SWINDON, a market-town and parish in the hundred
of KINGSBRIDGE, county of WILTS, 41 mik-s (N.)
from Salisbury, and 81 (W.) from London, containing
1580 inhabitants. This place is mentioned in Domesday-
book, but nothing further connected with its ancii-nt
history is on record. The town is pleasantly situated
on the summit of a considerable eminence, commanding
extensive and beautiful views of parts of Berkshire and
Gloucestershire: the principal street is wide, and con-
tains some good houses; and many of the inhabitants
being persons in easy circumstances, the general aspect
of the town is prepossessing: there is a good supply
of water, which is of excellent quality. No branch of
manufacture is carried on. The market is on Monday,
for corn, &c., and on every second Monday for cattle;
the latter is termed the great market. Fairs are held on
the Monday before April 5th, the second Monday after
May 12th, the second Monday in September, and the
second Monday after September 11th, for cattle of all
kinds, pedlary, &c. The petty sessions for the Swinclon
division of the hundred are held here. The living
is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Wilts, and diocese
of Salisbury, rated in the king's books at £17>
and in the patronage of the Crown. The church, dedicated
to the Holy Rood, and situated at the southeastern
extremity of the town, is a small unadorned
edifice, with a low tower; the interior is neatly fitted
up. There are places of worship for Independents and
Wesleyan Methodists. The free school, which was established
in 1764, was founded by the gentry of the town
and neighbourhood, and is supported partly by an endowment
of about £40 per annum, arising from several
bequests, and partly by voluntary contributions; there
is a house for the master, and about forty boys are instructed
in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Some
very extensive quarries are worked in the immediate
vicinity, the stones raised from which are usually very
large, and of an excellent quality. The Wilts and
Berks canal passes about half a mile from the town,
and a reservoir, covering about seventy acres, for its
supply in dry seasons, has been constructed about a
mile and a half from it, and is partly in this parish,
adding much to the beauty of the scenery.