739 
PLYM.OUT H. 
firft engage the attention. Thefe are two buildings of 
limeftone, two ftories high, and twelve hundred feet long, 
running parallel to each other. In the upper ftories 
twine is made, and yarns prepared for the cables, which 
are layed (twilled together) below. The largeft cables 
that are made are 25 inches in circumference, and 100 
fathoms longs they weigh 116 cwt. iqr. and 16lb. and 
contain 3240 yarns. One of thefe buildings was partly 
confumed by an accidental conflagration in June 1812. 
The whole of the machinery was deftroyed, and only 400 
feet of the rope-houfe faved. The lot's was eftimated at 
15,000!. In 1776 confiderable alarm was excited from an 
attempt of John Aitken, commonly called “Jack the 
painter,” to deftroy the dock-yard by fire; be was after¬ 
wards detected in a fimilar endeavour at Portfmouth, and 
hanged. To prevent accidents by fire, if poflible, a new 
rope-houfe was built 1818, every part of which is com- 
pofed of ftone and iron, without an inch of wood in the 
whole building; the girders, joifts, doors, fafties, and 
frames, are all of call iron, neatly executed. The roof is 
alfo of call iron, and the floors of Yorkfhire ftone; the 
ftaircafe, which is a geometrical one, is of moor-ftone, 
projecting fix feet from the wall. 
The mould or model loft, where the different parts of 
(hips to be built are laid down according to plans fent 
from the navy-board, is in front of the ftore-houfe, and is 
the laft building of importance in that part of the yard 
Couth of the bafin. On the north jetty is a landing-place, 
called the north-flairs, where officers not on duty gene¬ 
rally land. Near it is a houfe, where pitch is kept conti¬ 
nually boiling, to be applied to the bottoms and Teams of 
Ships. The double dock is the firft of three, very near each 
other, for line-of-battle (hips, and fo denominated from 
its capability of containing two fnips at the fame time. 
The dock-gates by which the water is kept out of the 
docks, form, when clofed,the fegment of a circle, with irs 
convex fide toward the fea: they are made of timbers 
ftrongly put together, and , hung on each fide of the 
mouth of the dock. As foon as a fliip is taken into 
dock, which is always at high water, the gates are 
(hut and locked ; the water within the dock then runs 
out through fluices made for the purpofe, till the ebb-tide 
hasceafed ; the fluices are then fliut, and the water which 
may ftill remain is thrown out by engines, on the plan of 
jiumps, worked by horfes. The fhip is taken out by open¬ 
ing the fluices, and fuffering the water to attain an equal 
height within as without, when the gates are opened 
without difficulty. The fecond dock, called the Union, 
or North Dock, is 239 feet 4 inches long, 86 feet 7 inches 
wide, and 26 feet 10 inches deep, and is faced with Port¬ 
land ftone. The New Union, or North New Dock, 259 
feet 9 inches long, 85 feet 3 inches wide, and 27 feet 8 
inches deep, was made in the year 1789, and is on the 
fame plan. Near the head of this latter dock is the burn¬ 
ing-place for old copper; and further northward are the 
plumbers’, braziers’, and armourers’, (hops, and the brick¬ 
layers’ and ftone-cutters’ yards. Behind all this fide of 
the yard, the rock, having never been levelled, riles very 
high and irregular ; on it are a few (beds and florehoufes. 
Every perfon belonging to the dock-yard is under the 
command of the commiffioner, from whom all orders are 
received, and who has it in his power to difcharge work¬ 
men for negleft of duty. The gun-wharf is (eparated 
from the dock-yard by North-corner-ftreet; it. was begun 
in 1718 or 1719, and completed about 1785. The build¬ 
ings are in general good, but very heavy, and in the 
Dutch ftyle. They were projefted by the late fir John Van- 
burgh, who was then attached to the ordnance-depart¬ 
ment. The quantity of ground within the walls is four 
acres and three quarters. Here are two principal ftore- 
houfes, of three ftories high, for 80,000 muflcets, piltols, 
and other fmall ftores ; a number of flieds for gun-car¬ 
riages, &c. a powder-magazine, and a cooperage. The 
dock-yard, as well as the gun-wharf, is rated to the poor, 
and pays houfe and window tax for the dwellings; but 
neither tythes, church rates, nor land-tax. 
