Part 26

Edited by H. J. DUKINFIELD ASTLEY, M.A., Litt.D., F.R.Hist.S. Dedicated by kind permission to the Right Hon. Viscount Coke, C.M.G., C.V.O., Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk. The contributors to the volume are: H. J. DUKINFIELD ASTLEY, M.A., Rev. W. HUDSON, F.S.A., Dr. BENSLY, F.S.A., E. ALFRED JONES, Rev. R. NIGHTINGALE, PHILIP SIDNEY, F.R.Hist.S., H. J. HILLEN, Rev. Dr. COX, F.S.A., R. J. E. FERRIER, W. G. CLARKE, C. E. KEYSER, F.S.A., Rev. G. W. MINNS, F.S.A., JAS. HOOPER, Rev. E. C. HOPPER, R. J. W. PURDY, Miss LONGE.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] One of these was the Rev. Mr. Bravel, Rector of Compton Abbas.

[2] _Proceedings of the Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club_, vol. v., p. 99.

[3] _The Dynasts_, part i., p. 179.

[4] _Excavations in Cranborne Chase_, by Lieut.-General Pitt-Rivers, F.R.S., vol. ii., p. 62.

[5] _Excavations in Cranborne Chase_, by Lieut.-General Pitt-Rivers, vol. iv., pp. 62-100.

[6] _Excavations in Cranborne Chase_, by Lieut.-General Pitt-Rivers, vol. iv., p. 144.

[7] _Jour. of the Anthropolog. Inst._, vol. xxxii., p. 373.

[8] _Guide to Antiquities of Bronze Age in Brit. Mus._, by C. H. Read, F.S.A., p. 45.

[9] _Proceedings Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club_, vol. xxvi., p. 18.

[10] _British Barrows_, by Greenwell and Rolleston, p. 81.

[11] _Celtic Tumuli of Dorset_, by Charles Warne, F.S.A., p. 37.

[12] _Ibid._, p. 18.

[13] _Proceedings of Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club_, vol. xxvi., p. 15.

[14] _Ibid._, p. 10.

[15] Pronounced U-ern or You-ern.

[16] “The Levelled Churchyard,” in _Poems of the Past and Present_.

[17] The heads of religious houses, being landowners, suffered financially, as other landowners did, from the great increase in wages that farm labourers were able to demand, because so many labourers having died, the supply fell far short of the demand.

[18] Showing the horned head dress and gown, the whole almost identical in outline and size with the Alyanora Pollard effigy, 1430, at Bishop’s Nympton, Devon.

[19] Extract from the Stratton Churchwardens’ Account, 1753, April 26th—“Two brasses not wey’d at 7d. p. pound sopos’d to wey 12 pound they wey’d but 9 lbs. 0.5.3.” There are no brasses at Stratton now.

[20] According to tradition, a Knight of Malta.

[21] This James Russell was the father of John Russell of Berwick, K.G., created Baron Russell of Cheneys, 1538-9, and Earl of Bedford, 1550.

[22] A coffin chalice and paten have, within recent years, been discovered at Milton Abbey and Abbotsbury.

[23] One of these Norman fragments was sent in 1904, as a relic, to the parish church of Milton, near Boston, Massachusetts. The American town of Milton, incorporated in 1662, was named after Milton, in Dorset, and the crest on its corporate seal is a reproduction of the west front of Milton Abbey (see illustration at the end of this chapter).

[24] It is curious that the first Abbot and the last Abbot of Milton should have become bishops, while none of the intervening abbots were raised to the episcopate. It is true that in 1261 William de Taunton, Abbot of Milton, was elected to the bishopric of Winchester, but he desisted from his right. A Milton monk, however, in 1292, filled the See of Salisbury (Nicholas Longspée); and Thomas Jan, a native of Milton, became Bishop of Norwich in 1499.

[25] In the thirteenth century seal of the Abbey “the Church of Midelton” is also represented with three spires.

[26] See Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club’s _Proceedings_, vol. xxvi., 201 ff.

[27] This inscription is discussed in the Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club’s _Proceedings_, vol. xxv., 191 ff. It announces an indulgence to those passers-by who pray for the soul of the deceased abbot (possibly William de Stokes, who died in 1256).

[28] A full description of these brasses appeared in _The Antiquary_ for March, 1904.

[29] A full account of this incident and of the bequest appears in Heath and Prideaux’s _Some Dorset Manor Houses_, pp. 199, 200.

[30] In connection with the glass in the windows of Milton Abbey, it may be of interest to add the tradition that John Milton “planned” his _Il Penseroso_ at Milton, and that the following lines in the poem are supposed to have been suggested to him by the Abbey Church:

But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister’s pale, And love the high embowèd roof With antic pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight Casting a dim religious light; There let the pealing organ blow, To the full voicèd quire below, In service high and anthems clear As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all heav’n before mine eyes.

[31] A full description of this glass (_temp._ Henry VII.) appeared in _The Antiquary_ for May, 1907.

[32] A full description of these burial relics appeared in _The Antiquary_ for July, 1905.

