DORSET SOLDIERS. 39 



purposes Dorset was divided into five divisions named after 



the towns of Dorchester, Bridport, Sherborne, Shaftesbury, 



and Blandford. Few details as to organisation are available ; 



but there is an unusually elaborate return of the year 1599 



which will serve as a sample. In that year there were in 



each division 300 men of the trained bands commanded by 



an officer who was sometimes called a colonel, and each of 



these bands of 300 were apparently divided into three 



companies of 100 each under a captain. Auxiliary to these 



1,500 of the trained bands were the troop bands unevenly 



distributed in the five divisions and containing rather over 



2,000 soldiers under about ten captains. Apart from all 



these 3,500 men were 834 armed inhabitants of the " islands 



and maritime towns," i.e., the islands of Purbeck and Portland 



and the ports of Poole, Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, and 



Lyme Regis, whose men were enumerated separately owing 



to their not being available for service outside their own 



localities. The total for the county was further increased 



by 706 pioneers carters and artificers, and 253 nags were 



supplied for carrying shot and 142 carriages for transport. 



These men were all footmen, the number of mounted men, 



called lances, not being given in the return. It will be 



observed that in 1599 at any rate Dorset possessed a little 



army complete in all details then considered essential. The 



officers commanding in the five divisions were in every case 



justices of the peace and large landowners, while the captains 



generally, but not always, were members of rather less 



influential families, and the purveyors and surveyors of 



supplies, the captains of pioneers, and masters of carriages 



were all officers of some social status. I have not noticed 



the appointment of any surgeon ; but there were sometimes 



orders for the observance of certain sanitary precautions, 



and there was a committee called " The Treasurers for maimed 



soldiers in Dorset " who paid pensions. 



Though a general description of the training of soldiers 

 hardly comes within the scope of this paper, it may be 

 permissible to give some short quotations from letters on 



