THE POOLS TOWN CELLAR. 79 



the town, as "a little prison by the Quay, called Salisbury, of 

 which the quitrent is a peppercorn." This little prison, called 

 Salisbury, Hutchins thinks " was so named from the Earls of 

 Salisbury, Lords of the Manor, and was perhaps as ancient as the 

 Longespees themselves, and used by them as a place of confinement 

 in connection with manorial authority." I think his reason 

 insufficient and his surmise unwarranted, and if the proposition I 

 shall put to you in the course of this paper be correct the little 

 prison would scarcely have been built until the Town Cellar was 

 appropriated to other than ecclesiastical purposes. Sydenham 

 disposes of the Town Cellar by saying that it has been used for 

 centuries for the temporary deposit of goods brought to the town, 

 that no sufficient evidence can be adduced of its ecclesiastical 

 intention, and that it is more probable that it was raised by the 

 ancient Lords of the Manor for their accommodation when visiting 

 the town, or as a storehouse for com and other goods taken by them 

 as toll. He also adds that it is clear from the account of Pero 

 Nino's attack on Poole (A.D. 1406) that it was then used as a 

 storehouse, and he, in another part of his history, states that it was 

 then burnt. (To these statements I shall refer presently). Syden- 

 ham concludes his account of the Town Cellar by telling us : " It is 

 now (1839) held of the manor. It was leased to the Corporation 

 about the middle of the 16th century, and has since been used as 

 Town Cellars." At the present time (1887) it is rented direct from 

 the Manor. This suggestion, that the building was raised by the 

 Lords of the Manor, or used by them, for their accommodation 

 when visiting the town, is not supported by any evidence, nor, judg- 

 ing from the character of the building, its situation, and the 

 propinquity of Poole to Canf ord, even by probability. I have given 

 you the accounts of this building, its origin, and purposes, as given 

 by the recognised historians of the Town and County of Poole, and 

 I think you will agree with me that they do not help us much in 

 determining its original intention. Indeed, when I found how little 

 they knew of the matter, I almost gave up the idea of writing a paper 

 on this subject for the Poole meeting of the Dorset Natural History 



