MELBURY-OSMOND, a parish in the hundred of YETMINSTER, Sherborne division of the county of DORSET, 8 miles (S. W.) from Sherborne, containing 319 inhabitants. The living is a discharged rectory, with which that of Melbury-Sampford was united in 1750, in the archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol, rated in the king's books at £8. 3.4., and in the patronage of the Earl of Ilchester. The church is dedicated to St. Osmond. A school for the instruction of poor children has an income of £ 15 per annum, the bequest of Mrs. Susannah Strangeways Horner, in 1754.