202 HOE GATE. 



our course had been less pacific, the change in the 

 mode of conducting warfare, and the change of position 

 in surrounding objects, would have rendered these 

 buildings useless for the purpose for which they were 

 erected. The town seems to have been first circum- 

 vallated in the early part of the reign of Richard II. ; 

 for by a writ, bearing date the 12th December, 1377, 

 from the King, directed to the Mayor, Bailiffs, liege 

 men, and commonalty of the Town of Plymouth, 

 licence is given to them to build walls around the 

 town, and to fortify it ; and tolls are granted on various 

 articles imported towards defraying the expenses at- 

 tending it. At subsequent periods these walls appear 

 to have been extended to include the suburbs which 

 an increased population had produced. 



But to return then to the immediate object of our 

 attention. Hoe gate ; it has ceased for a long period to 

 be the property of the coi-poration of the town, and is 

 now private property ; but it appears that it did belong 

 to that body in the year 1657, for in that year, on the 

 18th December, a lease was made of it by the Mayor 

 and Commonalty to Mr. Timothy Alsop, a merchant 

 of the town, and one of its representatives in the Long 

 Parliament, for an absolute term of four score and 

 seventeen years : and in the deed it is described, as 

 " all that piece, loft, gate, or gate-house then lately 

 " new erected and built by the said Timothy Alsop, 

 " and then commonly called Hoe-gate, upon the pay- 

 "ment of an annual rent of two shilli^s per annum." 

 This term expired in 1754, and whether it was then 

 sold or had been previously sold by the corporation does 

 not appear. The windows and ornaments of the pre- 

 sent edifice are evidently not those with which it would 

 have been erected in 1657, but the granite arch, and 

 the lower part of the building are very probably of 

 that date^ on which the modern additions have been 

 subsequently raised. 



We cannot close this paper without adverting to 

 the circumstance, that this Hoe-gate house was once 

 the residence of the learned, the honest, the talented, 



