By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



85 



windows 3 feet by 2 feet : the floor-planks of oak 3 inches thick ; 

 the walls planked with oak 2 inches thick : stone doorways with 

 double doors. The iron bars of each window weighed 211bs. at 

 3d. a lb. : the iron grate for the convicts weighed 2541b. : the bolts 

 and staples for the doors 3 libs. For the burr-stone the old castle 

 of Sarum was plundered, 80 loads at 8d. a load being hauled away ; 

 but before this could be done labourers were employed at 6d. a-day 

 for 12 days to make a road passable for carts from Old Sarum to 

 Fisherton. The ashlar stone was fetched from Ohilmark; the 

 earth and mortar from Harnham, the lime and water-sand from 

 Milford. The tiler was paid lOd. a-day, and the tiles came from 

 White-parish and Oranbourne. The work went on very slowly, 

 for the grand difficulty was to get in the money. Rate-paying was 

 new, and had not yet become the familiar acquaintance which it is 

 to us. The first poor-rate in Wilts seems to have been about the 

 year 1553, and the rate for the Gaol, being in 1568, was perhaps 

 a very early taste of County-rate. The shoulder of the Wiltshire 

 public was raw to the collar, and though the rate was required for 

 ridding them of even the most troublesome members of society, 

 still nobody seemed to like it. In the very first year Mr. 

 Willoughby became tired of his share of the management, and 

 writes to his colleague, Sir John Thynne, a despairing epistle, of 

 which a few lines will suffice. 



11 Right worshipful, my duty remembered. There is little forwardness in 

 these parts to yonr expedition and mine toward the building of the gaol. 

 All that is done yet for carriage of stone and lime is upon your credit and mine : 

 otherwise the work must needs have ceased for lack of money, which I trust you 

 will notice : for if Mr. A'barowe have not his money paid him within four days 

 of Midsummer he will discharge us any farther to meddle with his ground and 

 so the county will say we have begun a wise piece of work. All which premises 

 I refer to you to consider. And thus I leave, wishing you better health and 

 better speed in your affairs than we have in ours. From my house at Knoyle, 

 xi June, 1568." " P.S. If they do not bring in their first rate after 6d. in 

 the pound before Midsummer day next all the work must needs cease, and the 

 artificers which have taken it are like to be undone by the same, and I for my 

 part will never meddle with it again." 



As Mr. Willoughby does not appear again in the business, he 



probably carried his threat into execution, and Sir John had it all 



to himself. He appointed a deputy, who was paid 16d. a-day for 



