Though this is an ancient borough by prescription, it was not incorporated till the 18th of Queen Elizabeth, when a charter was obtained by Sir Christopher Hatton, by which the inhabitants were invested with the same liberties as those of the Cinque Ports; besides being favoured with various other privileges.  This charter was afterwards confirmed by James the First and Charles the Second.  The government of the town is vested in a mayor and eight barons—­the barons are those who have borne the office of mayor.  The first return to, parliament was made in the 14th of Elizabeth.  The right of election is possessed by all persons within the borough who are “seized in fee, in possession, or reversion, of any messuage, or tenement, or corporal hereditament; and in such as are tenants for life, or lives; and in want of such freehold, in tenants for years, determinable on any life, or lives, paying scot and lot."[1] The number of voters is between forty and fifty.

    [1] Hutchins’s Dorset, vol. i, p. 279, 2nd edit.

Corfe Castle “stands a little north of the town, opposite to the church, on a very steep rocky hill, mingled with hard rubble chalk stone, in the opening of those ranges of hills that inclose the east part of the Isle.  Its situation between the ends of those hills deprives it much of its natural and artificial strength, being so commanded by them, that they overlook the tops of the highest towers; yet its structure is so strong, the ascent of the hill on all sides but the south so steep, and the walls so massy and thick, that it must have been one of the most impregnable fortresses in the kingdom before the invention of artillery.  It was of great importance in respect to its command over the whole Isle:  whence, our Saxon ancestors justly styled it Corf Gate, as being the pass and avenue into the best part of the Isle.”

The Castle is separated from the town by a strong bridge of four very high, narrow, semi-circular arches, crossing a moat of considerable depth, but now dry.  This bridge leads to the gate of the first ward, which remains pretty entire, probably from the thickness of the walls, which, from the outward to the inner facing, is full nine yards.  The ruins of the entrance to the second ward, and of the tower near it, are very remarkable.  “The latter (which once adjoined to the gate) was separated with a part of the arch at the time of the demolition of the Castle, and is moved down the precipice, preserving its perpendicularity, and projecting almost five feet below the corresponding part.  Another of the towers on the same side is, on the contrary, inclined so much, that a spectator will tremble when passing under it.  The singular position of these towers seems to have been occasioned through the foundations being undermined (for blowing them up) in an incomplete manner.  On the higher part of the hill stands the keep, or citadel, which is at some distance from the centre of the fortress,