xlli. WOOL, fclNbON, ANt> LULWORTH MEETING. 



and 229 2s. l^d. by Speed. It was suppressed in 1536 pursuant to the Act of 

 Parliament made for suppressing the lesser abbeys, which gave their estates to the 

 King. On November 16th, 1537, the King by patent restored this Monastery 

 with a few others, and constituted John Norman as abbot, reinstated the former 

 monks, and restored their abbey church and lands. By this grant it was held 

 of the King in perpetual alms, which seems to have been a precarious tenure, for 

 at the general Dissolution it was surrendered with the lands, charters, &c., 

 belonging to it to Sir John Tregonwell, one of the Masters of the Chancery. The 

 site was then granted by Henry VIII. to Sir Thomas Poynings and was purchased 

 by Mr. Humphrey Weld in 1641 from James, Earl of Suffolk. The present 

 residence at Bindon was erected towards the end of the 18th century by Mr. 

 Thomas Weld, who planted the trees and re-formed, or constructed, the moats as 

 they now exist. In the rockery at the entrance to the abbey will be seen an 

 interesting old sun dial, a cresset stone, a statue of S. Margaret, and various 

 carved remains of the abbey. In the church will be seen the tiles recently 

 uncovered, and in the Chapter-house a tombstone also recently unearthed. 



Under Mr. Duke's guidance the party then explored the ruins, 

 viewing in turn the site of the Abbey Church, where the encaustic 

 tiling found last autumn had been bared, the tombs in the 

 Chapter House, an Abbot's stone coffin, Abbot Maners' grave- 

 slab (see illustrations], the double piscina, and the "Calvary," 

 under which Mr. Thomas Weld, who in 1770 built the residence 

 within the grounds, constructed wine cellars. 



Mr. W. DE C. PRIDEAUX contributed the following notes on 

 Abbot Ricardus de Maners' grave-slab: 



It is stated in Proceedings VII., p. 59, that Abbot. Ricardus was the first Abbot 

 of Bindon. This clearly is incorrect, for Abbot John is mentioned in 1191, and 

 Ricardus de Maners lived centuries after. No Abbot Ricardus of Bindon appears 

 in Wallis' list, but an Abbot who was summoned to Convocation in 1408 and 

 1410 is mentioned without name in a deed of 1404. 



The general appearance of the matrix or casement of Abbot Ricardus' slab 

 points fairly definitely to late 14th or early 15th century work ; among the 

 few left us unspoiled may be mentioned for comparison Abbot Delamere of 

 St. Albans, 1396, and Abbot Wallingford, 1335, neither being better examples 

 than our Bindou brass would have been ; whilst Dorchester (Oxon) can show us 

 an example or two, much inferior. 



Of despoiled slabs of similar date that of Abbot Walter in the chancel of 

 Milton Abbey may be taken as a fine example of very similar character and size, 

 being 9ft; by 4ft., as against the 9ft. 6iu. by 3ft. 6in. of this massive Purbeck 

 .slab. 



