By H. J. MOULE, M.A. 



(Read Aug. 9th, 1899.) 



^OODSFORD CASTLE is so well described and 

 illustrated in Hutchins' " History of Dorset," 

 ed. 3, that nothing more need be said if this 

 book were in the hands of every one. This, 

 however, is not the case. A few notes . are 

 therefore offered to-day. They are founded 

 not a little on Hutchins, but are very far 

 from being a mere epitome of his descrip- 

 tion. 



He, at least the writer of his description, speaks of this 

 building as a castle in a tone of doubt and apology. Why? 

 Wentworth Woodhouse, 600 feet long, is a house. But none the 

 less is a dwelling of six rooms a house. Corfe, with its half mile 

 of chemin de ronde, is a castle. But surely so is Borthwick, 

 40 feet square or so. A castle, a house of defence, it is called, 

 and has many a time proved itself. So Woodsford, likely enough 

 something of a pile in the fourteenth century, lengthened to 

 100 feet and more in the fifteenth, and then needing a cannonade 

 to take it, is a castle past doubt. It does not go by size. 