a 
The diverfity of employments, ingenuity, and manual 
aflivity, exhibited in the various departments of the dock¬ 
yard, prefent a very interefting (peftacle to thofe who have 
not been accuftomed to appreciate the effefts of human 
induftry on a large fcale. The bay or eftuary of Hamoaze, 
on which the dock-yard is fituated, is a commodious bafin 
about four miles long, and half a mile wide, where in. 
times of peace a very confiderable part of theEngliffi navy 
is laid up in ordinary. The port-admirals, hofpital and 
prifon (hips, are always ftationed here, and thofe that have 
undergone, or are about to receive, repair in the dock. 
The (hips are moored by large chains of iron, fixty fathoms 
long, confiding of 120 links, and havingat the end a large 
anchor. On the banks of this harbour are other efta- 
bliftiments of government : the powder magazine, higher 
up, confifts of feveral detached ftone buildings ; the pow¬ 
der-kilns, eredled for drying damaged powder; and 011 
the bank of a creek of the harbour, running to the fouth- 
weft, is the South-down brewery, where all the beer'for 
the fleet is brewed. 
In the vicinity of Dock are feveral fmall towns, of 
which Stoke Damarell is the mod important. It is an 
ancient village, and has confiderably enlarged itfelf with¬ 
in a few years. The church is fituated at a (liort diftance 
from the town, confiding of three aides and a tower: the 
period of its ereftion is unknown. Mr. Lancafter, in his 
leclures on acouftics, delivered before the Plymouth-dock 
Literary and Philofophical Society, in 1816, dated the 
following curious faft relative to the echo from the bells 
of this church. When the bells ring, the echo of them 
only is heard at a particular (pot on the Mill-caufeway, 
though the interval between that fpot and the church, 
in a ftraight direction, is very trifling. He fuppofes the 
original (ound to be tranfmitted by angles of incidence, 
firft from the tower to the Military Hofpital juft oppofite, 
thence acrofs the water to the Naval Hofpital, next to 
the Mill-buildings, and thence to the place of echo.on 
the caufeway. 
Morice town, on the north fide of Dock, near the ferry 
which erodes the Tamar, is increafing very fad in fize 
and confequence. 
Kinterbury is about a mile and a half from Devon- 
port- On the fecond of February, 1821, the receiving- 
houleof the royal powder-works fituated here, blew up 
with a dreadful explofion, 40 barrels of powder, belides 
a quantity of flannel cartridges, filled and attached to 
iron (hot, having exploded. Out of about 30 perfons em¬ 
ployed in the works, two only periftied, Richard Carne, 
aged 60, and J. Matthewfon, aged 19; the latter the foil 
of the mafter-cooper. The reft were fortunately employ¬ 
ed in landing ftores fent from one of the powder-fliips in 
Hamoaze. The bodies of the fufferers are fuppofed to 
have been blown to atoms; as, after a diligent fearch, 
only a thigh-bone (Lipped of its fleffi, was found, fup¬ 
pofed to belong to the boy Matthewfon. Not one ftone 
was left upon another in the building where the powder 
was depofited. Much glafs broken, and other damage 
done, at Trematon, Saltaffi, Torpoint, &c. In the 
(hipping a dreadful concuffion took place. On the 
delcent of the (hot and the remains of the (hot-boxes, 
fragments of the building, &c. into Hamoaze, the appear¬ 
ance was not unlike that of a heavy hail-lhower on the 
water. Some of the (hot were driven as far as St. Bu- 
deaux, which is about five miles diftant. 
Immediately oppofite to Devonport is the delightful 
peninlula of Mount-Edgecumbe, the feat of the earl of 
Mount-Edgecumbe. The manfion was completed in the 
reign of queen Mary, and is antiquated in its appearance. 
It contains a few good paintings and portraits; and is 
pleafantiy fituated. on the fide of a wooded hill, from 
whence the profpeft is variegated and comprehenfive. 
The grounds occupy an area ot about three miles in cir¬ 
cumference ; and are divided into parks, lawns, woods, 
terraces, kitchen and flower gardens. The eftate became 
the property of the prefent family, about the beginning of 
the fixteenth century, 'from an intermarriage; by which 
conne&ion 
