and Montacutes, Earls of Salisbury, of which the kitchen remains, with
two enormous fireplaces, and curious chimney shafts. The greater part of
the old mansion was pulled down in 1765, and the house which was then
erected became, for a short time, the home of a society of Teresan nuns
from Belgium. In 1826 it was again rebuilt by Blore, and in 1848 Sir
John Guest employed Sir Charles Barry to make many additions, including
the tower, great hall and gallery, leaving, however, the dining-room and
the whole of the south front as Blore had designed them. A new wing
containing billiard and smoking rooms was added so recently as 1887.
Lady Charlotte Guest, mother of the late Lord Wimborne, was a
distinguished Welsh scholar, whose translation of the _Mabinogion_ gave
an extraordinary impulse to the study of Celtic literature and folk-lore
in England. She was twice married, her first husband being Sir J. J.
Guest, and her second Mr. Schreiber, member of Parliament for Poole.
In addition to a great literary talent Lady Charlotte had a considerable
love for the more mechanical side of the bookmaker's art, and for many
years Canford could boast of a printing press. In the year 1862 serious
attention was turned to the production of beautiful and artistic
printing. Although Lady Charlotte was the prime mover in this venture,
she received valuable assistance from her son (Lord Wimborne), Miss Enid
Guest, and other members of the family. It is thought that the first
book printed here was _Golconda_, the work of a former tutor to the
family. The most important books produced at this amateur press were
Tennyson's _The Window_, and _The Victim_, both printed in 1867. One of
the Miss Guests had met Tennyson while staying at Freshwater, and the
poet sent these MSS. to Canford in order that they might be printed. On
the title page of _The Victim_ there is a woodcut of Canford Manor. A
copy of this book was recently in the market. It contained an autograph
inscription by the late Mr. Montague Guest to William Barnes, the Dorset
poet. Only two other copies have changed hands since 1887, and these
Canford press publications are eagerly sought by collectors. So long
ago as 1896 a copy of _The Victim_ realized _L_75 at the sale of the
Crampton Library.
The ancient town of Wimborne, with its glorious minster, is very easily
reached both from Poole and from Bournemouth. The town stands in a
fertile district which was once occupied by the Roman legions, but the
chief glory of the place is its magnificent church with its numerous
tombs and monuments. Here are the last resting-places of such famous
families as the Courtenays, the Beauforts, and the Uvedales, and here
also lie the two daughters of Daniel Defoe, who joined Monmouth's
Rebellion at Lyme Regis. In the south choir aisle is the tomb of Antony
Etricke, before whom the Duke of Monmouth was taken after his flight
from Sedgemoor. The chained library, near the vestry, consists chiefly
of books left by William Stone, Principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford, who
was a native of the town. In 871 King Ethelred I died of wounds received
in a battle against the Danes near Wimborne. He was buried in the
minster, where he is commemorated by a fifteenth-century brass, this
being the only memorial of the kind that we have of an English monarch.
One cannot wander in these quiet old streets that surround the minster
without recalling to memory the nuns of Wimborne, who settled here
about the year 705, and over whom Cuthberga, Queen of Northumbria, and
sister of Ina, King of the West Saxons, presided as first abbess. It was
with the nuns of Wimborne that St. Boniface, a native of Crediton, in
Devon, contracted those friendships that cast so interesting a light on
the character of the great apostle of Germany.
In addition to its minster church, Wimborne has a very old building in
St. Margaret's Hospital, founded originally for the relief of lepers.
The chapel joins one of the tenements of the almsfolk, and here comes
one of the minster clergy every Thursday to conduct divine service. Near
a doorway in the north wall is an excellent outside water stoup in a
perfect state of preservation.
Comparatively few visitors to Bournemouth and Poole are aware to how
large an extent the culture of lavender for commercial purposes is
carried on at Broadstone, near Poole. Although it is only during
comparatively recent years that the cultivation of lavender in this
country has been sufficiently extensive to raise it to the dignity of a
recognized industry, dried lavender flowers have been used as a perfume
from the days of the Romans, who named the flower _lavandula_, from the
use to which it was applied by them in scenting the water for the bath.
