Dorset is divided into 35 hundreds, containing more than 300 parishes, 8 boroughs, 22 liberties, and 12 market towns, the principal of which are Dorchester, Bridport, Sherborne, Lyme-Regis, Shaftesbury, Weymouth and Melcombe-Regis, Poole, and Blandford. Only 10 members are returned to parliament, instead of 20 as before the first Reform Act. The county itself sends three; Dorchester, Bridport, Poole, Shaftesbury, and Wareham one each, and Melcombe-Regis and Weymouth two between them. Dorsetshire forms a part of the see of Salisbury. It originally fell under the wide jurisdiction of the ancient sees of Dorchester in Oxfordshire and of Winchester, till the foundation of the bishopric of Sherborne, 705 a.d., and when that see was transferred to Salisbury it still remained a part of it, till in 31st Henry VIII. it was annexed to the newly-erected bishopric of Bristol, and so continued till 1836, when its ancient connection with Salisbury was revived, and still continues.

Branches of the London and South-Western Railway, or in connection with it, enter the county from Southampton, Salisbury, and Bath, meet near Wimborne, and continue to Poole, Wareham, Dorchester, and Weymouth, which last two places are also reached by a branch of the GreatWestern from Yeovil, with a drop-line to Bridport at Maiden-Newton. The main line of the London and SouthWestern likewise touches the north of the county near Shaftesbury, Gillingham, and Sherborne.

The surface of Dorsetshire is hilly and uneven. Throwing out for the present the consideration of the coast-line in Purbeck, Portland, and to the westward, and proceeding in the direction of from S.E., to N.W., we find a descending series of formations, commencing from the Tertiaries, which occupy an almost equilateral triangle, and include the towns of Wareham, Poole, Wimborne, and Cranborne; passing through a band of Chalk some ten or twelve miles in breadth, in which the chief town Dorchester and Blandford are situated, and which is fringed by a thin belt of Greensand; and thence to the Oolitic beds in the north-east, and the Lias at Bridport and the south-west. The three systems thus roughly indicated have been popularly divided into the Sands, the Chalks, and the Clays. It is, of course, the last which has won for this county the somewhat exaggerated, and not uncontested, designation of “the garden of England;” though the rich wide vale of Blackmore, atd the luxuriant pastures and orchards of the extreme wett may fairly support the claim. The Downs of the Chalk district, formerly so celebrated as sheep-walks, have been rapidly disappearing of late years under the influence of a more scientific system of agriculture, though still the stock of sheep pastured in the county amounts to between 500,000 and 600,000. Even in the sandy region, cultivation is advancing, and detached portions are improved, though there is still much waste land, dreary and barren, hardly supporting, even in the summer months, a few sheep and cattle, and supplying the scattered cottars with heath and turf for fuel.

Dorsetshire is not generally speaking a well-wooded county, though much fine timber may be seen, not only i∏ the richer and deeper soils, but likewise in the sheltered valleys of the Chalk district, and more especially upon the Greensand. The views from some of the higher hills, which constitute, as it were, the back-bone of the county, are often vastly extensive, ranging on many points from the Needles to the very utmost limit of the Mendip and Quantock Hills, where they sink into the Bristol Channel.

The Dorsetshire air is remarkably mild and salubrious, and in some sunnier spots of the coast, such as Abbotsbury, even tropical plants are found to flourish. Weymouth has long been celebrated as a watering-place, and owing to the general calmness of the sea there, its pleasant situation, and commodiousness for bathing, it still maintains considerable consequence. The sea-side villages of Swanage, Lulworth, and Charmouth also, though more difficult of access, and affording less accommodation for visitors, abound with many quiet and enjoyable charms.

The chief port of the county is Poole, situated on an estuary formed by the mouth of the Frome. Its entrance is defended by Brownsea Castle,—not, however, a military fortress, but simply a castellated mansion,—and it is very secure in all winds. It was formerly the chief place for equipping ships for the Newfoundland fishery; and a brisk trade was carried on from it with Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean; but it is now chiefly occupied with a coasting trade, and the export of potters’ clay. Swanage, Weymouth, Bridport, and Lyme have harbours capable of admitting small vessels only. The magnificent breakwater at Portland, of which the first stone was laid by Prince Albert in 1849, provides a harbour of refuge which is nearly land-locked, and a secure anchorage of almost unlimited extent, and of easy access to the largest class of vessels.

