Memorials of Old Dorset

by Unknown

WEYMOUTH

By Sidney Heath

T has become customary in recent years for topographical and other writers to depict Weymouth, if not exactly as a town of mushroom growth, at least as one whose history and antiquity date no further back than from the time when George III. found its salubrious air so suited to his health. True, the aspect of the modern town has little left of its pre-Georgian days to tempt the archæologist or allure the casual literary worker; but a few hours spent among the old records of the town would speedily remove this first impression of modernity, and convince even the most sceptical antiquary that the old town of Weymouth is one of the most ancient in the county of Dorset. The casual visitor may, therefore, be forgiven his impression that Weymouth was founded by George III.; for so nearly were the older buildings swept away at the time of this royal invasion that even loyal Weymouth citizens now find it difficult to realise how living a thing was the ancient past of their town, since whatever was left untouched by the Georgian builders has been well-nigh destroyed in more recent times to make way for what is called modern convenience and improvement.

The word Weymouth is derived directly from the Saxon “Waegemuth,” waeg meaning a wave, that is the sea; and mutha, an opening. The Celtic name for the river Wey, allied to the Welsh word gwy, meaning water, seems to have caused some confusion in the Saxon mind, and have led them to regard the mouth of the estuary (the Backwater) as the inlet of the sea rather than the outlet of a small stream.

Sidney Heath

The Quay Weymouth

The earliest beginnings of the town are lost in obscurity; yet, even if we are not prepared to accept the assertion of certain historians that the Tyrian and Phœnician merchants traded here in their numerous visits to these shores, we have evidence of a more than respectable antiquity in some traces and memorials of the Roman occupation, in the way of roads, coins, and pottery; while at Preston, an almost adjoining village, remains of a Roman villa may still be seen, and considerable Roman remains have been found at Radipole.

There are very few records or official documents antecedent to the reign of William I., and naturally many chasms occur in the continuity of the recorded history of Weymouth. The earliest mention of the place is in Saxon annals, which state that King Athelstan, A.D. 938, granted to the Abbey of Middleton (Milton), in Dorset, in order that masses might be said for his soul and the souls of his ancestors and successors, Kings of England:

All that water within the shore of Waymuth, and half the stream of that Waymuth out at sea: twelve acres for the support of the wear and its officer, three thaynes and a saltern by the wear, and sixty-seven hides of land in its neighbourhood.

The next mention of the place occurs in a Saxon charter of King Ethelred II., wherein the King gives land to his minister, Atsere, during his life, and licence to leave the inheritance of it as he wills. The charter is signed by the King with the sign of the cross; by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Oswald, Archbishop of York; and the Bishops Athelwold, Living, and Hirwold. The date of this interesting document is either obliterated or was never inserted; but in 980 Dunstan was Grand-Master of the fraternity of free and accepted Masons in England, and both he and Oswald died about 988.

We find no further record of Weymouth until 1042, when Edward the Confessor caused a charge to be brought by Robert, Bishop of London, accusing his mother, Queen Emma, of consenting to the death of her son Alfred, of endeavouring to poison Edward, another of her sons, and of maintaining an infamous connection with her kinsman, Alwin, Bishop of Winton, to the King’s and her own dishonour. The Queen was ordered to purge herself by “fiery ordeal,” which she did at Winchester Cathedral in the presence of the King and his nobles; and, having passed barefooted and blindfold over nine red-hot ploughshares without harm, she was adjudged to have cleared herself of the accusations and to have furnished her accusers with an example of what female chastity is able to accomplish. The King publicly solicited his mother’s pardon; but the Church of Winton was not so easily appeased at the charge brought against its Bishop, and forced the repentant King to submit to severe penance, and to give nine manors to Holy Mother Church, accordingly—“Ex libello donatorium Wintoniæ Ecclesiæ, S. Edwardus rex, dedit Portelond, Wikes, Hellwell, et Waimuth maneriis, cum ceteris aliis, ad Wintoniæ ecclesiæ”; and this grant was confirmed by a bull of Pope Innocent II.

In Domesday there are several parcels of land separately surveyed under the name of wai and waia, with no additional name to distinguish them, and they are held by different individuals.

Henry I. granted by a charter (without date) to the Prior and Monks of St. Swithun, Winton, the ports of “Waimuth and Melecumb, with all their appurtenances, together with the manors of Wike and Portelond,” which King Edward gave them, and that they might enjoy all the liberties, wrecks, and all free customs, by sea and by land, as they had ever enjoyed them. This charter was confirmed by Henry II.

