Old Dorset : chapters in the history of the county

Preface

. It seems a guilty thing to do — a thing to beg pardon for, a folly — to write about Dorset. "With Hutchins' folios and Warne's folios standing in front of you, how can you be so forward as to hold out to us a new Dorset book, forsooth, and a petty octavo, moreover ? " This is the question which I seem to hear candid friends asking. The answer is that the majestic size of those books is one reason why a smaller book, a cheaper book, seems wanted. Hutchins and Warne can be read by but a small minority of Dorset folk, just simply because their books are grand in size and therefore great in price. Again, this book has an aim and an origin different from theirs. Its aim is as follows : — First, there is an attempt to give a simple, unlearned sketch of the primæval origin of the chief kinds of soil which we Dorset people tread on ; then something is said about the different races of men who have been our forerunners here.

And this leads on to a view of Preface. VI such bits of the history of England as are also part of the history of Dorset. As to origin, this small book has come into being almost unawares. Asked by some friends — artisans and others — to tell them something of the history of Dorset, I did my best to comply. A weekly lecture — chapter, if you will — was prepared. The weeks went on, and so did the chapters — for there is a great deal to say even about little Dorset. And he must be a cold-hearted Dorset-man who does not warm to the subject, to this talk of Dorset, as he goes on. So it was, and so it came to pass, that a rather bulky MS. grew under my hands before the winter lecture season of 1889-90 was out ; and to say truth, then and in the winter of 1890-91 a longer MS. on Dorchester has seen the light.

But it is with Old Dorset at large that we have to do now. CONTENTS. CHAI'TER PAGE I. — Dorset Geology — But not for Geologists ... ... i II. — Dorset in Palæolithic Times ... ... 18 III. — Dorset Ibers and Celts ... ... ... ... ... 27 IV. — Dorset Invaders 49 V. — The Name "Dorset" — Dorset Subsoils 61 VI. — Dorset in Historic Times ... ... ... ... ... 91 VII. — Dorset Saxons and their Danish Foe's ... ... ... 118 VIII. — Dorset in History during Saxon Times ... 136 IX. — Dorset under the Normans, Plantagenets. and Tudors 163 X. — Dorset in the Civil War Time 190 XI. — "The Praise o' Do'set," for "us Do'set " only ... 233 Index

Chapter I. Dorset Geology

— BUT NOT FOR GEOLOGISTS. Dorset geology very slightly noticed in the first edition of Hutchins' History of the County, but fully and scientifically in the third — A sketch longer than the first, less learned than the latter, follows — Ridgeway Fault — South Dorset Chalk — North Dorset Clays — The question as to universal slowness of geological changes — East Dorset Gravels, etc. — The origin of angular gravel. HpHERE is nothing like beginning at the beginning, or as near to it as we can get. In even a slight, brief work on Dorset we ought not to pass by the question as to the origin of the bit of England which we "Do'set" love so well. This question is answered very slightly in the Introduction to the first edition of Hutchins' "History of Dorset." In that to the last edition it is taken up at good length and with much geological learning.

I wish to make a sketchy essay longer than the first, far less scientific than the latter. I shall make Hutchins' short notice the outline of B my sketch, inasmuch as it will be similarly confined principally to the three chief districts of Dorset sub soil — chalk, clay, and gravel ; south, north, and east. It is not forgotten that thereby we shall omit the fine country, with subsoil of green-sand, cornbrash, lias, etc., in the west ; and the most interesting geological dis trict between the long line of Ridgeway Hill and the sea. It would, however, carry us to too great length to wander much beyond Hutchins' lead. Nevertheless I may allow myself a few sentences to touch slightly on the latter piece of country. Along the southern foot of the far-stretching range of Ridgeway Hill runs a great general fault : in other words, a crack many miles long has developed itself in a far past epoch.

A ghastly idea is this, when properly understood : for it seems to mean nothing more nor less than a fracture in part or sometimes even in the whole thickness of the crust of the earth. All things, all the varied strata, on one side of the crack, have sunk greatly ; or all on the other side have been forced up. Or, just possibly, both changes may have happened in a degree. The study of this frightful event, and cf the question of its being sudden or vastly slow, is most interesting, but cannot be pursued here. I can but draw attention to one result of this great Ridgeway fault : it has so dis turbed and upheaved the strata below the chalk, thereby — Ridgeway Fault. 3 causing them to crop up on the surface, that, whereas from Ridgeway to Dorchester there is but one subsoil — chalk ; from Ridgeway to Weymouth there are no less than eight subsoils or strata just below the surface earth.

