Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 1.djvu/770

Rh 1>K Vi iX.SH IKE. 760 DEVONSHIRE. neat, poultry, fiah, batter, vegetables, i inFore-street &c., an sold here. 'The poet-office stands in "Fore-street . There are several charitable institutions, besides a naval and military Female Orphan Asylum, a royal military hos- pital, and British Female Orphan Asylum : there is alio a poorhouse. The Royal Devonport Dockyard is on the W. of the town, and has a frontage on the lUmoazeof 1,160 yards, and an area of 71$ acres. The men employed number about 2,000. The basin and two docks were built in the time of William III., and two other* by George ILL The docks are called the South, Head, Stem, New, and North New docks ; the last is the largest, measuring 272 feet by 66 feet 7 inches. The yard contains, in addition to three building-slips, shops for joiners, blacksmiths, sailmakers, 4e., pay- office, model-house, storehouses, and a chapel, erected, on the site of one built in 1700, by subscription "g the officers and men. The gun-wharf, to the N. of the docks, covering about 5 acres, was built by Vanbrugh, and contains officers* nouses, armory, storehouses for shot, ic. The powder ginA ia at Bull Point, and the victualling office at Stonehouse. At Morice Town there is a " steam-yard," for fitting out steam- vessels, commenced by Lord Auckland in 1846. The Ihikt of Wellington was examined and repaired there before her voyage to the Baltic. A tunnel has been con- structed to connect this with the dockyard. Devonport, with Stonehouse and Stoke, returns two members to the House of Commons. The "*"*< of incorporation was granted in 1836. The municipal borough is divided into six wards St. Anbyn, Tamar, Morice, Stoke, St. John's, and Clowance ; and the local government is administered by a mayor, 12 aldermen, 36 councillors, town-clerk, recorder, and other officers, under the style of " mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the borough of Devonport. ' ' The mayor is the returning officer, and the voters number nearly 3,000. Quarter srsainns of the peace are held here. In 1851 the population of the municipal borough was 38,180, and the parliamentary 50,400 and odd. In 1861 the municipal borough con- tained 4,189 houses, and 60,440 persons ; the parlia- mentary 6,434 houses, and 64,783 persons. The parish church of Stoke frrcyj about half a mile from the dock- yard gates. Under a recent Act four new parishes have been formed out of the parish of Stoke Damerell St Paul, St. Stephen, St Mary, and St James, all perpet. curs., in the patron, of the crown and bishop alternately, and churches have been built for each. St. Stephen's has a very handsome spire. There are three chapels- of-ease St. Aubyn's, in Chapel-street, a cur., vaL 117, in the patron, of the rector; St Michael's, be- tween Morice Town and Stoke ; and St John's, in Duke-street, a cur., ral. 150, in the patron, of the rector. The barrack church is in George-square, and there is another in the dockyard, previously mentioned. The Wealeyans and other Dusentess have several places of worship in the town. The schools are numerous. There is a **lflttV*t^ and " l *tk JMI Bftii*fll proprietary school, founded 1820, a British and foreign boys' and girls' school, a free school for the orphans of sailors and soldiers, and a subscription school rnrtnimrrt by men employed in the dockyard. The Cornwall railway pa awn through Stoke, and finally crosses the Tamar at Saltash by means of an iron bridge. The high road to Cornwall passes through the town, and u oases the Hamoaxe by a steam floating bridge, from Morice Town to Tor Point. Steamers run hourly from Cornwall-street to ftil^uli, and others run up the Tamar and to St Germain's. Then are hot and cold baths and bathing iMi4ii at Kichssond Walk. The town supports one weekly news- paper the Ktnmftrt Imitfatifitt. The Devon and Cornwall, and the National and Provincial banks have branches here. The market days an Tuesday, Thurs- day, and Saturday. DEVONSHIRE, a maritime co. in the S.W. of Eng- land, hounded on the N. and N.W. by the Bristol Channel, on the N.E. by Somersetshire, on the E. by Dorsetshire, on the S.E. and 8. by the English Channel, and on the W. by Cornwall, from which county it is separated for nearly the whole distance by the m Tamar. In form it is a very irregular quadrangle, < taming 1,657, 180 acres. The length from beyond An ster to Mount Edgecumbe is 65 miles, the great** breadth 69 miles. It lies between 60* 12 1 and 51- i.y N. lat, and 2* 54' and 4* 3^ W. long. The name _ which the county was called by the ancient Cornish is habitants was limmn, the Welsh form being Z* or " deep valley." This was softened by the into fam*t*it, and the county was included in j frima. W. of the river Parret there was a tribe Oimlri. The Romans founded several stations in county : among them Item Dnoumiartim, at ] XmdiuHtm, near Honiton. The British insisted for a long time the Saxon invaders." battles wen fought, but the first of which clear account is the battle of Bam p ton, when < King of Wessex, defeated the Britons in 614. Penda, King of Mercia, made an incursion into the 8.1 parts of the island, during which he besieged " The entire county was brought under Saxon AthelsUn in 926, who defeated Howell, King of I. wall, and drove the Britons beyond the river Ta The Danes made many incursions on the southern c and burnt Tavistock Abbey. King Alfred spent i time in attempting to expel them, and defeated several times, particularly at Brunnanburh, near ster. After William the Conqueror had obtai Knglish throne, he proceeded in person into U of England to compel anlsniaiinii, and Exeter went a regular siege before it surrendered to his i During the dynasty of the Plantagenets, Devonshire i the neighbouring counties were much exposed to devastations of the Irish on the N. coast, and of t French on the S. No events of importance an nected with this county till the insurrectioi Andley and Perkin Warbeck, both of which < in Cornwall, and in both fines Exeter was ' by the insurgents. At the time of the ] 1649, Cornwall and Devon wen in disturbed state, and Lord Russell, who was commii to put down the revolt, was unable to do so resorting to arms, and several skirmishes took pL. this county. Dunns; the parliamentary wan the l bitants were mostly attached to the popular cause, -: i both Plymouth and Exeter wen held by parliame: generals. The latter town was forced to surrenc the royalist army under Sir John Berkeley and l^^l Maurice. The king passed through Devon in V^^H of the Earl of Essex, who was obliged to capit and on his return Charles left Sir Richard to carry on the siege of Plymouth ; Sir Thomas P*^H coming to its relief in about nine months, succeed suppressing all attempts to aid the royalist party. <! November 6th, 1688, William III. land'ed at Torbaff^H made a public entry into Exeter, where he remained sj^H time awaiting reinforcements. The southern coast ^^H county has always been liable to attack from in v^^H armies. The Spanish Armada was first seen from th> in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, and the fleet destroyed it was stationed in .that port. In 1690 Tsj^| mouth was burnt by a body of French troops, 1719 and 1779 the county was threatened by the 1 and Spanish fleet*, and a camp was formed i Heath, near Exeter. Another encampment wai in 1798, on the site of some old fortifications, on We bury Down, on the other side of Exeter. In the year of the present reign, the boundaries of the < wen .slightly altered by the addition of the tow of StockJand and Bridpe'rule, in return tat which! come, Beerhall, and Vaultershowe wen Devonshire. Many men famous in HgKl< ] been born and brt-d in Devonshire among whoa* i mentioned Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter mcis Drake, Duke of Mariborough, Sir Jo Reynolds, and the poet Gay. The S.W. co county contains a table-land, known as Dartmoor, rTTtJns* chiefly of open uncultivated ' taining many lofty granite tors, piled in horizontal*