WINTERBOURne Clenston Manor House.

The party drove next to the beautiful manor house of Winterbourne Clenston, the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Rupert Tory, who had kindly allowed the Club to view it, and who gave the members a hospitable welcome. When the party were standing on the lawn before the house,

The Rev. C. W. H. DICKER gave a brief historical sketch of the development of the English Manor-House, ending with some particulars of the present example. He called attention to the splendid staircase of stone leading up to the principal apartment, the roof of which had been elaborately decorated with fine plaster work.

The Rev. R. GROSVENOR BARTELOT said that the house, so far as he knew, had never changed hands by purchase, but came down from the time of the Conquest by marriage from family to family.

A beautiful carved oak overmantel in the dining room traced, in its heraldic shields, the descent of the manor. From a Saxon named Syward, it came to the Winterbournes; the Winterbourne heiress married a Norman named de la Lynde. A de la Lynde married a Morton, the heiress of the Mortons married a Pleydell, and a Pleydell married a Michel.

The PRESIDENT having expressed the hearty thanks of the Club to Mr. and Mrs. Tory, the party inspected the fine barn, with its magnificent roof of the early Perpendicular Period.

CLENSTON CHURCH.

TRIBUTE TO THE FIRST PRESIDENT.

The church of St. Nicholas, Clenston, rebuilt in 1840 by Mrs. Michel with flints and Portland stone, in the Perpendicular style, is of no archæological interest; but the party entered it to pay a tribute of affectionate remembrance to their first President, the late Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, of Whatcombe, who there lies buried.

WINTERBOURNE WHITECHURCH.

Following the valley road the party came next to Winterbourne Whitechurch, and entered the interesting church of St. Mary, which succeeded the original white church Saxon times.

of

The Rev. HERBERT PENTIN mentioned that the Rector (the Rev. H. H. Tilney Bassett) could not be with them, and had asked him to call attention to the principal features of interest in the church.

The nave was burnt down 60 years ago. The arches under the tower, with their capitals carved with faces, some grotesque, other angelic, were late Norman. The wooden pulpit, of about the date 1420, belonged originally to the old parish church of Milton, which was pulled down at the restoration. It was formerly covered with plaster; but some years ago the Rector discovered that there was some beautiful woodwork under the plaster, and on the plaster being removed the carved and painted woodwork was found. The figures of the evangelists in the niches were modern. In the parish register was to be seen the entry of the baptism of John and Charles Wesley's father. It had been photographed, and would soon be obtainable in the popular picture postcard form. The entry read:

"1662. Samuel Wesley, the son of John Wesley, was baptised December 17th."

The Rev. C. W. H. DICKER, referring to the tower arches and Norman piers, observed that in many cases pointed arches were found in association with pure Norman work. The pointed arch had been discovered centuries before, and did not necessarily mark any transition, as was popularly supposed. Here at Whitechurch they saw the true contrast between the heavy Norman work and the light Early English. The Gothic feeling was noticeable in the spring upwards, which marked a new departure in structure. Originally that was probably a late Norman church. For some reason the tower disappeared, and all that remained of it, the two arches, were left in situ, and thereupon the Thirteenth Ce tury builders started and finished the chancel in the prevailing style of the period.

On leaving the church the party went round to the north outside wall, to view the small ancient cross embedded in the masonry, a cross which some call Saxon and others British.

WINTERBOURNE KINGSTON.

The party did not dismount from their carriages at Winterbourne Kingston, but they pulled up for a minute to have a

view of the exterior of the church of St. Nicholas, built, like so many others, of courses of flint and ashlar, and in the Early English style.

The south doorway has a beautiful feathered inner-arch. In 1873, when it was restored from designs by Mr. George E. Street, R.A., the eminent archi. tect, who made a special study of the Early English period of architecture, the north aisle was added, and a memorial window to Mrs. Michel.

In Little's Farmhouse, in this parish, there is to be seen some ancient heraldic glass, in which the griffin rampant of the Dacombes is associated with the arms of the families with whom they intermarried.

WINTERBOURNE ANDERSON.

The next stopping place was Winterbourne Anderson. The charming manor house is under internal repair, but Mrs. Gratrix, the owner, had kindly given the Club leave to view the outside. An alternative name for this parish was in olden times Fyve Ash. Probably the "five ashes" which gave the name to the place have long since decayed or been cut down, although the "nine elms" after which the locomotive works of the L. and S.W.R. in London are named are said to be still growing in Nine Elms-lane.

