Sketches of the Past of Poole. By W. R. Gill.
(Balding and Mansell. ls.)—This is a well-written little book, very modest in its pretensions, but conceived in a genuinely historical spirit. Mr. Gill does not claim a remote antiquity for the town. He advances, on the contrary, a very reasonable conjecture that it found its opportunity in the misfortunes that overtook Wareham. The site of Poole was within the manor of Canford, one of the possessions of Edward of Salisbury. All the Dorsetshire fiefs of this nobleman contained only a hundred and twenty-seven males. On the other hand, it is known that Wareham, before the principal port of the coast, was almost destroyed in the war between Stephen and Maud. In the course of the next century Poole, it would seem, takes its place. The town bought its freedom for seventy marks about 1248 A.D. In 1371 its reeve was allowed to take the title of Mayor ; in 1453 it obtained license to hold a market weekly and two fairs annually ; before that it had sent burgesses to Parliament. Mr. Gill traces the history of the place in this instructive fashion, giving a chapter to each set of Kings, to the Commonwealth time (it was on the Parliament side), to" Smugglers," &c. Altogether a most praiseworthy sketch.
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