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A short run in the train brought the Members of the Field 
Club to the Town of Swanage, where quarters for the night 
were obtained at the Royal Victoria Hotel. The Town of 
Swanage itself contains nothing of interest, but it is a centre 
of many excursions, and the Isle of Purbeck offers an 
inexhaustible field of exploration to Geologists and Botanists. 
The well-known Purbeck Marble, which is so much used in 
Salisbury Cathedral and other Early English Churches, and 
is almost entirely composed of a small freshwater shell, Paludina 
carinifera, cemented by lime, seems to have been entirely worked 
out. 
The following day, after visiting Durlston Head and the Tilly 
Whim Quarry, a start was made at 12.20 for Wareham, a town 
lying between the Rivers Frome and Piddle, surrounded by an 
immense vallum 30 feet in height on all sides but the S. in 
the form of a long parallelogram. This town is supposed by 
some to be the Roman Morinio, but the name is derived from 
“Var,” the Celtic name of the River Frome, and the rampart is 
supposed to be of Saxon age, and became the head-quarters of 
the piratical Danes in their frequent invasions, until in the 
Conqueror’s time the town can hardly be said to have existed. 
Athelstan gave this town two mints and mint masters, in which 
it was only equalled by Shaftesbury. 
From.the Railway Station a quarter of a mile brings one to 
the River Piddle, immediately after crossing which the huge 
Northern rampart is pierced for the road. On the left hand 
stands elevated S. Martin’s Church, containing Saxon remains, 
and said to have been built by S. Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, 
who died A.D. 705. Beohrtric, King of Wessex, was buried in 
this Church A.D. 800, but a search for his body has not been 
successful. In fact the interior of the Church has been used for 
interments for many years, and is now entirely gutted of all 
accessories for Divine Service. The Church is well worth a 
careful study by Antiquaries, In the May number of the 
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