The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-03-09 00:00:00

1

linnet Conutti exiltess,

DORCHISTER, TUESDAY, MARCH 9, AK

With switrieing rapidity the Dorchester end of the
Weymouth road has be= converted from a beautiful
*venue of Mn. old tree. into a road about as dull and
mediocre as is to be seen near a country town of as
much importance as Dorchester. The discumion in
the Council as to whether one more tree sheuld follow
the three which were said to have fallen, seems to be
unite ludicrous when judged by the fact that over a
dame of the giand trees which arched the rood with
Nature's Gothic have fallen victims to the new mw
which the ex-Mayor cleverly induced the Council to
buy, or to the axe, in one case even to
which brought down a splendid
rdpe with • climb on Friday. When we went
towards the Fairfield on Saturday, eleven root-stamps,
one fallen tree, and one Mn. wych-elm, whereat the
axe was chopping with Gladstonian energy, were signs
of the clearance the Council and M. Pope have
undertaken. The avenue on the Weymouth-road is
thus separated from the town by a greet gap, over
which the east wind is free to blow, and where the
new buildings for the brewery are revealed in all
their brick-red and petty-windowed charms. And
this destruction of noble trees they attempt to justify
by • so-called improvement, which will lower the
footpath to an average height of half-a-yard. There
is a tradition of some remarkably stoat person having
rolled over the side of the elevated path, but this can
hardly be a lvanoed as a reason for incurring n'l the
expense and perpetrating the destruction. -We have
ourselves no particular love for the openings in the
old path, having once fallen into one when snow had
o edge. selowded the But if the Council liad consulted
the @slaty of lootqweresgers only, • fence against the
part would have prevented the danger of falls,
ttbe itstiaddition would have helped to keep away from
the footpath the cattle going to and from the Fair-
field, but which now ere more likely than ever to
alarm and Sedffiligar paingegers on the path. Only one
thing remains to bedsit= the ugliness which the
Council have mad* apparent, and that is that they
should cut down the lest clump of trees rema niug on
the Beggars' Keep and thus throw open the unsavoury
revelation of the Janet:ion Hotel stables to these who
oome In from the Weymouth-road. A few more
Nook shuns of their new saw, and the Council will
MaDorchester from being one of the most beauti.
ll
ow= in the South to an aggregation of public-
Woes, breweries, and gaols, about a lot of hones@
with nothing to save them from being commonplace.

Fishermen in Dorchester are bound to become
fewer and tampar if the Fishery Association continue
to have their Ivey. We are informed that the twelve
Privildnad inhabitants of Dorchester who may ply the
gentle sport for a guinea a rim, are become reduced to
eight or so, end that the emanation do not even fill
up this small number by admitting others in the place
of those who retire. Of course the general public
have little or DO chance, and the plutocrats who
Indulge themselves and preserve the rivers by their
fivergeinsa subscriptions, may shut out thaw who wish
to job, even at this rate. Perhaps the expenses of
=ng will prevent any serious amount of bleak.
towards those who are rich enough to rive the
larger sum; but the smaller subscribers may in time
become extinct, and then the fishing be entirely in the
hands of the rich, • consummation scarcely, we should
think, intended by the Lord of the Manor. The
borough of Dorohester Is quite loyal enough to have the
fishing privilege' extended I. at least a representative
twelve of its bhabitants, while it would hardly damage
the big guns of the Fishery Association if they
anoouragai sport by allowing an occasional day'. fish.
big to • respectable inhabitant, for instance one who
pays rent and taxes for one of the largest businesses in
the town,

A hon, dignitary of the Church of England GM
suggest no better memorial to the venerable vicar of
Fordington than • window In the church. Apart from
the extreme difficulty about an east window of Ford-
legion church, we take leave to suggest that any
memorial of the late Vicar should be a living one,
rather than an addition to • fabric, however associated
with him. The late Vicar's work, though he did
build and repew, was almost infinitely more connected
with living souls than the dead shell of thecburch, and
if an east window were, by and by, to be filled in with
stained sla perhaps of each " Warn" as the newest
window is Frampton Church depicts—nothing could
be farther from the tasted; and wishes of the
Rev. H. Moule. The Fordiogton people must
be on the watch against the introcluction of things
which may undermine what Mr. Motile held most dear,
and an ornamental window may possibly be the thin
end of the wedge. To receive honour one of another
in this way "seems as opposed to the genius of Mr.
Moule's teaching, as the setLiug up of a Bishop's
Throne is to the whole spirit of the teaching of the House
of God. Fordington people know that the best
memorial would be that the Evangelical teaching and
anti-Popish warning be deemed so essential should
unmistakably come from his succeesor.

Weymouth is feebly exercised about what is called
for want of a better name—a Winter Garden. If that
were, pure and simple, what Sir Frederic Johnstone
wanted, then the great question of the site must be
solved by Sir Frederic; but if the object be to provide
what is must bitterly wanted in Weymouth—a place
to pass agreeably a few hours when it rains, the matter
may be managed if the committee's ideas are not too
large. There is the space in front of the Royal.
terrace, when the King's Statue might be enclosed,
perhaps with some alteration of the pedestal. Mr.
Abbey's scheme to cover in the New South gardens
might be modified into practical form, though they
would hardly play lawn-tennis under glass ; the interior
of the Markethouae might be enclosed, and an lissom
bly room constructed above, and a good many people
be thus sheltered, and offered music and some other
pastime,whether an aquarium,a perennial flower show,
or both. A large scheme would be banished to the
Park or still further from the streams of visitors, unless
Sir Frederic has an area which he could offer free or
on such easy terms as the Friary was once offered for
the Market-house; but a pleasure hall is within the
limits of reason and common-sense.

Mr. °rolre'. guinea has obtained& notoriety seldom
gained by twenty-one shillings which were only in
prospect as a gift. The Radicals of Weymouth were,
It seems, a little too hasty in suspecting something
Imperial in the offer; the guinea WM a guinea and
that was all. Of course It would go but a very little
way towards the cost of re-publishing such a lengthy
harangue as Mr. Cowen's ; but perhaps, indeed it is
vtr ely, more costly admiration may be shown by
Weymouthisns for the speech of Mr. Bright.