In the reign of Henry III. the manor appears to have been considered as a dependency of Wyke, and again as appertaining to Portland, but it is certain that in the early part of this reign it was granted to Henry Blois, Bishop of Winchester, and his successors, as appears by the entry on the Charter Rolls. The Bishops did not keep the manor long, for it soon became the property of the opulent family of Clare, from whom was descended Edward IV. It would be tedious to trace the varying fortunes of the Clare family, who were for centuries among the most powerful in the kingdom; and although much could be written of the subsequent holders of the manor, the following brief records must suffice for several decades:—

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40 Edward III.—Lionel, Duke of Clarence, held the boroughs of Weymouth and Wareham, the manors of Portland and Wyke, with many others.

22 Richard II.—Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, held the borough of Weymouth, the manors of Portland and Wyke, with many others.

11 Henry V.—Anna, wife of Edward, Earl of March, held the borough of Weymouth, etc.

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By the marriage of Ann Mortimer, sister of the Earl of March, with Richard de Conysburgh, Earl of Cambridge, the manor fell to the house of York, for their son, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, succeeded them; and in 11 Henry VI., the King granted to Richard, Duke of York, livery of Weymouth, and all the castles, manors, lands, etc., which Ann, late wife of Edmund, Comes Marchiæ, held in dower of the inheritance of the Duke.

The town is mentioned by Leland (1538), Coker (1630 circa), and Camden. The first-named writes:

The Tounlet of Waymouth lyith strait agayn Milton (Melcombe) on the other side of the haven, and at this place, the Trajectus is by a bote and a rope, bent over the haven, so that yn the fery-bote they use no ores.

In another part of the Itinerary we read:

Waiymouth Town rite agen Milton, on the other side of the Haven yt is bigger than Miltoun ys now. The Est South Est point of the Haven of Waymouth ys caulid St. Aldelm’s point, being a litl foreland. Ther ys a Chapelle by on the Hille. The Paroch Chirch ys a mile of—a Kay for shippes in the town—the Haven Mouth almost at hand. Half a mile and more to the New Castelle—an open Barbecane to the Castelle. Weimouth is counted 20 miles from Pole.

Camden states that in the reign of Edward III., the King got together a powerful army and fleet for the purpose of invading France, and the town provided twenty ships and 264 mariners for the siege of Calais; but these figures are disputed by Hackluit, who says there were but fifteen ships and 263 mariners. In March, 1347, the bailiffs of Weymouth seized all the goods, chattels, jewels, and armour of Geoffry, Earl of Harcautly, who had joined the army of the French King. In 1377 the town suffered considerably from the fleet of Charles V., when great portions of the ports of Dartmouth, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Hastings, and Weymouth were destroyed.

The next event of importance was the landing here, on April 14th, 1471, of Margaret of Anjou, the consort of Henry VI., on her return from France with her son, Prince Edward.

So the tide of history swept on, with periodical ravages from pirates and enemies, until the appearance off the harbour of a large foreign fleet of eighty sail, which had voyaged from Middleburg on January 10th, 1505, to escort Philip and Johanna to their Kingdom of Castile; but a violent hurricane caused the ships to run to Weymouth for shelter. The inhabitants, being unaware of the quality of their visitors, and alarmed at so formidable an array of vessels, speedily armed themselves, and sent word to Sir Thomas Trenchard, at Wolfeton, who, with Sir John Carew, marched into the town at the head of some hastily improvised troops. On the rank of the visitors becoming known, Sir Thomas invited them to his house at Wolfeton until he could advise the King, Henry VII., of the fortuitous circumstance. As soon as Henry had notice of the arrival of these royal visitors, he despatched the Earl of Arundel with a troop of 300 horse, carrying torches, to escort them to London.

There is much in the minor history of the town that one would fain linger over, but we must confine ourselves to those larger and more far-reaching historical events with which the old life of Weymouth was so closely bound up.

In 1544 the bailiffs of Weymouth received the following letter from the King, Henry VIII.:—

(By the King.)

Henr. R.

