82 



Devizes. 



King Henry I. paid this county the double compliment of taking 

 out of it, first a wife, and then a Prime Minister. His wife 

 Matilda was educated at Wilton Nunnery ; and although to ask for 

 a wife through the grating of a Nunnery, was not quite according 

 to the rules of the House, still, when Kings ask, difficulties are 

 soon got over, and this was surmounted by the discovery that she 

 was an inmate of the House not by her own free choice. 



A Prime Minister the King found — not very far from Wilton — 

 at Old Sarum. It was only in the reign of the Conqueror that the 

 Bishoprick had been established at Old Sarum ; and Bishop Roger 

 was the third who filled the See. He was not an Englishman but a 

 Norman ; and there is a story, the original authority for which is 

 not known, that be was transplanted into this country in a curious 

 way. Henry, before he came to the throne, was in Normandy 

 contenc&ng with his brother William Rufus for the succession. 

 He happened in one of his military marches to enter a church, 

 near Caen, to hear mass. Roger was officiating, and whether the 

 clank of armed men made him more nervous than usual, and anxious 

 to get such a congregation out again as soon as he could, or what- 

 ever it was, he got through his service so rapidly that the Prince 

 said in a joke, he would make a good regimental chaplain, and so 

 enlisted him. This story seems to be adopted by the French topo- 

 graphers, for the Abbe de la Rue in his History of Caen, names 

 the place where this happened, which was at Yaucelles, a suburb 

 of the city of Caen. He mentions Roger as appointed to that 

 Rectory in 1089, and connects this anecdote with his name. 



The Rector of Yaucelles made the most of his opportunity. He 

 studied the Prince's character, and seeing that he was aiming at a 

 Throne, whispered into his ear, " The more money you can get, 

 the better is your chance : repress expense, be economical. You 

 want a manager : employ me." 



On arriving in England he was first appointed to be Dean of 

 the College of St. Martin's le Grand, in London. This College 

 stood somewhere near the present General Post Office. It consisted 

 of a Dean and Canons ; and in those days the Dean was a great 

 man, often appointed to offices of State. Many records signed by 



