THE TRAVELS OF PETER MUNDY IN DORSET. 45 



" Now back to Portland, and somewhat of what is in it and 

 about it. In compasse it may bee 5 or 6 miles highe land, 

 especially the Easter end, much noted by Seamen as one of 

 their marks saylinge alonge the Chanell, it makeing an 

 excellent road betwene it and the mayne, with 2 Castles, one 

 of each side, the one named Portland Castle and th'other 

 Sandfoote Castle, whoe Commaund the said Road and 

 landinge places thereabouts 1 . The Southermost low Cleaves 

 [cliffs] are worth notice, for passing betwene the Race and it 

 with our boate they appeared like so many gates, portalls, or 

 entrances, soe proportionable by nature, that scarce any would 

 bee perswaded but that they were Cutt out by Arte, except 

 hee were att and in one, as I was in one which was intirely 

 seeled [ceiled] over with one flake [layer, sheet] of stone, 6 

 or 7 yards over, supporting the upper earth. 



" Hard by in those Cleaves breed a Certen sea fowle named 

 Pewitts 2 ; many of them from hence carried to London, where 

 they are kept, fedd and used for dainties. 



u Right off lies the Race of Portland, avoyded by seamen by 

 reason of the tumblinge, ripplinge, tempestuous, swelling waves, 

 occasioned, as they say, by a very strong tide runninge over 

 uneven ground, for in one place there may bee but 12 or 13 

 fathom, and neere to it 30 or 40 againe. On the Cleaves, 2 or 

 3 fathom above full Sea marke, are store of great Oyster shells, 

 not as others groweing or sticking fast to the rocke, but 

 encorporated into the same, some halfe out, some more, some 

 lesse. The like is on Weymouth sides on the bancks where 

 now the Sea cometh not neere, nor the Springe or wash of it. 

 I have seene in other places Rocks whollye compacted of 



1 Portland Castle, commanding Weymouth Road, was built by Henry 

 VIII, and Sandesfoot or Weymouth Castle was probably erected at the 

 same time, c. 1530. See Hutchins, History oj Dorset 11. 806 830 and 

 Maton, Observations . . . of the Western Counties of England, I. 51. 



2 By pewitt, Mundy means the black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus). 

 which, as Plot says, was "accounted a good dish at the most plentifull 

 Tables." See Nat, Hist, of Staffordshire (1686), ch. vii. paras. 712, 



