Transcribed from the 1855 Frederick A. Blake edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org
[Picture: Book cover]
[Picture: Church of East Lavington]
Reminiscences.
* * * * *
A
TOPOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT
OF
MARKET LAVINGTON,
WILTS,
ITS PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION.
ALSO, THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF
THE INDEPENDENT CHURCH
IN THAT PLACE.
AND
THE AUTHENTIC HISTORY OF DAVID SAUNDERS,
THE
Pious Shepherd of Salisbury Plain.
* * * * *
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
* * * * *
BY THE REV. H. ATLEY,
AUTHOR OF “DRUIDICAL ANTIQUITIES,” “FAMILIAR SCENES,”
“HAPPY JAMES,” ETC., ETC.
* * * * *
SALISBURY:
FREDERICK A. BLAKE, MARKET PLACE.
Stiff Covers, 1s. 6d. Cloth, 2s.
M DCCC LV.
* * * * *
SALISBURY:
FREDERICK A. BLAKE,
PRINTER,
BLUE BOAR ROW.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
Introduction—What History is, and how divided v.
SECTION I.—The Etymology of the place—Its 1
situation—Geological character—Antiquity—Architectural
features—Traditions—Commercial status
SECTION II.—Ecclesiastical and Denominational 7
accommodation—Literary and other advantages—Educational
facilities—Scenery
SECTION III.—Past religious state—Feeble instrumentality of 12
its reformation—DAVID SAUNDERS, the pious Shepherd of
Salisbury Plain—His early life—Correction of error in former
narratives
SECTION IV.—His early efforts—Appearance before a 19
Magistrate—Anecdotes—Cornbury mill—Death—Funeral—Inscription
SECTION V.—Verbatim copy of two Original Letters—Poem to his 28
memory
SECTION VI.—Immediate results—Rev. H. GAUNTLETT—Cottage 34
Services—Persecution—Anecdotes
SECTION VII.—The encouragement from neighbouring Ministers—A 42
Church formed—Sabbath schools—Chapel purchased—Opening
services—Enlargement—First pastor—Separation—Second and third
pastors
SECTION VIII.—Cross-roads chapel—Ebenezer chapel—Fourth 51
pastor—Chancery suit—Debt paid—Fifth, sixth, seventh, and
eighth pastors—Improvements—Jubilee
Conclusion 57
Illustrations.
Church of East Lavington _Frontispiece_.
Ladywood Vale, with Shepherd’s Cottage 21
Cornbury Mill 24
Church of West Lavington, with the Shepherd’s 26
Grave
Cottage in Parsonage Lane 37
Old Parsonage 44
Independent Chapel 48
INTRODUCTION.
NEVER in the history of this country has literature assumed so prominent
a position as it does at the present time; not in one department only,
but in the ample circle she travels, each presenting its own peculiar
claims to attention and regard, thus catering to the diversified
necessities of the human family.
Among the various intellectual viands, none is more generally acceptable
than History; and simply for this reason, in other departments or
productions of the pen we have abstract principles and theories, which
require to be worked out by mental or manual processes ere they assume a
form to be capable of appreciation by the general mind. In History
truths are progressively elaborated and developed under the immediate
influence of time and circumstances, by which their qualities become
known, and their value tested and proved.
In the first class we may be said to have presented to us a subtle spirit
so ethereal and liable to evaporation as to be difficult of retention to
any important purpose, and so versatile as to be susceptible of any form
at the will of the operator; in the latter we possess a definite tangible
reality, in which we see reflected as in a mirror the principles,
feelings, motives, and results, not only of the several actors, but of
the times in which they lived, all which become fixed or Daguerreotyped
for the benefit of those that come after.
The term History is of a general and extensive character, admitting of a
very minute subdivision. In the first place it may be simple or
compound, pure or mixed, as it embraces persons, times, or things, taken
singly or in their combination in the mutual influence they exert. This
is the general form in which it is presented. In the next place, it may
range as universal, national, provincial, local, or individual. Another
division will give us civil, political, ecclesiastical: each of these
have their intrinsic value, will materially influence the progress of
civilisation, and promote the well-being of society; but to the last,
viz., ecclesiastical, there belongs a charm pre-eminently its own, as it
closely approximates to eternity.
