DORSETSHIRE, a county (maritime), bounded on
the north by the counties of Somerset and Wilts; on
the east by the county of Southampton; on the west by
the county of Devon, and part of that of Somerset;
and on the south by the British channel: it extends
from 50° 30 to 51° 6 (N. Lat.), and from 1° 58 to
3° 18 (W. Lon.), comprising about seven hundred and
seventy-five thousand acres, or one thousand two hundred
and eleven square miles. The population, in 1821,
amounted to one hundred and forty-seven thousand
four hundred;
Prior to the landing of Caesar, Dorsetshire was inhabited
by the Durotriges, and Morini, two tribes of the
Britons, whose names signify dwellers on the sea-shore.
By the Saxons it was styled Dor satta, which is of
similar meaning, signifying the dwellers by the water.
The Romans included it in the division called Britannia
Prima, and the Saxons in the kingdom of Wessex.
Of the early history of this county there are but few
authentic memorials. On the departure of the Romans,
the Saxons, notwithstanding the vigorous opposition
they met with from King Arthur, obtained possession
of this and most of the other western counties; and
Cerdic, who landed in the year 40S, completed his conquest
of these parts in 530, by the capture of the Isle of
Wight; and, having founded the kingdom of Wessex,
was crowned at Winchester in the following year: several
memorials of his name are preserved near the
southern coast of Dorsetshire. This kingdom became at
length the most considerable of the heptarchal states. In
1002, Sweyn, King of Denmark, having landed at Exeter
to revenge the massacre of the Danes, in his march
from that city to Wilton, destroyed Dorchester, Clifton,
Sherborne, and Shaston (now Shaftesbury); this having
been the first instance in which Dorsetshire endured, to
an extent worthy of being recorded, the miseries inflicted
by that people. During the Norman times, history does
not furnish us with any material events as having
occurred in this county. There is an account indeed
of a dreadful plague which broke out in Dorsetshire
in 1348, so terrible that in many of the villages all
the inhabitants died, the houses fell down, and were
never again inhabited. In 1588, great preparations
were made to fortify the southern coast, on the approach
of the Spanish Armada; and Portland, in particular,
was strongly fortified and garrisoned. During
the parliamentary war the most considerable of the
higher orders were attached to the king; but the people,
where the clothing trade was carried on, which was
the case in several parts of the county, were chiefly
disaffected. Lyme and Poole were constantly garrisoned
by. the parliament. Wareham, Melcombe-Regis,
Weymouth, Bridport, Dorchester, Shaftesbury, Blandford,
and Sherborne, being open and generally unguarded,
were alternately occupied as each party was master of
the field. Sherborne castle, Corfe Castle, Chidiock castle,
and the isle and castle of Portland, were garrisoned by
the king; but except the sieges of Lyme, Corfe Castle,
and Sherborne castle, the rising of the club-men, and a
few casual skirmishes, nothing very remarkable happened
within this county. In 1685, the Duke of Monmouth
landed at Lyme, and thence marched into Somersetshire,
-which was the seat of the rebellion at that time. An
action took place at Bridport; and the duke was taken
in an enclosure called the Island, in the midst of the
heath, in the parish of Horton, having concealed himself
in a ditch, where is still to be seen an ash-tree, bearing
on its sides the initials of the numerous persons who
have visited it. Many of his followers were tried at
Dorchester, where several were executed, as also in
various other places within this county. On the 5th of
November, 1688, the Prince of Orange landed with
his forces at Lyme, Torbay, and the adjacent parts of
the coast, without any opposition, and encamped about
Exeter. In 17"56, a camp of six regiments of foot and
two of dragoons was formed on Pimperne down, near
Blandford; and in the following year another near -Dorchester.
