YETMINSTER CHURCH. 155 



Batcombe, and second daughter of Sir John Browne, of Frampton, 

 Knt., who died 19th July, 1649, now removed from the north-east 

 corner to the west wall of the north aisle. The Minternes were 

 the owners of Newland, in the former parish, and curious stories 

 are even now in circulation among the peasantry, relating to the 

 infernal operations of one member of the family, known as 

 " Conjuring Minterne." Probably he was possessed of more 

 scientific or literary acquirements than the ordinary run of Dorset 

 gentry of his day, and this fact, if fact it was, may have invested 

 him with a halo of supernatural renown. He is said to have leapt, 

 on horseback, from the top of Batcombe Hill, over the church 

 tower, upsetting a pinnacle in his course ; and other stories, 

 equally remarkable, are still told about him. 



The following pathetic lines, which are of frequent occurrence, 

 are to be found in the tower of the church : 



" Our life is nothing but a winter's day 

 some only break their fast and soe away 

 others stay dinner and depart full fed 

 the deepest age but supps and goes to bed 

 he's most in debt that lingers out the day 

 I dy'd betimes and have the lesse to pay " 



Yetminster Church is also the burial place of Arthur Cosens, 

 Esq., Sheriff of Dorset in 1807, who died 24th June, 1810. 



Among the vicars of Yetminster, the sad case of William 

 Bartlett should not be passed by. He was instituted on 17th 

 March, 1607, and had a dispensation to hold in addition the 

 Rectory of Church Knowle, 12th November, 1627. On the 

 beginning of the civil troubles he was deprived of his Rectory by 

 the ordinance against Pluralities and of his Vicarage by the 

 Committee of the County, and was plundered and imprisoned at 

 Westminster, 1646, and sequestered from his temporal estate. A 

 letter written by him on the 18th October of that year, after he 

 had been 22 weeks in prison for conscience's sake, may be read in 

 Walker's Su/erinys of the Clergy, pt. II., p. 198. 



