WESTBURY  , an

urban district in the Westbury parliamentary division of Wiltshire, England, on the river Biss, a small tributary of the Lower Avon . Pop . (1901) 3305 . It is 951 M . W. by S. of London by the Great Western railway, and lies within 3 m. of the Somerset border, sheltered on the east by the high tableland of Salisbury Plain . All Saints' church is Norman and later, with a magnificent nave . In the south transept stands a monument to Sir James Ley, earl of Marlborough and president of the council in 1629; the " good earl " addressed in a sonnet by Milton . A chained black-letter copy of Erasmus' " Para-phrase of the New Testament " is preserved in the south chapel . In the suburb of Westbury Leigh is the " Palace Garden," a moated site said to have been a royal residence in Saxon times . Westbury (Westberie, Westburi) figures in Domesday as a manor held by the king . The manor was granted by Henry II. to Reginald de Pavely in 1172-1173, and from then onwards passed through various families until in 18ro it was purchased by Sir M . M .

Lopez from the earl of Abingdon . A post mote was held for Westbury in 1361-1362, but the earliest mention of the town as a borough occurs in 1442-1443 . The charter of incorporation is lost (tradition says it was burnt), and the town possesses no other charter . The title of the corporation was " Mayor and Burgesses of Westbury," and it consisted of a mayor, recorder and 13 capital burgesses . The borough returned two members to parliament from 1448 . In 1832 the number was reduced to one, and in 1885 the representation was merged in that of the county . In 1252 Henry III. granted to Walter de Pavely a yearly fair for three days from October 31, and a weekly market on Friday . Henry VI. in 1460 granted three fairs yearly for three days from April 22, Whit Monday and September 13 respectively, and a market on Thursdays . In 1835 the mayor's fair was held at Whitsuntide, and the lord of the manor's at Easter . In 1875 a yearly sheep fair took place on the first Tuesday in September and a pleasure fair on Easter and Whit Monday; in 1888 on the first Tuesday in September and on the 24th of that month; the former still exists . In 1673 there was a market on Friday, in 1835 a nominal one on Tuesday and after 1875 it ceased . During the 18th and 19th centuries there was a considerable trade in malt, bricks, tiles and cloth .

The last, once the most extensive, has now sunk into insignificance, while the others exist also only on a small

scale .