This I inquired particularly
after at the place, and was assured by the inhabitants, as one man, that
the fact was true, and was showed the meadows. The grass which grew on
them was such as grew to the length of ten or twelve feet, rising up to a
good height and then taking root again, and was of so rich a nature as to
answer very well such an extravagant rent.

The reason they gave for this was the extraordinary richness of the soil,
made so, as above, by the falling or washing of the rains from the hills
adjacent, by which, though no other land thereabouts had such a kind of
grass, yet all other meadows and low grounds of the valley were extremely
rich in proportion.

There are abundance of good families, and of very ancient lines in the
neighbourhood of this town of Dorchester, as the Napiers, the Courtneys,
Strangeways, Seymours, Banks, Tregonells, Sydenhams, and many others,
some of which have very great estates in the county, and in particular
Colonel Strangeways, Napier, and Courtney. The first of these is master
of the famous swannery or nursery of swans, the like of which, I believe,
is not in Europe. I wonder any man should pretend to travel over this
country, and pass by it, too, and then write his account and take no
notice of it.

From Dorchester it is six miles to the seaside south, and the ocean in
view almost all the way. The first town you come to is Weymouth, or
Weymouth and Melcombe, two towns lying at the mouth of a little rivulet
which they call the Wey, but scarce claims the name of a river. However,
the entrance makes a very good though small harbour, and they are joined
by a wooden bridge; so that nothing but the harbour parts them; yet they
are separate corporations, and choose each of them two members of
Parliament, just as London and Southwark.

Weymouth is a sweet, clean, agreeable town, considering its low
situation, and close to the sea; it is well built, and has a great many
good substantial merchants in it who drive a considerable trade, and have
a good number of ships belonging to the town. They carry on now, in time
of peace, a trade with France; but, besides this, they trade also to
Portugal, Spain, Newfoundland, and Virginia; and they have a large
correspondence also up in the country for the consumption of their
returns; especially the wine trade and the Newfoundland trade are
considerable here.

Without the harbour is an old castle, called Sandfoot Castle; and over
aga