The principal rivers of Dorsetshire are the Frome, the Stour, the Piddle, and the Ivel. The Frome rises in the north-western part of the county, near Evershot, and passing by Dorchester, reaches Poole, and falls into its bay. The Stour enters this county from Wiltshire, near Gillingham, and, pursuing a southern and south-eastern direction, enters Hampshire. The Piddle rises in the north, and, flowing to the south-east, falls into Poole Bay. The Ivel, anciently the Yeo, has its origin from several springs near Horethorn, in a hill north-east from Sherborne, from which town it flows into Somersetshire, and falls into the Parret, near Yeovil.

Although neither coal nor any metallic ores have ever been found in Dorsetshire, the stone quarries of Purbeck and Portland have long been celebrated. Purbeck, though called an island, is more properly a peninsula, of an irregular oval form, about twelve miles in length and seven in breadth. It consists, according to Mantell, of Cretaceous, Wealden, and Oolitic strata in their regular order of succession, and highly inclined in their section towards Swanage Bay, where they are easily detected. At Handfast Point the chalk is discovered, its lower division dipping at a considerable angle; then comes a layer of firestone, next gault, and then greensand—all inclined; then, at Swanage Bay, a thick wealden bed; to the south of which are the Purbeck Hills, with their peculiar strata, and, a little further on, the Portland Oolite. The soil is altogether calcareous, and for the most part a continuous mass of either white or a brownish limestone, the latter having a mixture of seashells. The quarries on the south side of the isle afford an inexhaustible fund of natural curiosities. The best quarries are at Kingston, Worth, Langton, and Swanage. The Swanage stone is white, full of shells, takes a polish, and looks like alabaster. All over the heaths, both here and on the mainland, blocks of indurated Tertiary grit, commonly called firestone, are found, and have been occasionally employed in the building of some of the neighbouring churches; and at Downshay and Quar, in the parish of Worth, and elsewhere, the beautiful Purbeck marble, so conspicuous in the monuments and shafts of many of our cathedrals and finest churches of the 13th century, and now often sought for their restoration, has been extensively quarried. One of the most valuable products of Purbeck is a white clay used for making pipes, and very largely applied to the manufacture of china. Large quantities of it are dug, and many vessels loaded with it for Staffordshire in the port of Poole.

The Isle of Portland, as it is called, is also a peninsula, rising at its highest point, the Verne, to nearly 500 feet above the sea-level, and sloping gradually to near the water’s edge at its extreme southerly point, the Bill. Its famous quarries, about 100 in number, are scattered in all directions under heaps of rubble and unsaleable stone. They are Crown-property, and, except where the stone is taken for Government purposes, are leased to various firms, who pay a royalty of so much per ton. Some 50,000 tons are annually raised and exported. The stratum of stone that is worked for sale lies nearly parallel with the upper surface of the island, and without much earth or rubbish on it. The Portland stone (or freestone as it is sometimes called) is well known for its almost white colour, and as composing the materials of the most splendid, erections in London, as well as in other parts of the British empire. The connection of Portland with the mainland occurs at some 10 or 11 miles’ distance, at Abbotsbury, where a most remarkable beach of raised shingle, called the Chesil (Anglo-Saxon Ceosol) or Pebble Beach, touches the shore, being thus far separated from it by a narrow estuary, famous for its swannery, called the Fleet.

The entire length of the beach is from 16 to 18 miles, with an average height of about 40 feet, and a breadth of some 180 or 190 yards, the pebbles constantly decreasing in size from 1 to 3 inches in diameter at Portland, to the size of peas at its termination.

Agriculture throughout the county has made very important advances within the last few years,—steamcultivation and improved implements having been largely introduced, and the growth of root-crops abundantly stimulated by the use of artificial manures. The precarious crops of flax and hemp for the supply of the rope and twine works of Bridport are less cultivated than formerly. On the larger farms in the Chalk district a peculiar custom prevails of under-letting the dairies at so much per cow, the farmer finding the stock and the food, and the dairyman disposing of the produce. The horned sheep of Dorsetshire, long celebrated, have now become established as a useful and lucrative breed. Professor Bell, in his History of British Quadrupeds, gives a figure of this, as the typical English sheep, of “a handsome, though somewhat old-fashioned breed, principally esteemed for its producing lambs earlier perhaps than any other in this country.” “To the eye of him who seeks for beauty in harmony and propro-tion (he adds) this sheep is one of the handsomest in any part of England. The strong well-formed body and limbs, the clear white fleece, the finely-curved horns, and other points will to him constitute a more pleasing combination of character than is to be found in those breeds which have become more changed from the old stock by repeated transmission of peculiarities, which, however advantageous to the breeder, whether for the sake of the fleece or the flesh, cannot be considered as adding to the abstract beauty of the animal.” There are still many fine flocks of this characteristic breed existing in the county, though many farmers prefer the Southdowns or Hampshires, as better adapted to their particular holdings. There is a small breed in Portland, which fattens too highly upon richer pastures, but the mutton of which is an especial dainty, weighing only about 8 δ> a quarter.

