fJitrish fUgistcr of gtacklnnb |tcfoton, 



By Rev. C. H. MAYO, M.A., R.D., Vicar of Long Burton 

 with Holnest. 



T the request of the Rev. H. E. Ravenhill, R.D., 

 Vicar of Bucklaiul Newton with Plush, I have 

 written the following shprt paper, to draw the 

 attention of the Dorset Natural History and 

 Antiquarian Field Club, on the occasion of its 

 long looked for visit, to the valuable document in 

 his custody in the form of the first volume of the Parish Register. 

 This volume is a beautiful book, in excellent condition and 

 preservation, commencing on 16th January, 1568, and continued, 

 with but few exceptions, until the end of the year 1812. It is a 

 thick quarto, measuring Tins, by lljins., bound in rough brown 

 calf, containing no less than 594 paper pages, the margins ruled 

 throughout with red marginal lines. The leaves are in perfect 

 condition, though upon the re-binding of the book, at some date 

 not known, a few of them have been misplaced, and the margins 

 generally cut down. The various entries of baptism, marriage, and 

 burial are intermixed, being recorded one after the other as they 

 occurred, and from the beginning of the Register until 16th May, 

 1625, they are, with few exceptions, in Latin. After that date, 

 and until 22nd March, 1694-5, the entries are sometimes in Latin 

 and sometimes in English, according to the preference of the 