The following History is of the mixed class, as the Table of Contents
will show, so that it is hoped, while it may possess or create a general
interest, its specific features will please others; and its
ecclesiastical lineaments afford to the devout mind great gratification.
The Author craves the indulgence of his readers, and hopes his efforts
will receive a general verdict of approbation.
SECTION I.
Etymology of the place—Its situation—Geological
characters—Antiquity—Architectural features—Traditions—Commercial status.
EAST, or as it is sometimes denominated, MARKET LAVINGTON, distant from
London 89 miles, is situated about the middle, rather inclining to the
western, part of the county of Wiltshire, on the north side of the
extensive downs celebrated for the relics of a barbaric age, when human
victims were supposed to appease the anger of the gods, of which a
distant view is obtained on the road from Salisbury, near the Bustard
Inn, so called from a bird once found on this plain. It graced the table
of the new Mayor of Salisbury in former times on the day of his election
to the civic office; but is now obsolete. The hunting of this bird once
constituted a chief amusement to the neighbouring gentry. Lavington runs
in a north-easterly direction, forming a portion of the celebrated Vale
of Pewsey, reckoned the best and most fertile part of the county.
The etymology of this place like that of many others has probably
suffered by local corruptions, it is either of Saxon or Norman origin—a
word compounded of two others, _Lav_ or _Lave_ and _ton_. The former
might describe its position, the latter its quality or nature.
The names of places are frequently very descriptive of their situation,
as Wilton, near Salisbury, or, as it known in ancient records,
Willytown—the town on the Willy, a river running through it to Salisbury,
where it unites with other streams, and flows into the English Channel at
Christchurch. We propose to take this as our guide on the present
occasion, and establish our hypothesis by several concurrent facts.
The term _Lav_ or _Lave_ may either mean watered—washed, left, or hidden;
and the termination _ton_, which is a very general one, a town, as
Easterton, Littleton, Maddington, and Shrewton.
Situated as Lavington is at the foot of the downs, which rise to a
considerable altitude above it, with hills on the opposite side of nearly
equal height, seen from either it appears to lie in a complete basin,
every way adapted to act as a drain or receiver of water from the
uplands—a fact illustrated in the years 1841–2, when a great destruction
of property-took place at Shrewton, through inundations occasioned by the
accumulation of water by the rapid thawing of the snow in various natural
basins in the vicinity, as at Candown Bottom and other places. The soil
of the valley, so favourable to the cultivation of edible roots, being
marked by the combined characters of the surrounding barriers.
In some parts of the kingdom there are places where well-defined and
specific geological features conduct to certain conclusions, such as the
primeval deposits of virgin soil—the annual product of rank foliage where
the foot of man for ages never trod, which, when brought to tillage,
yields successive crops of abundance—the subsidence of a vast and
overwhelming inundation—the retreat of the watery element after ages of
possession, leaving its hitherto submerged bed high and dry. As an
illustration, we may refer to the subsoil of Bath, which is stone of so
friable a nature as to be easily affected by the elements, and, if
examined, will be found a combination of various shells, which plainly
tell its former state, or the severance of some great and terrible
convulsion, forming vast chasms, and exhibiting the various strata of
rocks far down in the womb of the earth. There is a very good display of
this at villas in the neighbourhood of Frome, Somersetshire, and at
Clifton Hotwells, near Bristol, or in places round the Isle of Wight, and
in the coal-fields at Radstock, and each of these present their own
peculiar characters; but here we have on either side of the valley a
separate and distinct formation. The downs predominate in chalk, on a
stony brackish soil, with but a thin layer of vegetable earth on a
substratum of flint and gravel; the exception of the hollows no way
interfering with the general state. On the opposite side there is sand
to the depth of several feet resting upon sandstone, with occasional
layers of granite, then again sand and sandstone, ultimating in a subsoil
of granite, and this extends for several miles. The washings of the two
barriers by the repeated rains, together with the humid atmosphere, so
striking a character in the climate of this country, combining in various
degrees, produces the fertile soil of the valley from the sandy loam to
the stiff clay.
