The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1868-11-03 00:00:00

STURMINSTER.

Divistonnt PEITyr Simone, MomLey.—There
were 26 summonses hinted, nod the following were
heard before Captain Benham, It.N., J. Hussey, Esq..
and the lies. H. T. Bower.

Henry Stodart, of Child Okeford, who did not appear,
was fined 1 ls. including costs for being drunk and in-
capable on the 6tb October. The policeman who proved
the once, said that when be saw its defendant he was
being conveyed home in • wheelbarrow.
John Read, of Stocrpaine, was fined 10a. Including
Goats for • similar offence.

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John Read and William Percy, the latter of whom
did not appear, were severally thud Si. and 2a. coats for
a breach of the Highway Act.
Elizabeth Kendall, of Mamball,whn by her daughter,
pleaded poverty u a defence, was ordered to pay fie.
poor rates due to the overlain of that pariah.
William Smart and Matthew Coombs, agninet whom
three previous couvietione were recorded, were fined
sub 32.5. and costa Be. for being drunk and riotous at
Haulbury on the nicht of Sunday, October IL They
each paid 84. and were allowed a month to pay the
rest.

J ohn Tito, of Etalbridge, was fined 61., costs remitted
for moulting Walter Ashford on 4th October. The
evidence clearly proved that gross provocation by
Asford was the cause of the assault.
George Everett, and Eli Hyde, of Stalbridge, pleaded
guilty to having a ferret in their possession for the
purpose of hiking game. K t haring been previously
convicted was fined 10s. and costs 5a., and Hyde, 6&
and Is. oosts,.. . _

eleo—rg. e—W-Illiame, of Mar-obeli, wan ordered to provide
proper closet accommodation to certain premien
belonging to him in that village within a week.
Samuel Mitchel, bverhotme keeper,of Harelbery, was
fined 404. and Ti. coats for allowing drunkennem in hie
house on Sunday evening, October 11th, be having been
four times previously convicted.
The following mei were heard before IL S. Yeatman,
M. watiams, Harry Farr Yeatman, and H. B. Bower,
&qrs., in another room.
Charles Short pleaded guilty, and wee lined 10a. and
IS,. cost, for being drank and riotous at Bturminater
Newton. - . _

Elisabeth Laws,. aged 12, of libillinptoae, pleaded
guilty by ber solicitor, to • charge of stealing apples
from an oroltsrd belonging to Mary Ann Lawrence, and
was fined 61. • damage 2d.
f , and coots ls. 6d.
Robert Roberto, of Okeord Fitspaioe WIN fined ss.
and 6s. eosin for being drank and riok:lts on the 2Sth
September.
ftiehard Hart pleaded guilty to s breach of the
Highway Act, by tethering • donkey on the bighwil.—
Fined Is. and 2s. mists

Thomsa Mullett was fined W., costa remitted, for
allowing a donkey to stray on the highway in the perish
of Ibberton.
--

Henry Senior and James Parsons, of Sta'bridge, wore
aluurd with stealing apples, the property of Samuel
lioms, On the 26th Sept.—Parions waa fined 71. 74.
inoluding damage and costs, and the ease against Senior
was withdrawn.

Joisstisen Fudge, of Sturminstar, who wst summoned
on two informations of trespass in search of genie, one
on lands in ocoupstion of Mr. Jeffeties, of Pentridge
farm, and the other on lauds at Little Infehead, over
which Mr. C,onnop haa the right of shooting, was for
cash offence fined £5 including cores, nod in default
seatensed to two months' imprieonment, the second
two mouths to 00010301100 at the es piration of the first
aaatawas.

MANAGE AS A HEALTH RESORT.

