A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY Of DORCHESTER. 133 



with benches and tables. On comparing the lists of repairs to 

 kings' castles with those of kings' houses, it will be seen that they 

 consisted of the same buildings, but the space being more 

 confined the buildings were clustered more closely together in 

 the former. The entries in the pipe rolls show that at Dorchester, 

 besides the hall, there were chambers with their wardrobes, 

 chapels, kitchens with their offices, stables, kennels, mews for 

 mewing hawks, and even a vivarium. As the vivarium could not 

 have been on the high ground on which the castle stood, there 

 must have been an enclosure communicating with it below the 

 slope of the hill, within which would have been the vivarium, the 

 water being brought to it by a water course from the river. There 

 are reasonable grounds for believing that the King's garden was 

 on the east side of the Friary Lane, in which case the vivarium 

 would have been on the low ground to the north of it, and the 

 King's and Queen's houses would have been on that side of the 

 court of the Castle. 



To the Norman era must be ascribed two at least of the curious 

 subterranean passages which have been discovered in Dorchester. 

 The gaol lately pulled down was supplied with water from the 

 river by means of an underground tunnel through which the 

 water flowed from the river to a spot underneath the gaol, 

 whence it was pumped up by a treadwheel into cisterns for the 

 use of the prisoners through a shaft of modern construction. 

 The tunnel was cut in the solid chalk and was of irregular 

 height, much contracted at the mouth, but for the greater 

 portion of its length it was nearly high enough for a man to 

 walk upright in. The floor was below the level of the water of 

 the river, which in consequence flowed to the pumping shaft. 

 Here the authorities made a filter bed, which was cleaned out 

 every year by men who entered the tunnel from the bed of the 

 river, the water of which was drawn off to allow of their doing 

 so. I obtained these particulars from the governor, the miller, 

 and the workmen employed in cleansing the passage and filter 

 bed. The water for the use of the prison is no longer obtained 

 from this source, and the shaft has been filled up lest it should 



