INDUSTRIES 



be given to secure both the one and the other as 

 is here desired.' 



The increased demand for Portland stone from 

 this time forward gave ample employment to the 

 quarrymen who were free of the island, and after 

 the Great Fire it was extensively used in the re- 

 building of London, where St. Paul's Cathedral and 

 the churches of Wren are sufficient monuments of 

 its strength and beauty." In 1696 the inhabitants 

 of Portland are said to have been about 700 in 

 number,*' while the fees or king's rents amounted 

 to 14s. ^d. per annum at T^d. per acre, besides 

 which there existed an inclosed farm of ;^I0 per 

 annum which had then yet thirty years to run. 

 The herbage of all uninclosed ground was common 

 to the fee-tenants, but as to the quarries worked 

 by them in such common land a fee of izd. per 

 ton on all stone raised was due to the crown as 

 an acknowledgement. The writer of the account 

 we are here quoting states that Charles II 

 gave by sign manual 9/ of this I2</. for the use of 

 the poor inhabitants of the island which has been con- 

 tinued to them by succeeding princes, and the other 

 2id. is paid to the Receiver of the fee farm rents of 

 Dorsetshire for account of the Crown, the same being 

 first adjusted at the Courts held for the manor. 



But no acknowledgement was paid for the quarries 

 found and worked in the inclosurcs. 



The right to work in the quarries, however, 

 was restricted to such as were ' free of the island.' 

 Accordingto the account we have been following : 



All natives of the Island are free both sons and 

 daughters, and the daughters have this privilege that 

 if one of them marry an alien, and have for her dowry 

 a paddock (or little inclosure) by vertue thereof she 

 invests her husband with the freedom of the quarry, 

 and from that time he is admitted free. Every pad- 

 dock is divisible into as many parts or shares as the 

 owner pleases, and each part has an equal title to the 

 quarrys with the whole. An instance may explain 

 this : A has an inheritance of an acre and has four 

 daughters to bestow it upon. He divides it by par- 

 tition-walls into four parts and gives each of them a part. 

 The conveyance ** is in this manner. After Evening 

 service on a Sunday when the churchwardens and 

 some of the best inhabitants are placed in the church 

 porch he stands up and expresses himself to this effect : 

 I, A, desire you my neighbours to take notice, that I give 

 to each of my daughters an equal share of my paddock 



*' It is impossible to give a complete catalogue of 

 buildings of importance in London which have been 

 constructed mainly of Portland stone. Amongst 

 secular edifices the Horse Guards, Somerset House, 

 the General Post Office, the India House, the 

 Foreign Office, and the Reform Club, may be 

 mentioned. 



"' Stowe MS. 597, fol. 423 et seq. 



" They say .... that ' customary lands have 

 always been accustomed to be aliened by those that 

 have been customary tenants thereunto either by 

 surrender in the court of the said manor of Portland, 

 or by last will and testament or by free gift at the 

 Church Door.'' Proc. in Chan. Eliz. ii, I ; i, 2, 63. 

 For the modern development of this practice since 

 1845 see Somen, and Dors. N and Q. vii, 322. 



called • and bounded &c. as it now lies divided in 



four parts. Whereupon the assembly rises, and blesses 

 by name the daughters. And now e.ich of these daughters 

 intitles the man she marrys to all the Privileges of the 

 King's quarrys, which renders her a good fortune to a 

 mason many whereof go from London and marry thus 

 in Portland." 



The following contemporary table gives some 

 notion of the prices of Portland stone shipped 

 from the island at the close of the seventeenth 

 century : — 



The rates above include the tunnage duty. 



Sir Christopher Wren,*** who employed Port- 

 land stone in his work on St. Paul's Cathedral, 

 seems to have come into conflict with the quarry- 

 owners of the island during the progress of his 

 undertaking.*'"' On 12 May, 1705, we find him 

 writing to them in the following terms : — 



Gentlemen, I have perused yours of the 9th to 

 myself and Mr. Bateman, and find you'll never make 

 a right use of any kindness for which reason you may 

 expect less of mine for the future. You have been 

 paid hitherto beforehand, but without your better 

 behaviour, you shall not be paid so again, though you 

 may always depend on what is right. I shall not add 

 to my last direction about the money, till that be 

 fully complied with, nor at present tell you the price 

 charged to the Duke of Buckingham. As for the 

 stone sent to Greenwich, I know no risk you have 

 run, nor of any proposed to you ; so that you have no 

 pretence to higher pay, on that account. 'Tis all one 

 to me what your jury do. It shall not alter any 

 measures of mine, except in endeavouring that the 

 tunnage money you claim by a pretended grant from 

 the Crown, be disposed to better purpose than you 

 apply it to, you having no manner of right to it, as 

 I shall easily make appear, and also represent to the 

 Queen your contesting her right, and your contempt 

 of her authority ; for, though 'tis in your power to be 

 as ungrateful as you will, yet you must not think that 

 your insolence will be alw.iys borne with, and though 

 you will not be sensible of the advantage you receive 



" Some curious details as to Portland marriages 

 will be found in Smeaton, Eddy stone Lighthouse, 65 >i. 



"* I am indebted to Miss E. M. Hewitt for this 

 and the following paragaph. 



fib Wjg„ had control of the quarries from 1 67 5 to 

 I 717. Many of the blocks which were excavated at 

 that time, but rejected for his purpose, remained for 

 several years lying about in or near the quarries ; 

 Phillimore, Mem. Sir C. ff^ren, 221. 



341 



