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Lacy House was undergoing repairs, and the pictures consequently 

 invisible, seems to have damped the ardour of members for 

 Wimborne. As only two or three signified their wish to join, it 

 was thought advisable to postpone this excursion for another 

 time. 



Bye-Excursions, May Wth. — The recent excavation at Monkton 

 Farley having attracted the attention of the Club, a bye-excursion 

 was arranged at very short notice, and a small party, at the 

 invitation of Sir Charles Hobhouse, walked over there on 

 Tuesday, May 11th. After a very pleasant stroll through Captain 

 Sainsbury's fields and over the down, they were met by Sir 

 Charles, and at once shown several of the encaustic tiles which 

 have lately been found on the site of the ancient buildings. 

 Some of them, in addition to the letters A, B, and C within a T, 

 bore a similar design to the cognisance on the shield of the cross- 

 legged knight discovered in 1841, and attributed to the Dunstan- 

 villes. Proceeding to the shrubbery on the north of the lawn, 

 there was evidence that some veiy good excavating work had 

 been done, for at about three feet below the surface, lay the 

 pavement in situ, only recently cleared of its superincumbent rub- 

 bish. The general direction of the floored space on the south side 

 was east and west, and another smaller floor on the north seemed 

 to run north and south. Foundations of walls had been laid 

 bare, but it required more time than could be then allowed to 

 make out the plan of the sub-structures. Several very good 

 pieces of Transition work, in capital and moulding carved out of 

 the native oolite, had been dug up, and one blue slab with a cross 

 upon it. The oohte appears to have come from the Box quarries, 

 and not the Farley, according to the statement of a quarryman 

 accustomed to work that stone ; the blue slab was probably 

 Purbeck stone. Great credit is due to Sir Charles Hobhouse for 

 the careful way in which he is working out bit by bit the plan of 

 the old Priory, and it is hoped that he will soon be enabled by 

 further scientific use of the spade to lay bare the plan of the old 



