Winterbourne Abbas is more than four miles away and Kingston Russell,
exactly half-way to Bridport, is the only other village on the road.
This was once the home of the Russells who became Dukes of Bedford.
Here was born Sir T.M. Hardy and here died J.L. Motley, author of the
_History of the Dutch Republic_. The poor remnants of the old manor
house are to be seen in the farm near the hamlet.
[Illustration: WEYMOUTH HARBOUR.]
CHAPTER V
WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND
The fashionable Weymouth of to-day is the Melcombe Regis of the past,
and quite a proportion of visitors to Melcombe never go into the real
Weymouth at all. The tarry, fishy and beery (in a manufacturing sense
only) old town is on the south side of the harbour bridge and has
little in common with the busy and popular watering place on the north
and east. Once separate boroughs, the towns are now under one
government, and Melcombe Regis has dropped its name almost entirely in
favour of that of the older partner.
How many towns on the coast claim their particular semicircle of bay
to be "the English Naples"? Douglas, Sandown and even Swanage have at
some time or other, through their local guides, plumed themselves on
the supposed resemblance.
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