BRIDPORT HARBOUR. 199 



which were unable to adapt themselves to the altered con- 

 ditions. Those who were at the harbour on 18 Sept. 1879, 

 might have witnessed the launch of the Lilian (80 tons) 

 the last new vessel which left the slipways ; in 1885 the 

 commissioners built up the grey stone wall which now forms 

 the western extremity of the basin, thus finally disconnecting 

 the shipyard from the harbour. 



I have alluded to certain economic forces which sapped 

 the vitality of the harbour's trade and extinguished altogether 

 the shipyard's life, but there is now a threatened severance of 

 another link with the past. Bridport harbour is in a fair 

 way to lose its distinctive title and ancient name, in exchange 

 for a somewhat unmeaning appellation introduced by a 

 railway company in 1884 and afterwards approved by the 

 Municipal Authority, whose predecessors, through many 

 generations, had worked successfully to preserve the time- 

 honoured traditions of the place. 



