Bournemouth, Poole & Christchurch

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BRANKSOME CHINE, BOURNEMOUTH

One of the most picturesque of the many "chines" or openings in the coast. Branksome Chine
was formerly the landing-place of the famous smuggler Gulliver, who amassed a fortune.

Beautiful England

BOURNEMOUTH

POOLE & CHRISTCHURCH

Described by SIDNEY HEATH
Painted by ERNEST HASLEHUST

BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED

LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY
1915

With thb

Publishers
Compli:

Tilackie ftP Sons " ^eautifuF Series

Price 2s. net per volume, in boards.

beautiful Cnglanb

Oxford

The Cornish

Bath and Wells

The English

Riviera

Ripon and Har-

Lakes

Dickens-Land

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Canterbury

Winchester

Scarborough

Shakespeare-

The Isle of

Bournemouth,

Land

Wight

Poole, and

The Thames

Chester York

Christchurch

Windsor Castle

The New Forest

Dover and Folke-

Cambridge

Hampton Court

stone

Norwich and the

Exeter

SWANAGE AND

Broads

Hereford

Neighbour-

The Heart of

Dartmoor

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Wessex

The Dukeries

Hastings and

The Peak Dis-

Warwick and

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Branksome Chine, Bournemouth .... Frontispiece

Bournemouth Pier and Sands from Eastcliff ... 6

Bournemouth: The Square and Gardens, from Mont Dore* 10

The Winter Gardens, Bournemouth 14

In the Upper Gardens, Bournemouth 18

Boscombe Chine 24

Bournemouth: The Children's Corner, Lower Gardens . 28

Talbot Woods, Bournemouth 32

Poole Harbour from Constitutional Hill . . . .38

Christchurch Priory from Wick Ferry 46

Priory Ruins, Christchurch 52

Christchurch Mill 60

M310145

BOURNEMOUTH POOLE
AND CHRISTCHURCH

The scenery which impresses most of us is
certainly that in which Nature is seen in her wild
and primitive condition, telling us of growth and
decay, and of the land's submission to eternal laws
unchecked by the hand of man. Yet we also feel a
certain pleasure in the contemplation of those scenes
which combine natural beauty with human artifice,
and attest to the ability with which architectural
science has developed Nature's virtues and concealed
natural disadvantages.

To a greater extent, perhaps, than any other spot
in southern England, does Bournemouth possess this
rare combination of natural loveliness and archi-
tectural art, so cunningly interwoven that it is diffi-
cult to distinguish the artificial from the natural
elements of the landscape.

6 BOURNEMOUTH

To human agency Bournemouth owes a most
delightful set of modern dwelling-houses, some charm-
ing marine drives, and an abundance of Public
Gardens. Through Nature the town receives its
unique group of Chines, which alone set it apart from
other watering-places; its invigorating sea-breezes,
and its woods of fir and pine clustering upon slopes
of emerald green, and doing the town excellent
service by giving warmth and colour to the land-
scape when winter has stripped the oak and the elm
of their glowing robes.

Considerably less than a century ago Bourne-
mouth, or " Burnemouth ", consisted merely of a
collection of fishermen's huts and smugglers' cabins,
scattered along the Chines and among the pine-
woods. The name " Bournemouth " comes from the
Anglo-Saxon words burne, or bourne, a stream,
and mutha, a mouth; thus the town owes its name
to its situation at the mouth of a little stream which
rises in the parish of Kinson some five or six miles
distant.

From Kinson the stream flows placidly through a
narrow valley of much beauty, and reaches the sea
by way of one of those romantic Chines so charac-
teristic of this corner of the Hampshire coast, and
of the neighbouring Isle of Wight.

A century ago the whole of the district between

BOURNEMOUTH 7

Poole on the west and Christchurch on the east
was an unpeopled waste of pine and heather, and
the haunt of gangs of smugglers. So great had the
practice of smuggling grown in the eighteenth cen-
tury, that, in 1720, the inhabitants of Poole presented
to the House of Commons a petition, calling attention
to "the great decay of their home manufacturers by
reason of the great quantities of goods run, and
prayed the House to provide a remedy". In 1747
there flourished at Poole a notorious band of
smugglers known as the "Hawkhurst Gang", and
towards the close of the same century a famous
smuggler named Gulliver had a favourite landing-
place for his cargoes at Branksome Chine, whence
his pack-horses made their way through the New
Forest to London and the Midlands, or travelled
westward across Crichel Down to Blandford, Bath,
and Bristol.

Gulliver is said to have employed fifty men, who
wore a livery, powdered hair, and smock frocks. This
smuggler amassed a large fortune, and he had the
audacity to purchase a portion of Eggardon Hill, in
west Dorset, on which he planted trees to form a
mark for his homeward-bound vessels. He also kept
a band of watchmen in readiness to light a beacon
fire on the approach of danger. This state of things
continued until an Act of Parliament was passed

8 BOURNEMOUTH

which made the lighting of signal fires by unauthorized
persons a punishable offence. The Earl of Malmes-
bury, in his Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, relates
many anecdotes and adventures of Gulliver, who
lived to a ripe old age without molestation by the
authorities, for the reason, it is said, that during
the wars with France he was able to obtain, through
his agents in that country, valuable information of
the movement of troops, with the result that his
smuggling was allowed to continue as payment for
the services he rendered in disclosing to the English
Government the nature of the French naval and military
plans.

Warner, writing about 1800, relates that he saw
twenty or thirty wagons, laden with kegs, guarded
by two or three hundred horsemen, each bearing
three tubs, coming over Hengistbury Head, and
making their way in the open day past Christchurch
to the New Forest.

On a tombstone at Kinson we may read: —

"A little tea, one leaf I did not steal;
For guiltless blood shed I to God appeal;
Put tea in one scale, human blood in t'other,
And think what 'tis to slay thy harmless brother".

The villagers of Kinson are stated to have all
been smugglers, and to have followed no other
occupation, while it is said that certain deep mark-

BOURNEMOUTH 9

ings on the walls of the church tower were caused
by the constant rubbing of the ropes used to draw
up and lower the kegs of brandy and the cases of
tea.

That many church towers in the neighbourhood
were used for the storage of illicit cargoes is well
known, and the sympathies of the local clergy were
nearly always on the side of the smugglers in the
days when a keg of old brandy would be a very
acceptable present in a retired country parsonage.
Occasionally, perhaps, the parson took more than
a passive interest in the proceedings. A story still
circulates around the neighbourhood of Poole to the
effect that a new-comer to the district was positively
shocked at the amount of smuggling that went on.
One night he came across a band of smugglers in
the act of unloading a cargo. "Smuggling," he
shouted. "Oh, the sin of it! the shame of it! Is
there no magistrate, no justice of the peace, no
clergyman, no minister, no "

"There be the Parson," replied one of the smug-
glers, thinking it was a case of sickness.

