Chronicles of the Devizes, being a history of the castle, parks and borough of that name, etc

Preface

. The object and character of a work bearing the title of the present must be so obvious to all, that preface seems hardly necessary except for the purpose of saying a few words on the sources of information, and paying that just tribute of respect which is due to the gentlemen who have assisted me in the undertaking. The history of this Country during the middle ages has already derived much elucidation from the publishing of the Tower-Records; and although it will remain com paratively defective till that publication is complete, yet to have deferred the history of Devizes till such a doubtful period should arrive, would have been a virtual re linquishing of the task. The observations in the municipal department are taken in a great measure from the reports lately published by Government.

With regard to such as are not, I think it only necessary to say that they have been drawn up with considerable care, and with an anxious desire to offend no living man. A great deal has been written about Wiltshire and its antiquities, but I cannot help thinking that no writer has sufficiently studied the moral influence which its inhabitants and principal families have ever exercised in the revolutions of the state. With this view, much might have been added and many names introduced in the pre sent work, with reference to the great civil wars : but I willingly leave this point to be more ably discussed by Mr. Hatcher, in his forthcoming work on Salisbury. To this gentleman I am indebted for the whole of the docu ments relative to the disposal of the Castle under Bishop Joceline's prelacy.

The other gentlemen who have supplied me with valuable materials are the Rev. Edward James Phipps, Mr. Paul Anstie, Mr. George Anstie, and Mr. T. B. Smith, of Devizes and Mr. Britton of London.

Chapter I. Opening Remarks Opinions Of Dr

DAVIS AND OTHERS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE TOWN DEATH OF WILLIAM BAXTER SOME ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF STUKELEY RECEIPT FOR ANTIQUA RIES, AND CRITIQUE ON THE SCHOOL OF MEDI CINE OF THE LAST CENTURY. When undertaking to give the history of nations or smaller communities, historians and biographers have always exhibited the very natural desire to begin if possible at the beginning. Their repugnance to the idea of raising a " baseless fabric " is such, that when unable to discover a legitimate and undoubted origin ; their next step has been to set about manufac turing one. Such practices, to be sure, are becoming less and less available in the present day, when writers who presume to venture into doubtful paths, without suitable provision and armour of proof, are liable to sudden and dis graceful defeat.

Even if this were not the case, there is something so unsatisfactory to the mind, in putting forth statements, or only suggestions, of the truth of which we feel not fully assured, that at first sight it appears surprizing that real lovers of history should so often have indulged B in such a course. It is however undoubtedly true that many who have made the most laborious researches to ascertain truth for themselves, have in many cases been the same persons not only to profess a belief in the vain fancies of hoary legends, but to attempt to foist on mankind other figments of their own brain. The moving prin ciple in such must be, a desire to serve the purposes of some party feeling, ir else to be regarded as oracles by the unlearned; Hector Boethius for instance must have shared pretty largely in this latter gratification, when he garnished the annals of Scotland with his comely catalogue of kings before the fifth century ; furnishing for each of them, a life, character, and eventful reign ; and basing his " History " on such authorities as Cornelius Hibernicus and a variety of other authors whom the world had never known, or heard of.

On the other hand it is necessary to guard against becoming the victims of our own incre dulity, and of rejecting statements, the truth of which we have never taken the trouble to inves tigate ; merely because they appear improbable. This cautionary process, it will probably be thought, is an unnecessary introduction to the examination of a subject so unimportant as the present ; but the fact is, that the interest attached to such enquiries, is frequently not at all in accordance with the importance they possess. In fighting about a mere word, men have been as guilty of violent language and party spleen, as if THE DIVIZES. disputing their claim to an estate ; and questions of a philological nature, have often appeared arrayed in additional dignity in proportion to the cramped and limited extent of the orbits to wliich they were necessarily confined.

