GEK'EALCCY COLLECTION Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center http://www.archive.org/details/proceedingsdorse08dors ti 'i- \ i u \ ^. iMi i.^ (1+,NE\A BOND ST REV, WILLIAM BARNES., B D. PROCEEDINGS ¥|c Porstl '5''^l"t'''^ ^^'sJ"^^''! ''"^ J[nlii|uarian %}t^\h iluL EDITED EV MOETON CI. STUART, Hon. Secretary. VOLUME VIII !l:5)orche8ter : PRIXTED AT THE "DORSET COUNTY CHRONICLE" OFFICE. 1887 1413057 *• {' f) N T ¥, -X T S V Plates and Engravings ... Notice List of Otlicers and Hon. Members ... List of ^lembers In Menioriam Rev. William Barnes, B.D., by Rev. 0. P. Cambridge, M.A. A Chronological List of the Published Works of the Rev. William Barnes, B.D. The Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club during 1S86, by M. C. Stuart, M.A., F.G.S. ... Statement of Receipts and Payments, June, 1885, to June, 1886 General Statement, June 9th, 1886 ... List of New Members ... PAGE iv. v. vi. viii. xxxiv. li. lii. liii. ^ Decoys and Swan Marks, by J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S Charles II. in Dorset, by J. S. Udal, F. R. Hist. Soc. (of the Inner Temple) ^The Ancient Connection between Cranborne and Tewkesbury, by "^ T. W. W. Smart, M.D Abbotsbury Abbey, by H. J. Moule, M.A Bere Kegi.s, by the Rev. J. F. Langford (Vicar) On some Rare anil Local Lepidoptera lately found in Dorsetshire by the Rev. U. P. Cambridge, M.A. On the Great Earwig', Lahidura riparia (Pallas), by R. B. Kemp Welch, VjH([. Tlie Abbotsbury Iron Deposits, l)y .Mr. T. B. Groves, F.C.S. (o Weymouth) On the Ergot {C/avicejjS purpurea), by Morton Stuart, Esq. Gorton, by H. J. Moule, M.A. On the Effects of a Flash of Lightning at Bloxworth, on the 9th of April, 1886, by the Rev. O. P. CandDridge, M.A. Corrigenda to Vol. VII. 29 38 49 74 82 PLATES AND ENGRAVINGS. Fr'nifinphn TriF. i.atf, Kf.v. Wtltjam ?>.\r.XFS. B.T). IT.ATi: PAOF. i. CiiLiuii OF St. John Baptist, Bere Rf.cis ... ... ... 49 ii. Rapk ANrrt Local Lepihoptera Forxi> tx Dorset .. ... 55 Tkeks .SrcrcK i;v LiciriNiN*: at lir-owvoirru SO J\l-OTICE. Members are reminded that payment of the current year's subscription (los.) entitles them to the immediate receipt of the Vol. of "Proceedings" or other publications for the year ; also that payment of arrears entitles to previous volumes, issued in those years for which the arrears are due. All volumes are issued, and subscriptions received, by the Treasurer, Rev. O. P. Cambridge, Bloxworth Rectory, \Vareham. Surplus Copies of former "Proceedings" (vols. i. — vii.) at an average rate of 7s. 6d. a volume, and of " Spiders of Dorset" (2 vols. 25s.), are in the Treasurer's hands for disposal for the benefit of the Club's funds. Any Member joining the Club and paying his subscription in a year for which no volume may be issued is entitled to a coj^y of that last previously issued. I^he Jjoimt llntuiinl li'itorii — ;$«:sS5Xc- IJYAUGURATED MARCH IGfh, 1875 J. C. MANSEL-PLEYDELT., Esq., J.P., E.G.S., E.E.S. Vicc4?i;csiclcnt.O' : Rev. Sir TALBOT BAKER, Bart. General PITT RIVERS, F.R.S. MOR'I'ON G. STUART, Esq. (Hon. Secretary). Rev.O. p. CAMP>RIDGE, M.A.,F.R.S.,C.M.Z.S.,&c.("7>w^//;Tr;. IjfonorniM) (.t^cmbcrs ; Rev. M. J. Berkeley, F.R. H.S.L., Szc, Sibbertoft Vicarage, Northampton. M. H. Bloxham, Issq., F.S.A., &c., Rugby. H, W. Bristow, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., Geological Museum, Jermyn Street, London. W. Carruthers, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., F.L.S., British IMuseum. T. Davidson, Esq., F.G.S., 9, Salisbury-road, West Brighton. R. Etheridge, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S , Geological Museum, Jermyn Street, London. E. A. Freeman, Esq., D.C.L., Summerlease, Wells, E. Lees, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S. , Vice-President of the Worcester Naturalists' Club, Worcester. Alfred Newton, Esq., 'M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, ]\Lagdalen College, Cambridge. J. Prestwich, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geology, Oxford. Rev. Prebendary Scarth, F.S.A., Wrington Rectory, Somerset. J. O. Westwood, Esq., Hope Professor of Zoology, Oxford. G. B. WoLLASTON, Esq., Chiselhurst. Sir William Guise, Bart., Elmore Court, Gloucestershire. v^(6rt LIST OF MEMBERS Dorset |]vttural Dicitori) nub Jlntiquarian Jficlb dub For the Year endinO December 31st, 1886. The Right Hon. the Lord Eustace Cecil The Right Hon. Lord Digby The Lord Stalbridge Acton, Rev. J. Aldridge, Reginald, Esq. Aldridge, Dr. Allen, George^ Esq. Allen, Mrs. Andrews, T. C. W., Esq. Atkins, His Honour Judge Tindal Baker, Rev. Sir Talbot, Bart. Bankes, Albert, Esq. Bankes, Rev. Eldon S. Bankes, Eustace Ralph, Esq. Barrett, W. Bowles, Esq., F.L.S. Baskett, C. H., Esq. Baskett, Rev. C. R, Batten, John, Esq. Lytchett Heath, Poole Minterne, Dorchestei Brook-street, London Iwerne, Minster, Blandford Poole Yeovil Grove House, Stalbridge Grove House, Stalbridge I, Buxton Villas, Rodwell, Weymouth Uplands, Wimborne Ranston House, Blandford Wolfeton House, Dorchester Corfe Casde Rectory, Wareham Corfe Castle Rectory, Wareham "Weymouth Evershot Stinsford Vicarage, Dorchester Aldon, Yeovil IX. Bell, E. W., Esq. Bennett, H. R., Esq. Bond, N., Esq. Bond, T., Esq. Brennand, W. E., Esq. Bridges, Captain Bright, Percy M., Esq. Brook, Miss Browne, Rev. W. C. Buckman, S. S., Esq. Budden, E. T., Esq. Burden, Rev. R. Burt, George, Esq. Cambridge, Rev. O. P. ( Vice- President and Treas.) Cambridge, Colonel, J. P. Childs, Dr. C. Chislett, H. O., Esq. Chudleigh, Rev. Augustine Cleminshaw, E., Esq., M.A., E.G.S. Clinton, E. Fynes, Esq. Colfox, T., Esq. Colfox, Miss ]\Iargaret Colfox, W., Esq. Colfox, Miss A. L. Collinson, Rev. E. W. Crespi, Dr. Crickmay, G. R., Esq. Cross, Rev. J. Curme, Decimus, Esq. Dale, C. W., Esq. Damon, R., Esq. Davidson, Rev. T. Gillingham Markham House, Wyke Regis Creech Grange, Wareham Tyneham, Wareham Blandford Fifehead Magdalen Bournemouth Southfield, Dorchester Tyneham Rectory, Wareham Hampen, Andoversford, Cheltenham Wimborne Haselbury Rectory, Blandford Bloxworth Rectory, Wareham Bloxworth House, Wareham 2, Royal-terrace, Weymouth Wimborne AVest Parley Rectory, Wimborne Belvedere, Kent Wimborne Bridport Westmead, Bridport Westmead, Bridport Westmead, Bridport Watton Rectory, Hertford Wimborne Weymouth Baillie House, Sturminster Marshall, Wimborne Child Okeford Glanvilles Wootton, Sherborne Weymouth Ashmore, Salisbury Dayman, Rev. Canon Disney, A. N., Esq. Dowland, Rev. E. Dobie, Rev. A. C. B. Diirden, H., Esq. Durden, H., Esq. Dugmore, H. Radcliffe, Esq. Ehves, Captain Embleton, D. C, Esq., L.R.C.P.,M.R.C.S.,Lond. Falkner, C. G., Esq. Farley, Rev. H. Farquharson, H. R., Esq., MP. Farrer, Oliver, Esq. Ffooks, T., Esq. Filliter, Freeland, Esq. Fletcher, W. J., Esq., Floyer, J., Esq., F.G.S. Floyer, G., Esq. Forbes, Major L. Freame, ]Miss E. M. Freame, R., Esq. Fyler, J. W., Esq. Galpin, G., Esq. Glyn, Sir R., Bart Goodden, J. R. P., Esq, Gorringe, Rev. R. P. Green, Rev. Canon Gresley, Rev. N. W. Grove, Walter, Esq. Groves, T. B., Esq. Guest, M. J., Esq. Guise, CD., Esq. Shillingstone Rectory, Blandford Islington High School, London Tarrant Keynstone, Blandford Fontmell, Shaftesbury Blandford Dorchester The Lodge, Parkstone, Poole Bournemouth St. Wilfrid's, St. Michael's-road, Bournemouth The College, Weymouth Lytchett Minster, Poole Tarrant Gunville, Blandford Binnegar Hall, Wareham Totnel, Sherborne Wareham Wimborne Stafford, Dorchester Stafford, Dorchester Shillingstone, Blandford Gillingham Gillingham Heffleton, Wareham Tarrant Keynstone, Blandford Gaunts House, Wimborne Compton House, Sherborne Manston Rectory, Blandford Steepleton, Dorchester Dursley Rectory, Gloucestershire Fern House, Salisbury St. Mary-street, Weymouth Bere Regis, Wareham Elmore Court, Gloucester XI. Hambro, C. J. T., Esq., M.P. Hansford, Charles, Esq. Hardy, T., Esq. Harrison, G., Esq. Hart, Edward, Esq. Hill, Rev. Arthur Hogg, B. A., Esq. Hooper, Pelly, Esq., House, Rev. Thos. Hammond Howard, Sir R. N. Hussey, Dr. Kemp-Welch, E.B., Esq. Kendall, Rev. W. Laing, Rev. S. Malcolm Laws, John, Esq., L.S.D. Lawton, H. A., Esq. Leach, J. Comyns, Esq..M.D. Leonard, Rev. A. Long, R. G., Esq. Lovett, Rev. R. Ludlow, Rev. Edward Luff, J. W., Esq. Mansel-Pleydell, J. C., Esq. (President) Mansel-Pleydell, ]\Lajor Marriott, Sir W. Smith, Bart. Mason, Rev. H. J. Mate, William, Esq. Maude, W. C., Esq. Maunsell, Rev. F. W. Mayo, George, Esq. Mayo, Rev. C. H. Middleton, H B., Esq. Milton Abbey, Blandford Dorchester Dorchester National Provincial Bank, Wareham Christchurch Preston Vicarage, Weymouth Dorchester Weymouth Winterborne Anderson Rectory, Blandford Weymouth Dorchester Dinmore, Westbourne, Bournemouth East Lulworth Hinton St. ]\Iary Vicarage, Blandford II, Gloucester-row, Weymouth High-street, Poole The Lindens, Sturminster Newton, Blandford Fordington, Dorchester Stalbridge Bishops Caundle, Sherborne Alartinstown Rectory, Dorchester The Old House, Blandford Whatcombe House, Blandford Whatcombe House, Blandford Down House, Blandford Swanage Poole Brakenwood, Bournemouth Symondsbury, Rectory, Bridport West House, Puddletrenthide Longburton Rectory, Sherborne Bradford Peverell, Dorchester Xll. Middlcton, H. N., Esq. Miller, Rev. J. A. Mondey, Rev. F. Montague, J. M. P., Esq. Moorhead, Dr. J. Moule, H. J., Esq. Murray, Rev. R. P. Okeden, Colonel Paget, Rev. Cecil Parish, Rev. W. Oakes Payne, Miss Penney, W., Esq., A.L.S. Penny, Rev. J. Piercy, G. J., Esq. Pinder, Reginald, Esq. Pike, T. M., Esq. Pope, A., Esq. Portman, Hon. Miss Portman, Hon. W. H. B. Ravenhill, Rev. H. E. Reynolds, R., Esq. Reynolds, Mrs. Arthur Rivers, General Pitt Robinson, J., Esq., F.S.A. Rodd, Edward Stanhope, Esq. Ruegg, L. H., Esq. Russell-Wright, Rev. T. Sanctuary, Ven. Archdeacon Sanctuary, Rev. C. Lloyd Searle, Allan, Esq. Serrell, D. H., Esq. Sherren, J. A., Esq. Smart, T. W. Wake, Esc^., M.D, Sparks, W., Esq. Bradford Pevercll, Dorchester The College, Weymouth 2, Southfield Villas, Weymouth Downe Hall, Bridport 1, Royal Terrace, Weymouth The County Museum, Dorchester Shapwick Rectory, Blandford Turnworth Holt, Wimborne Longfleet, Poole 2, Westerhall Villas, Weymouth Poole Tarrant Rushton Rectory, Blandford Bournemouth Heronhurst, Bournemouth Wareham Dorchester Bryanstone, Blandford Durweston, Blandford Buckland Vicarage, Dorchester Haselbury, Crewkerne Bridport Rushmore, Salisbury Newton Manor, Swanage Chardstock House, Chard Sherborne County School, Dorchester Powerstock, Bridport West Fordington, Dorchester Sherborne Haddon Lodge, Stourton Caundle, Blandford Weymouth Cranborne Crewkerne xm. Stephens, R. Darell, Esq., F.G.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S. Stephens, Miss Guilelma Stihvell, Mrs. Stroud, Rev. J. Stuart, Morton G., Esq. (Secretary ) Stuart, Colonel Styring, F., Esq. Symonds, Miss Juliana Sydenham, David, Esq. Thompson, Dr. Roberts Thompson, Rev. G. Todd, Colonel Travers, Rev. Duncan Trotman, Rev. L. Truman, Rev. J. M. Turner, W., Esq. Udal, J.'S., Esq. Urmson, F. B., Esq. Vaudrey, Rev. J. T. Waddington, F. Sydney, Esq. Ward, Rev. J. H. Warre, Rev. F. Watts, Rev. R. R. West, Rev. G. H. White, Dr. Gregory Whitehead, C. S., Esq. Whitting, Rev. W. Williams, Rev. J. L. Williams, R., jun., Esq. Trewornan, Wadebridge Girtups, Bridport Leeson, Wareham South Perrot, Crewkerne Hinton Blewitt, Bristol Manor House, St. Mary's, Blandford Poole House, Poole Waterloo House, Lennox-street Weymouth Bournemouth Monkchester, Bournemouth Highbury, Bournemouth Keynstone, Lodge, Blandford Swanage Wimborne Hinton Martell, Cranborne High-street, Poole The Manor House, Symondsbury, Bridport Hook, Beaminster Osmington Vicarage, Weymouth 12, New Court, Lincoln's Inn, London Gussage St. Michael Rectory, Salisbury Melksham Vicarage, Wilts Stourpaine Rectory, Blandford Ascham House, Bournemouth West Knoll, Bournemouth Sherborne Stour Provost, Dorset Canford Vicarage, Wimborne Bridehead, Dorchester Williams, Mrs. R. Williams, W. H., Esq. Witchell, Edwin, Esq. Wix, Rev. J. Augustus Wright, Dr. Wright, H. E., Esq. Wynne, Rev. G. H. Yeatman, Mrs. Yeatman, M. S., Esq., Young, Rev. E. M. Bridehead, Dorchester Sherborne The Acre, Stroud Ibberton Rectory, Blandford Bournemouth Dorchester Whitchurch Vicarage, Blandford Stoke Gaylard, Sherborne The INIanor House, Hohvell, Sher- borne King's School, Sherborne ill ^Xemorimn. Rev. WILLIAM BARNES, B.D. Since October 7th, 1886, when we were suddenly called upon to mourn for our old friend and staunch member of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, the Rev. William Barnes, B.D., so much has been written and said and published about him that little, at any rate, little new, can now be said; scarcely a periodical or journal has been silent ; all have been necessarily and deservedly eulogistic. Some, it has appeared to me? have placed his claim to public notice ou somewhat insufficient grounds, and others on, as it were, the side issues rather than on the main ones of his long life. It would be, however, quite out of place in our Proceedings to criticise here what has been said and published. Want of space, if nothing else, would prevent it. A very characteristic and faithful portrait of Mr. Barxes forms a frontispiece to our annual volume. As regards this portrait, it may be remarked that this has been designedly chosen rather than another, which, while it, no doubt, faithfully gives Mr. Barxes' general appearance according to the costume adopted late in life, was by no means characteristic of the man known to those who had enjoyed his friendship in earlier days, and had watched the development of his simple but strong and almost unique character under the more usual garb of the day. What it is proposed to give here as an accompaniment to our frontispiece will consist of such biographical details as may be necessary for the information of those who would hereafter know who Mr. Barxes was, whence he came, and the more salient points of his life. A XVI. IN MEMORIAM. list of his works is also appeuded. Some of these are uow not kuowu to many, even by name ; and probably few have been read or studied. On two of them I shall offer a few more detailed observations, — viz., his poems in the Dorset dialect, and one entitled " Views on Labour and Gold," on which last I have not seen or heard any remark made amidst the much that has been said and written on the former. I have not attempted to give any classification of Mr. Barnes' works, but have drawn out the list in chronological order, as, in flict, he himself drew it up in his later years, and, as by the kindness of his son (the llev. W. M. Barnes, Rector of Winterborne Monkton), I am enabled to give it. Mr. Barnes' birthplace was Eushhay, Bagber (or Bagberry), a hamlet of Sturminster Newton, in the Vale of Blackmoor, Dorset. It seems that his family had been anciently landowners in or near the Vale, but had subsequently become tenant-farmers there ; and it w\as in the place above mentioned that his parents, John and Grace Barnes, were living at the time of Mr. W. Barnes' birth in 1801. From his mother (Grace Scott) he appears to have inherited strong intellectual and poetical tastes, which, becoming marked as he grew up, it was decided to place him in some line of life above that of the toilsome work of the farm. He accordingly, at a very early age, entered the office of a solicitor — Mr. Dashwood — at Sturminster Newton as an engrossing clerk, and from thence afterwards (in 1818) he removed to occupy a similar post in the office of Mr. Coombs, Solicitor, Dorchester. During the time of these clerkships (about seven or eight years) Mr. Barnes never lost a chance of acquiring knowledge on every possible subject, laying the foundation of his future great knowledge of languages, and qualifying himself for the Mastership of the Boarding School at Mere, Wiltshire ; to this post he was appointed in 1823, and we find him described in 1829 as " Teacher of Perspective and Drawing, and of the Latin, French, Italian, and German languages." With Italian he seems to have become conversant some time before this date, as in 1827 he published translations in verse from the Italian of Metastasio. It was IN MEMORIAL. XVll. during his residence at Mere that Mr. Barnes first began seriously to study the origin of his own language, both British and English. It is probable that these studies were suggested and actually begun during a visit to Wales in 1831. x\t any rate in 1832-33 he published papers on these subjects in the '' Gentleman's Magazine ;" and to his latest days Anglo-Saxon and the British language were his favourite study. In 1835, an opening for advancement offering, Mr. Barnes (who had previously married Miss Miles, a Dorsetshire lady) removed to Dorchester and opened a school in Durngate Street, from which a further move was not long after made (1837) into more convenient premises within a door or two of the Dorchester Grammar School, next to the Almshouses, on the east side of South Street. Here for some years his school filled and prospered, and while giving every attention to his pupils Mr. Barnes carried on his own private studies with extraordinary vigour and success ] no subject, no language daunted him when once he made up his mind for the attack; his clear and logical understanding seemed to get hold of the subject, take it in, absorb and assimilate it as completely as a sea-anemone does its food. And not only did Mr. Barnes thus simultaneously carry on his school work and private studies, but he found time for extra lessons to pupils desirous of getting on, and to his assistant masters, (Mr. Isaac Hann and others), as well as for wood engrwing and music ; and a glance at the list of his works shows that during the whole of this time his pen was also pretty constantly at work for the publisher. In 1817 Mr. Barnes removed from the east side of South Street to the opposite side of the street, and it was now (1847) that, having obtained the degree of B.D. at St. John's College, Cambridge, as a " Ten-years-man," he was ordained Deacon by Edward Denison, Bishop of Salisbury, on the nomination to Whitcombe as a title by the Hon. Col. Damer, of Came. In 1862 Mr. (now the Rev. W.) Barnes gave up his school (which was afterwards for a time carried on by a Mr. de Winton), and accepted the living of Came on the presentation of Captain Damer, son of his former patron. Xviii. IX MEMORIAM. and liimself at one time a pupil of Mr. Barnes'. ITere in tlie faithful work of his small secluded parish and in his own studies and literary recreation the autunni and winter of his life passed on in peace, happiness, and usefulness, until from the natural decay of extreme age he passed away on the 7th of October last at 8G years old. Tt has been said that there must be blame somewhere that ]\Ir. Barnes, with all his genius and great talents, should have thus passed a long life without any signal or very substantial recognition in high or influential quarters. I think this is un- just both to himself and to the world in which he was known. He had no ambition — i.e., no desire to use his talents as a mere means of obtaining either the world's fame or its more solid rewards ; his mind and powers were emphatically himself, and his happiness consisted, and was amply found, in attacking and assimilating^ those subjects which cropped up at every turn of his path. He would have considered it a prostitution of liis powers to have designedly aimed at wealth or position by their means ; the attainment of knowledge was the end he always had in view, and that end was to him its own sufficient reward. No greater injury could, I cojiceive, have been done to him than to have offered, or, perhaps, pressed upon him, the acceptance of honours or position which might have turned him in his course or tended to obscure the end he had in view. So far as concerned himself ! ; and as respects the fancied neglect of him by others, what was there in his life and work to draw upon him, perforce, the notice of any excepting those of his more immediate circle? From that circle, as occasion called, he did receive such recognition as put him in the very position of all others where his talents would be freely used and his worldly requirements sufficiently sui)plied for the modest needs of himself and his family. In this view of it Mr. Barnes' life forms a harmonious whole such as the world rarely sees, and if I were going to lecture to young men on the examples set by striking characters gone before, I do not know of one whom I could select, like Mr. Barnes, as so pre-eminent in all that a Christian IX MEMORIAM. XIX. man's life should be both for this world and the next. A sound mind in a sound body and sufficient food for both ; the result, a long life of physical and mental happiness, and a legacy to posterity from his mind's work, the value of which will be the more felt the more it is used by those to whom it is bequeathed. If the recognition of himself by great men or great minds were an ambition with Mr. Bar^^es (I am not aware that it was, I think it was not) he did obtain a share of that in the visits paid him while Rector of Came by such men as Tennyson, Allingham, Prince Lucien Bonaparte, Max Miilier, Sir Henry Taylor, Coventry Patmore, and others. With regard to Mr. Barnes' family it is enough to say here that he had the great misfortune to lose his wife comparatively early in life, and has left four daughters and one son (Rev. William Miles Barnes, of Monckton Rectory) surviving him, another, a younger son, having died early. Miss Laura Barnes, the eldest daughter, is unmarried; the others are married. Two are settled in Italy, and from the talented pen of one of them, Lucy Barnes (Mrs. Baxter), we hope shortly to have a biography of our old friend such as none but a daughter so well qualified could possibly furnish. Some have questioned whether Mr. Barnes' career can be pointed to as a successful one ; of course that depends on what success in life is taken to mean. If I am right in the remarks I have made above, he must be considered to have been most successful. Some have pointed to his scholastic work and said it is not there that Mr. Barnes succeeded ; others have said his literary works, excepting the Poems in Dorset Dialect, will not live, and most are dead already, and that his clerical life was a mere accident. Well ! I think these critics are all wrong. I am very confident that even in these separate parts of his career Mr. Barnes might, were it worth while, be shewn to have amply succeeded. I will only mention one fact in regard to his school work, and that is that he had the faculty of interesting his scholars, and not only of causing them to understand but to love what he taught. I can testify to this from my own experience as his pupil, and I feel XX. [X MEMORIAM. confident of the supporting testimony of many others whom he taught. If this be so what scholastic success could be greater 1 As regards his literary labours, perhaps few know anything of them except of the Dorset poems ; but may that not be simply a proof of their ignorance, not of any want of intrinsic value in his other works 1 And as respects his clerical life, those who know what it was speak of it as being as thoroughly complete as everything else he did ; its sphere was no doubt small, but had it been ten, or twenty times the extent it was it could not have been more sincerely or systematically worked. Where is any proof of non- success in these separate parts then of ]\Ir. Barnes' life 1 But these parts are simj^ly parts of a whole, harmonious life, and ought not to be taken and analysed separately, rudely dissected like a beautiful flower by a would-be botanist ! and that these portions of Mr. Barxes' life and w^orks are what they are constitutes, it seems to me, his life's true success. Space will not allow n\e to say anything scarcely of Mr. Barxes' published works, excepting the one mentioned before, " Labour and Gold," and his Dorset dialect poem.s. Criticism of these poems, in the ordinary sense, w^ould be out of place — impossible ! unnatural ! ! One might with equal propriety criticise a handful of spring flowers plucked fresh from the hedge-row. We might indeed admire one flower rather than another ; we might find greater beauties, greater sweetness, deeper suggestions in one than in another; but criticism, as such, would be, like the dissector's knife — barbarous, almost brutal ! Mr. Barxes' poems are the spontaneous outflowings of his remembrance of persons, things, and scenes, of which he bore away as he viewed them, the bright, the pure, the good side only. lie looked at Nature, and human nature in his Blackmoor Vale haunts, with a soul only open to its beauties — quite closed (as far as it was possible) to all that might have been disfiguring or unsweet. His mind was attuned to harmonies, not discords ; such discords as may occasionally sound out in the songs he sings are instantly resolved into sweet harmony again. I am told, on good authority, that he never, with perhaps one exception, wrote IN MEMORIAM. XXI. his poems with " a purpose." With such a purpose (everywhere evident in his poems) as that with which the bird sings, that is from the love that was in his heart and the instinct within his soul he, certainly, always wrote. I leave criticism, therefore, if such be possible, to others. Another thing I think is notable in respect to the Dorset poems ; there is, if I do not mistake, not even the smallest reference there to any of the social sins or vices of peasant life. In one only such a reference may perhaps be found (Comjylete collection of the j^oems, p. 382), but only there as the product of evil in a higher rank of life, whe:e the selfishness of idle vice has prevailed over the peasant child's ignorant innocence. Each poem is a picture true to life, without a touch too much or too little, and never a touch put in for mere effect. Those who have lived amongst, and loved, rural life, will, I think, see and feel this. Each poem, as it is read thus, satisfies the reader just as the picture itself, if viewed in Xature, would satisfy. If this is, as I think, the perfection of poetry, then certainly Mr. Barnes approached perfection as a poet. I have remarked that he seldom or never wrote his poems " with a purpose," nor ever scarcely brought forward the frail or bad side of his country folk, but it was not that he was ignorant of the latter, or did not desire to have it as he wished to see it and sung of it — No ! it would simply have been, in his view and intention, a distortion and blurring of what he saw and felt to have used his powers of song to denounce, or even to correct. Much rather would he look upon country life, wherever possible, from its humorous side, and this he did in his poems, as many of them so abundantly testify. He was indeed possessed with a very keen sense of humour, his laugh, at any sally of genuine wit or humour, was the most infectious that I ever met with ; it must have been a dull-witted one indeed who could fail to be caught by and to join in it. It has been remarked, and with truth, that throughout a volume of nearly 500 pages of poems there is no allusion to the sea, the seaside and its concomitants, or to mountains ; but this, if it XXll. IN MEMORIAM. proves anything, proves the genuine sincerity of the man. His Jot had been cast and his earliest and deepest impressions had been received inland, where neither sea nor mountain existed, and he sung of what was in him — impressions from the river, the brook, the lake or pond, the coppice, the hedgeside, the farmyard, the country folk of every degree, their thoughts, ways, habits, employments, and amusements ; these and such like formed the staple of his song, and to say that he only sang of these, but not of the sea or the mountain, is only equivalent to saying that a nightingale sings only the nightingale's song, but never screeches like the seagull nor croaks like the raven ; and what better proof could be given than this that he had no keen ambition for any such fame as a great poet, in the world's estimation, might aim at ! No ! Mr. Barnes was here, as in all else, himself, and in his songs he was, as he was, and always loved to remember that he was, a Dorsetshire country-man. These few allusions to Mr. Barnes' poems must suffice us here ; space prevents any quotations from them. Others (notably Professor Palgrave, National Review, No. 48, February, 1887, p.p. 818-830, and the Rev. Walter Locke in an able Lecture at Dorchester, April 18th, 1887, to be published, I believe, shortly) have gone very fully into them and given numerous and apt quotations. Indeed, if anything I have said be true, the whole volume might be quoted in proof of Mr. Barnes having been a genuine staunch Dorset man ; and to that proof I recommend every one who has not yet made a close acquaintance with those genial and pleasant outflowings of a true and loving heart. Although, as before remarked, Mr. Barnes did not write his poems " with a purpose," he could, and did, write with a purpose much, and to good purpose if some of his other works were studied. I fear, though, that most of them are but little known. I allude now to "Views of Labour and Gold," a volume of 190 pages, published in 1859. He speaks of this work as formed from notes for a course of lectures ; but whether the lectures were ever publicly delivered, or if so, when, I d(^ not know. This work IN MEMORIAM. xxiii. appears to bo the outpouring of Mr. Barxes mind on an old suliject, but one at that time cropping- up as a vital one for human society in all ranks, and which has, as we are aware, become the question underlying most of the other questions of the day — the question of the relations and respective rights of labour and capital. Mr. Barxes here, as in all his poems, touching en the temporal welfare of the labourer, is unmistakably in closest sympathy with the sons of toil ; but as in his poems, so here, too, he is filled with the conviction of the need of labour to man, and of its great dignity. But while he extols labour, he is unflinching in his severity upon labour for the mere sake of hoarding, and of labour that injures body, mind, or soul. Some kinds of labour, he observes, have "a painful reaction on the mind," and others "a bad reaction on the conscience " (p. 33), and which, however easy may be "their action, and however great their gain, are not to be earnestly chosen by Christian men, since as they deaden the conscience they likewise do harm to the soul," Weighty words of truth which need to be much taught, and still more learnt, in these enlightened days. As we might expect, Mr. Barnes is severe upon capital ! Not by any means that he objected to the prudent laying up for a rainy day, or the gathering of means to carry out works impossible to be effected without stored-up labour in the shape of gold or capital, but it was the ever-growing " monopoly and tyranny of capital" against which he warns. A chapter is devoted to this under the above heading. Mr. Barnes' object is " to show the possible effect of the increase of great working capitals and monopolies on the labourers' freedom or welfare." And, is there a doubt but that the present labourers' Unions and Trades' Unions, and the consequent strikes and lock-outs, and other warfare between employers and workers — i.e., between " Labour and gold," have been the result of that " tyranny and monopoly of capital " Mr. Barnes speaks of ? He humorously, but forcibly, illustrates the benefits asserted to be conferred upon workers by capital when in the enlargement of an already perhaps great business, scores of small businesses of the XXIV. IN MEMORIAM. kind are swallowed up by the outlay of capital ; "The kindness which is done by capital when it affords employment to people from whom, by a monopoly, it has taken their little businesses, is such as one might do to a cock by adorning his head with a plume made of feathers pulled out of his own tail." And as regards th(^se who have sunk from being (though perhaps small ones) masters to mere workers, he says their wages are doubtless better than nothing, but '' yet it may have been quite as well for them if the profit on their toil had been taken by themselves instead of the great capitalist, and if they had taken their money on their own desk rather than on the Saturday pay-table." This, of course, at once opens up the whole question of the rights of labour to share in the profits of their work ; and this is the bone of contention still. Mr. Barnes also has a pertinent sentence upon a dogma which one frequently now hears, and