[James Edward Nightingale of the Mount, Wilton, English antiquary.] Autograph paper 'On some ancient Customs connected with Salisbury being an address delivered in the Salisbury, South Wilts & Blackmore Museum'.

21pp., 4to. On 21 leaves held together with a brass stud. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. Neatly written out with a few autograph emendations. Nightingale begins: 'I have been asked to make some observations this evening on the contents of the mediaeval part of this museum. The objects are however so multifarious that it would be impossible to do more than glance at the whole. I will therefore confine myself to two or three subjects connected with the habits and customs of our forefathers, and which can be illustrated by actual examples now in the museum. These are, first, the curious Branks or Scolds Bridle formerly used to keep in order the unruly tongues of our lady ancestors, also the leathern Bottles or Black Jacks which so well illustrate the tipling propensities of our forefathers, but principally I wish to say a few words in illustration of the Giant and Hob-nob which have lately been placed in the Museum by the courtesy of the few remaining members of the Guild of Tailors, and which formed so prominent a part in all the pageants of the middle ages.' This address features, undated, in a posthumous collection of Nightingale's writings, edited by Edward Kite and titled 'Memorials of Wilton' (Devizes: George Simpson, 1906, pp.160-170). On Nightingale's death in 1892 his obituary in 'The Antiquary' stated that 'few men in England possessed a wider knowledge of mediaeval and renaissance art'.