332 Notes on Places Visited by the Soviet;/ in 1895. 



a niche. In each side wall is a good gateway with large balls on the 

 top of the piers. There is another gateway on the opposite side of 

 the present farm-yard to the main gates, and the lower parts of the 

 piers remain near Chapel Plaister of yet another large gate. 



Ilaselbnry was originally a parish distinct from Box, and had a 

 Church dedicated to St. Anne, which is supposed to have stood in | 

 a field at a little distance from the house in which stone coffins 

 have been found. 



Chapel Plaister. 



This interesting little chapel, or rather hospice, situated at the 

 west end of Corsham Bidge, half-way between Lacock and Bath, 

 on the line of an old road, and also on the road from Corsham to 

 Bradford, was for a long time notorious as the headquarters of 

 Tom Baxter, the highwayman, in the last century. 



The earliest part of the existing building is of the fifteenth 

 century, but was much altered later in the same century. The 

 original building consisted of hospital and chapel, with a chamber 

 for the priest in attendance on the north side. It was all on the 

 ground-floor, with no upper story, and is easily distinguished by 

 the boldly-moulded plinth which surrounds it. The later fifteenth 

 century alterations were considerable, and consisted principally in 

 widening the hospital — or western portion — and adding thereto an 

 upper floor entered by a twisted staircase in the south-west angle, 

 whilst the priest's chamber was also raised by the addition of a 

 room above ; the west porch was also added, and some windows 

 inserted in the chapel, with new roofs throughout. With one or 

 two slight alterations the building remains as at that time, although 

 it has passed through many changes — first it was used as a dwelling- 

 house, when the Queen Anne fireplace on the upper floor and the 

 two windows of the same date on each side the building were 

 inserted ; afterwards it became a bakery, evidence of which, in the 

 shape of a large stone oven at the east end remained till the late 

 restoration ; but it ceased to be used for any other purpose than a 

 lumber shed many years ago. 



The east end of the chapel is finished on the inside by a reredos. 



