xxxix. 



FIRST SUMMER MEETING. 

 WOOL, BINDON ABBEY, AND LUL WORTH CASTLE. 



THE FIRST SUMMER MEETING was held on June i2th. The 

 party was unusually large, numbering about 140. 



WOOL MANOR HOUSE AND BARN. 



Wool Station was the rendezvous, and thence the party set out 

 for Wool Manor House. On the way they passed over the fine 

 Elizabethan bridge, with its five arches. Arriving at the house 



The PRESIDENT said he ought first to congratulate the Club 

 on being favoured with so fine a day. He had hoped very much 

 that Mr. Thomas Hardy, the distinguished novelist, would have 

 been able to be present to tell them something about that house, 

 concerning which he had written in Tess of tht U Urbervilles ; 

 but unfortunately he was in London. He had received from him 

 a letter, which, as it contained a few words about the house, he 

 would read. It was as follows : 



The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, S.W., June 5th, 1906. Dear Mr. Richardson, It 

 would be a pleasure to me to accept your kind invitation to join the Field Club in 

 its visit to Wool, as also to my wife, if we were able to be in Dorset on the 

 occasion. But we are up here till the 16th or 17th July. The Manor House i 

 often spoken of as the chief seat of the Turbervilles, but it was, as you know, the 

 seat of the younger branch of the family, the house and estates of the head of 

 the line having been at Bere Regis. I am sorry that the portraits, built into the 

 wall, which were comparatively clear when I wrote about them, have been rubbed 

 or washed till they are almost invisible. Yours truly, T. HAEDY. 



The HON. SEC. observed that they had the pleasure of having 

 with them that day Mr. Weaver, the Hon. Secretary of the 

 Somerset Archaeological Society, who questioned the Jacobean 

 date assigned to the house by Mr. Moule. 



The Rev. F. W. WEAVER said he thought it was far more 

 likely that the house was temp. Henry VII. than Jacobean. 



The members had noted the date carved over the porch 1635 

 or 1655 ; the third figure is not easy of identification. 



