PLYMOUTH Presents a spectacle and panorama far different from the country which we have just described. The natural scenery is of every conceivable variety, and of uncommon beauty; the triumphs of engineering skill in peace are shown at the Breakwater and Eddystone; the terrible defences of war, in the citadel and lines; and the preparations for the destruction of human life, stored in the naval armaments and military arsenals, give cause for the most conflicting emotions of the human heart. Von Raumer was greatly struck with the sight of a British naval port: he writes,-"The immense number of ships-these proud, bold, floating castles, make an impression of energy, power, activity, nay, of beauty, of which no conception can be formed without seeing them together." Lord Chatham declared that he felt "a magnanimous fear" lest the royal navy should fall below the exigencies of the country; and Lord Bacon called it "the outworks, walls, and impregnable forts of the realm," and the safe harbours its "redoubts." "For beauty," said Lord Coke," they are so many royal palaces; for strength (no part of the world having such iron and timber as England hath), so many moving castles and barbicans; and for safety, they are the most defensive walls of the realm." Quin, the actor, however, found in the abundance of its John Doreys and grey mullets, the integral happiness of the inhabitants of Plymouth; but he afterwards corrected himself on discovering, to his intense disgust and contempt, that they were ignorant of the mystery of melted butter. "Sweet country!" he exclaimed, "there is nothing sweet in it but the vinegar!" The history of Plymouth, unlike that of most other towns upon this coast, is of great interest. In the time of Edward III. it could furnish 325 ships, and returned two members to Parliament. On May 20, 1339, eighteen piratical galleys burned seven ships in Plymouth harbour; but the townsmen, under Hugh, Earl of Devon, rose in arms, and while they lost 89 men, slew 500 of the enemy: these corsairs, however within two days destroyed all the vessels in the Sound, and some houses of the town. In 1355, the Black Prince was detained here during 40 days, before the glorious campaign which resulted in the victory of Poictiers; and here he landed May 5, 1377, with his royal prisoners, King John and the Dauphin of France. The French again attacked and plundered the town in 1370; in 1403 they burned 600 houses. In 1400, James Bourbon, Earl of March, who was bringing aid to Owen Glendower, being driven in by stress of weather, levied booty on the town, and fired the neighbouring villages; and in 1403, Sir W. de Chatel burned part of the town, but spared the rest on receipt of a large ransom. In 1405, Pedro Nino, afterwards Conde de Buelna, with 40 ships and three galleys, attacked Looe, and subsequently visited Falmouth, Plymouth, Portland, and Southampton, but was repulsed at every point. In 1470, the Earl of Warwick, the King-maker, landed here: on Oct. 2, 1501, Catharine of Arragon. In April 1506, Philip the Fair, of Castile, and Joanna, sailed from the Sound. On July 20, 1588, Lord Howard, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Hawkins, assembled here 120 sail, to which Plymouth contributed seven ships and one fly-boat; with this fleet they chased the Spaniards down channel. "When the great fleet invincible 'gainst England bore in vain "From Eddystone Then swift to east and swift to west the ghastly war-flame spread; On April 8, 1589, Don Antonio, titular king of Portugal, sailed hence for Lisbon with the Earl of Essex and Sir Henry Norris; and the English fleet returned with crews thinned by the plague. In July, 1597, the Earls of Essex and Nottingham, Lord Thomas Howard, Sir Francis Vere, and Sir Walter Raleigh, those paladins and sea-lions of Queen Elizabeth, sailed for Ferrol and Cadiz. From this port, also, the Earl of Essex departed on his ill-fated expedition to Ireland. In 1595, twenty-two Papal bulls, which had been seized in Cornwall, were burned in the market-place. Some French pirates chased four Spanish ships into Plymouth harbour, and Elizabeth seized their freight, which was designed to replenish the Duke of Alva's coffers: the Spaniard laid an embargo on all the English at Antwerp, and the queen retorted by the summary process of making the ambassador, Don Guerran D'Estres, a prisoner in his own house. From Plymouth went forth, in quest of the Spanish argosies and galleons, buccaneering among islands off the Amazon, to find El Dorado in Virginia and Florida, or pierce the frozen barriers of the Arctic Sea, bound for Newfoundland or the South Seas, each on his several voyage, Cumberland, Gilbert, Carlisle, Drake, Hawkins, Cavendish (Sir