Building a Chapel contemplated; Commencement of Church of England Services at the Common; Chapel completed, and other Information Consecration of the New Church, at Sambourne; Great National Agitation on Account of the Reform-Bill being Lost; Alarming Riots at Bristol, Important Improvements at the Common as to Drainage; Health of the Inhabitants; Progress of Religious Services, and other Information Influenza and Typhus-Fever let loose most grievously on the whole King- dom; Missionary and other Meetings; New Gallery erected in the Deaths of Valuable Members of Society; Commencement of the Violent and Persevering Attack made on our Cause at the Common, by the Desolating Spirit of the Times, called Puseyism; Letter to the New Continued Opposition made to our Cause at the Common by the Spirit of the Times; Painful Struggles and Reflections on account thereof; New, large, and highly-interesting Children's Tea-Meeting; New Vestry and School-Room Builded; Female Agency in Advancing the Gospel; Lamented Destruction of the Potato-Crop; Continuation of large Children's Tea-Meetings; Joyful Discontinuance of all Opposition to the Chapel Opening of the New Water-Works at the Common; Return of Cholera- Morbus to this Neighbourhood; Tea-Meetings, and other Information.. 359 Cases of Medical Electricity-Pages 26, 57, 75, 87, 118, 135, 145, 178, 215, 216, WARMINSTER COMMON. CHAPTER I. LOCALITY AND HISTORY. WARMINSTER COMMON, as it may naturally be supposed, originally meant the Common of Warminster; that is, the unenclosed or waste lands of the parish. It is only that part thereof which has been builded on, of which we are speaking. It is situate about half a mile southward of the town, and forms a separate hamlet. It is in the County of Wilts, and its population, last census was 1455. How the said Common first became inhabited, it is now quite impossible to say. It appears that formerly, any poor person who could find the means of erecting a hut or hovel, might, and did, take possession of what land he wanted for the purpose, no man gainsaying. There was a strong inducement so to do, for whomsoever would, fed a cow, or pigs, or other cattle, on the said Common; cut and sold furze, digged turf for fuel, and stones for building; but, chiefly, I presume, on account of the beautiful perennial spring of purest water (far above all price) which runs throughout the village from west to east, which constantly supplies the whole population. It rises in a meadow nearly surrounded with low hills adjoining Longleat Park, about five furlongs distant, issuing from several small orifices, and discharging at its source some twenty or thirty gallons per minute; in its progress other springs unite therewith. It richly deserves far more attention than it ever yet has had to preserve its purity; and no doubt it would be well if the inhabitants of the town made more use of it. B [After a month of uninterrupted fine weather, (July 16th, 1849), I measured, at its entrance into the village at Rehobath, the quantity which then issued from the said united springs, and I found it to be seventy-six gallons per minute. I am quite certain that no other water whatever was then combined therewith. That which runs in the new channel, (about four or five gallons per minute), is not included. There are numerous springs running in other and different directions besides the above, within about a mile of this locality, all issuing probably from the same unknown and inexhaustible source. From observations made as to the total of the said supply, I suppose it cannot be less than from eight to ten thousand hogsheads every twenty-four hours. Well might it be asked with wonder and adoration, what is their value to the tens of thousands which they bless, and whence do they originate? "He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills." PSALM civ. 10.] In process of time it appears that numerous cottages were erected, most of them contiguous to the said water-course, each having from three or four to ten perches of garden attached; and a population of some amount became located. About the year 1727 the Workhouse at the Common was erected by LORD WEYMOUTH, in exchange (so it is said) for some of the waste lands. There was much division of opinion and strife generated among the rate-payers on the subject; some of them contending, that workhouses in parishes did more harm than good. It was confidently asserted, and I believe it was a fact, that his Lordship actually offered at this time, to contract to keep the whole of the chargeable poor, in perpetuity, provided that the proprietors. would assign over to him, in fee, all the waste or unenclosed lands belonging to this parish. Be it remembered, that no able-bodied man in those days ever applied for parochial relief. The poor, both in and out of the workhouse, were many of them employed in the manufacturing of woollen broad-cloth, which then formed a great part of the trade of the town; much of the said work being done at their own houses, partly by women and children. After the erection of the workhouse, a committee met there weekly, to give such orders as to the admitting, employing, and supporting inmates, as they thought proper; keeping minutes of their proceedings, very much like the present Boards of Guardians, but it never answered the expectations of its supporters; at length it dwindled away, and the whole management of the poor fell back again into the hands of the overseers and vestries. Somewhere about the year 1770, it is said, an effort was made by the Lord of the Manor of Warminster, to make the whole of the said cottage property tributary or leasehold, the same as he had recently done at the adjoining village of Crockerton. For this purpose, on a set day, a public dinner was provided at the Bell Inn in the said village; a ticket of invitation was left at each house, and notice given that each proprietor of a cottage was to pay a penny. Previously to the appointed dinner-meeting, however, some meddling officious person (there are always such you know to be found on such occasions,-I think I could name him) thinking that his lordship's splendid and extensive domain was quite sufficient to support him and his family in their wonted wealth and dignity, without his coveting the hovels of the poorest of the poor, came to the conclusion, forsooth, that the proposed transaction very much resembled the one recorded in scripture, of wealthy king Ahab and his poor neighbour Naboth and therefore, kindling with indignation at it, he immediately went round to them, and suggested that the said invitation to dinner was only a snare to entrap them. Ignorant and depraved as they then generally were, they easily took the hint, and-behold! the steward and his friends had all the dinner to themselves; for not one |