[36] The loneliness of Holworth has also been remarked upon by Thomas Hardy in his smuggling story, “The Distracted Preacher” (Wessex Tales). Such a lonely spot, with its under-cliff sheltered by “White Nose”—the great white promontory jutting like an enormous Wellington nose into the sea—naturally attracted smugglers, who, as tradition says, hid their goods in the tower of the neighbouring parish church of Owermoigne. In this church there is an interesting inscription recording the will of “Adam Jones of Holworth, in the parish of Abbotsmilton” (sic), 1653.
[37] See Mary Craven’s Famous Beauties of Two Reigns, pp. 141-151.
[38] See Old Milton, and Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiquarian Field Club’s Proceedings, vol. xxv., 1 ff.
[39] Zanchy Harvyn, grocer, of “Abby Milton,” was the second tradesman in Dorset to issue a “token” (1651).
[40] See Milton Abbey Marriage Registers, in Phillimore’s “Dorset” series. But during the years 1657-8 the banns of some of the more zealous church-people were published in the church.
[41] See Alfred Pope’s The Old Stone Crosses of Dorset, pp. 69-71.
[42] See Milton Abbey and its School, chap. ii.
[43] See Broadley and Bartelot’s The Three Dorset Captains at Trafalgar, p. 124.
[44] During Hutchins’ residence at Milton, the Lord of the Manor (Mr. Jacob Bancks, M.P.) employed him to make some antiquarian researches concerning Sir John Tregonwell; and while making these researches Hutchins conceived the idea of writing a book on the antiquities of Dorset. He began to collect materials, and at Milton laid the plan of his monumental history. His wife, Ann Stephens, is described in the Melcombe Bingham marriage registers as belonging to the parish of Milton.
[45] This fight between squire and people recalls Thomas Hardy’s allusion, in The Woodlanders, to “Middleton Abbey” as being a place where one might gain strength, “particularly strength of mind.”