140 THE TELEGRAPH IN DORSET. 



Dorset line were dismantled between 60 and 70 years ago. This date, 

 1825, would be ten years after the Battle of Waterloo and after the 

 termination of our war with France. After this period they had become 

 comparatively useless. 



" Yours faithfully, 



" T. W. WAKE SMART." 



Mr. R. S. Hine (of Beaminster) writes : " I have often heard 

 my grandfather speak of the different signal posts erected near 

 Beaminster. One was placed on Beaminster Down and one on 

 Lambert's Castle Hill, and I rather think one on either Lewesdon 

 Hill or Pilsdon Pen. " 



Mr. E. Stanhope Rodd gives confirmatory evidence as to 

 Lambert's Castle. 



Mr. C. W. Dale thinks the line ran from Lewesdon to 

 Nettlecombe Tout, High Stoy, Bull Barrow, Hambledon, Don- 

 clyffe, &c. 



That the line was mainly intended for connecting Plymouth, 

 Portsmouth, and London is rendered probable by the failure to 

 detect any Telegraph Station in Portland, where the Rev. R. R. 

 Waugh has made careful enquiries. His informant, an old 

 Coastguard of 90, stated " That he never heard of a wooden 

 Telegraph on the Verne or at the Bill, and he thinks he must have 

 done so had such ever existed, especially as they had a Coastguard 

 Station on the Verne when he first came to the island. The 

 station was an old house not a residence for all the men were 

 billeted in those days. They had a small cannon at the Verne 

 house, which they used for signalling, &c. Before the lighthouses 

 were built fires were used to warn and guide mariners. He 

 remembered seeing some of the ironwork used for the signal fires." 

 This, however, is not quite conclusive, as the old man's 

 acquaintance with Portland commenced only 50 years ago, some 10 

 or 20 years after the system was superseded. There is no doubt 

 about the Wyke Station, as the field in which it stood bears the 

 name to this day ; moreover, it is difficult to imagine that so 

 excellent an outlook as that from Portland Bill and the Verne 



