Chapter III: Part 3

The great majority of the Dorset churches are of Perpendicular date, and in churches of earlier date there are few that do not contain some addition or insertion made after the time when this peculiarly English style had had its birth in the Abbey Church at Gloucester, and had been adopted by William of Edington and William of Wykeham in the transformation of the Norman Cathedral Church at Winchester during the latter half of the fourteenth century.

Why was it that so many churches were built during the fifteenth century? Probably because conditions had changed, and the building was no longer the work chiefly of the bishops or of the religious orders as it had been up to the thirteenth century, or of the nobles as it had been in the fourteenth, but of the people. The French wars of Edward III. emptied the purses of the nobles and the monasteries; the Black Death also counted many monks among its victims, and had entirely swept away many of the smaller religious houses, and decreased the numbers of brethren in the larger;[17] and the middle class rose after the Black Death to a position that it had never occupied before. This class demanded parish churches, as well as trade halls and guild chapels, and built them, too—that is, supplied money to pay masons. Architecture became more of a trade and less of an art. Norfolk and Somerset were especially rich districts at a time when England exported the raw material, wool, and not, as now, manufactured goods; and hence in these two counties some of the largest and grandest parish churches were built. And Dorset, lying as it does on the Somerset border, showed, though in less degree, the results of the new conditions. It has no churches of this period to match in size St. Mary Redcliffe at Bristol, or St. Mary Magdalene’s at Taunton; it has no Perpendicular towers to rival those of Shepton Mallet, St. Cuthbert’s at Wells, or Huish Episcopi; but it has some fine examples, nevertheless, distinctly traceable to Somerset influence. The parent design in Dorset may perhaps be seen in Piddletrenthide, 1487; Fordington St. George, the top of which tower has not been very wisely altered of late, is a little more in advance; St. Peter’s, Dorchester, and Charminster are still further developed; the two last probably are the finest individual towers in the county. Bradford Abbas may be thought by some more beautiful, but the builder borrowed details from the Quantock group of churches. The tower at Cerne is probably by the same builder as Bradford, judging from the similarity of the buttresses and pinnacles in the two churches. Beaminster also has a fine tower, and so has Marnhull, though the general effect of the latter is ruined by the clumsy modern parapet. Milton Abbey tower has good details. In all these cases, excepting Cerne, there are double windows in the belfry stage; but this arrangement is not so common in Dorset as in Somerset, and the writer knows no instance of triple windows. A Somerset feature that is very commonly met with in Dorset is an external stair-turret, an arrangement not found in the East of England. The Somerset builders often placed pinnacles on the offsets of their buttresses; these are rarely seen in Dorset. Generally, the Dorset towers are not so richly ornamented as those of Somerset.

It has been said before that there are only two Dorset churches with spires built before the Reformation. A few words may not be out of place descriptive of the two. Steepleton is a long, narrow church, with nave and chancel, but no aisle. A blocked-up Norman arch, and a pointed one, similarly blocked, in the north wall of the nave, indicate that originally a chapel, or chapels, stood here. A curious stone, carved with the figure of a floating angel, probably taken from the interior, was at some time built into the exterior of the south wall of the nave. It has by this means escaped destruction, but the damp has caused lichen to grow on it. It bears a strong resemblance to the angel to be seen over the chancel arch of St. Lawrence’s Church at Bradford-on-Avon. It is not unlikely that the corresponding angel is on a stone that has been used in blocking one of the arches mentioned before. They possibly date from pre-Conquest days, or, at any rate, from a time before the pre-Conquest style had died out in this remote village, and may have formed part of a representation of the Ascension. The western stone may possibly date from the fourteenth century, as a window in its east face, now covered by the raised roof, shows geometrical tracery; the windows in the other faces are much later—probably they have been altered. The main octagonal spire that rises from the tower does not seem to have been part of the original design. On the four spaces between the corners of the tower and the spire are four spirelets; these do not stand as pinnacles of the tower, nor are they used, as sometimes spirelets were used, to hide the awkward junction of a broad spire with a square tower, for this is not a broad, but rises, as fourteenth century spires generally do, from the tower roof, though here a parapet hardly exists.

Trent Steeple, standing midway on the south side of the church, is a very beautiful one; the tower has double-light windows, with geometrical tracery, and a pierced parapet, with pinnacles, from which rises a very graceful spire, the edges of which have a circular moulding. The spire is slightly twisted from some subsidence, and cracks have occurred in the tower. The church has no aisles, but the projecting tower, the lower part of which serves as an entrance porch, on the south, and the chapel and organ chamber on the north, give it a very picturesque appearance. A modern addition is a distinctly pleasant feature, namely, an octagonal baptistery, which stands beyond the church at the west end of the nave. The interior is also pleasing. There are bench ends of oak, black with age, a reading desk on the north side, of like material, and a fine oak chancel screen. The carved wooden pulpit, if not entirely modern, is very largely so. In the churchyard are the steps and base of a churchyard cross. It is an exceedingly beautiful church, and the few houses in its immediate neighbourhood, with stone mullioned windows, are all in keeping with the church. The straggling cottages, the winding lanes, render it one of the most picturesque villages in the county. It was a distinct loss to Somerset and gain to Dorset when this parish was transferred from the former to the latter county.

This sketch of the Dorset churches would be incomplete without reference to some of the noteworthy features to be met with in the fittings of some of them. The cast-lead font of St. Mary’s, Wareham, on which figures of the Apostles are still distinguishable from each other, despite the rough usage to which they have been subjected, may possibly date from Saxon days, and from the resemblance it bears to the font in Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire, they may well have been contemporaneous. If so, it gives countenance to the belief that this font dates from the time when, as yet, the whole Wessex kingdom was one diocese with its Bishop-stool at the Oxfordshire Dorchester—that is, sometime between the conversion of Cynegils by St. Birinus in 635 and the division of the diocese into the two separate sees of Winchester and Sherborne in 705; as after this event the Oxfordshire Dorchester would have little to do with Dorset.

