"There is one thing I would ask you to do, Vicar," said Turberville as he parted. "When you attend vespers to-morrow just tell the old Turberville squires to sleep soundly in their vault. Although I have vowed never to pass through the church door while I am alive, I cannot stop 'em _carrying_ me through when I am dead--so I shall sleep with them in the end." However, the worthy vicar went to the town stone-mason next morning and arranged to cut a new doorway in the south wall, and thus it came to pass that the independent and stubborn Turberville once again was able to worship with the shades of his fathers and yet keep to his promise never to pass through the _old_ door again. The first of the family of Turberville was Sir Payne de Turberville (de Turba Villa), who came over with William the Norman. From Sir Payne down to the last descendants of the family who form the theme of Thomas Hardy's romance, _Tess of the D'Urbervilles_, the Turbervilles were a strange, wild company. It is excusable, too, in a way, for it appears that the first of the line, after the battle of Hastings, was one of the twelve knights who helped Robert FitzHamon, Lord of Estremaville, in his evil work and returned to England when his commander was created Earl of Gloucester. In an ancient document of the time of Henry III. we come across a striking illustration of the unscrupulous ways of this family, for it is recorded that John de Turberville was then paying an annual fine on some land near Bere Regis, which his people before him had filched from the estate of the Earl of Hereford. The Turbervilles were established in the neighbourhood in 1297. Bryants Puddle, a very rude little hamlet situated on the River Piddle a little to the south-west of Bere, receives its title from Brian de Turberville, who was lord of the manor in the reign of Edward III. The village was anciently called "Piddle Turberville," but this name has been replaced by Bryants Puddle.