THE LATE REV. C. W. H. DICKER, R.D. 43 



correspondence that ensued Mr. Dicker acknowledged that 

 he had not himself visited the church, and had been mis- 

 informed ; but that he would shortly pay me a visit and 

 inspect the church himself.* 



Time went on, one thing and another delayed Mr. Dicker's 

 kind intention, until in the afternoon of Thursday, August 

 22nd last, he paid me his long-promised visit (in company 

 with the Rev. A. L. Helps, Vicar of Puddletown). I was 

 unable to accompany him to my church, but he made a close 

 and thorough inspection of it under the guidance of one of 

 my sons. He had no time to give me a report on it at the 

 moment ; but on the following morning (Friday, August 23rd) 

 wrote to me the result of his examination of several points of 

 interest, including the Norman doorway. Saturday and 

 Sunday, August 24th and 25th, intervened ; and then early 

 on Monday, August 26th, the sudden and lamentable 

 catastrophe occurred in which we have to mourn his 

 irreparable loss. 



I feel sure that no one of us will under the circumstances 

 object to enter into a little detail of what thus occupied 

 Mr. Dicker's last scientific consideration. I therefore make 

 no apology for quoting, almost verbatim, his letter to me, 

 dated August 23rd, 1912. " Dear Mr. Pickard-Cambridge, 

 " I was much interested in your church, and am very glad to 

 " have seen it. The porch is particularly a good bit of 

 " Jacobean building ; the architect has adopted a nice 14th 

 " Century moulding in the outer arch probably a copy of 

 " work in the older building. I am not sure that the lower 

 " stones of the jambs are not part of the original. The 

 " doorway is much more like a Norman Chancel Arch than a 



* Mr. Dicker appears to have been unaware that the Field Club paid 

 me a visit on Aug. 19th, 1886, when I pointed out that " the only 

 remaining portion of an original Norman Church was the Doorway." 

 See report of F. Club Proc., Vol. VII., p xxiv., 1886 ; also that in a 

 paper on Bloxworth Church read at the meeting above mentioned and 

 published Vol. VII., p. 99, this doorway is again remarked upon. 