The church at Piddletown has escaped the drastic restoration that has destroyed the interest of so many of our Dorset churches. Archæologists may well rejoice that the gallery and pews have not been swept away with ruthless zeal, and will pray that they may, for many years to come, stand as witnesses of what was being done in Dorset at a time when the storm was gathering that was destined for a while to overthrow the power of king and priest.

In Bloxworth Church there still remains in its stand the hour-glass by which the preacher regulated the length of his sermon. This probably was placed in its position about the middle of the seventeenth century. The people in those days liked sermons, and expected to be able to listen to one for at least an hour, though sometimes the preacher, when all the sand had run into the lower half of the hour-glass, would give his congregation another hour, turning the glass; and sometimes yet once again the glass was turned. As we look on this relic of sermon loving days, we cannot help thinking of the eyes of the weary children, doomed to sit under these long-winded preachers, turned on the slowly trickling sand, and the sense of relief they must have felt when the last grain had run down, and the hour of their enforced listening was at an end.

To this same seventeenth century may be ascribed many of the elaborately carved oaken pulpits which are to be found in Dorset, as, for instance, those at Beaminster, Netherbury, Charminster, Iwerne Minster, and Abbotsbury. In the last may still be seen two holes caused by bullets fired by Cromwell’s soldiers when the church was garrisoned by Royalists under General Strangways.

At Frampton a stone pulpit, of fifteenth century date, much restored, still exists. At Corton Chapel a fine pre-Reformation stone altar stands, which escaped destruction when the order for the removal of stone altars was issued in 1550, because Corton was one of those free chapels which had been suppressed and deprived of its revenue three years before by the Chantry Act of 1 Edward VI.

In the neighbouring church at Portesham a window on the north side of the nave shews signs of the influence which on the Continent led to the Flamboyant style. A fine Jacobean screen may be seen at West Stafford Church, which was removed from its original position and put further to the east when the church was lengthened a few years ago.

In Hilton Church there are twelve noteworthy mediæval panel paintings, each more than six feet high, representing the Apostles. These once belonged to Milton Abbey.

When Tarrant Rushton Church was restored, on the eastern face of the chancel arch were found two earthenware vases. Their use is a matter of doubt, but an idea formerly prevailed that such vessels gave richness to the voice, and from this idea they were sometimes let into the walls, and were known as acoustic vases.

Dorset is fairly rich in monumental effigies in stone and alabaster. One of the most beautiful and best preserved of the latter is that erected in Wimborne Minster by the Lady Margaret, in memory of her father and mother, John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and his wife. Cross-legged effigies are to be seen in Wareham, Bridport, Piddletown, Wimborne Minster, Dorchester, Trent, Horton, Wimborne St. Giles, and Stock Gaylard. The first four bear a close resemblance to one another. The knight wears a sleeved tunic or hauberk of mail, a hooded coif, and over this a helmet. This costume indicates a date before the middle of the twelfth century. The feet rest upon an animal. At one time the fact that the legs were crossed was held to indicate that the person represented was a Crusader; if the legs were crossed at the ankles it was supposed that he had made one pilgrimage to the East; if at the knees, two; if higher up, three. But all this is probably erroneous, for on the one hand some known Crusaders are not represented with their legs crossed, while others who are known not to have gone to the Holy Land are so represented. And even a stronger proof may be adduced, namely, that some of the crossed-legged effigies represent knights who lived after the Crusades were over; for example, that found on the tomb of Sir Peter Carew at Exeter, who died in 1571. In Mappowder Church there is a miniature cross-legged effigy, about two feet long. This is often spoken of as a “boy crusader”—a child who is supposed to have gone with his father to the Holy Land, and to have died there. But this is probably a mistake. Similar diminutive effigies are found in divers places; for instance, that at Salisbury which goes by the name of the “Boy Bishop,” and Bishop Ethelmer’s (1260) at Winchester. Many authorities think that, as it was customary in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to bury different parts of the body in different places, these effigies mark the spot where the heart was buried. The figure at Mappowder holds a heart in its hands, and this certainly lends countenance to this theory. A similar monument formerly existed at Frampton, but it has disappeared. At Trent is a crossed-legged effigy of a “franklin”—a civilian who was allowed to wear a sword. There are two figures in St. Peter’s, Dorchester, laid on the sills of windows; it is said they were removed from the old Priory Church. These are of later date, namely, the end of the fourteenth century. They wear plate armour, and on their heads pointed bassinets, while the great helms that were worn over these serve as pillows for their heads to rest on.

At West Chelborough there is a curious monument without date or name: a lady lies asleep on a bed with a child enveloped in the folds of her drapery; probably this indicates that she died in giving birth to the infant. Another curious monument is met with in Sandford Orcas Church, whereon may be seen William Knoyle kneeling with one of his wives in front, and one behind him, and behind the latter, four corpses of children; the knight and first wife have skulls in their hands, to indicate that they were dead when the monument (1607) was erected; the second wife is dressed in black to show her widowhood; her seven children are also represented, the four girls by her, and the three boys behind the father. It will be noticed that the recumbent figures of earlier time gave place to kneeling figures in the sixteenth century, when the husband and wife were often represented opposite to each other, with their children behind them in graduated sizes. These are far less pleasing than the monuments of earlier date; but worse was to come, an example of which may be seen at St. Peter’s Church, Dorchester, in the monument of Denzil, Lord Holles, so well known in the history of the reign of Charles I.

