Few, if any, parts of England possess a more abundant treasure of prehistoric remains, than are to be found throughout this county, though the march of agricultural progress inevitably tends to their obliteration. Vestiges of peaceful British occupation may constantly be traced on those portions of the Downs which are still uninclosed, whilst a series of magnificent hill-forts crown all the most prominent heights, and probably served as camps of refuge for the harassed tribes and their cattle in times of war and invasion. The grandest of these, called Maidun Castle, is supposed to be the Dunium of Ptolemy, the stronghold or Acropolis of the Durotriges, whose gigantic ramparts may be seen outlined against the sky between the Weymouth and Bridport roads, about two miles south from Dorchester. Its inner area covers about 44 acres, its outer area about 116, the difference being absorbed in its stupendous double, and sometimes triple, entrenchments, some 60 feet high, and extraordinarily steep. Other grand examples of these hill- fortresses may be seen at Eggardun and Pilsdun to the westward, at Chalbury and Flowers-barrow to the eastward, and at Rawlsbury, or Bulbarrow, Hod (inclosing an equilateral Roman camp), and Hameldun, overlooking the valley of the Stour, and at Badbury, Woodbury, &c., in ths more central parts of the county. It has been conjectured with great probability that some of these last were among the opjiida subdued in the expedition of Vespasian ; and it is not unlikely that in that remarkable chain of tumuli, or barrows, which are visible along the crest of the Ridgeway, now tunnelled for the lines of railroad which connect Weymouth and Dorchester, may have been deposited the ashes of certain nameless heroes who fought the battles either of invasion or resistance. Such barrows are widely distributed elsewhere through the county, and when opened have usually been found to contain little more than burnt bones, corroded metal, and rude cinerary urns, with occasional marks of subsequent Roman interments. A few monoliths, cromlechs, and stone circles have also been recorded.
Of the period of Roman occupation many relics exist. The Via Iceniana, or Icknield Street, with various vicinal off-shoots, passes through the centre of the county, and connects its chief town Dorchester, or Durnovaria, with Old Saruin and Exeter. An indisputable though scanty fragment of the Roman wall of Dorchester still exists ; and the avenues, called the walks, which surround the town appear to follow its ancient course, the trees being planted sometimes on the agger and sometimes in the vallum. A tesselated pavement, some 20 feet square, was exhumed in 1858 in the grounds of the county prison, and is preserved in its chapel ; and various fragments of a similar charac ter, as well as many coins of the later emperors, and other metallic and fictile antiquities, have been and still are not unfrequently brought to light, wherever the ground is dis turbed. Roman pavements have been found elsewhere, one at Rampisharn in 1799, one at Frampton of unusual size and beauty in 1794, and others at Weymouth, Sherborne, Dewlish, &c. The amphitheatre, near the Dorchester railway station, has been generally attributed to the time of Agricola, and constructed very probably for the amusement of the Romau soldiers by the enforced labour of their captives. It is more perfect than any other remaining in this country, and has been calculated to suffice for nearly 13,000 spectators. The Roman stations in Dorsetshire which antiquarians pretty nearly agree in identifying are Landinis or Londinis, Lyme Regis ; Canca- Arixa, Charmouth ; Durnovaria, Dorchester ; Clavinio, Weymouth, or a place in the immediate neighbourhood ; Morinio, Wareham, or Hamworthy ; Bolvelaunio, Poole ; Bindogladia, Wimborne, or (Sir R, C. Hoare) Gussage Cow- down ; Ibernio, Bere. Of mediaeval castles no consider able remains exist, except at Corfe and Sherborne. both of them brought to ruin in the great Civil War, but both retaining picturesque and highly interesting traces of their former magnificence.
The three princioal churches of the county are the abbey- church of Sherborne, a rich specimen of Third Pointed archi tecture, restored in recent years at immense cost, and with admirable taste ; Wimborne Minster, with its two stately towers of different periods and its massive Norman nave ; and the noble but unfinished abbey-church of Milton, now also carefully restored, and presenting some rich examples of the Decorated period. Besides these, there are notice able churches at Bere-Regis, Dorchester (St Peter s), and Fordington, Maiden-Newton, Piddletrenthide, Cerne, Bea- minster, Powerstock, &c. ; but, generally speaking, the ecclesiastical buildings of the county, though not uninte resting, cannot boast of special grandeur or beauty.
At Milton abbey, originally founded by King Athelstan, and also at Forde-Abbey, handsome portions of the monastic buildings are incorporated in the modern mansions ; and there are monastic remains of varying in terest at Cerne, Abbotsbury, Bindon, and elsewhere. At Sherborne some of the conventual buildings are to be traced within the precincts of the flourishing grammar school.
The dialect of the county, perfectly distinguishable from those of Wiltshire and Somersetshire, yet bearing many common marks of its Saxon origin, has been admirably illustrated, both philological ly and poetically, by a living author, the Rev. Win. Barnes, whose poems in the vernacu lar have won the eulogium of several eminent critics, whilst their Doric simplicity and tenderness and truth is heartily appreciated by high and low in the county.
This county has afforded titles to various noble families, besides the dukes and earls of Dorset, duke of Portland to that of Bentinck, earl of Dorchester to that of Darner, Shaftesbury to that of Ashley-Cooper, Viscount Brid port to that of Hood, Baron Melcombe to Bubb- Dodington ; whilst Blandford, Weymouth, Woodsford, Encombe, &c., are swallowed in the higher titles of their noble possessors.
Amongst its more eminent natives may be reckoned Cardinal Morton, Archbishops Stafford and Wake, Bishops Sprat and Stilliugfleet, Matthew Prior, Sir George Summers, Sir James Thoriihill, <tc.
The county rates have been recently assessed on an annual income of XI, 095, 736.
A curious ancient Survey of the county was written by a Rev. Mr Cokcr, about the middle of the 17th century, and published from his MS. in 1732. In 1774 a very valuable County History appeared, by the Rev. John Hutchins, in 2 vols. folio ; a second edition in 4 vols. folio, in 1803; and a third, greatly improved, and brought down to the present date, also in 4 vols. folio, in 1874. No other county in England, perhaps, possesses so full and accurate a topographical and genealogical survey as this. The antiquities of the county have likewise been satisfactorily elucidated in various publications by Air Sydeuham, Mr C. Warue, F.S.A., Dr Wake Smart, and others.
parish of Withyham in Sussex. His father, Sir Richard Sackville, the friend of Roger Ascham, was connected with the Boleyn family, and thus distantly with Queen Elizabeth; his mother was Winifrede, daughter of Sir John Bruges or Bridges, of London. In his fifteenth or sixteenth year he was entered at Hart Hall, Oxford ; but it was at Cambridge that he completed his studies and took the degree of master of arts. On leaving the university, where he had already obtained the reputation of a poet, he proceeded to the Inner Temple, and though the statement made by some authori ties that he became a barrister is not supported by the registers, his connection with the society was not without
result. He had already at the age of nineteen married