By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



261 



ancient building higher up in the street, on the face of which 



these two family shields, forming the Borough arms, again appear, 



but on the front, outside — the Old Town Hall. Where to find it, 



the inhabitants of Chippenham know very well : but for a stranger 



or visitor to make the discovery would not be so easy. In his 



pretty poem " The Deserted Village," Goldsmith says of the wreck 



of the Parsonage house, 



" There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose, 

 The village Preacher's modest mansion rose." 



But far more modest, far more fearful of the public gaze, is the 

 venerable Council Hall of ancient Chippenham ! Instead of pro- 

 jecting with saucy challenge to all passers by, it shrinks from the 

 street, and tries to hide its beauty — not exactly among a " few 

 torn shrubs," but — behind two solemn smoke-begrimed evergreens. 

 Peep carefully between them, and you may espy two small old- 

 fashioned gables, surmounted by a wooden cage, licensed, as it 

 would seem, to carry only three inside passengers, a bell and a pair 

 of pigeons. " Can this " you say, " be the Old Town Hall ? " It 

 is so, without any manner of doubt, for there are (as above 

 mentioned) the Borough arms, with the palm tree and the motto 

 " Unity and Loyalty :" and above them the initial letters of the 

 probable beautifier of the front, "J. S., 1776," signifying possibly 

 John Scott, a leading person, and bailiff (equivalent to the modern 

 Mayor) of the town, about that time. And there it stands, looking 

 now like a little man in a crowd, squeezed up and half smothered 

 by taller and bulkier neighbours. 



But it was not always so. In days when Chippenham was young 

 and humble, when land was less valuable and the central space was 

 a space indeed, and clear of dwelling-houses, every country fellow 

 that came in, could in a moment see (and no doubt beheld it with 

 veneration), which was the Town Hall. 



The oldest notice of it that I have met with, happens to be 

 without date of any particular year, but it is certainly later than 

 A.D. 1553 (1 Mary). It occurs in a paper of queries designed to 

 be laid before Counsel, to settle (as it would seem) whether the 

 building belonged solely to the town, or solely to the Lord of the 



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