This county was successively under the episcopal
jurisdiction of the see of Dorchester in Oxfordshire, of
that of Winchester, and of that of Sherborne; and when
the last was united to that of Sarum, it remained part
of that diocese till the 31st of Henry VIII., when it
became part of the newly constituted bishoprick of
Bristol, by patent, June 4th, 1542. Of the six deaneries
into which that diocese is divided, five are within this
county, viz., those of Bridport, Dorchester, Pimperne,
Shaston, and Whitchurch, comprising two hundred and
fifty-eight parishes, of which one hundred and sixtythree
are rectories, sixty-two vicarages, and thirty-three
perpetual curacies. The archdeaconry of Dorset is coextensive
with the diocese of Bristol, and comprises the
whole of this county. The bishop holds his triennial,
and the archdeacon his yearly, visitation, at Bridport,
Dorchester, Blandford, Shaftesbury, Cerne-Abbas, or
Whitchurch. For civil purposes it is separated into
the following divisions; Blandford (North and South),
Bridport, Cerne (sub-division), Dorchester, Shaston
(East and West), Sherborne, and Stwrminster. Blandford
North division contains the hundreds of Coombs-
Ditch, Pimperne, and Rushmore, and the liberty of
Dewlish: Blandford South division contains the hundreds
of Corfe-Castle, Beer-Regis, Hundredsbarrow,
Hasilor, Rowbarrow, and Winfrith, and the liberties of
Bindon, Owermoigne, and Stoborough. Bridport division
contains the hundreds of Beaminster-Forum and
Redhone, Eggerton, Godder-Thorne, and Whitchurch-
Canonicorum, and the liberties of Broadwinsor, Frampton,
Lothers and Bothenhampton, and Poorstock. Cerne
sub-division contains the hundreds of Buckland-Newton,
Cerne, Totcombe and Modbury, and Whiteway, and
the liberties of Alton-Pancras, Piddletrenthide, and Sydling-
St. Nicholas. Dorchester division contains the hundreds
of Culliford-Tree, George, Piddletown, Tollerford,
and Uggscombe, and the liberties of Fordington, Isle
of Portland, Piddlehinton, Sutton-Pointz, Wayhouse,
and Wyke Regis and Etwall. Shaston East division
contains the hundreds of Badbury, Cogdean, Knowlton,
Loosebarrow, Monckton-up-Wimbourne, and Wimbourne-
St. Giles, with parts of the hundreds of Cranborne
and Sixpenny-Handley. Shaston West division contains
the remaining parts of the hundreds of Cranborne and
Sixpenny-Handley: and the liberties of Alcester and
Gillingham. Sherborne division contains the hundreds
of Sherborne and Yetminster, and the liberties of Halstock
and Ryme-Intrinsica; and Sturrninster division
contains the hundreds of Brownshall, Redlane, and
Sturminster-Newton-Castle, and the liberty of Stowcr-
Provost. Dorsetshire contains the town and county of
the town of Poole, the borough and market-towns of
Bridport, Dorchester, Lyme-Regis, Shaftesbury, Wareham,
and the united boroughs of Weymouth and Melcombe-
Regis. The borough of Corfe-Castle, which is
not a market-town, and the market-towns of Beaminster,
Blandford-Forum, Cerne.Abbas, Sherborne, Sturminster-
Newton, and Wimbourne-Minster. Bridport,
Lyme-Regis, Poole, Wareham, and Weymouth are
ports also. Two knights are returned to parliament
for the shire, and two representatives for each of the
nine boroughs: the county members are elected at
Dorchester. Dorsetshire is included in the western
circuit; the assizes were anciently held, sometimes at
Sherborne, and sometimes, though veryrarely, at Shaftes
bury; but generally, in latter times, and now always, at
Dorchester, where the shire-hall and county gaol have
long; been. The Epiphany quarter sessions are held at
Blandford; the Easter, at Sherborne; the Midsummer,
at Shaftesbury; and the Michaelmas, at Bridport.
There are sixty-three acting magistrates. The rates
raised in the county for the year ending March 25th,
1827, amounted to £120,455. 7., the expenditure to
£115,453. 12., of which £99,108. 17, was applied to
the relief of the poor.
The surface of the county is hilly, and a considerable
portion of it consists of open downs, affording pasturage
to numeroxis flocks of sheep, of which, however, more
are fed in the vicinity of Dorchester than in any other
part of the county, though great numbers of both sheep
and oxen are fattened in the vale of Blackmore, which
is celebrated as rich pasture land, containing upwards
of one hundred and seventy thousand acres. There are
also in this district several large apple orchards, prodticing
excellent cider. On the south-western side are
many vales of great, luxuriance; but on the south-eastern,
there is much waste land, dreary and barren, scarcely
supporting, even in the summer months, a few sheep
and cattle, and supplying the neighbouring villages with
turf for fuel. Even in this part, however, cultivation is
advancing, and detached portions have been improved.
The soil of these downs is principally a light chalk, covered
with a turf remarkably fine, producing hay, in the
enclosed parts, of an excellent quality. About Bridport
the lower lands are mostly a deep rich loam, intermixed
with flint, well adapted to the growth of
beech trees. To the north of Sherborne, where
is some of the best arable land in the county, it is
a stone brack, which is the case in the isles of Portland
and Purbeck: in the centre of the county the soil is
good, and the land well managed. Dorsetshire is not a
well-wooded county, and, in general, native timber is
scarce and dear. In some spots, where the land is cold
and wet, such as Duncliff, in the vale of Blackmore,
Heycombe wood, in the vale of Sherborne, and others of
a similar nature, some plantations may be seen. The
climate is noted for its mildness and salubrity; and this,
added to the beauty of its scenery, has procured this
county the appellation of the Garden of England. Weymouth
has long been celebrated as a fashionable wateringplace;
and, owing to the general calmness of the sea
there, its pleasant situation, and its commodiousness
for bathing, has, through the repeated visits of the royal
family, risen to a place of consequence.