They are Hastings Sand, Wealden Clay, Purbeck Stone, Portland Stone, Portland Sand, Kimmeridge Clay, Coral • Rag, Oxford Clay, Forest Marble ; all except the last occurring twice. This extraordinary variety of subsoil causes, of course, an equal diversity of surface Soil, and almost as great variety in vegetation, making the district in question a most interesting hunting - ground for the botanist. Another result of the upturn of strata is the varied picturesqueness of the coast east of Weymouth. The Chalk and Purbeck Stone and Portland Stone are there tilted and distorted in all kinds of wrays. Nay, in places — as at Durdle Door — they stand on edge, quite upright. We must, however, do as we said. We must thus slightly pass over the extreme south of the county. We must altogether pass over West Dorset, with its rich pastures and its lovely scenery, over which green-sand capped Lewesdon and Pilsdon and Golden Cap look down in beauty.

We go on to Hutchins' divisions. He speaks first of the chalk district, so we will do the same. It is well, inasmuch as it is the district containing the county B town. But in geological antiquity the clay of North Dorset comes first, the chalk second. "The earth hath bubbles as the water hath," or something very like them. Just as gaseous matter forcing its way upwards disturbs the surface of water and raises it into bubbles, so it is with the crust of the earth. Some geologists think that the intensely hot stratum deep down below our feet gives enormous force to gaseous matter, wrhich strives to upheave the solid strata, and succeeds when they are unable to resist the upward pressure. Some look upon this matter as gas developed by the combustion. Others say that steam is the struggling prisoner.

They believe that it is only when water penetrates to the hot stratum and instantly, of course, becomes elastic steam, that an upheaval is set up. Whatever this Atlas may be that sometimes, as we may almost say, lifts the earth, the chalk downs of South Dorset are a monument of its terrific power. Likely enough, many wrho have never taken thought about this kind of subject might pitch upon our chalk hills — Ridgeway or Bindon or Bulbarrow — as certain to have never had anything to do with deep-sea or deeper volcanic force. Yet their origin is deep sea ; their present high, dry, breezy stature above the valleys is due to volcanic power— upheaving — but not in fiery explosion. It does us good, it raises our thoughts, it — Chalk. 5 widens our thoughts, to think at times of these things. It makes us full of wonder and awe to consider how the wTise Master-builder has caused the chalk to gather and gather through past millenniums and then raised it high up for the dwelling-place of man.

He raised it up vastly higher than it stands now. But of its diminution and its shaping we may more fitly speak when wre come to the third division — the heath district. Here we may add a few words about the formation and upheaval of the chalk. It is almost incredible, yet certain, that the chalk formation, estimated at more than a thousand feet in thickness originally, is in great measure formed of the calcareous cases of minute organisms called Foraminifera. In parts of the formation fragments of the shells of mollusca, such as Inoceramus, constitute a portion of the material. But a great deal of the chalk owes ninety parts in a hundred of its substance to the microscopic Foraminifera. The mind of man is utterly lost in imaginings of the æons of time that passed while these cases of animalcules and fragments of shells gathered into a bed a thousand feet thick.

The Challenger s dredges fetched up white oozy mud from great depths in the ocean, and this ooze is believed by some naturalists to be chalk in process of formation. In like manner, Dorset chalk hills and vales, so dry and waterless now, once formed a mile deep seabottom for thousands of centuries. And then when water had done its task in washing down into a solid bed those billions of particles of shell-dust, then came in the turn of fire to put such incredible power into steam or other gaseous elements as to hoist that deep sea bed high up to the surface of the sea, higher up into air. Yes, ever so much higher than Ridgeway and Bulbarrow stand now. Much might w7e muse over these wonderful changes that have happened to Dorset chalk. But we must hasten on to say a little about North Dorset.

Hutchins speaks of the characteristic subsoil of North Dorset as clay. There are there Kimmeridge and Oxford clay. Not that they are peculiar to that district, for wre said just now that they crop up among the eight strata between Ridgeway and the sea. More than that, they are found in great quantity on the east of Wey mouth Bay, the Kimmeridge clay especially at the little village there which has given its name to that stratum. But in North Dorset, the Vale, " Blackmoor," so dear to Barnes the poet, it is Kimmeridge and Oxford clay which gives strength to the soil. Heavy going it is for following hounds, awkward soil in wet springs for the plough, but grand pasture-land. Just nowr, however, it is the geological history of this clay of which we must slightly and unscientifically speak. Of course in many — Clay. 7 instances the fossils found in a stratum, whether of stone, clay, or sand, tell us the nature of that stratum.

