By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



265 



have ever met with was of the year 1295, nearly 600 years ago, 

 when John de Burle and Robert Osgood were returned. In 1307, 

 John Chapman and Giles de Chiverden, (now corrupted to Chiver- 

 lings). It is most likely that the earlier Members for the Borough 

 were actually themselves resident burgesses in the town : because 

 even so late as 1613, John Scott, clothier, and Robert Wiser, 

 haberdasher, were returned. But in early times the M.P.'s did 

 not pay their own expenses. Those expenses, the cost of sending 

 them up, and the cost of keeping them, so much a day, were provided 

 for them by their constituents. In the Charter of Queen Mary to 

 this town by which certain lands were bestowed, the purpose of the 

 the gift is expressly stated to be this: — "And moreover we of our 

 free grace considering and meaning that our s d . subjects the inhab- 

 itants and burgesses of the said Borough are grievously burthened, 

 driven, and compelled to bestow great cost, as well in the mainten- 

 ance of Two Burgesses to be present and attendant at Our Parlia- 

 ment, as in the reparation of a certain great Bridge, and of a certain 

 great causeway : we therefore give and grant all that our close 

 called Inlands, &c, &c." 



I cannot state exactly what was the amount of daily wages 

 allowed by the Borough of Chippenham for the maintenance of its 

 representatives in the Parliament: but we are informed elsewhere 

 that in the Middle Ages the Knights for Counties received Four 

 Shillings a day, and the Burgesses for Boroughs Two Shillings a 

 day, paid by special warrant under the Crown. Two shillings at 

 that period could not be less than Twenty Shillings a day now. 



It must be recollected, that in early times, the place where the 

 Parliament met was not fixed as it is now. It followed the King. 

 Sometimes it might be at Reading, or York, or elsewhere : so that 

 attendance upon it was accompanied with much inconvenience. 

 In those days there were neither good roads, nor rapidly moving 

 public carriages : every body travelled on horseback. There was 

 no regular post for the convej^ance of letters. In London itself, 

 there could have been but few amusements: a Bear garden perhaps, 

 or a Tournament now and then, but no Opera, Theatre, or Club : 

 no Royal Academy, or Crystal Palace : no Literary Societies, or 



