40 DORSET SOLDIERS. 



the subject to the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset. They were 

 to be instructed to " discharge their peices both readily 

 and in good and comely sorte, and the pikemen to use their 

 weapons in such sorte as they ought to do, and to learne to 

 know their officers and leaders, to marche, and such other 

 addresses as are fitt for trained soldiers." It is also directed 

 "that the shotte (i.e. the arquebusers, &c.) may be taught 

 to use their pieces with false fires." In a county bordering 

 on the sea the training must have had especial reference to 

 resisting a landing on the coast. Men and weapons, we are 

 told, were to be ready at an hour's notice, and on a threat 

 of invasion trenches and bulwarks of earth were to be manned, 

 and beacons both in and behind the trenches diligently 

 watched. The strength of the enemy was to be calculated 

 by the number of his ships and, if the local forces were 

 largely outnumbered, the landing forces were to be delayed 

 as far as possible by making new trenches till support arrived. 

 Bridges were to be destroyed, and all cattle driven inland. 

 Officers, however, were not to act hastily, and before taking 

 these measures were to assure themselves that the enemy 

 were not merely feigning an attack. Winter training was 

 often hindered by bad weather and summer training by 

 the needs of the husbandmen. The summer training was 

 in 1601 reduced to one or two days only. March was con- 

 sidered a favourable month, and the May Games (called 

 Robin Hood and Little John) were all through Tudor times 

 utilised in Dorset for exercising the trained bands in shooting. 

 The account of the state of the trained bands under James 

 I. and Charles I. need not detain us long. Records are 

 rather scanty. The domestic State papers of James I. are 

 not very voluminous, and many of the Privy Council registers 

 are missing. There is a certificate of a muster in 1629 when 

 the horse numbered 100, the footmen 2,350 with 1,010 

 corselets and 1,340 muskets. The armour was presumably 

 apportioned to the 1,010 footmen for whom no muskets 

 were provided, and who probably carried pikes. White way, 

 the Dorchester merchant, who was himself a lieutenant in 



