade, a village delight- 

 fully situated in a rich and fertile neighbourhood. He built a 

 castle for himself with great diligence, on a spot which, being sur- 

 rounded on all sides by waters and marshes, was very inaccessible." 



This description suits the local geography pretty well, but 

 whereabouts the castle stood in Cricklade is not clear. It may, 

 perhaps, have been not exactly at Cricklade, but at Castle Eaton, 

 which is not very far off, and as Eaton means the inclosure within 

 waters, that site would answer the historian's description equally well. 

 In Leland's time some remains of Eaton Castle were still standing. 



VOL. VII. — NO. XX. N 



