CHAPTER IX 



THE OLD MANOR HOUSE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS 



THE old Manor House at Bingham's Melcombe, 

 which is the home of my later, as the old thatched 

 Rectory at Stafford was of my earlier years, is 

 probably, the oldest house of the kind in Dorset. 

 Dorset is a county which is rich in immemorial or 

 mysterious records of the past, like the Cerne Giant, 

 or in huge earth works, British, Saxon, or Roman, 

 like Maiden Castle, or Rawlesbury, or Badbury 

 Rings. It is rich in mediaeval abbeys, some of 

 them mere fragments, though exquisite fragments, 

 like Cerne or Bindon, others, still in full use and 

 beauty, like Wimborne or Sherborne or Milton. 

 It is rich in mediaeval castles, like Woodsford of 

 Stephen's time, like Sherborne again, or like Corfe, 

 so unique in its situation and its surroundings. 

 But it is rich, above all, in the number and the 



