Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/236

Rh PLYMOUTH^ 224 PLYMPTON EAELS. n and was visited 'by Charles II. during its erection. It is entered from the town by two gateways with drawbridges, the sides on the E., W., and N. being surrounded by a ditch, with a counterscarp and covered way. It consists of five bastions, and has embrasures for 120 guns. The ramparts are about three-quarters of a mile in circum- ference, as the fort contains an esplanade for parade as well as barracks, magazines, and a chapel. The dock- yard and victualling yard are in Devonport, and the naval and military hospitals and marine barracks in Stonehouse. Many of the inhabitants of Plymouth are engaged in the government works, and others in the manufacture of sail-cloth, soap, glass, starch, artificial manure and cement, sugar refining and distilling. The merchant service and the navy also employ a large number. Trade is carried on with all parts of the English coast, with America, Mauritius, the West Indies, the Baltic, Africa, the Mediterranean, &c. The coast trade is chiefly in fish to London, wool to Hull, lead to Bristol and London, and manganese to Scotland. Steamers leave regularly for almost every port in the United Kingdom, and emigrant ships, the depot for which is at Sutton Harbour, are continually sailing for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The African mail steamers leave monthly for Madeira, Sierra Leone, &c. Plymouth is divided, for municipal purposes, into six wards by the new Act, instead of four, as formerly. They are as follows: St. Andrew's, Charles, Drake, Frankfort, Sutton, and Vintry. The local government is carried on by a mayor, who is returning officer, 12 aldermen, thirty-six councillors, a recorder, town-clerk, &c., with the style of "mayor and commonalty of the borough of Plymouth." The property of the corporation consists of manor rents, granted by Edward IV., several houses and mills in Plymouth, the Koyal hotel, the theatre, and the Leat, or water supply from Dartmoor, which was constructed by Sir Francis Drake. The en- dowed grammar school is also under their control, and they have the management of the police staff, and the lighting and cleansing of the town. During the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., Plymouth, which was then called Sutton, returned one member to parliament, but none were returned after the reign of the latter, till the lime of Henry VI., when the number was increased to two, and it has since remained the same. The bounds of the municipal and parliamentary borough are co- extenfdve. The population in 1851 was 72,096, with 12,825 inhabited houses, and in 1861 the number of persons was 91,799, and houses 15,819, showing an in- crease of 22,703 persons in the ten years. The manage- ment of the poor is conducted by a board of guardians, instituted by Act of Parliament in 1708. There is a new workhouse on the N.E. of the town adjoining the borough prisons, built in 1851 at a cost of 9,500. Plymouth superior registry includes only the borough, the new County Court district includes also Plympton, East Stonehouse, Stoke Damerel, St. Germans, and the Hamoaze, Catwater, and the Sound, and the excise district comprises Plymouth, Ashburton, Newton, Tot- ness, Brixton, Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Modbury, Plympton, Saltash, Looe, Liskeard, Callington, and Tavistock. Plymouth is the headquarters of the western military district, and of the South Devon militia. The earldom of Plymouth was held by Charles Fitzcharles, natural son of Charles II., from 1675 to 1680, and in 1682 was given to Thomas Hickman Windsor. The livings in Plymouth belong to the archdeac. of Totnes and the dioc. of Exeter. They are as follows: St. Andrew, a vie.,* val. 920, with Pennycross cur. The church ia ancient, with a square embattled tower, and was repaired in 1825. King Charles the Martyr, a vie., val. 612, with Compton Gifford cur. The church was begun at the com- mencement of the Civil War, but was not finished till the Restoration. St. Andrew and Holy Trinity, perpet. curs.,* vals. 115 and 114, in the patron, of the vicar. Christ Church, cur. in the same patron., val. 80. St. Peter, St. James, and Sutton-on-Plym, curs., in the patron, of the crown and bishop, vals. 300, 300, and 150. Plymouth was anciently a prebend to Plympton Collegiate church, and its church belonged to the priory there. At the Reformation the impropriate tithes and advowson were given to the corporation of Plymouth. The Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Society of Friends, and Jews have places of worship here. In the middle ages there were houses of white and grey friars, and a leper hospital in Plymouth. The grammar school, which gives a gratuitous education to 12 sons of householders, was founded in 1573 by Queen Elizabeth. The new grammar school was founded in 1822, and in 1851 had 70 pupils. Other schools are, the greycoat school, Hele's redboy's school, Lanyon's bluecoat school, Lady Hogers's girls' school, the Household of Faith Sunday schools, National and British schools, and others connected with the various places of worship. There is also a Dissenting theological college, called Western College, founded in 1752. The Athenseum contains a museum and library belonging to the Plymouth literary and scientific insti- tution. The Public and Cottonian library possesses a valuable collection of drawings by old masters, besides a large library, and also possesses a newsroom. There is a government school of art, a mechanics' institute, a natural history society, medical and law libraries, and a commercial newsroom. The theatre and assem- bly rooms were built by the corporation in 1811, adjacent to the Royal hotel. The charitable insti- tutions are, the South Devon and East Cornwall hospital, the dispensary, the female orphan asylum, the eye infirmary, the Merchant Seamen's hospital, the "old church twelves," New Church and Jory's alms- houses. The most celebrated natives of the town were, Hawkins, who commenced the English slave trade (1520-95) ; Glanville, the author of a book on witch- craft (1636-SO); Sir R. Hawkins, the traveller (1620) ; Bacon, Crane, and Quick, divines ; Northcott, Haydon, Prout, Eastlake, and Lethbridge, painters ; and Foul- ston, the architect. Plymouth is connected with London by the Great Western railway as far as Bristol, the Bristol and Exeter as far as Exeter, and thence by the South Devon line, which terminates at Plymouth. The Devon and Cornwall railway has also its terminus at Plymouth, crossing the Hamoaze at Saltash. The newspapers published in Plymouth are, the Mercury (Liberal), and the Western News, both daily papers, and the Herald, weekly. A weekly market on Thursdays was first granted to Plymouth by Henry III., with a three days' fair at the feast of St. John, and later in the same reign a market on Wednesday, with a three days'fair at Ascension. At present the market days are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Fairs are held in April and November, the latter being originally a cloth fair. Races are held in May and August in Chelson Meadow, near Earl Morley's seat at Saltram, on an oval fiat course of 1J mile. The regatta, under the management of the Royal Western Yacht Club, is held about the end of July. The late Prince Consort was the patron of the club, the headquarters of which are at Millbay. A new club-house is just being finished, overlooking the Hoe. PLYMOUTH, a hmlt. in the par. of Merthyr Tydfil, hund. of Caerphilly, co. Glamorgan, 2 miles from Mer- thyr, and 22 N. by W. of Cardiff. It is situated in the valley of the Taff, and has large coal and iron works. PLYMOUTH-DOCK. See DEVONPOUT, co. Devon. PLYMPTON, a hund. in the co. of Devon, contains the pars, of Brixton, Plympton St. Mary and Earls Plymstock, Revelstoke, Shaugh-Prior, Wembury, and Yealmpton, comprising an area of 32,230 acres. PLYMPTON EARLS, or PLYMPTON ST. MAU- RICE, a par. and small market town locally in the above hund., but having separate jurisdiction, in the co. of Devon, 5J miles S. of Plymouth, 39 S.W. of Exeter, and about half a mile from its station on the South De- von railway. This place, which is noticed in Domesday Survey as a royal demesne under the title of Terra Sty is, and became the head of an ancient barony shortly niter the Norman conquest, is situated about a mile to the S.E. of the river Plym, from which it derives its name.