A bare mention must suffice for other monuments. In Marnhull, Thomas Howard (1582), a man of huge stature, lies between his two wives, small delicate women, who are absolutely alike in person and dress. It would seem as if their effigies were mere conventional representations. In the neighbouring church of Stalbridge lies an emaciated corpse in a shroud without date or name.

In Netherbury is a mutilated alabaster figure with “S.S.” on the collar; at Melbury Sampford the alabaster effigy of William Brounyng, who died 1467, wears plate armour and the Yorkist collar. At Charminster are several canopied tombs of the Trenchards, in Purbeck marble, of a form found in many Wessex churches, and the figure of a daughter of Sir Thomas Trenchard, wife of Sir William Pole, who died in 1636. She kneels before a book lying open on a desk, and wears a fur tippet. In Chideock Chapel may be seen a knight in plate armour, possibly Sir John Chideock, who died in 1450. In Came Church are the recumbent figures of Sir John Miller and his wife Anna (1610).

In Farnham, over the altar, is a plain stone in memory of one Alexander Bower, a preacher of God’s Word, who is said to have died “in the year of _Christes_ incarnation (1616).” This is interesting as showing the unabridged form of the possessive case.

Built in the wall over the door of Durweston Church is a piece of carving, which originally was above the altar and beneath the east window, representing a blacksmith shoeing a horse; and over the west door of Hinton Parva is a carving of an angel, a cross, and a butterfly.

The finest timber roof in the county is undoubtedly that of Bere Regis nave. It is said that Cardinal Morton placed this roof upon the church when he was Archbishop of Canterbury. He was born near, or in, this village, and after the battle of Towton was attainted. In the central shield on the roof the arms of Morton are impaled with the arms of the See of Canterbury; this gives the date of the erection somewhere between 1486 and 1500, but a Cardinal’s hat on one of the figures limits the date still further, as it was not until 1493 that Morton became a Cardinal. The figures, which project from the hammer beams and look downwards, are popularly known as the Apostles, but the dress precludes this idea, as one is habited as a Deacon, and one, as said above, wears a Cardinal’s hat. The painting of the roof is modern, done when the roof was restored.

One of the most remarkable buildings of the fifteenth century is St. Catherine’s Chapel, on the lofty hill which overlooks the sea near Abbotsbury. In the construction of this, wood plays no part—all is solid stone. The roof is formed of transverse ribs, richly bossed where ridge and purloin ribs intersect them, and each of the two rectangular compartments between every pair of ribs on either side thus formed is simply foliated like blank window lights. There is not a thin stone vault below a stone outer roof above with a space between them, but it is stone throughout, and on St. Catherine’s wind-swept hill the chapel has stood uninjured since the Benedictine Monks of Abbotsbury built this chantry nearly five hundred years ago. The massive buttresses, from which no pinnacles rise, the parapet pierced by holes for letting out the water, the turret with its flat cap, in which once the beacon fire used to be lighted in its iron cresset, render the chapel still more unique. Nowhere else in England, save on St. Ealdhelm’s Head, can such a solidly-built structure be found. The simple tracery of the windows remains, but the glass has disappeared. The windows are boarded up to keep out the rain and the interior is bare. Resting on a hill top, washed by the pure breezes, such a chapel is fitly dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria.

THE MEMORIAL BRASSES OF DORSET

BY W. DE C. PRIDEAUX

Dorset is by no means rich in the number of its monumental brasses. Haines, in his list (1861), gives their number as thirty-three, distributed over twenty-four churches; but recent researches and alterations in the county boundaries have rendered his list no longer strictly accurate. Yet only about one hundredth of the brasses to be found in England are preserved in Dorset, though its area is about one fiftieth of the area of England; and so it will be seen that the number of its brasses is considerably below the average, although it must be remembered that brasses are very unequally divided, the Eastern counties having by far the largest proportion.

The earliest known brasses in England date from the latter part of the thirteenth century; and for three centuries this form of memorial was in great favour. Brasses had many advantages over carved effigies in stone; they occupied less space, formed no obstruction in the churches, were more easily executed, and possibly cheaper. Fortunately, also, they have lasted longer, and have preserved a wealth of valuable detail relating to costume and heraldry far in excess of any other form of monument.

Monumental brasses may be divided roughly into two classes: those in which the figure is engraved on a rectangular plate, the background being plain or filled in with diapered or scroll work, which is seen to such great advantage on many Continental brasses, and those in which there is no background, the plate being cut around the outline of the figure, and fastened down into a similarly shaped shallow matrix or casement in the stone slab. Examples of both kinds are found in Dorset; but none of our examples are of very early date. One of the oldest, commemorating Joan de St. Omer, dated 1436 (an engraving of which may be seen in Hutchins’ _Dorset_, vol. ii., p. 380, and a rubbing by the late Mr. Henry Moule in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, London[18]), has disappeared from St. Peter’s Church, Dorchester, although the matrix still remains. The Oke brass at Shapwick, if of contemporary workmanship, may be older.

Sometimes brasses were pulled out and sold by the churchwardens for the value of the metal.[19] Sometimes, indeed, brasses which had commemorated some warrior, priest, or worthy of former times were taken up, turned over, re-engraved, and made to do duty in honour of someone else, as may be seen in the retroscript brasses at Litton Cheney; but in several cases the brass, after weathering the stormy times of the civil wars, and escaping the greed of those whose business it was to guard their church from the mutilation, were lost through the gross neglect of the nineteenth century restorer. The writer knows of several specimens now loose and in danger.

The following is a list of all the known brasses in Dorset:—

_Beaminster._—Ann, the wife of Henry Hillary, of Meerhay, 1653.

