CERNE AND MINTERNE MEETING. XXXIX. 



and cedars, oaks and elms and beeches, and following the 

 meanderings of a stream that falls over a succession of cascades 

 and flows under a series of pretty rustic bridges. 



The peculiar charm of the garden is due to the plants being 

 bedded out not in the usual formal manner, but in situations 

 which they might have occupied naturally, and where they grow 

 in luxuriant and unrestricted wildness. 



CERNE CHURCH. 



Driving back to Cerne, the party entered the fine old Abbey 

 Church, where they were received by the Vicar (the Rev. H. D. 

 Gundry). 



The greater part of the church, the Vicar stated from the pulpit, is Perpen- 

 dicular and debased Perpendicular. The tower is of three lofty stages, with 

 octagonal buttresses. Mr. Gundry quoted the remark of Hutchins that "The 

 entire west front of the church, from the wealth of ornament, has an unusually 

 handsome appearance." The openwork screen, of Hamhill stone, is of the time 

 of Henry VIII. A noticeable feature, is the Caroleaii wooden pulpit, richly 

 carved, with canopy or sounding board, and date 1640. At the preacher's back is 

 carved the rose, shamrock, and thistle, with the thistle in the place of prominence. 

 The chancel is much earlier than the rest of the church. This is apparent from the 

 masonry and also from the fact that two windows of the Early English style of 

 architecture one in the north and the other in the south wall, though now closed, 

 can be plainly seen from the outside. The large east window is a puzzle to all who 

 see it ; it is so out of proportion to the rest of the building. The arms in stained 

 glass in the windows are those of Winchester College and of families living in the 

 neighbourhood. Near the west door is a good specimen of a stone coffin found in 

 the churchyard 60 or 70 years ago. Among the monuments is one to a man 

 named Randall, who died in 1785, and who had a kind of mint at Cerne and 

 coined tokens. The registers date back to 1653. The church accounts are very 

 well kept, and some have interesting entries. Marlborough's victories are duly 

 recorded. They naturally would have had a greater interest from his being 

 connected with the neighbourhood. At last they gave up trying to spell the 

 names of the battles, and said "Another victory has been won." And so they 

 rang the bells and drank their beer. The churchwardens at the end of one year 

 found that they were in debt, and they said with some surprise "So we hae 

 disbursed more than we hae received." Nowadays churchwardens never 

 expressed surprise at their account having a balance on the wrong side. Indeed, 

 they were surprised if it was to the contrary. The Vicar next called attention 

 to a book containing a supposed likeness of Cardinal Morton, who, born at Bere 

 Regis, where he put the carved oak roof upon the church, was educated at Cerne, 