If we recur to the times of invasion when hordes of barbarians sought the
subjugation of this island, the predatory warfare with the ravages to
which the inland parts of the country were exposed, there would naturally
be a disposition and desire of secrecy and seclusion. Now no place could
be better adapted for this purpose, surrounded as it is by the uplands
before referred to, lying, too, at a distance from the main road on
either hand, and possessing within itself the chief resources of
subsistence, it could remain unknown as long as needful. We must
remember, when speaking of by-gone times their facilities of information
were very rude and simple. How, in the absence of the appliances of
transit and intercommunication which we possess, they would denote the
direction of various towns we know not; their proximity to certain well
known objects, or as occupying particular situations, might afford them
means and facilities, especially if we allow the progress of improvement.
Let us apply this theory in the present case, and it might be the town
left on quitting the downs, and emerging towards the chief towns, as
Bath, or the last town prior to ascending them. The name, therefore
might mean the washed or watered—the hidden or left town.
As but very few of the older buildings remain, and what traditions there
are being very vague, it is impossible to fix the date of its formation.
The church, of which we shall speak more fully elsewhere, has doubtless
stood for some hundreds of years. The old parsonage, with its gables and
cress-muntained windows, carries the visitor into by-gone times. A large
mansion on the road to Urchfont, at the turn to Eastcott, has undoubtedly
the marks of age; its ponderous appearance, numerous gables, heavy stacks
of chimnies, and ballustraded gallery—tell of times when profuse
hospitality was common. There is one at Easterton, of which we have more
definite accounts: it is now in the occupation of Mr. Neville. Report
states it to have been erected by the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, about
the year 1657, for his general, Kinson; and to which he himself oft
repaired, either when commanding in the wars between Charles II. and the
parliament (of whose armies Cromwell was commander-in-chief), one of
which took place at Bratton, about eight miles distant, a spot celebrated
from the time of Alfred the Great, where, after rallying his troops at
Clay hill, near Frome, he gave the Danes battle and routed them, the spot
is shown where the Danes encamped and where Alfred penetrated in the
disguise of an harper,—or probably the Protector here sought for
seclusion and rest to a mind perturbed and alarmed to suspicion by the
publication of a work, supposed to allude to him, entitled, “Killing no
Murder.”
At Wroughton’s Folly there are remains of a once extensive erection,
which, from its size, would have accommodated a numerous family. Its
picturesque situation, surrounded with extensive grounds, formed a
charming retreat; it was occupied by a retired merchant, but has long
gone to decay. Report states the ruins were once the retreat of a daring
freebooter, who preyed upon the surrounding homesteads and laid under
contribution the yeoman as he returned from the neighbouring markets:
little now remains save the foundations of the cellars. Near this spot
are three mounds within a small enclosure in the middle of a field, of
which tradition thus speaks:—In the time of Charles II., when that
dreadful scourge, the plague, which destroyed upwards of one hundred
thousand of the inhabitants of London, broke out, three brothers, seeking
to avoid the common lot, fled to this spot, thinking thereby to escape,
but they were overtaken by the fell destroyer, and buried here.
Lavington was formerly distinguished for its corn market and the
manufacture of malt, in which articles business to a very considerable
extent was transacted; this gave it the appellative attached. Its
proximity to the rising town of Devizes soon reduced it to its present
condition; it is now generally known for its large supplies of vegetables
to the market of Devizes, distant 6 miles,—Trowbridge, 12 miles,—Bath, 22
miles,—and Salisbury, 19 miles. The market-place continues to maintain
its former dimensions, and constitutes the favourite resort of the
juvenile portion of the population. The stocks, once a terror and
punishment to evildoers, have lost their dread, and the clanking iron has
become a musical instrument in their estimation. Near this is the
Engine-house, a wooden erection, with a cupulo for a bell whose tongue is
happily seldom inclined to speak, the services of the engine is seldom
required; fire, as an element of alarm, being of very rare occurrence.
The population of the place, including the hamlet of Easterton, is 1700;
and the area of the parish about 3036 acres to Lavington, and 1592 to
Easterton.