William de Stokes held the manor in the reign of Edward I. In the 36th year of Edward III. that well-known Dorset family, the Turbervilles, of Bere Regis, came into possession. In the 29th year of Henry VI. it passed to the Mortons, of Melcombe. In 1620 Sir John Tregonwell, of Milton Abbey, purchased the manor of Sir George Morton, and two years later built the house so typical of the domestic architecture of the period. It is quadrangular on plan, built of red brick with massive stone quoins. Three gables, formerly surmounted with ball finials, as at Montacute and other houses of the period, combine with the tall, elegantly grouped chimneys to relieve the house of any flatness and stiffness, while "the mellow reds and greys of the brickwork" are a feast of colour to the artist's eye. Inside the house the floor and main staircase are of oak, with especially good balustrades.

WINTERBOURNE TOMSON.

By the leave of Mr. W. E. Genge, the party went over the manor house of Winterbourne Tomson, which has some Elizabethan windows, with stone mullions and jambs and

typical label moulds. The principal internal feature is the fine early Jacobean plaster ceiling, which extended over the whole area of the house and is to be traced in all the rooms into which the original hall has been divided.

The party went from the manor house to the small derelict church adjoining.

The HON. SEC. mentioned that that little church was put up by Archbishop Wake, a native of Blandford, and has fallen into disuse simply because the population of the parish and district had grown smaller and smaller. Much attention was drawn to the church and its decayed condition when Sir Frederick Treves's book on Dorset in the "Highways and Byways " series was published. No money had been spent on its restoration, but Mr. Genge had done what he could for its preservation by having the windows all boarded up and a lock put on the door.

ALMER.

Through Winterbourne Zelston, the centre of the County Council's small holdings, the Club drove to Almer, where the Rector (the Rev. BARON HICHENS) was waiting at the church.

A beautiful structural feature here is the Norman arcade of three bays, in warm-hued sandstone, with two shallow carved human faces over the capitals of the pillars. The Early English font, standing on the inverted bowl of another old font, is also an object of special interest.

Mr. BARON HICHENS said that the most curious thing they had in the church was the pair of Swiss glass panels inserted in the north window of the chancel. They were of the sixteenth century, and considered very valuable. He had been offered £100 apiece for them; but, although they were perhaps not altogether suitable for a church, they could not dispose of them. Probably Mr. Drax brought them from Antwerp, where he collected many things which he put in the church at Charborough. He also referred to the small interesting brass on the wall. He found it in a house at Stickland and gave the man half-a-crown for it. The Latin inscription, beginning Orate pro anima," may be translated :

"Pray for the soul of Master William Trygge (or Brygge), formerly Rector of this Church, who died on the 29th day of December, in the year of our Lord MVXLIII."

There are, in the brass, two points in dispute. First, some say that the name of the deceased is Trygge and others that it is Brygge. We think that the initial letter is a “T.” Secondly, some say that the date is not MVXLIII.," but MVXVII."

66

The PRESIDENT read a letter from Mr. W. de C. Prideaux, of Weymouth, the indefatigable student of Dorset brasses, calling attention to the fact that the inscription was the same as that of the brass given by Hutchins as being in the neighbouring church of Winterbourne Zelston to the memory of one Brygge. It would be strange if there was a Rector named Brygge in one parish and a Rector named Trygge in an adjoining one. Mr. RICHARDSON, in returning thanks to the Rector, congratulated him on his rescue of this interesting brass.

Mrs. Rogers, of the Manor House, had kindly allowed the Club to visit this picturesque and pleasantly secluded residence, which, one would judge by the ridges in the adjoining fields, was originally moated. The house has a typical Tudor doorway, and outside this a handsome Jacobean portico has been erected, with an ornate superstructure in the classic Renaissance style, and of the seventeenth century. Mr. BARTELOT mentioned that this was the old house of the Anketyls, and he called attention inside to a Concordance of the Scriptures published by "S. N." of Cambridge in the year 1672-before Cruden's.

STURMINSTER MARSHALL.

The last church visited was that of St. Mary, Sturminster Marshall, where the members were confronted with a Norman arcade with massive square piers, rudely chamfered, and the arches adorned with a later escalloping in plaster.

Here the Club were received courteously by the Rev. James Cross, who has been Vicar for 33 years, and who gave them a detailed account of the church and everything of interest that it contains. The nave and north aisle, he said, were supposed to be of the time of King John. In the tower are four bells, one of the fourteenth and another of the fifteenth century. Mr. Cross announced with satisfaction that he had succeeded in completing a collection of portraits of previous vicars from 1745 to the present time. In the church. yard the visitors observed with interest the base and shaft of the old cross, and, near by, the mutilated stone coffin.

Driving on to the Rectory, the party were refreshed with tea at the hospitable invitation of the Rector, who also exhibited a chalice, which, he said, was thought to be the latest piece of pre-Reformation Communion plate known.

A short business meeting was held, in the course of which one new member was elected.

The PRESIDENT having thanked Mr. Cross heartily for his kind services and much appreciated hospitality, the carriages started on the return drive to Blandford.