SANDSFOOT AND PORTLAND CASTLES. 33 



of Wyke against the removal of the troops from the castle, 

 which had defended the country from foreign ships and had 

 been a place of security. Humphrey Weld, who was captain 

 during the last mentioned year, then presented a petition 

 alleging that the Duke of Richmond, as Lord-Lieutenant, 

 had fined the men of Wyke who were the King's immediate 

 tenants, and, as such, bound to furnish arms and constant 

 service for the defence of Sandsfoot ; that these men were 

 therefore exempt from duties incident to the rest of the 

 Dorset militia ; that the Duke's agents had taken possession 

 of the castle, and that he (Weld) had been deposed from his 

 deputy-lieutenancy . 



This petition was referred to the Duke of Albemarle and 

 other statesmen, who reported on 13th January, 1664-5, 

 after having heard the evidence of both parties, that Sandsfoot 

 should be demolished as being unserviceable to the King ; 

 that the sixteen men (of Wyke) then bound to defend the 

 Castle should be transferred to the militia to serve with that 

 body ; and that Weld should be restored to the dignity of 

 which he had been deprived. (S.P. Dom. Charles II., Vols. 47, 

 90, and 106.) 



As a matter of fact, the Castle was not " slighted," a 

 contemporary euphemism for deliberate destruction, but it 

 would seem that the report of 1664-5 fixes the period after 

 which no attempt was made to preserve the building, although 

 it was used as a store house for arms as late as 1691. At an 

 unknown date before 1725 the Tudor " blockhouse " had 

 become a ruin, as is proved by a note upon a map of Portland 

 Castle to be presently mentioned. 



I believe that no picture exists which represents Sandsfoot 

 before it fell into decay. It is true that Delamotte's Guide 

 to Weymouth (2nd Ed., 1789) contains a ground plan showing 

 the " barbican," a gun platform with a pentagonal front, 

 which faced the sea at the southern end of the main rectangular 

 building. Whence Delamotte obtained his information is 

 at present a mystery, as it is probable that the barbican had 

 subsided on to the beach long before 1789. The dimensions 



