HILTON, a parish in the hundred of WHITEWAY,
Cerne sub-division of the county of DORSET, 7 miles
(W. S. W.) from Blandford-Forum, containing 610 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry
of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol, rated in the king's
books at £8. 10. 5., and in the patronage of the Bishop
of Salisbury. The church is dedicated to All Saints.
A school-house has been erected by Lady C. Darner,
which is supported by subscription. On Bulbarrow hill,
the highest in the neighbourhood, is a circular double
intrenchment, supposed to be of Danish formation.
Within the parish are some mineral springs, the water
of which possesses calcareous and ferruginous properties.
Bog iron and bituminous schist, or slate coal, are found
in profusion; also good brick-clay of a blue colour, in
which are oyster shells nine inches in diameter, large
scallop and muscle shells, cornua ammonis, mineralised
wood, and a quantity of pyrites. Some specimens of
iron-ore, dug at Belchalwel, near this place, have been
analysed, and found to contain four grains of gold in
the pound weight. Curious fossils have been discovered
in the flint rocks, with some chalcedony and carmelite;
on the side of a chalk hill were found the bones, teeth,
and tusks, of the mammoth; the bones were of great
size, but mouldered on being touched. In draining
some land a few years since, ancient ornaments of fine
gold, weighing from eight to nine ounces, consisting of
a wreath more than four feet long, with a trumpetshaped
ornament at each end, and at the larger end a
ring of gold three inches in diameter, were discovered;
these were probably a Druidical collar and armlet, as it
is known the Druids adorned their persons with trinkets
of this description. Many urns, filled with ashes and
burnt bones, have been found from time to time, and in
getting gravel on the hills, twenty-four of them were
discovered in one barrow.