88 THE POOLE TOWN CELLAR. 



&c., with Leland's account of his visit to Poole, and Hutchins 

 and Sydenham's deductions therefrom. Leland was made the 

 King's antiquary in 1533; this office was created for and ended 

 with him. He published his itinerary in 1545. He came to Poole 

 from Lytchett across the ferry and says " Poole standeth almost as 

 an isle in the haven, and hangith by KE. to the mayne land, by 

 the space almost of a flite shot, and in this place is a dike, and to 

 it often cummith, throughout, the haven water, and here is an 

 embattled gate of stone to enter into the town." 



This wall and gate here spoken of, built llth Henry VI. (1433), 

 stood at the other end of the town from the Quay, on or about 

 the line now taken by the boundary stones of St. James' parish, if 

 they do not actually mark the termination and course of the 

 wall, from a point opposite Mr. White's (the seedsman's) shop, to 

 the back of the Railway Inn, by the New Poole Station. The 

 moat was on the outer side, and a part remained about 70 or 80 

 years ago (about the end of the present railway crossing and the 

 end of the platform), when it was filled up and stables built where 

 it was. The gate was at the end of Towngate-street. It had 

 without a half -moon, referred to in an account of Major Sydenham's 

 attempt to enveigle Lord Crawford and a party of Royalists into 

 the town. At the end of Nile-row, where now the Three Crowns 

 publichouse stands, was the west fort. The other end of the 

 wall, at the end of the Parade, so called from its being the parade- 

 ground of some troops quartered here during the Penin^oiar War, 

 under the Duke of Wellington (then Colonel Wellesley), was 

 marshy ground, a continuation of the marsh now called Pitwines. 

 The only road out of the town lay through the town gate, at the 

 end of Towngate-street. To continue Leland's account: "The 

 length of the town lyeth almost fully by N. and S. The Key for 

 the shippes standith almost S.E. There is a fair Town house of 

 stone by the Key. King Richard III. (1483-1485) began a pece 

 of a town waulle at one end of the Kay and promised large thinges 

 to the town of Pole." Richard 3rd's reign would be during the 

 Perpendicular era of architecture. Leland wrote about 50 to 60 



