Ixx. ST. .ELDHELM'S HEAD. 



LAST SUMMER MEETING. 

 ST. ^LDHELM'S HEAD. 



THE SEASON'S EXCURSIONS were brought to a close by a visit 

 to the district contiguous to St. jEldhelm's Head on Thursday, 

 September 1 6th. The weather was all that could be desired, and 

 over 80 Members were in attendance, including Lord Eustace 

 Cecil, the Lord- Lieutenant, Dr. Colley March, the Hon. Editor, 

 and the Assistant Secretary. 



The party assembled at Corfe railway station at 11.20 and 

 drove to Lynch, whence a short walk brought them to Scoles, an 

 interesting example of the small i yth century manor house. 



The oldest and most interesting part of the buildings is an 

 outhouse at the back, forming one side of the dairy yard. On 

 the yard side is a very substantial buttress with two set-offs and 

 an elegant window, now walled up, of two lancet-headed lights, 

 with a hood-mould following the curves of the heads of the 

 lights. This window appears to be i3th or early 14-th 

 century in date ; and the fact that the building orientates 

 strengthens the likelihood that Hutchins is right in suggesting 

 that this was formerly the chapel. It had in his time, about 

 1780, been turned into a barn, and as such it is still used. 



Lord EUSTACE CECIL expressed the Club's regret at the 

 absence of the President and his own pleasure at being able to 

 meet the Club once more, if only for a short time, and to find 

 that it was in so flourishing a condition and maintaining its 

 former prestige. He then called upon Mr. Le Jeune. 



Mr. LE JEUNE said that his attention was first called to the problematical old 

 building by Mr. Best, formerly postmaster at Wareham. After inviting 

 admiration of the quiet, simple beauty of the blocked-up window, mutely 

 eloquent of a past usage different from and superior to the present, he called 

 attention especially to the puzzling recesses in the west gable end of the building, 

 six of them on the ground level and two constructed in the thickness of the wall 

 a few feet above. (All were evidently constructed designedly when the wall was 

 built, for there is a relieving or discharging arch built over each recess, though in 

 such a way that here and there the arches do not relieve or discharge the 



