being bred to letters, might enter into holy orders, and so stop or divert the services which he would otherwise be obliged to do, as heir and successor to his father. That this custom existed in the manors belonging to the abbey of Milton, may be learned from the Customary of that abbey, from which some extracts are given in the first vol. of the History of Dorset, p. 117. Can we imagine then, that the school at Milton was originally intended for the abbot's servile tenants, or that he was willing to lose his vassals? It is impossible that this could have been the case; and one may therefore safely conclude, that the school was purposely designed for the use of the monastery, that the Latin language was taught there, (I cannot say the Greek, for it was then but little known,) and that it was not intended to be of any advantage to the poor inhabitants of Milton.

The first master was perhaps appointed by the abbot and convent; but, at the dissolution of the monasteries, the lands belonging to the school were not considered as part of the possessions of the abbey, they being vested in the hands of trustees. And it is well known that Archbishop Cranmer, and others of the reformers, were so far from destroying schools, that they caused divers to be endowed, and even wished that a greater part of the abbey lands had been employed for that useful purpose. After the dissolution of the abbey, the masters were always appointed by the feoffees, as the design of the school was now altered, and was become of general utility to the whole adjoining country. The lord of the manor of Milton can no more be considered to be the abbot's vicegerent, than the Pope to be St. Peter's.

The school seems to have been kept originally in the abbey, and afterwards in the belfry of the church. The custom of keeping schools in the belfries and porches of churches, is of high antiquity. It originated from such schools being kept by the parish clerks, who were formerly required to be men of letters. These clerks were generally maintained by the parish. I mention this, that no one may imagine that the school of Milton was always kept in the belfry of the church, for this school was endowed, and the master was not chosen by the parishioners. Indeed, the church of Milton was appropriated to the convent, and there was another belonging to the parish, which was destroyed about the time of the Reformation.

In 1634, the ground whereon the late school-house stood, was granted by John Tregonwell, of Anderston, Esq. and John Tregonwell and Thomas Tregonwell, his sons, to Thomas

Lord Arundell, and Richard Swayne, of Tarrent Gunville, Esq. then surviving feoffees.

The deed of foundation has been lost many years. Several stories have been told concerning it, none of which I can believe. It must have been produced to the commissioners who took an inquisition at Blandford, concerning lands given to charitable uses, on the 6th of September, 42d Elizabeth. It is from this inquisition (in which the deed is recited) that we learn the particulars of the foundation. A decree in chancery was made in consequence of this inquisition, and it is probable the original deed was never returned by the commissioners, though the interpolator of the History of Dorset tells us, that whilst Mr. Hutchins lived at Milton, it was in the possession of Mr. Bancks.

The school, being situate in the middle of the county, has always been very flourishing. The trustees, and particu larly the present ones, have paid great attention to it, and the masters have generally been remarkable for their learning and industry. I cannot pass over in silence the diligence and attention of the late master, Mr. Wood, by whose care and assiduity the number of pupils was considerably increased, and the fame of the school diffused much wider.To him the rising generation is much indebted; and it is with the most sincere gratitude that one of his late pupils acknowledges his obligations to him in so extensive a publication as the Gentleman's Magazine.

Quando illi invenies parem!

By an act of parliament passed last sessions, the school of Milton was removed to Blandford.

1786, Feb.

Yours, &c.

N.L.

II. Topographical Description of Clifton Maubank, Dorset.

May, 21, 1786.

MR. URBAN, THE noble mansion of the Horseys, at Clifton Maubank, in Dorsetshire, being about to be taken down, it may not be

The commissioners were Sir Richard Rogers, Knt. John Strode, Esq. John Ryves, Esq. Thomas Jessop, Doctor of Physic, John Ryves, jun. Robt. Coker, and John Budden, Gent.

inconsistent with your plan to afford a place for some observations concerning it in your valuable Magazine, which will be a means of preserving the remembrance of so magnificent an edifice.

The manor of Clifton belonged to the Maubanks, who resided here at a very early period, and continued in their possession till about the reign of Richard II. when the male line ceased, and the Horseys, of Horsey, in Somerset, succeeded to the estate, by marriage with an heiress of the Maubank family. Not long after, the Horseys acquired the manor of Turges Melcombe, or Melcombe Horsey, in Dorset, by means of a marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Turgès; and, on the dissolution of the monasteries, obtained a grant of the manors of Bradford Abbas and Wyke, and the house and site of the dissolved abbey of Sherborne, with various lands belonging to it, and the manor of Creech, in Purbeck, from Henry VIII. It is not in my power to point out the particular manors which the Horsey's held in Somerset, (except those of Horsey, Charlton Mackrell, and Cary Fitzpane ;) but there is every reason to suppose that their property in Somerset was equal to what they held in Dorset, in which last county, besides the possessions already enumerated, they were possessed of the manors of South Perrott, Thornford, and Nether Compton..

