# Lewesdon Hill

LEWESDON HILL
A POEM.
OXFORD:
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS, MDCCLXXXVIII. SOLD BY D. PRINCE AND J. COOKE, OXFORD: J. F. AND C. RIVINGTON, T. CADELL, AND R. FAULDER, LONDON.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The Hill which gives title to the following Poem is situated in the western part of Dorsetshire. This choice of a Subject, to which the Author was led by his residence near the spot, may seem perhaps to confine him to topics of mere rural and local description. But he begs leave here to inform the Reader that he has advanced beyond those narrow limits to something more general and important. On the other hand he trusts, that in his farthest excursions the connexion between him and his subject will easily be traced. The few notes which are subjoined he thought necessary to elucidate the passages where they are inserted. He will only add in this place, from Hutchins's History of Dorsetshire, (Vol. I. p. 366.) what is there said of Lewesdon (or, as it is now corruptly called, Lewson) 'This and Pillesdon Hill, surmount all the hills, though very high, between them and the sea. Mariners call them the Cow and Calf, in which forms they are fancied to appear, being eminent sea-marks to those who sail upon the coast.'
To the top of this Hill the Author describes himself as walking on a May morning.
LEWESDON HILL.
THE END.
* ↑ To coath, Skinner says, is a word common in Lincolnshire, and signifies, to faint. He derives it from the Anglo-Saxon coðe, a disease. In Dorsetshire it is in common use, but it is used of sheep only: a coathed sheep is a rotten sheep; to coath is to take the rot. Rechasing is also a term in that county appropriated to flocks: to chase and rechase is to drive sheep at certain times from one sort of ground to another, or from one parish to another. The Author having ventured to introduce some provincial and other terms, takes this occasion to say, that it is a liberty in which he has not indulged himself, but when he conceived them to be allowable for the sake of ornament or expression.
* ↑ The distressful condition of the Halswell here alluded to is thus circumstantially described in the narrative of her loss, p. 13. "Thursday the 5th, at two in the morning the wind came to the southward, blew fresh, and the weather was very thick: at noon Portland was seen, bearing N. by E. distance two or three leagues; at eight at night it blew a strong gale at S. and at this time the Portland lights were seen, bearing N. W. distance four or five leagues, when they wore ship, and got her head to the westward; but finding they lost ground upon that tack, they wore again, and kept stretching on eastward, in hopes to have weathered Peverel-point, in which case they intended to have anchored in Studland Bay: at 11 at night it cleared, and they saw St. Alban's-head a mile and a half to the leeward of them; upon which they took in sail immediately, and let go the small bower anchor, which brought up the ship at a whole cable, and she rode for about an hour, but then drove; they now let go the sheet anchor and wore away a whole cable, and the ship rode for about two hours longer, when she drove again.—They were then driving very fast on shore, and might expect every moment to strike!"
* ↑ 'Not far from this (Encombe) stands St. Aldene's Chapel: which took name from the dedication to St. Adeline, the first bishop of Sherbourne in this shire: but now it serves for a sea-mark.' Coker's Survey of Dorsetsh. p. 47. Near the sea is the high land of St. Aldhelm's, commonly called St. Alban's, a noted sea-mark. The cliff here is 147 yards perpendicular. On this promontory, about a mile S. of Worth, stands a chapel of the same name.' Hutchins's Dorsetsh. Vol. I. p. 228. But this headland is not marked by name in Hutchins's map. 'The very utter part of St. Aldhelm's point is five miles from Sandwich (Swanwich). Lel. Itin. Vol. III. p. 53.
* ↑ Shipton is a hill, which, according to common report, is so called from its shape; the top of it being formed like a ship with the keel upwards. It stands three miles from Bridport on the road towards London; which road passes by the foot of it to the North.
* ↑ A detail of this vast project is given at the conclusion of this Poem.
* ↑ Quint. Curt. lib. 4, cap. 2, 3.
* ↑ Juv. Sat. X. v. 173. 186.
* ↑ Hom. Il. VII. v. 436. 463. et Il. XII. v. 1, 33.
* ↑ Burton is a village near the sea, lying S. E. from Lewesdon, and about two miles S. of Shipton-hill beforementioned. The Cliff is among the loftiest of all upon that coast; and Smugglers often take advantage of its height for the purpose related in the poem.
* ↑ 'Eggardon Hill is a very high hill, and gives name to the Hundred. Mr. Coker says it is uncertain whether it takes its name from Edgar, king of the West Saxons, or from Orgarus, Earl of Cornwall: and indeed this last derivation is the truest; there being little reason to doubt that it is the old Orgarestone. The camp on the brow of this hill is a large and strong fortification, and seems to be Roman.'—Hutchins's Dorset, Vol. I. p. 289; where there is an engraving of this camp. But Hutchins has misrepresented Mr. Coker, who indeed prefers the derivation from Orgar. His words are these: 'That it takes name from Edgar, the West Saxon king, I dare not affirm, having nothing to prove it but the nearnesse of the name. It better likes me to think this the place, which in Doomsday-book is called Orgareston, but whether it take name from Orgareus, Earl of Cornwall, I know not; though I think I should run into no great error to believe it. Coker's Survey of Dorsetshire, p. 26.
