The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-04-08 00:00:00

bIARTOCK AND ITS LAMENTABLE CONDITION.

The following appeared in our contemporary, the
Telegran!::—

SIR,—I have read your paper with interest, and
from its contents I Sod you are willing to give place
to any suggestion for improvement to any locality
where your paper reaches.
"So beautifully adorned by Nature's works, and
surrounded by trees and evergreens, mingled with
hills and valleys, and the trickling stream here and
there gliding along, unconscious of the waves of a
mighty ocean! To stand and gaze upon bow lovely,
in the sun of a hundred summers' glow I Cast the
eye upwards and behold the starry elements, thence
downwards and around. One could not help saying
How wonderful are thy works, 0 God, and thy
ways past finding out 1" So much for the beauty and
scenery of Martock, by a recent resident. Perhaps
a word for its improvement might prove efficacious in
stirring the good and generous to a little activity in
repairing and improving this pretty little town to
a more cleanly appearance. First, the pavement
requires the aid of a stonemason. I should think
they have not been removed or repaired within the
last ten years. Are there not any road surveyors to
see that the pavement is kept in proper repair, or to
give the owners of houses notice to repair? No
surveyors to see that the inhabitants themselves
should keep their own door fronts clean and decent
by the aid of broom and water? Why appoint
surveyors at all, if the work is not done? Why
should it be left wholly to sunshine and rain to do
the part of those who ought to see such things were
done, and done properly? Oliver Cromwell, in his
rambles, forgot to call at Martock, or else the so-
called Market-Hall could not have resisted his
cannon and ball. It would be a decided improve-
ment to see the old lumber room removed to a more
remote place, and to rebuild with the stone
and wood a respectable concert room, that
the people of Martock might have a decent
room to call their own for public entertainments.
A great scope for improvement is now before
the public, either to come boldly to the front, or, as
careless parishioners, allow thegrass to grow beneath
their feet. Improvement and education is fast
spreading itself around on every side. Why does
not Martock arouse and sing its martial sang "Os,
on," &c. A combination of gentlemen who surrounds
its neighbourhood ought to move each other to more
activity in assisting and urging the question—how to
work and how to improve the town of Martock.
I am air, yours truly,—A RESIDENT.

BATH.—FIGHT AT A BURIAL BOARD MEETING.—
To say the members of the St. Saviour's Burial Board
are at inter-heads among themselves is to give a very
faint idea indeed of the disorganised state of that body.

At a meeting convened for business at the office of
the Board, in Alfred-street, on Monday evening, a
most unseemly fracas took place, in conscquenre of an
attempt by Mr. Brown, and subsequently by Mr.
Mr. Chsffin, to real a resolution. Mr. Cowilry, the
cleric, in his endeavours to prevent the resolution being
read, came in collision with hfr. Chaffin, and after •
bandying of personalities several blows passed between
the parties, and • regular stand-up fight would have
ensued had not the brother memisers of the Board in-
terfered and separated the combatants. The afar has
created considerable interest amongst the public, in
consequence of the position of Vie parties—one being a
churchwarden and town councillor, and the other a
solicitor. The result of the squabble has been the issue
of several summonses, and their hearing is looked
ferward to with no little gusto.—This beats the Wey-
mouth Town Council hollow.

BRISTOL-0o Wednesday, at the Gloucester
Assizes, Mr. Henry H. Peters, the shipping masttr of
this pt.rt, who it will be recollected was a short time
since committed on a charge of forgery, was, after a
long trial, acquitted.
Loss OF 30 LIVED AND 300 HEAD OF CATTLE.—The
Western*Daily News of Thursday, a Bristol paper, says :
—We this morning reoord the disastrous loss of the
Waterford and Bristol steamer Mars, on Crow Rocks,
about three miles from Milford Haven. The vessel,
which sailed regularly between this port and Waterford,
belonged to the Steam Navigation Company of the
latter town, and has not been long on the line. For
many years the Mars was the favourite boat between
Liverpool and Waterford, and recently she took the
place of the Camilla in the Waterford and Bristol line.
The vessel was of one hundred horse-power, and Was
one of the largest of our steamers, drawing a greater
depth of water than any vessel sailing from this port
Full particulars of the circumstances in which the
wreck took place have not yet reached us, but it
appears from what we have learned that on Tuesday
night, whilst on her passage to Bristol, she encountered
a heavy gale during a thick fog, and struck upon the
AL out Rooks. A ut fifty lives were sacrificed, and
about three litindrd cattle were destroyed. The intelli-
gence of the dimes r, as may easily be imagined, created
great excitement i this city.