"Where? Where is he?" demanded the stranger.

"Why, that's him a-holding of the lanthorn,"
was the laconic reply.

It was early in the nineteenth century that a Mr.
Tregonwell of Cranborne, a Dorset man who owned

10 BOURNEMOUTH

a large piece of the moorland, found, on the west
side of the Bourne Valley, a sheltered combe of
exceptional beauty, where he built a summer residence
(now the Exeter Park Hotel), the first real house to
be erected on the virgin soil of Bournemouth. A
little later the same gentleman also built some
cottages, and the "Tregonwell Arms", an inn which
became known as the half-way house between Poole
and Christchurch, and so remained until it was
pulled down to make way for other buildings.

These, however, were isolated dwellings, and it
was not until 1836 that Sir George Gervis, Bart., of
Hinton Admiral, Christchurch, commenced to build
on an extensive scale on the eastern side of the
stream, and so laid the foundations of the present
town. Sir George employed skilful engineers and
eminent architects to plan and lay out his estate,
so that from the beginning great care was taken
in the formation and the selection of sites for the
houses and other buildings, with the result that
Bournemouth is known far and wide as the most
charming, artistic, and picturesque health resort in
the country. This happy result is due, in a large
measure, to the care with which its natural features
have been preserved and made to harmonize with
the requirements of a large residential population.
It is equally gratifying to note that successive land-

BOURNEMOUTH n

owners, and the town's Corporation, following the
excellent example set by Sir George Gervis, continue
to show a true conservative instinct in preserving
all that is worthy of preservation, while ever keeping
a watchful eye on any change which might detract
from the unique beauty of Bournemouth.

The town is situated on the curve of a large and
open bay, bounded by lofty if not precipitous cliffs,
which extend as far west as Haven Point, the entrance
to Poole Harbour, and eastwards to Hengistbury
Head, a distance of fourteen miles from point to point.

In addition to its splendid marine drives, its retiring
vales, its pine-woods, and its rustic nooks and dells,
the town is splendidly provided with Public Gardens,
excellently laid out, and luxuriously planted in what
was once mere bog and marsh land. The Gardens
contain a liberal supply of choice evergreens, and
deciduous shrubs and trees, while it is noticeable that
the Ceanothus azureus grows here without requir-
ing any protection. The slopes of the Gardens rise
gradually to where the open downs are covered with
heaths, gorse, and plantations of pines and firs.

It was not long after the first houses had been
built that the true source of Bournemouth's attractive-
ness was realized to be her climate, her salt-laden
breezes, and her pine-scented air. Since then she
has become more and more sought, both for residential

12 BOURNEMOUTH

and visiting purposes. Year by year the town has
spread and broadened, stretching out wide arms to
adjacent coigns of vantage like Parkstone, Boscombe,
Pokesdown, and Southbourne, until the "Queen of
the South" now covers many miles in extent.

It is one of those favoured spots where Autumn
lingers on till Christmas, and when Winter comes
he is Autumn's twin brother, only distinguishable
from him by an occasional burst of temper, in the
form of an east wind, soon repented of and as soon
forgotten. Thus it is that a large number of holiday
visitors are tempted to make their stay a long one,
and every winter brings an increasingly greater
number of new-comers to fill the places of the summer
absentees, so that, taking the year through, Bourne-
mouth is always full.

Contrast is one of the charms of the place; con-
trast between the shade and quietude of the pine-
woods, and the whirl and movement of modern life
and luxury in its most splendid and pronounced
development.

It is a town whose charm and whose reproach
alike is its newness; but unlike many an ancient
town, it has no unlovely past to rise up and shame
it. The dazzle and glitter of the luxury which has
descended upon her wooded shores does not frighten
Bournemouth, since she was born in splendour, and

BOURNEMOUTH 13

the very brightness of her short life is compensation
enough for the lack of an historical, and perhaps a
melancholy past.

With the exception of the soil on which she stands,
and the growths of that soil, everything in Bourne-
mouth is modern — churches, houses, and shops — but
all are as beautiful as modern architects and an un-
limited supply of money can make them. There are
hundreds of costly houses, charming both within and
without; their gardens always attractive in the fresh-
ness of their flowers, and in the trimness of their
tree-lined lawns. On every side there is evidence
of a universal love and culture of flowers, due,
no doubt, to the wonderful climate. Nowhere are
geraniums larger or redder, roses fairer or sweeter,
or foliage beds more magnificently laid out; while in
few other parts of the country can one find so many
large houses, representative of the various schools
of modern architectural art, as in Bournemouth and
her tree-clad parks.

Another factor that has played a large part in the
rapid development of the town is the excellence of
the railway services from all parts of the country,
and particularly from London. During the summer
months several trains run daily from Waterloo to
Bournemouth without a stop, doing the journey in two
hours; so that if the London and South Western

14 BOURNEMOUTH

Railway Company are fortunate in having a monopoly
of this traffic, the town is equally fortunate in being
served by a railway company which has made it almost
a marine suburb of London.

Bournemouth West Railway Station, situated on
Poole Hill, was completed and the line opened in
the summer of 1874. In 1884-5 the Central Station,
or Bournemouth East as it was then called, was built,
and the two stations connected by a loop-line.

The whole of the Bournemouth district lies in the
western part of the great valley or depression which
stretches from Shoreham, in Sussex, to near Dor-
chester, occupying the whole of South Hampshire
and the greater part of the south of Sussex and Dorset.
The valley is known as the chalk basin of Hampshire,
and is formed by the high range of hills extending
from Beachy Head to Cerne Abbas. To the north
the chain of hills remains intact, whilst the southern
portion of the valley has been encroached upon, and
two great portions of the wall of chalk having been
removed, one to the east and one to the west, the
Isle of Wight stands isolated and acts as a kind of
breakwater to the extensive bays, channels, and
harbours which have been scooped out of the softer
strata by the action of the sea. Sheltered by the
Isle of Wight are the Solent and Southampton
Water; westward are the bays and harbours of Christ-

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Oes

BOURNEMOUTH 15

church, Bournemouth, Poole, Studland, and Swanage.
The great bay between the promontories of the
Needles and Ballard Down, near Swanage, is sub-
divided by the headland of Hengistbury Head into
the smaller bays of Christchurch and Bournemouth.

The site of the town is an elevated tableland
formed by an extensive development of Bagshot
sands and clays covered with peat or turf, and
partly, on the upland levels, with a deep bed of
gravel.

The sea-board is marked with narrow ravines,
gorges, or glens, here called "Chines", but in the
north of England designated " Denes ".