* ↑ 'Mr. Hollis, in order to preserve the memory of those heroes and patriots for whom he had a veneration, as the assertors and defenders of his country, called many of the farms and fields in his estate at Corscombe by their names; and by these names they are still distinguished. In the middle of one of those fields, not far from his house, he ordered his corps to be deposited in a grave ten feet deep; and that the field should be immediately ploughed over, that no trace of his burial place might remain.' Memoirs of Thomas Hollis, Esq. vol. I. p. 481.
* ↑ Of the strange curse belonging to Shireburne-Castle. From a MS. of the late Bishop of Ely (Bp John More) now in the Royal Library at Cambridge. 'Osmund a Norman knight (who had served William Duke of Normandy from his youth, in all his wars against the French king, and the Duke's (William's) subjects, with much valour and discretion) for all his faithful service (when his Master had by conquest obteyned the crown of England) was rewarded with many great gifts; among the which was the Earldome of Dorsett, and the gift of many other Possessions, whereof the Castle and Baronie of Sherburne were parcell. But Osmund, in the declyninge of his age, calling to mynde the great effusion of blood, which, from his infancie, he had shedd; he resolved to leave all worldly delights, and betake himself to a religious life, the better to contemplate on his former sinnes and to obteyn Pardon for them. And, with much importunitie, having gotten leave of the Kinge (who was unwilling to want the assistance of so grave and worthy a Counsellor) to resign his temporall honors; and having obteyned the bishoprick of Sarum, he gave Sherburne with other lands to the Bishoprick. To which gift he annexed this curse, That whosoever should take those Lands from the Bishoprick, or diminish them in great or in small, should be accursed, not only in this world, but also in the world to come; unless in his life-time he made restitution thereof. And so he died bishop of Sarum. Those lands continued in the possession of his successors till the reign of King Stephen, who took them away; 'whereupon (says this Account) his prosperity forsook him.' King Stephen being dead, 'these lands came into the hands of some of the Montagues (after Erles of Sarum) who whilest they held the same, underwent many disasters. For one or other of them fell by misfortune. And finally, all the males of them became extinct, and the Earldome received an end in their name. So ill was their success. After this the lands were restored to the Bishoprick; but were taken away a second time by the Duke of Somerset, in the reign of Edward VI; 'when the Duke, being hunting in the Parke of Sherburne, he was sent for presently unto the Kinge (to whome he was Protector) and at his coming up to London, was forthwith committed unto the Tower, and. shortly after, lost his head.' The lands then, in a suit at law, were adjudged to the Bishop of Sarum; and so remained, 'till Sir Walter Raleigh procured a grant of them; he afterwards unfortunately lost them, and at last his head also. Upon his attainder they came, by the King's gift, to Prince Henry; who died not long after the possession thereof. After Prince Henry's death, the Erle of Somersett (Carr) did possesse them. Finally, he lost them, and many other fortunes.' Peck's Desid. Cur. Lib. 14. No. 6.
* ↑ 'How Dr. John Coldwell, of a Physitian, became a Bishop I have heard by more than a good many; and I will briefly handle it, and as tenderly as I can; bearing myself equal between the living (Sir Walter Raleigh) and the dead (Bishop Coldwell). Yet the manifest judgements of God on both of them I may not pass over with silence. And to speak first of the Knight, who carried off the Spolia opima of the Bishoprick. He, having gotten Sherborne Castle, Park, and Parsonage, was in those days in so great favour with the Queen, as I may boldly say, that with less suit than he was fain to make to her e'er he could perfect this his purchase, and with less money than he bestowed since in Sherborne (in building, and buying out leases, and in drawing the river through rocks into his garden) he might, very justly, and without offence of either Church Or State, have compassed a much better purchase. Also, as I have been truly informed, he had a presage before he first attempted it, which did foreshew it would turn to his ruin, and might have kept him from meddling with it,—Si mens non læva fuisset: For, as he was riding post between Plymouth and the Court [as many times he did upon no small employments) this Castle being right in the way, he cast such an eye upon it as Ahab did upon Naboth's Vineyard. And, once above the rest, being talking of it (of the commodiousness of the place, of the strength of the seat, and how easily it might be got from the Bishopric) suddenly over and over came his horse, that his very face (which was then thought a very good face) plowed up the earth where he fell. This fall was ominous I make no question; and himself was apt to construe it so. But his brother Adrian would needs have him interpret it as a conqueror, that his fall presaged the quiet possession of it. And accordingly for the present it so fell out. So that with much labor, cost, envy, and obloquy he got it habendum et tenendum to him and his heirs. But see what became of him. In the public joy and jubile of the whole realm (when favor, peace, and pardon, were offered even to offenders) he who in wit, in wealth, in courage was inferior to few, fell suddenly (I cannot tell how) into such a downfall of despair; as his greatest enemy would not have wished him so much harm, as he would have done himself. Can any man be so wilfully blind, as not to see and say, Digitus Dei hic est!" Harrington's Breif View, p. 88.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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