Part 21
There are scarcely any historical events connected with Shaftesbury besides those already mentioned; but it is worthy of notice that once for a short time two royal ladies were held prisoners at the Abbey. Robert the Bruce, when on one occasion things were not going well with him, entrusted his second wife, Elizabeth, and her step-daughter, Marjory (the only child of his first wife, Isabella of Mar), to the care of his younger brother, Nigel Bruce, who was holding the strong Castle of Kildrummie, near the source of the Don, in Aberdeenshire. The castle was besieged by the English, under the Earls of Lancaster and Hereford, but when the magazine was treacherously burnt the garrison had to surrender. Nigel Bruce was taken to Berwick, tried, condemned, and executed. Elizabeth and Marjory were carried off across the border, and, with a view of placing them far beyond all chance of rescue, were ultimately handed over to the Abbess of Shaftesbury in 1313. King Edward II. allowed them twenty shillings a week for their maintenance, a sum of much greater value in those days than now. After the battle of Bannockburn (June, 1314), the Earl of Hereford, who had been taken prisoner by Bruce, was given up in exchange for the Queen, who during all her married life, with the exception of two years, had been in the hands of the English, for she had been married in 1304, and had been taken prisoner in 1306.
It is needful, before finishing this chapter, to explain the old saying about the churchyard being higher than the steeple. There was once a church dedicated to St. John the Baptist that stood at the south-west point of the hill on which Shaftesbury is built; this has long ago passed away, but its graveyard still remains. Its parish was amalgamated with that of St. James, whose church stands below the hill, and for some time the old churchyard of St. John’s served as the burial-ground for the united parishes. Hence arose the saying quoted. Speaking of St. James leads us to notice the interesting fact that part of this parish lies outside the municipal boundaries, and is situated in the Liberty of Alcester,[59] so called because this land belonged to a monastery at the town of Alcester, in Warwickshire, and was free from the payment of local tithes. Some have supposed that the word Alcester was the name of a Roman town, on the ruins of which Shaftesbury was built; but this is not the case.
In the early part of the eighteenth century a free school was founded by one William Lush, merchant, of Shaftesbury, for the education of a small number of boys and girls. A new scheme was drawn up about thirty years ago by the Charity Commissioners: new buildings were erected to the east of the town close to Cann Church, but within the boundaries of the parish of Shaston St. Peter, and in 1879 Shaftesbury Grammar School, as it is always called, was opened, the writer of this chapter holding the office then, and for fifteen years afterwards, of headmaster of the re-organised school, which, though never likely to be a large one, has already done, and is still doing, useful work in its own quiet and unobtrusive way.
Despite the fact that strangers may call Shaftesbury a sleepy place, and far behind the times in enterprise; despite the fact that it has fallen from its former importance, and may by some be looked on as a mere derelict—yet those who have known it and dwelt upon “The Rock” cannot but keep a tender spot in their memories for this quaint Dorset town.
Beautiful it is under many atmospheric conditions. One who has risen, and stood in the neighbourhood of the Grammar School, before the dawn of a summer day, and has looked eastward at the long ridge of the downs silhouetted against the sunlit sky, and then a little later has turned to the south-west to look at the line of the houses that run along the crest of the Rock, ending in the two towers of St. Peter’s and Holy Trinity, flushed with the rose of morning, while the soft blue shade holds the valleys below, has seen a sight of surpassing loveliness. Sometimes the hollows are brimmed with thick, white mist, from which the tops of the surrounding hills rise like islets from the sea. Again, the view is splendid when, at noon on a wild, gusty day, heavy masses of clouds are blown across the sky, and their shadows and glints of sunshine chase each other over vale and down. But possibly the most lovely view of all may be obtained by going to Castle Hill on a summer evening when the sun is sinking behind the Somerset hills to the north-west, for the sunsets are “mostly beautiful here,” as Mr. Hardy makes Phillotson say, “owing to the rays crossing the mist of the vale.”[60] But there are other aspects of nature that may sometimes be observed in the hill town and around it—grand and wild when the north-east blast roars over the hill-top, driving before it frozen snow, sweeping up what has already fallen on the fields, and filling the roads up to the level of the hedge-tops, cutting the town off from all communication with the outer world, until gangs of labourers succeed in cutting a narrow passage through the drifts, along which a man may walk or ride on horseback, with the walls of snow rising far above his head on the right-hand and on the left, and nothing to be seen save the white gleam of the sunlight on the snow, the tender grey of the shadows on it, and the bright blue of the sky above—if, indeed, the snow has ceased to fall and the winds to blow, and the marvellous calm of a winter frost beneath a cloudless sky has fallen on the earth. Many may think that such aspects of nature could never be met with in the sunny southern county of Dorset; but the writer speaks of what he has seen on several occasions, when snow has been piled up to the cottage eaves, when the morning letters have not reached the town till after sunset, when even a wagon and its team have been buried for hours in a snow-drift, and the horses rescued with difficulty.
