76 DIARY OF WILLIAM WHITEWAY. 



business made a very inferior article which the people in dudgeon refused 

 to use. What they did without soap is not stated, but in those days 

 cleanliness was next to godliness. The patentee finding his patent rights 

 of no use to him was obliged to allow the soap boilers to exercise their 

 trade on paying a royalty on each barrel of soap made. 



November. " Sir John Strangwaies desiring to keep his 

 Christmas in London desired leave of the King by the Earls of 

 Dorset and Holland, but the King refused them and enjoined him 

 to return and keep house in the country." 



1634, Jan. 1. "The 9th of this month Mr. White began to 

 expound the Scriptures in Trinity Church every Friday at 10 

 o'clock." 



Feb. 16. "This day with running up a steep place of Pombery 

 I fell into a shortness of breath with extreme soreness." 



Mr. White way's sister died of consumption on Dec. 10, 1629, and there 

 seems little doubt as to the cause of the "shortness of breath and 

 extreme soreness " from which he suffered. There are very few more 

 entries, and the diary comes to an abrupt conclusion on March 22nd. 



THE GREAT FIRE OF DORCHESTER, A.D. 1613. 



In making some cross references in the British Museum Library 

 I happened to light upon a book (Press mark c. 27, b. 36) entitled 

 " Fire from Heaven," which contains an account of the disastrous 

 burning of the town of Dorchester in 1613, to which event the 

 foregoing diary of William White way refers. The account seems 

 to have been written by an eye witness, and as it was published 

 certainly within five months of the date of the fire its accuracy 

 may be relied on. No other copy of the pamphlet is known to 

 exist, nor is there any other contemporary account of the fire, 

 though an extract from this account has been met with. 



Possibly this copy of the pamphlet has escaped the observation 

 of local historians through there being no reference to it in the 

 catalogues connecting it with Dorchester. 



The general title of the book is 