Trustie and well beloved, we greate you well. And whereas betweene us and the Emperor upon provocation of manyfolde injuries committed by the Frenche Kyng unto us both particularlie; And for his confederation wyth the Turke, against ye whole commonwealthe of Christendome. It ys agreede that eche of us aparte, in person, with his puissant Armie in several parties this soommer, shall invade the Realme of Fraunce; and beyng not yet furneyshed as to our honour appertayneth:—

We have appoynted you to send us the nombre of xv hable fotemen, well furneyshed for the warres as appertayneth, whereof iii to bee archers, every oone furneyshed with a goode bowe in a cace, with xxiii goode arrows in a cace, a goode sworde, and a dagger, and the rest to be billmen, havyng besydes theyre bill, a goode sworde, and a dagger, to be levyed of your owne servants and tenants.

And that you put the saide nombre in such a redyness, furnished with coats and hosen of such colours as is appointed for the battel of our Armey.

As they faile not within oone houres warnyng to march forward to such place as shall be appoynted accordinglie:—

Yeven under our Sygnete at our palace of Westmr., the v^th daie of June, the xxxv yere of our reigne.

Henr. R.

Weymouth had been created a borough in the reign of Edward II., at the time that his nephew, Gilbert of Clare, Earl of Gloucester, was lord of the manor (one of whose sisters had married Piers Gaveston, and the other sister was the wife of Hugh le Despencer); and although the town is styled a “burg” in several documents relating to previous reigns, it was not until the nineteenth year of the reign of Edward II. that it returned a representative to Parliament.

The borough of Weymouth and the adjoining one of Melcombe (which together now make up modern Weymouth) had long viewed each other with jealous eyes; and so many complaints being made through their respective members, the Parliament prepared a charter, at the suggestion of Cecil, it is said, which was approved by Queen Elizabeth in the thirteenth year of her reign, which united these two discordant elements into one borough.

The merchants of the town, like all those of our southern ports, played a zealous and active part in fitting out ships to fight the Armada; and from a MS. in the Cottonian Library we learn that the following vessels set out from Weymouth in 1588, with instructions to guard the coast and seek out the Invincible Armada:—

Name.	Tonnage.	Master.	Men.
The Gallion	100	Richard Miller	50
The Catherine	60		30
The Heath Hen	60		30
The Golden Lion	120		60
The Sutton	70	Hugh Preston	40
The Expedition	70		50

Sidney Heath

A Relic of the Armada.

Notwithstanding that their largest vessel was only of 120 tons, the Weymouth contingent captured two of the galleons and brought them as prizes into the harbour. The only other vessels sent by the county on this occasion were two from Lyme Regis—The Revenge, of 60 tons, and The Jacob, of 90 tons—and four from Poole. In the Guildhall there is a memorial of the event in the shape of a massive iron-bound chest (see illustration), believed to have been brought from one of the captured galleons; and many other relics are scattered over the county, as at Bingham’s Melcombe, where there is a magnificent oval dining-table, of massive form and marvellous workmanship, with the crest of a Spanish grandee in the centre, the whole mounted on a sea-chest in lieu of legs. Many Spanish coins have been washed ashore on the Chesil Bank, and it is possible that others of the ill-fated ships sank in the vicinity of Portland, or that the dons threw their money and valuables overboard rather than let them fall into the hands of their captors.

Little is recorded during the next fifty years, save the building of a wooden bridge of seventeen arches to unite the two towns, in 1594; and thirteen years later the town was visited by one of those great plagues which periodically swept over mediæval England.

The outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 found the county fairly evenly divided in support of the rival parties, and Corfe Castle became the headquarters of the Royalist, and Bingham’s Melcombe that of the Parliamentary forces. In 1643 the Earl of Carnarvon seized and held for the King, Weymouth, Melcombe, and Portland, and left them in charge of Prince Maurice, whose troops are said to have pillaged and ravaged the district. The following year the Earl of Essex defeated the Royalist troops, and took the town for the Parliament, when he was assisted by a fleet under the Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick. The towns proved a rich prize for the captors, as, in addition to much ammunition, etc., no less than sixty ships fell into their hands. The troubles of the inhabitants, however, were far from over, as in 1645 Sir Lewis Dyves received orders from the King to make an attempt to re-capture Weymouth, which, with the help of Sir W. Hastings, the Governor of Portland, he succeeded in doing, and drove the defenders across the harbour into Melcombe. On June 15th, 1644, the town surrendered to the Parliamentary Commander, Sir William Balfour, the final overthrow being largely due to the Earl of Warwick, who appeared off the harbour with a large fleet, originally mobilised for the relief of Lyme Regis. The spoils of war which fell into the hands of the captors included 100 pieces of ordnance, 2,000 muskets, 150 cases of pistols, 200 barrels of powder, and 1,000 swords, in addition to sixty ships of various tonnage lying in the harbour. The losses sustained by the combined towns in the Civil War amounted to £20,000, as a certificate from the Justices, in the Parliamentary Roll, testifies. The town to-day shows no trace of the fierce bombardments it underwent, but a house in Maiden Street has a “bogus” memento in the shape of a cannon ball foolishly inserted in the masonry some decades since.

