LANGTON (HERRING), a parish in the hundred
of UGGSCOMBE, Dorchester division of the county of
DORSET, 8 miles (S. W.) from Dorchester, containing
152 inhabitants. The living is a discharged rectory, in
the archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol, rated
in the king's books at £7. 2. 11., endowed with £200
royal bounty, and in the alternate patronage of the
King, as Duke of Cornwall, and William Sparks, Esq.
This parish suffered much from an inundation of the sea
in November 1824. It is bounded on the south-west by
West Fleet, which separates it from that remarkable
tongue of land termed the Chesil Bank. Beds of shells
abound here to a considerable depth, so that in many
parts there is no soil.