PIDDLETOWN AND ATHELHAMPTON
BY MISS WOOD HOMER
The parish of Piddletown, or Puddletown, is said by Hutchins to take its name from the river Piddle, which flows to the north of the village, though it is supposed to have been formerly called Pydeletown after the Pydele family, at one time owners of much property in the neighbourhood.
It was once a large parish, and the capital of the hundred; but it now numbers only about nine hundred inhabitants, having fallen from fourteen hundred during the last forty years. About the year 1860 the village contained as many as twenty boot-makers, twelve blacksmiths, twenty carpenters and wheelwrights, five pairs of sawyers, two coopers, and some cabinet-makers. Gloves and gaiters were tanned and made there, as were many of the articles in common use. Beer was brewed in the public-houses; and there were three malt-houses, about one of which we read in Thomas Hardy’s _Far from the Madding Crowd_. Naturally, these trades employed much labour, and a great decrease in the population resulted when they were given up, after the introduction of the railway at Dorchester, about the year 1848. Two business fairs were formerly held in the village—one on Easter Tuesday, the other on October 29th—when cattle, materials, hats, etc., were sold. The October fair still exists, but it has dwindled to a small pleasure fair only, though pigs were sold as late as 1896.
Piddletown possesses a very fine church, dedicated to St. Mary. It is a large and ancient building, consisting of a nave and a north aisle of the same length, covered with leaden roofs, and a small south aisle, called the Athelhampton aisle, the burial-place of the Martyns of Athelhampton. This aisle is under the control of the vestry of Athelhampton Church. The chancel has a tiled roof; it was built in 1576. The embattled tower contains six bells.
The chief features of this church are the monuments in the south aisle, with some very fine brasses; the Norman font (some authorities on fonts consider it to be of Saxon work); and the beautiful roof of carved chestnut wood. This latter has been many times supported and restored, and it will, indeed, be a loss to the antiquary when it is found impossible any longer to keep it in repair.
The monuments are all much defaced. One of them, of the fifteenth century, consists of a knight and lady in alabaster on an altar-tomb, probably Sir Richard Martyn and Joan his wife; this has traces of much gilding and painting, but no inscription. To the west of this there is the figure of a knight, probably placed there about 1400. West of this again, an unknown “crusader” and lady lie on the floor under an altar-tomb, with a canopy upon four pillars, which was erected to the memory of Nicholas Martyn; under the canopy there is a fine brass, representing Nicholas Martyn, his wife, three sons, and seven daughters, dated 1595, and bearing an inscription. There is also a smaller brass, on which is a monkey holding a mirror—the Martyn crest—while above the whole are three sculptured martins or monkeys. To the north of the aisle there is a figure of a knight in alabaster, his feet resting on a chained monkey, the whole supported on an altar-tomb of Purbeck marble. On the west wall there is a large tablet to the memory of the Brunes, who owned Athelhampton in the seventeenth century.