sees in print, as addressed to our " masters," the agricultural labourers, and with a view to content them with their lot. It refers to the " identity of interest between the employer and the labourer," or, what is the same, between " capital and labour." Mr. Barnes remarks (p. 70) — " It is often said that the interests of capital and labour are identical, and so in truth they are as long as they are kept so by the law of Christian kindness ; but if the truth or the broad form of it be misunderstood by the hand-hiring capital, it does not follow that the wealth of the capitalist and workman are identical." Mr. Barnes here appeals to a higher law than the mere law of the land, or the market price, as a true and potent factor in all questions between labour and capital. The capitalist may ensconce himself behind the law of the land, he may seek to justify himself by the " market price of labour," but no law, in Mr. Barnes' opinion, can ever enforce any true identity of interest between capital and labour, but that one of which he speaks in the passage quoted, " The law of Christian kind- ness," which, when it works so as to discover that the market price is not always the just, although it may be the legal measure of labour's value, will also operate so as to accord a share of the IN MEMURIAM. \XV. profits of JaboLir to the workman ! AVheii will that bo ? Echo answers, when 1 But if we may hazard a guess we shall not be far wrong, I think, in saying that the considerations and discussions continued in " Labour and Gold," if widely spread abroad, will not fail to hasten the day. Mr. Barxes, again, speaking on the effects of the monopoly of great capitals, (p. 70), admits that " one man may leave a million to his wife, earned out of his capital by his workmen, but then fewer men out of every hundred in his trade can leave their children a hundred pounds." Who cannot feel that the loss of the hundred pounds to each of the many is ill compensated for by the gain of a million to one person ? Everywhere throughout this little book the relations of capital and labour are discussed thus earnestly and temperately. If space allowed we might show how fair he is towards capital rightly employed, and how dear to his heart were the interests and well being of the working man, especially in those chapters on " the measure and quantity of labour," on " overwork," on the " reaction of labour," and of " inaction ;" as well as on the " dignity and disdain of work," on " machinery," and " con- gregated labour." But what I consider the essential point in this work is the insistence upon a higher law than the law of the land, and the market price as a factor in the relations of labour and capital — '• the law of Christian Kindness." I have gone thus much into this work of Mr. Barxes', not only because of the great and pressing present importance of the subject, but, principally, here, to show that Mr. Barnes was not merely a poet, not simply a singer of pretty melodious songs, but a true, a large hearted, and a uist philanthropist ; and I venture to think that Mr. Barxes' fame will not in the future simply rest upon his Dorset Dialect poems, exquisite as they undoubtedly are. It is time, though, that some mention should be made here of Mr. Barxes in connection with the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club. As we might have supposed, Mr. Barxes was always forward to support anything connected with the interests of natural history and natural science. Every morning XXvi. IN MEMORIAM. during his scholastic life before the regular school work began he gave his scholars a short lecture on some natural history or scientific subject. Each scholar had to take down in writing a proposition, generally embracing one point only, on which the lecture was based. Notes were to be taken upon the lecture, which was always illustrated by objects or experiments, and an examination npon it was subsequently made. I have still in my possession the MS. notes of these lectures during the \\hole of the two years that I was a pupil of Mr. Barnes'. He was among the founders of the County Museum, and stood firmly by it through evil and goodreport until it bloomed into its present fair and prosperous form; and at once on its inauguration in 1875 became a member of the Field Club, frequently attending the Field Meetings, even down to a very recent period, and, whenever called upon to do so, always con- tributed his quota to the proceedings of the day in his habitually retiring, but simple, clear, and concise way. These contributions were usually of an Antiquarian kind, as are all those contributed in writing to the Field Club's published proceedings. I have given these contributions in a separate list at the end of the general list of his works ; they are 14 in number and are mostly concerned with topics at the moment before the club. The last paper contributed to our Proceedings was in September, 1885, on " Pilsdon," and is published in vol. vii., p. 102. Mr. Barnes was then in too feeble a state to attend outdoor meetings, and I myself had the pleasure of reading (in his absence) his last words to us ; and the very last words (with which the paper concludes) suggest to us a bit of practical work, which, I hope, some one among us may one day carry out. He was speaking of the curious parallelogram on the area of the Great Earthwork at Pilsdon, and, after hazarding a guess on the subject, concludes with these words — "I wonder what is under its turfl" and I will now add " AVill not some one institute a search and let us know r And now, ill done indeed I fear, but yet, so far as I have been able to do it, my task is done. I should have liked to dwell IN MEMOHIAM. XXVll. longer on many points of Mr. Barnes' life and character, and l^articularly on some others of his published works. I feel little doubt but that if the real value of his philological work were thoroughly gone into he would be found to have been well abreast of the greatest contemporary masters of philological science, but I must leave that to other hands. To say that we of the Field Club most deeply lament our old friend is onl}^ to repeat what all the world has said since his death ; to say that we shall never see his like again would be to prophesy when we do not know, a proceeding proverbially unwise ; but I do think that it may well be the ambition of us all, wdien our time shall come, to have lived as Mr. Barnes lived and to have died as he died. 0. P. CAMBPvIDGE. May 10th, 1887. A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF THE REV. WILLIAM BARNES^ B.D. 1S22 Orra : A Lapland Tale. A short poem, published by Clarke, Dorchester. 8vo., p.p. 28, with four woodcuts engraved by the Author, Other Short Poems, also published in this year. 1827 Some Little Essays and other papers, signed "Dilettante," in Dorset CoiDity Chro/iide from 1827, cir. to 1835. Some Sonnets and other Poems, some of which were printed in a book in 1846. Translations in Verse from the Italian of Metastasio. 1829 The Etymological Glossary ; or Easy Exposition for the use of Schools and Non-Latinists, wherein the greater part of the English w^ords of foreign derivation are so arranged that the learner is enabled to acquire the meaning at once. By William Barnes, Master of the Boarding School at Mere, in Wiltshire, Teacher of Perspective and Drawing, and of the Latin, French, Italian, and German languages. Shaftesbury : T. Rutter. London : Whittaker, Teacher, and Arnot. XXVUl. IN MEMORIAM. 1631 Pu/ters tie Gtiitkmmts Magazine — Ox English Derivations. Ox THE Structure of Dictionaries. On Pronunciation of Latin. Hieroglyphics. 1832 Papers in Hones Year Booh— Dorsetshire Customs, p. 1172. Single Stick and Cudgels, p. 1525. Lent Crocking, p, 1599. la Gentleman s Magazine — Identity of National Manners and Language. Mere Church, with woodcuts. Songs of the Ancient Britons. Analogy of Greek and other Languages. Origin of Language. Thornhill Obelisk, with a woodcut. Origin of Language. English Compounds. 1S33 In Gentleman's Magazine — Xapper's Mite, Dorchester, with a woodcut. Silton Church, with woodcut. Supplement to vol. ciii. pt. Sturminster Newton Church. The English Language. Nailsea Church, Somerset. Chelvey, Somerset. A Catechism of Government in general and of England in particular. Shaftesbury, 1833. The Mnemonical Manual, founded on a new and simple system of Mnemonics. Recommended to the notice of teachers and readers of history, &c. , &c. 1831 A Few Words on the Advantages of a More CoMxMON Adoption of the Mathematics as a Branch of Education or Subject of Study. London : Whittaker. 20vo., and various Local Publishers, 1834. Poems of Rural Life in Dorset Dialect, begun in this year, published in Dorset Count)/ Chronicle. A Dorset Idyl, written in a sick room coming on to convalescence — " When I was up-halening from a sickness — an ailing of the liver." "On the Cross at St. (?)." A paper in Gentlemarts Magazine. 1835 A Mathematical Invkstigation of the principle of Hanging Doors, Gates, Swing Bridges, and other heavy bodies swinging on vertical axes. Dorchester : Simonds and Sydenham, 1835. 1835 In GtidlemaiCs Magazine — PuNCK Knowle House, with a woodcut. 1838- IN MEMORIAM. XXIX. 1837 OxV Roman Minerals, p. 573. On .-Esop. Some Etymologies. 1840 Another Letter to Gentleman's Magazine on the distinction between YlR and Homo. According to the general rule of the ' ' Elegantite Latinse " ViR is equivalent to a man, when noticed for jd raise or excellence ; never when blame is expressed. Homo is used indis- criminately. What Mr. Barnes thought was that ViR is equivalent to man, as distinguished from a woman, as of the female sex ; Homo i equivalent to a human being, in distinction from one of a different order, whether higher or lower ; ViR is equivalent to the German Mann, Homo is equivalent to German Mensch. He quotes from Ovid, Metamorph, Sallust, Horace, Terence, ^c, in proof of his idea. 1839 111 GeiUlematis Alagazine — On the so-called Kimmeridge Coal Money. Battle of Penn. The Roman Amphitheatre at Dorchester. The Hindoo Shasters. Phoenicians. Hindoo Pooran and Sciences. In Gentleman's Magazine — 1840 Hindoo Faqueers. Dorset Dialect compared with Anglo-Saxon. The Old Judge's House, Dorchester, with a woodcut. Laws of Case. An investigation of the Laws of Case in Language Published 1840. Longman and Co. and Whittaker and Co , London. 1841 Education on Words and Things. Fielding's House at Stower, with a woodcut. Goths and Teutons. An Arithmetical and Commercial Dictionary. Pubhshed by (?) Hints on Teaching, in the Educational Magazine, pp. 160, March 1841. Pronouncing Dictionary of Geographical Names, pp. 249. Published by (?) 1842 The Elements of English Grammar. London : W^hittaker and Co. The Elements of Linear Perspective and the Projection of Shadows, 16 woodcut diagrams, by author. Published by Longman and Co. and Hamilton and Adams. Numerous Reviews of all kinds of books in Gentleman's Magazine from 1841 to 1849 (inclusive.) 1844 Six Sacred Songs "Sabbath Lays." Poetry by W. Barnes, music com- posed by F. W. Smith, Dorchester. Price to Subscribers, 5s. ; to Non- subscribers, 6s. London : Chappell, New Bond-street, London. Exercises in Practical Science, containing the Main Principles of Dynamics, Statics, Hydro-Statics and Hydrodynamics, with 14 diagrams in wood, by author, pp. 65 for my pupils. Pub. Dorchester, Clark, XXX. IN MEMORIAM. Dorset Poems (collected from Dorset Couiiirj Chronicle) with a dissertation on the Folk Speech, and a glossary of Dorset words. Published by- George Simonds, Dorchester. 1546 Poems partly of Rural Life (in national English). London : J. R. Smith. Containing ' ' Some of my Earlier Bits of verse Sonnets and others, with some later ones in Common English. 1547 "Poems of Rural Life in Dorset Dialect." 2>'d Edition. J. R. Smith. London. Outlines of Geography and Ethnography for Youth, pp. 242. Bar- clay, Dorchester. 1857 A new edition, applied for by H. C. Harris ; published 21, Great Alie-street, Goodmansfields, and afterwards brought out. 1849 Se Gefylsta (the Helper) an Anglo-Saxon Delectus. J. R. Smith, London. (Another edition since. ) HUMILIS DoMUS. Some thoughts on the Abodes, Life, and Social Condition of the Poor, especially in Dorsetshire. (Printed from the Poole Herald). 1853 and 1854 Papers in ''The Retrosprctivi Revieic." London: J. R. Smith. Vols. I. and 11. Population and Emigration at the beginning of the 17th Century. Art. 4. Anecdota Liter aria. Extracts from the Diary of John Richards, Esq., pp. 97, 201. Pyrrhonism of Joseph Glanvillb. English Music and Madrigals. Vol. II., Art. 4. The Antiquary. Art. 6, No. 6. Lelantd, February, 1854. Astrology, Xo. 7, Art. 5. Controversial Writers on Waterhouse and Fox, on the Utility of Learning in the Church. No. 8, Art. 3. Aug. 1854. 1854 A Philological Grammar, 8vo., pp. 312. J, R. Smith, London. 1859 Hwomely Rhymes, a second collection of Dorset Poems. J. R. Smith, London. Britain and the Ancient Britons, pp. 167. J. R. Smith, London. 1859 Views of Labour and Gold, pp. 190. J. R. Smith, London. The Song of Solomon, in the Dorset Dialect (for " Prince Louis Buonaparte). 1861 In Macmillans Magazine (May, 1861) — On The Beautiful in Nature and Art. 1862 Dorset Poems, 3rd Edition of 1st Coll , being in fact the 4th Edition: John Russell Smith, London. Tiu, or a View of the Roots, and stems of the English as a Teutonic Tong\ie, p.p., 324. J. R. Smith. IN MEMORIAM. XXXI. Macmillan's Magazine — On the Rise and Progress of Trial by Jury in Britain, March 1S62. 1863 The " Uariora " of Old Poetry. May 1863. Eraser's Magazine — On the Credibility of Old Song, History and Tradition, Sept. 1863. On Patmore's Poetry, July 1863. Poems in the Dorset Dialect. 3rd collection, with frontispiece and vignette. 4s. 6d. 1st ed., J. R. Smith, London. Dorset Poems. •2nd edition of 2nd collection. J. R. Smith, London. Grammar and Glossary of the Dorset Dialect, with the history, outspreading and bearing of the South-western English. Published for the Philological Society, by A. Asher and Co , Berlin — 8vo., p.p. 103. 1)1 the Reader— 1863 A Review of Dean Hoare on English Roots and Exotics. In the Ladies' Treasury — " On Christian Marriage." 1864 In the Reader— Review of Cooke's "Neglected Fact," in English History. 1865 A Guide to Dorchester, PubUshed by Barclay. 1864 and 1865 Versions of the Psalms in English measures (unrhymed), formed upon those of the Hebrew, with some original and other notes — printed in the Dorset Coanty Chronicle. (This appears to have been afterwards published in a vol. by some Liverpool publishers O.P.C.) 1866 In Eraser s Magazine — On The Welsh Triads, Oct. 1866. 1865 "On Dorset." Read before the Archaeological Society at Dorchester. Printed in the Transactions of the Society. 1867 In the Ladies' Treasury — The Hoax. 1866 Dorset Poems A 4th Edition of 1st coll.— in fact the 5th edition. John Russell Smith, London. In Macmillans Magazine — On Plagiarism. In Ladies' Treasury — On Prinking or Bodily Ornament. A Glossary, with some pieces of verse of the old dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, Co. Wexford, Ireland, formerly collected by Jacob Poole, of Growton. Edited by Rev. W. Barnes. J. R Smith, Lond. In Macmillan's Magazine — 1867 On Bardic Poetry. Some bits of Writing in the HAWK— a monthly hover from the Vale of Avon. Published by W. Wheaton, Ringwood. XXxii. IN MEMORIAM. The Church in Ireland. Logical anomalies of the disendowment of. Dorset County Chromde. The Rating of Tithes. Ditto. 1868 Poems of Rural Life, in common English, pp. 200. Macmillan and Co. 1869 Early England and the Saxon English, with some notes on the Father- stock of the Saxon English — the Frisians. J. R. Smith. 1870 Dorset Poems 2nd Edition of 3rd coll. J. R Smith. '• On Somerset," read before the Somerset Archaeological Society, at Win- canton . 1869 A Paper for the Government Commission on the EmplojTnent of children, young persons, and women in agriculture. Printed in the Blue Book. Appendix : Part II , to Second Report, p. 12. 1871 On the Origin of the Hundred and Tithing of English Law. Read before the Archaeological Association at Weymouth. Printed in the Transactions. 1878 An Outline of English Spbechcraft. Kegan Paul and Co. 1879 Poems of Rural Life (in the Dorset dialect.) 8vo , pp., 467: Kegan Paul and Co. (This is a complete collection of all the Dorset dialect poems.) 1880 An Outline of Redecraft (logic) in English Wording. 8vo. pp. 56. Kegan Paul and Co. Ill Leisure Hour (a series). Dorset Folk and Dorset, with illustrations. 188(?) A Glossary of Dorset and West English words as kindred stems from their main roots. Published by (?) PAPERS PUBLISHED IN THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE DORSET NATURAL HISTORY AND ANTIQUARIAN FIELD CLUB, FROM 1875 TO 1886. Vol. I.— A British Earthwork, p 94. Vol. Ill — Notes on the History of Shaftesbury, p. 27. The Tout Hill, Shaftesbury, p. 48. Vol. IV. — On the Iter xvi., of Antoninus, p. 62. ,, Addendum to Notes on the Histor}^ of Shaftcshur}-, p. 77. ., Cranborne, the so called Castle, p. 134. ,, On the Maze or Mismaze at Leigh, p. 154. Vol. V. — Some Slight Notes on Badbury Rings, p. 38. ,, Eggardon and British Tribeship, p. 40. „ A Study 0.1 the Bockley, or Bockerly, Dyke, and others, in Dorset, p 49. Notes on the so-called Roman Roads, p. 69, Vol. VI. — A Study on the Invasion of the South- West of Britain, by Ve.spa.sian, p. 18. ,, A Study on the Belga:; in South Britain, p. 33. IN MEMORIAM. XXAlll. Vol. VII.— Pilsdon, p. 102. Several songs have been composed by various composers to words written by Mr. Barnes. Among these are : — "There's a Chakm in the Bloom of Youth." Music by F. W. Smith. " The Mother'.s Dream." Music by Sir A. Sullivan. "The Bells of Alderburnham." Music by Dolores. "John Bleake of Blackmoor." Music by F. W. Smith, MSS. NOT PRINTED. A Second Set of Poems in Common English. Hymns on Church openings, Harvest Thanksgivings, Baptism, Marriage, Choir Meeting, School. Word Building in English. A Word List of EngUsh Words, which have heretofore holden, or would do, instead of others that have been intaken from other tongues, A Latin Word-book of Words ranked under their Roots or main Stem-words, On Angria the Pirate, and the Indian Wars of his time. (A paper meant for the Retrospective Heviev:.) Utilitarianism. An answer to Utilitarianism, by John Mill. A Version of the Song of Solomon, handled as poetry, with some out-clearing notes from Eastern poetry, and other sources Studies in poetrj^ of less known schools. Notes on Persian Word Stems. Notes on the Song of Deborah and Barak. Alphabetical and Etymological Dictionary of the common names of animals (not polished.) Echoes from Zion — a free version of as many of the Psalms. King Ai'thur and Welsh poetry, of and since his time Notes on the God-ha-dum, a Redeemer of blood under the Law. Latin Word-building in the noun and verb endings. A Word List of Grammar terms, out-cleared by wording, and English words in their stead. Essay on the Maintenance of the Church of England as an Established Church . Palraam non meruit. (This is the author's simple endorsement on the rejected essay, which was written hi competition for the Peeke prizes in 1872, but failed to win.) Dorset Dialogues. Preaching. - Liturgy, Hymn for a Harvest Thanksgiving, ^hc fJrorccMng$ of the ^ov^ct ilatural Dietonji iinb Jlntiquariau Jficli) Club baring 1S80. By M. a. STUART, M.A., P.G.S. The year 1S8G has been a successful one on the whole. Four summer meetings have been held, for which favourable weather was fortunately secured, resulting in a high average of attendance. The elections, which took place at the latter pai't of June, interfered with the meeting for that month, and it was obliged to be abandoned. The number of subscribers to the .Society is gradually on the increase ; in fact, the names on the books never before stood so high. Following the precedent of last year, a winter meeting was held in February at the County Museum, Dorchester, which was well attended. Upwards of 20 papers have been read before the Society during the year, and several remain in the secretary's hands waiting an opportunity for introduction. Thus there seems no indication of interest in the work of the Club diminishing, or of any lack of workers. During the year the Club has been enrolled on the list of Corresponding Societies of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which gives the right of representation by a delegate at their annual meeting. By this means the publications of the Field Club are brought more prominently before the notice of the scientific world by their being entered on the classified report of the Corresponding Societies. On the other hand a copy of the annual volume of the Proceedings of the British Association is presented free of charge to the Dorset Field Club. The First Meeting for the year was held at Dorchester on Wednesday, June 9th, in the County Museum. It was attended by about 30 members, and was, as is usually the case, princijially devoted to matters of business. The Treasurer, the Rev. 0. P. Cambridge, made his annual report. He said the financial affairs of the Club were in a satisfactory condition. After paying all debts there was an actual balance in hand of £4 7s. Od., exclusive of the subscription for 1886, and of arrears yet to come in. Their prospective income for the year was £122 17s. Gd. The number of members was 175, as against 169 at that time last year. The President, Treasurer, and Secretary were respectively elected for office during the coming year. XXXV. The President, in acknowledging the vote, remarked that every year he received letters of commendation on the work of the Club and the value of its j)ublications from eminent scientific men. He then referred to two points of interest which had lately been brought before the Royal Society ; one, that in the slow worm a third and rudimentary eye had been discovered in the forehead, covered by the skin, which was not of use to the animal. The second point was that of the fossil elephant lately discovered at Stalbridge. The remains indicated certain peculiarities of structure, to which he hoped to do fuller justice on some future occasion. A ballot was taken for the most suitable sites for holding the meetings during the summer, and it was eventually decided to meet at Chard in June, Corfe Castle in July, Cranborne in August, and Abbotsbury in September. Seven new members were elected. The Secretary read a paper on the question of re-organising the Club. He showed that the Field Club had been in active existence for a period of ten years, and during that time most of the leading features of the county had been investigated, and that in the future some new lines of research would have to be discovered, or there would be a danger of a decline in the interest shown in their Proceedings. New Societies wei-e springing up around, which were liable to draw off workers and to reduce their efficiency. A dangerous proposal had lately been suggested of forming a separate Archaeological Society, which should attach itself to the older Society of the county of Somerset. To counteract these dangerous tendencies it was proposed to endeavour to obtain the enrolment of the Field Club on the List of Corresponding Societies of the British Association, and to place the Antiquarian section of the Field Club under a separate sub-committee, who should organise the meetings more thoroughly on behalf of the members. A long discussion ensued, which, if it produced no other result, evinced the wish of the members that no split in the existing Society should occur, but that the two bodies should remain united in one Field Club as hitherto. Mr. H. J. Moule, the Curator of the County Museum, read a report of the additions to the collection and the work of re-arrangement carried out in the building during the past twelve months. The chief object kept in view had been that of keeping together and arranging the collections belonging to Dorsetshire entirely. These had been placed in the five north bays of the building. Much valuable help and advice had been rendered by General Pitt Rivers and Mr. Mansel Pleydell in this matter. In the Palaeontological collection the Purbeck formation was particularly well represented, especially in the turtle and fish remains. Attention was directed to the Maggs collection of Nautili and Ammonites from the Inferior XXXVl. Oolite of Sherborne ; also a specimen of Icthyosaurus tcnuirostris, lately bought. In the antiquarian department Mr. E, Cunnington had added to his already fine collection two groups found in a secondary and tertiary interment in a barrow on Ridgeway Hill. Other presentations or loans had been made by Mr. Hogg, Mr. Pearce Edgcumbe, Mr. Montague Guest, and others. Mr. Udal had presented a carefully arranged collection of 48 Dorset tokens. The Rev. Nigel Gresley had lent a most interesting and beautifully decorated Queen Elizabeth's virginal. Attention was finally called to the ignorance displayed by workmen and labourers in destroying many valuable relics of antiquity through carelessness. Mr. Cunnington read a paper entitled " Recovered Dorset History," giving an outline of the changes in the physical features and climate which have modified the character of the county from Liassic times, but specially dealing with Paleolithic and Neolithic man. The author stated that he obtained the earliest specimens of the works of man from the Broom ballast pit near Chardstock, represented by the stone hatchet and spear heads now in a case in the Museum. Similar specimens had been found in the banks of the River Stour, near Blandford, resembling those found by Professor Prestwich near Amiens. The changes in the physical features of the neighbourhood were touched upon. The fissure in the chalk escarpment, upwards of 100 feet in depth, had been occupied by the river, which commenced forming its great deposit. The Celtic earthworks of the county differed in character according to their date of construction ; the earliest, M'hich were cone-shaped, were easily appropriated, and might be afterwards strengthened by Valiums and ditches. Such were Milborne, Badbury Rings, Dogbury Camp, near Minterne, Shipton Beacon, and one in Frampton Park. A late Celtic camp is represented by Poundbury. Camps of the Roman period generally occupied commanding jjositions, apparently along a northern line of march. The author dissented from the opinion that Roman camps were always square, but were suited to the position and shape of the ground they occupied. There was good reason to believe the Romans landed at Preston, near Weymouth. There are still the remains of a pile landing stage ; they encamped on Jordan Hill, and, having conquered the tribes in the neighbourhood, advanced to Maiden Castle, where immense labour was expended in fortifying the position, the occupancy having lasted for 300 years, as shown by the coins discovered there. Thence they extended to Aggerdon, \yoodbury Hill probably, and Dungeon, Hamilton, Hod Hill, and Cadbury Castle. The Treasurer (the Rev. 0. P. Cambridge) read a paper giving an account of the effects of a flash of lightning on some trees in his own parish of Blox worth, which occurred at three p.m. on the 9th of April previously, illustrated by drawings of the trees, and a ground plan showing their position. This paper will be found given in full in this volume. This brought the day's programme to a conclusion, and the proceedings terminated. The next meeting of the season was arranged to take place at Chard on "Wednesday, July 7th. The elections, however, which were taking place at that time interfered, and the programme for the day had to be abandoned. The Second Meeting was held at Corfe Castle on Wednesday, July 28th, and a warm and clear day was fortunately obtained. There were a large number of members and friends present, including the President, Treasurer, and Secretary. The first point visited was that of the Blashenwell deposit of Post Tertiary age, which lies at the distance of about a mile from the village, and which formed the subject of a paper by the President (see Proceedings vol. vii., p. 109). On reaching the site of the bed, much of which has been removed for the purpose of marling the adjoining land, a description of the physical geology of the district was given by the President. He said : W^e are standing near the two great fluvio-marine deposits of the Purbeck and the W^eald. Towards the close of the preceding Portland era there had been a steady increase of land, enclosing one or more centres of depression, which became inland seas, or shallow lakes ; with the close of the Wealden epoch the gain was once more on the side of the ocean. The Purbeck strata show a small amount of river action ; its insect and mammalian remains were probably derived from the adjacent shores, and not from any great distance, as was the case during the Wealden period, when river action was more powerful. Although there is no intermingling of fresh water with marine genera in the same stratum, there are evidences of more than one sudden change from fresh water to marine, and a return to fresh water again through various stages, Suggesting the supposition of the sudden intrusion of the sea and its gradual subsidence ; this accords with the idea of its intrusion into a lake, and is not due to tidal action. The water was probably shallow and brackish, then not under the influences of the river which flowed through it. The carrying power of the river appears to have been greater westward, for at Warbarrow and Lul worth the grits are coarser, and composed of more bulky materials than those at Swanage. During the latter portion of the Wealden period there seems to have been a continuous depression, which increased the depth of the lake, and consequently diminished the river action. The change of the Weald to the succeeding period was exceedingly abrupt ; this is well shown at Atherfield, in the Isle of Wight, where the passage beds rest upon a bed of gravel containing fragments of fish bones, whicli were destroyed by the introduction of the sea. The Punfield beds, which represent this period, are ably described by our Secretary, Mr. Morton Stuart, in a paper which was read before the Society last Christmas, and forms a part of the new volume of our Proceedings, which has been placed in the hands of the members to-day. I need not say more on these two fiuvio-lacustrine beds, and will at once discuss the Blashenwell deposit, which probably dates back as early as the Neolithic age ; it reposes on the soutliern edges of the Weald, whose clay beds supported the waters of a small lake, into which they flowed from a spring originating in a fault at the junction of the Weald with the Purbecks, depositing the lime with which it was charged as it passed through. In the course of time the lake became silted up, and the little stream by a change of course reached the valley by its present channel. The tufa contains a remarkable variety of land, fresh^-ater, and marine shells ; the two former comprise genera and species common to the neighbourhood at the present day, the latter the periwinkle and the limpet, also some mammalian bones and worked flints, which were probably derived from the refuse heap of pre- historic men, who at one time frequented the neighbourhood of the lake, and were washed down by rain torrents. The lightness of their specific gravity (the heaviest being only a few ounces) leads to the supj)Osition that the torrential force was feeble and incapable of conveying more than extremely light materials. The shells are in perfect preservation ; the dark bands of Helix nemoralis are unobliterated, and the characteristic porcelain feature of Zonites cellarius, unimpared. The bones, which are fractured transversely to obtain the marrow, and the manipulated flints point to the presence of man in the neighbourhood of the lake during one period at least of its history. Its history may be read from the records it contains, from the deposition of the first lime atom to its becoming a marshy waste — the habitat of Succinea putris and other amjjhibious molluscs. Some discussion followed, and an examination of the deposit M^as made, bringing to light the following remains : — Helix nemoralis, Zonites cellarius, C/jclostoma eleyans, Littorina, Patella, an Astralagus, and a Flint Implement. The party then returned to the village and visited the Museum. Here the President undertook the task of demonstrator, and drew attention to the fine collection