[Devmon] by P

[Boroff <hi...@ed...>]

 out to the end. Clarendon, the Royalist historian of the Great
Rebellion, makes a slighting reference to the two towns. "In
Dorsetshire", he says, "the enemy had only two little fisher towns,
Poole and Lyme." The "little fisher towns", however, proved a thorn in
the sides of the Royalists, some thousands of whom lost their lives in
the fierce fighting that took place at Poole, and particularly around
Lyme Regis. The merchants of Poole became wealthy by their trade with
Newfoundland, a commerce that commenced in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
and lasted until well on in the reign of Queen Victoria. The trade is
said to have been conducted on the truck system, and the merchants grew
rich by buying both their exports and imports wholesale while disposing
of them at retail prices. Not far from the quay is an almshouse, built
in 1816 by George Garland, a wealthy merchant of the town, who, on the
occasion of a great feast in 1814, presented "one honest plum-pudding of
one hundredweight" towards the entertainment. Farther on is a house
built in 1746 by Sir Peter Thompson. It is a good specimen of Georgian
architecture, and still bears the heraldic arms of the merchant who
built it. Sir Peter's house is now Lady Wimborne's "Cornelia Hospital".
Most of the other old houses of the town's merchants have been
modernized and sadly disfigured. The oldest almshouses--and the number
of ancient almshouses in a town is a sure guide to its old-time
prosperity--were built originally in the reign of the fifth Henry, and
for many years belonged to the Guild of St. George. In 1547, at the
Reformation, they passed to the Crown, with all the other property of
the Guild, and in 1550 they were purchased by the Corporation. Needless
perhaps to say, they have been rebu