The reader must not therefore feel himself aggrieved, if a problem which has already perplexed so many heads, though its object be nothing more than the origin of a country town, should be once more fairly hauled over ; and that the very circumstance of its having been so often and so unsuccessfully treated, should of itself be regarded as investing it with an interest sufficient to claim his attention for many pages to come. Without further comment therefore I shall proceed, first, to specify what was the primitive spelling of the modern word Devizes ; and then to detail the various hypotheses and conjectures to which the singularity of that name has given rise. The word made use of by William of Malmsbury, and in most of the public records, by all such authorities, in short, from whom we might reasonably expect accuracy, is one in the plural number.

It is Castrum Divisarum — Villa Divisarum — Burgenses Divisarum, and if the former words are omitted for brevity, it becomes Divisæ. This plurality it has retained almost to the present day, the prefixing of the definite ar ticle, in the case of public documents, having be come totally laid aside, only within a few years. Without referring to the numerous readings which a copious Italian dictionary will furnish under the head Divisa; it seems the most legitimate course, to adopt the ordinary and natural rendering of the past participle of Divido, and trans lating Divisæ as divided — partitioned off— or alienated, connect it with some such word as terræ or partes. This gives it the exact meaning of the Saxon Kenninga from Kennan to cut, and has given rise to the following theory. That Divisæ is only the Latin expression (made use of in legal documents) of Kannings, and entertaining this view, Devizes may be the " Kainingham " of Domsday book.

It has been usual to regard this name as the ancient one of the present village of Bishop's Cannings, but it seems very unnecessary to go to Kainingham for this latter, when we possess the much more suitable name of " Kaninge" which, has remained almost unmuti lated down to the present day. The termination '* ham " from originally signifying a house, came to imply a street or town, and still exists in many names, as Nottingham, Shoreham, Chippenham, East and West Ham. Kainingham or Kanning ham it is therefore presumed may mean the principal town in Kanings. Or the " Borough of Bishop's Cannings " an expression which actually occurs in a document of Charles lst's time written by John Kent, Esq. This opinion however is only thrown out as a plausible conjecture ; it is incapable of any substantial proof, and still leaves in obscurity the reason which first occasioned the idea of partition being attached to the spot or to the district.

That such however was the idea intended to be conveyed, is evident from the circumstance of Florence of Worcester always wri ting it Divisio. The greater part of the other conjectures on this subject have been brought forward in so amusing a manner by Dr. Davis, a Physician of Devizes, in his " Origines Divisianæ" that I make no scruple of relieving myself of the task of so much recapitulation and arrangement by just transcribing the whole of that portion of his little work which refers to this point. A step which will also possess the advantage of exhibiting the style of that writer, and of laying before the inhabitants of Devizes, no inconsiderable portion of a treatise on their town, which is now become so scarce that it is probable not three copies could be found in the place. The "Origines" were compiled in the form of letters to a friend and written in the years 1750 and 1751.

The design of the work being, not only to narrate the prin cipal incidents connected with the early history of the Town, but also as a satire on Dr. Stukeley, Dr. Musgrove, and others, and on credulous an tiquaries in general. In the following extracts, the plan of the letters will necessarily be over looked. He opens the subject with the following remarks. " There is a particular fondness in all mankind that I have yet met with, for the places of their nativity. Whether this preference be woven in our constitutions or is the effect of education, cannot certainly be determined. Other incidents may fall in, connexions with relatives and friends, particular interests, or the pleasing remembrance of the innocent amusements and diversions of childhood, may have their share in forming it. I am not therefore surprised at your affection for The Devizes, nor at the constant enquiries you are making among your friends, concerning its an tiquities.