The old hardy race of long-horned cattle, formerly common in the hilly districts, are fast disappearing, and Devons, short-horns, and Herefords are almost exclusively now bred. Great quantities of butter are sent to the London market. The skimmed-milk cheese is often much esteemed, though little of it is exported from the county.

Vast numbers of mackerel are taken near Abbotsbury, and along the shore from Portland to Bridport. The season for taking them is from the middle of March till midsummer, in nets or seines.

The manufactures of Dorsetshire are not extensive. The principal are those of flax and hemp in the neighbourhood of Bridport and Beaminster, and of pottery and tiles in the district near Poole. Net-making, or braiding as it is called, and also gloving, are carried on in some of the villages; but the manufactures of lace, and of threadbuttons, formerly flourishing at Blandford and elsewhere, may be said to be now entirely obsolete. At Sherborne these industries have been succeeded by extensive silk-mills.

Few, if any, parts of England possess a more abundant treasure of prehistoric remains, than are to bθ 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 Dumum 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 hillfortresses 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 the more central parts of the county. It has been conjectured with great probability that some of these last were among the oppida 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 αrns, 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 Sarum 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, w as exhumed in 1858 in the grounds of the county prison, and is preserved in its chapel; and various fragments of a similar character, 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 disturbed. Roman pavements have been found elsewhere,— one at Rampisham 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 Roman 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 Cowdown; Ibernio, Bere. Of mediaeval castles no considerable 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 principal churches of the county are the abbeychurch of Sherborne, a rich specimenof Third Pointed architecture, 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 noticeable churches at Bere-Regis, Dorchester (St Peter’s), and Fordington, Maiden-Newton, Piddletrenthide, Cerne, Beaminster. Powerstock, &c.; but, generally speaking, the ecclesiastical buildings of the county, though not uninteresting, 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 interest 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 philologically and poetically, by a living author, the Rev. Wm. Barnes, whose poems in the vernacular 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 Bridport 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 Stillingfleet, Matthew Prior, Sir George Summers, Sir James Thornhill, <fcc.

The county rates have been recently assessed on an annual income of £1,095,736.

A curious ancient Survey of the county was written by a Rev. Mr Coker, about the middle of the 17th century, and published from his MS. in 1732. In 1774 a very valuable Coτιnty 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 oí the county have likewise been satisfactorily elucidated in various publications by Mr Sydenham, Mr C. Warne, F.S.A., Dr Wake Smart, and others.

DORSET, Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, first Earl of (1536-1608), was born in at Buckhurst in the 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 authorities 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 Cicely, daughter of Sir John Baker of Sissinghurst in Kent, and in 1557 he entered public life as member of parliament for Westmoreland. In the following year he sat for East Grinstead in Sussex, and the record of his activity is still to be found in the Journals of the House of Commons. Queen Elizabeth, who had just come to the throne, was attracted by the handsome person, high culture, and evident ability of her young poet-kinsman, who was accordingly, to quote his own words, “selected to a continual private attendance upon her own person,” which did not, however, prevent him from appearing again in the Parliament of 1563 as member for Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. A visit to the Continent in 1565 was interrupted by an unexplained imprisonment at Rome, and terminated by the news of his father’s death, which took place on 21st April 1566. On his return he was knighted in the queen’s presence, and obtained the title of Lord Buckhurst, by which he continued to be known through the most of his life. Apartments were provided for him in the queen’s palace at Shene, where his mother was in charge; but the simplicity of his mode of life is shown by the fact that, when in 1568 he had to entertain Odet de Coligni, Cardinal de Châtillon, at the queen’s command, he failed to satisfy the luxurious desires of his guest, and thus fell under her majesty’s displeasure. In 1571 he was sent to France to congratulate Charles IX. on his marriage with Elizabeth of Austria; in 1572 he was one of the peers who tried Thomas Howard, earl of Norfolk; and in 1586 he was employed to convey to Queen Mary of Scotland the sentence of death. A more difficult task was found for him in 1587; as ambassador to the Hague he was expected “to expostulate in favour of peace with a people who knew that their existence depended on war, to reconcile those to delay who felt that delay was death, and to heal animosities between men who were enemies from their cradles to their graves.” With what fearlessness, fidelity, and sagacity he discharged his duty, has been told in detail by the historian of The United Netherlands, who asserts that there is not a single line in all the ambassador’s correspondence which does not reflect honour on his name. But his expostulations with the queen on her parsimonious policy, and his independent conduct towards the royal favourite Leicester, procured him, on his return to England, instead of approbation and reward for his services, an order confining him to his house for nine or ten months in token of her majesty’s displeasure. On the death of the earl, however, he was again received into favour; in 1588 he was presented with the Order of the Garter; in 1591 he was elected chancellor of the university of Oxford, his claims having been supported by a royal letter; and, in 1599, on the death of Lord Burghley, he succeeded to the office of Lord High Treasurer of England. In the following year he had to pronounce sentence as High Steward on the earl of Essex, who had been his rival for the chancellorship and his opponent in politics. The change of the dynasty which took place in 1603 left his position unimpaired; his office of Lord Treasurer was confirmed to him by King James, and on 13th of March 1604, he was created earl of Dorset. He died suddenly on April 19th 1608, while sitting at the council table in Whitehall, and left his earldom to his son Robert Sackville.

