132 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF DORCHESTER. 



wealth that an appeal was made to the owner of the property to use 

 his influence so that there might be a fair distribution of the 

 spoil. His decision was as bad as that of the cat who was called 

 upon to adjudicate upon the rival claims of the two monkeys who 

 had found a piece of cheese. He claimed the whole as treasure 

 trove. Six thousand coins were given up to him. 



Amongst them were a number of coins of William the 

 Conqueror, minted at Dorchester. These were stamped with the 

 name of the town and the name of the moneyer. One had Lieril 

 (the name of the moneyer) on Dorel, which represented the 

 town ; three Lifril on Doreless ; twelve Oter on Dorlest ; six 

 others, Oter on Dorleter ; three Oter on Dorelest. Three coins 

 similar to the three first named were sold by Messrs. Sotheby, 

 Wilkinson, and Hodge, at the sale of Mr. Charles Warne's 

 collection of coins, for 4. 175. 6d. on May 24th and 25th, 1889. 



DORCHESTER CASTLE. 



Dorchester Castle in Norman times possessed a fine hall, 

 which was divided into three aisles by two rows of columns. 

 Some of the bases of the pillars were uncovered in making 

 alterations to the prison buildings when Mr. Lawrence was its 

 governor. From him I learned that the masons employed on 

 the works pronounced them to be of Portisham stone, from which 

 it may be inferred that the stone employed in building the castle 

 came mainly from those quarries. The architecture of domestic 

 buildings of the date when the hall was built is well understood, 

 and it was rarely departed from, so that the building can be 

 described with some degree of certainty. The hall at Dorchester 

 was a large rectangular building with two rows of massive pillars, 

 supporting round-headed arches. The king's seat (probably 

 carved) was in the centre of one end of the building. In the 

 midst of the hall was the hearth for the fire, the smoke from 

 which ascended to the roof and found its way out through louvres 

 built into it for the purpose. The building was lighted by small 

 round-headed windows unglazed, but with shutters which could 

 be closed at night and in rough weather. The hall was furnished 