The principal articles of produce are corn, cattle,
butter, sheep, wool, timber, flax, and hemp. Of the different
kinds of grain, barley affords the best returns,
and from ten to twelve thousand bushels of n alt are
madeannually; the strong beer is in high repute; the
ale also is particularly celebrated, and in some respects
unequalled. The sheep have long been celebrated, and it
is supposed that not fewer than eight hundred thousand
are constantly kept in the county, of which number
more than one hundred and fifty thousand are sold annually,
and sent out of it. They are highly esteemed for
the fineness, shortness, and close texture of their wool,
which is much used in the manufacture of broad cloth;
the aggregate, quantity annually sold being estimated
at ninety thousand weighs, of thirty-one pounds each.
The Dorsetshire sheep are homed, white-faced, with long,
small, white legs, the carcass being rather long and thin;
the mutton is fine-grained and of good flavour, weighing,
in wethers of three years and a half old, from sixteen
to twenty pounds per quarter. Many of the ewes
are bought by the farmers within forty miles of London,
for the sake of their lambs, which come earlier than
most others, and are fattened for the London market.
But. besides the peculiar Dorsetshire bi-eed, there is a
very small kind in the isles of Portland and Purbeck,
and the neighbouring coast, inferior in size to the Welch
sheep, weighing, when full fed, not more than eight or
nine pounds per quarter. Little regard is paid in this
county to the breed of horses; oxen are frequently xised
in agriculture, and those are mostly the red Devonshire
ox, with a mixture of the Hampshire and Wiltshire;
the pigs are of a light colour, and not equal to those
of Hampshire and some other species. Butter is the
chief article of produce, though some cheese is also
made. The mackarel fishery is of considerable consequence;
vast quantities are taken near Abbotsbury,
and along the shore from Portland to Bridport: they
are generally caught from the middle of March, if the
season be not too cold, till Midsummer, and sometimes
later. The fishery, however, has not been so productive
of late years as formerly, and the exposed situation
of the coast renders it very uncertain, even in the
best of seasons.
The principal articles of manufacture are rope-yarn,
ropes, and sail-cloth, which are chiefly carried on in
the neighbourhood of Bridport and Beaminster. A
manufacture of the same kind, but on a smaller scale,
has been established in the Isle of Purbeck. At
Shaftesbury is a manufactory for making all kinds of
shirt buttons, which affords employment to a great
number of women and children. A sort of flannel,
or coarse -white woollen cloth, is likewise made at this
town, called swanskin, but the chief trade in this latter
article is carried on at Sturminster. There is a large
manufactory for shirt buttons at Blandford. At Stalbridge
is a manufactory for spinning silk, and at Sherborne
is another on a larger scale. At Wimbourne considerable
business is transacted in the worsted trade;
and more than one thousand women and children are
employed in knitting stockings. Though neither coal
nor metallic ores have ever been obtained in Dorsetshire,
the stone quarries of Purbeck and Portland have long
been celebrated. Purbeck, though called an island, is
more properly a peninsula, of an irregular oval form,
about twelve miles in length and seven in breadth.
The soil is altogether calcareous, and, for the most part.,
a continued mass of either white or brownish limestone,
the latter having a mixture of sea-shells. The quarries
on the south side of the isle afford an inexhaustible fund
of natural curiosities. The best quarries are at Kingston,
Worth, Langston, and Swanwich; the stone got in the last
of these is white, full of shells, susceptible of a good polish,
and not unlike alabaster. About Wareham and Morden
is found a stone of an iron colour, called fii-e-storfl1.
Near Dunshay, marble of various colours, blue, red.
grey, and spotted, is obtained, but all of a coarse grain.
Much of the stone of this district was used in the building
of St. Paul's cathedral, Westminster bridge, and
Ptamsgate pier, and may be discovered in many of our
ancient cathedral churches, as also in grave-stones and
monuments. The rocks in the Isle of Portland rise fre-
quently to the height of one hundred, or one hundred
and fifty feet, and large masses lie scattered on the shore.
These are composed of calcareous grit, containing
moulds, or larox, of various shells, and emitting, when
rubbed with steel, a bituminous smell. The grit is cemented
together by a calcareous paste. The quarries are
scattered among these rocks, more or less, in every part
of the isle, but those of most repute are at Kingston.
