The ancient park of Farley, the noble demesne that surrounded the castle of the Hungerford family, stretched formerly to the Warminster turnpike, through whose desolated extent, wild but beautiful, runs the present road to the village and castle. The former creeps up the declivity of a hill, on the summit of which stands the church, looking over a country uncommonly romantic and diversified. This building is dedicated to Saint Leonard, whose portrait is well preserved in the painted glass of the north window in the chancel, with his name in legible characters beneath the figure; on either side the altar are pedestals for supporting candlesticks; and, as was usual in Romish churches, in a recess in the wall on the north side, a bason for the priests, administering at the altar, to wash in, before they communicated the consecrated elements. The church itself appears to be about two hundred years old; but over the porch of the south door is placed a large semi-circular stone of much higher antiquity, as far as may be inferred from the inscription on it, in letters having a considerable mixture of the Saxon alphabet, which continued to be used till the close of the fourteenth century; they are about two inches in

length. The stone must have occupied a place over the entrance of some prior church, probably on the same spot, which had the privilege of sanctuary, or of protecting the transgressor who fled to its consecrated walls. Over the inscription is engraven a very large conspicuous sign of the cross; and the letters having lately been restored and painted by the rector, it is legibly read as follows; but I candidly confess, my penetration is utterly insufficient to explain the meaning of it:

Muniat hoc templum cruce glorificans microcosmum quæ genuit Christum miseris pace fiat.

A situation near the bottom has been chosen for the castle, where à strong arched entrance, some fragments of thick walls, and two ivymantled towers, still remain, to indicate the insecurity of the social state in feudal times. The village of Farley lays claim to very remote antiquity. After having been possessed by Saxon Thanes for some years, it came in the eleventh century into the hands of a Norman lord, and formed a part of the splendid donation with which William the Conqueror rewarded the fidelity and services of Sir Roger de Curcelle, one of his adventurous followers. His death

occasioned its reversion to the crown; soon after which the profuse Rufus granted it to Hugh de Montfort, a Norman, from whose surname it received its present affix, Farley Montfort. Bartholomew Lord Binghurst, renowned in Edward the Second's disgraceful wars with the Scots, became possessed of it in 1337; but his lion-hearted son, in consequence of that imprudence which is no uncommon attendant on the military character, found it convenient to dispose of his manor of Farley, together with other large estates, to Thomas Lord Hungerford, in the reign of Richard II. This nobleman, one of the most renowned barons of the time, fixed his chief residence at Farley, where he repaired the castle originally built by Curcelle, ornamented it with two gateways, and strengthened it by the addition of four substantial towers, the ruins of which are now to be seen. As these works were compleated without permission previously obtained under the king's hand, a formality necessary during the times of the feudal system, and naturally springing from the principles on which it was founded, they awakened the jealousy of Richard, and a writ of attachment was issued against Lord Hungerford. But as every mis

demeanour could, in those days, be atoned for by a fine, a thousand marks were paid by the baron, which quickly appeased the anger, and quieted the suspicions, of Richard.

A series of heroes of the same noble family succeeded Lord Thomas in the possession of Farley-Castle. In the reigns of Henry IV. and V. Sir Walter was its owner, a knight of great martial atchievements; who exhibited an example of that romantic character so common in the age of chivalry, when, by a whimsical association, a passion for war was blended with the ardour of piety, and the love of GoD and of gallantry went hand in hand. Now fighting single-handled combats on the hostile fields of France, now exhibiting the gorgeous festival within the walls of his castle, and now founding chantries and chapels for ecclesiastics, Sir Walter was, by turn, the hero, the courtier, and the devotee. In consequence of a fierce encounter with a French knight at Calais, in which he was victorious, he gained a pension of one hundred marks per annum out of the revenues of the town of Marlborough. By his splendid entertainments at Farley, whose roof rang to the sounds of his minstrels, and whose lofty hall and magnificent state-apartments, the wonder

of the age, were decorated with honourable trophies from the fields of Cressy and Poitiers, Agincourt and Calais, he obtained the name of the finest gentleman of the day; and by his munificence to the monks, for several of whom he provided by institutions in the chapel of Farley, and in the church of Olneston in Glocestershire, he secured the character of piety and devotion. With the lineal descendants of this baron, Farley-Castle continued till the reign of Edward IV. when Sir Thomas Hungerford, afterwards Lord Hungerford, great grandson of Sir Walter, being too active in the contests between the two Roses, and unfortunately having chosen the losing side, he was tried, condemned, and executed for treason, and his large possessions confiscated to the crown. The reversing of the attainder on the family, in Henry VIIth's reign, restored their patrimonial estates to the Hungerfords; and passing successively through Walter Lord Hungerford, Sir Edward and Sir Anthony Hungerford, they vested at length in Sir Edward Hungerford, towards the conclusion of the Protectorship. But, heroum filii noxe: the knight, in the true spirit of those times when Charles II. set so baneful an example of dissipation to his sub