In the first class we may be said to have presented to us a subtle spirit so ethereal and liable to evaporation as to be difficult of retention to any important purpose, and so versatile as to be susceptible of any form at the will of the operator; in the latter we possess a definite tangible reality, in which we see reflected as in a mirror the principles, feelings, motives, and results, not only of the several actors, but of the times in which they lived, all which become fixed or Daguerreotyped for the benefit of those that come after.
The term History is of a general and extensive character, admitting of a very minute subdivision. In the first place it may be simple or compound, pure or mixed, as it embraces persons, times, or things, taken singly or in their combination in the mutual influence they exert. This is the general form in which it is presented. In the next place, it may range as universal, national, provincial, local, or individual. Another division will give us civil, political, ecclesiastical: each of these have their intrinsic value, will materially influence the progress of civilisation, and promote the well-being of society; but to the last, viz., ecclesiastical, there belongs a charm pre-eminently its own, as it closely approximates to eternity.
The following History is of the mixed class, as the Table of Contents will show, so that it is hoped, while it may possess or create a general interest, its specific features will please others; and its ecclesiastical lineaments afford to the devout mind great gratification.
The Author craves the indulgence of his readers, and hopes his efforts will receive a general verdict of approbation.
SECTION I.
Etymology of the place—Its situation—Geological characters—Antiquity—Architectural features—Traditions—Commercial status.
East, or as it is sometimes denominated, Market Lavington, distant from London 89 miles, is situated about the middle, rather inclining to the western, part of the county of Wiltshire, on the north side of the extensive downs celebrated for the relics of a barbaric age, when human victims were supposed to appease the anger of the gods, of which a distant view is obtained on the road from Salisbury, near the Bustard Inn, so called from a bird once found on this plain. It graced the table of the new Mayor of Salisbury in former times on the day of his election to the civic office; but is now obsolete. The hunting of this bird once constituted a chief amusement to the neighbouring gentry. Lavington runs in a north-easterly direction, forming a portion of the celebrated Vale of Pewsey, reckoned the best and most fertile part of the county.
The etymology of this place like that of many others has probably suffered by local corruptions, it is either of Saxon or Norman origin—a word compounded of two others, Lav or Lave and ton. The former might describe its position, the latter its quality or nature.
The names of places are frequently very descriptive of their situation, as Wilton, near Salisbury, or, as it known in ancient records, Willytown—the town on the Willy, a river running through it to Salisbury, where it unites with other streams, and flows into the English Channel at Christchurch. We propose to take this as our guide on the present occasion, and establish our hypothesis by several concurrent facts.
The term Lav or Lave may either mean watered—washed, left, or hidden; and the termination ton, which is a very general one, a town, as Easterton, Littleton, Maddington, and Shrewton.