that all southern Dorset and east Devon was not conquered until 

 long after ; was perhaps never conquered in a military sense, 

 although afterwards, no doubt, more quietly, politically assimi- 

 lated or absorbed. But the exempted district, here intended to 

 be denned, is a still smaller and more permanent one. It not 

 only turned aside the tide of the earlier conquest, but obtained a 

 long continued recognition of its own separate existence ; 

 remained, until comparatively recent time, like some others of 

 the kind, a sort of Little Wales; analogous to the greater 

 Wales, which has conspicuously retained that name and its 

 own distinct language to this day. 



Among the dedications of churches in Dorset, only three are 

 found that are Celtic, and common to those of that nationality 

 that are now in - Devon and Cornwall ; and these three are all in 

 the southern part of Dorset. They are at Milton Abbey, Alton 

 Pancras, and Winterborn Farringdon or St. German. If the 

 latter is included, we must however comprehend the southern 

 range of high downs between Dorchester and the sea ; which 

 did probably share the exemption from the early military con- 

 quest, but not the continued smaller and specially recognised 

 exemption here to be proposed. Milton and Alton, however, 

 have Damnonian dedications which are most certainly distinc- 

 tive, and within the smaller hilly district itself. 



The dedication of Milton is almost a history of itself. It is 

 one of the compound or stratified class that have accumulated 

 with enlargements of the sanctuary, and the addition of new 

 altars : St. Mary, St. Michael, St. Samson, and St. Branwallader. 

 There can be little doubt that before it became an Abbey, there 

 was already a sanctuary here in the name of St. Samson, upon 

 which the other names have afterwards been accumulated. Such 

 is always found to have been the case, when one of the names of 



