BRIDPORT HARBOUR. 189 



Joseph Browne, 1746 Thos. Swaine, 1799. 

 Andrew Warren, 1778 John Raddon, 1803. 

 for which services they received ten pounds yearly. The 

 building known as the Crane House was let by auction in 

 1806 for 27 10s. Od. per annum, a considerable rental if it 

 merely conferred a right to " farm " the lifting apparatus 

 on the quays, with perhaps an adjoining cottage. In the early 

 years of the nineteenth century it becomes evident from entries 

 in the same book that the piers of 1740 were insufficient both 

 as regards length and stability, and large sums had to be 

 expended in renewing these wooden structures, as the 

 appended items show: 



1807-8, for carrying east pier head 100 feet south, 630. 



1814-15, extending east pier head and erecting breakwater, 

 529. 



1815-16, rebuilding east pier head, 385. 



1816-17, for repairing west pier head, 530. 



1817-18, repairing pier head and erecting breakwater on 

 west side, 626. 



(It is to be feared that this expenditure was partly thrown 

 away in consequence of the rebuilding on a more elaborate 

 scale under the Act of 1823.) 



In spite of these deficiencies John Reynolds's haven no doubt 

 served a useful purpose, as to which I can quote the con- 

 temporary writer of England's Gazetteer, dated 1751, who 

 remarks that " it has long been barred up by the tides with 

 sand, but after many fruitless attempts to restore it, here 

 is a safe port where may ride about 40 sail." 



I have previously mentioned that the contractor's working 

 sketch has been lost, and no longer accompanies the documents 

 which were founded upon it ; this is regrettable, as a verbal 

 description of an engineering scheme which no longer exists, 

 save only the " channel," is rather unsatisfying to the student. 

 Under these circumstances I was fortunate in being able to 

 provide an illustration from the hydrographic department 

 of the Admiralty, after many searches elsewhere for a pictorial 

 representation of the scene. On the margin of a chart of 



