Wiltshire Quarter Sessions. 229 



Calstone Wellington, bearing evidence to the value of water power 

 at an elevated point, from which the citizens of Calne now draw 

 their supply. 



Disinclination to serve on juries is evidently not a modern failing. 

 At the Hilary Sessions, 1605-6, the Hundred of Downton resent 

 acts of favouritism on the part of the bailiff : — 



" Wee present our bayly .... That he hath warned and mad choyse 

 of many poore men to serve .... hath left the better sort at home." 



And it is also clear that the bailiff, when he did warn, was often 

 met with jests which were not convenient. 



A commitment to Fisherton Gaol, set out in full, is found on the 

 roll for Michaelmas, 1607, on a charge of forcibly holding a house 

 in contravention of the Act 15 Rich. II. At the Easter Sessions, 

 1606, an indictment on a similar charge is answered by plea of the 

 statute made 4th February, 31 Eliz., setting a limitation to such 

 proceedings after three years' peaceable possession. The pleadings 

 in criminal cases do not often appear in writing : two or three 

 instances do occur on the roll for Michaelmas, 1605 ; they are, of 

 course, pleas of " Not Guilty,"" and are expressly stated to be signed 

 by attorney. Elsewhere the court is prayed by a petitioner, who 

 seems to have been a generous patron of the lawyers, " to make 

 stay of the tryall" by reason " of div'se weightie sutes wch the said 

 Robert Wrighte hath nowe dependinge in the Courte of Starr 

 Chamber and other his maties courts." 



In the minute books of James the First's reign there is an hiatus 

 covering almost exactly the interval to which the foregoing extracts 

 relate. The book labelled "Entries I" ends with the Hilary 

 Sessions of the first year of the reign : " Entries II " begins with 

 the Hilary Sessions, 7 Jac. I. On the last pages of " Entries I " are 

 written a set of precedents in criminal procedure. The following is 

 a list of them : — 



1. Presentment of plea of guilty to a nuisance. 



2. Confession of felony — with sentence of hanging. 



3. Claim of benefit of discharge as a clerk convict. 



4. Trial at bar with conviction of felony— hanging. 



VOL. — XXII. — NO. LXV. R 