On the east of the aisle there is a brass to the memory of Christopher Martyn, with the following inscription:—
Here lyethe the body of Xpofer Martyn Esquyer Sone and heyre unto Syr Willym Martyn knyght Pray for there Soules with harty desyre That they bothe may be sure of Eternall lyght Callyng to Remembraunce that every wyght Most nedys dye, & therefor lett us pray As other for us may do Another day.
Qui quidem Xpoferus obiit XXII^{o} die mens’ M’cii an^{o} D’ni millmo quingentesimo vicesimo quarto.
Above this there is the kneeling figure of a man in armour, and a partial representation of the Trinity. The figure is holding a scroll, on which the following inscription is much abbreviated: “_Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis et omnes iniquitates meas dele_”; while before and behind the effigies are the Martyn arms. And on the floor of the church, north of the pulpit, there is a brass to the memory of Roger Cheverell.
A short staircase of thirteen steps opens out of the south aisle; this formerly led to a rood loft.
A musicians’ gallery of the seventeenth century runs across the west of the church, and there are porches on the north and south. The south door has a ring attached to the outside, which is popularly supposed to have been a sanctuary ring, though probably this tradition has no foundation.
It is an interesting fact that the church clock, which was in the tower till about 1865, was made by a village blacksmith, Lawrence Boyce by name, about 1710. This clock had a three-cornered wooden face on the north side of the tower, stone weights and one (hour) hand. It struck the hours and quarters and chimed at 8, 12, and 4, except on Sundays, when the chimes were silenced, so that they might not disturb the worshippers. A clock made by the same man, for Bere Regis Church, is now in the Dorchester Museum; but, unfortunately, the Piddletown clock was not preserved, though it was in good going order when it was removed to make room for the present one.
In 1820, and probably for long before, it was the custom of the members of the choir to write their own music; some was actually composed by them, while some was borrowed from other villages, although the rivalry which often existed between village choirs not infrequently prevented the exchange of tunes. In two vellum-covered volumes, the property of Mr. W. Gover, of Piddletown, dated 1823, the music and words of the Psalms are most beautifully written. The books were given by a certain Mrs. Price to the choir. The larger book belonged to J. Holland, a clarionet player; the smaller to W. Besant. In the latter may be found music headed, “John Besant’s Magnificat,” which was probably composed by one of his ancestors. At this time the choir consisted of two clarionets, two bass viols, a flute, and a bassoon; while before this a “serpent” was used, and the music is written apparently for all these instruments. The violin was prohibited by most clergymen as being “Devil’s music,” on account of its being played in public-houses and for dancing. The instruments were given up about 1845 on the introduction of a barrel-organ. At this time the village also possessed a band, which had been in existence for nearly two hundred years, and of which the inhabitants were justly proud.
Piddletown is perhaps better known as the “Weatherbury” of Thomas Hardy’s _Far from the Madding Crowd_. On the south-west of the church is the gargoyle (the head of some beast, with the legs of a child projecting from its mouth), which destroyed Sergeant Troy’s work at Fanny’s grave. The old malthouse mentioned in the same book stood in what are now the gardens of Ilsington House, while Bathsheba’s house stood on the site of Ilsington Lodge, although it is sketched from the house at Waterson. The latter is a fine old building about two miles from Piddletown, and was the residence of the Martyns before they went to Athelhampton, and remained their property for long after. It was much damaged by fire in 1863, but was carefully restored by the owner, Lord Ilchester, to whose family it still belongs. It is interesting to note that a certain Mr. Bainger, who lived at Ilsington Lodge, was the moving spirit in causing the lowering of Yellowham Hill, between Piddletown and Dorchester, about 1830.
The Vicarage possesses a very fine staircase and an oak-beamed study, while an old farmhouse, now used as a cottage, in “Style Lane,” formerly contained a fine carved mantelpiece. In the churchyard is the headstone of Peter Standley, King of the Gipsies, with the following inscription:—
In memory of Peter Standley, who died 23rd November, 1802, aged 70 years.
Farewell my dear & faithful wife My sons & daughters too Tho’ never in this mortal life Again you must me view Close in our Saviour’s footsteps tread Of Love divine possessed And when you’re numbered with the dead Your souls will be at rest.
