entrance of the park, near Bowden Hill. We should be better pleased now, if it still stood in its original situation; but, very probably, we owe it to this removal that it has not been entirely destroyed. About this gate-house there is a confusion of traditions, taking apparently these two forms; 1-that it was brought from Corsham where it formed part of the king's house; 2-that it was brought from Devizes Castle. There can be no doubt, however, that it is a relic of Bromham Hall which was destroyed in 1645; and an examination of the arms upon it shows that it was built by Sir Edward Baynton, who died in 1544 or 1545, and whose first wife was Elizabeth daughter of Sir John Sulliard of Suffolk. The traditions are easily explained. Leland, living at the time, is a good authority; and he describes Corsham as " a good uplandish toun, wher be ruines of an old maner place: and therby a park wont to be yn dowage to the Quenes of Englande. Mr. Baynton, yn Quene Anne's dayes, pullid down by licens a peace of this house sumwhat to help his buildinges at Bromeham." Also, speaking of Devizes Castle, he says "It is now in ruine, and parte of the front of the towres of the gate of the kepe and the chapel in it were caried, full unprofitably, onto the buyldynge of Master Bainton's place at Bromeham scant 3 myles of."" It is evident, therefore, that this Sir Edward Baynton, in the reign of Henry VIII, built Bromham Hall with stone obtained from the ruins both of Devizes Castle and of the king's manor house at Corsham, the latter when Anne Boleyn was queen. Aubrey, speaking of Bradenstoke, says "Broad-Hinton House, Bromham house and Cadnam House were built of the Ruines of Bradstock Abbey." It seems that, on the dissolution of that priory, Edward 1 Leland's Itinerary, vide vol. i., p. 143, of this Magazine. The family tradition is this, that the gate was given to Sir Edward Baynton, by queen Catherine of Aragon. If Corsham manor was, as Leland says, 66 yn dowage to the Quenes of Englande," a grant of the stone may have been made by queen Catherine, and the work have been carried out in the time of Anne Boleyn. 'Aubrey's Wiltshire Collections" by the Rev. Canon Jackson, p. 189. Baynton got some part of its estate; but it is hardly likely that he would have fetched his stone such a distance. Moreover he was possessor of Stanley Abbey, and could get stone from thence. When Aubrey wrote scarcely any part of Stanley Abbey remained; and, though I have not seen it stated, it seems likely that that Abbey was, at least partially, demolished by its purchaser. Viewing the gate-house from the high road, the archæologist must exercise a faculty which is often called upon, and imagine a restoration. The first thing to be ignored is the circular stone arch which has been erected, quite recently, beneath the old one, for the purpose of supporting the latter which had become dangerous. This, of course, interferes a good deal with the effect; but it will not do so to the same extent when the stone shall have weathered, and it is difficult to see what other expedient could have been adopted, as the old arch is much out of shape and cracked in one part, and it would have been very difficult to have rebuilt it. Restoring in imagination the old level of the roadway, which was lowered when the new arch was inserted, it will be seen that certain features of the present building are not original, but are variations introduced into the design when it was rebuilt, comprising the angle buttresses, apparently the ogee-headed niches on each side, and the windows in the north and south walls, certainly. With these exceptions, the two faces of the building seem to have been rebuilt very fairly as they originally stood. Their general design is the same. The arches are four-centred and very flat, a bad shape both constructionally and artistically. Their spandrels however are richly carved with foliage, there being a decidedly Cinque Cento and non-gothic element about them. In each, a dragon or griffin supports a shield of arms. Above these arches are large oriel windows, and the building is finished with a battlement above. On the west side, next the high road, which has been the front and is rather more ornamented than the other, there are fluted shafts at the angles of the lower part of the oriel terminated with slight pendants, and other such shafts above, which must have been carried up as pinnacles above the 1 Aubrey's "Wiltshire Collections," by the Rev. Canon Jackson, p. 113. battlement, but are now broken off at that level, so that the original finish cannot be ascertained. On the central panel of the front. oriel are the royal arms of Henry VIII., France and England quarterly, encircled by the garter, surmounted by the crown, with a crowned lion and griffin as supporters. On the left panel, above some foliated ornament, are the letters E B, for Edward Baynton, and beneath this the griffin crest of the Baynton family. This carving is almost perfect. On the right panel has been a beautiful device, to a considerable extent open-work, and therefore much mutilated. Here again are the letters E B, this time tied together by a cord. The upper part of this device is lost. Letters thus tied together are frequently the cypher of man and wife. In this case, as there is no crest beneath, they may be for the wife Elizabeth Baynton, and the cord may indicate that it was a cypher she acquired by marriage. The lowest member of the mouldings, beneath the oriel, is a richly carved band in which