Sidney Heath

Sandsfoot Castle

In 1649 the inhabitants petitioned Parliament for a grant of £3,000, to enable them to enlarge Melcombe Church, build a new bridge, and free the harbour from rubbish.

Doorway Sandsfoot Castle

The “Old Castle,” otherwise Sandsfoot Castle, situated about half a mile from Weymouth proper, is to-day nothing but a mere shell of the former stronghold. It was built by Henry VIII., about 1539, and was part of his scheme for the fortification of various parts of the coast, particularly Portsmouth, Portland, and Weymouth, against a possible invasion on the part of Papal Europe on his throwing off the Roman yoke in 1540. Leland calls it “a right goodlie and warlyke castel, havyng one open barbicane.” The existing masonry shows its form to have been a parallelogram, and from its commanding position it, no doubt, was a fortress of considerable strength. It is difficult to identify, from its crumbling remains, the various portions of the castle, but that portion to the north, from its vaulted character, appears to have been the Governor’s apartment; while fronting south was the gun platform, as the embrasure shows. This platform would also flank its east and west sides, which were also pierced for big guns, while almost level with the ground was the barbican, with two tiers of loop-holes for small arms.

On a tombstone at Whitchurch Canonicorum is the following inscription:—

Here lyeth Iohn Wadham of Catherstone, Esquyer, who deceased A.D. 1584, who was dewring his life time Captayne of the Queene’s Ma^ties castell called Sandesfote, besides Waymouth in the countye of Dorset.

Among its other Governors were George Bamfield, 1631; Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1643; Colonel Ashburnham and Colonel William Sydenham, 1644; and Humphrey Weld, of Lulworth, 1685. It is a matter for regret that this old building should have been so neglected, as each year sees large masses of its masonry falling over the cliff. As a writer as long ago as 1829 said:

Its remains even now attract many an inquisitive enquiry as to why it has been so neglected, as where the neighing of hostile steeds, and the busy clang of arms once sounded to the battle’s din, the humble grass now grows, its walls are the dormitories of the birds of the air, and its rooms afford pasturage to the cattle; a change certainly more gratifying to us as a nation; but still its bold towering appearance, as seen ascending the hill, or viewing it from the hill, reminds us of some bygone tale.

In addition to the castle, the town was further protected by several forts. Probably none of these were in the nature of permanent fortifications, except the Blockhouse, which stood near the east end of Blockhouse Lane. The New Fort, or Jetty Fort, was erected at the entrance of the harbour, at the end of the old pier, and was dismantled in 1661, although in Hutchins’ time three guns were placed in position on the same site. Then there was Dock Fort, under the hill, west of the Jetty Pier, St. Nicholas’ Chapel converted into a fort by the Parliamentary troops, and a small fort called the Nothe Fort.

Some Weymouth Tokens
The Town Token
Thomas Hyde
Bartholomew Beer
James Stanley
James Budd

Few events seem to have occurred during the Protectorate that need recording beyond the great naval victory gained by Blake over Van Tromp, off Portland; and, as some compensation for the damage done to their property during the reign of his father, Charles II. granted the town in 1660 an annuity of £100 a year for ten years from the Customs’ dues. It was during this reign that tradesmen coined small money or tokens for the convenience of those wishing to buy small quantities of goods, as but little small money was coined by authority. In 1594 the Mayor of Bristol was granted permission to coin a token, and the benefit to the community proved so great that the custom spread to other towns. Weymouth coined many of these tokens (see illustration), which were made of copper, brass, or lead, and decorated as fancy dictated. Every person and tradesman in the town was obliged to take them, and they undoubtedly answered the purpose of providing the people with small money. In 1672, however, Charles II. ordered to be coined a sufficient number of half-pence and farthings for the exigencies of the State, and these numorum famuli were prohibited as being an infringement of the King’s prerogative.

The grant of armorial bearings to Weymouth and Melcombe Regis bears the date of May 1st, 1592. The seals of the town were eight in number, a description of which is recorded in Ellis’s History of Weymouth.

