downs; one running from north-east to south-west, its highest elevation being reached at Pulbarrow, 927 feet; the other following the coast-line from Beaminster to Swanage, and rising at Blackdown to 813 feet, meet towards the west and form "the trough of Poole," where sands and clays overlie the chalk, and touch the extremes of the Oolitic and Wealden beds. The Tertiary deposits, chiefly plastic clay, extend from the hills beyond Poole to Dorchester; the Chalk, as we have seen, forms two bold and picturesque ranges of a considerable elevation; the Greensand stretches westward beyond Beaminster, its highest point being Pillesdon Pen, 934 feet; the Wealden occupies the Isle of Purbeck, and the Oolitic strata are most conspicuous in the Isle of Portland. The coast scenery, from the variety of the strata displayed between Studland and Lyme Regis, is of a singularly interesting and romantic character, and the explorations of the geologist will be rewarded with an abundance of remarkable fossils.

ROUTE I.-Along the Coast from POOLE to

LYME REGIS.

[Poole to Durlston Head, 10 m.; St. Aldhelm's Head, 5 m.; Kimmeridge Bay, 4 m.; Weymouth, 15 m.; Portland Bill, 7 m.; Abbotsbury, 10 m.; Bridport, 9 m. ; Lyme Regis, 7 m.]

POOLE-.e., the HARBOUR.

[Pop. 9255.-Inns: Antelope, London Hotel, etc.

2 m. from the Junction Point on the Southampton and Dorchester Point of the London and South-Western Railway; 122 m. from London; 2 m. from Branksea Castle; 7 m. from Bournemouth; 10 m. from Christchurch; 8 m. from Wareham; 26 m. from Dorchester; 8 m. from Wimborne.

MARKET DAYS-Monday and Thursday.

BANK-National Provincial.

Omnibuses daily between Poole and Bournemouth.]

The situation of POOLE is in many respects a remarkable one. Let the reader picture to himself a range of hills sloping abruptly into broad wild tracts of heath and furze; a tongue of land projecting out of these into a vast harbour, a portion of which to the northward (HOLES BAY), it almost shuts off by a swing bridge-red-brick houses clustering upon this tongue of land in admirable disorder, with one long thoroughfare-the High Street, running through them to terminate at the aforesaid bridge; let him line the shore with capacious quays, two miles in length,

and stud the harbour with numerous vessels ;-imagine that harbour at high water, a broad sweep of rolling waves running up into the land in a score of picturesque little creeks, but at low water a dreary tract of mud and sand, which is only intersected by a few deep channels; place near its mouth a large island, BROWNSEA ISLAND, and several smaller isles of little interest to the sketcher, but of great perplexity to the mariner; and, to the south-west, raise a long wall of chalk surrounding and barricading from the mainland the famous Isle of Purbeck,—and a tolerable notion of the position of Poole may be obtained.

It has a strong sea-water flavour about it, and the streets are usually filled with the tars of many nations, and with those parasites who live by or upon them. Fishermen, too, pervade it with strange oaths; for off the mouth of the harbour the oyster-boats collect after a successful haul, piling upon the shore the shells of those crustaceans which are selected for pickling, so as to form a curious artificial breakwater. The clink of hammer and mallet warns us that shipbuilding is one of the trades of Poole; and its inhabitants are also employed, as a glance round its streets informs us, in the manufacture of seamen's shirts and clothing, cordage and sailcloth, and in the purveyance of ships' stores and provisions. The clays for which its neighbourhood is remarkable are exported in large quantities, while from Newfoundland and the North of Europe are imported oil, corn, salt fish, and timber. Poole is therefore a busy and prosperous town, but not a resort for dilettante tourists or summer excursionists.

Its HARBOUR at low water is, as we have hinted, a complication of sand-banks, mud-banks, and narrow channels, which only the most experienced pilots can navigate in safety. When the tide sweeps in with a roll and a rush, it becomes not less dangerous, perhaps, but infinitely more picturesque, and gleams and glitters in the sunshine like a noble lake, 7 miles long and 4 miles broad. Its circuit is not less than 35 miles, and it admits vessels drawing 14 feet of water. The same phenomenon is visible here as at Southampton-that of a double tide, with an interval between of an hour or more. It is produced by the ebb of the channel waters, which pent up the harbour-current until the time for their own recession arrives.

At the mouth of the harbour lies BRANKSEA (fern island), or BROWNSEA (Bruno's ey) ISLAND, 1 mile by mile, or 6 miles in circumference. Its sides are clothed with groves of fir-its

interior is broken up into numerous shadowy glens and romantic hills-its shore is rich in the commoner aquatic plants. Queen Elizabeth erected here a small fortress, which Charles I. considerably strengthened. It has been visited by the witty and dissolute Charles II., and by the dissolute but not witty George IV. (when Prince Regent), and was for a few years the scene of the glories of Colonel Waugh, then its proprietor, and one of the speculators involved in the catastrophe of "the Royal British Bank." He occupied the castle, which he furnished luxuriously, recovered a hundred acres of waste land, opened pits to work the excellent potter's clay of which the island is chiefly composed, built a pier, laid down a tramroad, and erected St. Mary's Church for the accommodation of his labourers. How suddenly the golden dream was dissipated in which this adventurous gentleman had rejoiced, our readers may remember.

The harbour opens, north, into a land-locked cove or gulf, called HOLE'S BAY, and to the north-west into LYTCHET BAY, whose mouth is spanned by the railway; while it trends away suddenly to the south-west into a deep inlet, which stretches for some miles through the clay-fields up to WAREHAM. (See ROUTE 2.)

