LAVINGTON***


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 thaw