Of the ancient residence of the Maubanks, no traces remain. The present house is not older than the sixteenth century, in the latter part of which it was probably built by Sir John Horsey *, Knt. whose name and family arms, quartering those of Turges and Maubank, with the date 1586, are to be seen in one of the hall windows. Over the porch or entrance of the house, is a magnificent shield, bearing the same arms as the window before-mentioned, viz. 1. 4. Horsey, 2. Turges, 3. Maubank. On the left side of the door are the arms of Horsey singly, and on the right side those of Turges; and in various parts of the house the same arms with those of Maubank are exhibited in the stone work. For the blazoning of these arms, I must, for brevity's, sake, refer my readers to Hutchins's History of Dorset, or the more curious Survey of Coker. The gate-way, which has been ascribed to Inigo Jones, was erected by Sir Ralph Horsey, in the reign of James I. a little before the time that Coker wrote his Survey, who, speaking of Clifton, says, that the Horseys had successively adorned it with build

* Sir John Horsey also built the mansion-house at Melcome Horsey, which has been lately taken down. See Coker's Survey, p. 81.

ings and other ornaments well befitting such a place and such men." The manor of Clifton, and the other valuable possessions of the Horsey family in Dorset, Somerset, and Hertfordshire, were alienated by Sir George Horsey, son of Sir Ralph, who ended his days in prison. Before the breaking out of the civil war, Clifton was possessed by Sir John Hale, whose heiress brought it to Hungerford, who sold it to the Horseys, by the last of whom it was mortgaged to Peter Walter, of famous memory, and is now the property of the Earl of Uxbridge. A manuscript in my possession, dated 1648, gives the following description of the house and its environs.

"The capital messuage consists of a faire yellowe freestone buildinge, partly two, and partly three stories, a faire hall and parlour, both waynscotted, a faire dyninge roome and with-drawinge roome, and many good lodgings, a kitchen adjoining backwarde to one end of the dwellinge house, with a faire passage from it into the hall, parlour, and dyninge-roome and sellars adjoynynge.

"In the front of the house a square green court, and a curious gatehouse with lodgings in it, standinge with the front of the house to the South; in a large outer court three stables, a coach-house, a large barne, and a stable for oxen and kine, and all houses necessary.

"Without the gatehouse, paled in a large square greene, in which standeth a faire chappell; of the South East side of the greene court, towards the river, a large garden.

"Of the South West side of the greene court, is a large bowlinge greene, with fower mounted walks about it, all walled about with a battelled wall, and sett with all sorts of fruit; and out of it into the feildes there are large walkes under many tall elmes orderly planted.

"There are several orchards and gardens about the house, fourteen acres well planted.

"In the backside of the house there is a brew-house, bake-house, dayry-house, and all other necessary howses, and lodgings for servants, and a faire double pigeon-house, and a corne-mill.

"The river runs through all the lands neere three miles, and encircleth the house att a goode distance, savinge at the East itt runnes by the garden next the parlour, in which river there is plenty of pike, carpes, and other river fish.

"Behinde the house, towardes the North West, there is from the house an easy and dry ascent into the hill where the warren is, and under the edge of that hill, and upon a part of that hill, very pleasant and many ashes, and coppice walks by the river side also.

"And all the countrey North of the houses upon champaign sandy feilds belonging to Bradforde, very dry and pleasant for all kindes of recreation, huntinge, and hawkinge, and profitable for tillage.

"To the South and West, in the front of the house, is a riche deepe soil, where lyeth the pasture and meadow, and part of the arable, and the great coppice wood, in which there is a competent number of deere belonging to the demeasnes, into which there is a descent from the house, which standeth upon a very sandy hill ground, and hath a large prospect East, South, and West, over a very large and pleasant vale.

"This house is seated from the good markett townes of Sherborne three miles, Yeavell a mile, Ivelchester five miles, Cearne six miles, Crewkerne seven miles, Somerton eight miles, that plentifully yield all manner of provision, and within twelve miles of the South Sea."

The door of the gateway is somewhat similar to those which we see in the colleges of our Universities. It contains a small door within a large one. These doors were anciently very common, and in the barbarous ages were certainly of very great utility. As the narrowness of the lesser door admitted the entrance of only one person at a time, and as the greater one was almost always kept fast, the porter, in case of an attack, might easily alarm the family before a large, body of men could rush in; and, in case the house was not taken by surprise, a few persons were capable of defending it. Erasmus, in his Colloquy, intituled "Peregrinatio Religionis Ergo," describes a door of this kind which was to be seen in his time at the abbey of Walsingham, in Norfolk. I will give his own words :-" Ad latus septentrionale porta quædam est, non templi, ne quid erres, sed septi, quo tota clauditur area templo adjacens. Ea ostiolum habet perpusillum, quale videmus in valvis nobilium, ut qui velit ingredi, primum tibiam periculo exponere cogatur, deinde caput etiam submittat. Profecto tutum non erat ad hostem ingredi par tale ostiolum."

The chapel seems to have been built in the year 1600, as that date appears in a large stone fixed in the West wall. There was lately some painted glass, but it is now entirely destroyed, and the whole fabric is very ruinous, and has not been officiated in of late years. From whence should this negligence arise, as the chapel is certainly parochial?

As many old houses are daily falling a sacrifice to the extravagance of the window-tax, I hope your correspondents in the various parts of the kingdom will furnish you either