u6 



THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY & NATURALIST. 



weather, the meeting was a very enjoyable and 

 interesting one. The programme consisted of an 

 examination of three country churches, and a visit to 

 the Vyne, a fine old country mansion with some 

 notable historical associations. The latter proved the 

 chief attraction of the day, and afforded ample com- 

 pensation for what to many was a long country walk. 

 But members of the Field Club look forward to 

 plenty of walking, and there is often some joking 

 about " Field Club miles,'' which it is currently re- 

 ported are half as long again as ordinary miles. 

 However, the prospect of six or eight miles did not 

 deter a party of some sixty strong assembling at 

 Basingstoke station by 10 o'clock in the morning. 

 From here a walk of " aj miles " somewhat 

 lengthened by a short cut, alias detour, to a big 

 chalk-pit led to the village and church of Sherborne 

 St. John. This chalk pit is marked on the Ordnance 

 map as Marnel Dell, and this name gives some indi- 

 cation of its origin, for there can be little doubt that 

 Marnel is a corruption ot marl. The chalk here, then, 

 has been dug from time immemorial for the purpose 

 of marling the land, and, as Mr. Shore pointed out, 

 the fact that Roman coins had been found 

 in the immediate vicinity showed that it 

 had been used in Roman times, if indeed it had not 

 been by the British before them. For when the 

 Romans came to this country they found that the 

 natives marled their land for agricultural purposes. 

 Other evidences of prehistoric man had also been 

 found at Oakridge Farm, an almost detached out- 

 lying portion of the borough of Basingstoke, where 

 Mr. Charles Cooksey had obtained some Neolithic 

 flint implements. But the slight search which could 

 be made by one or two enthusiasts on the way was 

 not rewarded with any finds. As a compensation for 

 the slightly extended walk it was mentioned that the 

 party was going along the road that was taken by 

 Gage when he rode from Oxford to the relief of 

 Basing House during the great Civil War. But the 

 Rev. G. N. Godwin was not there to tell of the Civil 

 War associations of the place. 



Sherborne St. John church is prettily situated 

 amongst the trees and contains much of interest to 

 the archaeologist. In the churchyard was first pointed 

 out a tombstone of the early part of the century with 

 an epitaph recording that the huntsman of Mr. 

 William Chute, whom it commemorated, " continued 

 after he died in the family as coachman." Over the 

 porch of the church, which is an excellent example of 

 a brick porch of the Tudor period, is an inscription 

 inviting you "Of your charity pray for the soul of 

 James Spyre and Joan, his wife, which caused this 

 porch to be made at their cost in the year of our Lord 

 1533." Over this is a dial, and over the inner door, 

 which is late Norman, are the remaining marks of 

 another dial. The Rev. D. W. Chute, the rector, 

 met the party here and explained some of the features 

 of the church. The oldest thing in the church, he 

 said, was the font, which was ot the i2th 



century. Near the door is a broken fragment 

 of what was probably a stoup, and there 

 is an oak pulpit " made by Henry Sly," as the 

 carving plainly tells us, in 1634. There are some 

 monuments to the Beverley and Attkins families, and 

 on the stones are some quaint things ; for instance, 

 one recorded that a man died at the age of " plus 

 minus 65." On the north side of the chancel there is 

 a chapel with some noteworthy monuments and 

 brasses of the Brocas family, whose history was a few 

 years ago written by Prof. Montagu Burrows. The 

 Brocases were at one time the lords of the manor 

 here, and Mr. Shore was of opinion that William 

 Brocas, who in his will (dated 1454) selected the 

 "chapel of the Holy Apostle of the church of 

 Shirborn " as the place of his burial, indicated this 

 chapel, and not as supposed by Mr. Burrows (" The 

 Family of Brocas of Beaurepaire," p. 157) a chapel of 

 the Priory church. If so, this will undoubtedly give 

 the dedication of this private chapel. Amongst the 

 brasses is one ot the i4th century to Raulin Brocas 

 and his wife. These brasses are reproduced in Mr. 

 Burrows's work. In the Brocas chapel are two old 

 helmets, one pronounced by Mr. B. W. Greenfield to 

 be of the age of Henry VII, and the other 

 Cromwellian. Another object of interest in the 

 church was a desk with three chained volumes of 

 Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" (1641). Mr. Shore 

 followed the rector with some historical information, 

 including the inevitable Domesday references, from 

 which it appeared that the church was at that time 

 endowed there were not then many endowed 

 churches in the county and that there were three 

 mills worth 273. At the time of the taxation of Pope 

 Nicholas in 1290 for the abortive Crusade after 

 Edward I's return from Palestine, this church was 

 assessed at 20, and the rector paid a tax of 2. 

 The register dates from 1652, and of the bells one 

 is pre-Reformation (i5th century), the others dating 

 from 1587, 1602, and 1618. Outside the church 

 some Roman bricks may be seen built into the east 

 wall. 



A walk of a mile next led to Monk Sherborne 

 church (All Saints'), crossing on the way the site of 

 the Roman road from Winchester to Silchester. 

 This road, though still in part used, is for some dis- 

 tance completely obliterated, and Mr. Shore was able 

 to adduce evidence of its enclosure by William Brocas 

 from a deed of 1415. Just before reaching the church 

 a chalk pit was taken advantage of to draw from the 

 President (Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S.) some remarks 

 on the section exposed and the nature of the geolo- 

 gical strata of the neighbourhood. The question of 

 the origin of the Shirebourne, shadowed on the pro- 

 gramme, also came up, but the different authorities 

 could not be got to agree as to the derivation. Mr. 

 Shore held to the theory that the prefix " Shire " was 

 from the Saxon sarc (a division), and that the stream 

 divided the land that was formerly a part of the 

 county and land that came under the forest laws. 