At this place is a pier, where upwards of six thousand
tons of stone, on an average, are supposed to be shipped
annually. The first stratum in these quarries is about
one foot of blackish or reddish earth; then six feet of
stone not fit for exportation; below this is the bed of
good stone, ten or twelve feet deep, and beneath it flint
or clay. The stratum of stone that is worked for sale
lies nearly parallel with the upper surface of the island,
and without much earth or rubbish on it. When the
beds are cleared, the quarry-men proceed to cross-cut
the large flats, which is done with wedges. The beds
being cut into distinct lumps, are squared by the hammer
to the largest size which they will admit, and blocks
are thus formed from half a ton to six or eight tons'
weight. The colour of the Portland-stone, or freestone,
as it is sometimes called, from the freedom with which
it may be broken into any shape, is well known, as almost
white, and as composing the materials of the most
splendid erections in London, as well as in other parts
of the British empire.
The principal rivers are the Frome, the Stour, the
Piddle, and the Ivel. The Frome rises in the northwestern
part of the county, near Evershot, and passing
by Dorchester, falls into Poolc bay. The Stour enters
this county from Wiltshire, near Gillingham, and pursuing
a southern and south-eastern direction, runs into
Hampshire. The Piddle rises in the north, and flowing
to the south-east, unites with Poole bay. The Ivel,
anciently the Yoo, has its origin from several springs
near Horethorn, in a little hill north-east of Sherborne,
from which town it flows into Somersetshire, and falls
into the Parrett. The Dorset and.Somerset canal passes
through a portion of this county; it has its commencement
in the Kennet and Avon canal at Widbrook, near
Bradford, and terminates in the river Stour, near Gainscross
in Shillingstone-Okeford: the principal objects
of this canal are to supply the manufacturing towns and
districts through which it passes with coal, and to open
an inland communication between the Bristol channel,
the Severn, the Thames, and the southern coast, of the
island. The navigation, is continued from Gainscross
by means of the river Stour, which has been made
navigable across the county, and terminates at Christchurch
harbour, in Hampshire. The road from London
to Lyine-Regis enters the county near Woodyates Inn,
and passes through Blandfprd-Forum, Dorchester, and
Bridport, to Lyme. In the north-eastern part of the
county are several ditches and valla, which Dr. Stukeley
supposes to have been successively made by the Belgae,
in their progressive conquest of this part of Britain.
Several Roman stations and roads have been traced
in this county; of the former, the principal is the
Via Iceniana, or Icening way, which enters Dorsetshire
from Wiltshire, near Woodyates, and passes through
Dorchester, to the west of which it takes the name of the
Ridge-way, and quits the county in its course towards
Seatori in Devonshire, being distinctly visible in different
parts of its line. The Roman stations, according to the
best authorities, are Londinis, or Lyme-Regis, Ciuutt
Arixa, or Charmouth, Duriwvariit, or Dorchester, Jindagladia,
or Wimbourne-Minster, Clavinio,or Weymouth,
Morino, or Wareham, and Bolclaunio, or Poole. Among
these, in various directions, numerous barrows are dispersed,
as well as other memorials of our British
ancestors. Near Dorchester are the remains of a Roman
amphitheatre, which is computed to have held near
thirteen thousand spectators. A large circular intrenchment
may be traced on Woodbury Hill, supposed to have
been the Castra Statica of the Romans. On Hambledon
Hill is another encampmeiat, also the remains of what
has been thought a labyrinth. The relics of ancient,
castles are numerous in Dorsetshire, of which, the most
considerable were those of Corfe, Brownsea, and Portland.
Numerous barrows, or tumuli, are dispersed over
the county, especially the more open part of it.
Before the Reformation there were in this county
twenty-nine religious houses (including one preceptory
of the Knights Hospitallers) and eight ancient hospitals.
The monasteries, the ruins of which may yet be discerned,
are those of the monastery of Benedictines at
Cranborne, a part of which now forms the parish church,
one of the oldest in the county; Cerne abbey, said to
have been founded by St. Augustine, the few remains of
which are interesting; Milton abbey, whose church is
now used as a private chapel; the monastery of Shaftesbury,
the ruins of which are discernible near the mansion
of Sir Thomas Arundel; some parts of the cloister and
domestic buildings of the abbey of Sherborue, now
occupied by silk machinery; besides considerable remains
of several more. The church of Fordington is partly
in the Saxon style; those of Dorchester, Sherborne,
Milbourne, Rapisham, Weymouth, and Shaftesbury,
are venerable buildings, but this county cannot boast
of many ancient ecclesiastical edifices. Mr. Hutchins
remarks of the mineral waters, that " they are chalybeate
at Farrington, Aylwood, and Corfe; sulphureous
at Sherford, Morden, Nottington, and Sherborne;
saline at Chilcomb; and petrifying at Sherbornc
and Bothenwood, near Wimbourne-Minster." The
" pebbly desert," called the Chesil Bank, is, as Dr. Maton
remarks, one of the most extraordinary ridges or shelves
of pebbles in Europe, and perhaps the longest, except
that of Memel in Polish Prussia; its length is supposed
to be about seventeen miles, and its breadth in some
places nearly a quarter of a mile. Dorset gives the title
of duke to the family of Sackville.