llefoton Jtlmtor, 



By Sir J. C. ROBINSON. 



(Read Sept. 9th, 1896. ) 



UR excellent Honorary Secretary has told me that I 

 am expected to give some account of this house 

 and its contents. I am afraid there is very 

 little to be said of sufficient interest to warrant 

 my taking up the time of our Society. How- 

 ever, I will do my best. 



As to the place itself, Newton is an ancient 

 property lying, like most of the farms and small 

 manors in Swanage, within nearly the same 

 boundaries, the old grey stone walls, by which 

 it was first enclosed. It is a hamlet in the parish of Swanage, the 

 New"ton," or town, occupying the first rising ground known as 

 Newton " Knap," on the main Purbeck road to Corfe Castle 

 and Wareham. Two or three hundred yards further on comes 

 Herston, a somewhat similar hamlet now grown into a village, and 

 doubtless in its origin the " ton," or holding, of some Anglo- 

 Saxon settler in Purbeck. 



The estate runs up to the sea on the south and is bounded by 

 rugged Purbeck stone cliffs, the hill side being in part honey- 



