A HISTORY OF DORSET 



messenger to every one in Dorset who was still recalcitrant, and that on 

 further refusal such should be brought before the Council.^"* However, the 

 debts incurred in relation to the Catherine were still unsettled in 1602.""' 

 The revolt against these Cadiz assessments was so widespread, and so many 

 awkward constitutional questions were being raised in some of the counties, 

 that there was no further attempt to levy ships in the same way during the 

 remainder of the reign. 



Throughout these years of war Elizabeth, partly as the result of her 

 own ignorance and nervousness and partly perhaps as a matter of policy, kept 

 her subjects on tenterhooks of expectation of invasion. Recurrent panics 

 followed year after year, and she did nothing to quiet them even when 

 information in the hands of the government must have shown their baseless- 

 ness. In 1598, when Philip was dying and Spain exhausted, ruined, and 

 helpless, the usual fear recurred, and a new survey of the Dorset coast was 

 ordered.^''^ Who undertook it is not known, but their conclusions, that 

 500 sail of 1,000 tons each might ride in Worbarrow Bay and Shipman's 

 Pool, and that 600 or 700 sail of 1,000 tons could ride in Swanage and 

 Studland Bays, do not inspire faith in their knowledge or capacity."" They 

 thought that in Poole Harbour 500 sail of 120 tons could find shelter ; as 

 there had been only 12 ft. on Poole Bar in 1539,^°^ and as the depth was no 

 doubt the same in 1598, it was practically prohibited to an enemy's fleet. 

 They said, what everyone knew, that Portland Roads was a tempting objec- 

 tive for an invader, and a Spanish spy in 1599 made the same report with 

 the addition that it was nearly defenceless ; this man also remarked that 

 Poole was unfortified because only 50 or 60-ton vessels could enter the 

 harbour.""^ One of the worst, because one of the most groundless, panics of 

 the reign occurred in 1599 when preparations more befitting such a year 

 as 1588 were made. No Spanish squadron was ever nearer England than 

 Coruna, but a powerful fleet was mobilized in the Downs and thousands of 

 the county levies called under arms. Naturally the towns took alarm ; in 

 August a petition came from Weymouth representing its weak state, and the 

 inhabitants, in terror, were sending away the women and children and 

 removing their property; a garrison of 1,000 men was requested.^'" On 

 1 1 August they wrote, ' we have armed all sorts of our people that are able 

 to make a stand at a street corner,' but all this desperate preparation to die 

 in the last ditch was quite needless. However, they can scarcely be blamed 

 for keeping step with the Council, who, on i 8 August, wrote to the deputy- 

 lieutenants of Dorset that they were sorry to hear of the little regard 

 which was being paid to the safety of Weymouth 'in this time of great 

 danger.'"'^ As on 14 August they had themselves suspended further military 

 levies, it was scarcely reasonable to write on the i8th blaming their sub- 

 ordinates for neglecting to collect men. The other Dorset towns were 

 less nervous, and only stood ready without troubling the government ; on 

 7 August the Council ordered the mayor of Lyme to hire a pinnace to scout 

 on the Portuguese coast.''^ 



•»• Acts ofP.C. 30 May, 1597. "^ Moule, op. cit. 138. *» Harl. MSS. 3324, fol. 6z. 



'"' Worb.irrow Bay is rather more than a mile long and half a mile wide, but with no anchorage within 

 400 yards of the shore ; Shipman's (or Chapman's) Pool is less than half the size of Worbarrow Kay. 



"^ Cott. MSS. Aug. I. i. 31. =>»' S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccl.xx, No. 77. -"' Ibid, cclxxii, Nos. 19, 25. 

 »" Coke MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), i, 22. '" S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxii, No. 21. 



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