2 8o THE EXETER ROAD 



Castle crowning ;l hill forming with the earthen 

 amphitheatre of Poundbury on the right hand, evi- 

 dence, if all else in Dorchester were wanting, of the 

 importance of the place at that remote period. 



At the fourth milestone the Exeter Road leaves 

 that ancient military way, and, turning sharply to the 

 left, goes down steeply, amid loose gravel and rain- 

 runnels, to Winterborne Abbas, with an exceedingly 

 awkward fork to the road to Weymouth on the left 

 hand half-wav down. Bold and strikino- view^s of 

 the sullen ridge of Blackdown, with Admiral Hardy's 

 pillar on the ridge, are unfolded as one descends. 



XL 



Winterborne Abbas, one of the twenty -five 

 Winterbornes that plentifully dot the map of Wilts 

 and Dorset, lies on the level at the bottom of this 

 treacherous descent : a small villaore of thatched 



o 



cottages with a church too large for it, overhung by 

 fir trees, and a remodelled old coaching inn, appar- 

 ently also too large, w^ith its sign swinging pic- 

 turesquely from a tree -trunk on the opposite side of 

 the road which, like the majority of Dorsetshire 

 roads, is rich in loose flints. 



Half a mile beyond the village, a railed enclosure 

 on the stri]3 of grass on the left-hand side of the road 

 attracts the wayfarer's notice. This serves to protect 

 from the attentions of the stone-breaker a group of 

 eight prehistoric stones called the ' Broad Stone.' 