of turtles obtained from the Purbeck beds in the neighbourhood of Swanage ; also to the collection of birds found in the Isle of Purbeck. The party adjourned to luncheon at the Ship Inn. Some business was then transacted, and new members were admitted to the Society. A very fine stone Celt, polished on one side, rough on the other, was handed round for inspection by the Rev. 0. P. Cambridge, to whom it had been given by the Rev. J. H. House, of Anderson, and was then presented to the County Museum. This Celt was discovered in Coombe's Ditch, near Colwood, in December, 1885. Some rare plants found lately in Purbeck were handed round by the President. The Castle was thrown open to the members of the Club for the day by ticket, by the kindness of the owner, W. Ralph Bankes, Esq. Mr. Tom Bond, of Tyneham, arrived during luncheon, and brought with him a large ground plan of the Castle, and gave an address on the history of the structure, noticing specially the dates of the chief portions of the ruins. Since he is the greatest authority on this subject it was an advantage as welcome as it was unexpected to the members that he was able to be present. A move was made towards the Castle at three p.m. In addition to Mr. Tom Bond's presence as guide, Mr. Eustace Bankes had prepared a rcsinnS of jiortions of ]\Ir. Bond's book on the Castle, bearing specially on the architectural features of the ruins, and under the leader- ship of these two authorities the party was conducted round the whole fabric. A large portion of the members were obliged to leave about five o'clock in order to catch their train. The Norden Clay Pits were then visited by the remainder of the party, for which permission had been kindly granted by the owner, Lord Eldon. These pits are situated about half-a-mile from the Castle, on the road between Wareham and Corfe. The clay is of Eocene age, and is used in the manufacture of the finest kinds of china ; it is of a bluish colour, unctuous to the touch, and very homogeneous throughout the bed. The seams vary in thickness from 2ft. to 16ft. The mode of extracting the clay is either by open workings or by tunnels at a depth of 60ft. to 70ft. At the base the clay becomes more carbonaceous in character, and resembles an impure lignite. From the presence of a large quantity of ^ulphur in the lower jDart of the bed the air becomes very impure, and work in the tunnels is frequently impeded. Organic remains are very rare in the seams of clay — only a few leaf impressions have been found, resembling those of the Bournemouth and Alum Bay beds. The chief interest of the Norden Clay Pits centres on the fine collection of Roman potterj^ which was discovered there four years previously, and which is now preserved at Encombe, the seat of Lord Eldon. This pottery is black in colour ; it occurs principally in the form of urn-shaped vessels, decorated with a lozenge pattern around the neck. From the j)osition in which the pottery was found the idea suggests itself that a considerable manufactory existed here, while the depth at which it occurs beneath the surface, and the fact of the superincumbent layer being one of black mould xl. a few inches thick, point to the agenc}' of earthworms in its burial and preservation. In addition to the pottery, several coins, a bronze weapon and buckle, together with some stone coffins, have been discovered ; the latter all crumbled to pieces on their first exposure to the air. The remains of what appeared to be a road were displayed in the section near the spot where the pottery had been discovered, at a depth of about 18in. beneath the sui-face. The Third Meetixo took place at Cranborne on Tuesday, August 26th, in lovely weather, and a large attendance was the result. The President was absent in Scotland, but the chair was most suitably occupied by Lord Eustace Cecil, a representative of the family so long connected with the place. Cranborne House was first visited, for which permission had been given by the owner, the Marquess of Salisbury. Here Lord E. Cecil acted as cicerone, conducting the party through the various rooms, assisted by Mr. Cocks, the present tenant, and Mr. Burton, the estate steward. The conversation which ensued elicited the following general description : — The architecture of the north frontage was a mixture of Gothic and various other styles. The house had been visited and used as a hunting lodge by King John and all the Plantagenet kings, by Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. The former had stayed there eleven times, the latter had come there to hunt during the peaceful days of his reign, and during his later troubles had slept there with his army camped in the neighbourhood. Court leets and court barons were held thei-e. The hall was used as a place of judicature, especially with reference to poaching, which was largely carried on in the adjoining chase whilst deer were preserved there. Beneath the house was a dungeon where pi^isoners were confined. In the hall were hanging two of the caps w'hich were used in the old days of Cranborne Chase by the keepers to protect themselves in the poaching raids which were then so frequent. An engraving of a keeper of Cranborne Chase, in cap and jack, was included in the second edition of " Hutchins' History of Dorset," taken from the original picture, formerly in the possession of the Rev. H. Good, of Wimborne. The parish church of Cranborne was next visited. The following brief account is drawn from the description furnished by Mr. J. Fletcher, of Wimborne : — The church, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Bartholomew, is interesting as being one of the oldest and largest in the county, being 140ft. in length. The different styles of architecture indicate different periods when restoration or enlargement were effected. The inner arch of the north porch is all that remains of the Norman Church, the details of which are fine. Thomas Parker, abbot of Tewkesbury frorp 1.39S to 1-421, did much towards xli. improving the church, and probably the perpendicular Avork is to be referred to him, though the west tower is of later date. His initials are to be seen on the frieze of the pulpit. The large west window of the tower was pvit in to the memory of Bishop Stillingfleet, who was a native of Cranborne, and became Bishop of Worcester in 1635. On leaving the church the luncheon hour intervened, after which a very interesting pajjer was read by Dr. Wake Smart, of Cranborne, entitled " The Ancient Connection between Cranborne and Tewkesbury," which will be found in full in this volume, p. 29. Castle Hill, distant about half a-mile from the village, was then visited. This is an extensive earthwork, the origin of which has led to a variety of conjectures. Dr. "Wake Smart, who acted as guide, stated that in his opinion it was probably of Celtic origin, used as a place of judicature for the tribe, and that no building existed on the top of the mound. Mr. Bloxam considered it to be one of the castles of Stephen, though no trace of masonry had been discovered. However, stockades, similar to those in use amongst the Maories of New Zealand, might have been erected for pui'poses of defence. The Rev. W. Barnes considered it a British circle, and he might be equally right. The place was called cruc-ye-gorsedd, a ring of council, a great mound cruc, which had afterwards degenerated into Creech Hill. There was a Creech Hill in Purbeck, in the lower part of Dorset, and another about half a mile distant, on the top of which were two huge stones, which had always been a puzzle to him. These mounds were much like what were called specula. At Laughton-en-le-Morthen, Yorkshire, there was a portion of a castle called Edwin's Hill, probably Saxon, which was very much like this place, as were also Rayleigh, and Hedingham Castle, in Essex. Carriages were in readiness to convey some members of the party to Bockley Dyke, an ancient British earthwork, described by the Rev. W. Barnes and Dr. Wake Smart. (See Proceedings, Vols. Y. and VI.) The Dyke runs for some three miles along the open down, and was raised, probably, as a tribal boundary to indicate pasturage rights, rather than for defensive purposes. It had been proj^osed to visit the C4rotto at St. Giles', for which permission had been given by Lord Shaftesbury. However, as the day was drawing to a close the majority of the party preferred a shady walk through the Chase woods, under the guidance of Mr. Burton, to Edmondsham House, where they were entertained at tea by the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Hector Monro, who showed them over the beautiful grounds and enabled them to spend a very pleasant half-hour. The house was probably built during Queen Elizabeth's reign. It shows some characteristic features of the xlii. domestic architecture of that period, and bears the date of 1589 on a stone in the central gable over the porch. But considerable additions and modern improvements have been made to tlie original edifice by the late and the present proprietor. Over the entrance porch is a coat of arms of the Hussey family. The parish church, which was open for inspection, stands in the grounds. It is a very small but picturesque building, showing no very distinctive architectural features, though of great age. Originally a large portion of the interior was occupied by the family vault of the Husseys, to whom the house formerly belonged. Alterations, which were carried out in 1863, removed the vault, and thereby threw open more room for the requirements of the congregation. The situation of Edmondsham House is interesting, standing as it does in its own grounds, laid out with care and judiciously planted, surrounded with the extensive Chase woods of fine oak and beech, M'ith intervening tracts of open downs, associated with the histories of the days when the deer were preserved there and furnished pastime to various English Sovereigns, The geology of the district furnishes a key to the surrounding landscape. The position is near the edge of the Hampshire basin of the Eocene beds of clays and gravels. The admixture of these beds, occurring as they do in contact with the great chalk formation lying to the west and north, produce a variety in the physical features of the neighbourhood, and consequently of the vegetation. On the bright August afternoon when the Society was entertained at Edmondsham House it was looking at its best, and will be remembered as a very pleasant finale to a successful Field day. It was now nearly five o'clock, and brakes were in readiness at the front door to convey the party to Verwood Station in time for their respective trains. Abbotsbury was the spot arranged for the last Field meeting of the year, on Wednesday, September loth, and again fine weather favoured the Society, The President, Treasurer, and between 60 and 70 members were present, and were conducted to the various points of interest by Dr. Hawkins, of Abbotsbury, and Mr. George Downie, agent of the Earl of Ilchester, to whose combined and untiring efforts the success of the day was largely due. On assembling at the rendezvous, which was the Ilchester Arms Hotel, the President stated that before beginning the proceedings of the day he wished to express his regret at the death of Mrs. Fox Strangways, Their thoughts were particularly led to that sad event since Lord Ilchester had so kindly opened the gardens and Swannery and other objects of interest to the use and enjoyment of the members, and he thought it M-as only right that he should, on their behalf, express their regret at the melancholy event. Before starting to explore the grounds xliii. the President said that he would read a paper entitled " Decoys, the Abbotsbury Swannery, and Swan Marks," which w^ould describe the history of Decoys and the method employed in capturing wild fowl, and render their walk more interesting. This paper is printed in full in the present volume, p. 1. The j)arish church was next visited under the guidance of Dr. Hawkins. It is a Gothic structure, with a square tower containing five bells, and dedicated to St. Nicholas. The pulpit is a fine example of oak carving of the Jacobean period. In it are two holes caused by bullets fired by Cromwell's soldiers, when the church was garrisoned by Royalists under General Strangways. The house occupied by the General was not far distant, which was eventually captured by Cromwell's men. The windows of the south side of the church are of debased English style, of about 1640. This part of the church was restored about 200 years ago. The windows of the north side are lattice. The walls, surmounted by pinnacles, represent the oldest portion of the building. A remarkable feature in the interior of the cliurch is a double piscina of a very uncommon character. The initials "J. P." and " J. R." at the top of one of the pillars of the south side stand for two of the abbots of Abbotsbury, John of Portesham and John of Rodden, of the dates 1527 and 1534 respectively. On the west side of the tower is a curious figure, emble- matical of the Trinity, represented as an old man sitting with a crucifix between his knees^ and a dove in the act of descending. The tithe barn, 300ft. in length, was afterwards visited. Mr. H. Moule, curator of the County Museum, Dorchester, then read a paper on " The Stone Altar of Corton." This will be found given in full in the present volume at p. 71. The Swannery and Decoy were next visited. Luncheon was provided at the Ilchester Arms at 1.30, and, though the number present far exceeded the expectations of the landlord, there was sufficient for all. After new members had been elected, the Treasurer read a letter from Professor Westwood, speaking in high terms of Proceedings Vol. VII., a copy of which he had lately receiv^ed. Mr. H. Moule then i-ead a paper on " The Archieology of the Abbey," which will be found in the present volume at p. 38. The President rose to return thanks to Mr. Moule for his eloquent paper, and said he felt satisfied that they had postponed their visit to St. Catherine's Chapel until after the paper had been read. Mr. Groves remarked that the Strangways family founded a chantry in 1505. The indenture of that chantry pi'ovided for the number of priests to the abbey, and sxsecified, if they diminished below eight, the daily xUv. serv'ice was not to be accepted. Although the number of priests was specified as eight, notliing was said as to lay brethren. In 1539 the chantry was surrendered to the King, and in 1544 the site of the abbey building was granted to Giles Strangways, Knight, St. Catherine's Chapel was then visited. Mr. Udal called attention to the wishing holes, into which, according to ancient tradition, young maids used to place their thumbs, and into two larger holes below their knees, and invoke the aid of the patron saint not to let them die old maids. By this time the party had become scattered, many preferring to ramble about the gardens and examine the various rare shrubs and plants which have been established there. Dr. Moorhead conducted a party of geologists to the site from which the iron ore had been extracted, which is described in Damon's work on the " Geology of Weymouth and the Neighbourhood." At the spot known as Red Lane, where the operations were carried on, the iron ore is exposed, lying on the surface of the ground. Damon says " The upper part of the formation contains certain oolitic grains of iron ore in such quantity as to form a rich ore of hydrous oxide of iron (Limonite)." From a report made by Mr. Bristow on August 1st, 1849, in reference to the iron ore in the immediate neighbourhood of Abbotsbury, we find "That the general inclination of the coral rag (and of the subordinate strata), of which the iron bearing beds constitute the upper portions, is towards the north, at an angle of 10 or 15 degrees ; but a fault north of the village has the effect of reversing the dip and of producing an inclination to a similar amount in the opposite direction. The slope of the ground varying very little from the dip of the strata, the last are for the most part at or near the surface of the ground, and consequently easily accessible, but in the valley at the western end of Abbotsbury the beds containing the iron ore are concealed by an oval patch of Kimmeridge clay about half-a-mile in length, from beneath which they merge to form the high grounds in the neighbourhood around. At the eastern end of the village, and on the north side of Linton Hill, these upper strata of coral rag also dip under, and are overlaid by Kimmeridge clay. I have not yet measured the thickness of the iron beds, but they cannot be less than 30ft. or 401t." Mr. Damon then says : " Other beds of the coral rag in the neighbourhood are more or less ferruginous, as may be seen in the rusty-looking cliflF near Sandsfoot, but nowhere is it so rich in iron as at Abbotsbury." Mr. T. B. Groves, F.C.S., of Weymouth, then read a pajjer on the Abbotsbury iron deposits, which will be found at jj. G4 of the present volume. Mr. Damon, F.G.S., of Weymouth, also contributed the following paper xlv. on the Portesham elephant, which was read on his behalf, since he was unable to attend : — "The so-called Portesham fossil elephant, of which we have lately heard, is, I need scarcely say, a myth, and may be put alongside of the astronomer's ' Elephant in the Moon.' There is nothing of animal in it. As to the origin and growth of the animal in question, we know this much, that it once lay at the bottom of a great lake, and we can suppose how one of those trees which were so numerous at this period may have formed the nucleus of a deposit. The opening that runs through the centre j)robably resulted from the decay of the supposed trunk (not the trunk of the elephant), while its calcareous covering was imperishable. The alternating ridges on its upper surface may be ripple marks. On the floor of the forest at Lulworth Cove there are many examples of prostrate trees with a calcareous envelope. A section of one of these would probably show the silicified trunk, or the sj)ace which it once filled. Of course we can only conjecture, as we are speculating on events that were in operation at a vastly remote period, if we only take 100,000 years, which is but a decimal in geological time. If the members of the Club interested in the geology of the district were to visit the Portesham quarries belonging to Mr, Manfield, in which the specimen referred to was found, they would receive much interesting information from Mr. Manfield, jun., under whose super- intendence the works are carried on. Ijwould further add that though elephants are of modern creation, and nowhere found fossil, but only in superficial deposits, large land animals existed during the ' Purbeck' period, animals of whose existence we have as yet no further evidence than impressions of their footsteps. They have been found in the Dorset- shire ' Purbecks,' while in the strata immediately above similar footsteps have been recorded, measuring 27in. in length by 24in. in width, with a stride of 42in. At Sir C. Lyell's last visit to Weymouth he wished us to be on the look-out for these footprints wherever a large surface of the ' Purbeck' limestone was exposed, and the same advice may now be offered to any rising local geologist." The Rev. 0. P. Cambridge exhibited examples of the following rare insects (Lepidoptera) : — CEautra pilleriana, Pterophurus jja/wrfwr/i, lately taken at Bloxworth, and Coleophora flataginalis (new to Britain), from Portland, bred by Mr. Eustace Bankes. A considerable number of the members left Abbotsbury by the 4.40 train, the remainder by the 6.40. This brought the Summer work of the Society to a successful close. A Winter Meeting was held in the County Museum, Dorchester, on xlvi. Wednesday, February 9tli, 1887. In the absence of Mr. Mansel-Pleydell the Rev. Sir Talbot Baker presided, and tliere was a gathering of some forty members and friends present. After electing new members the business of the day was entered upon. The Secretary laid on the table the report of the meeting of Delegates of Corresponding Societies at the Birmingham meeting of the British Association in September, 1886. The report of the meeting of Delegates contained a number of subjects on which it was deemed advisable to secure the investigation and co-operation of local societies. Some of the more important of these in relation to Dorset- shire were then described — viz., the appearance and study of insects injurious to crops ; the investigation of British bari'ows and prehistoric remams ; the distribution of erratic blocks ; the appearance, position, and direction of luminous meteors ; the investigation of meteorological phenomena recorded in the log books of steamers ; the erosion of sea coasts, and the influence of the artificial abstraction of shingle in that direction ; the circulation of underground waters in the permeable forma- tions of the country ; earth tremors, and their j)ossible connection with mine explosions ; the preservation of native plants. The Rev. 0. P. Cambridge suggested that the report should be printed, so that members should have the opportunity of forming an opinion on the matters for investigation. Mr. Moule, curator of the County Museum, said he should be glad to support the objects referred to in the report, especially in regard to the extermination of local plants, one serious instance of which he was aware of in the neighbourhood. Mr. Udal supported the proposal to print the report in the Proceedings. It was finally settled to print and circulate the chief items of the rejjort before the first meeting of 1887, so that members might have time to consider the questions before discussing them at that meeting. The Secretary then brought forward a proposal to hold a two-days' meeting during the ensuing summer at Chard, on the borders between Somerset and Dorset. Chard had been fixed on as the site for the June meeting of 1886, but the elections had interfered and it had to be abandoned. In preparing the programme, however, it was found that Chard possessed so much of interest in its neighbourhood that it would be impossible to do it full justice in one day. The question of holding a two-days' meeting at Chard, with an evening conversazione, after some remarks from Sir Talbot Baker and the Rev. 0. P. Cambridge, was eventually carried. Some discussion ensued on the question of exchanging a portion of the Club's annual volumes of Proceedings with those of other societies, which might be deposited in the County Museum, provided the Museum Committee sanctioned such a step. xlvii. The reading and discussion of the papers tor the day was then entered uj)on. The first paper, " Dorset Rubi," by the Pi'esident, in the absence of the author, was read by the Secretary. He explained that the first part was devoted to the literature, general description, and history of the subject ; the latter an enumeration of the various species hitherto found in Dorset, their specific characters, and the localities where they were discovered. Little attention had been paid in early days to the study of British fruc- ticose Brambles. Ray's Synopsis (1724) included three species ; Smith's Flora Britanuica (17S0) included four species ; Lindley's Synopsis included IS species. The eighth edition of the London Catalogue of British Plants (1886) includes 59 species, 25 sub-species. The author in his " Dorset Rubi" identified 30 species within the borders of the county. The Rev. R. P. Murray, Rector of Shapwick, said that nowhere was the difficulty of establishing specific distinctions more forcibly evidenced than in the genus Ruhus. He had studied the subject for some three years, and stated that in Britain we had something like 70 forms, but in Germany they made the number three or four times as many, and in France over 70 forms had been subdivided by French Rubists into 300 or 400. He protested against the recommendation of Professor Babbington that they should name every form they found. He thought they should take the leading forms and try and group the intermediate ones around them. He said that Mr. Mansel Pleydell and himself proposed to bring out a joint Flora of the Counties of Somerset and Dorset, which, if successfully carried out, should be a work of more than ordinary interest, since there was no natural boundary between the counties, and no unsurmountable barrier to the migrations of plants from the English to the Bristol Channel. Mr. Moule said there was an expert on Rubi, a native of Dorchester, Mr. F. Galpin, wdio had studied the genus for some years and should be able to throw light on the difficult subject. Mr. J. S. Udal then read a paper on " Dorset XVII. Century Tokens," tracing the causes which led to the introduction of tokens for purposes of exchange. Amongst the Counties in England Somerset contained the largest number of towns, 13 or 14, which coined them, whilst Dorset, with 8, stood next. These boroughs w^ere Blandford, Dorchester, Lj^me Regis, Poole, Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Weymouth, and Wimborne. The Dorsetshire tokens were farthings principally ; halfpennies were very few, and there were no pennies. The earliest date on any Dorset token Avas 1650, that of Richard Oliver, of Poole, the latest 1670. The great majority of tokens belonged to a period subsequent to the restoration of Charles II. On the xlviii. subject of coin collections the author considered that wider jjower should be given to those who had charge of coin departments in dealing with those who wished to exchange or purchase duplicates. Attention was drawn to the number of discrepancies and omissions in Hutchins' History uf Dorset, the author having marked no less than SO in his own copy. As an instance of the increased interest taken of late in these tokens of the 17th century, Mr. Udal stated that whilst Boyne in 1858 records 141 tokens only he had been able by the addition of fresh examples to bring the number to 219. A conversation followed on the subject of the paper. Mr. Kemp-Welch's i^aper on the "Great Earwig" was then read by the Treasurer, and Dr. Wake Smarts paper, "An Analysis of the Celtic Tumuli of Dorset, by Charles Warne, Esq., F.S.A.," in the absence of the writer, was entrusted to the Secretary to read. It consisted of an exhaustive criticism of Warne's Book, divisible roughly into two parts. The former was a classification of 160 Tumuli described in the work, with a view to show the relative proportion of cremation to inhumation in northern, central, and southern Dorset. The latter portion of the paper was a classification and description of the various kinds of relics found in the tumuli of the three districts. Owing to the length of the whole paper it was considered advisable to read only the first portion, reserving the latter part until the next meeting of the Society. For purposes of comparison the County was divided into three divisions, the south extending from the coast to the river Frome, central from the Frome to the Stour, and north from the Stour to Bockley Dyke. The character of the interments in the various barrows was referred to, M-ith this general inference, that the practice of burning the body and depositing the calcined bones, whether in earthenware vases, or, more simply, in cists or graves dug in the soil, or by heaping the remains of the funeral pile on the surface of the soil and covering them with earth, was more in vogue in the aera when these tumuli were raised, than the alternative practice of burying the body without subjecting it to the action of tire ; still it is shown that this older custom still prevailed along with the other in the Bronze age. The predominance of cremation was attested by the contents of 121 of the tumuli, showing a difference of 30 per cent, between the two modes of the disposal of the dead in favour of the practice of cremation. The division of the County into three districts served to bring out the fact that the custom of burying the body unburnt prevailed much in the south, less so in the central, and still less in the north. There was a decreasing ratio from south to north. In the north cremation marked about 74 per cent., inhumation about 26 per cent., xlix. whilst in the south the relative proportion is about 59 per cent, for the former to 41 of the latter. The suggestion was thrown out that the contracted form of hurial may have been continued as a venerable and honourable form of interment down to a later period. The character of the cinerary urns found in Dorset varied considerably, but on the whole there was an absence of ornamentation. The chevron pattern is seen on some, but not often. In all the material, consisting of sand, clay, and particles of grit, is of a thick coarse nature, of a brown or reddish colour, and it is evident they were not wheel made or kiln baked. In the heath districts a very primitive type of manufacture is evidenced. This denoted the existence of tribes of a low culture adhering to their old manufactures, whilst their neighbours had advanced in civilisation and skill. In Purbeck skeletons are found laid at full length, in Kist Vaens throughout the same tumulus. This exceptional mode of sepulture, so frequent then, might identify those tumuli where it occurred with a much later period of the Bronze sera, implying the dawn of the new customs and manners arising from the intercourse with a more civilised people. These people could hardly be other than the Roman Colonists, who settled themselves in Purbeck and left abundant evidence of their occupation in certain localities. Luncheon was provided at the King's Arms Hotel at Two p.m. Mr. J. S, Udal exhibited his cabinet containing his private collection of Dorset Tokens. Some interesting specimens of old glass were exhibited by Sir Talbot Baker, discovered in the excavation of a well near Ranston. A collection of South American plants was also displayed. After luncheon the meeting was resumed in the Coffee-room of the hotel, since the prevalent east winds rendered the Museum unsuitable. A paper on " Rare and Local Lepidoptera lately found in Dorsetshire" was then read by the Rev. 0. P. Cambridge, and drawings of the insects were exhibited. (This paper will be found in the present vol., page 55.) Sir Talbot Baker then read a paper entitled " Rough Notes on some Churches in Norway and Sweden,'' the result of travel during the previous summer. It was illustrated by a series of good and highly interesting photographs, which showed the architectural features of the buildings very clearly. The first portion of the paper dealt with Dragon Churches of Norway, which date from the 12th century, and are entirely constructed of wood. Originally they numbered 26, of which only six can be found still standing, and two are used for Divine service. One was actually sold to King William of Prussia for a sum of about £18, and removed by him to his own country. Fortunately Antiquarian Societies have now sprung into existence, which are endeavouring to protect these ancient monuments. 1. The general appeamnce of these churches resembles that of a Chinese pagoda more closely than a place of Christian worship. The name Dragon as applied to the buildings is derived from the external decoration at the end of the gables of the nave, which appears to the observer more like the prows of Venetian gondolas than as dragons' heads with the tongues projecting from them. The idea denoted by this seems to have been to symbolise the expulsion of Paganism by Christianity which was rejiresented by the Cross on the summit of the Cupola. Anotlier curious feature in these churches was the absence of windows, all the light which entered the building being admitted through six small triangular openings in the roof. The decorations consisted principally of Runic patterns carved on the doors. The greater number of modern churches in the country were also of wood, but in the towns there were some handsome buildings of stone. Of these the Domkirke and the Nyekirke of Bergen are noticed ; also the two really interesting stone churches of Norway — the cathedrals of Stavanger and Trondhjem, These contain much Norman and Early English M'ork with the mouldings and decoration witli which we are familiar in buildings of the same date in England. The Church of Solna, about three miles from Stockholm, was described. This had the reputation of dating back to Pagan times. The stone work of the centre and eastern portions of the church, from the shape and size of the blocks and their inequality, suggested the cyclopean walls of Mycenae or Fiesole, carrjung the mind back to a remote antiquity. Mr. T. B. Groves, F.C.S., read a paper on "The Dorset settlement in Massachusetts," which he had made a point of visiting during his journey to America for the meeting of the British Association at Montreal in 1884. The writer traced the founding of a settlement in Massachusetts by the Rev. John White, who made his first attempt in 1G29, and in 1630 succeeded in establishing himself and a party of 140, consisting chiefly of several Puritans from Dorsetshire and the neighbouring counties at Mattapan, M'hich they at once re-named Dorchester. The Rev. John White was rector of Holy Trinity Church in 1G06, and was called the Patriarch of Dorchester. He died on July 21, 1648, and was interred in the porch of St. Peter's Church. His name is held in affectionate remembrance by Bostonians, who sometimes journeyed to Dorchester for the purpose of visiting his last resting place. The growth of Dorchester was traced from 1726, when the district was .35 miles long and some six or eight broad, to its incorporation with Boston, of which it is the 16th ward with a population of 14,445. The settlement of Weymouth was also referred to, which was regarded as an off-slioot of New Plymouth. The meeting terminated at five p.m. « tr< N^ ? u ^ -/O C^ « « ^ *:*^ ^ O Zr- ^ if> ?