SYDLING (ST-NICHOLAS), a parish and liberty
in the Cerne subdivision of the county of DORSET,
8 miles (N. W. by N.) from Dorchester, containing 563
inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, "in the
archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol, rated
in the king's books at £13. 1. 0., endowed with £200
private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the
patronage of the Warden and Fellows of Winchester
College. The church is a neat structure, with a high
embattled tower; the chancel has been elegantly rebuilt
by the late Sir William Smith, who also constructed a
large family vault within it, where his remains were deposited
in 1752. There is. a place of worship for Independents.
Near the ancient mansion-house of the
Hardys, at Up-Sydling, there was, before the Reformation,
a chapel of ease, but there are no vestiges of it.