46 THE TRAVELS OF PETER MUNDY IN DORSET. 



shells, as well within as without. The reason may bee that 

 those places in former tymes were under water, Oaze or Mudd, 

 where those shelfishes did breede and feede. In tyme, the 

 sea retireinge, as it is scene by experience, for where there 

 was land and Townes now there is Sea, And where once 

 shipps rode and boates did rowe are nowe howses built and 

 corne reaped; Many that, are now Islands in former tymes 

 questionlesse joyned to the Mayne 1 . I say, the sea with- 

 drawing it selfe, it was exposed to the heate of the Sunn, by 

 whose virtue Mudde, shellfish and all became one Rock. 



"There I went to the hewers of stone, which was carried 

 for the reparation of St Paules church in London. There 

 were about 200 workemen, some hewing out of the Cliffe 

 alofte, some squareinge, some carryeing down, others ladeinge. 

 Some stones there were ready squared and formed, of 9, 10 

 and 11 tonnes weight, as they said; some of them ready 

 squared aloft and sent downe in Carts made of purpose 2 . 



1 I wonder that he does not refer this to the Flood which used to be 

 considered the cause of sea things appearing inland. [N. M. R.] 



2 Portland stone began to be freely used for public buildings in the 

 reign of James I. and was employed in the repairs of St Pauls and the 

 erection of the Banqueting House, Whitehall. 



Mr. A. M. Wallis has most kindly furnished me with a description of the 

 trolleys which Mundy saw. These were in use up to about the year 1880, 

 when cranes and four-wheeled wagons took their place. The two-wheeled 

 carts were 4 ft. wide and 18 ft. long, made of three ash planks 5 in. thick, 

 fastened by flat pieces of iron on the under side. The middle plank was 

 shorter than the two outer ones, which were cut away to form the shafts 

 and accommodate the horse. The wheels were of solid wood and boxed, 

 more often oval than round; the axle was also of wood with a bar of iron 

 let in on the under side. A back strap of knotted rope fitted on the back 

 pad of the horse and took the weight of the load. There were no brakes. 

 These carts carried 5 tons, and were drawn by a plow of eight horses, 

 *'.., eight horses in a string. 

 NOTE BY N.M.R. 



It would seem impossible for one horse in the shafts to hold back a load 

 of 5 tons on the Portland hills. When I first knew Portland about 1886, to 

 the best of my remembrance, the carts were four-wheeled, but much other- 

 wise as Mr. Wallis describes them, but on the slope horses were sometimes 

 harnessed behind to hold back the weight, and a man with an iron bar 



