casual visitor, have the appearance of decorators’ dust-cloths, but are really “houseling linen.”  The relics that once made the Minster famous and a place of pilgrimage for the credulous were many and various.  Reputed fragments of our Lord’s manger, robe and cross; some of the hairs of His beard, and a thorn from His crown; a bottle containing the blood of St. Thomas a Becket, and St. Agatha’s thighbone.

The fine old chest with its six different locks, one for each trustee, in the St. George’s or north choir aisle, will be remarked.  This is the receptacle for the deeds of Collett’s Charity at Corfe Castle.  Beside another very ancient chest (possibly used for “relics"), is an effigy of an unknown knight, conjectured to be a Fitz Piers, also a monument to Sir Edmund Uvedale.  In the south, or Trinity, aisle is the Etricke tomb; here lies a recorder of Poole, the same who committed to prison, after his capture on one of the wild heaths near Ringwood, that one-time hope of protestant England, the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth.  This Anthony Etricke was buried half in and half out of the church in pursuance of a curious whim that he should lie neither in the open nor under the church roof.  He caused the date of his death to be carved upon the side of the sarcophagus but, as may be seen, the date had to be advanced twelve years when he did demise.  There is a finely vaulted crypt under the altar and over the fourteenth century vestry is an interesting library where the books were once chained to the shelves.  It was instituted in the seventeenth century for the use of the laity of Wimborne as well as for the minster clergy and may thus claim to be one of the very earliest libraries in existence.  It contains, among other curiosities, a copy of Raleigh’s History of the World with a hole burnt through its leaves, through the carelessness of Matthew Prior, who was a resident of Wimborne.  On the wall of the western tower is a brass to this worthy.

The town has the usual pleasant and comfortable air of an English agricultural centre, with few really old buildings, however, and a sad amount of mean and jerry-built streets in the newer part near the station that does not give the stranger a favourable first impression if he comes by rail.  There are some picturesque alleys and “backs” around the Minster and the walks in the rural environs of Wimborne and up the valley of the Stour are most charming.  On the north-west of the town is St. Margaret’s Hospital, with a restored chapel that still retains some ancient portions.  This was originally a leper’s hospital and the foundation dates from about 1210.

[Illustration:  JULIAN’S BRIDGE, WIMBORNE.]