the Allen, though it cannot now be said to be dry in summer?

The small town of Wimborne Minster stands not far from the junction of
the Allen with the slow-running Dorset Stour, in the midst of pleasant
fertile meadow-land, from which here and there some low hills rise. Its
chief glory has been, and probably always will be, its splendid church,
with its central Norman and its Western Perpendicular towers, its Norman
and Decorated nave, its Early English choir, and its numerous tombs and
monuments of those whose names are recorded in the history of the
country.

The exact year of the foundation of the original religious house is
differently given in various ancient documents: the dates vary from
705 A.D. to 723 A.D. At this time, Ine was king of the West Saxons;
and one of his sisters, Cudburh--or Cuthberga, as her name appears in
its Latinised form--was espoused or married to Egfred, or, as he is
often called, Osric, the Northumbrian king, but the marriage was never
consummated, and the lady as soon as possible separated from him and
retired to the convent at Barking, and afterwards founded the convent at
Wimborne. Some say that she objected to the intemperate habits of her
espoused as soon as she met him; others, that having previously vowed
herself to heaven, she persuaded him to release her from the engagement
to him, which had been arranged without her wishes being consulted.
Her sister Quinberga is stated to have been associated with her in the
foundation of the religious house, and both were buried within its
precincts, and both were afterwards canonised; Saint Cuthberga was
commemorated on August 31st "as a virgin but not a martyr." A special
service appointed for the day is to be found in a Missal kept in the
Library of the Cathedral Church at Salisbury, in which the following
prayer occurs:--

"Deus qui eximie castitatis privilegio famulam tuam Cuthbergam
multipliciter decorasti, da nobis famulis tuis ejus promerente
intercessione utriusque vitae prosperitatem. Ut sicut ejus festivitas
nobiscum agitur in terris, ita per ejus interventum nostri memoria apud
te semper habeatur in coelis, per Dominum etc."

There is reason to believe that the earliest date given above for the
foundation (705 A.D.) is the most probable one, as Regner in his tracts
mentions a letter bearing this date written by Saint Aldhelm, and taken
from the register of Malmesbury, in which he includes in a list of
congregations to which he