^ % *~-^ ) 1 1 KJ « W ^ « ^ il^OOCCfC uOOOOOfCO > -5 o a r2 if P s ;^ ■£ '^ 'v' ^ 0 s « P4 S ^ W a ^ s ^ h4 a h4 -. P <1-.x O « ^' o «:3 o o • C5 CI o c^ c2 o ^ ^n ?n ^ UO <1 -^3" 0 1 rri rw g 0 CO 00 A 1 05 00 ^ ^r 1 0 'o r^ •^ 03 1-^ Ci O) ' ' 0,) a U .X 0 a 1 ^ C^ S^ H ^ " w !;c) ^ 13 z CO z o m) „-• -o iO So o s p^ ^ ffi o hi "*; o j3 +i o > o -U> ci ~^ o •S CD o 03 O o O c3 S ffi ;^ VI pq M I^ist of Jlclu iUcinlnn-s clcdcD in 1880-7. June 9TH, 1S86, Bright, Percy M. Mason, Rev. H. J. Parish, Rev. W. Oakes Wright, H. E. Collinson, Rev. E. Hiissey, Dr. Travers, Rev. Duncan July 28th. Chislett, Henry Oakley White, Dr. Gregory Bankes, Rev. Eldon S. Wright, Dr. August 24TH. CUnton, E. Eynes Turner. \\'. Piercy, G. J. Stihvell, :Mrs. Truman, Rev. J. M. Rocca Bruna, Bournemouth Swanage Longfleet, Poole Dorchester Woodsford Dorchester Swanage ^Vimborne West Knoll, Bournemouth Corfe Castle Rectory, Wareham Bournemouth \Vimborne High-street, Poole Bournemouth Leeson, Wareham Hinton Mar tell, \\'imborne, and Woodlands, Cranborne li^ Skpte.mulr 15T11. Thompson, Dr. Ruberls Colfox, J. A. Burt, George Sanctuary, Rev. C. Lloyd Monkclicslcr, Buurncmouth Brklport Swanage West Fordin'^ton, Dorchester February 9TH, 1887. Wilhanis, Rev. J. L., R.D. Canford ^'icarage, Wimborne Bankes, Albert, Esq. Wolfeton House, Dorchester kcods anb Stoan iEatk0, By J. O. MANSEL-PLEYDELL, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S. (Bead at Ahhotshury Sept. I5tk, 1886.; HE Abbotsbury decoy has a special interest, as it is the only one in the county ; for the Morden decoy has been disused for some years, and is now only known as a favourite meet of the South Dorset Hounds. The adjoining swannery is of still greater interest. Nowhere else in the United Kingdom is there so countless a number of these Royol birds to be seen floating on the calm surface of so large a piece of water, basking in the sun, preening their feathers on the shore, or with measured strokes of wing following each other in short flights to and fro. Our Lord-Lieutenant, the Earl of Ilchester, is the owner of these two county rarities. Decoys in their present form were not in use much until the middle of the seventeenth century ; before that period they were merely nets enclosing a piece of water, converging to a point in the shape of a V with a connected bag — tunnel-net — at the extremity, into which the birds were finally driven ; these could only be used when the wild fowl w^ere in moult and the young birds unfledged, and incapable of flight. Sir R. Payne Gallwey gives the derivation of decoy to a Dutch compound word endekooy, duck-cage. The 2 DECOYS AND SWAN MARKS. Dutcli were the inventors of the system now in general use, and was introduced from Holland into England about the middle of the seventeenth century. The physical features of that country, its sea-bord boundaries, its gulfs and inlets, its shallows between Groningen and Friesland, have ever been the favourite resort of wild fowl. By this new system, which is more elaborate and complicated than the old one, the birds were enticed, not driven, into the netted enclosure. Driving by boats and men to a converging point was probably in use as early as King John's reign. We find decoys mentioned as having given cause for litigation as early as 1280, and in 1432 we read of a mob armed with swords and sticks and taking six hundred wild fowl out of the abbot's decoy at Crowland Monastery, Lincolnshire, " infringing the rights of private piroperty." The wholesale destruction of wild fowl attracted the notice of Parliament in the reign of Henry the Eighth. By 25 Henry VIIL, c. 11, entitled "An Act to avoid destroying of Wild Fowl," after reciting " that whereas divers persons next inhabiting in the countries and places where wild fowl have been accustomed to breed, have in the summer season, at such time as the old fowl be moulted and not reple- nished with feathers to fly, nor the young fowl fully feathered, have by certain nets, engines, and policies yearly taken a great number of fowl, in such wise that the brood of wild fowl is almost thereby wasted and consumed, and daily is likely more and more to waste and consume, if remedy be not provided : Be it enacted, that it shall not be lawful for any person to take any such wild fowl with nets between the 1st of May and the 31st of August, &c., under a penalty of a year's imprisonment and a fine of fourpence for each fowl." The Act protected their eggs as well as those of the crane, bustard, bittour (bittern), heron, and shovelard ; for the two former the penalty was 20 pence for each bird, and for the last two, eight-pence, besides a year's imprisonment for both classes. The crane and bustard have both ceased to breed in Great Britain, and very rarely visit our shores ; the bittern DECOYS AND SWAN MARKS. 3 and shoveller are more frequent visitors, but rarely breed with US. There have been instances of the shoveller breeding in Dorset, Kent, Norfolk, Hertford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Yorkshire, and the bittern's nest is occasionally found in some of our largest marshes, esjDecially in Scotland and Ireland. The Act of Henry VIII. exempts crows, choughs (jack- daws), ravens, and buzzards, and their eggs, as " not comestible or used to be eaten." This Act was repealed by 3 and 4 Ed. VI., c. 7, on the grounds that the markets were then less supplied with wild fowl than before the passing of the Act, and " benefit was thereby taken away from the poor people that were wont to live by their skill in taking of the said fowl, whereby they were wont at that time to sustain themselves, with their poor households, to the great saving of other kinds of victual, of which aid they are now destitute." Another Act, 9 Anne, c. 25, s. 4, similar in its object, after reciting " that a great number of wild fowl of several kinds are destroyed by the pernicious practice of driving and taking them by hayes, tunnels, and other nets in the fens, lakes, and broadwaters, where fowl resort at their moulting season, to the great damage and decay of the breed of wild fowl, it enacts that " if any person makes use of hayes, tunnels, and other nets between the 1st of July and the 1st of September to take any wild fowl shall on conviction forfeit five shillings for each bird." It will be observed this Act was less draconic than that of Henry VIII. ; the year's imprisonment is omitted, and only a fine imposed, subject to a levy of distress. Willoughby in his " Ornithologia" (1676) speaks of the destruction of wild fowl during the moulting season in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, and gives a detailed account of the mode of capture, by the original V shaped enclosure and tunnel-net, men, and boats ; and describes the slaughter of 4,000 wild fowl at one drive. He speaks of a Dutch decoy or Dutch-kay as a new artifice by which wild fowl are enticed, instead of being driven. A rough line sketch of a deco}^ with three pipes accompanies the 4 DECOYS AND SWAN MARKS. description. As Willoughby makes no mention of a dog, which is now generally used, it may be presumed its services were not employed at this early stage of improved decoys, and that the birds were allured simply by food and by tame ducks. Stukeley in his " Itinerarium Curiosum" (1776) gives a detailed account of a decoy with five pipes at Holbeck, Lincolnshire, wdiich is precisely similar to those now in use, except that the pipes have an angular instead of a curved bend. The object, however, is the same — namely, to render the pipe at its posterior end and the tunnel-net invisible at the mouth. Pennant (1776) speaks of 31,000 ducks, teals, and widgeons, which had been sold in London from ten decoys near Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, on one occasion. Daniel also in his " Rural Sports" (1 802) gives a description of decoys which prevailed in his time. He says that 2,646 " mallards" were taken in ten days at Spalding, in Lincolnshire. Mr. Howard Saunders describes, in a most interesting and exhaustive account of English decoys, the remarkable change of plumage the male of the wild duck undergoes at the close of the breeding season, commencing about the 24th of May, when the breast and back first show the appearance of a change ; on the 23rd of June the green feathers of the head and neck disappear, and by the 6th of July its plumage resembles that of the female, only somewhat darker. Willoughby says the moult of the male takes place about a month before that of the female — an important provision of nature for the protection of the young birds, which are incapable of flight until towards the end of June. A decoy consists of a sheet of water in a quiet and secluded spot surrounded by trees and shrubs, from which radiate curved pipes or ditches, varying in number from two to eight ; these are covered with a net suj^ported by bowed sticks or rods, about 15 feet high at first, and gradually diminishing towards the end, to which the tunnel net is attached, and which is removed w^hen the wild fowl are driven into it. Screens in echelon, overlapping each other, are placed near the edge of the bank to enable the decoyman to follow the ducks up DECOYS AND SWAN MARKS. O the pipe. The spaces bettv^een these overlapping screens are united by a lower screen of two and a-half feet high, over which a dog is trained to pass so as to bring it to the brink of the bank and in sight of the ducks ; he then jumps over the next low screen and passes behind the high screen No. 2, and so on. As soon as the ducks catch sight of the dog they invariably move towards it — an impulse shared by the family of Anatidee. The attraction a dog has to a flock of farmyard ducks in a pond is familiar to every observer. See how they will turn towards and approach the dog with apparent fearlessness, as if moved by one spirit, and how hurriedly they will decamp if it shows any disposition to join them. This inquisitiveness, defiance, or whatever motive actuates the tame ducks, is shared by the wild duck and made use of by the ingenuity of man for its destruction. To work a decoy successfully, the decoyraan has to use great caution ; he must choose the pipe at which the wind blows from the tunnel-net towards the curve of the pipe, otherwise the ducks will not enter it, as their sense of smell is very keen. When using the dog the decojmiau has to take care that the ducks are below the pipe, that is to say on the lower or pond side. A dog is of no use during a frost, in which case the ducks can only be enticed by food, tame ducks, and the mouths of the pipes free of ice ; a dog is most essential however, when the decoy is near the coast, and where marshes and water meadows are some distance off. A wild duck has no inducement to accompany the tame ducks up the pipes for the food supplied by the decoyman unless it is hungry, and can only be enticed by the dog, which is usually chosen for its red colour and bushy tail, resembling a fox, which, as is well known, makes a decoy one of its favourite resorts. There are and always have been more decoys in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Essex than in any other part of the United Kingdom ; whose physical features are more favourable to wild fowl-life than those of any other district of equal area in Great Britain. Sir R. Payne Gallwey enumerates 373 decoys in Great 6 DECOYS AND SWAN MARKS. Britain, of which no less than 81 are relegated to these three counties ; of these nine only are now in use. The limited number of ducks taken annually at the Abbotsbury decoy may to a great extent be attributable to its proximity to so large an expanse of water as the Fleet, supplying an unlimited amount of food, and un- molested by gunners. The surroundings of the Abbotsbury decoy (which has four pipes) seem to invite the visit of every duck as it passes over the peaceful solitude of this charming nook of old Dorset. The Morden decoy has been disused since 1856, but when in use upwards of 7,000 wild fowl have been taken in one season ; it is surrounded by a wild tract of moorland, and is about four acres in extent, of which the pond occupies half; the rest is planted with oak, birch, willow, and alder. It has four pipes. The Abbotsbury decoy is of great antiquity, and was probably established long before the Reformation, at the time w^lien the lands to which it is attached belonged to the abbots of the monastery, who were the owners also of the splendid swannery, and who enjoyed the special privilege granted by the Crown to take within certain limits all swans not marked with the licensed swan-marks cut in the upper mandible and registered by the Royal swanherd, who kept a book of swan-marks, and no swan-marks were permitted to interfere with old ones, and no swanherd could affix a mark except in the presence of the king's swanherd or deputy. The sign of the two-necked swan is a corruption of the swan with two nicks, or marks on the bill. The following note on swan-marks appeared in the Athenceum of 18th August, 1877 : — " The manuscript department of theBritish Museum has lately acquired for the Egerton library two interesting manuscripts ilhistrating the marking of swans. The first is a small quarto-paper book of 89 folios, written apparently in a hand of the seventeenth century. It commences with an alphabetical list of the owners of the marks, among w^hom appear the King and Queen, the Dukes of Norfolk, Suftblk, and Richmond, Earls of Huntingdon, Essex, Oxford, Sussex, Surrey, and Leicester, with DECOYS AND SWAN MARKS. 7 a large number of noble and private owners, amounting in the aggregate to several hundreds. The diagrams of the marks follow, arranged in double columns, of six marks each to a page. A large proportion of the owners have two marks, and now and then three are attributed to the same possessor. Although the collection is a compilation of the time already referred to, it evidently incorporates some older w^ork of the same nature, for among the names of Swan-owners occur the Prior of Spalding and the Abbot of Peterborough. The volume is inscribed with the autograph of Samuel Knight, a former owner of the book. The other manuscript contains 38 folios with double columns of six marks each on either side, making a total of about 800 marks, some of the spaces having been left unappropriated. From the commencing mark beiug attributed to I. E., which in the previous mark is given to ' The Kinge,' there is little difficulty in fixing the date of the production of the book. These two manuscripts are evidently copies of an older work. In the Harley MS. of the British Museum there is a memorandum of " A Commission directed to all Shireffes, Eschetours, Baillieftes, Constables, Swanneherdes, and all hauyuo^ the Rule of fresh Ryuers and waters in Somersetshire, especially in the freshe waters or Ryuers of Merkemere, Cotmere, &c., that the King hath given all Swaunes in the said waters apperteyning to the Marques Dorset and Sir Giles Dawbeney no we in the Kinge's handes by reason of their forfaictures, to ray lord priue scale creuen at Westmr. on ix. day of May anno ijdo." The date of this early note is probably 1485. Another entitled '^ A book of the marks of swans, wdth the names of the gentlemen who have a right to make use of them." It is on vellum, with an alphabet of names prepared, and a large series of marks appear. It appears to have been written in the 15th century, but has several additions of a later period. The two swords which are given as a King's mark in the two first MSS. here figure as that of the Duke of Lancaster, a title which merged into the Crown in 1399. There is another fine large MS. quarto in vellum, of 28 folios, with 15 marks on either side of the leaf. 8 DECOYS AND SWAN MARKS. The two marks of the King are here styled — the first " for the Crown" being a rude representation of that emblem, the second or Lancaster mark " for the Sworde." There is an index at the end of this manuscript, and at the beginning some curious notes of swans that " I have marked," " Swans sould this yeare of our lor 1628," and " The order for swans, a collection of rules and observances with regard to the keeping and marking of these birds, with the penalties for infringement." Another vellum MS., octavo size, apparently of the time of Henry VIII. ; the King here has three marks allotted to his swans. Some remarks by Sir J. Banks upon the age of the book are prefixed. Another MS. entitled " The orders for swanne Bots by the statutes, and by the auncient orders and customs used in the Realm of England," a vellum roll of the sixteenth century, followed by swan-marks used b}" the proprietors of lands on the rivers Yare and Waveney, co. Norfolk. Some of these are drawn vertically instead of on the more usual horizontal plan, and the greater number are rudely painted in red and black pigments. At folio 80 of another MS. (Lansdowne 118) there is an entry in the handwriting of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, of " Swannes marked ye xii. June, 7 of Ed. 6, 1553." Harley MS. 4116 gives at p. 403 a curious note respecting the transfer of a swan-mark in 1662. Some further illustrations of this peculiar custom may be seen by reference to the Classed Catalogue of manuscripts in the British Museum, and a careful collation of marks with a view to publication would reward the student of English manners and customs." Shurlcs 11. in '^otBzt By J. S. UDAL, F.R. Hist. Soc. (of the Inner Temple). FEW years ago there was an interesting dis- cussion in the pages of " Notes and Queries"* as to what old houses now exist in the country that formed hiding-places for Charles II. between the battle of Worcester (3rd September, 1G51) and the time when the king at last effected his escape from Brighthelmstone on the 15th of the following October. At that time I put forward the claims of the old Manor House at Pilsdon to rank as one of those entitled to the honourable distinction of having sheltered the Royal fugitive, basing the claim upon the tradition I had heard that the King had paid a visit to the old house, at that time the property of those staunch royalists, the Wyndhams. A year or so afterwards, my claim for Pilsdon having been challenged by a correspondent in " Notes and Queries," I went more deeply into the question of Charles II.'s wanderings in Dorsetshire, and, after consulting the principal authorities upon the subject, I was constrained to admit that the claim I had put forth rested upon tradition only, though I expressed a hope at the time that I had shown (for the reasons given in my paper) a 6th series, vols. v. and viii, — passim. 10 CHARLES II. IN DORSET. higher aud more natural probability of tradition in this case being founded on fact than was the case in many other similar claims put forward on behalf of our old houses. Believing as I do that the interest taken in what the late Bishop of Llandaff* terms " by far the most romantic piece of English history we possess," is still as great, and that the desire to know as much as possible of what actually did happen during those wonderful wanderings is as keen now, as was ever the loyalty of our Dorset forefathers to preserve the Koyal subject of them, I have ventured to take my former paper in " Notes and Queries"t as the basis of my present one, and to put before my readers in addition as much more of detail and circumstance as may be fitting to, and appreciated by, a Dorset public. I cannot make the same complaint as Lord Clarendon, when he wrote, J "it is a great pity there was never a journal made of that miraculous deliverance in which there might be seen so many visible impressions of the immediate hand of God," for there are several works of authority to which the student of these days might turn for information. Besides the King's own account of his wanderings dictated by him to Samuel Pepys, the great diarist, in October 1G80, and printed originally by Lord Hailes, more than a hundred years ago, from the authentic MSS. in the library of Magdalen College, Cambridge, we have a work called " Boscobel," by Thomas Blount, a Catholic lawyer, and (like myself) a member of the Inner Temple, which was published in two parts. The first part, containing an account of the King's wanderings as far as Bentley, was published soon after the Restoration aud dedicated to the King ; the second part, continuing the account from Bentley until the King's escape from Brighthelmstone, did not appear until many years subsequently, when it was jDublished conjointly with the "Claustrum Regale Reseratum," or "The King's Concealment * In a letter to ]SIr. J. Hughes in 1827. t Gth series, viii., 329. X 13th book of " History of Rebellion." CHARLES II. IN DORSET. 11 at Trent," by Mrs. Anne Wyndham (either the wife or sister of Colonel F. Wyndham), which gave a detailed acccunt of Charles's sojourn at Trent House, and was published originally in 1681, which was probably the date when Blount's second part was published.* In addition there are the extracts from Lord Clarendon's History of the Eehellion, and Captain EUesdon's memoir to be found in the folio edition of the Clarendon Papers. These authorities are mentioned in the second volume of Hutchins's History of Dorset (third edition), and are published in detail by Mr. J. Hughes in his Boscohel Tracts, the first edition of which was published about 1830 and the last in 1857. Mr. Hughes, in the introduction to this last edition, speaks of the second part of " Boscobel" as being more scarce than the first, and the various editions that were published of it as being not altogether trustworthy. The edition he himself adopted was a duplicate of the copy in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, published in 1725 ; but, through the kindness of a friend in my neighbourhood, a copy of the fourth edition, dated 1725 — not the same as the one in the Ashmolean Museum, as the title pages are different — has been lent to me, which, beyond including a frontis- piece portrait of the King, and two very interesting woodcuts of the ground plot of the city of Worcester and of Boscobel House (showing the wood and the Royal Oak), contains a " supplement to the whole," giving a short recapitulation of the most memorable transactions in England till the Restoration. It will be obvious that the above authorities, with the exception of the Ellesdon memoir, treat generally of the whole of the King's wanderings, and I propose, therefore, to use them only so far as they relate to the King's wanderings in Dorset, and to confine the limits of my paper to the essentially Dorset portion of them, from the time when the King left Trent with the intention of escaping * Since reading this paper before the Field Chib at Pilsdon, the Rev. J. H. Ward, of Gussage St. Michael, has informed me that he believes there was a quarto edition of the Claustrum B. H. published in 1667. If this be so, the publication in 1681 was probably in conjunction with the comple- tion of the second part of Blount's Boscobel. 12 CHARLES II. IX DORSET. from Charmouth, and his return there after the failure of that attempt. Before I revert to the King's arrival at Charmouth (where he first appears upon Dorset ground), I will shortly allude to the various places (an excellent chart of which is given in Mr. Hughes's book) at which he stayed in his memorable flight after the battle of Worcester, the fatal result of which, and the dispersal of the Scottish forces, u^Don which he principally relied to wrest his father's crown from the hands of the Parliament, left him no other hope than the bare preservation of his life. Charles, having abandoned his original idea of escaping to London, and unwilling to trust himself with his lukewarm Scottish allies in their endeavour to return to Scotland, made an ineffectual attempt to cross the Severn, in order to reach some Welsh port from which he might gain the French coast. This led to the Royal visits to Whiteladies and Boscobel (both the property of the Giflfard family), to Mr. Wolfe's house at Madeley ; to Mr. Whitgreave's, at Moseley ; and to Colonel Lane's, at Bentiey. It was at Bentiey that Charles determined to make for the west of England, and trusted that either from Bristol or one of the southern ports he might secure a passage to France. Here, then, on September 10th, the King, in the character of a serving man to the heroic Jane Lane (Colonel Lane's sister), who rode with him upon a double horse, commenced that memorable ride, which, through Stratford-on-Avon, Long Marston, Cirencester, Abbot's Leigh, and Castle Cary, ended for the time at Colonel Francis Wyndham's house at Trent, on the borders of Somerset and Dorset. With Trent, then, which was reached on Wednesday, September 17th, the interest of my Dorset readers may be said to commence, for it was here that the idea was fir^t suggested that Charles should make his escape from the Dorset coast. To thid intent Colonel Wyndham was despatched to Melbury, in Dorsetshire, the seat of Sir John Strangways, to see if either he or his two sons (who had both been colonels in Charles I.'s service) could be of any assistance in procuring a vessel eitlier at CHARLES II. IN DORSET. 13 Weymouth, Poole, or Lyme. This assistance the colonel was unable to obtain, but, what was probably the next best thing he could do under the circumstances, brought back a considerable sum of money for the use of the King. " All other plans for His Majesty's escape by sea having miscarried, Colonel Wyndham acquainted the King that he formerly knew one Captain William Ellesdon, of Lyme, and his brother John, who by means of Colonel BuUen Reymes, of Waddon, brother-in-law to Wyndham, had carried over Sir John Berkeley ; and proceeded to Lyme to consult Captain Ellesdon, committing, however, at first no more than the name of Lord Wilmot as the person in danger. Ellesdon cordially undertook to assist, and according!}^ bargained with Stephen Limbry, the master of a coasting vessel and a tenant of his own, that the latter should for the sum of £60, to be paid on the certified safe delivery of his passengers, convey a party of three or four royalist gentlemen by night from Charmouth into France." Thus far Hutchins. Ellesdon, in his letter to Lord Clarendon, says that the party were to be described to the seamen as a Mr. Payne (Lord Wilmot), a broken merchant, flying from his creditors, with one servant (tl.e King) accompanying him. ^' The conditions of the agreement were that before the two-and- twentieth day of that instant, September, Limbry should bring his vessel into Charmouth Koad, and on the said two-and- twentieth, in the night, should receive the colonel and his company into his longboat from the beach near Charmouth, from thence carry them to his ship, and so land them safe in France."* The tide not serving before eleven or twelve at nighty it was necessary that private rooms should be secured at Charmouth to avoid suspicion, and, remembering that the day appointed for the King's embarking was Lyme fair, lest the inn at Charmouth might be filled with other guests, Henry Peters (the trusty valet of Colonel Wyndham) was sent with instructions to Charmouth ; and by an earnest in money and a few glasses of wine succeeded in engaging the hostess of the little inn to promise the two best * ** ClaiTstrum Regale Reseratum." 14 CHARLES II. IN DORSET. rooms in the inn to a runaway bridal party from Devonshire, he telHng her that there was a young man to come thither the next Monday that had stolen a gentlewoman to marry her, and (fearing lest they should be followed and hindered) that he desired to have the house and stables at liberty to depart at whatever hour of the night he should think fittest. All precautions being now taken, the eventful morning of Monday, the 22nd of September, arrived, and the Royal party proceeded from Trent to Charmouth, the King attended by Colonel Wyndham as his guide, and riding double before Mrs. Juliana Coningsby (Lady Wyndham's niece), whose services were probably necessary to personate the supposed Devonshire bride. Lord Wilmot and Peters accompanied them at a convenient distance to avoid suspicion. History is silent as to the route to Charmouth taken by the royal party, but it may not probably be far removed from that given by the late Harrison Ainsworth in his novel called " Boscobel," which, though a work of fiction, has for its basis a considerable amount of historical truth — the author being well acquainted with the Boscobel Tracts — and the novel itself, in fact, being dedicated to Mr. Hughes. The novelist makes them take for a time the Valley of the Yeo, and then, heading more to the south, they approached Pilsdon and Lewesdon Hills. In fact, he says, " the road led them over Pillesdon Pen, and they then descended into the valley in which stood Pillesdon, the residence of Sir Hugh AVyndham, the colonel's uncle, but they did not go near the mansion." In all probability they came down the Vale of Marshwood — at that time, as now, a secluded and sparsely pojDU- lated district, which a century and a quarter later called forth from Hutchins the remai'k that " few gentry ever resided in this tract," — for they met Ellesdon, as previously arranged, at a lonely house belonging to his father, situated about a mile and a-half from Charmouth, among the hills to the north. At nightfall the Royal party moved on to Charmouth, where Ellesdon took his leave in the full confidence that everything had been satisfactorily arranged, " About an hour after came Limbry to the inn, and CHARLES II. IN DORSET. 15 assured the colonel all things were prepared, and that about midnight his longboat should wait at the place appointed. The set hour drawing nigh, the colonel, with Peters, went to the seaside (leaving His Majesty and Lord Wilmot in a posture to come away upon call), where they remained all night ; but seeing no longboat, neither hearing any message from the master of the ship, at the break of day the colonel returns to the inn and beseeches the King and Lord Wilmot to haste from thence. His Majesty was entreated, but Lord Wilmot was desirous to stay behind a little, promising to follow the King to Bridport, where His Majesty intended to make a halt for him. When the King was gone, the Lord Wilmot sent Peters into Lyme to demand of Captain EUesdon the reason why Limbry broke his promise and forfeited his word. He seemed much surprised w^ith this message, and said he knew no reason, except it being fair day the seamen were drunk in taking their farewell, and withal advised his lordship to be gone, because his stay there could not be safe."