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.

Situated as Lavington is at the foot of the downs, which rise to a considerable altitude above it, with hills on the opposite side of nearly equal height, seen from either it appears to lie in a complete basin, every way adapted to act as a drain or receiver of water from the uplands—a fact illustrated in the years 1841–2, when a great destruction of property-took place at Shrewton, through inundations occasioned by the accumulation of water by the rapid thawing of the snow in various natural basins in the vicinity, as at Candown Bottom and other places. The soil of the valley, so favourable to the cultivation of edible roots, being marked by the combined characters of the surrounding barriers.

In some parts of the kingdom there are places where well-defined and specific geological features conduct to certain conclusions, such as the primeval deposits of virgin soil—the annual product of rank foliage where the foot of man for ages never trod, which, when brought to tillage, yields successive crops of abundance—the subsidence of a vast and overwhelming inundation—the retreat of the watery element after ages of possession, leaving its hitherto submerged bed high and dry. As an illustration, we may refer to the subsoil of Bath, which is stone of so friable a nature as to be easily affected by the elements, and, if examined, will be found a combination of various shells, which plainly tell its former state, or the severance of some great and terrible convulsion, forming vast chasms, and exhibiting the various strata of rocks far down in the womb of the earth. There is a very good display of this at villas in the neighbourhood of Frome, Somersetshire, and at Clifton Hotwells, near Bristol, or in places round the Isle of Wight, and in the coal-fields at Radstock, and each of these present their own peculiar characters; but here we have on either side of the valley a separate and distinct formation. The downs predominate in chalk, on a stony brackish soil, with but a thin layer of vegetable earth on a substratum of flint and gravel; the exception of the hollows no way interfering with the general state. On the opposite side there is sand to the depth of several feet resting upon sandstone, with occasional layers of granite, then again sand and sandstone, ultimating in a subsoil of granite, and this extends for several miles. The washings of the two barriers by the repeated rains, together with the humid atmosphere, so striking a character in the climate of this country, combining in various degrees, produces the fertile soil of the valley from the sandy loam to the stiff clay.

If we recur to the times of invasion when hordes of barbarians sought the subjugation of this island, the predatory warfare with the ravages to which the inland parts of the country were exposed, there would naturally be a disposition and desire of secrecy and seclusion. Now no place could be better adapted for this purpose, surrounded as it is by the uplands before referred to, lying, too, at a distance from the main road on either hand, and possessing within itself the chief resources of subsistence, it could remain unknown as long as needful. We must remember, when speaking of by-gone times their facilities of information were very rude and simple. How, in the absence of the appliances of transit and intercommunication which we possess, they would denote the direction of various towns we know not; their proximity to certain well known objects, or as occupying particular situations, might afford them means and facilities, especially if we allow the progress of improvement. Let us apply this theory in the present case, and it might be the town left on quitting the downs, and emerging towards the chief towns, as Bath, or the last town prior to ascending them. The name, therefore might mean the washed or watered—the hidden or left town.

As but very few of the older buildings remain, and what traditions there are being very vague, it is impossible to fix the date of its formation. The church, of which we shall speak more fully elsewhere, has doubtless stood for some hundreds of years. The old parsonage, with its gables and cress-muntained windows, carries the visitor into by-gone times. A large mansion on the road to Urchfont, at the turn to Eastcott, has undoubtedly the marks of age; its ponderous appearance, numerous gables, heavy stacks of chimnies, and ballustraded gallery—tell of times when profuse hospitality was common. There is one at Easterton, of which we have more definite accounts: it is now in the occupation of Mr. Neville. Report states it to have been erected by the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, about the year 1657, for his general, Kinson; and to which he himself oft repaired, either when commanding in the wars between Charles II. and the parliament (of whose armies Cromwell was commander-in-chief), one of which took place at Bratton, about eight miles distant, a spot celebrated from the time of Alfred the Great, where, after rallying his troops at Clay hill, near Frome, he gave the Danes battle and routed them, the spot is shown where the Danes encamped and where Alfred penetrated in the disguise of an harper,—or probably the Protector here sought for seclusion and rest to a mind perturbed and alarmed to suspicion by the publication of a work, supposed to allude to him, entitled, “Killing no Murder.”

At Wroughton’s Folly there are remains of a once extensive erection, which, from its size, would have accommodated a numerous family. Its picturesque situation, surrounded with extensive grounds, formed a charming retreat; it was occupied by a retired merchant, but has long gone to decay. Report states the ruins were once the retreat of a daring freebooter, who preyed upon the surrounding homesteads and laid under contribution the yeoman as he returned from the neighbouring markets: little now remains save the foundations of the cellars. Near this spot are three mounds within a small enclosure in the middle of a field, of which tradition thus speaks:—In the time of Charles II., when that dreadful scourge, the plague, which destroyed upwards of one hundred thousand of the inhabitants of London, broke out, three brothers, seeking to avoid the common lot, fled to this spot, thinking thereby to escape, but they were overtaken by the fell destroyer, and buried here.

Lavington was formerly distinguished for its corn market and the manufacture of malt, in which articles business to a very considerable extent was transacted; this gave it the appellative attached. Its proximity to the rising town of Devizes soon reduced it to its present condition; it is now generally known for its large supplies of vegetables to the market of Devizes, distant 6 miles,—Trowbridge, 12 miles,—Bath, 22 miles,—and Salisbury, 19 miles. The market-place continues to maintain its former dimensions, and constitutes the favourite resort of the juvenile portion of the population. The stocks, once a terror and punishment to evildoers, have lost their dread, and the clanking iron has become a musical instrument in their estimation. Near this is the Engine-house, a wooden erection, with a cupulo for a bell whose tongue is happily seldom inclined to speak, the services of the engine is seldom required; fire, as an element of alarm, being of very rare occurrence. The population of the place, including the hamlet of Easterton, is 1700; and the area of the parish about 3036 acres to Lavington, and 1592 to Easterton.