Wessex . m here. And there was also ahunting lodge hard by much in favour with the earlierkings of England. King John visited it frequently,and it is recorded that Edward I. spent his Christmashere in 1270. In ancient times it was a royal forest, frequentlyassigned as a dowry to the wife of the King, and itwas thus held in succession by Margaret of France,Margaret of Anjou, and by no less than three ofHenry wives — Jane Seymour, CatherineHoward, and Catherine Parr,—and also by Ann ofDenmark. The church, once a beautiful and ancient fabric, wasrestored in the early part of the nineteenth
Wessex . m here. And there was also ahunting lodge hard by much in favour with the earlierkings of England. King John visited it frequently,and it is recorded that Edward I. spent his Christmashere in 1270. In ancient times it was a royal forest, frequentlyassigned as a dowry to the wife of the King, and itwas thus held in succession by Margaret of France,Margaret of Anjou, and by no less than three ofHenry wives — Jane Seymour, CatherineHoward, and Catherine Parr,—and also by Ann ofDenmark. The church, once a beautiful and ancient fabric, wasrestored in the early part of the nineteenth century,except the chancel, which is a good example of theDecorated style. It is now a rather meagre-lookingGothic building, but it contains some interestingmemorials. Of the old palace of GiUingham, which was erectedby Saxon or Norman kings to serve them as a resi-dence when hunting in the neighbourhood, hardly anytraces, save overgrown foundations, remain ; but from 128 A WESSEX DAIRY FARM . ^!,;;.. Cranborne Chase these antiquarians are able to trace its size andimportance. In Gillingham itself there are few old buildings left,but it is a pleasantly situated town, with much ofinterest in the country round about it. Here wasborn Charles Gildon, the poet Popes bitter critic, ofwhom it was said that he wrote The English Art ofPoetry^ which he had practised himself very unsuccess-fully in his dramatic performances, and thus he seemsto have carried out the adage that a critic is one whohas failed in literature. To reach Blandford, a central Wessex town, by themost picturesque and desirable manner, the wayfarermust return to Shaftesbury, from whence run two roadspresenting widely different features of scenery, but bothof almost the same length and equally desirable from apicturesque point of view. The upper road runs forsome distance along a ridge of high chalk downs, andis of course somewhat hilly ; but the traveller whotakes it will be well repaid by the magnificent prospec
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1906
