34 SANDSFOOT AND PORTLAND CASTLES. 



given by him are 100ft. by 50ft., but as the plan is not drawn 

 to scale it is difficult to say whether the measurements apply 

 to the rectangular portion alone or to the entire structure. 



Of views which show the ruins there are many, the earliest 

 of them being perhaps the engraving by Buck, produced 

 about 1735 ; but none of these prints afford us much help 

 in constructing a mental picture of the original fort in the 

 light of the written records quoted in the foregoing pages. 



I will add that the Crown continued to appoint a governor 

 for more than fifty years after Sandsfoot had been abandoned 

 to the storms. As recently as 1795 Gabriel Tucker Steward 

 was the captain of the derelict castle. 



PORTLAND CASTLE. 



The history of the " new " Castle upon the sea shore appears 

 to begin in the 31st year of Henry VIII., shortly before the 

 earliest known mention of Sandsfoot, and I may say that no 

 allusion to the older fortress now called Rufus, or Bow and 

 Arrow, Castle occurs in the records of the period under con- 

 sideration ; therefore, Rufus Castle had been presumably 

 dismantled before the middle of the sixteenth century, if it 

 was a royal and not a feudal stronghold. 



In 1540 a list was prepared of the names of persons in the 

 King's fortresses, among which " Portland bulwark " was 

 the solitary place of arms within the borders of Dorset. 

 The captain was Thomas Marvin, who received 12d. the day, 

 with an allowance of 6d. daily for two men. The gunners 

 were four in number, viz., Robt. Skogan, John Waclin, John 

 Holman, and John Hill, whose pay was 6d. the day respec- 

 tively. (Exch. acc'ts 60 4.) 



A change in the governorship took place in February, 

 1545-6, when John Leweston was appointed as Lieutenant 

 of the island and Captain of the Castle from the 31st Deer, 

 then last, with a salary of 16d. the day during his life. The 

 grant also authorised him to nominate a deputy and to elect 