* What really seems to have happened was this, if we may judge from the account given by Limbry himself : — That he had put forth his ship beyond the Cob's-mouth into Charmouth Road on the night of the 22nd as arranged, where the seamen were all ready in her waiting his coming ; that he went to his house about ten that night for linen to carry with him, and was unexpectedly locked into a chamber by his wife, to whom he had a little before revealed his intended voyage with some passengers into France, for whose transportation, at his return, he was to receive a considerable sum of money from Captain Ellesdon. The woman, it seems, who had been to the fair, was frightened into a panic by that dreadful proclamation of the 10th of September, set out by the men of Westminster, and published that day at Lyme. In this a heavy penalty was thundered out against all who should conceal the King or any of his party who were at Worcester fight, and a reward of a thousand pounds promised to any that should betray him. She, apprehending the jDersons her husband engaged to * " Claustrum Regale Reseratum," 16 CHARLES II. IN DORSET. carry over to be Royalists, resolved to secure him from danger by making him a prisoner in his own chamber. All the persuasions he used for his liberty were in vain ; for the more he entreated the more her violent passion increased, breaking forth into such clamours and lamentations that he feared, if he should any longer contend, both himself and the gentlemen he promised to transport would, to use the words of Mrs. Anne Wyndham, be cast away in this storm without ever going to sea. Here the master showed his wisdom not a little by his peaceable behaviour, for had he striven in the least it is more than probable His Majesty and his attendants had been suddenly seized upon in the inn. On leaving Charmouth early in the morning of the 23rd September the King seems to have taken the direct road to Bridport, distant some six miles, riding on with Mistress Coningsby and Colonel Wyndham. Harrison Ainsworth gives in his " Boscobel" a graphic description of the journey from Charmouth to Bridport, and, though in a work of fiction, a perfectly correct account of the route they must have passed over on that journey, an account which no one who did not know that part of the country well could have written. The Royal party must have toiled up Stonebarrow-hill, on through Morecomblake, and we can picture them whilst halting to allow time for Wilmot and Peters to overtake them, admiring the lovely view the wide stretching Yale of Marshwood afforded them on the left, and the glorious gorse-and-heather-covered Golden Cap — (a magnificent headland overhanging the sea, said to be the highest coast point between Dover and the Land's End) — on the right. Again, having descended that long and terribly steej) hill into Chideock, we can see them pausing once more on the brow of the last hill before coming into Bridport — a vantage spot from w^hich a most delightful peep of the peaceful and smiling village of Symondsbury, nestling at the foot of Colmer's picturesque cone, lies open on the left. Another mile and they approach the outskirts of Bridport. At this time, perhaps, the most alarming crisis of the King's fate was impending. The port of Lyme (we learn from Mr. Hughes's narrative) swarmed with persons drawn CHARLES II. m DORSET. thither by the fair, and the coast was beleaguered by a detach- ment of Republicans, prepared to embark in the expedition destined to reduce Guernsey and Jersey, whose headquarters were at Bridport when Charles arrived. Here Colonel Wyndham, who began to despair of the safety of his charge, asked the King doubtingly what they must now do. Unwilling to abandon AVilmot, with whom he had appointed a meeting in the town, Charles, with prompt decision, rode into the yard of the principal inn of Bridport, the George — a site now^ covered by the premises of Messrs. Beach and Co., chemists, which to this day have an inscription commemorative of the event — pushing his way with the horses among the crowd of surly troopers who obstructed the entrance to the stable. Having, like a practised serving-man, made good his point, at the expense of some rough language from the soldiers, the King was somewhat startled by the observation of the ostler that " surely he had seen his face before." Main- taining his countenance perfectly, he drew from the man that he had lived at an inn at Exeter, close to the house of a Mr. Potter, who had in fact entertained part of the Royal staff during the civil wars. "Friend," said Charles, "you must have certainly seen me at Mr. Potter's, for I served him above a year." The ostler, perfectly recognising this statement, parted from him with a mutual promise that they would drink a pot of beer together on the young man's return, and Charles, after talking with equal freedom to the troopers, joined his friends on pretence of waiting on them at dinner. After they had dined Lord Wilmot came riding up the street with Peters, and, catching sight of the party at the window proceeded to the other inn, whence he despatched Peters to appoint a meeting out of the town and hasten their departure. Fearing pursuit from Charmouth, which in fact was already on foot, the Royal party, now joined by Wilmot and Peters, stayed no long time in Bridport, but, if we may believe the historical accounts, pushed straight through the town, as if to reach Dorchester, distant some 15 or 16 miles, then, whether by accident, or, intending, it may be, to return once more to Trent, 18 CHARLES II. IN DORSET. turned off to the loft from the Dorcbester-road when a mile or two out from Bridport, and reached the little village of Broad- winsor, about six or seven miles distant. In the meantime (to nse the words of Mr. Hughes) a dangerous miscliief had been brooding in their rear. The ostler at the inn at Charmouth, an old Republican soldier, had drawn suspicious conclusions from observing the horses kept saddled in the stables all the previous night, as well as from the frequent visits of Colonel Wyndham and Peters to the seashore. After communicating his thoughts to his mistress, who checked him sharply for his officiousness, he took Lord Wilmot's horse, which had cast a shoe, to the neigh- bouring' forge. Hammet, the blacksmith, a shrewd artisan, instantly remarked " This horse has but three shoes, and they were all set in different counties, and one in Worcestershire." On the departure of the King the ostler lost no time in seekinc^ to communicate this hint and his own comments to Bartholomew Wesley, the Puritan minister of the place (the grandfather, it is said, of the famous John Wesley), whom he found engaged in family worship. This caused some delay, but " learning, however, after- wards, the state of facts either from Hammet or the ostler, the preacher made all speed to the inn, preparing in his mind the most successful mode of entrapping the hostess into a confession. ' Wh}^ how now, Margaret,' quoth he, ' you are a maid of honour.' ' What mean you by that, Mr. Parson X rejoined Margaret, tartly. ' Why, Charles Stuart lay last night at your house and kissed you at his departure, so that you now cannot but be a maid of honour.' " The woman then (says EUesdon) began to be very angry, and told him he was a scurvy-eonditioned Uian to go about to bring her and her house into trouble. " But," said she, " if I thought it was the King, as you say it was, I should think tlie better of my lips all the days of my life ; so, Mr. Parson, get you out of my house, or I'll get tliose who shall kick you out." Digesting this rebuff as he might, the minister accompanied the ostler before a magistrate (said to be Mr. Butler, of Commer), who, not seeing, or choosing not to see, any call for his own CHARLES II. IN DORSET. 19 interference, treated the affair lightly. But Captain ^lacy, the Republican officer commanding the nearest picket, equipped his troop as soon as the tidings reached him and gallopped off on the London-road in pursuit of the fugitives. Ere, however, they came in sight, the Royal party, httle knowing the jeopardy from which they were escaping, had taken the road to Yeovil, and, while Macy and his men pushed on furiously in the direction of Dorchester, reached without molestation a viHage called Broad- winsor, as I have before mentioned. Arriving at Broadwinsor the fugitives repaired to the George (at that time, Mr. Hughes says, called the Castle), the only inn in the place, kept by one Rice Jones, formerly known to Colonel \V3a1dham, and a lodging was procured for the party in the upper story for the sake of greater caution. (Curiously enough I have in my possession a seven- teenth century farthing token of Broadwinsor, dated 1667, belongiuo- to one Alice Jones. Could she have been the wife of the loyal host of the George, but then, may be, a widow, from the circumstances of her initials only appearing on the token % This is, I believe, the only token of Broadwinsor known to exist.) Before the party had been long in the house about 40 soldiers on their way to Jersey came in unexpectedly to be billeted there for the night. The confusion which ensued in the narrov>^ kitchen was presently worse confounded by the screams of one of the female camp followers, who was suddenly taken in labour, and by the squabble which presently issued between the troopers and the parish officers, "who came down to resist this unwelcome addition to their population. The greater part of the night was consumed in this brawl, which, though it effectually deprived the King of rest, tended to his security by occupying the attention of the soldiers till the time for marching had arrived. It was here, in all probability, finding the neighbourhood full of soldiers — drawn together no doubt towards Weymouth with the object of joining in the long-talked-of expedition from that place against the loyal Channel Islands — that Charles and his party gave up all further idea of attempting to escape to France from the Dorset 20 CHARLES II. IX DORSET. coast, and, if they had not already made up their minds, at all events confirmed their intention of returning once more to Trent for shelter until some means of escape might offer from some Sussex seaport. It was now, if at all, that Pilsdon, I think, must have been visited. It was the home of Sir Hugh Wyndham, uncle of Colonel Wyndham, the companion of Charles's flight; it was near Broadwindsor, and was, moreover, an out-of-the-way secluded abode. That such an idea was entertained at that time is extremely probable, and it may be, as Ainsworth has it, that " Colonel Wyndham would have proposed Pillesdon as a retreat, but he said the house w^ould surely be searched now, so Charles said he would not go to Pillesdon, but return to Trent." That such a course was considered by Charles's friends to be in the highest degree probable, we know from the fact that Captain Ellesdon, when he learnt of the failure of the attempt to cross the Channel from Charmouth, " came to Pillesdon and enquired of Sir Hugh and his lady for the King and Colonel, confidently affirming that they must needs be there." That such a course would have been extremely hazardous we know, too, because " at this juncture the report of the King's being at Charmouth was grown so common that the soldiers lying in those parts searched the houses of several gentlemen who w^ere accounted Ptoyalist, thinking to surprise him ; amongst which Pilisdon (the house of Sir Hugh Wyndham, uncle to Colonel Francis Wyndham) was twice rifled. They took the old baronet, his lady, daughters, and whole family and set a guard upon them in the hall whilst they examined every corner, not sparing either trunk or box. Then taking a particular view of their prisoners they seized a lovely young lady, saying she was the King disguised in woman's apparel. At length, being convinced of their gross and rude mistake, they desisted from offering any further violence to that flimily."'^ There is about half-a-mile from the old house at * This graphic description by Mrs. Anne Wyndham refers no doubt to what took place at Pilsdon during the second of these domiciliary visits. The.//)-s^ took place probably about a couple of months earlier, in pursuance of an order of the Council of State to Colonel Heane or Hayne, who had CHARLES II. IN DoRyET. 21 Pilsdou a long narrow copse of about ten or twelve acres in extent called King's Moor (or More) Copse. It adjoins Laverstock Farm, and lies on the road from Broadwindsor to Pilsdon. Tradi- tion says that in this copse the King lay hid, from which circum- stance it is said to have derived its name. It would not have been the first time that Charles had taken to a wood in times of danger, and the truth of this part of the tradition, at all events, w^as always accepted as an undoubted fact by a late tenant of the farm whom I well knew, and as such he received it. It is somewhat of a curious coincidence that Ainsworth, who in his story of the course the King took after reaching Bridport, shows a wide divergence from that generally accepted — an intentional divergence, perhaps, to show off his intimate knowledge of the district — states that on approaching Winterborne Abbas '' the Boyal party descried their pursuers and hid themselves in a copse till they passed." Perhaps he may have heard the tradition in the same form that I did. As I have said before, the authorita- tive accounts of the King's wanderings hardly support the tradition that the King visited Pilsdon, for they show that on the evening of the very day he left Broadwindsor, September 2ith, he reached Trent again, which would leave very little time for any concealment at Pilsdon, when one considers the distance to be traversed. The silence of the King himself on this subject when dictating the account of his wanderings to Pepys, the absence of any mention of the fact to be found in the circumstantial and charge of the Parliamentary troops in that district. A verbatim copy of this order has, through the kindness of Rev. J. H. Ward, of Gussage St. Michael, been placed in my hands. It runs as follows : — Whitehall Council of State to Colonel Heane July 28, 1651 Being informed that there has been some design lately carried on in Lady Windham's House in Dorset against the peace And that some persons may be privately lodged there, who may justly be suspected of carrying on the said design We desire you to repair to the said House. 22 CHARLES II. IN DORSET. detailed narratives given by Blount in his " Boscobel," by Captain EUesdon in his letter to Lord Clarendon, and by Mrs. Anne Wyndhani in her tract ''' Claustrum Regale Reseratum," to say nothing of the well recognised danger that must have attended his concealment in a house belonging to so well known a Royalist as Sir Hugh Wyndham, all tend in the opposite direction, and I am afraid that Pilsdon, like many other claimants to the honour of having entertained or sheltered the King, must be content to rest its claim (as I have said before) upon tradition only. The old manor-house, now but a farmhouse, with its fine old mullioned windows, and well cut label over the entrance door, still maintains a dignified appearance in its quiet retirement, though shorn of much of its beauty and size, and I do not know at the present moment a house better adapted for a similar purpose. At a distance from anything that can be called a road, it is fairly inaccessible at the best of times, as I have known to my cost ; whilst what it really may be in bad weather, let those who w^ere imprisoned in it during the fearful snow-storm of January 18th, 1881, say how many days passed before any food, beyond what happened to be in the house at the time, was able to reach the beleaguered garrison. It has occurred to me that it would be very interesting could we know the present condition or fate of such of the old houses as did actually conceal the King, an attempt to show which was actually made by Mr. Hughes in his Boscobel Tracts. But as that was now more than fifty years ago, and there have been changes in some of them since then, I may be pardoned if I shortly state (with regard to such of them as have formed part of the subject of my paper) what condition Mr. Hughes found them in at the time of the publication of the first edition of his book (1830), and the state that a tour recently undertaken by myself has shown them to be in now. I will begin with Trent, because though not actually in Dorset- shire, though on the immediate borders, it formed the starting point whence the wanderings in Dorset commenced, and the goal CHARLES II. IN DORSET. 23 to which the abortive result of those wanderings necessitated a return. Mr. Hughes, in the Boscohel Tracts (Ed. 1857, p. 103), gives a very good engraving of Trent House, and describes the mansion as consisting of two different parts. " The front, commonly selected as a point of view, is a heavy structure, erected since the Restoration ; the back part looking into the farmyard, and looking out on a range of massive old barns and stabling, contains the important features which the engraving- represented. Over the projecting penthouse, into which the kitchen door opens, are the windows of the bedchamber which Lady Wyndham gave up to the King's use. This room evidently was once connected with a smaller apartment in the projecting wing marked by the massive stone window, of the shape and size which proves it a hiding-place, and furnished with a double floor. The situation of the latter is shown by a small garret window, now boarded up, which furnished it with light and air ; and it probably communicated with a large dilapidated brew-house beneath, from which the curious traveller must crawl up to it by a ladder, to the great disarrangement of farming utensils and roosting hens, as well as peril to his own clothes. The kitchen is spacious and the fireplace baronial in its dimensions ; as might therefore be expected, the farmer's wife points to the identical spot where the King sat and turned the spit." Here I may mention that the incident of the spit, or rather jack, did not happen at Trent, as of course Mr. Hughes knew, but at Mr. Tombs's house at Long Marston, near Stratford-on-Avon, a house of which Mr. Hughes gives no description, though it is still in existence, for I went over it only last month. It boasts of a large stone chimney-stack, and, though there are more recent additions to it, the greater part of the building seems to be the same as it might well have been two hundred years ago. The old kitchen (where the jack is still religiously kept, secured in a glass case fastened on a beam, in a corner of the ceiling nearest to the large open fireplace) is now apparently used as a cider cellar. 24 CHARLES II. IN DORSET. I stayed a night recently at Trent Manor, and through the courtesy of my friend, ^vho had lately taken the house, I was enabled to go all over it. It has certninly been much altered since Mr. Hughes wrote, and the restoration and extensive additions to the building have robbed it, to my mind, of a great deal of interest from an antiquarian point of view. The garden wall at the back has been rebuilt and thrown back ; the pent- house too is gone ; but the small apartment in the projecting wing which formed the King's hiding-place is still there, though I saw no signs of a ladder or roosting hens. There is still Lady Anne Wyndham's bedchamber, externally at least restored, and no longer over the kitchen, but the dining-room, into which the kitchen has been converted. The huge fireplace, though moder- nised, is there ; whilst it is not difficult to see that a good deal of the panelling and beams that still keep their place in Lady Anne's room (of which Ainsforth gives a fairly trustworthy engraving in his novel) are not 17th century w^ork, to say the least. The King's quarters is the only part not restored, and no doubt designedly so, and, seen fi'om the back, present still an interesting and antiquated appearance, whilst the front of the house has been considerably enlarged in restoration. The quaint and beautiful little church immediately adjoining, wherein lie the monuments of the Wyndham family and its alliances, is well worthy of a visit. With regard to the old inn at Charmouth, Mr. Hughes remarks (in 1830) : — " It is still in existence, bearing marks of undoubted antiquity, and, though no longer an inn, is not likely to have been substituted by village traditiou for the right place." He obtained some further information from a lady correspondent, who says : — " The chimney at the east end of the house is immensely wide, and projects some feet into the upper room, causing a little recess, or very confined apartment, in which is a small window. This place is called the ' King's hiding-hole' by the people of the house, though a place that looks into the street is not very likely to have been used as a place of concealment." This part of the CHARLES II. IN' DORSET. 2o tradition Mr. Hughes very justly appears to regard as apocryphal, and that it was more likely such fabrications were constructed during the King's popularity for obvious reasons. When I saw the old house a week or two ago it presented much the same appearance as it might have done in 1830, and is now, and has long been, the residence of the Nonconformist minister at Charmouth, and adjoins the chapel. It is now divided into two dwellings, in the lower one of which is the chimney in question, though not now an open one in its entirety. On entering it through a cupboard door at the side one could move freely about in it. The occupant of the cottage told me that her husband's grandfather remembered when they used to roast an ox there ; and well they might, for it is certainly " immensely wide." There is an old stone doorway, with remains of large iron staples and hinges, and holes where apparently bars had once been fixed. My informant confided to me that Charles hid himself in the chimney for eight hours, and that the bars were used to prevent the door being forced whilst the King was there. With regard to this I am of Mr. Hughes' opinion. From the garden at the back the huge stone chimney-stack stands out conspicuous, and is the most antique feature in the whole building. The only interesting- feature in the higher dwelling, wherein lives the Nonconformist minister, is the ceiling of one of the ground floor rooms, which is divided into squares by massive beams of oak, with some good carving upon them, intersecting it. These I was given to under- stand had, until recently, been plastered up, and were only discovered whilst some repairs to the ceiling were being done. It struck me at the time that if the plaster were removed from the passage ceiling it would very likely be found that the beams were carried over it also in the same way. Mr. Hughes says nothing of the old " George Inn" at Bridport. The premises of Messrs. Beach and Co., chemists, situated almost at the junction of East and West streets, now occupy the site of the old " George," and the shop, over which run several old oak beams supporting the low ceiling, no doubt formed part of the old 26 CHARLES II. IN DORSET. hostelry. There are undoubted traces of a large court-yard behind, and space for abundant stabling, whilst part of the old stone-tiled roof remains, and seems to have formed a covering for several dwellings in more recent times. In a room at the back of the shop is preserved a large oil painting, which has been there as long as the present occupant, and his father before him, can remember. It is scvid to have been given by the King to the landlady in 166G — the date upon the canvas — and is stated to represent Queen Henrietta Maria, another lady, and three children. Why the King should have granted this distinction to a landlady in whose house he stayed but a very few hours, and who (if there were such a person) must have been absolutely ignorant of his presence, I cannot say. The story must go for what it is worth. There is, besides, what appears to be a portrait of the King himself, but not improbably a prior occupant of the premises has brought that there, for there is no tradition here that this (a much move likely subject than the other) was ever given to the landlady in question. The front of the house now bears this inscription : — " Tradition says that Charles II. hid himself here in 1651 ;" but not so very many weeks ago I think I remember the date put up w^as 166G, the date of the picture may be, but nevertheless an entirely erroneous one. " The George Inn, at Broadwindsor," says Mr. Hughes, writing- in 1830, ''was pulled down and rebuilt about ten years ago." That would be between sixty nnd seventy years from now. He appears to have had a communication from the Rev. Mr. Dowland (the then Vicar of Broadwindsor), who had sent him the substance of the village traditions. " The inn," he says, " after the Restoration changed its name from the ' Castle' to the ' George,' as was natural enough." Why natural ? There was no occasion to have done that before the House of Hanover came to the throne, when w^e might expect to find it (as we do) called the " George," in the second part of Blount's " Boscobel," which was not published until 1725 (temp. George II.). The jDresent landlord of the George told me very recently that he distinctly CHARLES II. IN DORSET. 27 remembered many years ago the inn had a painted signboard of " George and the Dragon." That looks as if it were more probably named after the national saint — and not king — George. Mr. Hughes goes on to say (on the authority of Mr. Dowland) that a " hiding-place in the roof was also shown, communicating with the top of the stairs through a passage masked by a sliding panel, which was asserted to have been the King's hiding-place," and gives it as his opinion "that it was subsequently made by some shrewd publican, possibly by honest Rice Jones himself. There exists still a piece of an old bedstead reported to have been presented by the King to Jones after his restoration, which is standing as part of an old summer-house. ' It was of extremely massive oak,' says Mr. Dowland, ' having the insignia of royalty beautifully carved, fluted, and gilded.' " Whether there be any truth in this I do not know, but I have in my possession two old oak and handsomely carved bed-posts, (which I purchased a few years ago from Mr. Ewens, of Crewkerne, to whose ancestors the George Inn at one time belonged), which were said to have formed part of the bedstead which Charles II. used the night he stayed at Broad^vindsor. This bedstead was removed from the inn, (probably when it was pulled down and rebuilt), and taken to pieces, one member of the family taking the tester, and another, or others, the bed-posts. The tester is now in the possession of a member of the f\imily, and the two posts I now possess were placed in a cottage at Mill Lane, Broad- wind sor, which also belonged to the same family, where they were scorched and charred whilst doing duty as supports to a chimney corner, until, I believe, the cottage was either burnt or pulled down. To this duty I have again relegated them, for now, thoroughly scraped and cleaned, they form two excellent columns or supports to an oak mantel-piece in my own library at Symonds- bury. At the present time there seems to be no trace of the old George, except in the name ; nor was I able to extract any further information or traditions about it during an interview^ I had with one of Broadwindsor's oldest inhabitants. 28 CHARLES II. IN DORSET. So true is it that when an old place goes its old associations soon follow it. Yet let but the old building remain, though only in ruins, the old traditions that have clustered round it, (may be for centuries), will haunt it still ; and, though sometimes too impenetrably shrouded in an atmosphere of myth and super- stition, yet not infrequently will afford to a painstaking and intelligent search those few grains of historical truth that well repay the annalist or the antiquary for his labour of love. J. S. Udal. The Manor House, Symondsbury, Bridport, September, 1885. ^hc Jlncicnt ConncctionlbctiDCcn Cranborne anil ^ctohcsbuvD. By T. W. W. SMART, M.D. HE ancient relationship between' the Abbeys of Cranborne and Tewkesbury gives us here an interest in that rich monastic institution which sprung up in the Severn Valley under the auspices of the Lords of the Honour of Glouces- ter, in whose vast domains both these abbeys w^ere included. It will probably be remembered that the Abbey of Cranborne was founded some time about a.d. 980, in the reign of King Ethelred H. This appears by a particular account of the transaction recorded in a valuable document — the Chronicle of Tewkesbury, which is preserved in the Monasticon Anglicanum. It is, of course, in Latin, the translation of which reads as follows : — " About the year of Grace 930, in the reign of the first and famous King Athelstan, there lived a noble knight named Aylward Sneaw (or Snow), so called from his fair complexion, a descendant of the illustrious family of King Edward the Elder. He was a man of great bravery, distinction, and spotless integrity. Being mindful of his death, he founded a small monastery for himself and his wife Elgiva, in the time of King Ethelred and St. Dunstan, in honour of God, our I>ord Jesus Christ, and His mother, and of St. Bartholomew, in his demesne at Cranborne, 30 CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY, and endowed it with lands and estates. Having gathered there some brethren under an x\bbot, who should strictly obey the rule of our holy Father St. Benedict, he made the Priory of Tewkes- bury, of which he was the patron, entirely subordinate to the Church of Cranborne. These things were transacted about the year 9S0. Aylward, the first lord, having departed this life, was honourably buried in the church which he had founded, and his son Algar, with his wife Algiva, were his heirs. To Algar suc- ceeded Brihtric, both of them good representatives of the faith and nobility of their ancestors, and, bemg actuated with a like spirit, they completed the vow of their parents by enlarging with suitable magnificence the church they had begun to build. "In the year 1102 Robert FitzHamon, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, resolved, at the entreaty of his good wife Sybil, and Gerald, abbot of Cranborne, that the Church of Tewkesbury should be rebuilt to the honour of God and the Blessed Virgin, and he endowed it with rents, lands, and large estates. And forasmuch as that spot seemed to be much superior to the monastery of Cranborne, in respect to fertility of soil and plea- santness of situation, he translated the brethren, with their Abbot Gerald and certain estates, to Tewkesbury, in the year of Grace before mentioned, leaving here a prior and two brethren for the sake of preserving the founder's memory to posterity ; so, changing the Abbey of Cranborne into a priory, he made it subordinate to the Abbey of Tewkesbury, and raised the Priory of Tewkesbury with great splendour to the dignity of an abbey." * In the course of a brief comment I have to make on this important record, I beg, in the first place, to invite attention to Aylward's name of Sneaw or Snow. He is elsewhere called Meaw or Meavves, as were also his son Algar and his grandson Brihtric. The discrepancy is so striking as to suggest whether Sneaw can be his correct appellation, or whetlier these names be not a corruption due to the carelessTiess or ignorance of translators or transcribers. There is a St. Meaux in Normandy, a Meux or * Dugdale's Mouast. Anglic, vol. 1, p. 153, first edition. CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY. 31 Meaux in Yorkshire, and a De Meaux or St. Mawes in Cornwall, all of them monastic sites ; and it is probable, I think, that Aylward, who was unquestionably of Royal Saxon lineage, may have had some early connection with either Cornwall or Yorkshire. Be this as it may, we know nothing of him beyond this brief but laudable account m the Chronicle of Tewkesbury. He seems to have been an early Lord of the Honour of Gloucester, which would give him the patronage of the Church of Tewkesbury. He appears to have been buried in the Church of Cranborne, which he had founded, and which, after his death, was enlarged and beautified by the filial piety of his son and grandson, the last of this Saxon line. From Domesday Book we learn that the Church of St. Mary at Cranborne held land in Gillingham, Boveridge, Monkton Up-Wimborne, Levetesford (Eastworth ?), Langford (Stratton, near Dorchester), Tarrant Monkton, Orchard, and at Damerham, in Wilts. The whole annual value amounts to about 500 shillings, which might be reckoned at least £s^^ ^^ o^^ money, probably more. These lands and estates were most probably of Aylward's original grant, and were, of course, trans- ferred to Tewkesbury by the subsequent grant of FitzHamon. * Soon after the usurpation of the lands and estates of Brihtric by William the Conqueror, to which act he is said to have been incited by his wife Matilda, in revenge for the slight which she had received from Brihtric when he visited the court of her father, Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, to whom he was sent as ambassador by Edward Confessor, followed by his cruel death, a.d. 1070, the palmy days of the Abbey of Cranborne departed after the short reign of about 120 years ; its prosperity faded, and its glory under Saxon nursing-fathers suffered an eclipse from which it never again emerged. I must confess that I never contemplate this change without a feeling of sadness and regret. The principal agent in this transaction was Robert FitzHamon, a Norman nobleman of very great wealth and power, cousin of * Hutchins gives more details of the property of this Abbey, confirmed by grants of Henry I. and Roger Bishop of Sarum, a.d. 1109. 