WALKS AND AVENUES OF DORCHESTER. 29 



thus shortened at the South end by about 150 yards. A 

 further curtailment on the North End from the South Gate 

 to the entrance to the L. and S.W. Railway station took 

 place in 1876, when the fine old elm trees then standing 

 were replaced by limes, as seen at present. 



As to the planting of this avenue, the following facts will 

 approximately fix the date. From an old drawing in Grosse's 

 Dorsetshire showing the Roman Amphitheatre and the 

 Roman road which runs thence to Wey mouth, drawn in 

 1755, the trees in this avenue are not shown, and it may be 

 presumed were not at that date planted. In W. Simpson's 

 map of the Manor of Fordington among the records of the 

 Duchy of Cornwall, made from an actual survey of the Manor 

 in 1779, a double avenue of trees extending 76 chains (say 

 1,672 yards) from the South Gate is shown. In Taylor's 

 map of Dorset, published in 1795, this double avenue of 

 trees is carried on to the confines of the Manor on the South 

 about another half mile, and it is a curious fact that the 

 trees, which for the first distance are planted 36 feet apart 

 only in the rows, are for the second distance planted 60 

 feet apart. 



I think, therefore, it may be presumed that the whole of 

 of the Weymouth avenue was planted prior to 1795, but 

 subsequently to 1755 ; and that the Northern portion was 

 planted before 1779, and according to Hut chins before 1774 ; 

 the Southern part from about the first mile stone being planted 

 subsequently, but prior to 1795. 



It has been generally accepted that this avenue was planted 

 by Colonel William Bower, of Fordington, who took a 

 prominent part in the defence of the town and county during 

 the threatened invasion by Napoleon. 



William Bower, brewer, was a copy-holder of the Manor, 

 between the years 1789 (at which date he is stated to have 

 been 40 years of age) and 1798, when he was admitted tenant 

 to the Court House Malt House, and other premises 

 formerly of William Spearing " subject to the privilege 

 of the Steward of the Manor or his deputy keeping the courts 



