In the porch of the church lies the “Patriarch of Dorchester,” John White, Rector of Holy Trinity, who died in 1648 and who seems to have kept the town pretty well under his own control.  A Puritan, he incurred the hatred of Prince Rupert’s followers, who plundered his house and carried away his papers and books.  He escaped to London and was for a time Rector of Lambeth, afterwards returning to Dorchester.  He raised money for the equipment of emigrants from Dorchester to Massachusetts and thus became one of the founders of New England.  Inside the church the Hardy tablet to the left of the door is in memory of the ancestor of both that Admiral Hardy who was the friend of Nelson and the great novelist whose writings have been the means of making “Dear Do’set” known to all the world.  The monument of Lord Holles is remarkable for a comic cherub who is engaged in wiping his tears away with a wisp of garment; the naivete of the idea is amusing in more ways than one.  Another curious monument, badly placed for inspection, is that of Sir John Williams.  The so-called “crusaders” effigies are thought to be of a later date than the last crusade; no inscriptions remain, so that they cannot be identified.  The curfew that still rings from St. Peter’s tower is an elaborate business.  Besides telling the day of the month by so many strokes after the ten minutes curfew is rung, a bell is tolled at six o’clock on summer mornings and an hour later in the winter.  Also at one o’clock midday to release the workers of the town for dinner.

Holy Trinity Church was destroyed in the great fire.  Another conflagration in 1824 removed its successor.  The present building only dates from 1875 and is a fairly good Victorian copy of Early English.  All Saints’ was rebuilt in 1845.  It retains the canopied altar tomb of Matthew Chubb (1625) under the tower.  The organ here was presented by the people of Dorchester, Massachusetts, for the founding of which town John White, the rector of Holy Trinity, was mainly responsible.

[Illustration:  NAPPER’S MITE.]

The County Museum, close to St. Peter’s Church, should on no account be missed.  Here is stored a most interesting collection of British and Roman antiquities found in and around Dorchester, and also of fossils from the Dorset coast and elsewhere, together with many out-of-the-way curiosities.  “Napper’s Mite” is the name given to the old almshouse in South 1615 with money left for the Robert Napper.  It has a queer open gallery or stone verandah along the street front.  Next door to it is the Grammar School, which owes its inception to the Thomas Hardy who is commemorated in St. Peter’s, and whose benefactions to the town were many and great.  Of equal interest, perhaps, is a house on the other side of the street that was once a school kept by William Barnes, surely the most serene and kindly schoolmaster that ever taught unruly youth.  Barnes, in addition to his other literary work, was secretary of the Dorset