liwanwleb is at the eastern extremity of the rocky
meat of Dorset iced Devon. It is reached by an 11 miles
drive after leaving the London and South Western
station at Wareham; • pleasanter way is to lessee the
train at Poole and come by steamer, bat this untie-
Innately only plies in summer, and not then in bad
weather. Thus the distance from London is not excessive,
and the eleven miles of road are cheaply accomplished
by private carriages or omoilbuies to snit • large party,
and by a public omnibus for the solitary traveller.
Many people who rave about Scotland know not that
the step from Piccadilly to Poole heath by the London
and South Western Railway, brings true moorland
scenery within three hour's distance. On leaving
Wareham. the traveller passes about five miles of wild
heath-clad gravel, clay, and sand, extensively excavated
by clay pits, seeing before him a gigantic rampart of
chalk bills which shuts in the Purbeck district. In
this rampart thole is • defile called in old English
eerie (trout " cowl in," cads "carve")—that is to say,
the eta or 9ap, commanded by the etc pendoux ruins of
• castle ; and this "code," pealing a neat little town of
the same name, the traveller enters the valley of
Purbeck, once celled "Isle" because only to be got at
by riven and swamps by Wareham. So at last he
reaches the old town of Swanwieh, built in a straggling
line alongside the Beek, which in ancient times was •
swannery in the midst of • forest. Lodgines at Swan-
's-Loh must be secured beforehand in the season, but are
usually to he had cheap, and in new clean houses. There
Is but one large hotel, and one small but comfortable
Inn. Meat is cheap and good, so are butter, milk, egge,
and poultry; bread indifferent ; fruit scarce, except
apples; and fresh soles and mullet sometimes procurable
at London twice,. The lobster, traditionally abundant,
Is really almost extinct- The bathing is perfect, and
thoroughly sate. There is • brewery which produces
capital pale ale. There is an admirable institute boilt by
• patriotic native Mr. Mowlem, with • fine public
room, library, and piano for the use of visitors. The
air is remsrkably fresh and exhilarating, with nothing
relaxing about it, and the weakest wight may be set
on his legs with food and exercise and an air which soon
leaves its osoniferous tints on the ruddy cheeks of the
visitors. If, besides, a man wants something to think
about, be,will find materials of which my feu I. that I
shall get out of my depth in describing them. Sandwich
may be Galled • book of geology with all the leave
ant. Let us Imagine the chalk, with all the strata
below in suceemion down to the lower Portland beds,
burst open from below, so as to leave the edges of the
ruptured bede reposed on the surface one after another
--all beside, seen in section—at about an angle of 45
deg. Tha: is the view Swanwitch Bay. On the north
a huge down of uplifted chalk in its various division.,
with and without flint% chute it off from Poole Harbour
and the snug village of Studland ; next to it the series
of richly-coloured clays and sands, known as green
sands, Beatings beds, etc.; then the Purbeck beds of
shell, marble, and stone. Now let us imagine all these
formations set upon an edge, with their sections exposed
In order on the sea-shove--the soft clays and rends
scooped out in the middle to form the bay, and the
whole country from between the chalk and the Purbeek
stone beds washed out so as to make a valley—and this
will give an idea of the Swanwich Bay and valley. The
chalk hills rising to the height of nearly 7(X)ft. form a
rampart on the north, interrupted by the cut in which,
as I have said, the road from Wareham puree by the
magnificent ruin of Corfe Castle. The Purbeck beds on
the couch are continuous with those hills of Purbeck
and Portland formation which rise abruptly from the
us, and form the precipitous iron-bound coast known
as St. A Idhelm's Head, till they are succeeded by the
softer Kimmeridge shale beds. Mount one of these
hills, and you get a view which for richness and variety
can hardly be equalled. The Needles and Isle of
Wight, 15 miles to the outward, the cliffs of Bourne-
mouth, six miles across the sea; Poole Harbour, •
glittering estuary, dotted with Islands, huge tracts; of
"blasted heath" around it; on the west, the Isle of
Portland and cliffs near Weymouth; and northward,
the distant viol/led hills after hills, MA abrupt and hard,
but soft, melting, and mystical, with endless siaceemion
of blue and grey distances. It is superfluous to say
what stores of specimens our geological museums have
derived from this district, especially through the seal
of that accomplished naturalist, Mr. Charles Wilcox,
the surgeon of Wareham. If the observer, wearied
with the countless ages into which geology leads him
back, should prefer something of more present and
human intercat, be may turn to the innumerable
barrows which crown every prominent hill. the
irerial-elaces of Agamemnons who had,alas I no Romer ;
he may explore the immense quadrangular
earthworks roiled the four sides of the ancient
town of Wareham, sufficient to enclose a town of
30,000 inhabitants. and may speculate on the decay
which seems to have fallen on the south of England. as
regards political importance and postulation, from the
time when the Danes fought for Wareham, as one of
the most important plum in Wessex to its present state.
like that of • petty Babylon, where cabbage gardens
occupy the bite within these ancient earthworks, once
filled by a castle and stately churches, and re-
sounding with the tramp of armed men. No district
can give • better idea of the silent changes due to daily
geological causes, and the sum of these changes within
• given time. Poole harbour is • huge eetuary extend-