The historical associations which invest the town of Poole with interest for the scholar are not numerous. We are told that it was a Roman station on the Icening road, and afterwards one of the royal chapelries of the Saxon kings. In 998, the Norsemen landed here, and in 1015 king Knut sailed up the harbour, and pushed on to Wareham. An attack was made upon it by some Spaniards in 1405, in revenge of the predatory exploits of a famous buccaneer named Harry Page. The town was walled in 1443. Hither came Henry of Richmond in 1483, but finding it garrisoned by Richard's troops, he returned to St. Malo. During the civil war it was so stoutly Roundhead in its sympathies, that Charles II., after his accession, caused its fortifications to be razed to the ground. The PoSTERN, temp. Richard III., now standing in a lane near the quay, is their sole relic. Charles X. of France landed here, August 23, 1830, on his escape from Paris, and from hence proceeded to Lulworth Castle.

In the good old times, the quaint sea-side town which overlooked such a multiplicity of snug little creeks, became the rendezvous of the most desperate of the Dorsetshire smugglers. On one occasion, a band of sixty fellows, armed to the teeth, made

an assault upon the Custom House, and succeeded in carrying away 4200 pounds of tobacco (A.D. 1747). So evil a repute did the town acquire, that the following rhyme became popular through all the countryside :

"If Poole was a fish-pool, and the men of Poole fish,

There'd be a pool for the devil, and fish for his dish."

ST. JAMES' CHURCH was rebuilt in 1820, at a cost of £12,000; the material employed was Purbeck stone. The altar piece is of carved mahogany. ST. PAUL'S was built 1883. The CUSTOMS HOUSE was rebuilt in 1822; the old WOOL-HOUSE, near the quay, dates from 1572. A MUSEUM connected with the POOLE LITERARY INSTITUTE has a good collection of fossils, shells, stuffed specimens of aquatic wild fowl, etc.

Poole returns two members to Parliament, and is controlled by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors. About 120 sailingvessels belong to the port, and the customs average about £9000 per annum.

[HINTS FOR RAMBLES.-Though, as we have hinted, the town in itself possesses but little to interest the general tourist, it is, nevertheless, a good central point for an exploration of south-eastern Dorsetshire. At PARKSTONE, 3 miles east, the pedestrian will be rewarded with some noble views of sea and land, full of bold contrasts of colour. WIMBORNE MINSTER, with its beautiful church, is about 9 miles north. A sail to WAREHAM, 7 miles west, is much to be commended, and the tourist should not fail to visit the historic ruins of CORFE CASTLE, crossing by boat to WYCH PASSAGE (7 miles for 3s. to 5s.), and thence walking about 3 miles. From Poole to BOURNEMOUTH, across the hills, is a pleasant stroll (5 miles east)].

On rounding the south-west extremity of Poole harbour, the voyager finds himself in the shadow of lofty cliffs the abrupt, precipitous, and "grewsome" sea-wall of STUDLAND BAY-formed of the upper chalk, which here emerges from beneath the eocene strata at a very low angle, and throws out, at the Foreland, some semi-isolated masses resembling the Needles. HANDFAST POINT (or the Foreland) is 350 feet above the sea-level.

STUDLAND (population, 295) gives its name to this bay; and is a charming little elm-shaded village, with a pretty Norman church built upon the sand, which, just beyond, gives way to the chalk. It is as wild and "romancy" as any lover of the picturesque can desire. A little to the south rise the bold ridges of BALLARD Down (584 feet high), continued towards Corfe Castle by NINE-BARROW DOWN, 642 feet high, and commanding

a fine view of purple heaths to the north, and the deep green waters of the channel stretching far away towards the setting sun. About three quarters of a mile north-west, stands, on a low green knoll, the AGGLE-STONE (.e., Holy Stone-halig stán, Saxon), a rude misshapen block of ferruginous sandstone, whose origin is not easily arrived at. We believe it to have been a cromlech, or grave-mark-the memorial-stone of some old Celtic hero-but the peasants tell you that it is the devil's crest, or cap, which he, when resting one day upon the Needles, hurled at the gleaming towers of Corfe Castle. He missed his aim, however, and the stone fell where we see it now; nor need we wonder, inasmuch as it weighs full 400 tons, and measures 37 feet in length, 15 feet in height, and 19 feet in width.

Rounding Handfast Point, and its Pinnacles, popularly called "Old Harry and his Wife," and passing the deep cavern of PARSON'S BARN, we enter SWANAGE BAY.* Here in a cove, or recess, termed Punfield, we meet with strata of Firestone, Gault, Greensand, and Wealden clay in a highly inclined position. "The middle series of the Wealden deposits, the HASTINGS SANDS, which are not visible in the Isle of Wight, form the line of cliffs from Punfield to Swanage. These beds consist of sands, clays, and calcareous grits, enclosing seams and disseminated masses of lignite, and containing bones of reptiles, etc. The sea-shore is often strewn with fossil trees, and rolled bones of the Iguanodon and other animals, that have been washed out of fallen masses of the strata. The tract on which the town of Swanage stands, is on the line of junction between the Hastings beds and the Purbeck group; the latter comprises clays, sands, and limestones, with bands of shelly marbles, calcareous slates, and coarse limestones, full of small paludinæ, cyclades, and other fresh-water shells”(Mantell). In 1837, a fossil crocodile, embedded in a large slab of fawn-coloured limestone, was discovered in one of the Swanage quarries.

Its

SWANAGE (population, 3742. Inns: Royal Victoria, and Ship)-e., Swan-wic, the Swan-village-consists of one long, sloping thoroughfare of decent houses, with some minor streets, enjoying a glorious prospect of down, and cliff, and sea. CHURCH, dedicated to St. Mary, is an Early English building, The Danish fleet, repulsed by King Alfred at Wareham, was wrecked here in 877.