THE BLOODY ASSIZE 



273 



Enulaiid thatched houses visited the town aoain. nine 

 vears later, and also in 1725 and 1775. Little wonder, 

 then, that mediasval Dorchester has to be sought for 

 in nooks and corners. But if like those other unfor- 

 tunate towns in these circumstances, it is very differ- 

 ent in apjDcarance, the streets being comparatively 

 narrow and the houses of a more stolid and heavy 

 character ; so that only in sunny weather does 

 Dorchester strike the stranger as being at all a clieerful 

 place. 



XXXVIII 



All the incidents in Dorchester's historv seem 

 iusio-nificant beside the 

 tremendous melodrama 

 of the ' Bloody Assize.' 

 The stranger has eyes 

 and ears for little else 

 than the story of that 

 terrible time, and lons^s 

 to see the Court where 

 Jeffreys sat, mad with 

 drink and disease, and 

 sentenced the unhajjpy 

 prisoners to floo-o-ino-s, 

 slavery, or death. Un- 

 happily, that historic 

 room has disappeared, but 'Judge Jeffreys' chair' 

 is still to be seen in the modern Town Hall, and one 

 can approach in imagination nearer to that awful year 



T 



JfDGK JEFKKEYS CHAIli. 



