200 



Ancient Chnpeh, fyc, in Co. Wilts. 



Charters in the British Museum. In " Addit. MS. 0303, fol. 

 175," it is mentioned that the Tropenells had in 1519, "the 

 manor of Neston, with the chapel of St. John Baptist there, 

 and close adjoyning in the Rygge, in Neston." And " Add. 

 MS. 5140," is a Latin deed, the substance of which in English 

 is as follows : — 



15 Hen. VIII., AD. 1523, 5th June. Thomas Tropenell grants to Thomas 

 Englefield, Serjeant-at-Law, William Gale, and others. " All his manor 

 of Great Chalfield, &c, : also all his lands, &c.,in New Sarum, Fisherton 

 Aucher, Hertham in the parish of Cosh am, Neston Cosh am, and Cosham 

 londe, with the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, and close adjoining in Le 

 Riyge in Cosham londe, &c. To the use of the said Thomas Tropenell 

 and his heirs for ever, for the fulfilment of the purposes of his Last Will. 

 Endorsed, ' Delivery and seisin had 1 July by John Howell, Atty.' " 



Chapel Playster, between Corsham and Bradford. The name is 

 probably Playstow, meaning an open place for village recrea- 

 tions. This chapel which is within the parish of Box, near 

 the meeting of six different roads, by the way-side at the end 

 of Corsham Ridge, is still standing. It is 29 feet long by 

 about 9 feet wide, has a chancel, north transept, nave and little 

 bell-cot, with a porch and holy water stoup. Its real history 

 is not known, but the tradition about it in Aubrey's time 

 (c. 1000). was that it had been a sort of way-side oratory, with 

 small lodging house attached, for pilgrims travelling to Glaston- 

 bury. This is not improbable, for the same thing occurs in 

 other parts of England, and in other countries, as in Spain. 

 " Pilgrims to St. James of Compostella being very numerous 

 and sometimes hindered by the difficulties of the journey, and 

 the roughness and barrenness of those parts, the canons of St. 

 Eloy with a desire of remedying these evils, built in many 

 places along the whole road which reached as far as France, 

 hospitals for the reception of Pilgrims." [Cary's Dante iii., 

 253.] The word " hospital," now confined in England to 

 public receptacles for sick, originally meant a house for recep- 

 tion of guests : an inn. For more about Chapel Playster, see 

 Wilts Collections, Aubrey & Jackson, p. 59. 



Charlton, between Devizes and Pewsey, (Hundred of Swan- 



