Another short excursion from Dorchester is up the valley of the Cerne.  About a mile and a half from St. Peter’s Church, proceeding by North Street, is Charminster, a pretty little place in itself and well situated in the opening valley of the sparkling Cerne.  Here is a church with a noble Perpendicular tower, built by Sir Thomas Trenchard about 1510.  The knight’s monogram is to be seen on the tower.  Within the partly Norman church are several monuments of the family, which lived at Wolfeton House, a fine Tudor mansion on the site of a still older building.  Its embattled towers, beautiful windows and ivy-clad walls make up an ideal picture of a “stately home of England.”  Wolfeton was the scene of the reception in 1506 of Philip of Austria and Joanna of Spain, who were driven into Weymouth by a storm. (The incident is referred to in the next chapter.) This occurrence may be said to have founded the fortunes of the ducal house of Bedford.  Young John Russell, of Bridport, a relative of the Trenchards, happened to be a good linguist, which the host was not.  He was sent for, and so well impressed the royal couple that they took him with them to Windsor.  Henry VII was quite as much interested, and young Russell’s fortune was made.  He stayed with the court until the next reign, and at the Dissolution got Woburn Abbey, a property still in the hands of his great family.

Continuing up the Cerne valley, Godmanstone, a village of picturesque gables and colourful roofs, is about four and a half miles from Dorchester.  Here the valley narrows between Cowden Hill and Crete Hill.  The Perpendicular church has been restored, and is of little interest.  Nether Cerne, a mile further along and two miles short of Cerne Abbas, also calls for little comment, but “Abbas” (or, according to Hardy, “Abbots Cernel”) is of much historic interest.

Cerne Abbey was founded in 987 by Aethelmar, Earl of Devon and Cornwall.  Legend has it that the monastery originated in the days of St. Augustine, but of this there is no proof, though it is certain that a religious house nourished here for nearly a century before the Benedictine abbey was established.  The first Abbot Aelfric was famous for his learning, and his Homilies in Latin and English are of much value to students of Anglo-Saxon.  Canute was the first despoiler of Cerne, though he made good his plunderings tenfold when peace, on his terms, came to Wessex.  Queen Margaret sought sanctuary here in 1471 with her son, the heir to the English throne.  At the Abbey, or on the way thither from Weymouth, the courageous Queen learned of the defeat of the Lancastrian army at Barnet.  From Cerne she went to lead a force against the Yorkists at Tewkesbury.  There she was defeated, her son brutally murdered and all hope lost for the cause of her imprisoned husband, the feeble and half-witted Henry VI.