4 LISCOMBE. 



feet high, with a crocketed canopy" for the statue of the patron 

 saint of the church. (Tradition says S. Mary the Blessed 

 Virgin.) This niche has now disappeared. The ancient windows 

 in the nave have perished, and the old west doorway has 

 also disappeared. And the chapel of Liscombe has been 

 desecrated for a long time. The nave of it is now used as a 

 bakehouse (there is a large open grate, oven, and chimney in the 

 centre), and the chancel is used as a log-house. A flight of 

 stone stairs has been erected in the chancel, which leads to the 

 bedrooms over the bakehouse and log-house. The bedrooms 

 have been ceiled, and the whole interior of the little church has 

 been whitewashed (including the handsome chancel arch). The 

 plaster ceiling, however, is breaking down in places, and damp 

 is coming through the walls. The roof of the building is of 

 thatch. There are two fragments of stone pinnacles lying loose 

 in the chapel, and modern windows have been inserted in the 

 nave, and a modern doorway erected at the west end of the 

 chapel. An ancient stone sundial has also been inserted in 

 the west wall. Warne, in his Ancient Dorset, states that the 

 chapel is credited with being " tenanted by a supernatural 

 visitor." 



II. The house adjoining this desecrated sanctuary is also 

 ancient, built chiefly of flint and stone. It contains several 

 interesting windows of various dates (including a loup in the east 

 wall) and an old stone sundial on its south wall. The interior 

 contains a great deal of old oak work, some of which may be 

 pre- Re formation. This house is now used as a labourer's 

 cottage ; but there is a tradition in Milton that this house was 

 formerly inhabited by the monks, who ministered ("Divina 

 celebrant:") in the little church. And the building itself, from 

 its position and evident antiquity, lends colour to the tradition, 

 but there are marks that it became the manor farmhouse after 

 the Dissolution. 



There is also a tradition that the stream which now runs 

 through the hamlet was formerly larger than it is now, and that 

 there were fish ponds close by, and that the monks at Liscombe 