It is not known for certain when the lavender plant was brought into
England. Shakespeare, in the _Winter's Tale_, puts these words into the
mouth of Perdita:
"Here's flowers for you;
Hot lavender, mint, savory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun,
And with him rises weeping: these are flowers of
Middle summer".
The Bard of Avon laid his scene in Bohemia; but the context makes it
evident that the plants named were such as were growing in an English
cottager's garden in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Broadstone was the spot chosen by Messrs. Rivers Hill and Company for
the purpose of growing lavender for their perfume distilleries. It is an
ideal spot, where a large tract of heather land, on a portion of Lord
Wimborne's estate, rises in a series of undulations from Poole Harbour.
Although it is quite a new industry for Dorset, it has already proved of
great value in finding constant employment, and an employment as healthy
as it is constant, for a large number of men and women. Unfortunately,
perhaps, it is an industry which demands peculiar climatic conditions to
render it commercially profitable. A close proximity to the sea, and an
abundance of sunshine, give an aroma to the oil extracted from the
flowers that is lacking when lavender is grown inland.
The farm has its own distillery, where the oil essences are extracted
and tested. The lavender is planted during the winter months, and two
crops are harvested--the first in June or July, and the second in August
or September. The reaping is done by men, and the flowers are packed
into mats of about half a hundredweight each.
The fields are not entirely given over to the cultivation of lavender,
for peppermint, sweet balm, rosemary, elder, and the sweet-scented
violets are also grown here. In addition to the people occupied in the
fields a large number of women and girls are employed to weave the
wicker coverings for the bottles of scent, forwarded from this Dorset
flower farm to all parts of the world.
* * * * *
CHRISTCHURCH
The ancient borough of Christchurch, five miles from Bournemouth,
spreads itself over a mile of street on a promontory washed on one side
by the Dorset Stour, and on the other by the Wiltshire Avon. Just below
the town the two rivers unite, and make their way through mud-banks to
the English Channel. The town itself is not devoid of interest, although
the great attraction of the place is the old Priory church, one of the
finest churches of non-cathedral rank in the country, both with regard
to its size, and its value to students of architecture.
Christchurch was once included in the New Forest, the boundaries of
which "ran from Hurst along the seashore to Christchurch bridge, as the
sea flows, thence as the Avon extends as far as the bridge of
Forthingbrugge" (Fordingbridge). Its inclusion in the New Forest
probably accounts for the great number of Kings who visited it after the
Norman Conquest, although King Ethelwold was here so early as 901, long
before the New Forest was thought of. King John had a great liking for
this part of the country, where the New Forest, Cranborne Chase, and the
Royal Warren of Purbeck made up a hunting-ground of enormous extent.
King John was frequently at Christchurch, which was also visited by
Edwards I, II, and III, by the seventh and eighth Henrys, and by Edward
VI, the last of whom, we are told by Fuller, passed through "the little
town in the forest". With such a wealth of royal visitors it is fitting
that the principal hotel in the town should be called the "King's Arms".
One of the members of Parliament for the borough was the eccentric
Antony Etricke, the Recorder of Poole, before whom the Duke of Monmouth
was taken after his capture following the defeat at Sedgemoor. The
unfortunate prince was found on Shag's Heath, near Horton, in a field
since called "Monmouth's Close".
An interesting reference to the place which has been missed by all the
town's historians, including that indefatigable antiquary, Walcott,
occurs in "The Note-Book of Tristram Risdon", an early
seventeenth-century manuscript preserved in the Library of the Dean and
Chapter of Exeter. The entry is as follows:--
"Baldwyn de Ridvers, the fifth, was Erl of Devonshire after the
death of Baldwyn his father, which died 29 of Henry III. This
Baldwyn had issue John, which lived not long, by meanes whereof the
name of Ridvers failed, and th'erldom came unto Isabell sister of
the last Baldwyn, which was maried unto William de Fortibus, Erl of
Albemarle. This Lady died without issue. Neere about her death shee
sold th'ile of Weight, and her mannor of Christchurch unto King
Edward I for six thowsand mark, payd by the hands of Sir Gilbert
Knovile, William de Stanes, and Geffrey Hecham, the King's
Receivers."
