SHAFESBURY, a market-town, municipal, and parliamentary borough of England, in Dorsetshire, on the summit of a high, narrow hill, commanding a fine view over the fertile country which stretches at its foot, 22 miles N.E. of Dorchester, and 95 S.W. of London. On account of its lofty and exposed situation, it has a cold, bleak, but healthy atmosphere. Irregularly laid out, the houses are for the most part well built of the freestone quarried in the vicinity. Of the places of worship in the town, four belong to the Established Church: St Peter's, near the centre of the town, an ancient edifice, but modernized for the worse; Trinity Church, in the midst of the lime-trees of its spacious churchyard; St James's; and Rombald's. The Independents, Wesleyans, and Quakers have also places of worship here. The town-hall is a handsome building, recently erected by the Marquis of Westminster. There is an endowed blue coat school in the town, national and other schools, a reading-room, savings' bank, and some charitable institutions. The manufacture of buttons was formerly carried on at Shaftesbury, but has entirely fallen off. Some trade is carried on in butter and cheese, as well as in the agricultural produce of the fine land round about. Weekly markets and three annual fairs are held. The borough is governed by a mayor, three other aldermen and eighteen councillors; and it returns one member to Parliament. The modern town is supposed to occupy the site of the place called Caersepton by the ancient Britons. It was a Roman station, but attained to no great importance till the foundation of the celebrated abbey here by Alfred about 888. Both before and after this time it was destroyed by the Danes, but each time it was afterwards restored. It is said to have contained at the time of the Norman conquest 166 houses and 12 churches. In the abbey of Shaftesbury, Canute died in 1035, and Elizabeth, the wife of King Robert the Bruce of Scotland, was confined for some time in 1313. The family of Ashley Cooper take the title of earl from the town of Shaftesbury. It was first conferred by Charles II. in 1672 on his favourite statesman. Pop. (1851) of the municipal borough, 2503; of the parliamentary borough, 9404.