32 CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY. William Rufus, who conferred on him the Lordship of the Honour of Gloucester, of which Brihtric had been cruelly deprived, in reward for his service in the conquest of Glamorganshire. Of course he could do what he pleased with his own, and now both Cranborne and Tewkesbury were under his patronage. And now we may see, I think, the power of priestly influence w^hich the Abbot of Cranborne exercised over the piety of Sybil, FitzHamon's wife, to persuade him to rebuild and re-endow the neglected Abbey of Tewkesbury, said to have been originally founded in A.D. 715. This abbot, Gerald de Brienne, a K'orman monk, probably owned no lively affection for this Saxon foundation at Cranborne, and preferred the prospect of an institution under the Norman dynasty, for the ostensible reason stated in the record. The translation of the brethren to their new abode took place in A.D. 1 102. There w^ere 57 of them. Two only, with a prior, were left behind at Cranborne to preserve the semblance of a religious house and to carry on the service of the parish church. We trust that the Abbot Gerald and his 57 brethren had no occasion to look back with unavailing regret on the luxurious repasts afforded by the Cranborne Chase venison which they had left behind, consoled by the fact that it was now replaced by the dainty produce of the Severn fishery, far superior to that of the humble Crane stream to which they had been accustomed. They had, indeed, no reason to regret the change, now located as they were in a rich and beautiful valley, more attractive lo them than the bleak downs and woods and moors of Dorset, and not far distant from one of the chief residential strongholds of their powerful patron the Earl of Gloucester. But there is a tide in the affairs of men, and so in the course of a few centuries the time arrived when it was very low water at Tewkesbury, so low that this once flourishing abbey was left high and dry by the receding waves, in the sense of the loss of all its wealth, dignity, and splendour, and thus robbed, despoiled, and forsaken, it stood amidst its losses and its ruin, a proud memorial of the days when lords and mitred priests worshipped within CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY. 33 its walls and left them the legacy of their honoured dust ! As in all historical notices freedom from error should be the writer's special care, I cannot overlook a passage in Mr. Blunt's History of Tewkesbury Abbey, quoted by Dr. Harman, D.D., in some very excellent papers entitled " Historical Memories," pubUshed by him in the " Antiquary." Mr. Blunt is therein quoted as to Brihtric, the last of the Saxon line, stating him to have been " seized in his chapel at Hanley, about three miles from Cranborne Abbey (where he had, perhaps, fled for sanctuary), on the very day of her (Queen Matilda's) coronation, and had him conveyed, a prisoner, to Winchester, &c." Now I wish to point out that there is absolutely no authority for this statement, and it illustrates the mode in which errors are invented and repeated and received without any suspicion of their want ot truth. All we know of this part of the history is contained in the Chronicle of Tewkesbury, which runs thus — " He caused him (Brihtric) to be seized in his Manor of Hanley and to be taken to Winchester, where he died and was buried, leaving no issue." The manor only of Hanley is mentioned, not a word about " chapel" or " coronation." Old Leland's version differs again, who says— " He put hym (Brihtric) yn the castelle of Hanley beside Sares- burye, where he died." Such, unfortunately, is the way in which history, as it is called, is too often written, and it becomes very necessary, if we are at all curious, to refer when we can to the fountain head, for the rills w^hich flow from it are often turbid and distort the truth. It does not appear that the Manor of Handley (not Hanley), in Dorset, " beside Saresburye," was one of the 440 manors which belonged to the Honour of Glo'ster, held by Brihtric ; but the Manor of Hanley Castle, in Worcestershire, was unquestionably one of those manors. It was one of the chief Baronial Castles of the Honour, and it was there, without doubt, in his own manor and casde where Brihtric was seized and thence taken to Winchester, the capital of the West Saxons, where he died in prison, and where he was also buried, the victim, as it is said, of a woman's revenge. 34 CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY. When the chancel of Cranborne Church was rebuilt by the Marquis of Salisbury, in 1S75, ^^"'^ workmen discovered, in demolishing the wall, several fragments of the efifigy of a knight sculptured in Purbeck marble, broken up and utilised in building the wall along with flints and rubble. It is clearly shown that the figure was habited in armour of ring-mail, and parts of it showed traces of gilding and colouring. This mutilation of an ancient and costly monument must be referred to a previous rebuilding of the chancel, which is believed to have taken place in the early part of the 15th century, under the auspices of Thomas Paiker, i8th Abbot of Tewkesbury. His monogram, ''T.P.," in Old English letters, was formerly to be seen carved in stone on the cornice above the exterior of the east window, and it may still be seen on the frieze of the pulpit, which is a good specimen of oak carving of the 15th century. But, as regards this monument, it is not at all obvious to what date or personage it may be safely assigned. None of the ancient Lords of the Manor, with the exception of Aylward, so far as we know, was buried in this church. The De Clares were buried at Tewkesbury. In specu- lating on this question, at first sight it seems feasible that it might be the effigy of Aylward, the founder of our abbey, but I am not sure that there exist any examples of knights in ring-armour, sculptured on tombs, so early as of the first half of the nth century. Of the 12th they may be found, of the 13th they are not uncommon. I should be inclined to refer the monument in question to this era, for the reason that it may have been placed in this church by Robert, Consul or Earl of Glo'ster, the illegi- timate son of King Henry I., whose marriage with Mabel, eldest of the four daughters, co-heiresses of Robert FitzHamon, brought him great wealth and the grant of the Honour of Gloucester. Perhaps I may be allowed to digress a little here to give the account of this lady's espousals, which is very quaintly told by Robert of Glo'ster, the rhyming monk. The narrative thus runs : " When the King made the proposal that she should marry his son she was against it, and long withstood it, and when the King 1413057 CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY. 35 often solicited her, she at Last answered h"ke a good and courteous maiden — ' Sir,' said she, ' I see plainly that your heart is set on me more for the sake of my inheritance than of myself; having such an inheritance as I have, it would be dishonourable to me to have a lord who had not two names. My father's name was Sir Robert le FitzHayme, and that inheritance ought not to be any man's that was not of his rank, therefore, for God's love, let me have no man for a husband who has not two names whereby he may be known.' ' Damsel,' quoth the King, ' thou sayest well in this case ; thy father's name was Robert le FitzHayme, and I will take care that my son shall have one as fair, for his name shall be Sir Robert Fitz le Roy.' ' Sir,' said the maiden, ' that is a fair name and of great repute as long as he shall live, but what shall his son be called, or any other of his descendants ? Unless care be taken of that also they may soon come to have no name !' The King perceived that the maiden said nothing unreasonable, and, knowing that Gloucester was the chief part of her heritage — ^ Damsel,' said he, ' thy lord shall have a fair unobjectionable name for himself and his heirs ; his name shall be Robert Earl of Gloucester, and he and his heirs shall be Earls of Gloucester.' ' Sir,' quoth the maiden, ' then I like this well ; on these terms I consent that all my land shall be his.' " * And thus this important matter was happily settled to the lady's satisfaction, and, no doubt, to the gentleman's also. FitzHamon died A.D. 1 107, two years before the marriage. At the time of his death the building of Tewkesbury Abbey was unfinished, so that his remains were deposited there in a temporary vault, from which they were subsequently removed to a more eligible position in the church, and it was reserved for Abbot Parker, towards the end of the 14th or the beginning of the 15th century, to erect a sumptuous monument over his tomb. This must have taken place at about the time of the rebuilding of our chancel by the same worthy abbot, and we may not unreasonably conjecture, if * Seyer's History of Bristol, vol. 1, p. 353. The rhyming monk's un- couth language is transferred into modern English. 3G CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY. this were the effigy of FitzHamon, that after the lapse of three centuries, when masses for the repose of his soul were no longer heard in this church, and the monument itself become old and unvalued, it was ordered to be broken up. It had outlived the memory of the age. It was ever the custom to erect honorary monuments or cenotaphs to celebrated personages who were interred in distant places. For instance. Dr. Harman tells us that the fragment of a monument to this very Robert Fitz le Roy, Earl of Gloucester, was found beneath the altar in Tewkesbury, and we know that his body was interred before the High Altar in the Priory Church of St. James', Bristol, where stood at that time the Chief Castle of the Honour of Gloucester, and that priory was fated, like that of Cranborne, to be affiliated to the Abbey of Tewkesbury. [Seyer's History of Bristol.] It is not possible to point out the site of the Abbey of Cran- borne with certainty ; the priory that succeeded it probably stood on part of its site. The priory stood on the south side of the church, on land that now forms part of the vicarage garden. It was pulled down in a.d. 1703, having been until then inhabited as a dwelling-house. [The Church Register.] Large stones, as of a foundation, have been dug up in the adjoining churchyard. The parish church shows remains of Norman work, notably in the north porch, which may possibly be a relic of the abbey ; but there is also evidence of the church having been rebuilt in the early English era, which may be referred to a.d. 1250. [Dugdale's Monasticon.] This date corresponds with the time when Gilbert de Clare, second Earl of Clare, Gloucester, and Hertford, was a minor in the wardship of King Henry III. He died in 1262; his body was buried at Tewkesbury, his heart at Tunbridge, and his bowels at Canterbury, in obedience to custom. This powerful Baron may have rebuilt our church and placed therein the honorary and costly memorial to the memory of his great ancestor, FitzHamon. We will now pause and look back upon the centuries that are CRANBORNE AND TEWKESBURY. 37 gone, and contemplate the vicissitudes that have befallen both churches during that long and eventful period ; it may be with somewhat of regret for the past, but assuredly with more of thankfulness for the present, though the feeling be not unalloyed with somewhat of distrust of the future. But now we may turn our gaze on Tewkesbury, and rejoice that the once proud abbey, doomed to neglect, has been restored, in this nineteenth century* to a large measure of that architectural beauty and that structural stability which were her portion in the sunshine of her olden days, and then with humbler pride we may turn our sight on our own fine old parish church, which has lifted up her head through the liberality of her noble patron and the help and sympathy of many other friends. And now we can unite with our ancient rival in the closer connection of Christian brotherhood. And if, in looking to the future, we should see from time to time dark clouds rising on our horizon, threatening to sweep away our most cherished and time-honoured institutions, we trust that the whirl- wind, if it come, will howl around these walls in vain, and that the churches of our forefathers will withstand the shock, and remain, even to the consummation of time, the monuments of our national faith and guardians of our homes ! August 17th, 1886. T. W. W. S. Jlbbotsbun) J^bbcD^ By H. J. MOULE, M.A. (Read at Ahhotshury Sept. Ibth, 1886.J N the " Historia Longobardica, Aurea dicta Legenda/' many a legend begins with " De nominis interpretatione," and most astounding studies in etymology follow. Well, what here at Abbotsbury de nominis interpretatione ? There was no i\bbey, therefore no Abbot, here till 1044 ; so at first sight the name Abbotsbury would seem to be as recent as that date. Yet the name may have arisen earlier, for before that date Abbotsbury is said to have belonged to Glastonbury Abbey. Its primeval name, if it had a totally different one, seems lost. I find nothing of it in Hutchins or Coker. Is it possible, however (I don't say probable by any means), that Abbotsbury is a corruption merely, not a total change, of name ? Coker seems to have read the register of the monastery. In it a church was affirmed to have been built '' in the verie Infancie of Christianitie amongst the Britains," by Bertufus, a holy priest. To him St. Peter often appeared — granted him an autograph charter — consecrated the church — and *' professeth to have given it to name Abodesbyry." " We are not obliged to believe legends," said a Roman Catholic priest to me no very long time ago. But we must believe that they were concocted, if not with verity, at least with verisimiUtude. And it abbotsbury abbey. 39 would be a clumsy thing to make St. Peter call a place Abbotstury in (say) the 5th century when there was to be no Abbot there until the eleventh, and apparently no connection with Glastonbury Abbey in the time of Bertufus, or presumably for long after. So may not Abodesbyry be the original form, whether it means a naval station, as some say, or something more likely to apply to the spot ? And may not Abbotsbury be a subsequent corruption, importing into the name a then famihar significance ? But to go on with what, of course, must be a bare outline of the history of the place. The next thing known of Abbotsbury is that it was a rural retreat of the Saxon kings. On King Knut winning the realm, he gave xA.bbotsbury, Portisham, and Helton to Ore, his house-carle. Ore, or Orcy, and his wife Thole, eponymos of Tolpuddle, dedicated their Abbotsbury and other property to found a fraternity of secular canons in 1026. This was in connection with the long ruined primitive Celtic Church of St. Peter. It is to be supposed that Ore restored this church and erected some sort of dwellings for the canons. But in 1044, furnished with a charter from King Edward the Confessor, and probably too with authority from the Church powers, he took the whole foundation again into hand. He expelled the canons, " built a faire monasterie, and stored it with Benedictine Monks from Cermill Abbie." This, I suppose, is a slip of Coker's for Cernel, which is Cerne Abbas. Ore, and also his Rouennaise wife, the heroine Thole (as Dugdale calls her), w^re buried in the new Abbey Church. At the dissolution the bones appear to have been removed to the parish church " inclosed in a daintie marbill coffin, which I have often scene," says Coker. From Hutchins it appears that this coffin is at this moment buried near the north end of the Holy Table. After founding the Abbey, Ore also established at Abbotsbury a guild or lay-fraternity in honour of God and St. Peter, wdth a Guildhall, and with a very remarkable code of rules, which is written in Hutchins in Saxon, English, and Latin. I do not know that there is anything that need be said about 40 ABBOTSBURY ABBEY. the Story of the Abbey down to the dissolution. In those long years the possessions of the Abbey increased, comprising at length 2 2 manors, besides other profits and privileges. These consisted of lands, rectories, advowsons, and pensions. The Abbey lands in Abbotsbury alone amounted to more than 2,000 acres. Yet the revenue was the lowest, as the Abbey was the most recent, among all the Benedictine houses in Dorset. At the dissolution the value was put down at only about ;!{^4oo a year. But this must have been vastly too low. After the dissolution the buildings and (I think) only tlie Abbotsbury land were granted to the Strangways family, and less than 100 years later their income therefrom was estimated at ;!^8oo per annum. The Strangways family altered or rebuilt part of the Abbey buildings for a mansion. In 1644 this was besieged, taken, and " burnt to the ground" by Sir A. A. Cooper for the Parliament. Such is a faint, scratchy, outline of the story of old Abbotsbury Abbey, the fragments of the buildings of which we must now hasten to consider. First, though, I would add a word of surprise that there seems no record of the Abbey being wasted by Corsairs. It would seem to be especially exposed to them ; and Coker says of two places quite near — Berwick and Bexington — that the " owners were heretofore much pestered with the French Pyrates." Now, then, we turn to the remnants of the great group of buildings which in varying style adorned and dignified this pleasant valley, and against the warm tones of which the black Benedictine vesture must have shown solemnly and well as the fathers walked the cloister, or filed up the church, or sat in the refectory, or passed out to say mass in St. Catharine's of the hill. The last great monastery-site visited by the Club was Bindon. Attention may for a moment be drawn to the very striking difference in almost every point between the two. Bindon is hardly raised above the level of the Frome, and was surely liable to be flooded in old times of presumably greater rain-fall. Abbotsbury, lying low indeed as regards the considerable hills encircling it, and not destitute of water-streams, is wholly free ABBOTSBURY ABBEY. 41 from the somewhat aguish suspicions of Bindon. Other natural contrasts might be named, but I am just now thinking of different ones. The misplaced diligence of the neighbours of Bindon has almost reduced it to the doom of ancient Jerusalem — not one stone on another. Here at Abbotsbury, on the contrary, we by no means have to call wholly on our theoretical knowledge of mediaeval architecture, and on our creative fancy, for a presentment of the Abbey. Here we have at least fragments, upstanding to the eye, to help our fancy. No man can look at Abbotsbury barn without a vision, if dim yet grand, of Abbotsbury Abbey Church and Abbotsbury cloister, and chapter-house and refectory, and all the rest of it. Yes, we can recall into momentary existence Abbotsbury Monastery ever so much better than Bindon. But there is another contrast just the other way. Bindon walls are gone. x\bbotsbury walls in part are standing. But Bindon foundations can be almost completely traced. Now, at Abbotsbury it is quite impossible to decide by actual, existing, visible founda- tions anything like a complete plan. The buildings remaining are the great barn, a portion of an important edifice a little north of its west extremity, the east wall of the farmhouse-garden, and a stable attached to it. All these are on a lower level than the sort of plateau on which the Abbey Church and its surroundings stood, and my impression is — I don't in the least insist on it — my impression that like the barn these two other masses of building were for purposes of less dignity than those on the plateau. These latter— this upper group in position and dignity — are " the old Pynion end," so-called locally, a building south-east of the parish church and now a workshop and stable, an isolated archway, remnants of the gatehouse arch, and last and chiefest some recovered bases of the Abbey Church north wall. Let us consider this upper group first. I believe that it is to a request or suggestion of the late vicar, the Rev. G. H. Penny, that we are indebted for the partial uncovering of the base of that wall, on which is built the south wall of the parish churchyard. We can see the lower courses of five 42 ABBOTSBURY ABBEY. bays of the eastern part of the wall of the north nave aisle. We see the cheeks of five windows, with dropped sills for benches, and bases of vaulting, or, at least, roof shafts. These appear to be 15th century, third pointed work. The tile pavement, too, remains in part, at least, under some inches of earth. What I have seen appears to be of plain tiles. Then there is the base of the corresponding part of the western portion of the nave visible. There are bases only of smaller, subordinate vaulting shafts, of the 13th or 14th century. Now, how far can we trace the rest of the plan of the chuich? Little enough as far as the look of the ground is concerned — in midday light at least. I greatly regret that I have not been able to study the spot in a low but strong light. Then is the time to see the slight inequalities which sometimes enable us to trace old foundations. But a careful inspection in even a high light has helped a little, and not a little assistance has been derived from the late vicar's notes, most kindly lent to me by Mrs. Penny. These notes record the results of excavations made in 1870, before the visit of the Arch^ological Association. It appears that the nave was 192ft. long and 54ft. wide, and that the choir was 27ft. wide, length unknown. There is no sign of transepts. There seems to have been a chapel, perhaps the Strangways chantry, opening from the N.E. part of the nave. We may conjecture that the i3>^ft. narrowing of the chancel on each side, as compared with the total width of the nave, represents the width of the north and south aisles of the latter. Mr. Penny shows foundations of two buttresses of pretty bold projection — perhaps enough to allow us to imagine them to have carried flying buttresses and therefore a vaulted roof.* But this is mere speculation. I think that what I have said tells us all we actually know about the Abbey Church, except that signs of a south door towards the east end of the nave have been detected. * On the north wall of the church5\ard is a base of a respond of several shafts of first pointed date, which certainly implies a groined roof ; and, of course, can belong only to the Abbey Church. ABBOTSBURY ABBEY. 43 With this certainty as to the general site of the Abbey Church on the northern extremity of the Convent precinct, and the certainty as to the vast existing barn on the southern boundary thereof, our certainties as to the buildings unfortunately come to an end. And we cannot call to our aid argument from the normal Benedictine plan, which, Liibke says, was to group the buildings round the church. Here that could not be, the Church, as we have seen, being at the very northern edge of the precinct. I may remind you that the refectory at Benedictine I^Iilton is north of the church, and so are the remaining buildings at Benedictine Sherborne. Here at Abbotsbury all has to be looked for south of the church. It seems to me just possible to trace a square of about 65ft. each way south of the western half of the nave, which may be the area of the cloisters. It is difficult to reconcile with this idea the isolated remaining archway forming part of a demolished enclosing wall. But I don't think we need reconcile it, for I consider that arch to have belonged not to the Abbey at all, but to be part of the precinct of the later Strangways house. Now, to speak of the " Pynion end," the high fragment with ivy on it. In Buck's view, dated 1733, this gable has fragments of the side walls attached to it, and a two-light second-pointed window in each, with a low arch showing below that on the south side ; and, indeed^ the sill of the south window and a springer of the arch below it yet remain. From the look of these upper windows, and from the chimney and fireplace on a level with them, I conjecture that this was the refectory with cellars or storehouses, and possibly the kitchen, below. There is a sign of a ledge or set-back in the walls below the window. This might have carried beams for the refectory floor. There is a curious Httle stone, panelled in an odd way, in the chimney back. The dwelling of the monks would be adjoining the church, the refectory, and the cloisters, and I imagine it to have been on the east side of the cloister square. Possibly the abbot's lodging was on the south side of the same, reaching to the steep descent to the pond. Of this upper group of buildings, spoken of a little 44 ABBOTSBURY ABBEY. way back, we have still to consider only the last, that now used as a stable and workshop. It has been a building of dignity and importance, judging by the excellent second pointed two-light window, arched, with a six cusped light in the head, in the north wall. Adjoining is a square-head window, of same date, and also good ; and in the east gable there is a very queer Httle window, only a yard each way. It is square-headed, without hood moulding, or any reveal. It contains eight tiny lights in two ranks, each light arched and trefoiled at top. To my eye it seems a very curious window, and probably of the 14th century. Now, what was this building ? It stands in a position suitable for the chapter house, and I venture to suggest that use."^ It was a not uncommon thing, to say the least, to have an altar in the chapter house ; and that curious little window, facing east, may possibly have had the altar below it, or perhaps forming its sill. But 1 am ashamed to wander in this wilderness of conjecture; and in now taking up the buildings below the plateau above spoken of, vague conjecture still surrounds us. I dismiss the traditionary assignments of the dormitory, brewhouse, and malthouse, believing the two latter to be most likely parts of the monastery converted to those uses in Strangways' times, and the first to be unlikely, to say the least of it, from the distance of any of these buildings from the church. To begin with the dairyhouse. The large blocked-up arch in it suggests that it was the gatehouse of the Abbot's garden at the back of it. I cannot indeed see or hear anything about a corresponding arch on the west side of the house, to prove a thoroughfare, but that seems to have been altered and added to. If a gatehouse, it might be the dwelling of a lay brother in charge of the 14 acre garden — the best bit of land in Dorset, I have heard — and of the fish pond supposed to have been there. The lay brother kept grand fires, judging by the great chimney in * This is disputed by a geutleman who thinks that the building in question was the Abbot's house. It is very jpossible. If so the chapter house may have been on the east of the cloisters, and the monks' dwelling on the south of them. ABBOTSBURY ABBEY. 45 what is now the milkhouse. Then what of the building by the farmhouse, consisting now of a stable and the garden wall at right angles to it ? The remaining work looks somewhat like part of two sides of a quadrangle.* Now, I am ignorant of the general position and nature of the dwelling of the lay brothers of a Monastery. But in one where, as probably here, much land was kept in hand, the lay brothers must have been pretty numerous, for I presume most of the farm work was done by them. Can this supposed quadrangle, adjoining probably the great barton, have been the lay brothers' abode ? Or, again, it might be that and stables combined. I said that probably much of the Abbey lands, within easy reach, was kept in hand. I judge by the stupendous barn, to which we now come in our survey. It is difficult to believe that that enormous building was required only for tithe corn and perhaps rent corn. It is, and always has been, in two divisions. May not one be for the corn received as above, and the other for j-he home estate corn ? But let us think a moment not of the uses but of the structure of this 282 foot barn. Ashlar without, ashlar within, of most seemly and noble 15th century style, with the north porch and the west gable specially admirable features, well would it be if all our churches were half as well designed and carried out. The buttressing of the west gable is a very bold and clever bit of architecture, the crenellated heads of the corner buttresses and the niche crowning the centre Qne giving a finished and artistic air to the whole, quite wonderful in a barn. We may notice the same style partly reproduced in the gable of the dairy house and in the ivied " Pynion end." I think Irom the considerable rebuilding of the top of the north wall of the western barn — that now in use — that there was a time when it could not and did not therefore carry a roof Probably this was after the spoil of the monastery at the dissolution. For I put down the * It is very difficult to understand the eastern face of the garden wall. The windows suggest two stories, but no signs of flooring arrangements can be detected. 46 ABBOTSEURY ABBEY. present roof, with its quasi hammer-beam, but not very old looking framing, to be of the 17th century only, and | robably always thatched as now, whereas I cannot but believe that such grand walls originally carried a noble massive roof, with most likely stone tiles— such a roof as that of the majestic Cerne Abbas barn. Further, I venture to think that the barn was parapeted all round, the parapet carried on corbels and with rain-holes in the parapet. The south wall shows signs of this. Before quitting the barn I may say that, while I think the roof only 200 to 300 years old, the beams upholding the upper floor in the north porch may be original, and just possibly the two or three vastly long ones reaching right across the barn. The north doors are by no means new — perhaps as old a> the roof On the oak door bar there is a cutting of the date 1730. I cannot see how waggons got easy exit or entrance at the south doors, the steep land rises so close to them. I think, indeed, the disused mill race there to be a modern intmsion, but even allowing for this there seems but little room. As no remark seems called for respecting the all but demolished gatehouse, the supposed scene of the starving to death of the last Abbot, we now pass on to by many degrees the most noteworthy building belonging to Abbotsbury Abbey. This, of course, is St. Catharine's Chapel, intended, it is believed, both as a seamark and beacon tower, and as a chantry for sailors. Chapels with this dedication to St. Catharine are often on hills — for instance, the little one at Milton Abbas. Why was this ? Mr. Hills, secretary of the British Archaeological Association, when they met here in 187 1, threw out this suggestion. Catharine is from KaeapSs, pure, as every one knows. Might the high situation for her chapels be chosen with an idea of placing them in air of congenial purity ? Again, another idea is that lofty sites were chosen because of a mountain coming into the legend of St. Catharine's death, when she was borne of angels to Mount Sinai. But, for whatever reason so placed, here we have a grandly situated St. Catharine's, and well worthy of its heavenward, airy ABBOTSBURY ABBEY. 