In the history of English literature Thomas Sackville occupies an honourable position. We no longer possess any of the “sonnets finely sauced” for which, in his student days, he was praised by Jasper Heywood, but we may still read the Ferrex and Porrex by which he takes rank as the first writer of genuine English tragedy, the Induction to the Mirror os Magistrates, and the Complaint of Henry Duke of Buckingham. The first was written with the assistance of Thomas Norton, during Sackville ’ s connection with the Inner Temple, was acted before Queen Elizabeth in 1561, appeared without the author’s permission in 1565, and again in authorized editions in 1570-1 and 1590. The second is a stately allegorical poem of the kind so much in vogue in the reign of Elizabeth, with elaborate personifications of sorrow, death, old age, <kc., intended to stand as preface to a series of poems descriptive of the tragic fates of famous men; and the Complaint was to form the first of the series. They all display a lively fancy, and no small command of pure and sonorous English, but hardly awaken any regret that the author soon laid aside the poet’s for the diplomatist’s pen.

See Sackvillds Works, edited by Reginald W. Sackville-West, 1859; and Arber’s Reprint of the Induction.

DORSET, Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of (1637— 1706), eldest son of Richard Sackville, the fifth earl, and Frances Cranfield, eldest daughter of Lionel, earl of Middlesex, was born January 24, 1637, and succeeded his father in 1677. His youth, spent partly in London and partly in Italy, was filled with all the madcap and libertine excesses of the period; but, owing doubtless to the nobler qualities which he none the less displayed, the graceful scapegrace found more favour with the public than the rest of the dissolute crew. He was high-spirited, generous, and humane; as years passed on his character ripened and refined, and he who had been the worthy rival of Charles II. lived to be laughed at by Etherege for fidelity to his wife. Though present as a volunteer under the duke of York during the Dutch war in 1665, and afterwards sent on more than one mission to the court of France, he took comparatively an unimportant part in politics until the commencement of the troubles which ended in the Revolution of 1688. Deprived in 1667 of his office as lord-lieutenant of Sussex, for his refusal to comply with James H.’s arbitrary demands, he soon after became one of the active members of the opposition, and in 1688 assisted the flight of the Princess Anne. After James had left the country, Dorset was a member of the council for the preservation of the public peace; and on William’s accession he was appointed lord chamberlain. Tn 1691 he accompanied the new king to Holland; and, though he was afterwards involved in the accusations of infidelity brought forward by Preston, he retained and deserved the royal favour to the last. He died at Bath in January 1705-6, and was succeeded in the earldom by Lionel Cranfield Sackville, his only son by his second wife, Mary, daughter of James Compton, earl of Essex. Dorset keeps his place in the list of English poets in virtue of a few lyrical and satirical pieces, which, though extravagantly praised by his contemporaries, and, even according to Macaulay, displaying the easy vigour of Suckling and wit as splendid as that of Butler, are after all of no great moment in themselves, and only suggestive of what in happier circumstances the writer might have done. The best known is a pleasant careless song— To all you Ladies now at Land— written at sea shortly before the engagement with the Dutch, in which Admiral Opdam’s ship was blown up. As a patron of literature, however, Dorset stands unrivalled,—judicious, impartial, and munificent. To him Prior was indebted for his education, Montague for promotion, and Wycherly for support against the disfavour of the public. Though compelled as lord chamberlain to deprive Dryden of his official laurel, he took care to make good from his private purse the pecuniary loss involved in the dismissal.

See Prior’s dedication of his poems to the duke of Dorset; Johnson’s Lives of the Poets; Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors; Macaulay’s History of England, vol. íii. chap. viii.