griffins with human heads support wreaths containing crests, alternately the Baynton griffin's head, and a horse's head, the crest of Roche of Bromham. In the spandrels of the arch beneath is carved the foliage of a vine with bunches of grapes. In the right spandrel is the wife's paternal shield, bearing quarterly, first and fourth, argent, a chevron gules, between three pheons sable, Sulliard; and second and third, a coat which I have not identified. In the left spandrel is this shield, quarterly, first and fourth, Baynton, second, Delamere, third, Roche,-impaling the Sulliard arms as in the shield last mentioned. Over the central oriel, on the battlement, is the griffin crest, and in a similar position near the angle of the wall on each side the horse's head, these latter being rather rudely cut. The inner or east side of the gate-house is plainer. In the central panel of the oriel, of which the carving has been very much mutilated, appear again the crowned lion and griffin supporters, and the remains of a crown or coronet over all. The shield is completely broken away, but it does not seem to have been encircled by the garter. The battlement on this side of the gate is evidently modern, and has in general no mouldings, but, on the central stone which, as it has a moulding, appears to be original, are the Prince of Wales' plumes. Is it not therefore probable that the arms on the central panel of the oriel were those of Edward VI., when Prince of Wales, rather than the King's arms repeated? On each side panel of the oriel occurs the Tudor rose crowned, that on the left remaining perfect. In the left spandrel of the arch is the shield of Baynton with the letter B upon it, placed diagonally, in the upper right-hand corner. Probably the letter E was originally in the lower left-hand corner, but is not now visible. The shield in the right spandrel of the arch bears quarterly,first and fourth Baynton,second Delamere, third Roche. It may be noticed that four modern lancet windows, two on each side of the gate-house, are built of moulded stones which have evidently formed the ribs of a groined vault, but whether they belonged to this gate or not I cannot tell. There are two timber houses of the fifteenth century, near Bromham Church, which deserve attention, as such houses are not too numerous and become scarcer every day. One of these is church property. This house stands to the north-east of the chancel, and has been a good deal altered by the insertion of a shop window. It retains its original doorway which opens, I think, into the principal room, which has been a square room with a flat ceiling and moulded beams. Many such ceilings, I believe, remain, and not unfrequently in houses that have been refaced, so that no one would suspect their antiquity. The beams cross in the middle and return round the sides of the room. Adjoining is a room which looks as if it had been the kitchen, but perhaps it may be later. There is one stone window in the end of the house which has a look of the sixteenth century, but may be of the fifteenth. The oldest wooden windows of which there are traces are, I think, of the seventeenth. The other house stands to the south-west of the church, and externally it is the more perfect of the two. The timber work of these two houses is very similar, and apparently of about the same date in the fifteenth century; but in the case of this second house an additional wing and a chimney have been added in the sixteenth century, and these additions are of stone. The interior of this house I have not seen. Near this house is another of later date with a picturesque porch. An Indenture for building a House at Salisbury, 23rd HENRY VI. Communicated by J. E. NIGHTINGALE, F.S.A. HE following indenture, it will be seen, sets forth a contract for building a house in the "blew bore" at Salisbury, in 1444, between William Ludlow, and John Fayrebowe, a carpenter of Bishopstrow, near Warminster. The document is written in English, and is in excellent preservation; unfortunately the seals have entirely disappeared. In making the transcript a few contractions have been extended but the spelling carefully preserved. The deed was lately found in a remote part of England, but seems once to have been in the possession of Mr. Benson, late Recorder of Salisbury, as it is quoted in two or three instances by Mr. Parker, in his "Glossary of Architecture," in explanation of certain obsolete building terms. It does not, however, appear to have been printed in extenso, at least it is not mentioned by Professor Willis amongst the authorities in his "Nomenclature of the Middle Ages," nor is it found in the "Archæologia." All documents of this early period relating to the expenses of, and terms used in building, are scarce and valuable, especially when written in the vernacular. They are necessarily expressed in the language of the workmen; the greater part of the words had a French origin, and many of them remain to the present day in France. Several other contracts for elaborate architectural works of about this period are in existence. In 1450 an indenture was made for fitting up the Beauchamp Chapel, at Warwick, in accordance with the will of the founder. It is preserved and printed in "Blore's Monuments." Another excellent specimen of this kind of document, and one little known, is found in "Halstead's Genealogies." It is an indenture for the tomb of Ralph Greene, of Luffwick, Northamptonshire, in 1419. The material of this magnificent tomb was |