He is said to have died of smallpox in Style Lane, and to have been buried by night. Gipsies still visit the grave.
The old coaching road from London to Dorchester runs to the west of the village, and “Judge’s Bridge,” near Ilsington Lodge, is said to have taken its name from being the meeting-place of the judge and the “javelin men” on the occasion of the Dorchester Assizes.
The Court Leet House, wherein was transacted all the local business, and which was also used as a school, formerly stood in the “Square”; the stocks, the old village pound, and pump were near. The house now occupied by Mr. W. Gover was the residence of the Boswells, who owned land in the parish, and introduced the system of irrigating the meadows.
Athelhampton Hall is a fine old building east of Piddletown. There is a tradition that it took its name from some of the Saxon Kings, and was originally called Athelhamstan; but Hutchins thinks it more probable that it derived its name from Æthelhelm, one of the Saxon Earls in Dorset, who was killed in an engagement with the Danes A.D. 837.
The first owners of Athelhampton of whom there is any record were the de Loundres and Pideles. From them it came by marriage to the Martyns, who held it till 1595. At the death of Nicholas Martyn it was divided between his four daughters, who married respectively Henry Brune, Henry Tichborne, Thomas White, and Anthony Floyer. Gradually the shares of the Whites and Tichbornes came into the hands of the Brunes, and were sold by them in 1665 to Sir Robert Long. It then came by marriage to the Hon. William Wellesley Pole (afterwards Earl of Mornington), whose son sold it in 1848 to Mr. George James Wood, from whom it came to his nephew, Mr. G. Wood Homer. It is now the property of Mr. A. C. de Lafontaine, who purchased it in 1890. The Floyer share of the house remained in their possession till an exchange was effected by Mr. Wood, when the whole came into his hands.
The house itself consists of two sides of a quadrangle facing south and west, and was in a very bad state when bought by Mr. Wood, having, it is said, been used as a farmhouse, and the fine old oak-roofed stone-floored hall as a cattle-shed. Mr. Wood entirely renovated the oak roof, taking great trouble to preserve the original style. He re-floored the large drawing-room, and made various other extensive repairs. He removed the gatehouse, which darkened the house, and partly re-erected it in the form of a summer-house. This has, however, been again removed by the present owner, who has made many alterations. The house is built of Ham Hill stone. The east wing is said to be the oldest part of the present building, and was probably erected by Sir William Martyn, who died in 1503; while the north wing is thought to have been built by Nicholas Martyn later in the sixteenth century.
A small chapel stood on the lawn when Mr. Wood bought the property, but as this and Burlestone Church were both out of repair, he pulled them down and built the present church, to a great extent at his own cost. The chancel of old Burlestone Church is still standing in its overgrown churchyard, the tombs having all fallen into decay. No churchyard belonged to the Athelhampton Chapel, Piddletown having always been the burying-place of the owners.
In a field about a quarter of a mile from Athelhampton, on the land of Mr. G. Wood Homer, are the grass-grown mounds—the remains of the hamlet of Bardolfeston, the seat of Drogo de Bardolf, from whom it came hereditarily to the Martyns. It consisted of a manor, hamlet, and church; the latter stood at a little distance from the cottages and manor on what is now known as Church Knap or Knoll. The field in which the hamlet stood is now known as “Dunditch,” and there is a local couplet which runs:
Dunditch was a thriving town When London was a vuzzy down.
It is probable that Bardolfeston extended irregularly to Piddletown, as it is known that cottages and a mill existed between the two, and Bardolfeston was part of the Piddle Hundred, being sometimes called Piddle Bardolf.
WOLFETON HOUSE
BY ALBERT BANKES
The present Wolfeton House, in the parish of Charminster, in the county of Dorset, is known to have been built by John, father of Sir Thomas Trenchard, during the reign of Henry VII.; but as the property was acquired by the Trenchard family (through marriage) from the Jurdains, and previously the Jurdains had obtained the house and land (also through marriage) from the Mohun family, it is quite clear that a house of some description must have existed on the same site as that of the present residence.