For boating people the bay affords a daily delight,
although Christchurch and Poole are the nearest real
harbours. At the close of a summer's day, when
sea and sky and shore are enveloped in soft mist,
nothing can be more delightful than to flit with a
favouring wind past the picturesque Chines, or by the
white cliffs of Studland. The water in the little inlets
and bays lies still and blue, but out in the dancing
swirl of waters set up by the sunken rocks at the
base of a headland, all the colours of the rainbow
seem to be running a race together. Yachts come
sailing in from Cowes, proud, beautiful shapes, their
polished brass-work glinting in the sunlight, while
farther out in the Channel a great ocean liner steams

16 BOURNEMOUTH

steadily towards the Solent, altering her course
repeatedly as she nears the Needles.

And yet, with all her desirable qualities and attrac-
tive features, Bournemouth is not to everyone's taste,
particularly those whose holidays are incomplete with-
out mediaeval ruins on their doorsteps. The town,
however, is somewhat fortunate even in this respect,
since, although she has no antiquities of her own,
she is placed close to Wimborne and Poole on the
one hand, and to Christchurch, with its ancient Priory,
on the other. Poole itself is not an ideal place to
live in, while Wimborne and Christchurch are out-
of-the-way spots, interesting enough to the antiquary,
but dull, old-fashioned towns for holiday makers.
The clean, firm sands of Bournemouth are excellent
for walking on, and make it possible for the pedestrian
to tramp, with favourable tides, the whole of the four-
teen miles of shore that separate Poole Harbour from
Christchurch. By a coast ramble of this kind the
bold and varied forms of the cliffs, and the coves
cutting into them, give an endless variety to the
scene; while many a pretty peep may be obtained
where the Chines open out to the land, or where the
warmly-coloured cliffs glow in the sunlight between
the deep blue of the sea and the sombre tints of
the heather lands and the pine-clad moor beyond.

The clays and sandy beds of these cliffs are re-

( C 742 )

BOURNEMOUTH 17

markable for the richness of their fossil flora. From
the white, grey, and brownish clays between Poole Har-
bour and Bournemouth, no fewer than nineteen species
of ferns have been determined. The west side of
Bournemouth is rich in Polypodiaceae, and the east
side in Eucalypti and Araucaria. These, together
with other and sub-tropical forms, demonstrate the
existence of a once luxuriant forest that extended
to the Isle of Wight, where, in the cliffs bounding
Alum Bay, are contemporaneous beds. The Bourne-
mouth clay beds belong to the Middle Eocene period.

Westwards from the Pier the cliffs are imposing, on
one of the highest points near the town being the
Lookout. A hundred yards or so farther on is Little
Durley Chine, beyond which is a considerable ravine
known as Great Durley Chine, approached from the
shore by Durley Cove. The larger combe consists
of slopes of sand and gravel, with soft sand hummocks
at the base; while on the western side and plateau is
a mass of heather and gorse. Beyond Great Durley
Chine is Alum Chine, the largest opening on this
line of coast. Camden refers to it as "Alom Chine
Copperas House".

The views from the plateaux between the Chines
are very beautiful, especially perhaps that from Brank-
some Chine, where a large portion of the Branksome
Tower estate seems to be completely isolated by

( C 742 ) 2

18 BOURNEMOUTH

the deep gorges of the Chine. This estate extends
for a considerable distance to where a Martello
tower, said to have been built with stones from
Beaulieu Abbey, stands on the cliff, from which
point the land gradually diminishes in height until,
towards the entrance to Poole Harbour, it becomes
a jumbled and confused mass of low and broken
sand-hills. These North Haven sand-hills occupy
a spit of land forming the enclosing arm of the
estuary on this side. Near Poole Head the bank
is low and narrow; farther on it expands until, at
the termination of North Haven Point, it is one-
third of a mile broad. Here the sand-dunes rise
in circular ridges, resembling craters, many reaching
a height of fifty or sixty feet. Turning Haven Point,
the view of the great sheet of water studded with
green islands and backed by the purple hills of
Dorset is one of the finest in England. From
Haven Point one may reach Poole along a good
road that skirts the shores of the harbour all the
way, and affords some lovely vistas of shimmering
water and pine-clad banks.

Poole Harbour looks delightful from Haven Point.
At the edge of Brownsea Island the foam-flecked
beach glistens in the sun. The sand-dunes fringing
the enclosing sheet of water are yellow, the salt-
marshes of the shallow pools stretch in surfaces

IN THE UPPER GARDENS, BOURNEMOUTH

These Gardens are contained within the Branksome estate, and are consequently thrown
open to visitors only by the courtesy of the owner.

BOURNEMOUTH 19

of dull umber, brightened in parts by vivid splashes
of green. On a calm day the stillness of utter peace
seems to rest over the spot, broken only by the
lapping of the waves, and the hoarse cries of the
sea-birds as they search for food on the mud-banks
left by the receding tide. With such a scene before
us it is difficult to realize that only a mile or two
distant is one of the most popular watering-places
in England, with a throng of fashionable people seek-
ing their pleasure and their health by the sea.

It is well worth while to take a boat and pull
over to Brownsea. The island, which once belonged
to Cerne Abbey, is elliptical in shape, with pine-
covered banks rising, in some places, to a height
of ninety feet. In the centre of the isle is a valley
in which are two ornamental lakes. In addition
to a large residence, Brownsea Castle, and its exten-
sive grounds, there is a village of about twenty
cottages, called Maryland, and an ornate Gothic
church, partly roofed and panelled with fine old oak
taken from the Council Chamber of Crossby Hall,
Cardinal Wolsey's palace. The island once had a
hermit occupier whose cell and chapel were dedicated
to St. Andrew, and when Canute ravaged the Frome
Valley early in the eleventh century he carried his
spoils to Brownsea. The Castle was first built by
Henry VIII for the protection of the harbour, on

20 BOURNEMOUTH

condition that the town of Poole supplied six men to
keep watch and ward. In 1543 the Castle was granted
to John Vere, Earl of Oxford, who sold it to John
Duke. In the reign of Elizabeth it was termed "The
Queen's Majestie's Castell at Brownecksea ", and in
1576 the Queen sold it, together with Corfe Castle,
to Sir Christopher Hatton, whom she made "Admiral
of Purbeck ". In the early days of the Great Rebellion
the island was fortified for the Parliament, and,
like Poole, it withstood the attacks of the Royalists.
In 1665, when the Court was at Salisbury, an out-
break of the plague sent Charles II and a few of
his courtiers on a tour through East Dorset. On
15th September of that year Poole was visited by
a distinguished company, which included the King,
Lords Ashley, Lauderdale, and Arlington, and the
youthful Duke of Monmouth, whose handsome face
and graceful bearing were long remembered in the
town. After the royal party had been entertained
by Peter Hall, Mayor of Poole, they went by boat
to Brownsea, where the King "took an exact view
of the said Island, Castle, Bay, and Harbour to
his great contentment".

