The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1877-06-12 00:00:00

down, or somebody go out of his mind. I like to see men
do their work as if they were masters of it, and able to
do halls,' much again ; but I fancy that too much anxiety
may be seen in the faces of some of the officials, and when
the mackerel and potato seasons are oa, a few more hands
at Weymouth station would, I think make more com-
fortable work, and be more profitable for the company in
the end.

The Portland Railway is no longer to he the loathes&
for everyone that has to walk into Portland, and who does
not choose to go by Portntore or Wyke. Pedestriane will
find it rather hard lines to be turned off the line, for it
adtls a good Ion; piece to your walk, if you have to diverge
to the village of grave-yards. As a boy. I often walked to
Portland along the Salallmouth Sands: but they have
been long ago swept away, and the underlying beach bears
further hindrances to locomotion in the shape of groins,
so that we are caught between the upper and nether mill-
stones, the difficulty of walking on the seashore, and prose-
cution for going on the line. There really ought to be a
foothpath provided in the straight direction from Wey-
mouth to Portland, or the company will always be at war
with sailors and soldiers.

The gallant adjutant who object. to soldiers being hand-
cuffed for violent damagine of property, or who lays
information against the borough force, for putting down
soldiers rows, should read, mark, learn, he, what
happened on Saturday. Two bad characters had broken
their leave, and one man is sent to arrest them. He has
to call in the police, and when the soldiers are taken to
the station, they kick and strike out all round. These
kicks and thump rake the price of such men as will
Berra in the constabulary, and are suitable for it. for
Englishmen and peace oflicers are not to he treated ss the
natural enemy. The gallant Adjutant may do much more
good by taking what steps he can to ensure that strong
and reliable pieTiets are sent out, than by even hinting to
the soldier that distrust and dislike of the police which
many redcoats are quick to take advantage of.

Has the Palmo-crystie sea poured out its hoard of cold
and storm upon no in mockery of the Ind Arctic Expedi-
tion. or has the migration of the barbarous hordes of
Scythia to the Danube brought southward real Russian
weather! Here we have a wreck, a thorough Knash-op
and destruction of a stout brigantine, not in the
November gales, not in blustering Murch, not in fickle
April, or even the merrie month of May, but in restful,
hot, sleepy June as we thought her :
" In the hot midsummer, when the hay is down."
Very little hay there would have been left to the fields,
had it been mown before the fated First. A regular
tempest puffed itself upon our coast: the potatoes. AS ?hey
stood fiat-hoed in the ri lites, were in many places beaten
into leaf-shreds more hepeless than if frost-bitten, the
broad beans came to earth cracked and ruined, the pear
tree% ah me! where shall we get our Chaumoreels for
Christmas I for the pear trees were thinned beyond
reckoning by the storm. And the Balaclava of Dorset,
the little ring-shaped cove of lxilworth, was smitten by
the south-easter, arid the gallant Sarah

....
--"She 'gen stir
With a short uneasy motion.
Backwards and forwards half her length.
With a short uneasy motion.
, 'Then like • pawing horse let go.
She made a oublen bound"—
For she had parted her port cable, and on to the rocks
"Went drifting on a fatal shore."
Gallant Captain Norris held by the vessel till it was
" leave" or " life" • bat the determined coastguard got him
ashore a disappointed man. There is one comfort left us
yet, all through this winter, extended as it has been into
June—we have not yet had a life lost in a wreck on our
own coast.

The violent storm tested our outer pier, for we have a
couple of square rock islands settled in the water a long
way east and by north of the Nothe. These monster
islands are each one solid block of concrete weighing 0.3
Inmdred and twenty five, to over one hundred and fifty or
more tons, and as the water slips by them like glass, at
Mr. Challoner, the courteous and practical foreman to
Mr. Jackson says, I feel pretty sure they'll stand the
storm. fist I'm not a competitor for the office of lamp-
lighter at the Pier End. I should rather fear that, going
along the wave-washed surface of the Extension, hold I
on never so tight, I should he taken from the massive
hand-rail to make one of the queerest of queer fish in that
great aquarium below.

Captain Chimino, like ali al pet, adheres to the aquarinm
scheme, for the 'nom you batter against him the firmer he
holds. The establishment expenses some people were
afraid of, and straightway down goes the gallant captain
and proclaims that the directors will give their services
for nothing. The Floral Hall Company don't get their
limpet-knife under hitu ; he believes in the aquarium in
the Park, and votes the hotel and floral hall plan too big
a scheme. By the way, it is not to the Park people that
lam indebted for the hint that that romantic place of
clothes-lines is suitable for an aquarium because torus
very odd fish are there. It. inhabitants have, some of
them, announced a regatta; but where is it I fear my
readers are ready to exclaim " Walker."

Equally unbelieving are the Weymouth Town Band
when it is sought to let them know they are nut wanted.
Like the Servians, when the foreigner came down upon
them and wanted to do away with local talent, they stand
up for their own, and by their spirited playing prove that
they are worthy some consideration. Vanstucci's band is
iso doubt a capital one ' • but there is a good deal to be said
for the home team. Real Weymouthians stay here all
the year, and lay themselves out to cheer up the other
Inhabitants in the "winter of our discontent." At any
rate they help to pus the time pleasantly and to be
elbowed out by casuals, who have come from somewhere
between Constantinople and Scotland, is what Weymouth-
ass won't stand without a fight for it. If the Town Band
are aide to please the visitors they are not to be suppressed
at will. Nor will it be good if Mr. Elwards has to com-
plain in the interest of the Weymouth bandmaster—
" Whereas my letter, praying on his part,
(Because I knew the man) was slighted off."
We inhabitants hate • strong battle for a living against
the casuals, who just drop down during the sunme•r, and
think they are ebtitleil to take away from UP, the cream of
the selletOn, and then flit off, leaving us to screw out four
quarters of the rates, taxes, and rent. Some of these
people pay a ss, license for hawking, and limier-sell our
! shop goods from their hand barrows on the Esplanade or
near the Railway Station some of them are like comets,
remarkable principally for the length of their tails (tales)
! and their widely diffused cloudiness over things in general:
I others claim to be specialists in their particular line, and
! other people are led to think that no local man is fit to
holil a candle to them. .Your casual drops into temporary
lodgings, and does not fash himself with a house; some-
times he searches for the season at another place, when
he has got all he wants out of Weymouth. and lets the
I interests of the town which has fest him go to the winds
; for all he cares. The Italian hand are of the specialist
kind. and I mu bound to say they are very good; the
' committee have done right to engage thcm, and already
their competition hn4 brushed up the Weymouth band to
an increase of smartness. We Weymouthians must take
care there is no clashing or discord between the two;
there is no need for that, as they ran play on different
days, or at widely separated points. Our Weymouth hand
must not do anything inharmonious. and there is no need,
for we townsmen are not afraid. But give us fair play,
and when we set ourselves to the work we can beat the
casuals in the long run, for pact experienee tells us that,
after fretting their little hour upon the stage, they go back
into that unknown whence they came. Fair play for the
Weymouth men!
DISCF-V9.