Middenshire - the island county

In his Perambulacion, Thuck produced a map, placing the county in context with part of the south coast of England. This map it crystal clear that the county no longer existed, since the area it occupied is now nothing but sea. Albeit seventeenth century maps were not known for their cartographical accuracy, it indicated that Middenshire was an arrow-shaped piece of land, the point facing east, lying in the English Channel off the coast of Dorset. It appears to have been about 18 miles long by seven and a half at its widest point, and joined by a narrow causeway at its western extremity to the Isle of Portland. This causeway was, according to Thuck, negotiable only at low tide, so, to all intents and purposes, Middenshire was an island. Its insularity was not merely physical, however. Thuck's book suggets that a kind of 'island mentality' existed in the county, its people tending to regard anyone from the mainland as 'foreign,' and warranting deep suspicion. The Dorset people likewise regarded Middenites (a term coined by one of the many fringe religious groups that at one time inhabited Middenshire) as alien, inbred, superstitious and stupid. It has to be said that some, or more truthfully, many, of the documents preserved in the cannon tend to add credence to this view. Thuck, in a number of pen portraits of fellow countrymen and women that echo John Aubrey's Brief Lives, attempted to show that the county did produce people of intellect and ability who, but for the accident of being Middenshire born, could have risen to true greatness. However, one thing that becomes apparent to us in these more cynical times, is that most of these people's achievements seemed flawed in some way. By a cruel twist of fate, they seemed doomed to fail in what even enterprise they undertook. The greatest failure of all - possibly the only one in its history to which the population of Middenshire did not contribute - occurred in the fifteenth century and wiped the name of Middenshire from the map.

The details of this 'failure' and its consequences I will relate in the next post.