This passion Virgil seems to have felt in a natural manner when he makes his shepherd complain so feelingly, " Nos dulcia linquiirus arva." And when the course ofthe Georgick brings him in sight of his Mantua, he laments its ruin in the following passionate line, ' Et qualem infelix amisit Mantua campum." " To gratify this desire of yours I have catched at every thing relating to ycur town, which casu ally offered itself in the progress of my studies, and if any particulars occurred, I thought myself possessed of a valuable acquisition, because it would give you pleasure. The few that have come to my knowledge I communicate to you." '" Those who are but moderately acquainted with the study of the early English antiquities, must soon have been convinced that they are en gaged in a dry uncomfortable task, and obliged to plunge through many difficulties, and puzzle through a variety of perplexities ; the originals of facts lying confused and involved, and are to be found out only, like rattle snakes, by their tails.

Here truth is as closely blended with error, as lights and shades in painting, it being very difficult even to a discerning eye, to determine in a well executed picture, where the shade ends or the light begins. The monuments which the Romans left behind them in Britain are greatly disfigured and changed by the barbarity of the succeeding conquerors : they left no traces or acts of sciences behind them, and indeed nothing but what is now become valuable ruins. These though they have greatly advanced the prices of estates, yet have embarrassed the English antiquary. His curiosity however is not to be censured for making attempts towards explaining them, if his views are but properly regulated. Would the writers upon these subjects permit modesty and reason now and then to step into their minds, they would restrain their loose imaginations, and keep within the bounds of useful and beneficial knowledge.

Their readers too would be freed from perusing long and lifeless books, made up chiefly of fanciful suppositions instead of well grounded facts ; which has been too much the case in the point before you." " The later authors, who mention this town are desirous of giving it an early original. I will acquaint you with their sentiments, and leave them to your own decision as well as the cursory remarks that lie intermixed. Some would have this town British — some Roman, and others Saxon. They who contend for its being British assert Dunwallo to have been its founder, or Di visus. The first opinion has had the ill fortune to be supported, neither by facts, nor even by probabilities. Dr. Stukeley is a kind of a sort of patron of the last. Though in his Itinerarium Curiosum (page 136) he earnestly contends for this town, being the same with the " Punctuobice" of an anonymous writer of Ravennas, and by this gives it the honour of a Roman structure ; yet in his Stonehenge (page 48) he is in some distress to determine, whether it might not have been built by an old British king, whom he himself christened Divitiacus.

These curious suggestions will by and bye regain an attentive consideration when your friend has nothing else to do." " I know of no authorities relating to the British affairs, that go farther back than the account delivered by Julius Cæsar ; and the succeeding classical authors themselves assure us that he knew little more than their outlines. The subsequent writers are too general to be proper evidences for the doctor. I never heard of any ancient books remaining of the Britons : they are all lost, if they ever subsisted. The language only remains, and the recondite antiquary founds facts of history upon the radixes of this, as the mysterious Hutchinsonian builds systems of phi losophy upon Hebrew ones. These etymologies have furnished out great attempts for wonderful discoveries, the words having been tortured and woven into a delicate contexture of flimsy pro babilities."

" Musgrave thinks it a Roman town, but the ancient name lost (see Belgium Britannicum, vol. 1. page 124.) He has produced some grounds for his conjecture, from the many Roman antiquities found in its neighbourhood. I wonder that the antiquaries have not availed themselves of the advantages that arise from its name ; from hence might start a pregnant hint for a visionary in antiquities. The word Devizes is very near the Latin Divisæ. This looks something Uke a Roman word, and indeed could the word be traced clearly back to the Roman times, it would be a reasonable proof of the place itself being a Roman work. The Romans left Britain about the year 476 ; the Saxons and Danes kept possession till 1066 ; barbarous and ignorant nations, who extirpated the people, and almost the language of Rome.

The Monks however preserved some relics of the tongue out of this general devastation. William of Malmsbury the most accurate and sensible writer of all the Monkish historians, has retained some Roman names of towns. Among others, he calls the Bishop of Lincoln, Episcopus Lind-colniensis, that is Lindi coloniæ. This writer all along calls this town Divisæ. But Roger Hoveden, under the years 1063 and 1072, and Dugdale's Monasticon use this word for boundaries ; and the ancient lawyers as Bracton and Fleta. Whether these intimations are cre dible, or what these boundaries meant, the author will not take upon him to determine." " It is by no means probable that this town was a Saxon building in the time of Alfred, as the annotator on his life is reported to have advanced ; for the name would then have had some Saxon c termination, which no one has yet ventured to assert.