Little could the boyish Duke of Monmouth have
then foreseen that fatal day, twenty years later, when
he crossed the road from Salisbury again like a hunted
animal in his vain endeavour to reach the shelter of

BOURNEMOUTH 21

the New Forest; and still less, perhaps, could his
father have foreseen that Antony Etricke, whom
he had made Recorder of Poole, would be the man
before whom his hapless son was taken to be identified
before being sent to London, and the Tower.

The next owner of Brownsea was a Mr. Benson,
who succeeded Sir Christopher Wren as first surveyor
of works. When he bought the island, he began to
alter the old castle and make it into a residence.
The burgesses of Poole claimed that the castle was
a national defence, of which they were the hereditary
custodians. Mr. Benson replied that as he had
paid £300 for the entire island the castle was naturally
included. In 1720 the town authorities appealed to
George II, and in 1723 Mr. Benson and his counsel
appeared before the Attorney-general, when the
proceedings were adjourned, and never resumed,
so that the purchaser appears to have obtained a
grant of the castle from the Crown. Mr. Benson
was an enthusiastic botanist and he planted the
island with various kinds of trees and shrubs. He
also made a collection of the many specimens of plants
growing on the island.

During the next hundred and thirty years Brown-
sea had various owners, including Colonel Waugh
(notorious for his connection with the disastrous failure
of the British Bank) and the Right Hon. Frederick

22 BOURNEMOUTH

Cavendish Bentinck, who restored the castle and im-
ported many beautiful specimens of Italian sculpture
and works of art. At the end of 1900 the estate was
bought by Mr. Charles Van Raalte, to whose widow
it still belongs.

Shortly before his death Mr. Van Raalte wrote
a brief account of his island home, which closed with
the following lines: —

"All through the island the slopes are covered with rhododen-
drons, juniper, Scotch firs, insignis, macrocarpa, Corsican pines,
and many other varieties of evergreens, plentifully mingled with
cedars and deciduous forest trees. Wild fowl in great variety
visit the island, and the low -lying land within the sea-wall is
the favourite haunt of many sea-birds; and several varieties of
plover, the redshank, greenshank, sandpiper, and snipe may be
found there. The crossbill comes very often, and the green wood-
pecker's cry is quite familiar. But perhaps the most beautiful little
winged creature that favours us is the kingfisher."

A prominent feature on the mainland as seen
from Brownsea is the little Early English church
of Arne, standing on a promontory running out into
the mud-banks of the estuary, and terminating in
a narrow tongue of land known as Pachin's Point.
At one time Arne belonged to the Abbey of Shaftes-
bury, and it is said that the tenants of the estate,
on paying their rent, were given a ticket en-
titling them to a free dinner at the Abbey when
they were passing through Shaftesbury. The vast

BOURNEMOUTH 23

size of Poole Harbour is realized when we consider
that, excluding the islands, its extent is ten thou-
sand acres, xand from no other spot does the sheet of
water look more imposing than from the wooded heights
and sandy shores of Brownsea. At low tide several
channels can be traced by the darker hue of the water
as it winds between the oozy \mud-banks, but at
high tide the whole surface is flooded, and there
lies the great salt lake with her green islands set
like emerald gems on a silver targe.

Eastwards from Bournemouth Pier the cliffs are
bold and lofty, and are broken only by small chines
or narrow gullies. On the summit of the cliff a de-
lightful drive has been constructed, while an under-
cliff drive, extending for a mile and a half between
Bournemouth Pier and Boscombe Pier, was formally
opened with great festivities on 3rd June, 1914. Bos-
combe Chine, the only large opening on the eastern
side of Bournemouth, must have been formerly rich in
minerals, and Camden, who calls it "Bascombe", tells
us that it had a "copperas house". On the eastern
side of the Chine a spring has been enclosed, the
water being similar to the natural mineral water of
Harrogate. The whole of the Chine has been laid out
as a pleasure garden, although care has been taken
to preserve much of its natural wildness. Unlike most
of the other chines along this stretch of shore, the

24 BOURNEMOUTH

landward termination of Boscombe Chine is very
abrupt, which is the more remarkable as the little
stream by which it is watered occupies only a very
slight depression beyond the Christchurch road on
its way down to the sea from Littledown Heath.
Boscombe House stood formerly in the midst of a
fine wood of Scotch pines. The estate is now being
rapidly developed for residential purposes. The house
was the home for many years of descendants of the
poet Shelley, who erected a monument in Christchurch
Priory to the memory of their illustrious ancestor. The
house lies between the Christchurch road and the sea,
and was almost entirely rebuilt by Sir Percy Shelley
about the middle of the nineteenth century. The
rapid growth of Boscombe may be gauged by the
fact that between thirty and forty years ago Boscombe
House and a few primitive cottages were the only
buildings between Bournemouth and Pokesdown.
Like her parent of Bournemouth, whom she closely
resembles, Boscombe is built on what was once a
stretch of sandy heaths and pine-woods. A pier was
opened here in 1889 by the Duke of Argyll. It was
built entirely by private enterprise, and it was not
until 1904 that it was taken over by the Corporation.
To the east of the pier the cliffs have been laid out
as gardens, much of the land having been given by
the owners of Boscombe House on their succeeding

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BOURNEMOUTH 25

to the estate. The roads here are very similar to
those of Bournemouth, with their rows of pines, and
villas encircled by the same beautiful trees. A pecu-
liar designation of Owl's Road has no direct connec-
tion with birds, but is commemorative of The Owl,
a satirical journal in which Sir Henry Drummond
Wolfe, a large landowner of Boscombe, was greatly
interested.

From Boscombe Pier very pleasant walks can be
taken along the sands or on the cliffs. From the
sands a long slope leads up to Fisherman's Walk,
a beautiful pine-shaded road, although houses are now
being built and so somewhat despoiling the original
beauty of the spot. The cliffs may be regained once
more at Southbourne, and after walking for a short
distance towards Hengistbury Head the road runs
inland to Wick Ferry, where the Stour can be crossed
and a visit paid to the fine old Priory of Christchurch.
Wick Ferry is one of the most beautiful spots in
the neighbourhood, and is much resorted to by those
who are fond of boating. Large and commodious
ferry-boats land passengers on the opposite bank with-
in a few minutes' walk of Christchurch. The main
road from Bournemouth to Christchurch crosses the
Stour a short distance inland from Wick Ferry by
Tuckton Bridge with its toll-house, a reminder that,
by some old rights, toll is still levied on all those who

26 BOURNEMOUTH

cross the Stour, whether they use the bridge or the
ferry.

