TARRANT VALLEY. Mi. 



TARRANT HINTON. 



At Tarrant Hinton Church the RECTOR, the Rev. E. J. Heriz 

 Smith, received the party and pointed out the chief features of 

 the building, which is of the Perpendicular style. 



Of an earlier structure there remain fragments of Norman zigzag moulding, 

 built into the wall over the south door, and a fine Norman font of dark -brown 

 ironstone, with square bowl supported by a central stem and four slender shafts, 

 and its sides adorned with a shallowly -carved arcading. There is the piscina of 

 a side altar, a hagioscope, and altar rails, the undoubted work of Grinling 

 Gibbons, as they came from Pembroke College Chapel, which he was employed 

 to adorn with his carving. Of the three bells, said the Rector, one is of the date 

 1450, as could be proved by the marks it bears of the Shaftesbury bell founders. 

 One of the most noticeable features of the church is the richly-carved Easter 

 sepulchre, of Renaissance feeling, built in 1520 by the then Rector, Thomas 

 Trotwell or Weaver. 



TARRANT GUNVILLE AND EASTBURY. 



The party drove on to Tarrant Gunville, the furthest point of 

 the day's trip. Here they had almost an embarras de richesse in 

 the matter of hospitality, for, while Mr. and Mrs. H. F. W. 

 Farquharson had invited the Club to tea at Eastbury House, an 

 equally kind invitation had been received from Mr. and Mrs. 

 Hughes-Gibb, of the Manor House. The party had the pleasure 

 of visiting both houses, some taking tea at one and some at the 

 other ; and the cordiality and comfort which they found under 

 the roofs of their kind hosts and hostesses made ample amends 

 for all the hardships of the way and the buffeting of wind and 

 rain. 



Eastbuiy House is noted as the remaining wing of the imposing mansion here 

 reared, in this picturesque and richl}- -timbered parkland, by the famous Geo. Bubb 

 Dodington, who, although only the son of a Weymouth apothecary, yet by his 

 natural ability and shrewdness, and especially by his adroitness in electioneering 

 in that borough, got himself raised to the perage in 1761 as Lord Melcombe. 

 This remarkable man was at one time envoy extraordinary to the Court of Spain 

 and plenipoteniary there, and he was also Member of Parliament for Bridgwater, 

 Weymouth, and Melcombe Regis. The house, which cost 140,000, was 