Nor can it be allowed to have had its name from a division of lands between king Stephen and Roger, Bishop of SaUsbury ; because the grant of these lands was made to Roger before Stephen was king ; and no division of lands ap pears to have been made, or possibly could be between Stephen and Roger, as will appear below. So that aU the scene here laid before you is, Uke Milton's Chaos, * As dark aa Erebus, or Night.' " The Roman ceins and Penates found in its neighbourhood, do not prove the town Roman, because these might have been hid in fields. It is very reasonable to believe it a town not known in or near Antoninus's time, because no traces can be found of it in his Itinerary. That it was the Bunctuobice of Ravennas wants clearer proofs than can be wire-drawn from an unmeaning, unac countable, and an absurd Etymology.

Though the Via Icena, according to Mr. Wise, (see Wise's White Horse, p. 43) points to Abury, it does not prove that it passes through the Devizes. There are no marks left of any Roman works in or near the place, unless that near Roundway-hill be a Roman camp ; which would prove as well Calne, and all the towns under The Downs, which have Roman camps in their neighbourhoods, to have been Roman. Another reason why it could not be so, may be derived from the nature and., situation of the place. The Romans were too well instructed to build a town at such a distance from a riverk unless upon a causeway ; at which Mr. Wise has made a fair point, but nothing arose. Mr. Camden with his usual prudence and judg ment has kept clear of all intimations that might carry this place into any remote antiquity.

We can indeed go no farther back than where you have often formerly played, the Castle ; which engages you even now in amusements almost as trifling and insignificant as the diversions of child hood. But since we are come to this spot, here you may set your foot upon firm ground. I am obliged however to tread with caution, and to foUow the footsteps of the earliest Monkish his torians ; for their successors are very busy in adding largely to their facts ; they are not con tented to deliver them as they were handed down without intruding some of their own unac countable inventions into the situations of their predecessors. You may hence conclude that I have a strong passion for antiquities ■ yet there is no one that gives me so much pleasure as an old friend, which I am satisfied you are to him, &c, &c. <( ■" " An old woman who shewed Lord Bathurst's fine place by Cirencester, was asked by a gentleman that came to see it, ' Pray what building is that' — • Oh sir that is a ruin a thousand years old, which my lord built last year, and he proposes to build one this year, half as old again.' This absurdity is scarce greater than whatis seriously practised by modern antiquaries.

Dr. Stukeley is for carrying the Castle of The Devizes into the legendary state of the old woman." You have seen that castles have a their periods ; they rise, flourish, and decay ; and seem as mortal as the man that built them. Though they were once noble and amazing struc tures, they were, as Rome has been, and as my Lord Mayor's house will be, ruined by their own greatness. They ought not however to dazzle our eyes so much as to make us conclude upon the greatness of their age from that of their bulk. No further aUowance should be given to their years than that which is justified by authority ; and this wiU not allow you to go one step farther back for the origin of your castle than the year 1132. Then it was certainly built. But what weight can so puny an author as your friend is, who never yet published a sixpenny pamphlet, have against so ponderous an author of some Folios ?

Mine is like the fate of Hector in Homer, or Turnus in Virgil, or the Devil's in MUton, which ' Flew up and kick't the beam.' " I acknowledge myself to be a mean Cockney to that great hunter after objects of antiquity, the renowned Antiquary of Lincolnshire, the in incomparable — incomprehensible — inconvincible Doctor Stukeley, who affirms — very peremptorily affirms ' That the town was enclosed by the Romans with a vallum and ditch,' though no traces of a vallum and ditch appear to any eye but his own. That ' this town took in the castle, which was originally Roman, but afterwards rendered impregnable by Roger, Bishop of Salis bury." I humbly conceive, the Roman castle, here mentioned, did not formerly stand on the hiU where the windmuls are now placed, but in the air." " You see the town is not only Roman, but the castle too, without the least probability or the shadow of a proof.

