HORTON, a parish in the hundred of BADBURY,
Shaston (East) division of the county of DORSET, 5
miles (s. s. W.) from Cranborhe, containing 420
bitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, with the
curacy of Knowlton, in the archdeaconry of Dorset, and
diocese of Bristol, rated in the king's books at £7.13.10.
The Earl of Shaftesbury was patron in 1816. The church
is dedicated to St. Wolfrida. An abbey, founded here
in 970, by Ordgar, Earl of Devonshire, became a cell to
Sherborne Abbey in 1122. At Knowlton, formerly a
hamlet in this parish, now depopulated, but still giving
name to a hundred, are the remains of a chapel, which,
with the cemetery, are surrounded by a deep circular
intrenchment, comprising one acre df ground within its
area, and containing several tumuli; in the vicinity are
several other works of this kind. A fair formerly held
at Knowlton was removed to the adjoining parish of
Woodlands, about the year 1730, where it takes place
on the 5th of July, for horses, cheese, and toys.