Curiosities of Great Britain: England and Wales Delineated Vol.1-11: Historical, Entertaining & Commercial; Alphabetically Arranged. 11 Volume set.Dugdale, Thomas
History
Curiosities of Great Britain: England and Wales Delineated Vol.1-11: Historical, Entertaining & Commercial; Alphabetically Arranged. 11 Volume set.
Dugdale, Thomas
Great Britain -- Gazetteers
[A] BEDWIN was a market-town, and supposed by Stukeley to have been the
Leucomagus of the Romans; it certainly was a chief city of the Saxons,
who built a castle there. It was a borough by prescription, sending two
members to parliament, and is governed by a portreeve, and exercises
many of its original rights, although considerably reduced in
population. The church, a cruciform building of flints, with a central
tower, is ancient and curious in itself, and for the monuments which it
contains. The obtusely pointed arches of the nave, ornamented with
zig-zag and billetted mouldings, rest on capitals, richly adorned with
flowers, grotesque heads, and other figures. In the south transept are
two tombs, which commemorate Adam and Roger de Stocre, Lords, according
to Leland, of "Stoke Haulle thereby." The chancel contains the noble
altar monument of Sir John Seymour, of Wolphall, father of the
Protector, Somerset, and other distinguished persons. Near this tomb are
two brass plates, on one of which is the figure of a lady, with her
hands folded, and the inscription--"Julia Seymour;" the other
commemorates a son of Sir John Seymour. The manor of Bedwin, which once
belonged to Gilbert, Earl of Clare, husband of Anna d'Acres, was
purchased by the late Earl of Aylesbury. This place gave birth, in 1621,
to Dr. Thomas Willis, a learned physician, who wrote several works on
his art, was appointed physician in ordinary to Charles II., and died of
pleurisy in 1675. On Castle-hill is an entrenchment, in area two acres,
with some foundations, supposed to be those of a castle, founded by the
Saxons. Chisbury Castle is an entrenchment more than fifteen acres in
extent, supposed to have been begun by the Britons, and sometime
occupied by the Romans. The neighbouring village of Little Bedwin has a
church built of flints, in the Anglo-Norman style of architecture, with
a nave, aisles, chancel, and tower.
_Market_, formerly Tuesday (disused).--_Fairs_, April 23, and July
26, for horses, cows, and sheep.
[Sidenote: Monument of Julia Seymour, sister to Lady Jane Grey.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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