Wilts Notes and Queries. 



259 



renders him so well qualified to illustrate their history. At a recent 

 visit to the old house, Mrs. Spackman assured me that the parish 

 register in her keeping made no reference to any such an event. 

 Possibly the registers of Melksham, Brought on Gifford, or Holt, 

 under date 1642 to 1645, may contain items of contribution for 

 supporting the said garrison. The mutilated condition of the house, 

 and three large apertures resembling casemates in the ruined gable 

 wall standing near the church, certainly point to something more 

 than the quiet decay of time. As an architectural study Chalfleld 

 has been copiously illustrated by Walker; and as a picturesque 

 memorial it has been sketched by Mr. Matcham; but no sufficient 

 explanation has yet been given of the apertures in question. A 

 better knowledge of the family history would probably decide their 

 character. One thing is certain : they are no parts of the original 

 design ; they are very irregular in form, piercing and mutilating 

 two arcades. 



In the " Lords' Journals" the following minutes relating to this 

 subject have been met with : — 



A letter, written by the committee sitting at Chalfield House, to 

 Sir William Waller at Salisbury, 1645, announcing that Rupert 

 and Maurice were at Marshfield. Also a statement by Sir Richard 

 Gurney, the loyal Lord Mayor of London, that he had lost at least 

 £2000 by injury done to Chalfield House, in Wilts, and cutting 

 down the woods there ; showing that the estate had already passed 

 from the Eyre family. The fact of Great Chalfield having been 

 a garrison, therefore, seems decided; the only point requiring 

 elucidation being the affair of the siege. J. W. 



County Gaol at Fisherton. — In the year 1730, the gentry of 

 Wilts, anxious to increase the efficiency of this establishment by 

 annexing to it the adjoining residence of Mr. Thorpe (the then 

 gaol governor, who was about to quit the office), there being at 

 that time no residence for a governor within the limits of the prison, 

 made application to Parliament for powers to raise a sum sufficient 

 to purchase the said house of Mr. Thorpe, at £1750 more or less. 

 And to bring about this very simple affair, a committee of members 

 is formed, the testimony of surveyors heard, and a bill framed. 