Elizabeth, the wife of William Milles, and daughter of John Hillary, of Meerhay, 1674.

Mrs. Ann Hillary, died 1700.

William Milles, Esq., of Meerhay, and Mary, his wife. He died 1760, aged 82; she died 1771, aged 95.

And outside the wall of south aisle, inscriptions to—

Elizabeth Smitham, 1773, aged 61.

Rev. Edmund Lewis, 1766, aged 40.

Joseph Symes, gent., 1776, aged 75; also Frances, his wife, 1737, aged 47.

And on a large slab in the floor of south aisle, formerly on an altar tomb—

Pray for the soule of S^{r} John Tone,[20]
Whose bodye lyeth berid under this tombe,
On whos soule J’hu have mercy A Pat’nost’ & Ave.

All small inscriptions only.

_Bere Regis._—J. Skerne and Margaret, his wife, 1596. Kneeling figures, with heraldic shield and an eight-line engraved verse, on altar tomb.

Robert Turberville, 1559. Inscription only.

_Bryanston._—John Rogers and Elizabeth, his wife, 1528. Inscription below matrices of their effigies and heraldic shields.

Cecilia Rogers, wife of Sir Richard Rogers, of Bryanston. A ten-line verse below matrices of her effigy and heraldic shields, 1566.

_Bridport._—Edward Coker, gent. Inscription only, 1685.

_Caundle Purse._—William Longe, 1500; Elizabeth Longe, 1527; Richard Brodewey, rector, 1536. All small effigies, the two latter with inscriptions; and all loose when seen by the writer, with the exception of a small plate to Peter Hoskyns, 1682, above Longe altar tomb.

_Compton Valence._—Thomas Maldon, rector, rebuilder of church, 1440. Half effigy, from which issue two scrolls, with words from Ps. li. 1.

_Chesilborne._—A small inscribed brass to John Keate, 1552, and Margaret, his wife, 1554.

_Corfe Mullen._—A small effigy of Richard Birt. Below this there is a mutilated inscription to Ricardus Birt and Alicia, his wife, 1437.

_Crichel, Moor._—Isabel Uvedale, 1572. An effigy with a ten-line engraved verse.

William Cyfrewast, Esquyer, 1581. Inscription and two six-line verses.

_Crichel, Long._—Johan’ Gouys. A small inscription only.

_Cranborne._—Margaret, daughter of Henry Ashelie, the wife of William Wallop, 1582. Inscription only. There is another inscribed plate bearing date 1631; otherwise illegible.

_Dorchester, St. Peter._—Inscription and scroll to the lost figure of Joan de St. Omer, widow of Robert More, 1436.

William and Johanna Sillon. Part of inscription. Inscription to John Gollop.

_Evershot._—William Grey, rector, 1524, with chalice and host. Inscription below effigy composed of quite a different alloy.

_Fleet Old Church._—Robert and Margaret Mohun, with seventeen children, 1603.

Maximillian Mohun, his son, showing his wife and thirteen children.

_Holme Priory._—Richard Sidwaye, gent., 1612.

_Knowle._—John Clavell, 1572, and two wives; the first with three sons and one daughter; the second wife, Susan, daughter of Robert Coker, of Mappowder, is kneeling alone.

_Litton Cheney._—Ralph Henvil, of Looke, 1644. Anne Henvill, daughter of Richard Henvill, of Looke, 1681. Inscriptions only.

There is also an interesting retroscript brass, in two pieces, having three inscriptions:—

1.—Johes Chapman, ffysch mōger, 1471.

2.—Alexandriam (?) Warnby, 1486.

3.—Johis Newpton et Thome Neupto.

_Lytchett Matravers._—Thomas Pethyn (_als._ Talpathyn), rector, in shroud, _c._ 1470.

Margaret Clement, “generosa, specialis benefactrix reedificacionis huius ecclesie,” 1505.

A matrix of a very large fret (the arms of Matravers), with marginal inscription, to Sir John Matravers, 1365.

_Langton._—John Whitewod, gent., and his two wives, Johanna and Alicia; three effigies, with inscription, bearing dates 1457, 1467, and portion of scrolls.

_Melbury Sampford._—Sir Gyles Strangwayes, 1562, in tabard. Two shields, with thirteen and fourteen quarterings respectively, and inscriptions to Henry Strangwayes, Esq., who “died at the syege of Bolleyne,” and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Lord George Rosse; and to Sir Gyles Strangwayes and his wife, Joan, eldest daughter of John Wadham, Esq. There are also strip brasses around recumbent marble effigies of Sir Gyles Strangwayes the elder, and William Brunyng, and a rectangular brass plate to Laurencius Sampford, _miles_, and another to John and Alicia Brounyng, with three coats of arms.

_Milton Abbey._—Sir John Tregonwell, D.C.L., 1565, in tabard, with heraldic shields and inscription.

John Artur, a monk of the Abbey. A small brass of about the middle of the fifteenth century.

_Milborne St. Andrew._—John Morton, Esq., 1521, son of Richard Morton, and nephew of John Morton, Cardinal. Brass plate on altar tomb, below matrix of a knight in armour.

_Moreton._—James Frampton, 1523. He is shown kneeling, with text on scrolls.

_Owermoigne._—John Sturton, Esq., 1506. Inscription, “causyd this wyndowe to be made.”

On a loose plate, now lost, Nicholas Cheverel, Esq., and Jane, his wife, who both died in the year 1548.

_Piddlehinton._—Thomas Browne, parson for 27 years, in hat and clerical habit, having staff and book, with a twelve-line verse and inscription, 1617.

There was formerly a brass inscription to John Chapman, 1494, in the north aisle.

