A mile or so to the east of the entrance gate of Spye is Sandy Lane, a
tiny hamlet with trim thatched cottages and a sturdy seventeenth-
century hostelry, the "George," looking down the street; and farther along in the direction of Devizes stands the "Bell," another ancient roadside inn, which, judging from its mullioned windows, knobbed
gables, and rustic porch, must date back to the days of the first
Charles.
In Bromham village also there are some pretty half-timber buildings,
not forgetting the "lock-up" by the churchyard. The exterior of the church i
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s richly sculptured; a fine example of the purest Gothic.
Sleepy old Lacock, with its numerous overhanging gables, is a typical
unspoiled village. It was once upon a time a town, but by all
appearances it never can have been a flourishing one; and let us
hope it will remain in its dormant state now that there is nothing out of
harmony, for the Lacock of to-day must look very much as it did two
hundred years or more ago. It consists mainly of two wide streets,
with a fine old church at the end of one and a lofty seventeenth-
century inn at the other. Opposite the latter is a monastic barn with blocked-up arched doorway, and facing it a fine row of timbered
houses. Wherever you go the pervading tone is grey, and one misses
the little front gardens with bright flowers and creepers. By the school
stands the village cross. Farther along a great wide porch projects
into the street, and over it a charming traceried wooden window.
Nearer the church the road narrows, and a group of timber cottages
make a pleasing picture, one of them with a wide entrance of carved
oak spandrels above an earlier stone doorway. The church, a noble
edifice, has a very graceful spire and some good tombs, including two
wooden mural monume
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nts to Edward Baynard who lived in Elizabeth's reign, and to Lady
Ursula Baynard in the reign of Charles I.