A HISTORY OF DORSET 



time Calais and Dover were the only places upon which money was being 

 spent lavishly, and the fortifications elsewhere were not commenced until 

 1539. It appears that, at first, Lyme was the only Dorset port set down for 

 defence,^"' but when commissioners to ' search and defend the coasts ' were 

 shortly afterwards appointed their recommendations caused a larger plan to 

 be framed."" Sir John Russell became a peer in the spring of 1539 ; in 

 April he surveyed the coast of Dorset and sent ' a plat ' of it to Cromwell.'" 

 This map is no doubt the one now in the British Museum Library,'" which 

 shows proposed works at Bournemouth, Brownsea, Poole, Portland, Sandsfoot, 

 the base of the Nothe at Weymouth, and at the end of Lyme Cobb. Fire 

 beacons are shown on the downs along the coast and at North Haven Point. 

 If the scheme was ever accepted in its entirety it was not carried out ; the 

 Bournemouth, Poole, and Lyme forts were dropped, and that at Brownsea 

 was built by the Poole burgesses for it is never, at any time, found among 

 the list of royal forts ; it was garrisoned by the Poole men, and the earliest 

 reference to it in 1545 shows that it was then under construction at their 

 expense."' 



The French ambassador was closely watching the progress of Henry's 

 new defences and writing frequent reports about them to his sovereign. 

 Those intended to close the Solent and cover Portsmouth he went to see for 

 himself, for to know their strength or weakness was of vital importance to 

 the French government. He did not proceed to Dorset, which was of 

 secondary value militarily, and where the works were proceeding more slowly. 

 There is a reference, in the shape of a payment to the master gunner there, 

 to a block-house at Weymouth in 1543, presumably the one at the foot of 

 the Nothe."* Portland and Sandsfoot were of the same type, architecturally, 

 as the other large castles erected to the eastward, and were placed to cross 

 their fire over Portland Roads. The local seamen must have been consulted 

 about the position selected for Sandsfoot because, as it was placed, it leads in 

 line with the north-east point of the isle of Portland, over the Shambles in 

 four fathoms, thus affording a sailing mark for the navigation into the Roads 

 and to Weymouth. At first all the coast defences, except those within the 

 Cinque Ports, were placed under the control of the Lord Admiral, and regula- 

 tions were drawn up for their government,'" but they soon passed out of his 

 hands. Probably it was not considered advisable to entrust a subject with 

 so much power. 



War with France and Scotland recommenced in i 543, but the contribu- 

 tion of Dorset to it lay in the supply of men rather than ships. In 1545 it 

 was calculated that 5,000 sailors would be required for the royal fleet in 

 the summer, 'in which there will be some difficulty.' The men preferred 

 privateering to the royal service, so that in August a circular letter was 

 addressed to the mayors and others of the western counties intimating that if 

 the seamen did not join the king's ships they would indulge their preference 



'•" L. and P. Hin. Vlll, xiv (i), 655. 



"" Ibid. 398. Among the commissioners were Sir John Russell, Sir Giles Strangeways, and Sir John 

 Horsey, for Dorset. 



'" Ibid. 685. "• Cott. MSB. Aug. I, i, 31, 33. 



'" Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset (3rd ed.), i, 649. In 1558 the Privy Council, in writing to the corponition 

 of Poole, speak of it as belonging to the town (ibid, i, 8). 



'" Pat. 34 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 26. "' Lansd. MSS. 170, fol. 303. 



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