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ON THE CHAPEL AT St. ALDHELM'S HEAD. 

 [ Read at St. Aldhelm's Head, July 2nd, 1857. ] 



St. Aldhelm's Head can scarcely be described in more correct 

 terms than those of Sir H. Englefield, who calls it a "promontory 

 which makes a very conspicuous appearance, and whose danger- 

 ous rocks have been so often fatal to mariners ;" unless indeed 

 we add a line from the immortal poet, and represent it as 



" A cliff, whose high and bending head 

 " Looks fearfully in the confined deep." 



It is necessary that I should remind you, that the sea, affected 

 by the ebb and flow of the tide over a rocky bottom, is not often 

 calm, but more frequently the reverse ; because the subject which 

 I purpose speaking upon, is of the Chapel in which we are now 

 assembled, whose origin tradition affirms to have been connected 

 •with these stormy seas. 



Hutchins is incorrect in stating the perpendicular height of the 

 cliff to be 147 yards, or 441 feet. The government sui'vey have 

 determined the altitude of the ground at the Coast Guard flag- 

 staff, to be 354 ft. 9 in., and at the top of the cross at the chapel, 

 379 feet. Near the edge of this precipice stands this small 

 chapel dedicated to, and taking its name from St. Aldhelm, the 

 first Bishop of Sherborne. But few records remain respecting it. 

 The County history merely states that " it is styled in the valor, 

 1291, the Chapel of St. Aldhelm, and rated 208, but no institu- 

 tions to it are found in the Sanmi registers." 



I therefore recur again to Sir H. Englefield. He describes it 

 as an exact square of about thirty two feet, and judges, from 

 the forms of the arches and mouldings, that it is of very high 

 antiquity. The door-way is of the simplest kind of Saxon ar- 

 chitecture, having pilasters and semicircular arches, ornamented 

 with square studs that are placed at equal distances. The cornice 