Bournemouth is very proud of her Public Gardens,
as she has every right to be. Out of a total area
of nearly 6000 acres no fewer than 694 acres have
been laid out as parks and pleasure grounds. The
Pleasure Gardens are divided by the Square, that
central meeting-place of the town's tramway system,
into two portions, known as the Lower and the Upper
Gardens. These follow the course of the Bourne
stream, and they have had a considerable influence
in the planning of this portion of the town. The
Pinetum is the name given to a pine-shaded avenue
that leads from the Pier to the Arcade Gate. Here,
in storm or shine, is shelter from the winter wind or
shade from the summer sun, while underfoot the
fallen acicular leaves of the pines are impervious to
the damp. These Gardens are more than a mile and
a half in extent, and are computed to possess some
four miles of footpaths. The Upper Gardens are
contained within the Branksome estate, and are con-
sequently thrown open to the public only by the cour-
tesy of the owner. They extend to the Coy Pond, and
are much quieter and less thronged with people than
the Lower Gardens, with their proximity to the Pier
and the shore.

Another of those picturesque open spaces which

BOURNEMOUTH 27

do so much to beautify the town is Meyrick Park,
opened in 1894, and comprising some hundred and
twenty acres of undulating land on which an eigh-
teen-hole golf course has been constructed. Another
course of a highly sporting character is in Queen's
Park, reached by way of the Holdenhurst Road.
Beyond the Meyrick Park Golf Links lie the Talbot
Woods, a wide extent of pine forest which may fit-
tingly be included in Bournemouth's parks. These
woods are the property of the Earl of Leven and
Melville, who has laid down certain restrictions which
must be observed by all visitors. Bicycles are allowed
on the road running through the woods, but no motor
cars or dogs, and smoking is rightly forbidden, as
a lighted match carelessly thrown among the dry
bracken with which the woods are carpeted would
cause a conflagration appalling to contemplate.

The famous Winter Gardens are under the man-
agement of the Corporation, and in 1893 the spacious
glass Pavilion was taken over by the same authority.
It may be mentioned incidentally that Bournemouth
spends a sum of six thousand pounds annually in
providing band music for her visitors. The full band
numbers no fewer than fifty musicians, and is divided
into two portions, one for the Pier, the other for the
Pavilion. The Winter Gardens are charmingly laid
out with shrubs and ornamental flower beds, and on

28 BOURNEMOUTH

special gala days clusters of fairy lights give an added
brilliancy to the scene.

Boscombe possesses her own group of gardens
and open spaces. Boscombe Chine Gardens extend
from the Christchurch Road to the mouth of the Chine.
At the shore end is an artificial pond where the
juvenile natives meet the youthful visitors for the
purpose of sailing toy ships. The Knyveton Gardens
lie in the valley between Southcote Road and Knyveton
Road, and cover some five acres of land. King's Park,
and the larger Queen's Park, together with Carnar-
von Crescent Gardens, show that Boscombe attaches
as much importance as Bournemouth to the advantages
of providing her visitors and residents with an abun-
dance of open spaces, tastefully laid out, and having*
in some cases, tennis courts and bowling greens.

The piers of both Bournemouth and Boscombe are
great centres of attraction for visitors, apart from those
who only use them for the purpose of reaching the
many steamboats that ply up and down the coast.
A landing pier of wood, eight hundred feet long and six-
teen feet in width, was opened on 17th September, 1861.
It cost the modest sum of £4000. During the winter
of 1865-6 many of the wooden piles were found to
have rotted, and were replaced by iron piles. A con-
siderable portion of the pier was treated in a similar
manner in 1866, and again in 1868. With this com-

BOURNEMOUTH 29

posite and unsightly structure Bournemouth was con-
tent until 1878, when the present pier was commenced,
being formally opened in 1880. It was extended in 1894,
and again in 1909. Boscombe Pier, as already stated,
was opened in 1889 by the then Duke of Argyll.

Of Bournemouth's many modern churches that of
St. Peter, situated at the junction of the Gervis and
the Hinton Roads, has interesting historical associa-
tions, apart from its architectural appeal.

In the south transept John Keble used to sit
during his prolonged stay at Bournemouth in the
closing years of his life. He is commemorated by
the "Keble Windows", and the "Keble Chapel",
within the church, and by a metal tablet affixed to
the house " Brookside ", near the pier, where he
passed away in 1866. The churchyard is extremely
pretty, being situated on a well-wooded hillside. The
churchyard cross was put up in July, 1871. In the
churchyard are buried the widow of the poet Shelley,
together with her father, Godwin the novelist, and
her mother, who was also a writer of some distinc-
tion. Taken altogether, this church, with its splendid
windows and richly-wrought reredos and screens, is
one of the most pleasing modern churches in the
country, both with regard to its architecture and its
delightful situation.

This hillside churchyard under the pine trees, to-

30 BOURNEMOUTH

gether with " Brookside ", where Keble lived, and
Boscombe Manor, with its memories of the Shelleys,
are the only literary shrines Bournemouth as yet
possesses.

Mary Godwin, whose maiden name was Wollstone-
craft, was an Irish girl who became literary adviser to
Johnson, the publisher, by whom she was introduced
to many literary people, including William Godwin,
whom she married in 1797. Their daughter Mary,
whose birth she did not survive, became the poet
Shelley's second wife. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
was one of the earliest writers on woman's suffrage,
and her Vindications of the Rights of Women was
much criticized on account of, to that age, the advanced
views it advocated. Among her other books was a
volume of Original Stories for Children, illustrated
by William Blake.

Her father, William Godwin, was a native of Wis-
beach, where he was born in 1756, and at first he was
ordained for the Presbyterian ministry. He was the
author of a good many novels and philosophical works.
In the later years of his life he was given the office
of "Yeoman Usher of the Exchequer".

It was Mary Godwin with whom Shelley eloped to
Italy in 1814, and whom he married in 1816, on the
death of his first wife, Harriet Westbrook, who drowned
herself. In 1851, Mary Shelley was laid by the side

BOURNEMOUTH 31

of her father and mother, brought down from St.
Pancras Churchyard, and her own son, and the woman
who was loved by that son, all now sleep their last
sleep under the greensward of St. Peter's Church.
To many of us it is the one spot in Bournemouth
most worth visiting. Climbing the wooded hill we
stand by the Shelley grave, and think of how much
intellect, aspiration, and achievement lies there en-
tombed, and of the pathetic cenotaph to the memory
of the greatest of all the Shelleys in the fine old Priory
of Christchurch, five miles away.

