48 THE TRAVELS OF PETER MUXDY IX DORSET. 



have occasion. The very same fewell, and ordered in the 

 same manner, doe they use in India as [Pall] the Country 

 over, by Hindowes [Hindus], and Baneanes [Banians, Banya, 

 Hindu trader] especially, which seemed strange to mee 1 . 

 They rinde on the sea side a Flatt stone which the poorer sort 

 use to burne, but it stincketh abhominably in burninge". 



" Heere I saw a black fowle with Yellow Bill and Leggs, 

 commonly called Cornish Dawes, many beinge of opinion that 

 there were none elswhere to bee seene but in Cornewall or 

 neere adjoyninge. For my part, untill now, in all that I have 

 gone, I never sawe none out of that sheire 3 . 



" Moreover, Portland Oysters are most esteemed in theis 

 parts 4 . It consists of one parish. They say it hath a Lord 

 whoe hath his Title from it''. A strange alteration betwene 



1 Coker, Survey of Dorsetshire, ed. 1732, p. 38, remarks of Portland: 

 " The Grounde verie good for Corne, and indifferent pasture but soe 

 destitute of Woode and Fuell, that the inhabitants are glad to burne their 

 Cowe Dung, beeing first dried against Stone Walls, with which Groundes 

 are enclosed altogether." Cowdung fuel was still in use in the middle of 

 the 19th century. Exactly the same custom is still common all over India. 



2 Maton, Observations . . . oftJic Western Counties of England, (1794 

 1796), i. 33, 54 55, describes this "fossil-coal " as an " argillaceous slate 

 in a high degree of impregnation with bitumen, and of a blackish brown 

 colour . . . when burnt to ashes it is used as manure," Mr. Nelson 

 Richardson informs me that the " flatte stones " were doubtless shale from 

 the Kimmeridge Clay which is the formation at the base of Portland. He 

 adds that Mundy is quite correct in his description of the smell. 



3 The Cornish chough, Pyrrhocorax (Frcgillus) Gracuhis, a rare bird, 

 but Mr. W. L. Sclater informs me that it is occasionally found out of 

 Cornwall on the British coasts as well as in parts of Europe, Asia and 

 Africa. See Carew's remarks on this bird, Survey of Cornwall, ed. Tonkin, 

 p. 110. See also Borlase's amusing description, Natural History of 

 Cornwall, pp. 243244. 



4 Mr. Nelson Richardson is of opinion that Portland oysters are 

 unknown at the present time. They were formerly found in the Fleet. 



5 The Manor of Portland belonged to the Crown from the time of 

 Edward IV. until 1800, when it was put up to auction. The first Earl of 

 Portland, however, was Sir Richard Weston (15771635), Charles I.'s 

 Lord High Treasurer, cr. 17th February, 1633; and it is probably to him 

 that Mundy alludes, 



