hich once existed
in the county of Dorset, three only remain to the present day. Of some
of the rest we have ruins, others have entirely disappeared. But the
town of Sherborne, once the bishop-stool of the sainted Aldhelm, who
overlooked a vast diocese comprising a great portion of the West Saxon
kingdom, has its Abbey now used as its Parish Church. The great Abbey
of Milton, founded by AEthelstan, has handed down to us its choir and
transepts--rebuilt in the fourteenth century, after the former church
had been destroyed by fire--and this, though private property, is still
used for occasional services; and the minster church at Wimborne has
became the church of the parish of Wimborne Minster.

The town has been by many supposed to stand on the site of the Roman
Vindogladia, though this station has by others been identified with
Gussage Cowdown, or the circular encampment of Badbury Rings, about
three miles to the north-west of Wimborne Minster. Be this as it may,
the district was occupied by the Roman conquerors of our island; and
Roman pottery and other remains have been found in the neighbourhood,
including a small portion of pavement beneath the floor of the minster
church.

The derivation of the name Wimborne, or Winborne as we find it sometimes
written, has been much disputed; but as we find the same word appearing
as the name of several other places which lie on the course of the same
stream, now generally called the Allen, though sometimes the Wim, it
is highly probable that the name is derived from that of the river.
Compound names for villages are very common in Dorset--the first word
being the name of the river on which the village stands, the second
being added to distinguish one village from another. Thus we find along
the Tarrant, villages known as Tarrant Gunville, Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant
Launceston, Tarrant Monkton, etc.; and along the Winterborne we find
Winterborne Houghton, Winterborne Stickland, Winterborne Clenstone,
etc.; and in like manner we meet with Monkton up Wimborne, Wimborne
Saint Giles, and Wimborne Minster along the course of the Allen. The
characteristic name of Winterborne for a brook that is such in winter
only, but is a dried-up bed in a hot summer is borne by two streams in
Dorset, each giving its name to a string of villages. May not the word
Wimborne or Winborne be a contraction for this same word Winterborne,
the "burn" of the rainy winter months, applied to the little stream of