"A true copy of the original deed examined therewith by us this twenty-eighth day of May One Thousand eight hundred and fourteen.

Endorsed:

66

"William Merrick Gent. "William Merrick Junr."

“20 Mar. 1730. Agreem't between Mr. Bennet and Mr. Allen about the waggon-way.-Attested Copy.

"The original deed is now in the hands of Mr. Dan'l Clutterbuck, the parish of Witcomb House, and to be produced by him to Mr. John Thomas [the purchaser of the estate] for inspection when desired.-28 March 1816."

COMBE DOWN.

The Combe Down tram-road was constructed in 1731, and consisted of two narrow lines, of which distinct traces remain. The frame and machinery were fixed upon the Down. The lines were so adjusted that the down laden tram drew up the empty one; starting, stopping, and speed being regulated by it. The small square waggons were very strong, and were mounted on small wheels, running on a low platform. In cases of contract the blocks of stone were sometimes dressed upon the down, having been long seasoned by exposure in the rough; in ordinary cases the blocks were brought down in the rough. When the trams reached the level at the bottom of the hill, the waggons, after emerging from the road proper, were unloaded on to an ingenious sledge (invented by Richard Jones), and the stone was conveyed either to the boats at the basin or deposited on the quays.

The method of excavating the stone on the Combe Down was different from that pursued on Hampton Down. For the greater part a boring was made, the operations being carried on as in a coal mine, though nearer the top, which mostly was supported by cross-beams in the workings; and this arrangement, whilst preserving the surface for pasture, at the same

1 The circular openings, protected by low walls, are still to be seen on various parts of Combe Down.

G

time concealed the unsightly exhausted open pits, except in a few localities about the village.

As a proof of Allen's kind consideration for his fellowcitizens, it may be well to refer to some special features in the tram-road. It was constructed some years, apparently, before he contemplated building the great mansion in the park, and was evidently intended not only for the tramways, but for ordinary public business vehicles running between the city and the Down. The road entered at the bottom of the hill, and went almost in a straight line from north to south, up to the Down, right through the estate. The west side of the road was embanked with protecting masonry; whilst on the eastward, parallel with the tram lines, a low wall was built, from which the land sloped towards the valley, a footpath being made for the public use. A stranger now looking at the four lodges in this road is puzzled by their peculiar arrangement, but the matter becomes perfectly clear when it is seen that they were built to suit the road, long after the latter was constructed.

The opening up of these sources of industry, especially at such a juncture, was of incalculable advantage to Bath. Wood was carrying out his great building projects in the city and all around, so that in addition to the vast market for the stone created in London, the home consumption was very large; hence a demand for skilled industry was developed in and around the city, which more or less continues to this day.1

Now, it will be seen, began that part of Allen's career which, no doubt, was the most trying period of his life. The post-office difficulties, though practically overcome, still involved responsibility and anxiety, whilst the organization of these new fields of labour and enterprise added largely to his

1 Extensive new quarries have from time to time been discovered; and recently excellent stone has been found over the Box Tunnel, at Bathford, and elsewhere, and worked with enterprising energy.

daily toil and mental task. True, in all his vast and complicated duties he was largely assisted by his brother Philip; but there was no part of the details appertaining either to his official or private business, from the supervision of his labourers' cottages and their social and moral welfare to the most important official correspondence with the Government, which does not more or less bear the impress of his own careful hand; and yet he was always calm, cheerful, and hospitable. It has been already shown that, as an employer of labour on his estate, he had effected improvements in the interests of the labourer, and especially of the quarrymen; but in addition to this his solicitude for his large staff of clerks and superintendents was quietly shown in all his dealings with them. In return he was served by men who loved him. From 1731 until his death, his clerk-of-the-works, one Richard Jones,1 served him with rare ability and indefatigable zeal. This man was wholly untrained and almost uneducated, but displayed an amount of natural aptitude and knowledge in relation to building, architecture, and engineering, which amounted almost to genius; and he was one only of a large number of equally devoted servants.

BATHAMPTON AND BATHEASTON.

From about 1731 until 1733 Allen was engaged in improving his Bathampton estate, especially the Manor House. It was a small, old-fashioned house, which had been much neglected, standing on the south bank of the Avon. Near it were the "old mill and the sparkling weir". The river was crossed by a ferry to Batheaston, through which ran, and still runs, the old Roman fosse road. By this road and the ford Bathampton 1 After Allen's death Jones was elected by the Corporation one of the City Surveyors of Works, a post he filled with satisfaction to the City. 2 The estate being mortgaged by his wife's father, Allen purchased he equity of redemption.

could alone be approached, except on foot. Vehicles and horses were conveyed across on a ferry-bridge, and this continued long into the present century. It was at the Manor House from 1732, or about, that Allen received many of his distinguished visitors.

The church of Bathampton is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and now consists of a low square battlemented west tower, open at its lowest stage; eastward, the church comprises nave, north and south aisles, south porch, chancel; organ chamber on the north, and vestry on the south, sides of the chancel.

The original church had the tower, nave, and chancel only, the roof of the latter being higher than the nave. To meet the expansion of the village, the church has been from time to time altered and enlarged, as occasion required.

At the present east end of the south aisle, before its recent westward elongation, was a square attached mortuary chapel, under which sleep many of the dead members of the Allen family, its walls bearing their respective tablets.

The tower was erected in the Perpendicular era; and, with the exception of the nave roof, hardly any part of the older church remains.

The cross on the chancel gable is of unique design; formerly it was the hip knob or finial of a fourteenth-century building (see tail-piece, p. 96).

The remains of stone effigies of a cross-legged knight and lady are carefully preserved in the window-sills, internally, of the south aisle.

Opposite Hampton Manor, sloping down to the road, were the pretty grounds in which stood the far-famed villa of Lady Millar at Batheaston, and the

"Urn, an antique, as I think I've been told,

Stood in Tully's fam'd Tusculan villa of old,

And, a thousand years after and more, was here brought,

And long may it stand in this favourite spot.”