30 UNRECORDED DEANS OF WIMBORNE MINSTER. 



this, which at once comes to the mind, is St. Paul's Cathedral 

 in London, which was built in the seventh century by Ethel- 

 bert upon the site of an old Roman temple dedicated to Diana; 

 and upon that self-same spot the St. Paul's of to-day stands. 

 Again, St. Boniface of Crediton erected a church upon the 

 spot where the far-famed object of idolatrous worship, the 

 mighty Thunderer's Oak which he destroyed, had stood, at 

 Geismar in Lower Hessia. 3 Other well-known examples 

 are Chartres and Le Mans in France. In our own county we 

 might add Knowlton, where the little ruined church is situated 

 amidst the prehistoric circles and the ancient yew trees 

 which seem to indicate one of the sacred spots whereon, in the 

 long distant past, the inhabitants of our island conducted 

 their mysterious religious rites. 



There can be little doubt that Wimborne Minster is also 

 built upon the site where a Roman temple once stood. 



From an admirable account of the restoration of the 

 Minster which had been carried out during the years 1855-7, 

 and of the re-opening services held on Michaelmas Day, 

 1857 (when at length the Wimborne people were able to return 

 to the church from which they had been excluded for two 

 years), given in the Salisbury Journal of that date, the following 

 extracts are taken : 4 



(a) During the recent excavations at the Minster, under the pillars 

 of the nave were discovered bases of columns at regular intervals, a 

 considerable length of very early and perfect tessellated pavement, 

 and a large stone pediment clearly indicating the site of a Roman temple, 

 immediately over which the central tower now lifts its head. 



(b) The Norman piers which support the weight of the building . . . 

 rest on the existing Roman walls. 



The Editor of the third edition of Hutchins 5 states that 

 this fragment of tessellated pavement was found " on the 



3. Boniface of Crediton and His Companions, by the Rt. Rev. G. F. 

 Browne, Bishop of Bristol, London, S.P.C.K, 1910. pp. 63-5, &c. 



4. Salisbury Journal, October 4th, 1857. Cf. also Warne's Ancient 

 Dorset. 



5. Hutchins' a History of Dorset, Vol. III., p. 201, 