_Piddletown._—Roger Cheverell, 1517. Half effigy, with inscription and two shields of arms.

Christopher Martyn, Esq., 1524. Kneeling effigy, in tabard, with shield of arms and partial representation of the Trinity.

Nicholas Martyn, Esq., and wife, 1595, with three sons and seven daughters, with armorial brass and inscription between effigies, on back of altar tomb.

_Pimperne._—Mrs. Dorothy Williams, wife of John Williams, curate, 1694. A very curious effigy, with skeleton below. “Edmund Colepeper fecit.”

_Puncknowle._—William Napper, Esq., brother of Sir Robert Napper, in armour; by his wife, Anne, daughter of Wm. Shelton, Esq., of Onger Park, he had six sons. Brass engraved _c._ 1600, before his death.

_Rampisham._—Thomas Dygenys and his wife Isabel. Two figures, with inscription at their feet, “gud benefactors to this churche.” Both died in 1523.

_Shaftesbury, St. Peter._—Inscription to Stephen, son and heir of Nicholas Payne, steward of the Monastery, 1508. On the slab are matrices of four brass shields. This was removed from the Abbey.

In Holy Trinity churchyard is half a large blue slab, having thereon the matrix of a large brass which local tradition says was to King Edward the Martyr.

_Shapwick._—Inscription to Richard Chernok, _als._ Hogeson, vicar, 1538.

A fine effigy of Maria, heiress of Lord de Champneys, and wife of John Oke. The inscription is to the latter; the former has a dog at her feet. Her first husband was Sir William Tourney, and she married William Oke in the reign of Richard II.; so it is quite likely that this brass is of the fourteenth century.

_Sturminster Marshall._—An effigy of Henry Helme, vicar, in gown, with moustache and pointed beard. He was the founder of Baylye House (the vicarage), 1581. The inscription is a ten-line verse. The brass is fastened on a black marble slab.

Also, “Here lyeth Wylla’ Benett, on whose sowle Gode have merci.” (No date.)

_Swanage, als. Swanwich._—William Clavell (effigy lost), with Margaret and Alicia, his wives, _c._ 1470.

John Harve, 1510. Inscription only:—

Suche as I was, so be you, and as I am, so shall you be,
And of the soule of John Harve God have mercy.

Henry Welles, of Godlinstone, 1607, and Marie, his first wife, 1560. Inscriptions only.

Susan Cockram, wife of Brune Cockram, parson of Swanw^{ch}, 1641.

Thomas Serrell, the sonn of Anthony Serrell, of Swanwhich, 1639.

_Swyre._—John Russell, Esq., and Elizabeth, his wife, daughter of John Frocksmer, Esq., 1505. Inscription, with arms.

James Russell, Esq. (son of John Russell), and Alys, his wife,, daughter of John Wise, Esq., 1510. Inscription, with arms.[21]

George Gollop, of Berwick, tenth son of Thomas Gollop, of Strode, Dorset; brass, _c._ 1787. Long inscription only, to many of this family.

_Tincleton._—Inscription to Thomas Faryngdon, _armiger_, 1404.

_Tarrant Crawford._—In the year 1862, a small brass plate was found on the Abbey site in memory of “d’ns Joh’es Karrant.”

_Thorncombe._—Sir Thomas and Lady Brook. Two fine effigies, with long inscription. Sir Thomas died 1419; Lady Brook, 1437; “on whose soules God have mercy and pite that for us dyed on the rode tree. Ame’.”

_Upwey._—William Gould, 1681. Inscription only, on outer side of north wall of chancel, opposite altar tomb.

_West Stafford._—Inscription to Giles Long, 1592, “then Lord of Frome Bellett and patrone of the parsonage and Stafford.”

_Wimborne Minster._—St. Ethelred, King of the West Saxons, martyr, “Anno Domini 873 (871?) 23 die Aprilis per manus dacorum paganorum occubuit.” Half effigy, engraved _c._ 1440; inscription restored _c._ 1600.

_Woolland._—Mary, daughter of Robert Williams, of Herringston, and wife of Robert Thornhull, and then of Lewis Argenton, 1616. The inscription of twelve lines is curious and descriptive, beginning:—

Here lyeth our landladie loved of all,
Whom Mary Argenton last wee did call.

_Yetminster._—John Horsey, Esquire, 1531, Lord of the Manor of Clifton, and Elizabeth, his wife, Lady of the Manor of Turges Melcombe. Two fine effigies, with scrolls at sides and inscription at foot.

Of the foregoing brasses, the following deserve a longer notice:—

_Bere Regis._—J. Skerne and Margaret, his wife. This monument consists of two kneeling figures, fourteen inches high, cut round the outline, and represented as kneeling on the pavement; between them is a rectangular plate, with coat of arms (Skerne impaling Thornhull), and an inscription on another plate below. Skerne wears a long gown, with sleeves nearly touching the ground; his wife, a dress, with ruff and a widow’s wimple. The inscription states that the memorial was erected by the aforesaid Margaret in 1596.

In the same church there is an inscription to Sir Robert Turberville, 1559. There are also remains of three altar tombs, all with empty matrices; two in the south aisle probably mark the last resting-places of members of the Turberville family. It is of these that John Durbeyfield, in Thomas Hardy’s _Tess_, boasted, “I’ve got a gr’t family vault at Kingsbere and knighted forefathers in lead coffins there.”

_Caundle Purse._—The brass of W. Longe, 26 ins. high, represents a man in armour, with long flowing hair; the head is inclined to the right. Its matrix was found by the writer in the North, or Longe, Chantry. The brass is heavy, being ⅜-in. thick; it is poor in execution, and is, unfortunately, away from its slab.