Some archæologists consider that the gatehouse is decidedly of the Norman period; so, should that be the case, probably the house inhabited by the Jurdains, before them by the Mohuns, was built soon after Norman Conquest.
A date is still to be seen on the north side of the north tower, but whether that refers to the actual building of the towers, or only to some portion that had been rebuilt or restored, is not known.
In a note attached to the pedigree of Trenchard it is stated that the first Sir Thomas Trenchard rebuilt the house at Wolfeton as it now stands, except some addition made by Sir George Trenchard; and there seems no reason to doubt this statement, for a study of the existing house shows very clearly two distinct dates of building. There are evidences, also, that Sir Thomas Trenchard’s rebuilding incorporated many portions of a still older edifice.
Mr. Hamilton Rogers, in his _Sepulchral Effigies of Devon_, says:
Their last heiress, Christian, daughter and heir of John de Mohun by Joan his wife, daughter of John Jurdain, of Wolveton, Charminster, married Henry Trenchard (_obit_ 1477), of Hordull, Hants, and subsequently of Wolveton.
His descendant, Sir Thomas Trenchard (_ob._ 1505), rebuilt this fine old mansion, and carved on escutcheons over the gateway; and first among the noble series of genealogical shields in the hall windows were the arms of Trenchard. Traces of the great Devonshire family of the Mohuns are not infrequently found in Dorset.
The elevation of the south front of Wolfeton House remains very much as originally erected, and is of two distinct styles of architecture—the portion of the building to the east being in the Tudor-Gothic, probably of the time of Henry VII., and the west portion in the Elizabethan, or, more probably, Jacobean style. The latter portion is a picturesque example of this pseudo-classical style of architecture and nothing more. The older part of the building, however, possesses features which are worthy of notice, as the rich labels over the windows are composed of hollow mouldings filled with rolls of sculptured fruit and foliage, and terminating in quaint corbels carved with great spirit.
Hutchins says:
The ancient seat of the Trenchards here is a noble building, and at the time when it was built perhaps the best in the country; it is a large fabric, its principal fronts to the east and south. On the north it is sheltered by a grove of trees.
One enters on the east into what formerly was a small court, and on both sides of the gate is a round tower. In this front are many windows, almost all of them different from each other, as if the architect had studied irregularity. This seems to have been the humour of that age, for Dugdale remarks that:
At Tixall, co. Stafford, the seat of the Lord Aston, there is a fine piece of masonry, built in the reign of Henry VIII.: though the windows are numerous, scarce two of them are alike, and there is the same variety of fretwork of the chimneys; so that the beauty of the structure in that age did not, as in the present, consist in uniformity, but in the greatest variety the artist could give.
On the north side of Wolfeton House there was a small cloister leading to what was the chapel, in which some of the family were married (within memory), but it has since been pulled down. To the west of the chapel there was a little court.
From Powel’s _Topographical Collections in Devon and Dorset_ (A.D. 1820) we learn that a great deal of the back of the house had been destroyed, and the whole of the fine glass (with the exception of five or six shields) was taken down, amounting to 100 lbs., and sent to Mr. Trenchard’s other house at Lytchett; but it was so badly packed that when the case was opened almost the whole of the glass was pounded or broken to pieces, so that very little was preserved.
The only remaining portion of the eastern front is the old gateway, the most distinctive feature of the house. The entrance gate is flanked by large circular towers capped by conical stone roofs. That on the south side is somewhat larger than its fellow, as well as standing a little further eastwards. The arch of the entrance gateway has continuous mouldings east and west, with a label over. The eastern label contains a shield bearing the following arms:—Quarterly, 1 and 4, Trenchard; 2, Mohun; 3, Jurdain; and an inescutcheon, Quarterly 1 and 4, 3 lozenges; 2..., 3.... The western label terminates in figures holding shields on which are two T’s combined with T. E. united by a tasselled cord. Above the apex of the arch similar initials appear interlaced, and over all T. T. combined.