Preston is a little over two miles from Weymouth.  There are still a number of old thatched cottages here and a Perpendicular church with a Norman door.  The visitor will notice the ancient font; also a hagioscope and holy water stoup.  At the foot of the village is an old one-arched bridge over the brook that comes down from Sutton Poyntz.  It is said to be of Norman date and was even supposed at one time to be Roman.  Not far from the church is a Roman villa with a fine pavement, unearthed in 1842.  Breston is supposed to be on or near the site of Clavinium.

The monotonous line of the Chesil Beach that has been seen from Portland is, in its extreme length, from Chesil Bay under Fortune’s Well to near Burton Bradstock, where it may be said to end, more than eighteen miles long and the greatest stretch of pebbles in Europe, ranging from large and irregular lumps at Portland to small polished stones at the western extremity.  It is said that a local seafarer landing on the beach in a fog can tell his whereabouts to a nicety by handling the shingle.  For about half the distance, that is to Abbotsbury, the Fleet makes a brackish ditch on the landward side.  Behind this barrier is a country of low hills and quite out-of-the-world hamlets seldom visited or visiting.  Chickerell, the nearest of them to Weymouth, has a manufactory of stoneware and a golf-course, so that it is not so quiet and remote as Fleet, Langton Herring and the rest, which depend almost entirely on the harvest of the sea for a livelihood.

The first place of any importance west of Weymouth is Abbotsbury.  The best method of getting there is by the branch railway from Upwey Junction, which for some occult reason is at Broadwey, leaving Upwey itself a mile away to the north.  Here is the “Wishing Well” beloved of the younger members of the char-a-banc fraternity who come in crowds from Weymouth to drink part of a glass of very ordinary water and throw the remainder, at the instance of the well keeper, over the left shoulder.  As far as the writer is aware there is no particular history attached to this spring.  The arch and seats have been erected for the benefit of the visitor.  But there are less harmless ways of spending a summer afternoon, and for those who have no “wish” to make, a visit to the sixteenth-century church will be appreciated.  Here is some ancient woodwork, a pulpit dating from the early seventeenth century, and three carved figures of the apostles in quaint medieval costumes.

Nottington, a mile to the south of Broadwey, was once a spa, first resorted to as far back as the reign of George I. The well house, visited by the third George, is now a residence and the pleasant surroundings are made picturesque by an old water mill.

The railway penetrates a lonely stretch of country with one wayside “halt” on the way to Portesham (indifferently “Porsham” or “Posam").  This is a convenient station from which to visit the Blackdown district.  The large village was the birthplace of Admiral Hardy, whose ugly monument upon the hill does not improve the landscape.  The Norman and Early English church has a fine tower with a bell turret.  A good Jacobean pulpit and panelled ceiling are among the details of the interior.  The brook that runs down the street gives a pleasant individuality to a village otherwise uninteresting.