Excerpt from The Church Plate of the County of Dorset: With Extracts From the Returns of Church Goods by the Dorset Commissioners of Edward Vi, 1552

Guest, Esq., of Bere Regis. Nos. 10, II, 12 and 16, Shaftesbury, Stalbridge, Sherborne, and Cerne, by the Rev. C. H. Mayo, of Long Burton, who personally made the original returns for the parishes in the Stalbridge and Cerne Portions. Nos. 1 3, 14, 15 and I7, Sturminster Newton, Bere Regis, Poole, and Milton, by the Rev. N. W. Gresley - but as Mr. Gresley left the Diocese some time since, a second revision was kindly undertaken by Mr. Montague Guest. These returns now represent every parish in the county, amounting to about three hundred, and are conterminous with the Archdeaconry of Dorset; to these were added sheets containing such sketches, drawings, and rubbings of the different pieces, as were forthcoming - and so the Bishop's requirements were complied with. And here it may be mentioned, for the guidance of any future explorers in the same field, that too much must not be expected from general returns of Church Plate where the object is archaeological. When possible, the shortest and most satisfactory way is to visit each parish, Cripps in hand, and note the details on the spot.

The matter printed in the present volume does not contain the whole of the minor details of the returns, such as the full measurement of every piece, the weights, and other small parti culars, but all available information has been given in full of the earlier examples down to the end of the last century, and a shorter notice of all existing pieces that have been added since that time. Whenever any inscriptions are found indicating the donors of the plate, either by giving the names in full, or by initials, or by coats of arms, some attempt has been made to identify them; but there is no doubt a great deal more might be done in this way, and that, principally through the careful examination of the Churchwardens' accounts and Parish Registers, which are still to be found in most places. In this respect the returns from the different parishes are usually very meagre. The value, and indeed the interest, of these records cannot be too strongly insisted upon; if made generally available by a fair copy in each parish - probably at no very great cost of time and labour - although the matter might seem individually unimportant, they would form a basis of valuable additional material for the illustration of parish as well as of county history.

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