The monument of Richard Brodewey, rector, is far more interesting. The head has been broken off; the figure, only ten inches high, represents the priest as laid out for burial, clad in eucharistic vestments. This brass is specially noteworthy, because it is the only known memorial in England in which the maniple is represented as buttoned or sewn, so as to form a loop to prevent it from slipping off the wrist. This was the final form that the maniple assumed; in earlier times it simply hung over the arm without attachment.

_Evershot._—The brass commemorating William Grey is rather larger than that at Caundle Purse, and is in better condition. Like Brodewey, Grey is represented as laid out in his eucharistic vestments—amice, alb, maniple, stole, and chasuble; between his raised hands he holds a chalice, with the host (similar to Henry Denton, priest, Higham Ferrers, 1498). There are only about a dozen representations of chaliced priests in England, so that this memorial may be classed among rare examples. It was customary to bury a chalice (usually of some secondary metal) with all ecclesiastics in priests’ orders.[22]

_Fleet._—The two brasses in this church are engraved on rectangular plates. In each, the husband kneels on the opposite side to the wife (he dexter, she sinister), with a _prie Dieu_ between them. Their many sons and daughters kneel behind the father and mother respectively.

_Milton Abbey._—Sir John Tregonwell is represented, kneeling, in a tabard; and this is the latest tabard brass in England.

Another very interesting and almost unique brass in the Abbey is that to John Artur, of this place “_monachus_.” Brasses to monks are exceedingly rare.

_Moreton._—The inscription on the monument of James Frampton is unusual; the letters are raised above the background, instead of being sunk in it.

_Piddletown._—The effigy of Roger Cheverell has only the upper part left—10½ in. by 6 in. in size. The dress is that of a civilian of good standing, for the cloak is lined with fur; the head is bare and the hair long.

Christopher Martyn’s brass is engraved on a rectangular plate. The lower half is occupied by the inscription; above it kneels the figure in conventional armour, with a tabard bearing arms over. A scroll comes from the mouth, bearing, in abbreviated form, the prayer, “Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis, et omnes iniquitates meas dele.” Two shields, one low on the right side of the figure, another high above the left shoulder, bear the well-known Martyn arms; and above the former, the All Father sits on a throne, with two fingers of the right hand raised in blessing, and the left hand holds between the knees a Tau-shaped cross, on which the Son is nailed. There is, however, no dove, so that it cannot be regarded as a complete representation of the Trinity. At Bere Regis there is a matrix of an enthroned figure of almost identical outline.

The memorial to Nicholas Martyn and his wife belongs to the other type of brass. In the centre, indeed, are two rectangular plates, one bearing the heraldic shield (Martyn impaling Wadham), the other the inscription; but the other plates are cut round the figures, and have little background. On the right or dexter side, the husband, clad in armour, but not wearing a helmet, kneels, with hands clasped in prayer, before an altar covered with a fringed cloth, on which lies an open book; behind him kneel his three sons, wearing cloaks, with ruffs around their necks. On the left-hand side, Margaret, his wife, kneels before a similar altar and book; behind her are her seven daughters, all engaged in prayer. They all wear Elizabethan costume—hoods, large ruffs, long bodied peaked stomachers and skirts, extended by farthingales of whalebone.

_Thorncombe._—The brasses to Sir Thomas and Lady Brooke, of Holditch and Weycroft, are two of the most distinguished to be found of the fourteenth century. He was sheriff of Somerset, 1389, and of Devon, 1394, and is shown clad in a long gown with deep dependent sleeves, guarded with fur around the skirt, and pulled in at the waist by a belt studded with roses; within the gown a second garment appears, with four rows of fur around the skirt. His hair is short, and his feet rest on a greyhound couchant, collared. Lady Brooke wears a long robe, fastened across the breast by a cordon with tassels, over a plain gown; her hair is dressed in semi-mitre shape, and confined by a richly jewelled net, over which is placed the cover-chief, edged with embroidery and dependent to the shoulders. At her feet is a little dog, collared and belled. Sir Thomas and his wife each wear the collar of SS.; their arms are in tightly-fitting sleeves, and the hands are raised in prayer. The inscription around the effigies has been restored, and plain shields inserted in place of originals, which would have shown Gules on a chevron argent a lion rampant sable; Brooke with, among others, Cheddar, Mayor of Bristol, 1360-1, and Hanham.

_Wimborne Minster._—The Ethelred effigy here is only half length. The king is represented, in part, in priestly vestments. (“As kings by their coronation are admitted into a sacred as well as a civil character, the former of these is particularly manifested in the investiture with clerical garments.”) Though the brass commemorates a king of the West Saxons, it dates only from 1440. The inscription is on a copper plate, and the king’s death is said thereon to have occurred in 873, two years too late. A brass plate on which the date is correctly given is preserved in the Minster Library. It is supposed that the figure and the plate bearing the inscription were removed from the matrix and hidden for safety in the time of the Civil Wars, and that the plate could not be found when the figure was replaced, so that the copper one now on the slab was engraved to take the place of the one lost, which, however, was afterwards found, but not laid on the stone. It is a noteworthy fact that the effigy is fastened to the stone with nails of copper, not of brass; doubtless these are contemporary with the copper plate which bears the inscription. The Ethelred brass is the only brass commemorating a king that is to be found in England, and is so illustrated in Haines’ _Manual_, p. 74.

_Wraxall._—Elizabeth Lawrence, wife of Mr. William Lawrence, 1672. A six-line verse and an impaled coat of arms.

_Yetminster._—This brass, one of the finest in Dorset, was at one time loose at East Chelborough Rectory, but it has now been fixed to a slab on the south wall of the church. It was originally laid on a large stone in the floor of the chancel. John Horsey is represented in full and very richly ornamented armour; his wife is in a graceful gown and mantle, with dependent pomander, and fine head-dress.