Going by the road the town is entered on the north side, at a spot
called Bargates, where there was once a movable barrier or gate.
Eggheite (i.e. the marshy island), the old name of a suburb of the town,
gave the appellation to an extensive Hundred in Domesday. Baldwin de
Redvers mentions the bridge of Eggheite. Among the Corporation records
are three indulgences remitting forty days of penance granted at
Donuhefd by Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury, July 1331, to all who
contributed to the building or repair of the bridge of Christchurch de
Twyneham; by Gervase, Bishop of Bangor, in 1367; and by Geoffrey,
Archbishop of Damascus, 6th December, 1373. These indulgences are
interesting as showing the importance attached to keeping the town's
bridges in good repair.
[Illustration: CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY FROM WICK FERRY
This is one of the finest churches of non-Cathedral rank in the country,
both with regard to size and its value to students of architecture. It
is larger than many a Cathedral.]
On 28th January, 1855, Sir Edmund Lyons, afterwards "Lord Lyons of
Christchurch", received a public welcome in the town, on his return from
his brilliant action before Sebastopol. At Mudeford, near by, lived
William Steward Rose, to whom Sir Walter Scott paid occasional visits.
Scott is said to have corrected the proofs of "Marmion" while at
Mudeford, where, in 1816, Coleridge was staying.
The town once had a leper hospital in Barrack Street, dedicated to St.
Mary Magdalen, but all traces of it have disappeared.
The views around the town, especially perhaps that from the top of the
church tower, are very extensive, from the New Forest on the east to the
hills of Purbeck and Swanage on the west, while the view seawards
includes the sweeping curve of Christchurch Bay, the English Channel,
and the Isle of Wight. The conspicuous eminence seen on the west of the
river is St. Catherine's Hill, where the monks first began to build
their Priory, and on it some traces of a small chapel have been found.
Hengistbury Head is a wild and deserted spot, with remains of an ancient
fosse cut between the Stour and the sea, possibly for defensive
purposes, as there is a rampart on each side of the entrenchment, to
which there are three entrances.
At the end of the long High Street stands the Priory church, with
examples to show of each definite period of our national ecclesiastical
architecture, from an early Norman crypt to Renaissance chantries. The
extreme length of the church is 311 feet, it being in this respect of
greater length than the cathedrals of Rochester, Oxford, Bristol,
Exeter, Carlisle, Ripon, and Southwell.
So vast a building naturally costs a large sum of money every year to
keep in repair, and in this respect the parishioners of the ancient
borough owe much to Bournemouth, whose visitors, by their fees, provide
more than sufficient funds for this purpose. The wonderful purity of the
air has been a great factor in preserving the crispness of the masonry,
and in keeping the mouldings and carvings almost as sharp in profile as
when they were first cut by the mediaeval masons.
The out-of-the-way position of the Priory no doubt accounts for the
slight and fragmentary references to it in early chronicles, the only
old writer of note to mention it being Knyghton (_temp._ Richard II),
who speaks of it as "the Priory of Twynham, which is now called
Christchurch". Even Camden, many years later, merely says that
"Christchurch had a castle and church founded in the time of the
Saxons". It is mentioned in the Domesday Survey, when its value was put
at _L_8 yearly, an increase of two pounds since the days of Edward the
Confessor. The Cartulary of the Priory is in the British Museum, but it
contains no notes of architectural interest.
According to tradition the first builders began to erect a church on St.
Catherine's Hill, but by some miraculous agency the stones were removed
every night, and deposited on the promontory between the two rivers, at
a spot which became known by the Saxon name of Tweoxneham, or Twynham.
The site for the church having been divinely revealed, the monks began
to build on the sacred spot; but even then there was no cessation of
supernatural intervention. Every day a strange workman came and toiled;
but he never took any food to sustain him, and never demanded any wages.
Once, when a rafter was too short for its allotted place, the stranger
stretched it to the required length with his hands, and this miraculous
beam is still to be seen within the church. When at last the building
was finished, and the workmen were gathered together to see the fruits
of their labour receive the episcopal consecration, the strange workman
was nowhere to be found. The monks came to the conclusion that He was
none other than Christ Himself, and the church which owed so much to His
miraculous help became known as Christchurch, or Christchurch Twynham,
although it had been officially dedicated to the Holy Trinity in the
reign of Edward the Confessor, and the title of Christchurch does not
appear to have been in general use until the twelfth century.
