OLD PORTLAND. 253 



interest. In that year there was not a single vacancy in 

 the " Legion " for any officers. There were three subalterns 

 it is known that two of them, Lowman and Gibbs, were 

 Portlanders ; there was also a paymaster and a surgeon, 

 and the company was at its full strength of a little over 100 

 men, including non-commissioned officers. Presumably 

 about the year 1806, some of these Volunteer Battalions, 

 owing to less demand and necessity for their services, or 

 from financial reasons, were disbanded in favour of a new 

 force termed the " Local Militia."* The Local Militia, 

 as distinct from the Dorset (Regular) Militia, was to be 

 utilised for home-service in the county only. 



The picture shows George III., accompanied by Penn, 

 inspecting the " Legion " in Park Field. Portland was 

 " a place of assembly " for Volunteers, and signal posts 

 were erected by the Government at North Point (" Verne 

 Signal ") and the Bill. The islanders colloquially termed 

 the corps " Coast Fencibles." 



Mrs. Merrick Head has given recently to the Portland 

 Urban District Council a small field-cannon which for- 

 merly stood in Pennsylvania Castle grounds, and bears 

 an .inscription stating that it was " presented to his Excel- 

 lency John Penn, M.P., Governor of Portland, and Com- 

 mandant of the Royal Portland Legion." It has been 

 placed in the Victoria Gardens, Fortune's Well, where the 

 towering and majestic Verne Citadel looks down with grim 

 smiles on the little three-pounder. 



*See Notes on the History of the Dorset Volunteer Force, by Colonel 

 Sir William Watts, K.C.B., in the Dorset Field Club's Proceedings, 

 Vol. XXXII. 