SHERBORNE

BY W. B. WILDMAN, M.A.

Sherborne, as far as we can tell, owes its existence as a town to the fact that it was chosen in 705 to be the site where the bishop-stool was fixed of St. Ealdhelm, the first bishop of Western or Newer Wessex. Sherborne, like its daughter-towns Wells and Salisbury, is a Bishop’s town; but, unlike them, it was also, from 998 to 1539, the seat of a Benedictine Monastery. Thus Sherborne has suffered two distinct shocks in its career; the first came upon it when it lost its bishop in 1075; the second, when its Abbey was dissolved in 1539.

Another point worth mentioning concerning the past dignity of the town is this, that Sherborne, or at any rate, a part of it—Newland—was once actually a borough, as was also what we may call the suburb of Castleton.

This part of Sherborne is still called the Borough of Newland; it was given burghal privileges by Richard Poore, Bishop of Sarum, in 1228, and, according to Hutchins, it actually sent members to the House of Commons in 1343. But long after Newland got rid of this then burdensome privilege it still kept the name and other privileges of a borough, and both it and Castleton were for administrative purposes outside the Hundred of Sherborne; they kept their own tourns twice a year, and their own courts every three weeks; they had their own view of frank-pledge quite apart from the rest of the town and Hundred. It is not known to what bishop Castleton owed its title and dignity of _burgus_.

When Sherborne came into being, the surrounding country bore a very different look from that which we see to-day. It lay on the western edge of the great forest of Selwood, a fragment of which still remains to us here in Sherborne Castle Park. There were then no trim water-meadows, and the course of our river was marked by moor and marsh. Here, in the last fold of the Wessex hills, under which lies the great plain of Somerset, Ealdhelm’s seat was fixed, in a site central and convenient for the new district, which had barely a quarter of a century before been added to the West Saxon realm.

Sherborne was never a walled town; it lay under the protection of the fortified palace of its bishop, and in troublous times of Danish inroad its site was a safe one. The story that Swegen ravaged the town rests on nothing like contemporary evidence; on the other hand, the safety of its position, coupled with the fact that it was once the second city of Wessex, accounts for its being chosen by King Æthelbald for his capital, so to speak, when Winchester, in 860, was laid waste by the Danes; indeed, the change may have taken place soon after 856. Sherborne continued to be the capital of Wessex till about the year 878. During a considerable part of that time we may well believe that King Alfred spent his boyhood here, almost certainly during King Æthelberht’s reign; and here, in this centre of education which Ealdhelm had founded, he may well have received such education as he got during his boyhood. There is no other centre of education which has so good a claim to him; here were buried his two brothers, Æthelbald and Æthelberht, who successively reigned before Æthelred and himself. Æthelberht was his guardian after his father’s death. Alfred must have known Sherborne well; he was a benefactor of our church, and we claim his boyhood.

But besides Alfred and Ealdhelm, early Sherborne claims other heroes; Ealhstan, our bishop, the first West Saxon general to win a decisive victory over the Danes, was the right-hand man of Kings Ecgberht, Æthelwulf, Æthelbald, and Æthelberht; he was the most powerful man of his time. Here, in Sherborne, he lies buried beside Æthelbald and Æthelberht.

We claim, too, among our Sherborne bishops, St. Heahmund, who fell fighting against the Danes at Merton (probably Marden, Wilts.); Asser, the biographer of King Alfred, who is said to lie buried among us; Werstan, another warrior who fell in battle; St. Wulfsy and St. Alfwold, names rather forgotten now, but great and famous in their day. St. Osmund, who compiled the _Use of Sarum_, was one of our abbots; and St. Stephen Harding, the author of the _Carta Caritatis_, and the real founder of the Cistercian Order, is the earliest scholar of Sherborne School whom History records as such.

Nor can Sherborne forget what it owes to the great Roger Niger, that dark, stalwart Bishop of Sarum, who built the Norman Castle here and the Norman part of our Abbey Church, who organized the English Court of Exchequer, was the trusted adviser of the “Lion of Justice,” Henry I., and deserved a better end than to break his heart in a contest with such a poor creature as King Stephen.

Our Abbot, William Bradford, will not be forgotten by lovers of architecture, for under his rule in the fifteenth century the choir of our Abbey Church was rebuilt; while to another Abbot, Peter Ramsam, we owe, later in the same century, the restoration of our nave. To Abbot Mere we are indebted for a little building, which every visitor to Sherborne knows, the Conduit, which stands in our old market-place, now called by the somewhat affected name of the “Parade.” This conduit, though it was built, as we have said, by Abbot Mere (1504-1535), is described by one of those omniscient gentlemen who have lately been enlightening us about the beauties of Wessex, as “a structure of the fourteenth century.” It originally stood on the north side of the nave of the Abbey Church, inside the Cloister Court, which is now a part of Sherborne School; but it was removed to its present site, or nearly its present site, by the school governors in the latter part of the sixteenth century. It is to this day the property of the school.

And so we are brought to the time when our ecclesiastical lords, the Bishop of Sarum and the Abbot of Sherborne, passed away from us, and their places were taken by lay lords. Here, too, we meet with famous names. We have the Protector Somerset, to whom, indirectly, Sherborne School may owe its post-Reformation endowment. We have, also, Henry, Prince of Wales, that “young Marcellus of the House of Stuart,” the eldest son of James I., whose hatchment, as that of a squire of Sherborne, still hangs in our Abbey Church; we have Walter Ralegh, that restless, strenuous soul, whose dearly-loved home Sherborne was, where he would gladly have been buried; we have John Digby, first Earl of Bristol, whose name stands high among those of English worthies in the reigns of James I. and Charles I., a man worthy to have lived in a better age, and to have hazarded his all in a better cause. And another name insistently presents itself to anyone who has followed Sherborne history—that of Hugo Daniel Harper. To him Sherborne town and school owe much that is precious and enduring. That a little town like ours has kept something of its ancient state, that here we can still so easily call back the past of Wessex, can still see standing in beauty and dignity these buildings which the Middle Age has left us—all this is in no small degree owing to that famous headmaster of Sherborne School and to his successors.