If the town must be linked with the castle the former had better be fixed to the true date of the latter. This I confess wiU degrade it in the eyes of all zealots of antiquity, by paring it down from a Roman to a Norman structure, yet this is the most reasonable opinion. The extent and magnificence of the castle must have furnished a number of attendants suitable to its greatness. Bread, meat, herbs, clothes, and utensils are the caUs of necessity ; which must be suppUed by bakers, butchers, brewers, gardeners, shoemakers, taylors, manufacturers and mecha nics. You see there is instantly a set of inhabitants fixed without the walls, to answer the exi gencies of those within. The cloistered monks indeed kept arts and sciences close within their walls, which were scarce ever known to come abroad but once — at the Reformation ; but this was not the case with castles.

This great one then produced the town, as naturally as a Palace begets a village ; or a great Lord, villians." " As 1 am just come to the town after a fatigu ing pursuit, it .is necessary to pull in and enter coolly. I shall take a peep over the pales at your villa, which is one of the most natural modern antiquities that has yet been seen, &c. &c" «' As to vour town, no doubt but it was ancient, as has been asserted above, but not quite so old as the Flood, Babel, Babylon, or Rome. The inhabitants are not the worse for not having long pedigrees of Roman blood in their veins ; they may be contented with a descent no earlier than the Normans. It is honour enough in these days to derive our blood from the French, for we are not like to draw it from them any other way. Surely that nature was the common stock of aU the Europeans ; who are all dwindling into beaux, dancing masters, musicians, fribbles, and games ters.

Witness the genteel pig-tail, the graceful movement, the harmonious hum, the jessamy cock of the hat, and the tradesmen's books. They seem very much Uke your galUpotis^which are lately gUded and new-lettered by order of the CoUege of Physicians. They are all gold without — but bitterness within. The complexion of the present age you see, pleads strongly for this original, and carries this hereditary claim still farther. Not only the cut of their clothes and their diet, but their language is brought irresistibly into fashion. I hope for the sake of old England, that our acts of parliament will continue some time longer in English, though it is to be feared they may not do so, since the articles of a late peace have been penned in French ; and since an able speaker at the head of the War office is fond of crowding French phrases into English parliamentary debates.

You, sir, in your place, have par taken of this degeneracy, and expelled the few remains of the old honest laborious Saxons ; who early submitted to, and were incorporated with the Normans. They were wool-pickers, wool combers, weavers, clothiers, and dyers. The in dustry of these brought riches into your town, which were preserved under the faithful custody of frugahty. But now how are you changed — into deUcacy and poverty — into embroidery on one day of the week, and dirtiness on all the rest — sacks are thin in your market-place on Thursdays, but thick in your churches on Sundays. You have turned the grating of your wool-combs into the scraping of fiddles ; the skreeking loom into the tinkling harpsichord, and the thumping fulling mills into a gUttering and contentious organ. Scents of perfumes are in your churches ; your houses are ornamented with Bath, stone, wrought into pediments, entablatures, and piUastrades ; your market-house — a stranger to wrool-packs is metamorphosed into a theatre for balls, concertos and oratorios.

So much for the present Uberties of the Town, &c. &c." ■You must now give me leave to address myself to you in a more particular manner, tyith th^t old fashioned frankness that \ypuld not flatter an enemy**— to, make him his friend. You had always a natural taste for antiquities, especially feu** the EngUsh. XQW honest passion has been steady to. the, roas;t beef IPi4 strong beer q£ old EpgW. You love tl^e roi^gjjness of th&old in-nocent and hearty ages, better than the modern gay, refined, effeminate manners. Your integrity has made you open, undisguised and sincerely blunt; and has given an antique cast to your whole composition. You have constantly retained a veneration for the Druids of your country and have amused yourself some years within the hollow of a tree. This is your cave of contemplation, lined with slabs, and stuccoed with moss.

