An American in Dorset

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Sometimes they will drop an elderly passenger off right at their own front door. Most of the passengers know each other and engage in friendly conversation. Once in a while I have been included. On the way to Sydling St. Nicholas one kind lady invited me into her cottage for scones and tea.

Everything doesn't always go smoothly. More than once I have been stranded because I failed to check my timetables carefully. I couldn't believe that in the middle of June there would be no bus back to Wimborne from Shaftesbury after 6. I stood by the bus stop for more than an hour before it dawned on me. Another time I hopped a Mid Dorset coach at But these slip ups on my part did not develop into catastrophes because each time it was a simple matter to call a taxi and within minutes be speeding back to my guest house.

The A Line service from Dorchester rescued me more, often than I care to admit. Of course the fare was considerably more than the bus fare but still much less than car rental for a day.

I've 'even used British Rail on short hops a few times, just like a regular tourist. That Saturday morning in Sydling I found the ground covered with bright primroses and white violets. Roses were climbing on many of the walls. The village is in a valley high on the downs of South Dorset surrounded by gentle, soft, green hills. The stream known as the Sydling Water runs through the village and divides into three. Many of the ancient cottages of stone and flint or brick and flint are reached by way of tiny connecting bridges. I saw a large spreading chestnut tree where High Street and East Street meet, but, it is not here but further down the road that the village smithy stands.

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3. Looking Back: How an American division was prepared for life in west Dorset during WW2.
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His establishment is not an Olde Smithe Teashoppe selling plastic lucky horseshoes, it's the genuine article. In fact I found all of Sydling to be the genuine article. It is full of the feeling that villages used to have when they were units in which people lived and worked together for long periods of time.

The story of African American GIs in Dorset

I loved being there. Nicholas, the peace and quiet generated thoughts of the Saxons who settled there in the seventh and eighth centuries. Their strip farming "lynchets" can still be clearly seen along the sides of the hills. Was it as peaceful then? The only noise to be heard now was the soft bubbling of the streams and the voices of a few children playing soccer.

The Duke of Dorset to the American Commissioners, 26 March 1785

One boy hit a ball that bounced close to me and rolled into my leg. How did they know?

I wasn't carrying any luggage and I had my camera hidden away in my handbag. I had hoped to be taken for someone from a neighbouring village. I hadn't had a chance to talk to anyone since leaving the cottage of my friend from the bus, so it couldn't have been my accent. I was devastated, but only for a moment. Dorset culture and history is divided into four periods: The Terminal phase, if it existed, would likely be closely related to the onset of the Medieval Warm Period , which started to warm the Arctic considerably around AD With the warmer climates, the sea ice became less predictable and was isolated from the High Arctic.

The Dorset were highly adapted to living in a very cold climate, and much of their food is thought to have been from hunting sea mammals that breathe through holes in the ice. The massive decline in sea-ice which the Medieval Warm Period produced would have strongly affected the Dorset. They could have followed the ice north.

Most of the evidence suggests that they disappeared some time between AD and Scientists have suggested that they disappeared because they were unable to adapt to climate change [3] or that they were vulnerable to newly introduced disease.

The 10 Best American Restaurants in Dorset - TripAdvisor

The Dorset adaptation was different from that of the whaling -based Thule Inuit. Unlike the Inuit, they rarely hunted land animals, such as polar bears and caribou. They did not use bows or arrows. Instead, they seem to have relied on seals and other sea mammals that they apparently hunted from holes in the ice.

Their clothing must have been adapted to the extreme conditions. Triangular end-blades, soapstone, and burins are diagnostic of the Dorset. The end-blades were hafted onto harpoon heads.

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They primarily used the harpoons to hunt seal, but also hunted larger sea mammals such as walrus and narwhals. They made kudlik lamps from soapstone and filled them with seal oil. Burins were a type of stone flake with a chisel-like edge. They were probably either used for engraving or for carving wood or bone. The burins were also used by Pre-Dorset groups and had distinctive mitten shape. The Dorset were highly skilled at making refined miniature carvings, and striking masks.

Both indicate an active shamanistic tradition.