138 POWERSTOCK CttURCM AND CASTLE. 



and knock for admission ; whereupon the clerk would demand, 

 " What is your business ?" to which the parent would reply, 

 " We demand baptism." The clerk would then open the door 

 and admit the parties, and the service would then proceed. This 

 Baptistry door has been done away with, and a window now 

 takes its place. But the old custom has migrated from the 

 Parish Church to West Milton, where the Baptistry door exists. 



Of the old Castle of King John nothing remains but some 

 grassy mounds. I have been told by an old parishioner, still 

 living, that he remembers digging about there and coming upon 

 what looked like the old stables, where there were remains of 

 refuse and the foot of a fowl. We know from the following 

 Pipe Rolls that the Castle was re-built by King John, but lately 

 there came into my keeping a very good specimen of a sculptured 

 rabbit found in an old farmhouse which had been burnt. This 

 rabbit has all the appearance of being Anglo-Saxon work, and, 

 as much of the stone of King John's Castle seems to have been 

 employed for building purposes in the village, it would lend 

 colour to the tradition that the original Castle was built by 

 Athelstan, who was known to have lived at Wytherstone close by. 



Quite recently I have come across an old copy of the Parish 

 Magazine, bearing date 1870, containing a letter written by a 

 Mr. John Jeiford, of Bridport, to the late Archdeacon Sanctuary. 

 The letter, after referring to some books and maps, about to be 

 brought out by Mr. Warne, the well-known antiquarian, proceeds 

 thus : 



"Mr. Warne published about two years ago (1867-8) another 

 work on the antiquities of our county, ' The Celtic Tumuli of 

 Dorset.' This work I have read, but do not at present possess 

 it. It .gives an excellent account of the opening of more than 

 one hundred tumuli in Dorset. About sixty of them were 

 opened under his superintendence. The remainder are those 

 opened by the late Sir R. Hoare, in the upper part of the county, 

 and some by several clergymen and other gentlemen, who had 

 taken an interest in the subject during the last 70 or 80 years. 

 He is now preparing for the press another volume, which I have 



