arbour is almost land-locked
and the sea is not in visual evidence away from the extremely narrow
entrance between Bournemouth and Studland. A fine excursion for good
pedestrians can be made by following the sandy shore until the ferry
across the opening is reached and then continuing to Studland and over
Ballard Down to Swanage.

Poole town is a busy place of small extent but containing for its size
a large population. The enormous development of industry in the
surrounding districts during the Great War must have brought the
number of folks in and around Poole to nearly 100,000, thus making it
the most populous corner of Dorset. This figure may not be maintained,
but a good proportion of the work concerned with the waste of
armaments has been transformed into the commerce of peace. One cause
for the modern prosperity of this old town is its position as regards
the converging railways from the west and north as well as from London
and Weymouth.

[Illustration: POOLE.]

Poole, like a good many other places with as much or as little cause,
has been claimed as a Roman station. There seems to be no direct
evidence for this. The first actual records of the town are dated
1248, when William de Longespee gave it its first charter. This Norman
held the manor of Canford, and Poole church was originally a chapel of
ease for that parish. The present building only dates from 1820 and
for the period is a presentable enough copy of the Perpendicular
style. Poole was a republican town in the Civil War and sent its
levies to help to reduce Corfe Castle. The revenge of the other side
came when, at the Restoration, all the town defences were destroyed,
though the king was not too unforgetful to refuse the hospitality of
the citizens during the Great Plague.

The only remarkable relics in Poole are the Wool House or "Town
Cellar" and an old postern dating from about 1460. The Town Hall, with
its double flight of winding steps and quaint high porch was built in
1761. Within, as a commemoration of the visit recorded above, is a
presentment of the monarch who must have had "a way with him," since
his subjects' memories apparently became as short as his own.

But Poole's most stirring times were in the days when Harry Page,
licensed buccaneer and pirate, made individual war on Spain to such
good purpose that the natives of Poole were astounded one morning to
see upwards of one hundred foreign vessels dotted about the waters of
the har