Previous to his coming to Bournemouth to recover
his health, John Keble was vicar of Hursley, near
Winchester. The Christian Year, upon which his
literary position must mainly rest, was published anony-
mously in 1827. It met with a remarkable reception,
and its author becoming known, Keble was appointed
to the Chair of Poetry at Oxford, which he held until
1841. In the words of a modern writer, "Keble was
one of the most saintly and unselfish men who ever
adorned the Church of England, and, though personally
shy and retiring, exercised a vast spiritual influence
upon his generation". His "Life" was written by
J. D. Coleridge in 1869, and again, by the Rev. W.
Lock, in 1895.

The Stour valley, with its picturesque river scenery,
forms a charming contrast to the seaboard of Bourne-

32 BOURNEMOUTH

mouth and her suburbs of Boscombe and Southborne,
while to those who are fond of river boating the
whole district is full of attraction. For the pedestrian
the valley is very accessible. The route from Bourne-
mouth is by way of the Upper Gardens, and right
through the Talbot Woods to Throop, where the
banks of the river are covered with trees. The
village is a straggling one, and the mill and weir
give an additional charm to some of the prettiest
river scenery in the neighbourhood. A short distance
from Throop is the village of Holdenhurst, which,
with Throop, forms one parish.

While in this district a visit may be paid to
Hum, or Heron Court, the seat of the Earl of
Malmesbury. The house, largely rebuilt since it
was owned by the Priors of Christchurch, is not
shown to the public, but the park, with its beautiful
plantation of rhododendrons, may be seen from the
middle of May till the end of June, that is, when
the flowers are in full bloom. From Holdenhurst the
return journey may be made by way of I ford, and
so on to the main road at Pokesdown, whence
Bournemouth is soon reached.

To those who visit the ancient town of Poole
for the first time by road from Bournemouth, it is
difficult to tell where the one town ends and the
other begins, so continuous are the houses, shops,

TALBOT WOODS, BOURNEMOUTH

BOURNEMOUTH 33

and other buildings which line each side of the main
thoroughfare; and this notwithstanding that to the
left hand of the road connecting the two places lies
the charming residential district of Parkstone, where
the houses on a pine-clad slope look right over the
great harbour of Poole. As a matter of fact Bourne-
mouth is left long before Parkstone is reached. The
County Gates not only mark the municipal boundaries
of Bournemouth, but they indicate also, as their title
implies, that they divide the counties of Hampshire
and Dorset. Thus it is that although the beautiful
houses of Branksome and Parkstone are linked to
those of Bournemouth by bricks and mortar, as well
as by road, rail, and tramway, they otherwise form
no part of it. They are in Dorset, and county
rivalry is never stronger or keener than where two
beautiful residential districts face each other from
opposite sides of a boundary line. Bournemouth
would dearly like to take Parkstone, a natural off-
shoot from hers*elf, under her municipal care, but
if this were done Dorset would lose some of her
most valuable rateable property, as, between them,
Poole and Parkstone pay no less than one-fifth of
the whole of the county rate of Dorset.

Just beyond Parkstone a lovely view is obtained
of Poole Harbour from the summit of Constitution
Hill.

(0742) 3

34 POOLE

Poole and Hamworthy, with their many industries
and busy wharves, form a piquant contrast to spick-
and-span Bournemouth with her tidy gardens and
well-dressed crowds; but whatever the port of Poole
may lack in other ways she has an abundance of
history, although her claim to figure as a Roman
station has been much disputed. We do know, how-
ever, that after the Norman Conquest Poole was
included in the neighbouring manor of Canford, and
its first charter was granted by William Longspee,
Earl of Salisbury. It was not until the reign of
the third Edward that the town became of much
importance. This monarch used it as a base for
fitting out his ships during the protracted war with
France, and in 1347 it furnished and manned four
ships for the siege of Calais. The lands that lie
between Poole and Hamworthy were held in the
Middle Ages by the Turbervilles, of Bere Regis,
and during the Stuart period by the Carews, of
Devonshire. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the
town had a considerable commerce with Spain until
the war with that country put a stop to this par-
ticular traffic. As some compensation for their losses
in this direction Elizabeth granted the town two
new charters, and confirmed all its ancient privileges.
During the Great Rebellion the town was held for
the Parliament, and in 1642 the Royalist forces,

POOLE 35

under the leadership of the Marquis of Hertford,
attempted its capture, but were forced to re-
treat.

The town is situated on a peninsula on the north
side of Poole Harbour, and at one time it was the
home of many smugglers. Part of an old smuggler's
house has recently been discovered in the town.

The quayside is always a busy spot, and a good
deal of shipbuilding and repairing is still carried on.
The town is full of old houses, although many of
them are hidden behind modern fronts.

In 1885 the late Lord Wimborne presented the
Corporation with some forty acres of land to be
converted into a Public Park. This land has been
carefully laid out, and includes tennis courts and
a spacious cricket ground.

As a seaport the town was of great importance
and the Royalists spared no efforts to effect its
capture, but like the other Dorset port of Lyme
Regis, so gallantly defended by Robert Blake, after-
wards the famous admiral, Poole held out to the
end. Clarendon, the Royalist historian of the Great
Rebellion, makes a slighting reference to the two
towns. "In Dorsetshire", he says, "the enemy had
only two little fisher towns, Poole and Lyme." The
"little fisher towns", however, proved a thorn in the
sides of the Royalists, some thousands of whom lost

36 POOLE

their lives in the fierce fighting that took place at
Poole, and particularly around Lyme Regis.

The merchants of Poole became wealthy by their
trade with Newfoundland, a commerce that commenced
in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and lasted until
well on in the reign of Queen Victoria. The trade
is said to have been conducted on the truck system,
and the merchants grew rich by buying both their
exports and imports wholesale while disposing of
them at retail prices.

Not far from the quay is an almshouse, built in
1816 by George Garland, a wealthy merchant of the
town, who, on the occasion of a great feast in 1814,
presented "one honest plum-pudding of one hundred-
weight" towards the entertainment. Farther on
is a house built in 1746 by Sir Peter Thompson. It
is a good specimen of Georgian architecture, and
still bears the heraldic arms of the merchant who
built it. Sir Peter's house is now Lady Wimborne's
"Cornelia Hospital". Most of the other old houses
of the town's merchants have been modernized and
sadly disfigured. The oldest almshouses — and the
number of ancient almshouses in a town is a sure
guide to its old-time prosperity— were built originally
in the reign of the fifth Henry, and for many years
belonged to the Guild of St. George. In 1547, at
the Reformation, they passed to the Crown, with

POOLE 37

all the other property of the Guild, and in 1550 they
were purchased by the Corporation. Needless per-
haps to say, they have been rebuilt more than once,
although they have continuously provided for the
poor for more than five hundred years.

