Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/31

 THE PRIORY. 15 head of Wooda Lane, and flowing thence, in nearly its present channel, to the river Kensey at St. Thomas. The Prior's garden probably occupied the chief portion of Mr. Trood's orchards. The Sextonshaye seems to have been part of the St. Thomas Churchyard. The mill was distinct from what we know as the To.wn Mills. It evidently stood near to the place where the old bone mill, at the eastern end of St. Thomas Church, lately stood, between Mr. Hender's wool-house and Mr. Burt's yard. The water, after passing that mill, united with the Kensey not far from where it still enters that river. The Chapel of St. James must therefore, as we think, have been on the Dunheved side of the streamlet called Harper's Lake, and have occupied part at least of the site of Mr. William Burt's residence, near St. Thomas Bridge, on the left hand as we now descend from the castle. The convent garden, the Priory, and the churchyard were, as they still are, outside (westward of) the boundary of Dunheved. The monks had apparently been charged by the Mayor and Commonalty with having made some encroachments on a piece of waste (waste-haye) adjoining the conventual build- ings. It was part of the compromise that these encroach- ments should be forgiven, and the Prior's right to retain his steps, porches, &c, admitted. We suggest that the waste abutted upon the streamlet, and that it was imme- diately above St. James's Chapel. The Water-fair clearly yielded some pecuniary benefit to the Convent. We are unacquainted with the usages of that fair, but we may safely infer that they included amuse- ments and diversions on the broad piece of water which, even then, occupied the river bed above the existing foot- bridge at St. Thomas. In Norman French the word "feire" indicated places in which the wakes or feasts of dedication of churches were held.