By the Rev. J. Ward. 



291 



they were placed in the Savings Bank at Marlborough, and the 

 interest has been distributed ever since at Christmas. 



There is also a fabric fund belonging to the Church, arising from 

 lands in the parish of Little Bedw} 7 n, at present under lease to the 

 Marquis of Ailesbury. The rent, £18 per annum, is received by 

 the churchwardens, and applied by them to the repair and other 

 uses of the Church. 



There is an excellent National School for boys and girls 

 erected in a.d. 1835, and supported by annual gifts from the 

 Marquis of Ailesbury, and other beneficent contributors, in aid of 

 the income derived from the small payments of the children. An- 

 other school was established at East Grafton, after the building of 

 the Church, which has been conducted on the most improved prin- 

 ciples. And there is a third school in the parish, situated very 

 romantically in the grounds at Tottenham Park, and entirely sup- 

 ported by the Marchioness of Ailesbury. In these schools there is 

 accommodation for more than 300 children, in addition to which, 

 an infant school has been lately established at Great Bedwyn. 



The Borough of Great Bedvvyn is governed by a Portreeve, who 

 is annually chosen at Michaelmas, at the Court Leet of the Lord 

 of the Manor; and the Portreeve elects the bailiff, constable, and 

 other officers for the ensuing year. 



The Corporation of Great Bedwyn possess a seal, on which the 

 ancient Arms of the Borough are engraved, viz. Azure, a Tower 

 domed Argent. The crest is a Griffin passant Or. 1 (See Plate.) 



II. The Representative History of Great Bedwyn. 



Bedwyn was one of the Wiltshire boroughs in King Edward the 

 Confessor's time, and when the Domesday Survey was taken, it had 

 twenty-five burgesses. This is nearly all that is known of its position, 

 as a borough, at that early period. The history of its representa- 

 tion states, that it sent members to all the Parliaments of Edward 



1 In preparing for the Society's Magazine the foregoing account of Great 

 Bedwyn Parish and Church, in which various changes have taken place since 

 his own incumbency, the writer of this Paper desires to acknowledge the kind 

 assistance of the Rev. W. C. Lukis, his successor at Bedwyn, and now Rector 

 of Collingbourne Ducis. 



