In the north-west of Wilts is a district which contains some remarkable reminiscences of the two dominant races who have influenced the history of this country. In tracing out the history of this district, as it has come down to us by the traditions and records of early chronicle writers, we arrive at an important epoch when for the first time is brought into strongly marked prominence the outline of the community which had settled there. This community, known to us later under the local name of Malmesbury, is one of the most perfect types of the primitive village which has survived in England, and to the elucidation of its chief characteristics it is proposed to devote some little attention. Keeping before us the outline made known from early records we shall see how this is gradually filled in from facts, which though gleaned from later and modern records, are nevertheless stamped as belonging to the earliest stages of history. And when this local mosaic is completely pieced in we shall be able, I think, to satisfy ourselves that what has so persistently clung to locality in later days originally belonged to a social group, types of which are still to be found in Eastern Europe and India, where society is in a state of arrested progress and has not advanced along the lines which mark its development in Western Europe.