THE gleaming post-chaise charged into the courtyard and executed a perfect circle with only inches to spare.

A crowd of up to 300 stared at the lady postillion who accompanied her husband while a bugler from the Royal Marines saluted their arrival.

Then the dashing young naval lieutenant turned every female head as he stepped down from the carriage to be greeted by a cloudburst.

RADA graduate Alex Price was playing the part of Lieutenant John Lapenotiere, who travelled for 37 hours virtually non-stop to bring hot news from Falmouth to London.

The Royal Navy had defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar - but the country's national hero, Nelson, had died in the fighting.

This was part of the re-enactment 200 years after the event taking place at Blandford's Crown Hotel.

Commander David Isard said it was a stunning scene.

"The horses were beautiful, you could see your face in the chaise and the lieutenant was really dishy, the ladies tell me," he said.

"But the heavens opened and everybody just ran for cover.

"You plan everything outside for a year and then you end up having it inside.

"Luckily the Crown has the Sealy Suite. We were crammed in - you could hardly move.

"Shaftesbury's silver band started playing Rule Britannia and Heart of Oak - we had great jollifications."

After a civic lunch dignitaries went up to Blandford camp where wreaths were laid at Collingwood Corner, including one by the chairman of North Dorset District Council, Mike Oliver, and one by Blandford mayor, Esme Butler.

"A piper played a lament which reduced people to tears - it was all beautifully done," Comm Isard said.

At a separate ceremony at Woodyates on the Salisbury road, East Dorset District Council vice-chairman Queenie Comfort presided at the presentation of a plaque, commemorating the part played in the journey by the village's now demolished Shaftesbury Arms coaching inn.

Organiser David Gould said the pub was one of only two mentioned by name in Lt Lapenotiere's expenses sheet.

First published: August 30