13'2 THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Dorc/iesrcr, the county town, on the Fromo, was anciently known by the Celtic 

 name of Dunwran'a, and after the invasion of the Horaans it was fortified by them. 

 It is a quiet, prosperous place, its most remarkable building being the pinnacled 

 tower of the church at the point of intersection of its four streets. In its 

 neighbourhood there exists the most perfect Iloman amphitheatre in England. 

 It is known as Mambury, and is in so fair a state of preservation for open-air 

 performances that a witch was burnt in its centre as recently as 1705, when a 

 large crowd attended the spectacle. Flowing past the ancient town of Wareham, 

 and its magnificent earthworks, which have resisted the onset of many a Danish 

 attack, the Frome enters the shallow harbour of Poole, which is the principal 

 seaport of the county, foremost amongst its exports being potter's clay, from the 

 neighbouring isle of Purbeck, and'pitwood. Ship-building is carried on, oysters 

 are bred, and there are a few potteries in the neighbourhood. The Isle of Purbeck, 

 on the southern side of Poole Harbour, must ever form a focus of attraction to 

 f^eoloo-ists. who will find in the museum of the small but ancient village of Corfe 

 Ca.stle a collection of the most interesting fossils yielded by the district. Kim- 

 merkhje is a village well known to geologists on account of its clay, but the chief 

 place of the isle is Swanage, a favourite watering-place in summer, because it is 

 exposed to the cooling breeze from the north-east. 



The Stour, in its course through the county, runs past Blandford Forum and 

 Wiinhovue, the latter famous for its minster, a building of singular beauty. At 

 Kingston Lacy, 2 miles to the north-west of the town, there stands an obelisk 

 brought thither from the island of Philae. Shafteshury, traditionally one of the 

 oldest towns in the kingdom, where King Alfred founded a nunnery in 880 

 for one of his daughters, stands on the margin of the fruitful vale of Blackmore. 



Sherborne is the only town of the county which lies beyond the Channel basin. 

 It is seated on the river Yeo, which finds its way into the Brisrol Channel. It was 

 a bishopric until 1058, and still boasts a fine cathedral to remind it of its days 

 of grandeur, a famous grammar school, and several curious old dwelling-houses. 

 Glove-making is carried on both here and in the neighbouring town of Yeovil, in 

 Somersetsliire. 



"Wiltshire is an inland county, which lies only partly within the basin of the 

 English Channel. Its southern and more extensive portion forms the so-called plain 

 of Salisbury, an undulating chalky table-land, drained by the river Avon and its 

 tributaries, and lying at an elevation of about 500 feet above the level of the sea. 

 The northern escarpment of this table-land looks down upon the vale of Pewsey, 

 the most fertile tract of the county, on greensand, and bounded on the north 

 by the Marlborough Downs, a treeless tract of chalk hills, presenting features 

 similar to those of Salisbury Plain. The north-western part lies within the basin 

 of the Severn, and is drained by the Bristol Avon ; the north-eastern part belongs 

 to the basin of the Thames. Foremost amongst the productions of Wiltshire are 

 cheese, bacon, and mutton, and the manufacture of cloth is extensively carried on in 

 the valley of the Bristol Avon. Some iron ore is raised in the neighbourhood of 

 "VVestburv and Melksham. 



