198 



Ancient Ales in the County of Wilts. 



the adjoining parish of Chiseldon, had an ale ; which was effected 

 by the clerk providing a good plain dinner and plenty of strong 

 beer, at his house, for the principal parishioners to partake of; 

 this was called the Clerk's ale, for which each guest made the clerk 

 a present. Mr. Calley, of Burderop Park, who was member of 

 Parliament for Cricklade, Mr. John Brown, of Chiseldon House, 

 his brother, Mr. Pudhall Brown, who was one of the provincial 

 secretaries of the Wilts Topographical Society, the Rev. Thomas 

 Bullock, Yicar of Chiseldon, and other principal inhabitants used 

 to attend the clerk's ales, and give their sovereigns and half- 

 sovereigns in return for his good cheer; and I have been since 

 informed that the Clerk's ale at Chiseldon is still kept up, and that 

 it came off as usual on Easter Tuesday, 1854. 



The Rev. S. Denne says, 1 " The clerk's ale was in the Easter 

 holidays and was the method taken to enable clerks of parishes to 

 collect more readily their dues," or as it is expressed in Aubrey's 

 MS. Introduction to the Survey of Wilts, as cited by Mr. Warton 

 in his History of English Poetry, 2 " It was for the clerk's private 

 benefit and the solace of the neighbourhood." 



5. The Herd's Ale. 

 Of this ale I am aware of two Wiltshire instances — the Herd's 

 ale at Newnton, and the Herd's ale at Ogbourne St. George. 



THE HERD'S ALE AT NEWNTON. 



Mr. Aubrey, in his MS. collections, for Wilts (part I.), Tit. 

 Newnton, gives the following account of this ale: — 



" The Custome here Trinity Sunday : — 



" King Athelstan having obtained a victory over the Danes by the assistance 

 of the inhabitants of this place, riding to recreate himself, found a woman bait- 

 ing her cowe upon the way called the Fosse (which runs through this parish 

 and is a famous Roman way that goes from Cornwall to Scotland). The woman 

 sate on a stool, with the cow fastened by a rope to the legge of the stoole ; the 

 manner of it occasioned the king to aske why she did so ; she answered the 

 king that they had no common belonging to the town ; the queen being then in 



ul Archceologia, vol. xii., p. 10. 



"2 Vol. iii., p. 119, n. (f.) of the Ed. of 1840. This MS. was printed in 

 1714, with some letters written to Mr. Aubrey, under the title " Miscellanies on 

 several curious subjects." It is in the Lib. of the Brit. Mus. 