The early history of the foundation is very obscure. King Aethelstan is
said to have founded the first monastery. More certain is it that, in
the reign of Edward the Confessor, the church at Twynham was held by
Secular Canons, who remained there until 1150, when they were displaced
by Augustinians, or Austin Canons. The early church was pulled down by
Ralf Flambard, afterwards Bishop of Durham. He was the builder of the
fine Norman nave of Christchurch, and the still grander nave of Durham
Cathedral. He was Chaplain to William Rufus, and his life was as evil
and immoral as his skill in building was great. He died in 1128, and was
buried in his great northern cathedral. Much of Flambard's Norman work
at Christchurch remains in the triforium, the arcading of the nave, and
the transepts. A little later we get the nave clerestory, Early English
work, put up soon after the dawn of the thirteenth century, the
approximate date also of the nave aisle vaulting, the north porch, and a
chapel attached to the north transept. To the fourteenth century belong
the massive stone rood-screen, and the reredos. The Perpendicular Lady
Chapel was finished about the close of the thirteenth century, while the
fourteenth century gave us the western tower, and most of the choir,
although the vaulting was put up much later, as the bosses of the south
choir aisle bear the initials W. E., indicating William Eyre, Prior from
1502 to 1520. Last of all in architectural chronology come the chantry
of Prior Draper, built in 1529, and that of Margaret, Countess of
Salisbury, niece of Edward IV, and mother of the famous Cardinal Pole.
She was not destined, however, to lie here, as she was beheaded at the
Tower in 1541.
The church now consists of nave, aisles, choir, unaisled transepts,
western tower, and Lady Chapel. The cloisters and the domestic buildings
have disappeared. It is highly probable that there was once a central
tower, an almost invariable accompaniment of a Norman conventual church.
There is no documentary evidence relating to a central tower, but the
massive piers and arches at the corners of the transepts seem to
indicate that provision was made for one, and the representation of a
tower of two stages on an old Priory seal, may be either the record of
an actual structure, or an intelligent anticipation of a feature that
never took an architectural form, although it was contemplated.
In the churchyard are tombstones to the memory of some of the passengers
lost in the wreck of the _Halsewell_, off Durlston Head, on 6th
January, 1786. The churchyard is large, and a walk round it allows a
view of the whole of the north side of the church. On the south side a
modern house and its grounds have displaced the cloisters and the
domestic buildings attached to the foundation. Prominent features on the
north side are a circular transept stairway, rich in diaper work, the
arcading round the transept, the wide windows of the clerestory of the
choir, and the upper portion of the Lady Chapel. The fifteenth-century
tower is set so far within the nave as to leave two spaces at the ends
of the aisles, one used as a vestry, the other as a store-room. In the
spandrels of the tower doorway are two shields charged with the arms of
the Priory and of the Earls of Salisbury. Above the doorway is a large
window, and above this again a niche containing a figure of Christ. The
octagonal stair turret is at the north-east angle. The north porch, much
restored, is of great size, and its side walls are of nearly the same
height as the clerestory of the nave. On the west side is a recess with
shafts of Purbeck marble and foliated cusps. Around the wall is a low
stone seat, used, it is said, by the parishioners and others who came to
see the Prior on business. The roof has some very beautiful groining,
much restored in 1862. Above the porch is a lofty room, probably used as
the muniment room of the Priory. Entrance to the church from this porch
is through a double doorway of rich Early English work.
[Illustration: PRIORY RUINS, CHRISTCHURCH]
An extraordinary epitaph is that on a tombstone near the north porch,
which reads as follows:--
"We were not slayne but raysed, raysed not to life but to be byried
twice by men of strife. What rest could the living have when dead
had none, agree amongst you heere we ten are one. Hen. Rogers died
Aprill 17 1641."
