or four miles farther before it reaches the
Avon. The church, set picturesquely on its hill at Coombe, is an old
Transitional Norman building with some later additions. The village in
the hollow below appeals to one as a happy place in which to end one's
days. So also appears Stratford Tony, farther up the vale, where, as
its name suggests, the Roman road from Old Sarum to Blandford once cut
across the valley in the usual Roman manner. Bishopstone, the next
village, has a very fine cruciform church, most interesting in its
general details. The patron of the living was the Bishop of
Winchester; thus the village gets its name. It is possible that some
of the bishops took special interest in the building and that would
account for its elaboration. The style is Decorated passing into
Perpendicular in the nave. The chancel and transepts are peculiarly
fine and the vaulting of the first-named will be much admired, as also
the beautiful windows. The south door of the chancel with its handsome
porch and groined roof; the vaulted chamber, or so-called cloister,
outside the south transept, the use of which is unknown; the recessed
tomb in the north transept and the grand arch on the same side of the
church; all call for especial notice.

The right-hand road at Stoke Farthing leads direct to Broad Chalke, or
a longer by-way on the other side of the stream takes us to the same
goal by way of Bury Orchard, a village as delectable as its name.
Chalke likewise boasts of a fine church, also cruciform and dating, so
far as the chancel and north transept are concerned, from the
thirteenth century. In that transept the old wooden roof still
remains. The nave is Perpendicular, solid and plain; the roof quite
modern, though the corbels that supported the old one, carved with
representations of angels singing and playing, were not disturbed. The
sedilia in the chancel and the aumbry in the north transept should be
seen. The lych-gate was erected to the memory of Rowland Williams of
_Essays and Reviews_ fame. John Aubrey, antiquary and nature lover,
who was a native of Easton Pierce in North Wilts, was a resident here
for a long time, and a modern literary association is found in the
fact that the Old Rectory has been the home of Mr. Maurice Hewlett for
some years.

The hills now begin to close in upon the road and another valley
penetrates into the highlands which form the northern portion of
Cranborne Chase. In this vale, in a lovely holl