The house of which your correspondent has heard his tradition is
certainly _Woolverton House_, in the parish of Charminster, near this
town.
It was built by Sir Thomas Trenchard, who died 20 Hen. VIII.; and
tradition holds, as history tells us, that Phillip, Archduke of Austria,
and King of Castile, with his queen _Juana_, or _Joanna_, were driven by
weather into the port of Weymouth: and that Sir Thomas Trenchard, then
the High Sheriff of the county, invited their majesties to his house,
and afforded them entertainment that was no less gratifying than timely.
Woolverton now belongs to James Henning, Esq. There is some fine carving
in the house, though it is not the ceiling that is markworthy; and it is
thought by some to be the work of a foreign hand. At Woolverton House
were founded the high fortunes of the House of Bedford. Sir Thomas
Trenchard, feeling the need of an interpreter with their Spanish
Majesties, happily bethought himself of a John Russell, Esq., of
Berwick, who had lived some years in Spain, and spoke Castilian; and
invited him, as a Spanish-English mouth, to his house: and it is said he
accompanied the king and queen to London, where he was recommended to
the favour of Hen. VII.; and after rising to high office, received from
Hen. VIII. a share of the monastic lands.
See Hutchins's _History of Dorset_.