Very little remained of
the old abbey beyond its ancient gateway, which was three stories high,
and displayed two very handsome double-storeyed oriel windows.
We now followed the downward course of the River Cerne, and walking
along a hard but narrow road soon reached the village of Charminster.
The church here dated from the twelfth century, but the tower was only
built early in the sixteenth century by Sir Thomas Trenchard of
Wolfeton, whose monogram T.T. appeared on it as well as in several
places in the church, where some very old monuments of the Trenchard
family were also to be seen. Wolfeton House was associated with a very
curious incident, which materially affected the fortunes of one of
England's greatest ducal families. In 1506 the Archduke Philip of
Austria and Joanna his wife sailed from Middelburg, one of the Zeeland
ports, to take possession of their kingdom of Castile in Spain. But a
great storm came on, and their ship became separated from the others.
Becoming unmanageable, it drifted helplessly down the Channel, and to
make matters worse took fire just when the storm was at its height, and
narrowly escaped foundering. Joanna had been shipwrecked on a former
occasion, and when her husband came to inform her of the danger, she
calmly put on her best dress and, with all her money and jewels about
her, awaited her fate, thinking that when her body was found they would
see she was a lady of rank and give her a suitable burial.
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