EARLY TOPOGRAPHY OF FALMOTTTH. 155 



between Market Strand and "Webber Street. ' ' Tbe Market-house 

 itself was built originally upon piles, because of the unfaithful- 

 ness of the artificial earth below {i.e. over peat, — H M.J.): it was 

 lately rebuilt to be enlarged, and, being thus carried beyond the 

 range of the piles, began to crack in its frame from the subsidence 

 of its foundations, and was actually obliged to be re-erected in 

 1792. And the whole plane of the market-strand, with the 

 "whole site of the houses upon the western side of it, from the 

 looseness of the earth under all (add : and the peat formation 

 below, — H. M J.) sensibly shakes and trembles, on the passage of 

 a carriage over the street. On building a brew-house in the 

 Moor just behind the market-house, in 1794, was found a bed of 

 beach-sand (river sand ? — H. M. J.) under the surface of the 

 ground."— (Whitaker MSS., E.I.C., p. 219 b.) 



In 1663* the parish church was built on a site to confront 

 the extending houses in Church Street : and at that date one 

 would suppose that no street was contemplated to the south. In 

 a map of Cornwall, surveyed by Grascoyne (if it is trustworthy), 

 the houses lie at some distance northward of Falmouth Church : 

 this map was subsequent to 1670, for it gives the town quay, 

 built by Sir Peter Killigrew in that year. 



In the house-map of Falmouth, drawn by George Withiell 

 in 1691, and preserved at the Manor-office, of which the central 

 portion is here engraved (Plate B), Arwenack Street appears 

 complete as far as Quay Hill, but no other streets occur south- 

 ward of the church. Two main obstacles appear to have en- 

 countered the men, who designed the streets of Falmouth The 

 first obstruction, as we have seen, was caused in Market Street 

 by a spur of Porhan Hill : the position of the church and the 

 inlet of the harbour, known as Harvey's dock, hindered the ex- 

 tension of Church Street, and necessitated the double inflexion to 

 reach Arwenack Street. In 1691 no road traversed the Moor to 

 the S.W. : Webber Street alone existed, communicating with 



*The following extract from the Act of Parliament (1664), which separates 

 the town and parish ecclesiastically from the parish of Gluvias or Chapelry of St. 

 Budock, will illustrate the habitual sense of danger at that period : " so as the said 

 Mayor and townsmen cannot repair thereunto (the parish church of Gluvias) with 

 conveniency and security to the said town of Falmouth, lying open to the sea." 



