824 



Hood Ashton, Sfc. 



Long" " had done nothing" in the world but what he had a perfect 

 right to do , and that if he had inclosed, he had paid for so doing — • 

 perhaps a good deal more than he liked. 



The bounds of the Forest are most carefully described by all the 

 various witnesses, one living here another there : all pretending to 

 know to a yard where the line ran. We will not follow them in 

 detail ; but it is sufficient to say, that the Forest came up to Trow- 

 bridge town's end and away to Semington ; and, in point of fact, 

 followed the existing limits of what is called the Hundred of 

 Whorwellsdown. No less than six of the oldest inhabitants declared 

 that all the country from Hag's Hill, near Semington, as far as 

 Frome, was quite open, within memory, and no part thereof was 

 impaled, ditched or otherwise enclosed. 



Such, on the face of a district so well known to us, is the difference 

 that, 200 years, or so, have made. But now, if the good folks of 

 Trowbridge happen to find it rather close, in Back Lane, or the 

 Conigre, or Hill Street, or Yerbury Street, or Court Lane, or the 

 Ranks, or Brick Plat, or Roundstone Street, or Duke Street, and so 

 on, when they want a mouthfull of fresh air and a dry walk for 

 themselves, their wives and children, they can get it across Selwood 

 Forest. There are none of King Edgar's wolves ; and no deer with 

 large horns, to frighten poor little Dicky in his perambulator. Quite 

 the contrary : a nice dry broad road, a mile and a quarter or so from 

 end to end : pretty pheasants strutting about : nothing to pay for 

 the convenience ; but free enjoyment, so long as they will only w use, 

 hut not abuse " it, on the private grounds of the Squire of Rood 

 Ashton. 



It is, I believe, now quite understood, that the name of Steeple 

 Ashton has nothing in the world to do with the steeple of the church. 

 It is simply a corruption of the word Staple — i.e., Market. The 

 privilege of holding a market there was granted by Royal Charter 

 to the Abbess of Romsey in 1387 ; and in old deeds that I have 

 seen it is called Market Ashton." Leland the antiquary came 

 that way in a.d. 1540, and he speaks of it thus : "'Tisapraty 

 little market town. It hath praty buildings. It standeth much by 

 cloathiers. There are still some ancient timber-houses : some of it 