We now proceed to write more particularly of the most interesting of these ancient buildings and institutions. They are four in number: the Abbey Church, the School, the old Castle, and the Almshouse.

With the exception of a small part of the west front of the Abbey Church, there is, so far as we can tell, not a single piece of wall standing now in Sherborne which was standing in the year 1107, when Roger of Caen became Bishop of Sarum and Abbot of Sherborne. We know that the doorway, now blocked up, on the north side of the west front of the church, and, therefore, also some of the adjoining wall, is older than Bishop Roger’s time; but with that exception, we are forced to admit that the Norman from Caen pulled down all the rest of Ealdhelm’s church. If he left any more of it, either time has destroyed this, or he so used the walls that they cannot now be recognised with any certainty. At the same time there is a piece of outside wall at the north end of the north transept, in the old slype, which looks very like pre-Norman work.

The church which Roger built extended as far east as the present church does, excluding the lady chapels; for the lady chapel of the thirteenth century must have abutted on the Norman east end, just as it now does on the Perpendicular ambulatory. The church extended probably rather further to the west than the present church does, for there exists evidence to show that, before the parish church of All Hallows was built on to the west end of the Abbey Church in the fourteenth century, the west front of the Abbey Church was embellished with a large porch of Norman work.

The chief traces of Roger’s work still existing in the church are the piers and arches that carry the tower, the transept walls, the arches leading from the transept into the side aisles of the nave, and the walls of these aisles. Other interesting traces of Roger’s work will be found in the little chapel which projects eastwards from the north transept; also in the south and west walls of the early English chapel on the north side of the north aisle of the choir, commonly called Bishop Roger’s Chapel, and now used as the vestry; these Norman walls were outside walls of Roger’s church before this early English addition was made. There is also the jamb of a window to be seen on the outside of the east wall of the south transept, the only relic which gives us an idea of what the Norman clerestory was like.

The choir of Roger’s church extended west of the central tower, and to allow room for the stall-work, the shafts of the east and west tower arches were corbelled off above the line of the stalls, as may still be seen in the existing church. That part of the Abbey nave which lay to the west of the Norman choir was used, until the building of All Hallows, as the parish church; and the fine Norman south porch, which has been rather over-restored in the nineteenth century, was, no doubt, a parochial porch, for it faces the town, not the monastic buildings, which are on the north side of the church.

The tower up to the floor of the bell-chamber is Norman. Over the pier-arches which carry it, except on the east side, there is a passage in the thickness of the wall, with an arcade of semi-circular arches resting on circular and octagonal shafts, eleven inches in diameter. On the east side the Norman pier-arch was removed at the rebuilding of the choir in the fifteenth century, and the removal of this arch so weakened the tower that its condition in the course of years became dangerous. The tower was made secure in 1884-5, and these shafts on the north-west and south sides of the lantern, which had been concealed by the fifteenth century masonry, were again displayed to view.

A large lady chapel was added in the thirteenth century; the fine Early English arch, by which it was entered from the church, may still be seen in the east wall of the ambulatory. The centre of this arch is to the south of that of the fifteenth century arch, and hence the corbels of the Perpendicular vaulting do not correspond at all with the Early English arch; one of them is actually constructed to hang as a pendant, free of this arch altogether.

The changes made inside the church in the fourteenth century were so slight as to need no mention. Outside the church, however, a great change took place, for towards the end of this century the church of All Hallows was built. The great west porch was pulled down so that All Hallows might stand directly against the west front of the Norman church. There are still to be seen remnants of All Hallows, viz., the lower part of the north wall of the north aisle, and four responds built into the west wall of the Abbey Church. When All Hallows was standing with its pinnacled western tower, one would have seen a church some 350 feet long, with a central and a western tower. This latter tower had a ring of bells of its own, at least five in number; and it was to this ring of the parish, not to the Abbey, that Wolsey gave our great bell.

In the fifteenth century Sherborne saw great things in the way of building; not only was the Almshouse then built, but the church also underwent those changes which gave it the appearance it keeps to-day. The choir was taken down during the last year or two of Abbot John Brunyng’s rule, and rebuilt from the ground by his successor, William Bradford (1436-1459). During this same century the smaller lady chapel, called the Bow Chapel, was built, and the nave restored in the style of the time by Abbot Peter Ramsam (1475-1504). To these two men we owe our present splendid fabric. Any visitor to Sherborne Abbey can for himself easily perceive the differences which mark off the choir as a building from the nave. The choir from floor to vault is one harmonious piece of work, so lovely, so complete, that the wit of man could scarcely design anything finer; while the nave is a compromise, for in the nave yet stand the old Norman piers cased in Perpendicular panelling, and the effect which the nave gives us is that of two stories distinctly marked off the one from the other, the lower story bearing strong traces of its Norman origin, the upper or clerestory plainly a Perpendicular work, and worthy of the companion clerestory of the choir. The pillars of the southern arcade of the nave are not opposite those of the northern arcade, and the arches are of different widths; the clerestory arches of the nave, on the other hand, are of equal widths, and hence the clerestory arches are not directly above the arcade arches. This compromise has, however, been effected so cleverly that few people notice the irregularity.