BOX, a parish in the hundred of CHIPPENHAM, county of WILTS, 7 miles (S. W. by W.) from Chippenham, containing 1336 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Wilts, and diocese of Salisbury, rated in the king's books at £15. 8. 9., and in the patronage of the Rev. J. W. W. Horlock. The church is dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket. An extensive bed of freestone of a peculiar quality exists here, called Bath stone, from the circumstance of the greater part of the city of Bath having been built with stone obtained in quarries about a mile to the east of the village. The stone, which is dug up in blocks of various sizes, is conveyed in wagons to Bath, and thence by the canal to Bristol, from which port it forms a considerable article of exportation to almost every part of the empire. At a short distance north of the village, which is beautifully situated in a rich valley, through which passes the great road from London to Bath, are two mineral springs, one strongly impregnated with neutral salts, the other clear and sparkling, and containing a very large proportion of sulphur and carbonic acid. A lodging and boarding house, pump-room, and other buildings, were erected here some time since, and the place called Middle Hill Spa 5 but the speculation proved unsuccessful, and the buildings are now let as private lodgings. On Cherry Court farm, north of the spa., and about four miles from Bath, a variety of Roman coins was dug up in 1813, indicating that a large Roman villa once existed on the spot where they were discovered. A charity school has an income of nearly £30 a year, the produce of various benefactions; the master has also a house and garden.