302 President's Address. 



Trowbridge, we ought to see Great Chalfield. It is interesting as 

 having been an outpost of the Romans, and for the remains of a fine j 

 Manor House of the 15th century. The best description of this 

 building is to be found in Walker's vol. iii. of " Pugin's Examples 

 of Gothic Architecture/'' It is said to have been built by Thomas | 

 Tropenell, who died in 1490, and who, with Agnes his wife, who j 

 was the daughter of Wm. Ludlow of Hill Deverill, lies buried under 

 an altar tomb in Corsham Church. Chalfield is mentioned in 

 Domesday Book under the name of Caldefelle, and was held by 

 Ernulf de Hesding of the king. The manor of Great Chalfield was held 

 by Sir William Rous of the Earl of Salisbury as part of the " honour" 

 of Trowbridge (which belonged to the Duchy of Lancaster) . By 

 virtue of this manor Rous and the Lords of Chalfield, for the time , 

 being, were Constables of Trowbridge Castle. Great Chalfield" 

 was in the possession of the Norman family of Percy, but a 

 certain Constance Percy described in the old MS. as "Bedfellow 

 and Cousin'''' of Master Robert Wayville, Bishop of Salisbury, 

 and afterwards widow of Sir Henry Percy, did marry a second 

 husband, and prove " very naughty/'' and an expensive lawsuit arose 

 about the Manor of Chalfield ; but at length, about the 24th year 

 of Henry VI., Thomas Tropenell, who was connected by marriage 

 with the Percys, recovered the greater part, and afterwards the 

 whole, except the constableship of Trowbridge Castle, which of right 

 belonged to the Manor. In the time of Edward III., Philip 

 Eitzwaryn held the Manor, which successively passed from the 

 Tropenells through the want of male heirs to the family of Eyre, 

 and to Sir John Hanham, by whom it was sold to Mr. Hall. A 

 daughter of Mr. Hall brought the property to the last Duke of 

 Kingston, who sold it to the family of Neale, descendants of the 

 O'Neals, Dukes of Tyrone, Ireland. The church of Chalfield would 

 appear to be even older than the manor house. In it is a beautiful 

 chantry chapel built by Mr. Thomas Tropenell and adorned with the j 

 arms of his family, shewing his descent from the Percys. Near 

 Holt we see, on a grassy hill overlooking the river, the little church 

 of Whaddon, which contains some interesting memorials of the 

 Long family. At Whaddon there formerly stood a fine manor-house 



