Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/192

 136 THE CASTLE OF EXETER. " 8th March, 1698, for filhng up the ditch at the lower end of Northernhay Avith rubbish." The whole of the Castle fosse, from the City wall in Dr. Pennell's premises, along the Sweep to the City wall just below Mr. Pye's (the eighth and last house in Bradninch Precinct), belonged to the duchy of Cornwall. We learn also from Brice that John Fortescue, Esq., a leaseholder of a part, had converted the Castle Gate- way into " a pleasure-house." His portion afterwards passed into the hands of Mr. John Patch, surgeon, who tastefully profited of the inequalities of the ground, by forming walks and plantations, and erected a fair dwelling-house. On his death, in 1787, it was purchased by the late Edmund Granger, Esq., who improved and enlarged the premises. This beautiful and unique freehold residence, which had been sold by the duchy officers for the redemption of the land-tax, as also a leasehold property of a house and garden on Northern- hay, held under the Town Council, was purchased on the 18th March, 1847, by Richard Sommers Gard, Esq. On the other side of the Gateway, now the premises of Dr. Pennell, we recollect a choice vineyard, planted and cultivated by the late Mr. Frankpit. By permission of the Dukes of Cornwall, the Courts of Assize and General Quarter Sessions for the Peace for the county of Devon were holden w^ithin the Castle of Exeter from an early period. The county jail lay just below it, a living tomb — a sink of filth and profligacy,"^ and where several perished from sheer starvation. In 1608 a complaint was made to the Justices of Devon, " that by reason of the then dearth of all things, the number of prisoners had greatly increased, and their allowance found was so small that divers of them ^ In F. Henry More's History of the todi." Sir William Pole, in his " Descrip- Provincia Anglicana, S. J., p. 391, is the tion of Devon," p. lb'3, Risdon, p. 50, and following description of the old county Westcote, p. "239, (contemporary writers,) jail, in 1604: — " Erant 80 viri foemi- Brice and the Rev. Richard Polwhele,mis- naique mmm in locum varia ob flagitia led by K. Hen. I.'s grant of i?(VtoH il/aHOJ" inclusi. Viros a fosminis di.sjungebat to John, called Janitor from his office (pro- clathrum ligneum tarn latis spatiis laxum, bably no longer extant) to maintain a ut nonmanibus solum &capiti,sed integro county jail, imagined that the jail itself pene corpori pateret exitus. Singulos a.s ?it Bkton. The Crown Pleas of 1290 tamen unco ferreo impliciti compedes ita abundantly prove that the service of astringebant, utsedendi quidem jaeendivo Geofl'rey 13alistarius, as Lord of liicton, csset copia, non vero sc de loco movendi. consisted in keejiing the county jail at Duobus ex co numero fiebat potestas Exder, " custodiendi gaolara comitatus obeundi locum cum situlis, ad retjuisita Exonise." Innumerable documents j)rove naturse. Libertas in atrio perangusto & the fact ; and in a deed dated 20th March, fcBtenti obambulaiidi emi debebat "duobus 1459, we find this prison designated as assibus in dies singulos, peudcndis cus- the dW Jat7, " vetus gaola."