144 



Bishop's Cannings. 



when on her return from Bath 11th June 1613, she passed over 

 Wansdyke in his parish. Having received intelligence of this, 

 Mr. Ferrebe, it is related, dressed himself in the habit of an an- 

 cient bard, and clothed certain persons of his family whom he had 

 taught to play and sing in parts, in shepherd's weeds, and proceeded 

 to meet her Majesty. The Queen having had some notice of their 

 intention, stood still and suffered them to draw up to her, which 

 when done, they played their lessons on their wind instruments 

 admirably, and sung some pastoral eclogues which he had composed 

 for the occasion, to the great liking of the Queen and her Court. 

 Soon after this, Mr. Ferrebe was sworn one of the King's Chap- 

 lains, and was ever after much valued for his ingenuity. 1 Aubrey 

 in one of his letters says that "GL Ferrebe was Demy if not Fellow 

 of Magd. Coll. Oxford : and that it was he who caused the eight 

 bells to be cast there, being a very good ringer." 



The Parish Church. 



This is dedicated to St. Mary the Yirgin, and is a very ancient 

 and noble structure. It has some traces of Norman, but a large 

 portion of it is of the earliest age of the Pointed style: which 

 doubtless was the prevailing character of the whole before certain 

 changes, hereafter noticed, were made. 



The chancel with the transepts and tower afford pure specimens 

 of the Early English, and lancet windows ; those of the chancel 

 especially being very beautiful, and much admired both by profes- 

 sional and amateur architects: whilst the pillars of the nave, adorn- 

 ed with well finished capitals, furnish evident marks of having 

 been set up at that transition period, when the massive Roman 

 was giving way to the lighter architecture of the 12th century. 2 The 



1 See a further account of this eccentric vicar in Aubrey's Nat. Hist, of Wilts, 

 p. 108. 



2 The late Mr. Britton in his "Architectural Antiquities" vol. iv. p. 121, 

 gives an engraving of the church from the south ; and ' ' safely refers the ear- 

 liest part of it to the reign of King Henry II." 1155-1189. Joceline de Bailol 

 being Bishop of Salisbury during nearly the whole of that period, it is not un- 

 likely that upon recovering the Manor of Cannings from the crown in A.D. 1159, 

 (See above, p. 125.) he undertook the erection of this fine building. Its charac- 