When the ill-starred Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis in 1685, no Weymouthians seem to have flocked to his standard. Upon the failure of the rebellion the participants of the neighbourhood were quickly disposed of by Judge Jeffreys, who opened his Bloody Assize at Dorchester, and ordered them to be hanged at Greenhill, and their bodies to be dismembered and exhibited throughout the county as a warning to rebels.

Arms of Weymouth

So we come down to the close of the seventeenth century with little to record save devastating fires, plagues, and storms. A general period of poverty and depression seems then to have overtaken the two towns. The causes leading to this change, which had begun to show itself in the reign of Elizabeth, were many and various, and may be briefly ascribed to the concrete result of the vicious rule of the Stuarts, the removal of the wool trade to Poole, the loss of the Newfoundland trade, and the injury received during the Civil War. Ellis tells us that, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, “scarcely any idea can be formed of the general devastation and depression that everywhere prevailed. Houses were of little value ... the population had dwindled to a mere nothing ... old tenements fell down ... the inhabitants consisted chiefly of smugglers and fishermen.”

Before we turn to the brighter days which set in towards the middle of the reign of George III., a short account must be given of the larger memorials of the town—e.g., the old bridge, the priory, and the parish church, although it must be confessed that of important antiquities dating before the Georgian era the town has little to show beyond a few remnants of Jacobean houses, part of one solitary pillar of the chapel, and possibly a few old doorways; and in later and minor memorials the town is little better off. There is, in the Guildhall, the fine iron-bound chest before mentioned, and another, said to be of similar origin, bequeathed by the late Sir Richard Howard. There is also an ancient chair with a cardinal’s hat carved on the back, and the old stocks and whipping-post; but for the most part nothing has survived save the truly Georgian, such as round windows, picturesque doorways, and part of the old Gloucester Lodge, now an hotel—an altogether disappointing record in comparison with the long and varied history of the place.

Sidney Heath>

Old House on North Quay. Weymouth

Of the old chapel,[52] the one remaining stone is preserved in the wall of a school. The chapel was a chapel of ease to Wyke Regis, the mother-church of Weymouth, and was dedicated to St. Nicholas. It stood on the summit of a hill overlooking the old town of Weymouth, and its site is commemorated in the name “Chapelhaye,” by which the district is known. There are several documents extant relating to this chapel, and among extracts from the Liceirce is the following:—

None shall fail at the setting forth of the procession of Corpus Christi day, on pain of forfeiting one pound of wax, and each brother shall pay six pennies to the procession, and pay yearly.

Old Chair at Weymouth.

This relates to the fraternity or guild in the Chapel of St. Nicholas, which was founded by a patent granted in 20 Henry VIII. to Adam Moleyns, Dean of Sarum, and certain parishioners of Wyke Regis, and known as “The Fraternity or Guild of St. George in Weymouth.”

Before the building of a bridge across the harbour the means of direct communication between the two towns was, so Leland says in 1530, by means of a boat, drawn over by a rope affixed to two posts, erected on either side of the harbour, a contrivance which was in use at Portland Ferry as late as 1839. In 1594 this primitive method of crossing gave way on the erection of the wooden bridge before referred to, erected at the expense of several wealthy merchants of London, who appear to have had trading interests here. This, in its turn, was so seriously injured during the Civil Wars, that it fell to pieces, and was rebuilt in 12 Anne by Thomas Hardy, Knt., William Harvey, James Littleton, and Reginald Marriott, the towns’ Parliamentary representatives, and it continued in use until 1741, when a bridge sixty yards long, with a draw-bridge in the centre, took its place. The celebrated Bubb Dodington, the first and only Lord Melcombe, contributed largely to its cost. In 1770 another bridge was erected some seventy yards westward, thus increasing the length of the harbour; but as the inhabitants were forced to make a considerable detour to reach it, they petitioned against the proposed alteration, but to no purpose. In 1820 it was determined to erect the first bridge of stone,[53] which is still in use, and only calls for mention here from the fact that on pulling down some adjacent houses an urn filled with silver coins of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. was found; and it is said that some of the inhabitants had a fine haul of “treasure trove” on this occasion. More interesting, perhaps, was the discovery of a gilt brass crucifix, four inches long; and on the wall of one of the demolished houses was painted the following verse:—

God saue our Queene Elizabethe,

God send hir happie dayes;

God graunt her grace to

Persevir in his most holie wayes.