The Foraminifera of the chalk say that the chalk is of the deep sea. We read a different history in the Kim meridge and Oxford clays. Every fossil-bearing stratum, or nearly so, has its characteristic fossil ; that is, it con tains a fossil wThich is not found in other strata. Many of my readers, although not at all geologically inclined, must have noticed huge fossil shells in the clay cliff or bank at Jordan Hill, a mile east of Weymouth, along the shore. That is Oxford clay, and that shell, Gryphæa dilatata, an oyster, is its characteristic fossil. So Kim meridge clay is known by a fossil shell, not so large — Ostrea deltoidia, the delta-shaped oyster. Well, I need hardly say that oysters are dwellers in shallow seas. We gather, then, that the Kimmeridge and Oxford clays were laid down as mud in such a sea.

We may confirm ourselves in this opinion by what little we know about another fossil of the Kimmeridge clay. In the Dorset Museum you may see a wonderful relic of the Pliosaurus macromerus. It is the fore paddle, much like the fin of a whale, and it is six feet long. This great reptile, with a general likeness to a crocodile, must doubtless, like it, have inhabited shallow waters. We might say more, if this were a right occasion, of this sixty-foot Pliosaurus, seemingly the master animal of the epoch. But this is not the time to add details to this outline of evidence, that North Dorset differs from South Dorset in these two particulars, geologically considered. Its clay wras not laid down so deep under the sea as the chalk of South Dorset, nor has it ever been up so high. It may be well to say a word or two more on one point, seeing that this chapter is written for non geologists.

Just possibly some readers may think that these patches of Kimmeridge clay, in several parts of Dorset, mean that the sea in which that clay settled down must have also been in patches. But that does not follow in the least. Nay, it is very unlikely. We spoke of the extraordinary dislocation of strata south of Ridgeway. All over the country alterations of level have taken place, more or less, in remote epochs. Vast, unknown quantities of various strata, Kimmeridge clay among the rest, have thus been raised up, doubtless into an exposed position. Then has come the flood or sea force of which we are about to speak in relation to East Dorset. Away have gone square miles of this stratum and that, leaving vast intervals destitute of that stratum. On the other hand, enormous expanses of a stratum exist, but deep dowTi out of sight.

Deep under most of the chalk we may believe that there is the Kimmeridge clay. It is visible south of Ridgeway as Dorset Geolog y — Cla y. 9 shown above. It is visible north of the chalk, in the Vale, because the chalk and other strata geologically above it have been washed off it. What is Kimmeridge clay, is a question impossible to answer. The only clay the origin of which is defined, I believe, is Cornish china clay, which is by most geologists thought to be decomposed granite, a rock thrown out in a molten state from the fiery under-wrorld. All that can be said about the origin of Kimmeridge clay, Oxford clay, and the Lias seems to be that they are formed of dibris laid down in the sea at some little distance from land. Far back as is the origin of South Dorset chalk, much farther, must we look for the origin of North Dorset clay.

After the Kimmeridge clay epoch several vast deposits took place before the chalk began to be formed. Among these intermediate strata are Portland stone, Purbeck stone, and Green-sand, of themselves repre senting an enormous lapse of time which rolled away between the formation of even the newer of the North Dorset clay subsoils and that of South Dorset chalk. In passing on now to East Dorset, again a vast space of time meets us in thinking of the age of its sub soil, and as compared with the chalk and Kimmeridge clay. And here possibly a word may be aptly said about these huge spaces of time which we dimly per ceive as we talk of the gathering of microscopic cases of Foraminifera and shell -dust into a bed 1,000 feet thick. No man can pretend to sum up the years of geological time ; and that for divers reasons.

Several causes of change and decay and removal of old strata, and consequent formation of new ones, not only may, but almost certainly must, have differed vastly at different epochs. Cold is a great destroyer of rocks, through the expansion of ice. Cold has been far more intense at some former epochs than now. The upheaving volcanic power, of which we spoke, is a great means of upturning and changing strata. In remote epochs, we may be sure, from analogy of the sun, Jupiter, and the moon, it must have been much more powerful. A change of the earth's position in relation to the sun would very likely produce astonishing changes in the earth's condition as to climate. Such a change some geologists and astronomers believe to have taken place, and that East Dorset could tell a tale of its effects if it had speech.

All these considerations seem to point to the certainty that the laying down of the strata has taken up very differing lengths of time, thickness for thickness. It is the fashion at this day to give enormous space to the duration of all geological changes. At the risk of being thought a heretic I cannot but doubt the universal truth of this dogma. In support of this I wrould speak, for a moment, of — Geological Changes. 11 two events ; one recorded both by its effects and by history, the other by its effects only. Eighteen hundred years ago a huge Italian mountain, covered with fields and vineyards, all looking as peaceful and lasting as our Dorset downs — this fruitful mountain, Vesuvius, by un suspected volcanic power, was blown up as you would blow up a tree-stump with a charge of powder.

