36 THE MAN IN THE WALL 



neither below their ground or above it that is to say, neither 

 in their church nor yet in their churchyard ; f but that, after 

 his anger had cooled down, he had a great longing for his 

 body to be laid, after his death, beside the bodies of his 

 ancestors. With the skill of a lawyer, he endeavoured to 

 evade breaking his oath by obtaining permission to make 

 the recess in the wall where his coffin is placed neither 

 within the church nor yet in the churchyard, and where the 

 surface of the ground outside would be neither above nor 

 below it. 



An old writer, describing a visit paid to Wimborne on 

 Sept. 13, 1750, speaks of " The tomb of Mr. Anthony Etrick, 

 which is made like a stone coffin, half in the wall and half in 

 the church, w r hich was made in his life time, this being his 

 fancy, like Nostre Dames at Salon between Aries and Aix, 

 to be buried neither in the church nor out of the church. 

 But his relations put him in a vault under ground directly 

 under the tomb."* And so the stone coffin does not contain 

 his body after all. For at the restoration of the Minster, 

 during the years 1855-1857, his remains were found beneath 

 the coffin in a moist state. They were carefully replaced 

 where they were found. f 



In the year 1692, writes Hutchins, " he obtained a licence 

 from the Rev. William Watkinson, Official of Wimborne, 

 for erecting this tomb, and for such liberty gave to the 

 Church for ever a rent of 20s., which is paid by the Corporation 

 of the town and county of Poole, out of the tithes of Parkston 

 near that town, being part of a fee-farm rent thereon." 

 Amongst the documents belonging to Wimborne Minster 

 is an indenture made between Anthony Ettricke of the first 

 part and Nicholas Mackrell and William Warham, the then 



f cf. Hutchins' History of Dorset, 1st Edit., 1774, Vol. II., p. 95. 



* Travels through England of Dr. Richard Pococke, Bishop of Meath 

 and of Ossory, in the years 1750-1. 



f Salisbury Journal, October 3, 1857. (Account of the Restoration 

 and Re -opening of Wimborne Minster.) 



