A HISTORY OF DORSET 



was forced to fall back before him, and thus to abandon the idea of making 

 him fight at Shaftesbury, to cut him off from the garrison round Oxford. 

 Manchester ^ at Harefield (Hertfordshire) haggled incessantly, declining to 

 join Waller at Shaftesbury, but expressing his willingness to join Essex at 

 Newbury. 



The second battle of Newbury (27 October, 1644) marks a fresh stage 

 in the development of the war. It impressed upon the Parliament the 

 unwisdom of trusting to local levies (which had failed as signally in Dorset 

 as elsewhere), and it revealed the existence of the peace-party under Man- 

 chester and Holies. The ultimate overthrow of the king, even in his 

 chosen stronghold the west, was involved in the determination to reorganize 

 the military forces, and in the demonstration of the impossibility of com- 

 promise. The former resulted in the new model army of the following 

 spring : the latter was the result of the private negotiations of Holies and 

 Whitelocke with the Royalists. 



The situation in Dorset in November was marked by an even division 

 of forces. The king had Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Portland, and Corfe, 

 while his enemies held Lyme, Weymouth and Melcombe, Dorchester, 

 Wareham, Poole, and Bridport. Of these, Shaftesbury, dominating the vale 

 of Blackmoor from its hill fortress, Sherborne, the as yet impregnable castle, 

 Portland peninsula, whose guns commanded the harbours of Weymouth and 

 West Bay, and Corfe, strong naturally and artificially, were individually 

 the more valuable assets. Dorchester, a country town in a plain, and half 

 surrounded by water-meadows, was, in spite of the great sums spent upon it,* 

 unable to withstand serious attack. Lyme and Poole* had suffered so 

 grievously already that, as fortifications, their value was much depreciated. 

 But the possession of a series of coast towns, which included all the good 

 harbours in Dorset, was of more importance to the Parliament than the 

 maintenance of isolated fortresses, however strong. These, at best, could do 

 no more than furnish troops to harry the immediate neighbourhood, while 

 Lady Bankes at Corfe had no men to spare, even for this purpose, beyond 

 the bare maintenance of her hold upon the castle.* The possession of the 

 seaports hindered communication with the queen at St. Germains, and drove 

 a wedge between the Royalist districts of the south-west and of Hampshire. 



Many gallant sallies were made this autumn (1644) by Sir Lewis Dives, 

 step-brother of Lord Digby, and step-son of Lord Bristol, to whom Sherborne 

 Castle belonged. In October he ^ had been appointed serjeant-major-general 

 of the king's army in Dorset, and made Sherborne his head quarters.* 

 In November the well-known Vandrusques was appointed to command the 

 Dorset Parliamentary Horse.'' Dorchester was more than once occupied 

 by each party in turn for a day or two at a time, in the course of the autumn 

 and winter : for after the fiasco of June, 1643, both sides had tacitly agreed 



' The House voted (2 1 Sept.) that Manchester and Waller should join forces against the king. Holies, 

 M.P. for Dorchester, in vain urged that Essex should be included in this combination. 



' / 1 9,000 was spent on the fortifications the year before ; Hutchins, Dorset, ii, 343. 



' ' Poole was in great distress and scarcely tenable' ; Commons Journ. App. 17 (10 June, 1644). 



* Sir John Bankes died 28 Dec. 1644. 



' For the frequent omission of the final 's' in Dives or Dyves see note, Gardiner, Hist. Gi. Civil IVar, 



' Walker, Hist. Discourses, 99. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644-5, PP- 85> "3> 124. 



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