: 326 
Illustrated Art Journal, 1896, contemporaneously with this visit 
of the Field Club, it is well described and pictured. 
Proceeding from this interesting Church the welcome shelter 
of the Red Lion Hotel was soon found at the crossing of 
the four main streets of the town which lead to the four 
points of the compass, and after partaking of luncheon the 
Members proceeded Southwards to the five-arched Bridge 
which crosses the Frome and so joins the so-called Isle of 
Purbeck to the mainland. To the right of this stood the Castle 
whereof nothing now remains; to the left stands the Parish 
Church of 8. Mary, and the remnants of the Benedictine Priory, 
formerly subject to the Abbey of Lira, in Normandy, and now 
encased in a modern residence. 
The Church of 8. Mary has been restored to great usefulness, 
but to hideous ugliness. Several antiquities have, however, 
been luckily saved, such as a curious hexagonal font of the 12th 
Century, made of lead and adorned externally with figures of 
the 12 Apostles. In the walls of the Nave have also been inlaid 
inscribed stones in peculiar characters, one of which has been 
deciphered, “ Catug Consecravit Deo.” A Bishop of that name 
is said to have been sent A.D. 430 to England to extirpate the 
Pelagian Heresy. 
The Vestry of the Church is the groined Chapel of King 
Edward the Martyr, which was built in the Reign of Henry III. 
to take the place of the old wattle Chapel in which the remains 
of that King were deposited for three years before their transla- 
tion to Shaftesbury. Two cross-legged effigies of Knights have 
been dispossessed of their canopied niches and removed to the 
Chancel. The Monument of the Rev. John Hutchins, author of 
the “History and Antiquities of Dorset,” and Rector here and 
at Swyre, still remains. 
A quaint little groined Chapel is built over this Vestry, and 
this requires a ladder to reach the entrance in the 8S. wall of 
the Chancel, which has a prettily decorated Early English Arch. 
