122 THE NORMANS IN DORSET. 



I have referred to the condition of general disturbance, 

 injustice and violence, which certainly prevailed to sonic 

 degree through the reigns of the Williams, Henry I., and 

 Stephen. But there is another side to the picture, which 

 shows that these evils were intermittent and not universal. 

 In Dorset there is no record of any special troubles from the 

 time of Domesday onwards ; on the contrary, there are 

 indications that our people soon began to revive under the 

 new regime both in regard to numbers and material prosperity. 

 This, I think you will agree, is a fair inference from the 

 ecclesiastical and architectural history of the period, some 

 facts of which I will now ask you to consider. 



With the twelfth century, it is evident that Dorset came 

 into the full impetus of Norman building ; not that we can 

 point to many Norman churches or castles, but there is 

 abundant proof that they were built. In addition to the 

 more important remains of which I may have to speak, a large 

 number of Baptismal Fonts*, of Norman doorways in buildings 

 of later date, and fragments of Romanesque masonry built 

 into walls throughout the county, all bear witness that the 

 wave of building zeal inaugurated by the invaders was 

 widely manifest in Dorset. 



What became of all those Norman buildings ? Why, in 

 sleepy Sussex, should it be possible to visit a dozen Norman 

 churches in an afternoon, and yet so hard to find even one or 

 two between Purbeck and the Vale of Blackmoor ? The 

 reason, I think, lies in the fact that Wessex was never wanting 

 in a supply of go-ahead people. No province appears to 

 have profited more by the development of the wool-growing 

 



* The following list is doubtless incomplete : Affpiddle, Askerswell, 

 Hiiiconibi'. Bftv HCLMS.^ BruaiKvindsor, Clialdim HorriiiL'. Chrlborou^li. 

 Cliirkrrrll. Cilliii^liain. Cii-sa._'i- All Saints, L.id.-rs. Mappuwdcr, Marnliull, " 

 Milborne St. Andrew/>*Ncther Cerne, North Porton, Pimperne, Portisham, 

 Preston, Pulham, Puckiioll, Sydling, Toller Fratrum, Toner's Piddle, Ware- 

 ham, Warmwell, Whitcombe^Winterbo^ne Abbas, Martinstown, Whiteihurch 

 Canonicorum. / 



