Temple Moors

TEMPLE MOORS.

THE parish of Temple in 1851 had a population of 24. Yet once the Knights Templar built a church here; and with the purpose of civilising the inhabitants of the moor in the midst of which it was founded, they secured for their temple some special privileges. "Many a bad marriage bargain," says Tonkin, "is there yearly slubbered up; and grass widows with their fatlings put to lie-in and nurse here." "Send her to Temple Moors," implied that any female requiring seclusion might at one time secure it under the charge of these Christian knights in this their preceptory, and be returned to the world again, probably, in all respects, a better woman. At all events, the world, being in ignorance, did not repudiate the erring sister.

Stories linger over this wilderness of mixed good and evil. The church, which was consecrated to the great cause of saving sinners, has perished. No stone remains to tell us where it stood; and to "send her to Temple moors," is to proclaim a woman an outcast from society.