The churches of Stanton St. Quinton and Kingston St. Michael have
suffered internally as much as that of Yatton Keynell, and, alas! the
fourteenth-century manor-house of the St. Quintons is now no more.
An aged person working in the churchyard, though very proud that he
had helped to pull it down, insisted on pointing out the "ould dov-cart"
This may be pure "Wilshire," but until we saw the dovecot we did not
grasp the meaning. Nearer Chippenham is Bullich House, which
fortunately has been left in peace. Beside the entrance gate two
queer little "gazebos" were covered with Virginia creeper in its bright autumn tints. The remains of the clear moat washed the garden wall,
over which peeped the gables of the house with the waning red
sunlight reflected in the casements—this was a picture to linger in
one's memory; and there is no telling how far one's fancy might not
have been led by speculating
[Pg 119]
upon the meaning of two grim heads which form pinnacles above the
porch, had the stillness not been broken by the harsh sounds of the
gramophone issuing from a neighbouring cottage! If Bullich
possesses a ghost, as it ought to, judging by appearances, surely an
up-to-date music-hall ditty should "lay" him in the moat in
desperation.