110 
that the owners, during the Middle Ages, were people of consider¬ 
able local importance. 
The most interesting feature of the place is the old tower, at 
the extreme western end of the building. The walls are extremely 
thick, and slope outwards at the base forming a batter. There 
is no original doorway on the basement floor, but one, which 
seems to be original, stands about four feet from the ground on 
the north side. This doorway is very plain, without mouldings of 
any sort. On the upper floor there is only one window facing 
south. Above this there are two similar windows. These have 
long ago been blocked up from the inside. As they are immedi¬ 
ately under the eaves of the roof, it looks as if the tower was at 
one time considerably higher, and perhaps these windows were 
stopped up when the walls were cut down. All these windows have 
a notch cut in the stone, about the middle of each jamb. This 
notch was probably made for the use of some defender of the 
place using a cross-bow. So far as I am aware there is no record 
as to the exact age of this tower. It is certainly either Saxon or 
Norman. If the latter, then it was probably built by one of the 
Talbots. Personally, I am inclined to think that it is of Saxon 
origin, although I have heard that Mr. Pounce) 7 , the Dorchester 
antiquarian, ascribes it to the thirteenth century. My reasons 
for thinking- as I do are shortlv these. 
It was obviously built as a place of security and refuge, when 
the inhabitants of the adjoining house were in constant fear of 
raids from the sea. This could not have been the case after the 
Conquest, when the power of the Norsemen and the Danes had 
been broken by their crushing defeat at the hands of King Plarold 
at Stamford Bridge, and by the Normans in the fen districts. 
Piracy here in the Isle of Purbeck would be hardly worth the risk 
during the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the 
country was in the main a Royal Chase, and Corfe, with its 
strong garrison, was so near. What our Saxon ancestors had 
generally to fear was not so much a regular invasion, as a raid 
of comparatively short duration, but fierce indeed while it lasted. 
The Norsemen loved not sieges. What the Saxon thegns who 
dwelt here did was probably this. On the appearance of the 
Vikings in superior force they got, with all the moveable 
property they could haul after them, into this Tower, and turned 
their live stock loose on the wide expanse of heath and hill, hoping 
to recapture them when the Vikings departed. Probably there¬ 
fore this -Tower goes back to the ninth or tenth century. 
As to the rest of the House, it is difficult to say when it 
was built. Being so plain I hardly think that it can be Eliza¬ 
bethan, though its general aspect rather suggests the early Tudor 
style, especially when we remember that, during that period, the 
property belonged to a persecuted family, and was on several 
occasions seized temporarily by the Crown to meet the fines 
imposed for recusancy. As the owners of the place during the 
fifteenth century were men of considerable wealth, I should say 
