The entrance to the "ancient and royal" borough of Chippenham is hatefully like that into Calne, whose paltry houses are reproduced there. The centre of the town is, however, of a better character, although the streets are cramped and narrow. A singularly foreign air is given to the place by its balustraded stone bridge across the Avon, and if one cares to pursue the Continental tone further it may be found in the huge factory near by, where "Swiss" Condensed Milk, of the "Milkmaid" brand, is manufactured on an immense scale. For the rest, its cheese and corn markets and bacon-curing keep it very much alive, and a modern (and brutally ugly) Town Hall, built in 1856, shows sufficiently well how trade has grown since the time when the picturesque old Town Hall, still standing, was built in the sixteenth century. [Illustration: THE OLD MARKET HOUSE, CHIPPENHAM.] [Sidenote: _MAUD HEATH'S CAUSEWAY_] The most interesting thing in Chippenham is (to borrow a "bull" for the occasion) outside the town. "Maud Heath's Causeway," a stone-pitched path along the road that runs through the heavy clay lands beside the Wiltshire Avon, extends for four and a half miles, from Chippenham to the summit of Bremhillwick Hill. It was made under the will of Maud Heath, who died about 1474, for the benefit of the market folk resorting to Chippenham, who found the low-lying roads almost impassable in winter. Little is known of this old-time benefactress, but legend supplies the lack of knowledge, and the popular belief is that she was a market-woman who, finding the road from Langley Burrell into the town in so dreadful a state, determined to leave the savings of a lifetime for the provision of a stone causeway, so that future generations might go dry-shod to market. This causeway goes from the north-east side of the town, and continues through Langley Burrell to Tytherton Kellaways, up the shoulder of Bremhillwick Hill. The portion between Chippenham and Langley Burrell was, for some unexplained reason, not constructed until 1852-3. According to the inscriptions on the stone posts beside it, the Causeway is held to commence at the Hill, and to end at Chippenham-- "From this WICK HILL begins the praise Of MAUD HEATH'S gift to these highways." At the other end, next Chippenham, where the road joins those from Malmesbury and Draycott, is another stone, with the inscription-- "Hither extendeth MAUD HEATH'S gift, For where I stand is Chippenham Clift." Midway, on the bridge over the Avon, is another stone--a pillar twelve feet high, erected by the Trustees in 1698, with the following facts recorded on it:-- "To the memory of the worthy MAUD HEATH, of Langley Burrell, Spinster: who in the year of grace, 1474, for the good of travellers, did in charity bestow in land and houses, about eight pounds a year, for ever, to be laid out on the highway and causeway, leading from Wick Hill to Chippenham Clift."