An interesting antiquarian find was made in a
ditch near Poole a few years ago of the seal of
John, Duke of Bedford, under whose rule as Regent
of France Joan of Arc was burned. The occurrence
of the seal on this spot was due, without doubt, to
this noble having been Lord of Canford and Poole.

Near the church, a modern building on the site of
an older one, is a small gateway which may possibly
have been a water gate, as traces of sea-weed were
found clinging to it when the adjacent soil was exca-
vated.

Older than any other buildings in Poole are the
so-called "Town Cellars", referred to variously in
the town's remarkable collection of records as the
"Great Cellar", the "King's Hall", and the "Wool-
house". The original purpose of the building has
not yet been definitely determined. It is largely of
fourteenth-century date, and its doorways and windows
have a decidedly ecclesiastical appearance. At the
same time there is no evidence whatever that it
ever formed part of a monastic foundation, or was
ever built for religious purposes. The old battered

38 POOLE

building was the scene of at least one fierce fight,
when a combined French and Spanish fleet attacked
the town to revenge themselves on the dreaded
buccaneer, Harry Paye, or Page, who had been
raiding the shores of France and Spain. When
the hostile fleets entered Poole Harbour early one
morning five hundred years ago, the town was taken
by surprise. The intrepid "Arripay", as his enemies
rendered the name, was absent on one of his expedi-
tions, but his place was worthily taken by his brother,
who was killed in the fighting. The Town Cellars
were full of stores and munitions of war, and when
the building had been captured and set on fire, the
townsmen retired, while the victorious Spaniards,
who had been reinforced by the French after a first
repulse, returned with a -few prisoners to their ships,
and sailed out of the harbour, having given the
mariners of Poole the greatest drubbing they have
ever received in the long history of the place.

Near Poole is Canford Manor, the seat of Lord
Wimborne and the " Chene Manor " of the Wessex
novels. There was a house here in very early times,
and in the sixteenth year of his reign King John,
by letter-close, informed Ralph de Parco, the keeper
of his wines at Southampton, that it was his pleasure
that three tuns "of our wines, of the best sort that
is in your custody", should be sent to Canford. In

POOLE 39

the fifth year of Henry III the King addressed the
following letter to Peter de Mauley: —

"You are to know that we have given to our
beloved uncle, William, Earl of Sarum, eighty chevrons
(cheverons) in our forest of Blakmore, for the rebuild-
ing of his houses (ad domos) at Caneford. Tested
at Westminster, 28th July."

The present house occupies the site of the old
mansion of the Longspees 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 extra-
ordinary impulse to the study of Celtic literature
and folk-lore in England. She was twice married,

40 POOLE

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 Char-
lotte 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 pro-
duction 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

POOLE 41

sought by collectors. So long ago as 1896 a
copy of The Victim realized £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 mag-
nificent church with its numerous tombs and monu-
ments. 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 Sedge-
moor. 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 Wim-
borne. 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

42 POOLE

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

POOLE 43

known for certain when the lavender plant was brought
into England. Shakespeare, in the Winter's Taley
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 employ-
ment 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.

44 CHRISTCHURCH

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 culti-
vation of lavender, for peppermint, sweet balm, rose-
mary, 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

CHRISTCHURCH 45

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

46 CHRISTCHURCH

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 Christ-
church 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

£ w .MJtlhrfiT.

HBJnl

. &m

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.

CHRISTCHURCH 47

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.

On 28th January, 1855, Sir Edmund Lyons, after-
wards " 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 con-
spicuous 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 defen-

48 CHRISTCHURCH

sive 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, Ox-
ford, 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

CHRISTCHURCH 49

is mentioned in the Domesday Survey, when its value
was put at £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 interven-
tion. 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 mira-
culous beam is still to be seen within the church.
When at last the building was finished, and the work-
men 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

( C 742 ) 4

50 CHRISTCHURCH

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
1 150, 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 Christ-
church, 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 approxi-
mate 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

CHRISTCHURCH 51

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 dis-
appeared. It is highly probable that there was once
a central tower, an almost invariable accompaniment
of a Norman conventual church. There is no doc-
umentary evidence relating to a central tower, but the
massive piers and arches at the corners of the tran-
septs 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

52 CHRISTCHURCH

Halsewelly 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

CHRISTCHURCH 53

of the Priory. Entrance to the church from this porch is
through a double doorway of rich Early English work.
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 mean-
ing 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 inge-
nious 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.

54 CHRISTCHURCH

The north aisle was originally Norman, and small
round-headed windows still remain to light the tri-
forium. 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 orna-
mented 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 Perpen-
dicular, the choir aisle windows are very low, and the

CHRISTCHURCH 55

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 Per-
pendicular 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 uncer-
tain, 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

56 CHRISTCHURCH

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 but-
tresses, 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 cup-
board 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

CHRISTCHURCH 57

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 con-
taining arch, with bold mouldings.

The clerestory was built about 1200 by Peter,
the third Prior. The present roof is of stucco, added
in 1819; the original Norman roof was probably of
wood, although springing shafts exist, which seem
to indicate that a stone vault was contemplated
by the Norman builders. The north aisle retains
its original stone vaulting, put up about 1200. This
aisle is slightly later than the southern one, which
was completed first in order that the cloister might
be built. The windows are of plate tracery, and
mark the transition between Early English and
Decorated. The south aisle is very richly decorated
with a fine wall arcade enriched with cable and
billet mouldings. The vaulting is of the same date
as that in the north aisle, and is also the work of
Peter, Prior from 1195 to 1225. In the western bay
is the original Norman window, the others being
filled with modern tracery of Decorated style. In
this aisle is a large aumbry and recess, where the
bier and lights used at funerals were stored. There

58 CHRISTCHURCH

is also a holy-water stoup in the third bay. At
the west end are the remains of the stairway which
led to the dormitory. The stairway is built into
the wall, which, at this particular spot, is nearly
seven feet thick.

Under the north transept is an early Norman
apsidal crypt with aumbries in the walls. There
is a corresponding crypt in the south wing.

The ritual choir of the canons included the transept
crossing as well as one bay of the parish nave, but
at a later date the ritual and the new architectural
choirs were made to correspond, and the present
stone rood-screen was erected. It dates from the
time of Edward III. It has a plain base, surmounted
with a row of panelled quatrefoils, over which is a
string-course with a double tier of canopied niches.
The whole screen is massive and of superb work-
manship.

The choir is of Perpendicular architecture, lighted
by four lofty windows on each side. There is no
triforium, its place being occupied with panelling.
On each side of the choir are fifteen stalls with
quaintly carved misericords.

