DORSETSHIRE. 



55 



Dorsetshire, neighbourhood of Briclport and Beaminster, the hemp 

 t_ ,!_) wn ich is grown there is made into twine, netting, ropes, 

 Manufac- cordage, sail-cloth, sacking, &-c. About 9000 people 

 Vut> - are said to be employed in these manufactures. At Stur- 



minster Newton, 700 or 800 people are engaged in the 

 manufacturing of swansdown; and at Sherborne, Stall- 

 bridge, and Cerne Abbas, there are several silk mills. But 

 the manufacture (if so it can be called) most frequent- 

 ly met with in Dorsetshire, is that of shirt buttons. 

 Shaftsbury and Blandford may perhaps be considered 

 as the centre of this business, though it spreads nearly 

 over the whole county, and is the principal employment 

 of the women and children. The catting, or covering 

 the wire, is done by children, six or eight years old : 

 they are afterwards ^Werf, as it is termed, by more ex- 

 pert hands. It sometimes happens that an active and 

 experienced woman will make twelve dozen of these 

 buttons in a day ; the price is about 3s. ; but the com- 

 mon quantity made in a day is six or seven dozen. 

 Trade and The principal foreign trade of this county is carried on 

 commerce. f rom Poole, where nearly 200 sail are employed in the 

 Newfoundland fishery. The foreign trade, however, was 

 much more extensive and valuable before the American 

 war. From this port are exported to Newfoundland, 

 provisions, nets, cordage, oil-cloth, and wearing appa- 

 rel. The imports are principally cod and salmon, dried 

 and salted, which are afterwards shipped to foreign 

 markets ; oil, seal-skins, fir, and cranberries. The ex- 

 ports of Portland and 1'urbeck have been already no- 

 ticed. From Bridport there is a trifling export trade to 

 Newfoundland, and other parts of America and the 

 West Indies, of cordage, twines, &c. Coal and culm, 

 for burning limestone, are imported into the county to 

 a considerable extent. There is but one iron rail-way, 

 which has been already noticed, for carrying the clay 

 from Purbeck. The declivity of the road is in some 

 pkces four inches, and in others five, for every twenty 

 yards. The expence of making it was about L.2000 a 

 mile. The whole length is 3,J miles. Three horse* 

 draw 1 tons to the sea side, three times a day, at the 

 expence of about 6d. a ton. There is also only one 

 canal, the Dorset and Somerset, which commences at 

 Gains Cross, in the parish of Shillingstone Okeford, in 

 the former county; and after passing through part of So- 

 mersetshire and Wiltshire, communicates with the Kennet 

 and Avon Canal, near Widbrook, in the latter county. 

 Fros]> Dorsetshire is distinguished for its sea prospects ; 



many of which are uncommonly extensive, and par- 

 take of all that magnificence with which the sight of 

 the ocean impresses every beholder. Its land pros- 

 pects, except in the north, and north western parts of 

 the county, are rather bare and unvaried ; but where 

 the rich vallies can be taken in, along with the chalky 

 hills and downs, they are very beautiful and impres- 

 sive. One of the finest inland prospects is seen from 

 the hill on which Shaftsbury stands ; " in front, an 

 eminence, called Pencliffe hill, rises with a beautiful 

 wooded summit, bounding the fertile vale of Black- 

 moor, through which a white road, sometimes losing 

 itself among woodlands, and sometimes traversing ver- 

 dant pastures, winds westward into the distance. On 

 the left, a fine undulating ridge shelters the vale ; while 

 the hills of Mere, in Wiltshire, with Alfred's Tower at 

 the extremity ; the Tor of Glastonbury, and the lofty 

 heights of Quantick, in Somersetshire, range them- 

 selves in the remaining part of the horizon." 

 Natural cu- The most interesting natural curiosities in this coun- 

 jfcrities. t y are the ( hesil Bank; the Ajyglestone ; and the 

 Lynches, or Lynchets. The ChesS Bank unites Port- 

 1 



land to the Main ; it is nearly 17 miles in length ; and Dorsetshire. 

 in some places nearly a quarter of a mile broad, so that 

 it is perhaps the longest ridge of pebbles in Europe, 

 except that of Memel. The pebbles are extremely 

 loose ; they consist, in general, of what are called Port- 

 land pebbles, of a calcareous nature; but there are 

 many of jasper, chert, quartz, &c. They diminish ora- ChesilBank 

 dually in size as they approach the main land, being 

 not larger than horse beans near Abbotsbury, while, 

 near Portland, they are from one inch to three inches 

 in diameter. About five or six feet beneath the sur- 

 face of the pebbles, there is every where strong blue 

 clay, exactly similar to what is found on the beach. 

 Beneath this bank, and the Weymouth side, a narrow 

 arm of the sea runs, called the Fleet Although the 

 force of the sea frequently washes these pebbles over 

 into the Fleet, yet the depth or breadth of this does 

 not appear to be diminished ; indeed the origin and ' 

 present appearance of this bank are extremely difficult 

 to be accounted for. The Agglestone is an extraordi- Agglestonp, 

 nary insulated rock, situated on the heath, near Stud- 

 land, in Purbeck ; its height is about 20 feet, and its 

 circumference about 80 ; the shape nearly that of an 

 inverted cone. From the circumstance of the spot 

 where it stands being raised like a barrow, it has been 

 supposed to be a British monument ; but Dr Maton, 

 with more probability, conceives it to be a natural 

 rock, composed of ferruginous sand stone. The Lyn- 

 ches, or Lynchets, are met with in many places, on 

 the downs, both of this county and Wiltshire ; they are 

 singular natural terraces, never occurring except on 

 chalk hills, and on some limestone soils, where, however, 

 their appearance is very faint. Between Shaftsbury 

 and Blandford, they are very conspicuous. They are 

 always narrower in proportion to the steepness of the 

 ascent ; where the declivity is trifling, the areas are 

 very broad, and the ridges diminish in sharpness ; they 

 generally run parallel to the course of the valley be- 

 low them ; and where the valley presents great inequa- 

 lities, or the hill on which they are is irregular, they 

 cross one another, and run in all directions. Dr Maton 

 supposes that they owe their origin to subsidences of 

 the ground in a state of solution. 



Of the Antiquities of Dorsetshire, the Via Iceniana; Antiquities; 

 Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, one of the finest Ro- 

 man encampments in the west of England, for size 

 and strength ; a Roman amphitheatre, near the same 

 tower, which it is computed could have contained up. 

 wards of 1 2,000 people; and Corfe Castle, and Wim- 

 borne Minster, in which the transition of the Saxon in- 

 to the Gothic arches may be distinctly traced, are th.> 

 most curious and interesting. 



At the time of the invasion of Britain by the Romans, History. 

 Dorsetshire was inhabited by the Darotriges, a name 

 supposed to be derived from two British words, divi/r, 

 water, and trig, an inhabitant : it formed part of the 

 Roman division of Briltania Prima. The Saxons chan- 

 ged its name to Dorsetta, retaining the British word 

 dtvi/r, and adding the Saxon term setla, a dweller. It 

 constituted part of the West Saxon kingdom ; and ;if- 

 ter the dissolution of the Heptarchy, became the fa- 

 vourite residence of Egbert and his successors. The 

 Danes invaded it early in the reign of this monarch, 

 and an obstinate battle was fought on the banks of the 

 Char, near Lymc. From the period of the conquest, 

 till the civil wars between Charles and his Parliament, 

 the history of this county presents nothing interesting. 

 During these wars, it adhered zealously and firmly to 

 the side of the king ; and the clubmen of Dorsetshire, 