ing miles inland, but gradually filling and contracting,
and its navigable part at low water reduced to • mere
river between mudbenks. At the further eetremity
the ancient seaport of Wareham was built for security
in • swamp, between the Puddle and the Froine, two
rivers which drain part of Dareetabire. But the
alluvia brought down by the rivers now make Wareham
two miles from the shore; mere barges crawl tip its
rivers. and She tradition that • ship of 170 tons got up
there TO year, ago shows the state of a port which was ,
once summoned to provide ships of war for the Edwards I
and Bernie's, and where collectors received the dues
upon the wine imported from Gsscony. Salmon, too,
used to frequent the rivers, and the-e are amounts of
the fry being caught and sold at 2.L per quart, and,
further, that the spent fish, called loggia, front their
weakness and torpidity, used to be caught by the
natives and sold at 21. per lb. But the salmon are
now matters of tradition, although, like the ruined
churches, the fragments of estelesiestioal buildings, the
human remains found whereever the surface is
dug into, their eitinet on seems to meek the course of
events in historical ilium The seaport town of Poole,
which arose in is neighbouring pentinsula on the decay
of Wareham, is now decaying of like want of water, and
it is rosy to foresee that vest estuary converted into •
heath and meadows like those around by the gradual
silting up of the harbour with detritus. But who shall
tell us the time that haa passed since the district was
raised from its latest submenion. and the rate of
elevation of the various old aeabeaches around? It
seems clue that all the changes which within the last
3,000 years have converted sea-bed into dry lend have
consisted in levelling down the bills and filling the
valleys and estuaries, not in uplifting the face of the
country; for Wareham is now but just above the high-
water level, and consequently cannot have risen, unless
it had been built under water. Who, then, can calculate
the time since the sea seabed the old gravel and und
seabesches„ now high and dry inland, on some of which
shelle of recent species are (u I am told) found GO feet
&bow the present sea level ? Whilst the melancholy
man may ponder on these things if he please, he rascals°
find the book of tertiary geology open to him
from the blown sand at the mouth of Poole
harbour to the somas deposit. at Studland, just outside
the chalk rampart of the north of Purbeck. In the
modern inhabitants of Swanwich and their occupations
the visitor will find plenty of interest. The shore is
belted with beeps of hewn stone, and the mush) of the
chisel is beard from morning to night. Of course, stone
quarries abound. from which the greater part of the
pavingetone of London is extracted. Stone of all aorta,
and • dark Purbeck marble, whom slender shafts adorn
the old churches of the early English style, are to be
bail in abundance. The quarrymen form • caste quite
apart from mew labourers, and their guild is of high
antiquity. The Mowlems, a respectable local family,
are believed to be demanded from he Moulhiuu, the
stenemaaon to William the Conqueror. Some of the
Purbeck workmen, it is said, have attained great
eminenee as carvers of stone. At present they are
believed to eihibit all the misohiefa of the protection
afforded by trades-unionism. Many of them are said to
live on the truck system—i.e., to run in debt at shop.
, for provisions, and square the amount by stone. Of
course they are al the mercy of the shopkeeper. The
• men do not look robust, although easy labour in pure
air should make them so; but all aocount• speak of
early interments/es of cousins, of close apartments, of
• scrofula and phthinia, as conourrent foots. Although
their water be as full of lime as possible, rickets and
decayed teeth are very common, • fact worth the
attention of those who believe a hard water
to conduce to strength of the bony tissues. Insanity
is also said to be wry common. I learn from
, the BegistemeGeneraPs office that the population
, of the parish of Swaney was 2,139 in 1851, and 2,004
• in 186 L Deaths from all MUMS, 31 in 1866, 42 in 1867,
, when whooping-cough carried off massy children. The
deaths from plithisis were five in each year. Moat of
the old habitations are built in the lowest and most
, sheltered, and consequently the dampest, spots. But
• there things do not effete the visitors, who can get
housed in high and dry houses. A new town is being
laid out on the high Purbeck stone bills, just to the
south of the older town, with waterworks, roads, and
• all other appliances. Whilst Its summer atmosphere is
all that can be desired, we have no evidence yet elite
fitness as Winter quarters for pulmonary invalids; and,
although the air is doubtless milder at Swanwich than
, further inland, and healthy people who want to be
housed cheaply in winter can be well suited, yet the
bay is open to the due east; it is • sttaio staleltde
&trials, foe yachts always slip out in bad east winds;
and it can scarcely compete with Bournemouth on the
sandy cliff, opposite. Considering then, the place to
be one of resort daring summer and autumn, we went
homes cheaply constructed and cheaply furnished, in
which visitors may be aceommodated on moderate
terms. The drainage must be • difficulty, because, if
they allow wateredoest away to be poured into the
• bay, the bathing will be spoiled. The Moule earth
system is clearly the one for • small place like this,
where to use the sea outlet is morally wrong, and
physically nasty, and where there is abundance of land
and a leak of garden produoe.—Medical

• If any visitor at fivrannlds .to local Information, he need
0.11•PAIY to Mr. Brodie, a trell.knotru sad most Indefatittable
collector, who is most randy to ,be of eerrice to the ktudent of