The old market cross is gone.  On its stump there was erected in 1897 a new Latin cross to commemorate the jubilee of Queen Victoria.  “Dackhams,” the Elizabethan manor standing back from the Swanage road, and now called Morton House, is a fine specimen of Tudor building.  The architecture of Corfe, as in most of the inland villages of the “island,” is most pleasing; a distinctive note being the pillared porch with a room above.

Corfe Castle retained a mayor and eight “barons” until 1883.  The last to hold office (a Bankes) was also Lord High Admiral of Purbeck, a picturesque title over three hundred years old.  It will come as a surprise to most readers to hear that Corfe was admitted to rank as a Cinque Port.  The town returned the usual two members in pre-reform days.

A pleasant route out of Corfe is to take a path between cottages on the left of the lane leading to West Orchard, and, crossing several meadows, to pass over the breezy Corfe common to the Kingston road.  This gives the traveller a series of beautiful views and an especially fine retrospect of Corfe Castle.  In a short two miles Kingston, climbing up its steep hill, is reached.  The church, a landmark for many miles, was built by Lord Eldon in 1880.  It was designed by Street in Early English.  With its severe and lofty tower the exterior has a coldly conventional aspect not altogether pleasing.  Inside, the large amount of Purbeck marble employed gives a touch of colour which, to a certain extent, relieves the austerity.  Not far away is the older church built in Perpendicular style by Lord Chancellor Eldon.  The seat of the Eldon family is at Encombe, a lovely cup-shaped hollow opening to the sea about a mile and a half away, and not far from the lonely Chapman’s (or perhaps Shipman’s) Pool, a deep and sheltered cove on the west of St. Aldhelm’s Head.  A path can be taken that crosses the fields until the open common, which extends to the edge of the great headland, is reached.  On the summit, 450 feet above the waves, is a little Norman chapel dedicated to the first Bishop of Sherborne, whose name the headland bears and not that of St. Alban, as erroneously given in so many school geographies and in some tourist maps.  This chantry served a double purpose, prayers being said by the priest within and a beacon lit upon the roof without, for the succour and guidance of sailors.  A cross now takes the place of the ancient beacon bucket.  It is said that the chapel was instituted by a sorrowing father who saw his daughter and her husband drowned in the terrible race off the headland in or about the year 1140.  It was restored by the same Earl of Eldon who built the Kingston church, and is looked after by the neighbouring coast-guard.  The interior is lit by one solitary window in the thick wall and in the centre is a single massive column.  Some authorities have questioned its original use as a place of prayer, but tradition, and a good deal of direct evidence, point to the ecclesiastical nature of the building.