m fUgi0. 



By the Rev. J. P. LANGFORD (Vicar). 



(Read at Bere Regis, August 19th, 1885.,) 



PLATE I. 



DO not intend to lay before the Field Club to-day 

 any discoveries of my own or any original theory 

 upon the history and antiquities of Bere. In 

 drawing up this sketch of Bere and its church 

 I have but used the material which others have 

 collected, and invite discussion from those far 

 more qualified than I am to give an opinion on some controverted 

 topics. Let us begin with the name Bere Regis. Here, at once, 

 we are on disputed ground. Is there any connection between 

 Bere and yonder brewery ? Was the writer of the article in the 

 Saturday Review, July 24, 1880, serious when he tells the story 

 that King John was so delighted with the beverage that was 

 set before him that he decreed that the town should ever bear 

 the name of Beer, with the addition of Regis, iu token of his 

 Royal approbation ? A total abstainer may be allowed to prefer 

 a watery derivation equally improbable that connects it with 

 "Beer," the Hebrew for well, and ascribes to Phoenician merchants 

 those west country Beres, Beer, near Seaton, Bere Ferris, Beer 

 Hackett, Bere Crocombe. Far more probable is Mr. Taylor's 

 supposition that the word is of Scandinavian origin, signifying a 

 cluster of buildings or a farmstead, and akin to the old form 