[33] It is possible that Athelstan found a Celtic sanctuary at Milton dedicated to these two Celtic bishops, and retained the dedications for his new minster in order to conciliate the vanquished race. Such a graceful act would be quite in keeping with the King’s imperial maxim: “_Gloriosus regem facere quam regem esse_.”

[34] This thirteenth century inscription is discussed in the Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club’s _Proceedings_, vol. xxv., 187 ff. One wonders if this indulgence was granted by Robert Kilwarby, Archbishop of Canterbury, on the occasion of his visit to Milton Abbey in 1277. The indulgence was offered, presumably, to those who would contribute to the fabric fund of the chapel.

[35] A full account of Liscombe appeared in the Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club’s _Proceedings_, vol. xxvi., 1 ff.

[36] The loneliness of Holworth has also been remarked upon by Thomas Hardy in his smuggling story, “The Distracted Preacher” (_Wessex Tales_). Such a lonely spot, with its under-cliff sheltered by “White Nose”—the great white promontory jutting like an enormous Wellington nose into the sea—naturally attracted smugglers, who, as tradition says, hid their goods in the tower of the neighbouring parish church of Owermoigne. In this church there is an interesting inscription recording the will of “Adam Jones of Holworth, in the parish of Abbotsmilton” (_sic_), 1653.

[37] See Mary Craven’s _Famous Beauties of Two Reigns_, pp. 141-151.

[38] See _Old Milton_, and Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club’s _Proceedings_, vol. xxv., 1 ff.

[39] Zanchy Harvyn, grocer, of “Abby Milton,” was the second tradesman in Dorset to issue a “token” (1651).

[40] See _Milton Abbey Marriage Registers_, in Phillimore’s “Dorset” series. But during the years 1657-8 the banns of some of the more zealous church-people were published in the church.

[41] See Alfred Pope’s _The Old Stone Crosses of Dorset_, pp. 69-71.

[42] See _Milton Abbey and its School_, chap. ii.

[43] See Broadley and Bartelot’s _The Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar_, p. 124.

[44] During Hutchins’ residence at Milton, the Lord of the Manor (Mr. Jacob Bancks, M.P.) employed him to make some antiquarian researches concerning Sir John Tregonwell; and while making these researches Hutchins conceived the idea of writing a book on the antiquities of Dorset. He began to collect materials, and at Milton laid the plan of his monumental history. His wife, Ann Stephens, is described in the Melcombe Bingham marriage registers as belonging to the parish of Milton.

[45] This fight between squire and people recalls Thomas Hardy’s allusion, in _The Woodlanders_, to “Middleton Abbey” as being a place where one might gain strength, “particularly strength of mind.”

[46] A full account of these “ruins” appeared in the Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club’s _Proceedings_, vol. xxvi., 195 ff.

[47] “The Abbot at incredible expense is now restoring the monastery most gloriously.”

[48] Engraved in Oliver’s _Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis_.

[49] The writer has used, among other books, the _Guides_ of Savage and Young, Mrs. Frampton’s _Journal_, and his brother Mr. H. J. Moule’s _Old Dorset_ and _Dorchester Antiquities_.

[50] One part of that house is the oldest piece of inhabited building in the borough.

[51] Spring, 1907.

[52] On the site of this chapel Mr. Ellis dug up some beautiful pieces of fourteenth-century Gothic work.

[53] This bridge was finished in 1824, at a cost of £20,000.

[54] “The Problem of Lynchets,” Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club’s _Proceedings_, vol. xxiv.

[55] _Jude the Obscure_, p. 249.

[56] This prophecy is thought to have been fulfilled when the son of Edmund Tudor, a Welshman, ascended the throne as Henry VII.

[57] This dedication is curious. St. Rumbold was the son of a Northumbrian King, and of a daughter of Penda, King of Mercia, born at Sutton, in Northamptonshire; he died when three days old, but not before he had repeated the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed in Latin. This fact gained canonization for him.

[58] This has given the colloquial name of “the Rock” to Shaftesbury. Those who live in the town are spoken of as coming from the Rock; those who dwell in the villages below it are spoken of as “Side off” the Rock.

[59] The Abbey of Alcester was founded in 1140 by Ralf Boteler, and a document exists by which one William le Boteler, of Wem, grants to the Abbey 100 shillings per annum, derived from land in the parish of St. James, Shaftesbury, to pay for masses for his own soul and that of the King (7th year of Henry IV.). This is only a confirmation of a previous gift.

[60] _Jude the Obscure_, p. 313.

[61] Of the poet “George Turberville, gentleman,” not much is known. He was born at Winterborne Whitchurch, probably before 1530, and died after 1594. Besides a book on falconry and numerous translations, he wrote a good many occasional poems, though none of great length.

