ixii. 



MILTON ABBEY MEETING. 



The second meeting of the summer session was held at Milton 

 Abbey on Thursday, Aug. 6th, and was well attended, nearly loo 

 tickets having been issued for it. 



The members assembled at Dorchester and at Blandford, and 

 drove from these places in carriages, meeting at Rawlesbury 

 Rings on Bulbarrow about noon. Here the President (Lord 

 Eustace Cecil) joined the party. After the Hon. Sec. had said a 

 few words about the earthwork which covers nearly eight acres 

 of ground, and, like some other Celtic camps, contains evidence 

 of Roman occupation, the President adverted to the surmise of 

 Hutchins that the first sj-llable indicates the sun-god Baal, to 

 whom temples were erected on the summits of hills. Dr. Colley 

 March suggested, as an alternative theory, that the prefix "bull" 

 was a sign of magnitude, as in the word bullrush, the great sedge ; 

 and the examples bull-buttercup the marsh marigold, bull-daisy 

 the ox-eye, bullstang the dragon-fly, and bull-frog the large 

 batrachian of America, were afterwards added. 



After luncheon, which the members brought with them, the 

 party drove to Delacombe House, which is said to have belonged 

 to the Abbot of Milton. The farm house contains many archi- 

 tectural evidences of 15th and i6th Century work, and bears 

 over an archway, which seems to have been rebuilt at some 

 time, a stone carved with the Milton rebus, a mill over a tun, 

 with the date 15 15. Mounting their carriages, the members 

 then drove to the parish church of 



Milton Abbas 



where they were met and welcomed by the Vicar, the Rev. H. 

 Pentin. The church which was built a hundred years ago out of 

 the stone and timber of the old Abbey tithe barn contains very 

 little that is ancient. There is however a thirteenth century font on 

 a fifteenth century step (the latter probably not made for it). The 

 font, the Vicar stated, was brought from the Abbey. The pulpit is 

 also supposed to have come thence, as well as two of the bells. 