A. Dom. 1577.

The old priory, or, as it was more commonly called, the “Friary,” stood in Maiden Street. It was a house of the Dominican Friars, dedicated in the name of St. Winifred, although Speed gives Dominic as the dedicatory saint. Leland writes of it as “a fayre house of Freres in the est part of the town.” The ancient chair now in the Guildhall came from this priory, and it was said to possess miraculous powers of healing the sick, and otherwise blessing the devout who were privileged to sit upon it. The priory shared the fate of the other monastic foundations at the Dissolution.

Of churches which can be rightly considered as memorials, Weymouth has no example, as the oldest is that of St. Mary, the parish church. The foundation-stone was laid on October 4th, 1815; this church was erected partly on the site of a former church. It is a large, simple, and unpretentious building, of which some hard things have been said and written, but it is at least well built and free from sham, although of its architecture the less said the better. It is, however, somewhat redeemed by an excellently designed cupola containing one bell. Inside, an altar-piece by Sir James Thornhill, a native of the town, whose daughter married his pupil Hogarth, claims attention; as also does the following curious inscription, in which the artist, by contracting the word “worthiest,” has conveyed the very opposite estimate of the deceased’s character to that intended:—

UNDERth LIES Ye BODY OF
CHRISr. BROOKS ESQ. OF JAMAICA
WHO DEPARd. THIS LIFE 4 SEPr. 1769
AGED 38 YEARS, ONE OF Ye WORst. OF MEN
FRIEND TO Ye DISTRESd.
TRULY AFFECTd. & KIND HUSBAND
TENDER PARt. & A SINCr. FRIEND.

An old chalice belonging to the former church which stood on this site was in the possession of Mr. Ellis. It was made of pewter, weighed (without the lid, which was missing) 4½ lbs., and held four pints. On the front was engraved:

HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD,
ZACH. XIV., VER. 20.
JOHN STARR,
CHURCHWARDEN,
1633.

About the middle of the eighteenth century a gentleman of Bath, Ralph Allen (the original of Fielding’s “Squire Allworthy”), having been recommended sea-bathing for his health, found the shore of Melcombe so suitable for his purpose that he spoke of it to the Duke of Gloucester. His Royal Highness came, sampled the salt water, and built Gloucester Lodge, to which house he shortly afterwards invited the King, George III., who spent eleven weeks here, with his Queen and family, in the summer of 1789. The result of this and subsequent visits was that His Majesty purchased the house and converted it into a royal residence. A great stimulus was thus given to the town, which entered upon a period of prosperity; for here George III. held court, and heard the news of some of Nelson’s and Wellington’s victories. Very gay, indeed, was the life of those days, with music, feasting, and dancing, which took place in what is now called “the Old Rooms” (formerly an inn), across the harbour. It was at Gloucester Lodge that His Majesty received his ministers, and from whence he and Queen Charlotte used to walk to the little theatre in Augusta Place to witness the performances of Mrs. Siddons and her contemporaries. Queen Charlotte’s second keeper of robes was Fanny Burney (Madame D’Arblay), the chronicler of George III., and the author of Evelina and Camilla, for which last she received 3,000 guineas, with which sum she built Camilla Cottage, at Mickleham, near Dorking.

At Weymouth, in 1785, was born Thomas Love Peacock, the author of The Monks of St. Mark, and other works. He was Under-Secretary to Sir Home Popham, and afterwards Chief Examiner and Clerk to the East India Company, from which post he retired in 1856 with a pension of £1,333 per annum. He was a friend of Shelley, whom he had met on a walking tour in Wales in 1812. He died in 1866, aged eighty years.

In the long list of eminent men who have represented the towns in Parliament we find the names of Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam), Sir Christopher Wren, and the celebrated political adventurer, Bubb Dodington.

One of the most interesting studies for the topographer lies in tracing the origin of the names of the streets of a town; and the names of the principal streets of Weymouth are distinctly traceable to their origin. St. Nicholas’ Street derives its name from the patron-saint of maritime towns; Francis Street comes probably from Franchise; Boot Lane (formerly Buckler’s), from an inn called “The Boot”; Helen Lane, from Queen Eleanor, who held the manor of Melcombe; Maiden Street, from Queen Elizabeth, who united the boroughs; and St. Edmund’s Street, St. Thomas’ Street, and St. Mary’s Street, possibly from chapels dedicated in honour of these saints.

The Old Stocks, Weymouth.