BRIDPOKT HARBOUR. 175 



bear the expense of the work without help from others, grant 

 indulgences for forty days to all the penitent faithful who may 

 give or bequeath any articles for the building of the said harbour. 



There were originally twelve episcopal seals attached to 

 this instrument, but some, alas, have disappeared and the 

 others are in a more or less fractured condition, with, I think, 

 one exception, Documents to a similar effect were executed 

 by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, by Cardinal 

 Beaufort then Bishop of Winchester, and by William (Ays- 

 cough) Bishop of Salisbury, who was consecrated in 1438. 

 Nor were the clergy of the town, headed by the rector, less 

 urgent in their appeals to the charitable. Last in order of 

 date comes the King, Henry VI. who calls upon all civil 

 officials and the Church to assist in helping the portus antiquus. 



Those who wish to read the detailed adventures of John 

 Greve, the chief collector, who was afterwards appointed 

 harbour master, may be referred to the appendix to the sixth 

 report (1877) of the Hist. MSS. Commission, wherein the 

 archives of Bridport are fully discussed. Notwithstanding 

 these combined efforts by the Bailiffs and their allies, which 

 extended throughout the realm, I fear that the result was 

 disappointing, and probably for the same reason which com- 

 pelled the town to seek aid outside its own borders, namely, 

 the ravages of the Plague. 



That the sums then contributed were inadequate for the 

 rebuilding can also be learned from the answer to a subsequent 

 petition presented to the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty 

 shortly after his accession, in the hope of obtaining sympathe- 

 tic co-operation. Henry's answer takes the form of a quaintly 

 phrased letter of privy seal addressed to the chief burgesses, 

 and, if the recited facts can be implicitly relied upon, I fear 

 that the harbour, and with it the town, went from bad to 

 worse during the years which had elapsed since Church and 

 State made their joint appeal to the country. An epoch 

 which included the savage Wars of the Roses and the death 

 by violence of two of our Kings cannot have afforded any 