It is recorded by a Roman who saw it. It is recorded in its effects on the country round, on the buried cities round. It is recorded in La Somma, the surviving fragment of exploded Vesuvius, on the site of which new Vesuvius has smoked and burnt, and from time to time exploded and grown ever since. Now think what would have happened if — and it is a reasonable "if" — if that dread underground force of eighteen hundred years ago had not found that one vent for the spending of its force. In that case it would have toiled and heaved against a far wrider extent of the earth's crust, and toiled not in vain. A heaving, a cracking, a fault very likely ever so much greater than Ridgeway fault, would have taken place. A vast time would be needed for this, you will perhaps say. Yes, it may be ; no, it may also be.

Here comes in the other event spoken of above, as recorded by its effects, but not in written history. I cannot go into the arguments of Sir W. Dawson and other geologists about this event. It must suffice to say that they have great reason to believe that in long past ages the Mediterranean Sea stretched far into Central Asia, that the sea-bed there was up heaved, that the sea was emptied out as you would empty a pail, and as suddenly — so suddenly that the vast deluge swTept myriads of animals, then dwelling near, swept them at torrent speed to the very north of Siberia. Yes, many to the ends of the earth, where on the Arctic isles their bones lie at this day heaped high up as they were piled by that rushing flood thousands of years ago. Now, to cut this talk somewhat short, my feeling is that these things have a bearing on Ridgeway fault and other geological convulsions, as regards slowness, or, possibly, suddenness.

The under ground fire asserted its force below old Vesuvius in historical times, below the mid - Asian sea in pre historical but very recent geological times. From the analogy of the burnt-out moon we cannot but believe that earth's fire burns lower and lower, the upheaving power grows less and less, as the ages are gathered into the great past. That power was stronger then at the Ridgeway fault epoch than at that of the Vesuvius outburst ; than at that of the mid-Asian upheaval. I cannot then see, but in diffidence I say it, why that terrific rending of terra -firma at Ridgeway may not have had the Vesuvian, the mid - Asian suddenness. — Gravel and Sand. 13 And this brings me back to East Dorset and its gravels, sands, and clays. For here, too, this upheaval of earth's surface has to be taken into account in thinking about them.

But the upheaval there would seem, as I take it, to have been less in amount, to have been several times repeated, and to have been intermingled with periods not only of rest, but also of sinking of the surface. Geologists divide the strata or layers of the earth's crust into three groups or classes — Primary, the oldest ; Secondary and Tertiary — first, second, and third. We have none of the first in Dorset. South Dorset chalk and North Dorset clay are of the Secondary group. East Dorset gravels, sands, and clays are Tertiary, much more recent than the other subsoils. But these East Dorset subsoils have had a history very different from that of the chalk and the Kimmeridge clay. The two latter have their particles changed indeed in solid consistence, but the particles hold the same relative position now as tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago.

You find an Inoceramus in fragments in the chalk of a pit on a dry down. Thus have those fragments lain, side by side, since the Inoceramus crumbled in the ooze of the still depths of the Primæval ocean. Not so the jagged gravel stones, the sand, of East Dorset. They have all, geologists believe, been more than once sunk beneath the sea, and upheaved again above into air. These submersions must, of course, have greatly shifted and disturbed those beds of gravel and sand. In several places abroad, and in some few in this country, gravel contains things which we should never expect to find there. For instance, near Blandford elephants' tusks and bones have been discovered, and one or two flints which appear to have been worked into shape by man. I know not, but it seems to me that none can think this over without strange emotion, an emotion which cannot be defined in words.

Here in North-West Europe, here in England, here in Old Dorset, wandered huge elephants — yes, even of three kinds ! And here in so strange a state of things lived men — fine fellows, too. They were rude, if you will. No metal tools or weapons had they, only such as they could make of flint and bone and stag's horn. But they were clever at this, and, wonderful to tell, they had a natural knack of drawing beyond that of any living tribe. It sets our thoughts whirling to try to realise all this. But there is more. Good authorities seem convinced that this state of things was brought to a sudden end by a deluge. Some assert, others deny, that this was caused by a change in the earth's position with regard to the sun, a change which increased the warmth of the air and rapidly thawed the ice with which, past doubt, vast — Denudation ; Gravel. 15 regions hereabouts were covered at one, if not two, epochs.