Sir Walter Ralegh, a Devonshire man, was connected with Sherborne, for it was here that he and his wife, Elizabeth Throgmorton, settled, and in January, 1591-2, had obtained a ninety-nine years’ lease of the castle and park. Here he busied himself with building and “repairing the castle, erecting a magnificent mansion close at hand, and laying out the grounds with the greatest refinement and taste.” The castle now occupied by the Digby family is in part the lodge built by Sir Walter, and over the central doorway appear his arms, and the date, 1594. Before his conviction he settled his estate on his son, but by a flaw in the deed James I. took it from him, and granted it to his favourite, Carr, Earl of Somerset. It is said that Lady Ralegh asked the King on her knees to spare her son’s heritage, but that the King’s only answer was, “I maun hae the lond; I maun hae it for Carr.” On Sir Walter’s journey to the Tower, he passed in full view of Sherborne, and said, motioning with his hands towards the woodlands and the castle, “All this was once mine, but has passed away.”

[62] About 1727 one Prior, of Godmanston, a labouring man, declared to a company, in the presence of Mr. Hutchins, that he was Mr. Prior’s cousin, and remembered going to Wimborne to visit him, and afterwards heard that he became a great man.—Hutchins’ _Dorset_.

[63] _Longman’s Magazine_, October, 1884.

[64] The collection of books to which the _History of the World_ belongs was given to the town in 1686, many years after Prior had left Wimborne. See the _Contemporary Review_, May, 1890.

[65] It is probable that Prior’s parents were Nonconformists. We are told that before a dissenting chapel was built in the town the people met for worship in a barn in the neighbouring hamlet of Cowgrove. To this Prior seems to allude in his epistle to Fleetwood Shepherd:

At pure Barn of loud Non-con Where with my granam I have gone.

[66] He wrote occasional verse, and when Young addressed his third satire to Dodington, he received verses from Dodington in return.

[67] Christopher Pitt (d. 1748) was rector of Pimperne, not far from Eastbury. He translated the _Æneid_.

[68] At Eastbury he slept on a bed encanopied with peacocks’ feathers, “in the style of Mrs. Montague.”—Cumberland’s _Memoirs_.

[69] This was pulled down in 1835, and rebuilt.

[70] Hutchins writes that “the house where Oliver lived seemed to accord with Fielding’s description,” and an old woman who remembered Oliver said “that he dearly loved a bit of good victuals and a drop of drink.”—_History of Dorset._

[71] William Crowe (1745-1829). In 1782, on the presentation of New College, he was admitted to the rectory of Stoke Abbot, in Dorset, which he exchanged for Alton Barnes, in Wiltshire, in 1787. Lewesdon Hill lies near his Dorset benefice. The first edition of _Lewesdon Hill_ was published anonymously in 1788.

[72] Thomas Fuller was presented to the rectory of Broadwindsor by his uncle, Bishop Davenant. He was ousted at the Rebellion; but he returned to it at the Restoration, and held the living until his death in 1661.

[73] At Racedown, Wordsworth finished _Guilt and Sorrow_, composed the tragedy called _The Borderers_, and some personal satires which he never published. Lastly, he wrote _The Ruined Cottage_, now incorporated in the first book of _The Excursion_.

[74] In Wordsworth’s own account, “Towards the close of the first book stand the lines that were first written, beginning, ‘Nine tedious years,’ and ending, ‘Last human tenant of these ruined walls.’ These were composed in 1795 at Racedown; and for several passages describing the employment and demeanour of Margaret during her affliction, I am indebted to observations made in Dorsetshire, and afterwards at Alfoxden, in Somersetshire.”

[75] From an unpublished letter to Wrangham, _The Athenæum_, 8th December, 1894, quoted in _The Early Life of Wordsworth_ (1770-1798), by Emile Legouis.

[76] It was noteworthy how he would eschew all the evil in newspapers; no theft or murder could ever be read to him.—_Life of William Barnes_, Leader Scott.

[77] William Barnes (1801-1886) was born at Rushay, in the hamlet of Bagber. He was the grandson of John Barnes, yeoman farmer, of Gillingham, and the son of John Barnes, tenant farmer, in the Vale of Blackmore. (A direct ancestor, John Barnes, was head-borough of Gillingham in 1604.) In 1835 he settled at Dorchester, and kept a school. In 1847 he was ordained, and lived at Whitcombe, Dorset. In 1862 he became Rector of Came, where he died.

[78] Thomas Hardy was born at Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, on June 2nd, 1840. In his seventeenth year he was articled to a Mr. Hicks, an ecclesiastical architect of Dorchester, to whom the restoration of many of the old South Dorset churches was entrusted. In 1862 he went to London, and became an assistant to Sir Arthur Blomfield, R.A. In 1874 he married Miss Emma Lavinia Gifford, niece of Dr. Gifford, Archdeacon of London, and formerly headmaster of King Edward’s School, Birmingham. Before taking up their residence at Dorchester, Mr. and Mrs. Hardy lived at Riverside, Sturminster Newton—the “Stourcastle” of the novels—and then at Wimborne, and finally settled at “Max Gate,” Dorchester, in 1885.

[79] It is noteworthy that sometimes the name of a village or town appears in the name of some character living in it, as, for instance, Jude Fawley lives in “Marygreen,” which we may identify with the village of Fawley, in Hants.; and the name of the schoolmaster of “Leddenton” (really the Dorset town of Gillingham) is Gillingham.