The presbytery stands on a Norman crypt, and
is backed by a stone reredos far exceeding in beauty
the somewhat similar screens at Winchester, South-
wark, and St. Albans. It is of three stories, with

CHRISTCHURCH 59

five compartments in each tier, and represents the
genealogy of our Lord. The screen is flanked on
the north side by the Salisbury Chapel. In the
crypt beneath is the chantry of de Redvers, now
walled up to form a family vault for the Earls of
Malmesbury, lay rectors of the church.

The Lady Chapel is vaulted like the choir, from
which it is an eastern extension, and has a superb
reredos dating from the time of Henry VI. The
Chapel contains several tombs and monuments, in-
cluding that of Thomas, Lord West, who bequeathed
six thousand marks to maintain a chantry of six priests.

Beneath the tower is the marble monument by
Weekes to the memory of the poet Shelley, who was
drowned by the capsizing of a boat in the Gulf of
Spezzia in 1822. Below the name " Percy Bysshe
Shelley " are the following lines from his " Adonais ": —

"He has outsoared the shadow of our night;
Envy and calumny and hate and pain,
And that unrest which men miscall delight,
Can touch him not and torture not again:
From the contagion of the world's slow stain
He is secure, and now can never mourn
A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain;
Nor, when the spirits' self has ceased to burn,
With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn".

At the Reformation the domestic buildings were
pulled down, and the old Priory church became the

60 CHRISTCHURCH

parish church of Christchurch. The last Prior was
John Draper II, vicar of Puddletown, Dorset, and
titular Bishop of Neapolis. He surrendered the
Priory on 28th November, 1539, when he received a
pension of £133, 6s. 8d.; and was allowed to retain
Somerford Grange during his life. The original
document reads: —

"To John Draper, Bishop of Neapolytan, late prior there
(Christchurch), j£i33, 6s. 8d.; also the manor of Somerford, called
the Prior's lodging, parcel of the manor of Somerford, being part
of the said late monastery, for term of life of the said bishop with-
out anything yielding or paying thereof."

The other inmates of the monastery also received
pensions. The debts owed by the brethren at the
Dissolution include such items as: —

"To John Mille, Recorder of Southampton, for wine and ale
had of him, .£24, 2s. 8d. William Hawland, of Poole, merchant,
for wine, fish, and beer had of him, £8, 13s. 2d. Guillelmus, tailor,
of Christchurch, as appeareth by his bill, 26s. Roger Thomas,
of Southampton, for a pair of organs, £/[."

Heron Court was the Prior's country house, while
Somerford and St. Austin's, near Lymington, were
granges and lodges belonging to the foundation.

On leaving the Priory a visit should be paid to
the ruins of the old Norman Castle, perched on the
top of a high mound that commands the town on
every side, and the Priory as well. Only fragments
of the walls remain of the keep erected here by

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CHRISTCHURCH 61

Richard de Redvers, who died in 1137, although the
castle continued to be held by his descendants Until
it was granted by Edward III to William de Mont-
acute, Earl of Salisbury, who was appointed Con-
stable, an office he held until 1405. During the
tenure by the de Redvers the resident bailiff regulated
the tolls, markets, and fairs at his pleasure, and he
also fixed the amount of the duties to be levied on
merchandise. It was not until the reign of the third
Edward that the burgesses were relieved from these
uncertain and arbitrary exactions.

The east and west walls of the keep remain, ten
feet in thickness and about thirty feet in height.
The artificial mound on which they are raised is well
over twenty feet high.

The masonry of the walls is exceedingly rough
and solid, for in the days when they were erected
men built for shelter and protection, and not with
the idea of providing themselves with beautiful houses
to live in. The keep was made a certain height,
not as a crowning feature in the landscape, but so
that from its top the warder could see for many
miles the glitter of a lance, or the dust raised by a
troop of horsemen. One of the greatest charms of
the rough, solid walls of a Norman castle is that
they are so honest and straightforward, and tell
their story so plainly.

62 CHRISTCHURCH

Looking over the town from the Castle mound
we realize that Christchurch could correctly be de-
nominated a " moated town ", inasmuch as its two
rivers encircle it in a loving embrace. Being so
cut off by Nature with waterways as to be almost
an island, it was obviously a strong position for
defence, and a lovely site for a monastery.

A little to the north-east of the Castle, upon a
branch of the Avon which formed at once the Castle
moat and the Priory mill stream, stands a large
portion of one of the few Norman houses left in this
country. It is seventy feet long by thirty feet in
breadth, with walls of great thickness. It was built
about the middle of the thirteenth century, and is
said, on slight authority, to have been the Con-
stable's house. The basement story has widely-
splayed loopholes in its north and east walls, and
retains portions of the old stone staircases which
led to the principal room occupying the whole of the
upper story. This upper room was lighted by
three Norman windows on each side, enriched with
the billet, zigzag, and rosette mouldings. At the
north end the arch and shafts remain of a large
window decorated with the familiar chevron ornament.
Near the centre of the east wall is a fireplace with
a very early specimen of a round chimney, which
has, however, been restored. In the south gable is

CHRISTCHURCH 63

a round window, while a small tower, forming a
flank, overhangs the stream which flows through
it. The building is much overgrown with ivy and
creepers, and it is a matter for regret that no
efficient means have been taken to preserve so
valuable a specimen of late Norman architecture
from slowly crumbling to pieces under the influences
of the weather. Traces of the other sides of the
Castle moat have been discovered in Church Street,
Castle Street, and in the boundary of the churchyard.

A walk along the bank situated between the
Avon proper and the stream that flows by the side
of the Norman house leads past the Priory and the
churchyard to the Quay, the spot where much of
the stone for building the Priory was disembarked.
Owing to the estuary of the combined rivers being
almost choked with mud and weeds there is very
little commercial shipping trade carried on at the
Quay, which is now mainly the centre of the town's
river life during the summer months, for everyone
living at Christchurch seems to own a boat of some
kind. During the season motor launches ply several
times a day between Christchurch and Mudeford,
with its reputation for Christchurch salmon.

On the quayside is the old Priory Mill, now called
Place Mill, which is mentioned in the Domesday
Survey. It stands on the very brink of the river;

64 CHRISTCHURCH

its foundations are deep set in the water, and its
rugged and buttressed walls are reflected stone by
stone in the clear, tremulous mirror. The glancing
lights on the bright stream, the wealth of leafy
foliage, the sweet cadence of the ripples as they plash
against the walls of the Quay, and the beauty of the
long reflections — quivering lines of grey, green, and
purple — increase the beauty of what is probably the
most picturesque corner of the town, while over the
tops of the trees peers the grey tower of the ancient
Priory church. These three buildings — the Priory,
the Castle, and the Mill — sum up the simple history
of the place. The Castle for defence, the Priory for
prayer, the Mill for bread; and of Christchurch it may
be said, both by the historian and the modern sight-
seer, haec tria sunt omnia.

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