44 THE TRAVELS OF PETER MUNDY IN DORSET. 



It is almost an Island, only a narrow Beach extendinge six 

 miles 1 in length almost by the mayne, and Joyneth with it 

 neere to Abbottsbury. Betwene the said beach and the Land 

 the sea runneth upp Neere 6 miles as aforesaid, somewhat 

 broad within, although att the passage not J a stones Cast over, 

 Heere bredd many Swanns, the Royaltie apperteyninge to Sir 

 George Stranginge dwellinge neere by 2 . Theis have their 

 Winges pinnioned or unjoynted to barre them from flyeing 

 away' 5 . They breede among the Sedges on the Shoare and 

 feede on the rootes and tender part of the grasse that growes 

 in the water. There come divers wild ones amonge them, 

 and in winter flock thither in aboundance all sorts of 

 Waterfowle. 



" This indraught which cometh about by the Easter end of 

 Portland was in hand to bee dreyned to make Pasture Land, 

 whereon was spent great sommes of money in makeinge of 

 sluces, trenches, etts. [and other] Inventions to keepe the 

 Tide from comeing in, as also to lett out what is within. But 

 as yet all is to litle purpose (This was in July 1635), the 

 maine sea soakeing through the beach all alonge. It is sayd 

 they will proceed afresh 4 . 



1 The beach is ten miles in extent. 



2 Muncly means Sir John Strangwayes. The Swannery, which still 

 belongs to the Earl of Ilchester, a descendant of the Strangwayes, was 

 granted to Giles Strangwayes in 1544 and to Sir John Strangwayes and 

 his heirs in 1637. See Hutchins, History of Dorset, n. 723. 



3 The Abbotsbury swans are no longer pinioned, but are marked in the 

 web of the foot. 



1 I have been unable to find any confirmation of this scheme for 

 draining "the Fleet in 1635, and the Dorset archaeologists whom I have 

 consulted can throw no light on the matter. Such a scheme nowadays 

 would be hopeless unless an embankment were made all along the beach 

 to keep out the water. Mr. Nelson Richardson, however, thinks it probable 

 that in 1635 the mouth of the Fleet, by the present Ferry Bridge, was 

 much shallower than it now is, for before the building of the breakwater, 

 /'.('., in the early part of the 19th century, it was possible to ride or even 

 walk across at low water. 



