on the i#torj) of J[ orb 



AND OF THE FAMILIES WHO HAVE POSSESSED IT SINCE THE 

 DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES. 



By J. S. UDAL, of the Inner Temple, 

 P.R. Hist. Soc. 



OKD ABBEY, beautifully situated in the valley of 

 the Axe, which divides it from Somerset, is in 

 the parish of Thorncombe, a parish which until 

 the year 1842 was comprised in the county of 

 Devon, when, for the greater convenience of 

 county business, it was by Act of Parliament 

 transferred to Dorsetshire.* Consequently the two earlier editions 

 of our county historian, Hutchins, contain no mention of the place, 

 but in the last one (the publication of which commenced in 1861) 

 appears a very beautiful engraving of the abbey taken from a 

 south-west point of view. The materials upon which the account 



* It is a curious instance of the mutability even of counties in these 

 days, that it is proposed in the scheme of the Boundary Commissioners, 

 who came to prepare the way for the new Local Government Bill, that the 

 parish of Thorncombe should now be transferred to Somerset ! I am sure 

 that Dorset and the Dorset Field Club in particular can ill afford such a 

 loss as the removal from its borders of the finest monastic building in the 

 West of England would be to the county. In the interests of Dorset 

 % chasology let us hope that such a recommendation will not be acted upon. 



