In North Wilts, between Corsham and Bradford, and close to the meeting of
five or six roads, there is a well-known public-house, contiguous to which
is an ancient wayside chapel bearing this peculiar name. Some account of
the place, with two views of the chapel, is given in the _Gentleman's
Magazine_, February, 1835, page 143. The meaning of the word _plaster_ has
always been a puzzle to local antiquaries, and no satisfactory derivation
of it has yet been given. The first and natural notion is, that some
allusion is made to the material with which it may have been coated. But
this is improbable, the building being of good freestone, not requiring any
such external addition. Some have interpreted it to be the chapel of the
_plas-trew_, or "woody place." But this again is very unlikely; as the
place is not only as far as possible from being woody now, but can hardly
ever have been otherwise than what it is. The rock comes close to the
surface, and the general situation is on a bleak exposed hill, as
unfavourable as can be for the growth of trees. Leland, indeed, as he rode
by, took it for a hermitage, and does also say that the country beyond it
"begins to be woody." But {38} a point of meeting of five or six much
frequented roads, a few miles only from Bath and other towns, would be an
unsuitable spot for a hermit; besides which, the country _beyond_ a spot,
is not the spot itself. Others have thought it may have been built by a
person of the name of _Plaister_; one which, though uncommon, is still not
entirely extinct in the county. Of this, however, there is no evidence.
A derivation has occurred to me from noticing a slight variety in the
spelling and statement of the name, as it is given by one of the ancient
historians of Glastonbury. He calls it "the chapell of _playsters_," and
says that, like one or two houses of a similar kind, it was built for the
relief and entertainment of _pilgrims_ resorting to the great shrine at
that monastery. This indeed is the most reasonable and probable account of
it, as it lies on the direct road between Malmesbury and Glastonbury, and
the prevailing tradition has always been that such was the purpose for
which it was used. It is fair to presume that the name has some connexion
with the use.
Now, it is well known that pilgrimages were not in all respects very
painful or self-denying exercises, but that, with the devotional feeling in
which they took their origin, was combined, in course of time, a
considerable admixture of joviality and recreation. They were often, in
short, looked upon as parties for merry-making, by people of every class of
life, who would leave their business and duties, on pretence of these pious
expeditions, but really for a holiday, and, as Chaucer himself describes
it, "to _play_ a pilgrimage." ("The Shipmanne's Tale.") Many also were
pilgrims by regular profession, as at this day in Italy, for the pleasure
of an idle gad-about life at other people's expense. May not such
"play-ers" of pilgrimages have been called, in the vernacular of the times,
_play-sters_? The termination _-ster_, said to be derived from a Saxon
noun, seems in our language to signify a _habit_ or _constant employment_.
A _malt-ster_ is one whose sole business it is to make malt; a _tap-ster_,
one whose duties are confined to the tap; a _road-ster_ is a horse
exclusively used as a hack; a _game-ster_, the devotee of the gaming-table.
From these analogies it seems not unreasonable to suppose that the persons
who made a constant habit of attending these pleasant jaunts to
Glastonbury, may have been called by the now-forgotten name of
_play-sters_. If so, "the chapell of _play-sters_" becomes nothing more
than "the chapel of _pilgrims_," according to the best tradition that we
have of it. Perhaps some of your readers may have met with the word in this
sense?