ATHfcLHAMPTOfr HALL. llj 



earls of Dorset, gave name to the place. He is styled a " duke " 

 or general (dux) in the Saxon Chronicles; and in 837 he 

 commanded the Dorsetshire men in an engagement at Portland 

 with the Danes, in which he lost his life. 



In the time of Richard II. the estate was in the possession of 

 two families named respectively de Londres and de Pydele, 

 whose arms you will find in the east and west windows of the 

 great hall. From these families Athelhampton descended by 

 marriage to the very ancient family of Martin, or Fitz-Martyn, 

 about the middle of the i4th century. Martin, of Tours, who 

 came over with the Conqueror, was their prime founder, and was, 

 no doubt, of the same family as the great saint of that name, 

 whose sister was the mother of St. Patrick. The estate remained 

 in the Martin family until Elizabeth's reign. Nicholas Martin, 

 then the head of this old family, died in 1595 and left four 

 daughters, between whom the estate, and even the house, was 

 divided. When you visit the church at Puddletown you will 

 notice the tomb of this the last of the Martins of this place. It 

 occupies the south-west corner of the chapel of St. Mary 

 Magdalene, which belongs to Athelhampton,. its more common 

 name being the Athelhampton aisle. The beautiful effigies it 

 contains must have been sadly neglected in the past, and their 

 mutilated and defaced condition does not reflect credit upon the 

 successive guardians of the place. The tomb of Nicholas 

 Martin, with its three monkeys or " martins segeant," bears this 

 epitaph " Nicholas ye first and Martyn ye last. Good-night, 

 Nicholas " a no doubt somewhat humorous but surely sad 

 contrast to the pious inscription on the brass to an earlier 

 member of the family. The eldest of the four daughters of this 

 " the last of the Martyns " married a Brune, and soon obtained 

 possession of most of the other portions of the estate. On the 

 nth of April the heiress of this " great western family," as it is 

 styled in " The Story of Corfe," became the wife of Sir Ralph 

 Bankes, and in 1665 he sold all the Brune's share in Athelhamp- 

 ton, Burleston, and Southover to Sir Robert Long, of Draycot, 

 Cerne, Wilts. In 1812 the property became vested in the family 