47 site. From appearance, and I think from tradition, the track to the chapel from the monastery seems to have taken a reach through or more Hkely north of the Abbey garden, and then a contrary reach south-west, skirting the north end of the many landchets which so remarkably cover the east side of the hill. Now, as to the building. Set up there, buffeted by all the blasts of heaven, specially by the unbroken force of the tearing sou'westers, no common building could stand for long. And it is no common building that was placed there in the first half of the 15th century and stands bravely up, roof and all, now in the evening of the 19th. Yes, there is the roof; that is the wonder. Fergusson is severe on the imperfections of most roofs, ancient, mediaeval, and modern. They mostly consist in part of wood. A glorious vaulted church, like Westminster, let alone as St. Catharine's was for ages, would shortly fall to pieces. The outer lead and wood roof is perishable and would not long keep off rains, and, worse still, frosts, from the thin film of stone forming the groined inner roof This would then perish lamentably. Not so with what he calls a genuine roof — a really imperishable one — stone without, stone within, stone all through. Such are rare in these islands, and rarest of all, I fear, in England. I myself have seen only four — two in Scotland (Roslyn and Borthwick), two in England (our Dorset St. Aldhelm's and our Dorset St. Catharine's here). How splendidly this last is planned for its situation. How splendidly was the plan carried out ! Go within. How splendidly there, too, has solid simplicity been glorified with admirable detail in that roof. I may be wrong, but I think that this style of detail for a roof — bold vaulting ribs richly bossed where ridge and purline ribs intersect them, and each recess so formed simply panelled, like three blank foliated window lights — I think this style a very rare one. All the rest of the chapel harmonises perfectly with the imperishable looking, yet not cumbrous, roof The parapet surrounding it, with the bold spots of shadow formed by the rain- holes, the beacon turret, the massive buttresses crowned with crenellated cresting instead of pinnacles— the porches so enduring 48 ABBOTSBURY ABBEY. looking — all are in absolute concord, and combine into as perfect a mediaeval building of its kind and for its purpose as can easily be found anywhere.* I have only to add firstly that, while every- thing else inside and outside stamps St. Catharine's as of the 15th century, the piscina rather looks as if of the 14th ; and, secondly, that the projection of some of the upper courses of the turret is to me a puzzle. It does not appear to show inside. It obviously is not an accident, and yet there seems no reason or use for it. I am ashamed of this tame sketch of St. Catharine's. Every Dorset man with the least glow of admiration for our old world betters in design and in work — every such Dorset man must have a real affection for this our old county's triumph of head craft and handicraft. But I am here to read a paper, not to make an oration, if I could even. And while expressing shame, let me apologize for my string of conjectures throughout this paper. I might be a very Yankee for guessing. But let me end at least with a certainty. There certainly was an amazing plenty of of art, energy, and money in Abbotsbury Abbey in the 14th and 15th centuries. All we see dates from that epoch. Nay, St. Catharine's, the Barn, the Pynion end, and the dairy house gable are all identical in style and must have been built within a very few years of each other. What a vast cost ! But we know that the Benedictines did, as the ages went on, heap up riches. Some contrast between Benedict unseen, lost to the knowledge of men, hidden in a drear cave in the wild waste of Subiaco, that he might be alone with God, on one side ; and, on the other side, his Benedictines 800 years after, pulling down their barns here to build greater — with their redundant money — for their unmeasured corn. Well for the Benedictines, though, if the annals of Bene- dictine St. Albans, for instance, told of the order no worse things than that here, in this fair Dorset Vale, the Abbotsbury fathers reared up stately seemly building after building, of the mellow ochry ashlar, to glow in the evening suns of half a millennium. * The three wishing holes, one for the knee, two for the hands, should he noted. They are in the east jamb of the south doorway. Proc. DoTSef. N.H. & A.F. Cbxh.Yvl . VIII . Fl . I. -m ^;-x:y^ ;<:t^:*>>>;*.v> *;*>>!*>,+>>:*>>;<^ ffjlM^'- \ r^ ^'\^ Rev. 7/. Barnes Pkolc . Mirvtem Bros.litlx Churclh of •S': 'Jolin Baptist . Bere Regi^ . InjUrwr, Lcckxrig JVe»?t . §zxz ^zqxB. By the Rev. J. P. LANGFORD (Vicar). (Bead at Bere Regis, August \^tli, 1885 J Plate I. DO not intend to lay before the Field Club to-day any discoveries of my own or any original theory upon the history and antiquities of Bere. In drawing up this sketch of Bere and its church I have but used the material which others have collected, and invite discussion from those far more qualified than I am to give an opinion on some controverted topics. Let us begin w4th the name Bere Begis. Here, at once, we are on disputed ground. Is there any connection between Bere and yonder brewery ? Was the writer of the article in the Saturday Review, July 24, 1880, serious when he tells the story that King John was so delighted w^ith the beverage that was set before him that he decreed that the town should ever bear the name of Beer, with the addition of Regis, in token of his Royal approbation ? A total abstainer may be allowed to prefer a watery derivation equally improbable — that connects it with "Beer," the Hebrew for well, and ascribes to Phoenician merchants those west country Beres, Beer, near Seaton, Bere Ferris, Beer Hackett, Bere Crocombe. Far more probable is Mr. Taylor's supposition that the word is of Scandinavian origin, signifying a cluster of buildings or a farmstead, and akin to the old form 50 BERE REGIS. " byr," the same as the Icelandic " boer," a farm, which still survives in the " cow byres" of Scotland and the northern counties of England, and I suppose connected with " borough," " bury," and Danish " by." The last edition of Hutchins' Dorset derives it from a word denoting low, scrubby wood, such as once covered the whole district, and of which we have a remnant in that lovely bit of wood and the old boundary oak by which your secretary proposes to take 3^ou to his own parish of Bloxworth. I only wish that one venerable member of this Field Club (Rev. W. Barnes) were pre- sent to-day to support this view, which I believe is his. Eegis : *' Under what king?" Bere is said to touch national history at three periods— Saxon, Norman, Tudor — and in the touch we approach to Royalty. True, our Royal connections are not very reputable, but still it is not every parish that can boast a Royal connection. The earliest recorded instance of Royal presence is when Elfrida, the murderess of Edward the Martyr, fled from Corfe Gate, the scene of the murder, to this Ro3^al residence, where she could remain in retirement and avoid suspicion. Here we may place the scene of that beating of the young King, her ten year old boy, Ethelred, with big wax candles, there being no stick at hand, when the poor boy wept for the death of his brother who had given him the throne. Wherefore, writes the chronicler, " Ethelred ever hated wax candles, and would have none burnt before him all the days of his life." Our next Royal resident is less mythical but scarcely less repulsive; no less than 15 visits are recorded of King John. After having landed at Studland on the abandonment of the proposed invasion of Normandy in 1205, he came on to Bere, where, in a letter dated May 25th, in a very unusual fit of piety, he ordered his bailiff to cause a fair crucifix to be set up " in our chapel at Bere." The kitchen which he had erected for his service at Bere in 1207 is perhaps more consistent with his character, and still more the exaction of the thirteenth on all movables, from laymen and clergymen alike, which was to be BERE REGIS. 51 paid (,£20,000) into our chamber at Bere. Now, I should be very- glad to have the opinion of archa3ologists on this point — what is the date of the earliest work of the south aisle and arcade 1 Is it contemporary with King John 1 And does the architecture (excellent specimen as it is of the transition from Norman to Early English, with early pointed arches on heavy Norman pillars, with Norman dog-tooth moulding) coincide in date with the reign of John 1 If so, may we not suppose that that super- stitious monarch may have tried to salve his conscience by devoting some part of the £20,000, his original exaction, to the service of God in the building of this church ? In connection with the early part of tlie church let me call your attention to the carving of the Norman columns. At one corner of a capital you w ill find a head crowned and bearded. Is it King John ] A Koyal head in such a position seems to hint a Royal benefactor. But the head is in curious company. Next to it is a scene from old sports, bear baiting ; on the other side grotesque heads ; a man holds his mouth open with both hands, another hides his eyes with his hands. I ti'ied to identify the King's head by comparison with coins, but was told at the British Museum that the Royal heads on early coins were not representations of indi- viduals, but that the head on the c nns of John was identical with that of earlier kings, so the only way in which I had hoped to recognise the Royal head has failed. With King John Royal residency ceases, and the manor passed in 1269 to the Abbess of Tarent ; with it " a fair, a market, a free warren, and the whole forest of Bere." Here at Bere were many of the abbesses buried. Possibly those crosses built into the walls of the porch are of that date (late 13th century), and I am told that the walls of the south aisle are built upon the old grave stones of the abbesses of Tarent. The last abbess, Margaret Russell, desired by her will (1567) to be buried in Bere Church. Most of the church, as we see it now, must have been erected during its connection with the Abbey of Tarent in the 14th and 15th centuries. The architectural features, though they offer a 52 BERE REGIS. good study of the a-radual change of style from Early English to Decorated and Perpendicular,^ are not sufficiently striking to call for special notice in this short sketch. But the glory of the church is the nave roof, which tradition assigns to Cardinal Moretou, who was born, his history says, " not ffar from a certaine towne called Beere," and was attainted after his flight from the Battle of Towton as "John Moreton, late parson of Blokes worth, in the shire of Dorset." He probably placed this roof in his old parish church when Archbishop of Canterbury, for the shield in the centre of the roof bears the arms of Moreton quartered with those of the see of Canterbury ; the apostle opposite to the shield wears a Cardinal's hat, and may, perhaps, represent the Cardinal ; and a further connection is proved by his will, in which he leaves money for a priest to say mass in Bere Church for his soul and those of his family. Here, then, is the third touch of history. It will be remembered that Cardinal Moreton caused a cessation of the Wars of the Roses by promoting the marriage of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York ; you may look, not in vain, for the Tudor Rose, the result of that union. The roof, which had fallen into bad repair, was carefully restored ten years ago, the carved work made good where decayed, the quaint old hammer-beam figures repaired, and the various beams and carvings coloured, according to the old prece dent still remaining upon the wood. The huge head in the centre, which even a reverent affection for the church cannot commend, is supposed to be that of John the Baptist, though little like our idea of the ascetic preacher in the wilderness. J I Tradition, which Hutchins follows, named the twelve figures ■ "^^:f^Sf ''^A^'^ after the Twelve Apostles, but the tradition has been rudely i^^L^iti" shaken by the late Mr. Street, backed by the Rev. S. Baring ^kl' ^ ^'' Gould, who is the greatest authority on these matters living ; for T . ( Ji ) • they point out that one figure certainly is in deacon's dress, and ^ therefore could be none other than S. Stephen, S. Lawrence, and St. Vincent. But time presses, and I must hasten to call your attention to BERE REGIS. 53 such smaller details as might be overlooked. Among the monu- ments, the nameless, brassless tombs of the Turbervilles in the south aisle, whose arms still brighten the windows above, whose bones lie in the vault below. Near them are two very good ogee foliated arches, covering nameless altar tombs ; of one, which appears to have been cut away for a doorway, this legend has been told me. Some former Lord of the Manor, I suppose a Turberville, quarrelled with the then parson, and vowed he would never enter the old church doors. Happily, as in many such foolish quarrels, time removed the discord, but the squire cut a new door into the church, to the keeping of his word and the disfigurement of the aisle. Notice the Skerne monument in the chancel bearing the arms of Castile and Aragon ; the Skernes were an old Spanish family, still represented in this country by the Skrines of Warleigh and Claverton, near Bath. Read the quaint old rhyme and contrast it with the fulsome praise and pedantic Latin of the Loupe brass by the north door, if you can translate it, for I think it defies translation, and then glance at that briefest of all epitaphs in the vestry, dear for old associations to Balliol men, '" Verbum non amplius Fisher." Glance down at the wood work, new and old, the old seat ends dated 1547 opposite the porch door, and the old Jacobean panels in the vestry ; the beautiful new work is by Harry Hems, copied from some of the best designs in West Country churches. Even the tiling is worth your notice ; one large tile used in the porch and chancel, bearing the three Plantagenet leopards, is copied from old tiles found in Bindon Abbey ; smaller tiles with shields of two patterns were copied from old tiles found in this church, and I think you will admire the simplicity and character of our " native" pattern. And last, let the windows, filled with beautiful modern glass by Hardman, the magnificent gift of Mrs. Lloyd Egginton, who had restored chancel and south aisle at her own cost, preach to you the Life of Christ and man's redemption ; or if in this excite- ment of a gathering of friends there is little time or calm for sucli^ 54 BERE REGIS. subjects, come here by yourselves some quiet day and listen to their silent story ; they will sjDeak to you in tones of greater beauty and more moving power than even the preacher's living word. And I think that you will not regret to spend a quiet half- hour in God's House amid memorials of those who in past and present centuries have lived up to the words, " Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house and the place where Thine honour dwelleth." I had best conclude with a quotation from a sketch by Canon Yenables, to whom I am indebted for much that I have said to-day — "It would be a happy thing if every restoration of a church had been as conscientious and as well considered as that of Bere. No antient feature has been sacrificed, no new^ work needlessly introduced. It may be called a model restoration, reflecting the gi'eatest credit on the architect who drew the plans, the late much lamented Mr. George E. Street, Pv.A., on the builder, and still more on the late vicar, the Rev. Francis AV^aiTe, now vicar of Melksham, by whose energy and refined taste the undertaking was set on foot and brought to a successful issue, and to whose liberality the completeness and beauty of the work is in no small degree due." fr;iM-^-. w Proc Dorsd X H A- AF Huh Vol Mil PI li •n/ 1^ (**'•. 1 \ ■^^ ^ "'l 1 ^ / 1 \ v^- F ^t¥^^^[-^^^' l._^ Bros ©n some liare m\b ^ocid ^tpxbopitvit founb ill ^orsetshin. atcli) By the Rev. O. P. CAMBRIDGE, M.A. Plate II. Figs. A, B, C, D. HE past year (1886) was a remarkably barren one in respect to Lepidoptera ; chiefly so, I imagine, owing to the excessive cold and wet of the month of May, Just at that period the larvae which should produce the summer and autumn insects would be in a young and tender state, and peculiarly liable to destruction from any unusual inclemency of weather. Lyccena argiades (Pall), the great catch of 1885, did not turn up at all in 1886, although several nets were at work for it during a good part of the month of August ; in fact, the common blue butterfly — L. icarus — was comparatively scarce. Our work for L. argiades, however, was not entirely fruitless, as it led to the discovery of PteropJiorus paludum (Zeller), one of the curious group of //7^;;/^-moths, on a piece of boggy ground on Bloxworth Heath ; and also of CEnectra pilleria7ia (Schiff) a rare and local moth of the large well-marked group of Tortrices or leaf-rollers. Mr. Eustace Bankes has also kindly communicated to me the discovery by the Rev. C. Digby, at Portland, in 1884-85, of the larvae (from which the perfect insects were afterwards bred), of a 56 RARE AND LOCAL LEPIDOPTERA. small moth new to Britain, and perhaps also new to science. It is one of a large group of, mostly, minute moths, remarkable for the curious forms of the cases in which the larvae live ; at present it is supposed to be Cokophora fiavaginella (Lienig) ; but its proper identification has not yet been satisfactorily determined. A short description of these insects, with one or two remarks upon them, will, perhaps, with the figures now exhibited, make this brief notice worth insertion in our next vol. of Proceedings. CENECTRA PILLERIANA (SCHIFF). (PI. II., figs. B, C, D.) ,, „ Stainton's Manual, II., p. 197. Width of the upperwings, 8 lines. The general form and appearance cannot be better given than in the accompanying figures. The colour of the upper wings is, in the types from Ventnor, ochreous crossed by two more or less distinctly defined, but irregular oblique brownish markings ; the outer extremities, as well as a small marking near the base on the inner margin, are also brownish. These markings are more or less formed by fine irregular lines. The general hue of the heath form is dull brownish ochreous, tinged with olive (PI. II., fig. B) ; the characteristic darker markings being often very indistinct, and in some examples quite obsolete. Another, found in saltmarshes in a neighbouring county, is of a glossy reddish-ochreous ferrugineous hue, with darker markings — the female, however, being uni- colorous. The hinder wings are more or less dark brownish, and unicolorous. (Enectra pilleriana occurs on several boggy parts of Bloxworth Heath. On one of them it was found in tolerable abundance during the month of August. The only previous recorded occurrence of it here was in 1862, when several were taken by myself and Mr. Frederick Bond. Excepting one of these examples (Fig. C), which is of a yellowish intermediate colouring, slightly tinged with red, all the heath specimens are of the uniform dull greyish olive hue above described, and contrast very strikingly with a handsome RARE AND LOCAL LEPIDOPTERA. 57 variety met with in some numbers in saltmarshes in a neighbouring county, as above mentioned. The forewings of the male of this variety are glossy reddish ochreous, with ferrugineous markings (Fig. D), while those of the female are unicolorous, glossy, dark ferrugineous. So striking is the contrast between these two varieties, that the almost unicolorous heath forms at first raised some doubts in the minds of more than one of our best entomo- logists as to their specific identity. There seems no doubt that the two forms differ only in coloration. The heath variety, however, appears to be rather smaller than that found in the saltmarshes. It has occurred also on a boggy spot near Studland, where the larvae were found by the Rev. Charles Digby, in 1886, feeding on the Bog-Asphodel, but it is known to feed also on many other plants, among them being the stinking iris, marjoram, and knap-weed. Mr. Digby had met with the perfect insect in 1885, as well as once previously. The perfect insect may easily be known from all its congener^) by the length of the palpi, which are porrected like those of the genus Crambus, and are about three times the length of the head. I have, since writing the above, seen examples from Ventnor (Isle of Wight) ; these are intermediate between the ordinary heath and saltmarsh forms, and may be taken as typical. PTEROPHORUS PALUDUM (ZELLER). (PL II., fig. A.) „ id. Isis, 1839, p. 277, and 1841, p. 866. „ Stainton's Supplementary Cat. of Brit. Tinese and Pterophoridse, 185 1. p. 13. „ id. Cat. Micr : Lep. Brit. Mus, p. 179. ,, id. Manual, II., p. 445. „ Westwood. Wood's Index Entomologicus. New Ed. 1854. p. 281. pi. 59. fig 1862. „ C. G. Barrett. Ent. IVIonth. Mag. ; vol. 5, for 1868-69. The width of the upper wings, which are cleft at the extremity, through half their length, into two lobes, is 6 J lines. Their colour is greyish brown, tinged with chocolate. Each lobe has one or 58 RARE AND LOCAL LEPIDOPTERA. two oblique white markings. A conspicuous one on the lower lobe is formed by the long white fringe near the extremity on the lower margin ; and is brought into relief by a black dash on its inner side. There are also one or two other black dashes, and some black points, formed by minute black scales on these lobes, giving that part a prettily variegated appearance The lower wings are three-lobed, unicolorous, and destitute of any black scales. The body is similar in colour to the wings, and variegated with chocolate and white. The legs are greyish brown, the ex- tremities annulated with darker and white, and furnished with long blackish and white spurs. This pretty and fragile little insect was found from August 23rd to September 4th. We were returning home, wearied with a long afternoon's fruitless search for Lyccena argiades, and slowly tramping through a bog, often over ankle deep in water, when my son x\rthur called my attention to a little plume moth, which he thought to be Fterophoriis hipundidactyliis — -3^ very common species of this group ; before I could get to the spot, however, it had disappeared. Soon another was seen and captured, when a single glance told me I had never seen the species before. A close search followed, and several more were netted before dark- ness came on. A reference to our books and collections on reaching home informed us of the value of our find ; and, almost every succeeding evening, at all fitting in point of weather, found some or other of us slowly and stedfastly working the bog until the whole brood was out and over. So far as our experience goes, it scarcely ever moves of its own accord until about half-an hour, or often less, before sunset, and for a very short time after; indeed, of its own accord it was seldom seen flying, generally not flying until disturbed, when it would flitter up gnat-like among the bog grass and rushes, and jerkily fly off for, at most, a few yards, settling again on a blade of grass with its two long-spurred hind legs stuck out, one on each side, in a very characteristic way. On some evenings it would not fly at all ; the most favourable kind of evening appeared to be a quiet, dewy, damp one, after a bright RARE AND LOCAL LEPIDOPTERA. 59 hot day. The food plant of the larvae does not yet appear to have been anywhere discovered. This is a point we hope to clear up some day if the moth should again occur as it did last year. In England it was first discovered, but not abundantly, in the year 1850, by a professional collector named Stretten, in Holme Fen, Huntingdonshire, and was also found at Whittlesea, Cambridge- shire. In 1869 — (Ent Month Mag, vol. 5) — it was taken sparingly at Haslemere, by Mr. C. G. Barrett. Mr. Bond thinks it was also found in Norfolk some years ago by a professional collector named Winter. I understand that it was found some years ago near Crewe, by a Mr. W. Thompson, from 1850 to i860 — and about 30 years ago in the Fens, by Peter Bouchard.* These are the only occurrences I can ascertain anything about until our meeting with it in this county last year. I should mention, however, that in the same month (August) last year, Mr. Digby also met with several examples in a swamp near Studland. It is not included in Mr. South's able papers on the British species of this group, published in recent volumes of the " Entomologist." COLEOPHORA FLAVAGINELLA (LIENIG). Perfect ifiseci ; width of forewings, 7 lines. The forewings are ochreous, dusted over with grey scales, and with scarcely any indications of darker longitudinal streaks. The costa is narrowly whitish to beyond the middle ; the fringes are ochreous, and the antennae white annulated with dark brown. The hinder wings are unicolorous grey fringed with ochreous grey. Until the specialists, who are still in conference on the question of the specific identity of this plainly coloured little moth, have finished their labours, we must still reckon it under the name above given. The larva makes for itself a smooth, greyish, ochreous case, with dark brown longitudinal stripes, and feeds in * Mr. Eustace Bankes tells me that since the above was written he has found a reference to a single sjjecimen of this insect having been taken by Mr. C. G. Barrett in the month of June, 1865, in Woolmer Forest. — Ent : Month. Mag., Vol. II., p. 263. 60 RARE AND LOCAL LEPIDOPTERA. September and October on the seeds of Suceda maritwia, and when full fed attaches itself to the stems of its food-plant and there hybernates ; in the spring it again shews signs of activity, wandering about restlessly until a convenient place is found for the attach- ment of its case, in which it passes into the pupa state. The duration of this state is very short, and the perfect insect appears in June and July. This species was discovered in the larva state by Mr. Digby and Mr. Bankes on the Chesil Beach, Portland, in the autumn of 1884, and from some of these larvae, which are greatly subject to the attacks of ichneumon flies, the perfect insects were bred for the first time by Mr. Bankes in the June and July following. In the same year the insect was also found by Mr. W. H. B, Fletcher, in Sussex. I am indebted to Mr. Bankes for the above facts, and I understand that he believes it has also been found in Essex. It ranks therefore as yet among our most local species. DESCRIPTION OF PLATE II. Fig. A. — Pterophorus paludum. a. Natural size. Fig. B. — CEnedra pilleriana. Ordinary heath variety. b. Natural size. Fig. C. — Ditto, ditto. A rare variety found on the heath, intermediate in colour between A and D (the red saltmarsh form). c. Natural size. Fig. D. — Ditto, ditto. Red variety from the saltmarshes. d. Natural size. Fig. E. — Labidura riparia (Great earwig), female. e'. Natural size. e. Forceps of male. Fig. F. — Forficula auricular ia (common earwig), forceps of male. /. Forceps of female. ®n the ^reat giirtoig, Lahidura riparia (Pallas). By R. B. KEMP-WELCH, Esq. £th Plate II. Fig. E. N recording the capture of this rare insect on the Dorset coast, I fondly hoped that it was the first time of its occurrence in our county ; but have since been informed by an eminent authority that he thinks, although not positive on the subject, that one had previously been taken in the Isle of Portland. My specimen is, at any rate, authentic as a county representative, having been taken on the beach under Branksome Park, some two miles westward from Bournemouth, on the 27th of May, 1886, by Mr. E. Lovett, of Croydon, and by him kindly presented to me. From the paucity of students of Orthoptera, I have experienced considerable difficulty in ascertaining the number of occurrences of this insect in England ; but, as far as at present discoverable, they seem to be very few. The first recorded capture was by the Rev. W. Bingley, in 1808, of one on the beach " near Christchurch." Mr. C. W. Dale, of Glanville's Wootton, has, I believe, in his possession two specimens taken many years ago on the shore between Bourne- mouth and Christchurch, but the exact date of capture is not known. The late Mr. T. P, Dossetor informed me that, about 62 THE GREAT EARWIG. 1858, he also took one on the shore, close to Hengistbury Head. Mr. E. Saunders found one " on the shore at Bournemouth nearly 20 years ago." The Rev. J. G. Wood, in his " Insects at Home," mentions one being taken, also on the beach, at Folkestone, but gives no date. In the British Museum (British collection) there are, I am informed, six specimens — three from Stephens' collec- tion, two unlabelled, and one referred to in the old catalogue of the Museum (prior to 1838) as from " the Hampshire coast," and placed there by Dr. Leach. Whether or not this last was the original Bingley capture my informant was unable to ascertain. These are all the occurrences of the insect at present known to me. The classification of the earwigs has long been a contested matter amongst entomologists, but they are now generally, I believe, ranked as a sub-order, or tribe, of the order Orthoptera (as Euplexoptera, Westwood), which contains but a single family, the Forficulidae. The British genera of this family are — Forficiila with 14 joints in the antemiDe Labia „ 12 Labidura „ 24-25 „ „ „ Chehdura „ 12 Of these, Forficula auricidaria (common earwig), and Labia minor (the little earwig), are only too common ; but Chelidura is scarcely known in England. LaUdura riparia i^^\.)—\Forfice.8ila gigantea (Latr.)]— though rare in England, is, on the Continent, widely distributed ; but is a southern rather than a northern species. Mr. McLachlan informs me, however, that it has been taken as far north as Brittany, in France, and Berlin, in Germany. It appears always to frequent the seashore, or the banks of rivers, and might, therefore, as Mr. McLachlan observes, be sometimes imported amongst ballast ; but, although this might be the case with the reported specimen from Portland, and that from Folkestone, it can scarcely be so in the others, where there is no foreign traffic whatever. On the contrary, it may probably be taken for a fact that the species has for many years THE GREAT EARWIG. 