John, Oct. 1562; Sir Richard, the hero of the ballad of the Spanish Lady, in 1593); Grenville, and Frobisher :—the last gallant seaman died here, 1594. Still later, on voyages round the world, Commodore Byron, sailed on June 21, 1764, with H. M. S. Dolphin and Tamar; and on Aug. 21, 1760, Commodore Wallis in the Dolphin, and Captain Carteret in the Swallow. Captain Cook sailed out of the Sound, July 13, 1772, on his second voyage, and the last time, for Otaheite, July 12, 1776. Sir Lewis Stewkley, to his disgrace, here arrested the heroic Raleigh in 1618 for that trial which will ever be a dishonour to the pedant James I. In 1620, the Mayflower, with the Pilgrim Fathers, touched here on her voyage from Southampton. In 1625, King Charles I., with 120 ships and 6000 men, appeared in the Sound, and to the joy of the loyal hearts of Stonehouse, remained here ten days. Unlike the brave Royalists of the west, the men of Plymouth made it the stronghold of the rebels. For three months they resisted a siege by Prince Maurice; repulsed Sir Richard Grenville; defied the King in person; and in spite of assault and blockade held the walls, from which at times they sallied to harass the weaker garrisons in the neighbourhood. On March 21, 1646, Mount Edgecumbe surrendered to Col. Hammond. French pirates and Sallee rovers then infested the channel, and captured prizes under the very guns of the forts. Twenty-seven sail of Sallee rovers were ordinarily lying off the Land's End, so as to prevent the passage of ships; in six days they captured vessels to the value of 50007., and threatened that they would not leave the King of England master of a single sail. From Mevagissy they took away 60 men and women. In 1636, fifteen sail of Algerine corsairs were the terror of the channel; and so enormous was the bribe required to secure the convoy of a man-of-war, that the merchants along the south coast were compelled to hire Dutch privateers to protect their ships. On Aug. 17, 1657, while entering the Sound with his victorious fleet from Santa Cruz, on board of the St. George, the scourge of the Bey, and the vindicator of the honour of the British flag, serving his kingless country with a glorious fidelity, died the immortal Robert Blake, second to none of English admirals. In July, 1671, King Charles II. came from Portsmouth to inspect the new fortifications. After the memorable disgrace of Chatham, De Ruyter and the Dutch sailed proudly by; for that stout arm was low, which, when Von Tromp hoisted the ship-broom at one mast-head, to show he would sweep the seas (still the sign of a vessel for sale), replied by lashing at the maintruck, with no idle vaunt, a long horsewhip, still retained in the form of the pendant. In 1779, the combined French and Spanish fleets made an empty de monstration off the Rame head. In 1789, King George III. paid the port a royal visit; and in 1815, H.M.S. Bellerophon, anchored in Cawsand Bay, with the great Napoleon on board, on his way to St. Helena: "Where he who thousands cast away To pave his reckless path, Died crownless, homeless, hopeless, lone, In 1760, W. Cookworthy, a Quaker of Plymouth, discovered china clay in Cornwall; one of the most important events in the commercial history of the western counties. He likewise introduced the use of the divining rod, which he was taught by Captain Ribeira, who deserted from the Spanish service in the reign of Queen Anne, and became Captain Commandant of Plymouth. The town has been the birthplace and nursery of poets and artists: Carington and Bidlake, Northcote, Prout, Lethbridge, Haydon, and Eastlake. Here also were born Joseph Glanville, the believer in Michael Scott, Agrippa, and witchcraft; the gallant seaman Sir John, and the traveller Sir Richard, Hawkins; the learned Jacob Bryant, Mrs. Parsons the novelist, and General Mudge, who conducted the first trigonometrical survey of England. Plymouth gave the title of Earl to Fitz-Charles, July 28, 1675, and to the Windsor family, 6th Dec. 1682; and Mount Edgecumbe the title of Earl, 31st Aug. 1789, to the family of Edgecumbe, whose second title is Viscount Valletort, the old name for a portion of Plymouth. Plymouth was the Tamar-worth of the Saxon, and South town, or Sutton, of the Norman till Henry II.'s time, and then only a poor fishing village. In the reign of Edward I., the town was divided into three districts, Sutton, or Prior, in allusion to Plympton Priory, on the north; Sutton or Southern Regis, or Valletort; and Valletort Ralph, on the east: but, in the 16th year of Henry VI., it was incorporated as Plym-mouth, although that name first appears in 1383. The departure of emigrant ships, the establishment of the Great Western Dock Company and General Screw |