The following is an extract from the letter of friend, received some years since:

" From time immemorial this Island has been inhabited by the fine old Saxon race, who have intermarried solely with each other without degenerating. The men are all above six feet, and the women in due proportion. They all bear the name either of Stone or Pearce, and are esteemed a 'rough and ready race.'"

If any reader of "N & Q" can corroborate these statements or refute them, I shall feel obliged. Being so contrary to the received opinion respecting frequent intermarriages this exceptional case, if true, is curious; but my correspondent, a lady, may have made her statements too hastily.
M.F.

Notes and Queries Vol. 2 3rd S. (47) Nov 22 1862 Page 411

Portland Island (3^rd S., ii, 411.) - The correspondent of your correspondent M.F. was perhaps a little too sensational in her statements: though the broad fact, that the Portlanders are a fine race, notwithstanding their frequent inter-marriages, is certainly undeniable.

In a clever sketch, in "Household Words" for April 1858, it is said of them :-

"Danes by descent, with a strong infusion of Saxon blood, we Portlanders are a stalwart muscular race, admirably suited to our quarry work, and still keeping a good eal aloof from our neighbours on the mainland. Four or five family names, of which Pearce and Stone are the most common, suffice for the whole of us. There are probably five hundred Pearces."

In "A Summer Trip to Weymouth and Dorchester, published in 1842 by the late Mr Buckingham, this latter peculiarity is somewhat enlarged upon:

"There are two principal names in the island, Pearce and Stone; one would imagine, must have been derived from the occupation as quarriers, since "to pierce the stone" is their chief and almost constant employment. Until very late years, there was no example of their marrying out of the Island: and in the matches made in their own circle, it was thought most becoming for a Stone to wed a Pearce, for a Pearce a Stone, rather than that two of the same name should be united."

In the last contested election for Dorsetshire, AD 1857, I find that 254 votes were given in Portland; of which there were of the name of

I know not that there are any good grounds for supposing them to be of Danish origin. If they are, they certainly treated their forefathers somewhat unceremoniously: for they seem to have fought many stout battles with Danish invaders. The strange word Kimberlen, by which they designate the inhabitants of the outer world - in fact, all who are not Portlanders - might possibly afford some clue to their race.

C. W. BINGHAM

Notes and Queries Vol. 2 3rd S. (50) Dec 13 1862 Page 480

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