This description of Dorchester, Dorset, England is taken from The representative history of Great Britain and Ireland by Thomas Hinton Burley Oldfield published in 1816
Dorchester is a borough, market, and county town, in the hundred of Uggescombe, and division of Dorchester, Dorset, 15 miles from Blandford, and 120 from London. It stands on an elevation on the river Frome, and comprises three parishes; containing 344 houses and 2,402 inhabitants, being 1,078 males, and 1,324 females, of whom 729 were returned as being employed in trade and manufacture, principally of serge and broad-cloth, of which the latter was formerly much more considerable than at present. The town is built in the direction of the four cardinal points, and the buildings are good. In the neighbourhood are extensive meadows, and a down, on which vast flocks of sheep are fed, and the ewes in general are very prolific, a circumstance imputed to the aromatic herbs with which the pasturage is interspersed. This place is noted for the excellence of its ale, which is sent to all parts of the kingdom. It has a good market on Wednesdays and Saturdays; and its fairs are on the 12th February, on Trinity Monday, on the 5th July, and August 30.
