The East End was built around 1700 and the house was extended west and north soon afterwards with old-fashioned mullion and transomed windows. There are two possible explanations for the name. First, it is reputed to have been the site of King Athelstan's palace, but I discount this as it is outside the town's defences. More likely it was where Matthew Kyng, MP and clothier lived in the 16lh Century. He was an unscrupulous character who always seemed to be on the wrong side of the law, frequently appearing in the civil and criminal courts although he represented the town in Parliament between 1554 and 1558. Early in the 19th Century Benjamin Coffin Thomas (1776-1840) owned the house and he invited William Cobbett (1763-1835) to stay here. Cobbett wrote the following account in Rural Rides on 11 September 1826 which is so engaging I reproduce it in full:
When I got in here yesterday, I went, at first, to an inn; but I very soon changed my quarters for the house of a friend, who and whose familv, though I had never seen them before, and had never heard of them until I was at Highworth, gave me a hearty reception, and precisely in the style that I like. This town, though it has nothing particularly engaging in itself, stands upon one of the prettiest spots that can be imagined. Besides the river Avon, which I went down in the south-east part of the country, here is another river Avon, which runs down to Bath, and two branches, or sources, of which meet here. There is a pretty ridge of ground, the base of which is a mile or a mile and a half wide. On each side of this ridge a branch of the river runs down, through a flat of very fine meadows. The town and the beautiful remains of the famous old abbey stand on the rounded spot which terminates this ridge; and, just below, nearly close to the town, the two branches of the river meet; and then they begin to be called the Avon. The land round about is excellent, and of a great variety of forms. The trees are lofty and fine; so that what with the water, the meadows, the fine cattle and sheep, and, as I hear, the absence of hard-pinching poverty, this is a very pleasant place.
There remains more of the abbey than, I believe, of any of our monastic buildings, except that of Westminster, and those that have become cathedrals. The church service is performed in the part of the abbey that is left standing. The parish church has fallen down and is gone; but the tower remains, which is made use of for the bells; but the abbey is used as the church, though the church-tower is at a considerable distance front it. It was once a most magnificent building; and there is now a doorwav which is the most beautiful thing I ever saw, and which was, nevertheless, built in Saxon times, in "the dark ages, " and was built by men who were not begotten by Pitt nor by Jubilee George. - What fools, as well as ungrateful creatures we have been and are! There is a broken arch, standing off from the sound part of the building, at which one cannot look up without feeling shame at the thought of ever having abused the men who made it. No one need tell any man of sense; he feels our inferiority to our fathers upon merely beholding the remains of their efforts to ornament their country and elevate the minds of the people. We talk of our skill and learning, indeed! How do we know how skilful, how learned they were? If, in all that they have left us, we see they have surpassed us, why are we to conclude that they did not surpass us in all other things worthy of admiration?
This famous abbey was founded, in about the year 600, by Maidulf, a Scotch monk, who upon the suppression of a nunnery at that time selected the spot for this great establishment. For the great magnificence, however, to which it was soon after brought, it was indebted to Aldhelm, a monk educated within its first walls, by the founder himself; and to St. Aldhelm, who by his great virtues became very famous, the church was dedicated in the time of King Edgar. This monastery continued flourishing during those dark ages, until it was found to be endowed to the amount of sixteen thousand and seventy seven pounds, eleven shillings and eight pence, of the money of the present day! Amongst other, many other, great men produced by this Abbey of Malmsbury, wax that famous scholar and historian, William de Malmsbury.
There is a market-cross in this town, the sight of which is worth ajourney of hundreds of miles. Time, with his scythe, and 'enlightened Protestant piety,' with its pick-axes and crow-bars; these united have done much to efface the beauties of this monument of ancient skill and taste, and proof of ancient wealth; but in spite of all their destructive efforts this cross still remains a most beautiful thing, though possibly, and even probably, nearly, or quite, a thousand years old. There is a market-cross lately erected at Devizes, and intended to imitate the ancient ones. Compare that with this, and you have, pretty fair, a view of the difference between us and our fore-fathers of the 'dark ages.' I set off from Malmsbury this morning at 6 o 'clock, in as sweet and bright a morning as ever came out of the heavens, and leaving behind me as pleasant a house and as kind hosts as I ever met with in the whole course of my life, either in England or America, and that is saying a great deal indeed. This circumstance was the more pleasant, as I had never before seen, or heard of, these kind, unaffected, sensible, sans-facons, and most agreeable friends.
Cobbett was a Radical who had scathing words for any small example of corruption and mismanagement that he found on his tours. The hospitality he received must have been excellent for him not to mention anything about this rotten borough or that his host was one of the chief aides of the borough-monger. Thomas was Clerk to the Magistrates, to the Lieutenancy and to the Commissioner of Taxes and carried on that business here so that may be the reason for the Old Corporation's arms on the roofline nearest the river. The crest closest to the road is probably that of the Anderson and Yeaman families but it is not known what their connection was with the house. The house was later divided into two or three separate dwellings.
Source: Charles Vernon
