The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-11-30 00:00:00

Stnnuar.

Total Atonal
(kart Chug'.
.£ d.
General improvements ... ... 3013 320 17 2
Spacial ditto ~. 2000 1 15 7
Private ditto ... 5192 1200 14 5
DRIITS DOE FROM THE CORPORATION.
.0 d.
Sir John Good.. ... 476 0 0
lialanni late Tn•rn Cl..rk'n 815 0 0
L,w ammo. B ekwatow-bridie 300 0 0
Ditto foe pier .. 300 0 0

£lB9l 0 0
Beside.' this £lB9l still to he met, £BOO is borne by the
2.. rate jut road*, the total to be paid being £2491.
The amount of rata has been creaming up from 2i. in
14 months, at which it atood in 1802-9, to 21. in six
nrintha ai at mese'''. not ix to say, two one..hilling
raten iiiiffierd from March 2, 1508, to liar 11, if 19. and
notwiolistanding that the rateable value has vastly
incroa.ed mince then, no reloef has heen felt from the
• ilitional pronertv ; bat our ratal appears likely to be
4.. 21. in the for a twolvottuonth, instead of 2.. in the
g for 14 month.. Every one must be indebted to Mr.
Robson for unearthing such facts. because they show the
necessity of thrift.
And yet, so long utile work is economically performed
one must aupsom that an siblition to the rate of 944. in
the will solder. On the eb-ive showing. the combined
enna of £2lO IT-. 21. and £122 15.. Td., or £443 lb. 9.1., is
what is proposed to he n 44.1. Much rhould we have pro-
faned that some "diatinct and palpable" attraction were
given to the town by all the outlay. But no winter-
gardens, no aviary, no gondola canals, no additional boat-
ing, no groups of trees, no country lanes betted. seem
Included. The one grand rrosption (unless e Pork and
Barrack.field-road is also included in the schemes) is that
et the road from Motley's House to join the Trinity School-
reed—a genuine hit of economy combined with boldness,
which may make an improvement worthy to adjoin the
improved bridge, and open up the Weymouth Ward and
It, eurroundings to viiitora, eye-burnt, and weary of the
Brolanadr, sod disincline 1 (until the Council shall make
access easel to face the tramway trains and looomotives,
In search of our swans.

A proposed road, understood to be a favourite plan of
the Mayor's, from Renelagh-street, alongside or through
the Park, and leading up towards the Bernick-field, may
be one grand step t 'wards opening up this district, and it
will be valuable, imperially where it skirts the shore of the
Backwater itself, only let it be curved seas to be beauti-
ful, and he planted with groups of trees, and let us not
Inas sight of the delights to be gained from the upper
Backwater Itself, when partly deepened and partly
realainsed.

• H7•lng just briefly referred to our undeveloped
Boum% of attraction in the Corporation's own nroperty,
we would ag:in call attention to the Badipole Lake and
Ito bank.. West Btplansie" will yet, we have good
hope, do for Weymouth • Dorsi°. similar, tiles. in amount.
to that the great puhlim gardens do for Bournemouth.
While we have nothing like these free gardens, it is hope-
less to expect visitors to be drawn by tidying up streets,
or lov twits! hilts. . . . .

But, while we would not oppose, or hardly criticise, the
haste that goes in for fences like that which supplanted
the grand old frees at Rodwell, like that which enviously
coot .als Mr. Dereniales beautiful shrubbery, ea reefs to
the Rot well Station—teste which delights in ter-paving,
wall., awl other trirnaeues—we do loci for sows bits of
reel beauty opened up, instead of the mosey being devoted
to the tar-psviog end kerbiogof approaches to" villas and
all that is eillanouo"

The ste Kayar bad a abort campaign on one occasion in
favour of country lanes. and Kr. Robens himself we should
like lost. join in inch aorta There is too much consent
among our tradesmen to keep the visitors in their shops,
and let them there find all that is to amnse. Such •
short.elehted policy csonot fail to keep them away from a
place where, unless thee pity, they may go from Dan to
Beembehe and find all hirree, while the few that delight
mile in shopping soon find the minor mysteries of trade
more del is h ..fu I, end go for beaters and those impmwishers
of the mid lie-claw, c -operative stores. But let the
munkipaltr supply whet visitors want, and they will not
fail to spend, and that the more happily because they we
not driven to it In desperation of finding anything else.
It ly holvdent, we imPorme, to ask the Johnstone Estate
foci,. an &rani. &Hormone of laud to the houses. Do that
residenis mar be hstoy in their "garden, chosen and
made peculiar remind.
B I, it nnt to he a hopeless wish that we should
sopplement the finest bracing watering•platte on the south
mast, with n milder one uniorahll dtttine the wintm by
more delicate frame.. Radipole lake, our West shore, our
Swannery-there lies the thanes of adding • miniature
Bournemouth to our Weymouth, and could the scheme
heralded In with such • flourisha trumpets in the time of
Kr. Arden's father end our present Alderman Killedge—
but drowned in the Park mud—be revived and adapted,
with suitable alterations for the Upper Backwater, a
spirit of enthusiarni miebt be arroused for it, that would
leech at a dos-n 2d. rate,.
We do not find fault with the coat of genuine improve.
menty, no long as they are really beautiful, and not
simply trim ; but if the proposers fancy they are going to
lengthen Weymouth's season by tar-pavements, and
•traieitnerees, without giving &genuine addition—fsee the
little North gardens, whose charm is their nnnnn Dowel—
we fear their 211. rates will be unprofitable, and the
results dull and stale—s decent country lane were worth
the lot.. . . _

Mr. Rabensa idea about animal farms should not be for.
gotten : but that we leave him to plead for.
To conclusion. while we mend our ways, and pot all
things decent and in order, don't let us fancy that additions
of streets and stores nod smoothneasee are going to do
more than molts It easier to do tho business that exists
th-v sill not drew mon, visitors. Clifton were positively
hid•aus in its oft.nneateri lines of grand houses, were It
not for the beautiful appro lichee to the Avon Valley. We
have no such things of beauty a. the Zig-zag and Use
Busyrnsion Bridge: nor bare we Baurninnouth's great
public gardens; liot the Connell have the Backwater and
the Ilsonacks, which they may make the second charm of
Weymouth. or they may leave it to weed and mud, that
shall stifle the prosperity of the tau.,
Weymouth, November. 1880.

Discrms.