63 been established near Christchurch Head, and may perhaps be now spreading along the bay. As regards the description of this insect, adult specimens metisure in length about 12 lines; the forceps are long, and straighter than those of the common earwig, especially those of the female, which are minutely toothed on the inner side. Those of the male are more curved towards the tips, and have each a pro- minent tooth about a third of the length from the apex. The accompanying figures show the forceps of the male and female, as compared with those of Forficula auricularia. The antennge, as before stated, number 24 or 25 joints ; the colour of the adult is of much the same shade as that of the common earwig, but the thorax and wing-cases are lighter in colour, with a dark longi- tudinal streak on each side of the former and another on each wing-case. Like the common species, Labidura appears to be hidden as much as possible in the daytime, probably in chinks and crannies of the cliffs, and only emerges to seek its food at the approach of evening, its aliment probably being the various small animals, molluscous and otherwise, that are left on the shore by the tide. ®he Jlbbot^bnrg Ixon gcpasits^ By Mr. T. B. GROVES, F.C.S. (of Weymouth.) HE elementary substance, Iron, is one of the most widely distributed of bodies, but it only rarely occurs in Nature in the metallic form, and never in a state of purity. Mankind in comparatively early times recognised its superiority over alloys of copper in the manufacture of weapons and tools, but it was not till civilisation had made some progress that iron ores, comparatively so refractory, could be reduced to the metallic state and made to do useful service. As ores of iron more or less rich occur in almost every geological formation, so their composition varies almost as greatly as their situation. But for practical purposes all iron ores may be divided into the proto-carbonates and the peroxides, the former of which would, if pure, contain about 48 per cent., the latter 70 per cent., of metallic iron. This condition of purity is never realised in Nature, though some specimens of crystalline heematite come very near it. These forms, however, may be regarded rather as curiosities than useful sources of metallic wealth. The substances contaminating the ores are either basic or acid. Of the former class manganese, alumina, magnesia, and lime are of frequent occurrence ; of the latter silicic, carbonic, phosphoric acids, with sulphur in some THE ABBOTSBURY IRON DEPOSITS. G5 form of combination. The basic materials may as a rule (man- ganese being excepted) be regarded as diluents, but the presence of minute percentages of jDhosphorus or of sulphur exerts a most powerful and deleterious influence on the quality of the smelted metal. When considering, therefore, the probable value of an iron ore as a commercial substance, it is of most importance to ascertain not how much iron it contains, but what quality of metal will it yield when passed through the smelting furnace. I rather insist on this on account of the Abbotsbury ores having been somewhat blown upon, because they do not on the average reach so high a standard as some other ores in respect of per- centage of iron. I believe the true test, that of the furnace, has yet to be applied to the deposit we have had before us to-day, and it is, 1 venture to suggest, highly desirable that for the sake of the inhabitants of the district, and especially of the proprietors of the Abbotsbury Railway, to say nothing of the owners of these valuable beds, this omission should speedily be rectified. Passing over the carbonates, which nevertheless produce the larger part of the iron made in this country, I will mention a few particulars respecting the peroxides which in this neighbourhood are represented by the iron deposits of Abbotsbury, Westbury, Devizes. These all partake of the oolitic character, and are found in various situations amongst the rocks of the oolitic series. Mr. Damon in his valuable manual quotes analyses by Dr. Liveing and by Messrs. Blake and Huddleston, the former finding 43-97 per cent, of peroxide of iron (= 30-78 metallic iron) in the specimen he examined, the latter 73*57 per cent. (= 51-50 metallic iron) in what are called oolitic granules. But whether these granules were selected specimens or a fair example of a certain deposit we are not informed. Mr. Damon remarks that '' the iron ore (haematite) of the carboniferous series contains, w^hen pure iron, 70 ; oxygen, 30 per cent." That is, of course, absolutely true, the qualification " when pure" being introduced, but it is scarcely fair to make such a comparison as is here suggested, seeing that such a specimen of absolutely pure 66 THE ABBOTSBURY IRON DEPOSITS. peroxide could scarcely be found outside a museum. The Abbots- bury ores seem, in fact, to vary in richness according to situation, much as do those of Northampton, two specimens from which locality yielded respectively 50-51 and 27*3 metallic iron. These ores are from the Wealden, immediately overlying the oolites. On the other hand I find recorded analyses of Whitehaven (carboniferous) haematite ore, giving 6G'6 per cent, metallic ; iron of haematite from "-'omersetshire giving 59-5 per cent, metallic iron. In the first case the specimen is said to be of the " richest kind," in the second it is called a " rich specimen." But could not Abbotsbury furnish carefully selected specimens of similar richness 1 I have yet to learn that it could not. The late Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S., in 18G3 contributed to the Newcastle meeting of the British Association a paper on " The Equivalents of the Cleveland Ironstone in the West of England." He there states that he had traced these ironstone bands from Lyme Regis to Yeovil and Bath, and found that in mineral wealth they formed a marked contrast to those in the North of England, for where the ore was rich enough to work it was not thick enough, and vice versd. It is singular, I may remark, that the Cleveland ironstone to which he refers, and which is not only found among the oolitic series of rock, but is itself distinctly oolitic in structure, is not a haematite, but a proto-carbonate, containing about 31 per cent, of metallic iron. Mr. Moore had not then, it seems, visited Abbotsbury, for nine years after we find him actually lessee of these deposits under agreement with the Earl of Ilchester, dated May 22nd, 1872. The long continued ill health and final death of Mr. Moore were fatal obstacles to the utilisation of these valuable deposits, the working of which will, it is to be hoped, enrich in a not distant future the fortunate owners of the property and the inhabitants of the district surrounding it. ©IT the (grgat (Claviceps purjnirea) . Sch By MORTON STUART, Esq. UR late Secretary, Professor Buckman, contributed from time to time a series of papers to the Dorset Field Club on various fungoid diseases of our cultivated plants. One very important one, and of great interest from its curious life history, was omitted. Had he been permitted, I feel no doubt that it would have been included amongst his papers, and I therefore take this opportunity of drawing the attention of the Society to this particular disease affecting grasses and cereals, which is generally known as the Ergot (Claviceps purpurea). There is another reason why this is a suitable opportunity for inviting notice to this strange fungoid disease, and this is, that it seems to me to have made its appearance somewhat earlier than usual this year, and to be very prevalent in some localities. In Somersetshire during July and the early part of August I had not noticed it at all, but in Dorset, whilst walking home from our last meeting at Bere, on August 19th, I found several specimens, and since then I have noticed much more of it. This is rather curious, as generally it does not make its appearance to any great extent until later in the autumn, and is particularly pleniiful in wet seasons, which cannot certainly be said of this one. We are 68 ON THE ERGOT. well aware that plants aud animals are subject to various forms of diseases, and that those species of plants and animals which have been long domesticated seem to be more liable to be affected, partly, perhaps, from the fact of more careful observa- tion being extended to those species, and partly because, through the influence of cultivation and artificial selection, their consti- tution becomes enfeebled, and rendered more liable to be attacked. The Ergot is a fungoid disease, which is most commonly known from its attacks on Rye, and, since this cereal in some countries forms the principal source of food for the population, it has been the cause of some of the most fatal diseases of the inhabitants. The Ergot, however, does not confine its attacks to Rye alone, but may be found on several other of the Gramineee ; such species, for instance, as Lolium fj^renne, or Rye-grass ; Dactylis glomerata, or Cocksfoot ; Alopecurus, Phleuni, Brachypodium, and some of the Poas or Meadow Grasses. Hitherto this year — up to the end of August — I have only noticed it upon Lolium perenne, on which it is very common along the roadsides and hedgerows, and upon Dactylis glomerata. In October, no doubt, we shall find it more plentifully developed. With regard to historical reference to this curious disease, a French writer says, in 1089 (this is quoted from Sowerby's *' British Grasses") : " A pestilent year, especially in parts of Lorraine, where many persons became putrid, in consequence of their inward parts being consumed by St. Anthony's fire. Their limbs were rotten, and became black, like coal. They either perished miserably, or, deprived of their putrid hands and feet, were reserved for a more miserable life. Moreover, many cripples were afflicted with contraction of the sinews." No notion of the real cause seems to have existed, though it is on record 'Hhat the bread which was eaten at this period was remarkable for its deep violet colour." Sowerby also states that the late Dr. Willan was of opinion that many pestilential epidemics of past periods were due to this cause, and among them the sweating sickness of the ON THE ERGOT. 69 beginning of the sixteenth century. The medicinal use of Ergot is of much importance, and it is imported from France, Germany, and America. The retail price varied formerly from 10s. to 20s. per ounce, and, consequently, if a pound were collected from a field of Rye it would have been worth more than the produce of the sound grain. At the present time the price is probably not more than Is. to Is. 6d. per ounce. The prevalence of this disease in grasses is a serious matter to agriculturists, from the fact of its acting as a poison on the animal economy. There is no doubt that much widespread injury has been caused in dairy districts to the cows from feeding in pastures where Ergot is prevalent. Yet it is a source of danger whose existence in his fields the farmer is most commonly quite ignorant of, and when it is pointed out to him he seldom recognises its nature. It is in the months of October and November, when the autumnal mists and damp w^eather have set in, that this fungus is most widely developed. We shall then find it in pastures where cattle have been grazing during the summer, and where frequent spikes of Rye-grass and others have been left from their having become dry and wiry, and unpalatable for food. The Ergot will then make its appearance as a black, horn -like growth, half an inch in length or there- abouts, occupying the position of the matured pistil in a healthy spikelet, and we may perhaps find as many as three of them on each spike of the Rye-grass. It is just in such pastures, and in badly kept roadsides and hedgerows, where the grasses have not been properly eaten down, or cut and cleared away, that w^e should look for this fungus. If the farmer were aware of its existence, and of the danger which is likely to result to his dairy cows from its presence, he would take the same steps for its removal which he does in regard to docks and thistles, either by passing his grass-cutting machine over the field, or by putting a man to cut down all the rank patches with a scythe. The production of what is known as Honey Dew on various plants is connected wdth the occurrence of some fungi, the Ergot being one of them. The life history of the Ergot, which it would To ON THE ERGOT. be well to draw attention to in this short paper, is extremely complicated. It is well described in Sach's '' Textbook of Botany," and the various stages of the fungus are accurately figured. He says " the development of the Ergot begins with the formation of a filamentous mycelium, which attches itself to the surface of the ovary of grasses, especially of Rye, while still enclosed between the pales, covers it with a thick weft, and partially penetrates into its tissue, while the apex and often other parts of the ovary remain exempt from its attacks. Thus the ovary of the grass becomes replaced by the soft mycelial tissue of the fungus, which gradually elongates into a horn-like excrescence, and often carries the stigma of the original pistil upon its summit. The surface of the fungus now becomes split up by depressions in which spores {Conidia) are produced in great numbers. These spores fall to the ground and germinate. This is what is known as the Sphacelia stage of the Ergot. After this production of Conidia has been accomplished, the mycelium beneath elongates considerably, becomes hard and stifif, and assumes a purplish colour on its exterior. It is in this stage (the Sclerotium) that the fungus is recognised as the Ergot. The purple Sclerotium remains in a dormant condition during the autumn, either seated on the withered flower stems of the grass or embedded in the damp soil beneath. About springtime a new activity commences by the development of receptacles beneath the skin of the Sclerotium, which gradually burst through, and are borne aloft upon short stalks. In these receptacles other spores are developed in suitable sacs, or asci, as they are termed, and these new spores, on reaching the flowers of suitable grasses, recommence the cycle by developing the Sphacelia stage once more. (Ecrton. By H. J. MOULE, M.A. ,,. ^ OR some reason or other Gorton seems to be less well known than it deserves. Its name is most significant. It is in a remarkable way Gorton, the Tun of the Cut, for through a cut in the rock passes the only carriage road to Gorton. And traversing that cut we see Gorton lying below us, on the slope of the hill, facing South, charmingly situated. Knocked about the house has been to a deplorable extent. Its slate roof, for instance, is modern, although glorified out of its native hideousness by a matchless growth of golden lichen. We still see several mullioned windows and a four-centred arch or two, speaking of the 16th century. One of these last spans an open hearth with ^ood dog-irons. These, however, belong to one of the two labourers' families to w^hose use the house is now relegated. There is also a fragment of wainscotting containing three or four panels of the linen pattern. But it is not of Gorton House, but Gorton Ghapel that I am to speak. I have been told by some one that Gorton Ghapel belonged to a Gell of Abbots- bury. Of this I find no confirmation. On the contrary, in some documents it is called a Free Chapel. That is, it was endowed, and cost nothing either to the parish priest or to the parishioners ; and the appointment to it was in the Bishop's hands. Other 72 GORTON. documents call it an ecclesia, which is taken to mean a Rectory Church— a Parish Church. If so, I think it must rival St. Leonard's, in the Isle of Wight, as regards the claim to be the smallest Parish Church in the kingdom. I think this, for I am not sure that we see the total original length of Corton Chapel westward. Its present length within, I make, by hurried measure- ment, 21ft., its greatest breadth 12ft. The nave is 10ft. long. The chancel, which narrows to 10ft. in breadth, is lift. long. There is no chancel arch. The roof is a rough modern one, thatched. On the north of the nave is a closed door, arched, 3rd pointed. On the south is a very quaint little doorway. Inside it is an ordinary plain 15th century arch. Outside it is a polygonal arch, of four straight-edged stones — a quaint rude aifair, to which it is difficult to assign a date. On the same side is a small one-light window, square without, arched within. In the east gable is a blocked up, arched, two-light window of ordinary good 3rd pointed style. But under this window stands that which has led to this short notice of Corton. It is what appears to be neither more nor less than the pre- Reformation altar, remaining untouched. If so, it is of course a very great curiosity indeed ; being, as far as I know, the only complete unaltered specimen in Dorset. The window sill in St. Aldhelm's is, indeed, if I mistake not, an altar sill. But the altar at Corton is, though quite plain, a regularly constructed one. I have said that this erection appears to be the altar. This is expressed advisedly. For I am bound to say that I cannot detect the five crosses which a Roman Catholic altar must of necessity bear, to be complete. I cannot find them, to my great disappointment ; but then the dis- integration of the Purbeck marble slab has in parts, particularly the edge, been very great. I think that the crosses, if small, as I believe they often were, might have crumbled away by age, not unassisted by the hand of man. Anyway, it is difficult to see the worn, archaic looking " stwonen tiable," as a ploughman called it to me, without carrying back its date, crosses or no crosses, to pre- Reformation times. It is 5ft. by 3ft., and stands on two plain *' GORTON. 73 and not quite symmetrical ashlar supports. On the east wall at each end of the altar is a large bold moulded and square bracket. In the south wall adjoining is a Piscina. Such is Gorton, a place well worth rambling to from Upwey or Portesham stations — delightful to visit, if standing alone, what with its charming and uncommon situation, its own, and its chapel's, antiquarian interest. But it is not alone. Quite near is Friar's Waddon, retaining a group of interesting cottages — still interesting, although on the largest the plague of slate has descended. Then a little way further from Upwey is West Waddon, an admirably built and most excellently situated 18th ce.ntury house. And between the two is Coryates, the Corfe gate, the cut way. It is well worth walking from Upwey station just to see that astonishing passage in the hills, specially when a low evening sun throws the steep western scarp into deep shadow. ©n the (Effects of a Jflasli of l^ightning at ^loxtoortk, on tkz 9th of Jl^jril, 1886, By the Rev. O. P. CAMBRIDGE, M.A. Plates III., IV., V. VI. ITHOUT hiving made electricity and its laws a subject of study, I have yet always taken great interest in observing the effects of discharges of the electric fluid in thunderstorms upon trees and other objects ; and I am bringing before our Field Club the results of a flash which lately occurred at Bloxworth in order to record effects quite unique in my own experience, as well as to invite discussion, and I hope an expression of scientific opinion upon what seems to me a flash of a very unusual character. The day on which this flash occurred, the 9th of April last, was of the ordinary " March " character, blustering storms of rain, hail, and snow from the north and north- west, with bright sunshine in the intervals. In one of these short storms at three p.m., without any premonitory flash or growl- ings, a sudden burst or diffused blaze of light occurred, accom- panied instantaneously by an explosion like that of an enormous gun, rather than that of any ordinary peal of thunder, in fact, the pealing was of very short duration. No other flash or peal of any kind followed, and the mixed rain and hail (nearly as large as thrushes' eggs) falling at the time suddenly ceased, the wind THE EFFECTS OF A FLASH OF LIGHTNING. 75 dropped, the sun shone out, and all was fine and quiet. I was myself about 400 yards distant from the spot, and looking in that direction, but the high trees intervening in the near fore-ground preventing my seeing more than the burst of bright light. To me, at this distance, the flash and report were instantaneous. A labourer was at work about the same distance from the spot though in another direction. As soon as he recovered his equanimity (as far as I could gather from, him, within four or five minutes), he ran into an adjoining field, where at about 200 yards off he had a full view of the spot, which, it seemed to him, was where the flash appeared, and his description of it was that the whole group of trees, which, on after-examination, proved to be the striking point of the flash, appeared to be wrapped in a blaze of light like fire, with a kind of mist or thin steaming smoke rising from it. On examining the spot soon after I found that eight trees (seven of them in almost a straight line of about 82 yards long, stretching from east to west, and the other at right angles to the west end of the line and at 30 yards from it) had been struck in various ways and degrees. The ground plan — PI. IV. — (laid down to scale) shews the relative position, and, pretty accurately, the relative sizes of the trees struck, as well as of several others close to them but not struck. The sketches exhibited give a per- spective view of the whole position, as well as enlarged outlines of the trunks of some of the trees, on which the direction and extent of the course of the electric current is marked with red. As the manner and extent of the damage done to the eight trees is very varied and peculiar, I will describe shortly the condition in which I found each of them, beginning with that numbered one on the ground plan. No. i (PI. V., Fig. i). A rather large ash tree 2ft. 6in. in diameter, and about 70ft. high, struck on the top of a large dead limb, five or six inches in diameter, and form- ing part of the main body of the tree, the trunk of which divides into two, about i8ft. from the ground; the height at which it was struck (Fig. i, S.f.) is about 35ft. from the ground, a portion being broken off and thrown a considerable distance over a 76 THE EFFECTS OF A FLASH OF LIGHTNING. hedge to the S.E. The next trace of the damage done to this tree is some loft. lower near where the trunk divides; from thence downwards, on the south side of the trunk to the ground, a broad piece of bark from six inches to a foot wide and reaching to the ground was thrown off and over the hedge, along with the piece of dead limb mentioned above ; the woody substance of the tree being scored and ripped in places. At the base of the tree, between two large root-spurs, where the electric current apparently entered the earth, a large clod or turf (PI. V,, i. c.) was thrown up and turned over, but not wholly detached. On the north side of the trunk of this tree, at eight or ten feet from the ground, the bark was split and a piece from two to six inches in width thrown off. No. 2. A small oak 6in. in diameter only, underneath No. 3. Very slightly struck on a small dead branch about 7 it. from the ground, peeling off the bark only. No trace of the passage of the electric fluid into the ground. No. 3. A large oak 2ft. 6in. in diameter and about 50ft. high. Slightly struck beneath the under side of a dead limb about loft. from the ground, the bark only thrown off; no connection apparent with the ground, all trace disappearing about 3ft. from the connection of the dead limb with the trunk. No. 4 (Pis. VI., Fig. 4, and III., 4). A large oak, the largest in the group, nearly 3ft. in diameter and about 60ft. high, struck below the middle of the tree — about i8ft. from the ground — on the face of the central limb (or body) and on a dead spur (much splintered) from another limb (or body) just below the former. The main current appeared to have come down the latter limb and so down the trunk of the tree to the ground, ripping off the bark from 6in. to isin. in width on the north-west side (PI. VI., Fig. 4a.), and throwing it to a considerable distance. A smaller current only seems to have struck or abraded the bark here and there on the opposite (^or south-west) side, appearing to unite again with the main current before reaching the ground. A hole in the earth was made and a clod of turf torn and thrown up at the foot of the tree where the ground was entered. The bark THE EFFECTS OF A FLASH OF LIGHTNING. 77 was also abraded here and there (as if beaten with a hammer) on the north-east side. There was no splintering of the wood nor fraying of the edges of the bark in this tree. Between this tree and the next (No. 5) four yards of the ground was irregularly furrowed and torn up, much as if a pig had been rooting it, in zig- zag directions, but with no apparent connection of the furrowing with the trees (PI. IV. a). No. 5. A small tree about i2in. in diameter and directly under, but the trunk six feet away from, that of No. 6, which is a much larger tree, at least 2ft. 6in. in diameter and about 50ft. high. The same stroke had evidently struck both these trees. The first trace is on No. 6, on the, north side at about 30ft. from the ground on no special point, but along the face of the limb (PI. V., Fig. 6 e), which is there about six inches in diameter. About twelve feet (downwards) of this limb is deeply furrowed and scored in a sinuous direction, the bark and wood being driven off and outwards, as well as torn and shredded to more than an inch in depth. The current here evidently abruptly stopped (PI. V., Fig. 6 e) and leapt to the next point, where any effect is visible, that is at a distance of seven feet downwards in a sloping direction at the top of a small dead branch of No. 5 (PI. V., Fig. 5 d). This small branch was much split and splintered to its junction with the main body of the tree, along which and thence to the ground was a continuous, torn, deep groove or splintered furrow reaching to the ground. The bark and edges of the groove were torn into threads, and a broad piece of bark, three or four inches wide and six feet long, thrown off. The passage of the current into the ground was down and over a spur-root of the tree, and there was a hole in the earth at its base. Portions of bark and splinters from both these trees and also from the next were cast off to a considerable distance. No. 7. An oak, about 2ft. in diameter at its base, struck about the middle of the upper part on a small dead, cross, horizontal branch (PI. VI., Fig. 7 b), only tearing off the bark to a small extent; thence the current evidently jumped downwards a little too near the extremity of a rather larger branch, a live one, about the size of 78 THE EFFECTS OF A FLASH f)F LIGHTNING. one's wrist (Fig. 7 c) ; this is deeply (one to two inches), but not very broadly, grooved and furrowed as though with a very rough plough-plane, long shreds and splinters being forced outwards and thrown out. The groove is continuous down the north-east side to the trunk (PI. VI., Fig. 7), and so to the ground, where the turf was torn up. The distance of this tree from the trees struck nearest to it, Nos. 5 and 6, is 221^ yards. No. 8, a small ash tree eight or ten inches in diameter and about 30ft. high, the smallest of a group of three standing close together, but with three others, much larger, 12ft. off, and two oaks larger again 12ft. to 24ft. off, all forming, however, only one group. No. 8 was struck at a few feet from the top of a long but small dead limb, about loft. from the highest point of the tree, and furrowed in a sinuous line to its junction with the trunk (PI. VI., Fig. 8 d), which is twelve feet from the ground. No further trace is visible until about 7ft. 6in. from the ground on the N.W. side of the trunk, where the bark is simply cracked as though from within, and in the crack a small round clean cut hole like a gimlet hole is visible. Just below this (PI. VL, Fig. 8 e) a broad strip of bark and wood to half an inch in depth, and reaching to about 2ft. from the ground, was thrown off. There was here no visible trace of the passage of the current into the earth. This tree was 38 yards eastward from the next nearest struck tree, No. 7. As I observed at first, I have never made any ex- perimental study of the laws of electricity. I therefore do not intend to offer any observations of a scientific nature on the above facts ; but the first thing which strikes one is that eight trees covering so large an area as 82 yards long by 30 wide, and so variously grouped and placed in that area, should have all been struck, as above detailed, by one single discharge of electric fluid. There is no room for doubt upon this point. I myself and others who were within 500 yards of the spot at the time can testify that there was no other flash, nor sound of thunder, than the one which did the mischief. This is unique in my own experience. Then next I would observe that in no one of the trees struck are the first THE EFFECTS OF A FLASH OF LIGHTNING. 79 traces visible on the highest or most considerable points of the trees. x\ll are, apparently, first struck at some point considerably below the highest point presented either by the tree or branch struck, or by some other one near it. Another point, too, is that in almost every instance the first visible striking point is on a dead branch or limb. Then as to the visible effects ! In some of the instances there is the clearest evidence of a force acting from inside and throwing off bark, splinters, and shreds, while in other instances the appearance is as of a force passing over and striking here and there in its passage. Then there is the tearing and furrowing of the ground between the trees Nos. 4, 5, and 6, with no visible- connection with the damage done to those trees; and the up- turning of the clods at the base of the trees. And a noteworthy point, also, I think, is the luminous steamy appearance enwrapping the whole area for so considerable a time after the flash. That this was simply an electric light is, I think, clear. There is no appearance of burning or scorching on any of the trees. I may say in regard to the highest points struck being some distance below the highest points presented by similar objects in the immediate neighbourhood, that 1 hive noticed this to be invariable in every instance (and those pretty numerous) that I have ever observed in the striking of trees, whether in England or abroad, unless the tree happened to be a solitary one. And in most (but not all) instances the largest tree was the one left untouched. An old friend of mine, of great outdoor experience as a naturalist, has all his life followed this rule whenever caught out of doors in a thunderstorm, to put himself immediately underneath the largest oak tree near. I will not say that I agree with this so far as to have followed this rule, but I certainly believe that a human being walking over an exposed place, with no trees near, in a thunderstorm, is in far greater danger than in walking quietly through a country where there are many trees of all sizes near ; and that large trees are certainly not specially inviting to the discharge or conveyance of electric currents. I hope some one present will be able to give us some scientific theory which may embrace and account for the 80 THE EFFECTS OF A FLASH OF LiGHTNINCr. facts to which you have now been kind enough to listen to the detail of. In the discussion which followed the reading of the paper and the ex- hibition of the sketches it was suggested that the eight trees, or at any rate some of them, were not struck at the top by strokes from the thunder cloud doimioards, but by discharges from the earth upwards, the cloud and the earth being the one in a positive, the other in a negative, state of electricity ; that this alone would account for the overturning (but not shattering or detaching) of clods of turf at the bases of the trees, and the upturning of the soil between them without any connection with the trees themselves, as detailed by the Rev. 0. P. Cambridge ; and that this would accord with the known laws of electricity, as well as account for so many objects being struck over an extensive area, accompanied by only one flash and a single thunder-clap. DESCRIPTION OF PLATES III., IV., V., VI. Plate III. General sketch of the whole group of trees struck. The trees struck are numbered i to 8 ; and the same order is followed in each of the other plates. Plate IV. Ground plan laid down to scale of the positions of the trees struck, and of some others close by, but untouched. If this plan be compared with the sketch of the trees themselves (PL III.), remembering that the sketch gives an oblique and perspective view, it will be easy to understand the nature and wide area of the stroke. a. A curious irregular ploughing up of the soil close to trees 4, 5, and 6. Plate V. This and the following plate represent some of the trunks and other parts of the trees struck, to show the direction and course of the stroke, which are coloured red. {"■'■A' >.. • 0X> so rS (35 _ 'E 4- ?^. « - '-0 CO T W P^ W c o: = r-.' 0 t- -5 ^^ , 5 i\\ % 'i I' li ^i li II I, ll il j :i "^ ^.» -T *^ «s f -^ ■5l<'--T) n3 -.c t^ ec CO ® o Frcc.Dcrset .V.H.S^ A.F. Cluh . \rl.\W. I'l .V ■'\, y \7 1 7- THE EFFECTS OF A FLASH OF LIGHTNING. 81 Fig. l — S. South side. aV. Nortli side of ash tree. The whole spaces included at a and ^ were entirely denuded of bark. At / the limb ended in a dead stump, of which several feet were broken off and hurled to a considerable distance in a S.E. direction. C. A clod of turf thrown up and turned over from the hole c\ ,, 5. — A small tree close to No. 6. From (/, where the traces of the flash end in No. 5, there is an apparent jumd to e in No. 6, whence it continues sinuously upwards. The space between the red lines at ^4' was entirely denuded and deeply channelled. Plate VI. Fig. 4. — The whole of the space at a was denuded of bark. At / the direction of the stroke is continued on the other side, appearing again at ^', passing on to the other limb and so upwards. At //, /i' are also traces as of violent blows given to the bark. ,, 7. — The stroke indicated here by the red line was dee})ly channelled. At c there was a leap to /», a branch crossing and in contact at a little distance with the branch r. ,, 8. — A small asli tree (one of a gTOU|)). .\t c the bark was thrown off, and a small hole was made just above it. No further trace of a stroke on this tree, excepting on the dead Hub at (/, upwards, but not to its extremity. u ^ 5ov5ct jVatuval ijicitonj »iub Jlutiquaviau J'iclb Club. Vol. VII. CORRIGENDA. }). io6, 1. 6 — For sides read hides. ,, 8 — For T3-neham, Stocke, and Ilitlye read Tigehaiii (Tynebam), Slocke (l'>ast Stoke), Ristoa (Rusliton), Stitlege and Stodlege (Studland). ,, II — For ten read two. ,, i8 and 20 — P>ase "Sir." p. 107, 1. 2— For Hady read Hody. ,, 6 — For sold read held. ,, 21 — For juror read person, p. 108, 1. 2 — For Frances read Francis. ,, 8 — For Bewes read Bower, p. 17, 1. 23 — For Alkama read Alhania.