But whether caused by the thaw of an ice sheet like that now covering Greenland, or by extraordinary rainfall, or by whatever means, sure it is that a tremendous deluge has swept over a great portion of the earth. And this portion certainly included Old Dorset, where, some say, it denuded and rounded our chalk hills. The rush of water carried away vast quantities of debris of surface strata. The greater part of this drift was doubtless carried out to sea. But other parts were caught in hollows here and there. Some of our gravel and sand beds in East Dorset appear to have been thus formed. And it is in this drift especially that we find traces of man and remnants of the huge elephants and other animals which shared Dorset with him. Some only of our gravel beds were flood-borne, I said. Yes, for it is the opinion of many geologists that a vast deal of shifting about of gravel and sand has been caused by sea-action during the sinkings of the land of which I spoke.

But, whether caused by the violence of land flood and sea-waves, or in part by the gentle and slow eating away of the chalk by rain-water, certain it is that the angular gravel stones had an origin which hardly any uninstructed mind would hit upon. If you look at the chalk cliffs of several parts of the Dorset coast, such as those by Durdle Dorr and near Swanage, you will see that they contain multitudes of large solid looking flints. Pull one out, and you will be surprised to find it come to pieces in your hand. Without doubt the angular gravel is composed of such flakes from vast regions of chalk denuded away from this and other districts by the various water-actions named above. But gravel is mostly orange-coloured, and the Durdle flint flakes are grey. How is that ? you will say. That orange is peroxide of iron, which it is believed was derived from green-sand and other strata, also denuded awray with the chalk.

The chalk and the loose green sand separating into fine particles would be wrashed far away. But the flint flakes from their larger size would to some extent lodge in hollows and escape being hurried so far. Just the same thing we see in any stream, such as the Frome, on a small scale. A flood carries away a vast mass of mud and sand particles out to sea. It shifts the gravel more or less, but merely to lay it down again in some quiet hole or another not far off. The origin of gravel was for a long time a puzzle to my own mind, until Mr. Mansel Pleydell explained it to me. Under the belief that some may be as bewildered as I was, an effort has been made to render the matter plain. And now this talk about Dorset subsoils is ended. It seemed almost needful to go into it, and to go into — Summing up. 17 it first and foremost.

It is doubtless not good book making : for certain this is, to most readers, the dullest chapter of the book. It is bad policy to be dullest at the outset ; but I could not help it. It does seem to me to come so clearly on the threshold of any talk about Dorset — this talk about the very land, the very substance of the shire. It does so widen our view of the county, it does so deepen our love for the old shire, when in any way we add to our knowledge of it. It is good, surely, to be lighted — yes, lighted ever so dimly, back into the far dusky past of our shire, of this bit of Terra which now is Dorset ! Good it is, for it widens the mind, to stand on Bulbarrow, and try to picture that bold hill as a deep down level bed in the old, old ocean — to look at the elephants' great tusks, at the rhinoceroses' grinders, and think what sort of Dorset it must have been when they tramped hereabouts, when they chased and were chased by our primæval fore runners here — the Dorset men before the flood. <¥$& c

Chapter II. Dorset In

PALÆOLITHIC TIMES. Dorset in Palæolithic times — Slight sketch of the geography of the " Continental " epoch, its fauna, and men — The Palæocosmic weapons, etc., are of the rudest tribes of the epoch, probably. TN the first chapter we went slightly and unlearnedly into questions as to the subsoil of Dorset. We have now to consider the ancient condition of Dorset in one or twro other respects. And first, we should perhaps answer an inquiry which must have arisen in the mind of the non-geological reader. How did elephants find their way to Dorset, and how could they live there ? Geologists have sure ground for the assertion that it was perfectly easy for elephants, rhinoceroses, and other beasts to migrate into Dorset or any part of this island. There was an epoch, an epoch late geologi cally, but long before earliest history was written, when the land of at least a great part of the Northern hemi sphere stood far higher out of the water than it does now.

So much higher did it stand that there was no North Sea to speak of, no Baltic Sea, no English Channel, and the Mediterranean was a mere lake, Africa Dorset once Continental. 19 and Europe being united in two places. Therefore migration by land was geographically easy over the whole of Africa, Asia, and Europe. So, even if the elephants and rhinoceroses now belonging only to South Asia and Africa originated in one of those regions, Europe was perfectly open to these animals as far as any sea hindrance was concerned. It may, however, be worth a moment's thought whether that origin is at all certain. It would almost seem that at the epoch of which we are speaking the region most abounding in at least one kind of elephant was neither Africa nor South Asia, but Central Asia. But, however that might be as to these now southern genera of beasts, they could easily march into Dorset across what was then a wide valley, now the track of the Jersey steamboat.