Your couch is covered with the same and matted with the peeUngs of the bark of trees. Your table is a chopping-block, your dishes platters, your plates trenchers, and your chairs are chumps of wood. Nature having given you two hands, supplies you with knives forks and spoons. Every noon and night, you sacrifice to your god Pan a goblet of barley wine. Your eyes every day are feasted sufficiently with a peep at the outside of three churches. Your ears are entertained with the sweetest of aU musick, a natural oratorio of birds. Flowering shrubs perfume your nostrils, and you enjoy the conversation of your faithful Houy hnhnms. The gratification of all the senses Ues within your reach ; you Uve in the fruition of nature, without envy or restraint. With you I go back to distant ages two thousand years ago, and admire virtue in its original simpUcity.

To you therefore I address myself, who are formed by inclination to be an antiquary ; to you I bequeath these sheets, not as a dedication, which among authors is a preamble or prelude to thinking ; but as a codicil, the result of my most mature deliberation — It is not a gift of value, but may serve as an amusement for a vacant hour, whenever you are disposed to be grave, or take a nap." " Your friend has been an old stager in the tedious and uncomfortable tracks of antiquity, which have wanted mending, ever since Batteley* finished his Rhutupium. I whip through thick and thin, till I come to a convenient place to bait at. There I stop to refresh with proper neces saries ; the conversation ofthe Landlord, and the information of the Clerk of the parish, the most conversable and intelligent person left in it ; who keeps the records of it, and knows most of the antiquities in the neighbourhood.

The squire, formerly a Fox hunter, is now generally slinking to London to hawk off a daughter, or in strong scent of a half-pay place, or a quartered pension. The parson is so perpetually engaged with his neighbouring brethren, that his parishioners never see him, but of a Sunday ; unless the squire come post from Town for a week, to wreck his tenants and carry away every farthing in the parish. After the information of my learned friends, and the mug is emptied, I jog on in search of antiquities ; sometimes I stop to take a view of a barrow, an old dyke, a ruined wall or tottering steeple. If I see a camp any where, I ride full gaUop, examine and carefully measure it. If it be a square I can tell you to an inch, where stood aU its gates, the Ara, and Preto rium, and how many people it contained * " The ingenious, sensible, and polite author of the Anti quitates Rhutupinœ."

D exactly 1500 years ago. In the evening before I go to bed, I recollect the important events of the day, and write down my observations in the first words that offer, for that produces an easy diction. I express my thoughts as fast as they flow, for that makes a simplicity of sentiment. I avoid all revisals and corrections, for they render a composition stiff and laboured ; in short I write just as you see, without thinking, without connexion, and without design. I make frequent bold, abrupt, eccentrical, and characteristical excursions, like my Lord Shaftsbury or a Comet. You see I am thoroughly qualified to execute on the minute and plebeian antiquaries the office of "Censor castigatorqr.e minorum." " These as you have seen above, think your town at least Roman, and carry its age, as the Welsh do their pedigrees, beyond the utmost stretch of human conception.

We have observed that Dr. Musgrave was of this opinion, who affirms the village must have been a large one ; and he advances a step farther, and calls it a very ancient little town : but he imagines the ancient name lost. He proves, from the wine-vessel found here with Alexander's name upon it, that one Alexan der a great man certainly resided in it, attended by his household gods. But this is not to be understood to be Alexander the Great or Alexander the Coppersmith, but— an Alexander— Alexander what's his name — a certain Alexander, a maker of crockerywares. These hasty steps are nothing to the large ones of Dr. Stukeley. Believe me, sir, at one progressive stride, he stalked over Dr. Musgrave's head, the line of right reason, and the extensive bounds of probability, with as much ease as Rich in the boxing match, jumped over the head of the Carman.