PLUVIOMETER 



PLYMOUTH 



mighty a god, has something gloomy and terrible 

 abont it. The Plutonian throry i Geology, other- 

 wise called Vulcanist or Hnltonian, wax opposed to 

 the Neptunist or Wcrnerian. See GKOLCICY, Vol. 

 V. p. 148, ami HCTTON : and for the Plutonic 

 rocks, Bee also IcNKors ROCKS. 



Pluviometer. See RAIN-GAUOE. 



Plymouth, one of the most famous of English 

 seaports, an ancient parliamentary, municipal, and 

 county borough, lies in the extreme south -western 

 comer of Devonshire, 246 miles by rail (216 by 

 road) WSW. of London, 128 SW. of Bristol, and 



53 SW. of Exeter. It occupies the northern shore 

 of Plymouth Sound (see below), immediately at 

 the n ion ih of the Plym. The remaining space be- 

 tween it and the Hamoaze, the estuary of the 

 Tamar, is occupied by the sister but much 

 smaller town of Stonehouse (q.v. ), while still 

 farther to the west, along the Hamoaze itself, 

 stretches the third of the 'Three Towns,' Devon- 

 port (q.v.). They are all, however, so united now 

 by continuous lines of houses that, with their 

 respective suburbs, they have lost their individu- 

 ality, and to the stranger appear one great com- 

 munity. The chief government establish men to are 

 at Devonport -the dockyard, gun-wharf, steam- 

 factory, and principal harrackx ; while Stonehouse 

 has its quota in the victualling yard, marine 

 barracks, and naval hospital. Plymouth, which 

 is more populous than the other two together, is 

 at once the chief seat of commerce, trade, and 

 manufacture, and within the 19th century dis- 

 played an enterprise which gives it a high place 

 among provincial centres. The site is a very line 

 one. lietween the two natural inlet harliours of 

 Sutton Pool and Mill Bay stretches the lx>ld rocky 

 ridge of the Plymouth *Hoe, the eastern end of 

 which is occupied by a citadel built by Charles II. 

 Northward the ground rises in a scries of long liilK 

 along which the town stretehes until it posses into 

 n suburban hill of singular attractiveness. From 

 t!i" H<>e there are magnificent views Imth seaward 

 and landward. Here, according to tradition, the 

 captains of the fleet which assembled to meet the 

 Armada whilcd away the time by playing a game of 

 oowls, which was interrupted by the news of the 

 approach of the enemy ; and here stand aterccntcn- 

 ary memorial to the Armada heroes (1890), and a 

 statue ( 1884) of Sir I'rancis Drake (one of Hoolun's 

 finest works). The upper portion of the lighthouse 

 erected by Smeaton on the Eddystone (q.v.) wax 



also rebuilt here in 1882-84. Old Plymouth is 

 chiefly clustered round the shores of Simon Pnol 

 a ding}' unattractive set of narrow street* : but 

 of recent years miles of excellent thoroughfares 

 and many handsome buildings have lieen erect. '.I, 

 chief among them a nohle (iothic guildhall, opened 

 in 1874 by the Prince of Wales, Lord High Steward 

 of the borough. The princi)>al antiquity is the 

 fine 15th-century church of St Andrew,' Perpen- 

 dicular in style, and restored in 1874-75 by Sir 

 Gilbert Scott ; Charles Church ( 1646-58) is a singu- 

 larly good example of post-Reformation Gothic; 

 the Roman Catholic cathedral is an effective Early 

 English edifice (1858). The Cot Ionian collection 

 of sketches by the leading continental masters is at 

 the Proprietary Library ; there is a good local 

 museum at the Athenivum : and among the numer- 

 ous charitable institutions the first place is taken 

 Lv the South Devon Hospital, opened in 1884 at a 

 cost of 40,000. The town is served by Loth the 

 Great Western and London and Sont It-Western 

 Railways. In Mill Bay are the Great Western 

 Docks, now the property of the former company, 

 which are capable of taking the largest merchant- 

 vessels. Sutton Pool, the ancient tidal harliour of 

 Plymouth, in addition to a large general trade, is 

 the seat of the fisheries of the port, which are very 

 important. Manufactures, mainly chemical, are 

 carried on at Cattedown chiefly, but also at Mill 

 Bay. There is a large foreign, and a very exten- 

 sive coasting trade, aird the port is used by lines* of 

 passenger-steamers to almost every quarter of the 

 g!ol>e. 



Though only a fishing-village at the Conquest, 

 under the name of Sutton, Plymouth has for cen- 

 turies played a leading part in the nautical life. 

 It was the favourite port of the Black Prince : the 

 chief Elizabethan rendezvous of Drake, Hawkins, 

 Grenville, Raleigh, and their fellows ; the final 

 port of departure of the Mayflower with the Pilgrim 

 Fathers. In the civil wars it sided with the parlia- 

 ment, and successfully endured a series of si< 

 and blockades extending over four years, sharing 

 with Hull the honour of saving the parliamentary 

 cause. It was also the first town to declare for 

 William of Orange. In the great French war it 

 rivalled Portsmouth in naval activities. Among 

 its more distinguished natives are Sir John Haw- 

 kins, Sir Richard Hawkins, Sir Thomas Edmonds, 

 Joseph Glanvill. R. S. Hauker, Lord Monkswell, 

 Sir W. Snow Harris, F.R.S., W. Elford Leach, 

 F.R.S., with Northcote, Haydon, 8. Prout, Sir C. 

 Eastlake, P. R. A., and S. Hart, the artists. It is 

 now arr imiMirtmit scientific centre in connection 

 with the ^larill< Biological Lalioratory (opened in 

 18H8), which publishes a Journal. Plymouth was 

 first incor]>orated by Henry VI. in l-l.'ifl, and has 

 since always returned two memLcrs to parliament. 

 Pop. (1801) 43,194; (1851) 52,221; (1871) 70,091; 

 (1881) 70,OSO; (1891) 87,307. 



PLYMorrii SorsD, on the south-west of Devon- 

 shire, near the entrance of the Knglish Channel, is 

 one of the famous roadsteads of the world. It is a 

 dee], inlet, into which the river Tamar falls from 

 the west, and the river Plym from the east. The 

 extreme seaward Imundaries of the bay, from which 

 lire Sound, properly so called, opens, are Rame 

 Head (mentioned in Ptolemy) and Stoke Point, 

 not far within which a third river, the Yealm, 

 delxmches. The Sound, however, is practically 

 liourrded southward by a line drawn fronr Penlee to 

 Wcrrrhury Points, and northward by the Plymouth 

 Hoe. Within these limits its width varies from 21 

 to 3 miles, while its landward depth is tiLout 3. 

 Immediately within Penlee Point, on the western 

 side, is Cawsand Bay, formerly one of the chief 

 anchorages of the port and navy, but so exposed to 

 the south-easterly gales that it was at times very 