Several attempts have been made to explain the meaning of this epitaph,
one to the effect that Oliver Cromwell, while at Christchurch, dug up
some lead coffins to make into bullets, replacing the bodies from ten
coffins in one grave. This solution is more ingenious than probable, as
Cromwell does not appear to have ever been at Christchurch. Moreover,
the Great Rebellion did not begin until over fifteen months later than
the date on the tombstone. Another and more likely explanation is that
the ten were shipwrecked sailors, who were at first buried near the spot
where their bodies were washed ashore. The lord of the manor wished to
remove the bodies to consecrated ground, and a quarrel ensued between
him and Henry Rogers, then Mayor of Christchurch, who objected to their
removal. Eventually the lord of the manor had his way, but the Mayor had
the bodies placed in one grave, possibly to save the town the expense of
ten separate interments.
The north aisle was originally Norman, and small round-headed windows
still remain to light the triforium. In the angle formed by the aisle
and the north wing of the transept stood formerly a two-storied
building, the upper part of which communicated by a staircase with the
north aisle, but all this has been destroyed. The north transept is
chiefly Norman in character, with a fine arcade of intersecting arches
beneath a billeted string-course. An excellent Norman turret of four
stages runs up at the north-east angle, and is richly decorated, the
third story being ornamented with a lattice-work of stone in high
relief. East of the transept was once an apsidal chapel, similar to that
still remaining in the south arm of the transept, but about the end of
the thirteenth century this was destroyed and two chapels were built in
its place. These contain beautiful examples of plate tracery windows.
Above these chapels is a chamber supposed to have been the tracing room
wherein various drawings were prepared. The compartment has a window
similar in style to those in the chapels below.
East of the transept is the choir, with a clerestory of four lofty
Perpendicular windows of four lights each, with a bold flying buttress
between the windows.
The whole of this part of the church is Perpendicular, the choir aisle
windows are very low, and the curvature of the sides of the arches is
so slight that they almost appear to be straight lines. The choir roof
is flat, and is invisible from the exterior of the church. It is
probable that at one time a parapet ran along the top of the clerestory
walls, similar to that on the aisle walls, but if so it has disappeared,
giving this portion of the choir a somewhat bare appearance. The Lady
Chapel is to the east of the choir and presbytery, and contains three
large Perpendicular windows on each side; part of the central window on
the north side is blocked by an octagonal turret containing a staircase
leading to St. Michael's Loft, a large room above the Chapel. The large
eastern window of five lights is Perpendicular. The original purpose of
the loft above the Chapel is uncertain, and it has been used for a
variety of purposes. It was described as "St. Michael's Loft" in 1617,
and in 1666 the parishioners petitioned Bishop Morley for permission to
use it as a school, describing it as having been "heretofore a
chapter-house". The loft is lighted by five two-light windows having
square heads and with the lights divided by transoms. The eastern wall
has a window of three lights. Very curious are the corbels of the
dripstones and the grotesquely carved gargoyles. The south sides of the
Lady Chapel and choir correspond very closely with the north. This
portion of the church is not so well known as the north side, as
private gardens come close up to the walls.
The Norman apsidal chapel still remains on the eastern side of the south
transept. This has a semi-conical roof with chevron table-moulding
beneath it, and clusters of shafts on each side at the spring of the
apse. Of the two windows one is Norman and the other Early English. On
the northern side of the apse is an Early English sacristy. The south
side of the transept was strengthened by three buttresses, and contains
a depressed segmental window much smaller than the corresponding window
of the north transept. The south side of the nave has, externally, but
little interest as compared to the north side, for the cloisters, which
originally stood here, have been pulled down. Traces of the cloister
roof can still be seen, also a large drain, and an aumbry and cupboard
built into the thickness of the wall. There are also the remains of a
staircase which probably led to a dormitory at the western end.
In the south wall of the nave are two doors, that at the west used by
the canons, and that at the east by the Prior. The latter door is of
thirteenth-century date and is distinctly French in character.
In mediaeval days the nave was used as the parish church, and had its own
high altar, while the choir was reserved for the use of the canons. The
nave is made up of seven noble bays; the lower arcade consists of
semicircular arches enriched with the chevron ornament, while the
spandrels are filled with hatchet-work carving. The triforium of each
bay on both sides consists of two arches supported by a central pillar
and enclosed by a semicircular containing arch, with bold mouldings.