46 DORSET SOLDIERS. 



through her reign* at frequent intervals pressmasters arrived 

 in Dorset with orders to obtain 100 or 200 men for troops 

 proceeding to Flanders, Spain, France, or Ireland, and the 

 practice was continued under the Stuarts. The pressmasters 

 applied first to the justices, who put them in communication 

 with the constables of the different localities, and it was the 

 duty of the constables to select the men required. Sometimes, 

 when the occasion was of importance, the ablest men of the 

 trained bands were demanded, at other times it was ordered 

 that the trained bands were to be left intact, but generally 

 there were no especial instructions as to the class of men to 

 be taken. There were of course conflicting interests, for, 

 while the national authorities always wanted the best that 

 the county could afford, the county authorities were deter- 

 mined to send, so far as they were able, the worst. A few 

 adventurous spirits no doubt went gladly and others went 

 not gladly but willingly, in order to avoid worse evils at home. 

 William Antonye of Dorchester, for instance, a well connected 

 man, having fallen deeply in debt, preferred marching in 

 the ranks in Flanders to a prolonged residence in the Sheriff's 

 ward at Dorchester. The constables seem to have found a 

 levy of soldiers an excellent opportunity for getting rid of 

 men who were troublesome at home, such as loafers at ale- 

 houses, good-for-nothings, and even vagrants. Few of the 

 local gentlemen ever cared to have charge of such a crew, 

 and the men were marched under a conductor, especially 

 appointed for the purpose, to a port where for the first time 

 they met the officers who were to command them. The 

 march, at the rate of 12 or 15 miles a day, gave good 

 opportunities of escape, either by payment to induce some 

 one to personate the pressed, by bribing the conductor or 

 pressmaster, or (simplest and cheapest of all) by running 

 away home. It is curious to record that those who escaped 

 were seldom punished, another instance, perhaps, of the 

 apathy of magistrates when national interests were at stake. 

 In 1627, of 300 men levied in Dorset, presumably for the 

 expedition to Rochelle, who left Blandford for Portsdown, 



