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.