Boscombe, a parish in Wilts, 8 miles from Salisbury, and 2 NE of Porton station on the main line of the L. &. S.W.R., and 4 miles SE of Amesbury. It has a post office under Salisbury; money order and telegraph office, Winterbourne Gunner. Acreage, 1688; population, 113. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Salisbury; net value, £170 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Salisbury. The church is Early Norman, but is in a most dilapidated condition. There are alms-houses with endowed income of £24. Richard Hooker was rector from 1591 till 1595, and wrote here the first four books of his "Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity."
