23 



between the castle and the cliff, and in 1859, if an ancient map 

 may be credited, the castle, surrounded on all sides by a moat, 

 stood in the centre of the field. 



The dilapidated (a word here most correctly applicable) con- 

 dition of the outer walls is said to have been occasioned by the 

 stones having been torn from their places and carried to Wey- 

 mouth for building purposes. Two houses in St. Thomas' - 

 street have been pointed out to me as having been mainly con- 

 structed out of the spoils of Sandsfoot Castle. One is half 

 inclined to wonder how such a thing could have happened seeing 

 that the building has never passed out of the hand of the Crown. 

 But there were giants in those prse-reform days at peculation 

 and robbery ! 



It seems that round shot of stone were used, at least occasion- 

 ally, for the service of the guns. Some schoolboys, playing 

 about the castle, crawled into one of the large drains that opened 

 on the cliff, and found there a stone shot of some six 

 inches in diameter. A similar shot was found at Portland, and 

 brought to Sir John Coode, who had the curiosity to know 

 whether it was really a shot or only a natural concretion. He 

 therefore placed it under a steam-hammer, and gave it a blow so 

 judicious that it cracked into two exactly equal pieces, when lo ! 

 in the centre was found a perfect specimen of a petrified Cardium 

 of some sort. The split shot is to be seen at the Engineer Office, 

 Portland. There can be no doubt I think of the stone being 

 really a shot its perfect sphericity would seem to prove that 

 but there is reason to suppose that in order to save labour the 

 ancient artificer had selected a stone already partially rounded, 

 a concretion in fact founded on the shell of the Cardium. 



Sandsfoot Castle can scarcely be said to have a history. It 

 must have changed hands again and again during the Civil 

 Wars, but existing records make no mention of any siege what- 

 ever a fact which strengthens my argument that the castle was 

 indefensible on tho north or land side. Probably it followed as 

 a matter of course the fortunes of the neighbouring fortified 

 town of Weymouth and Melconibe Regis. The names of some 



