When
it was delivered up, the parliament ordered it to be demolished; and the
walls and towers were undermined, and thrown down, or blown up with
gunpowder. "Thus this ancient and magnificent fabric was reduced to a heap
of ruins, and remains a lasting monument of the dreadful effects of
anarchy, and the rage of civil war. The ruins are large, and allowed to be
the noblest and grandest in the kingdom, considering the extent of the
ground on which they stand. The vast fragments of the King's Tower, the
round towers leaning as if ready to fall, the broken walls, and vast
pieces of them tumbled down into the vale below, form such a scene of
havoc and desolation, as strikes every curious spectator with horror and
concern."[3]
[3] Hutchins's Dorset, vol. i. p. 286, 2nd edit.
The tragical murder of Edward by Elfrida, at Corfe Castle, and its
memorable defence by Lady Bankes, form two very interesting narratives in
Hutchins's Dorset. Their details would occupy too much of our present
sheet, although they are worth reprinting for the gratification of the
general reader.
Corfe Castle, as we have already intimated, is proposed to be
disfranchised by the Great Reform Bill now before Parliament.
A year or two hence, probably, the political consequence of the place will
be humbled as the Castle itself!
* * * * *
ANCIENT PARLIAMENTS.
(_To the Editor._)
In the _Literary Magazine_ for 1792 I find the following list of
places, which _formerly_ sent members to parliament:--
Dunstable Odiham Langport
Newberry Overton Montacute
Ely Bromyard Stoke Curcy
Wisbeach Ledbury Watchet
Polurun Ross Were
Egremont Berkhemstead Farnham
Bradnesham Stoteford Kingston upon Thames
Crediton Greenwich Bradford
Exmouth Tunbridge Mere
Tremington Manchester Highworth
Liddeford Melton Mowbray Bromsgrove
Modbury Spalding Dudley
Southmolton Waynfleet Kidderminster
Teignmouth Bamberg Pershore
Torrington Corbrigg Doncaster
Blandford Burford Jervale
Winborn Chipping Norton Pickering
Sherborn Doddington Ravenser
Milton Whitney Tykhull
Chelmsford Oxbridge Hallifax
Bere Regis Chard Whitby
Alresford Dunster and
Alton Glastonbury Leeds
Basingstoke
Fareham
The three last named places were summoned during the Commonwealth--also
Manchester;--when discontinued, not known.
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