THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF OLD PLTilOLTH. 
343 
converted into a military hospital, where 300 soldiers died of 
some infectious disease brought into the town by the troops in that 
year, in the months of January, February, and March. Almost 
the last important remains (all, indeed, except those now to 
be seen) were destroyed in 1836. Up to this time a part of 
the church and tower was still standing. There were extensive 
gardens, and one, Mr. "Woollcornbe says, was surrounded by a 
terrace, which commanded very fine views of the harbour. The 
foundations of some of the buildings and considerable portions of 
the walls are still to be seen. 
And thus vanish the possessions of the Carmelites in Plymouth ; 
but Friary Street, Whitefriars Street, Whitecross Street, still keep 
alive the memory of the Friars and their church and convent. 
If there were any Dominicans ever in Plymouth, they should 
have been mentioned before the Carmelites. It was thought by 
Dr. Oliver that the Black Friars never had any settlement in Ply- 
mouth. This conclusion he came to, of course, from his having 
been unable to find any records of their having had an establish- 
ment here. But I cannot help expressing my opinion (which is 
shared by others), with the greatest deference to the late doctor, 
that a building in Southside Street contains the remains of a re- 
ligious house belonging to this body, which house extended, at all 
events, as far east as Blackfriars Lane ; this name and the name of 
an adjoining house going far to prove that the friars were in this 
neighbourhood. I do not at all imagine that it was a place of any 
magnitude or importance. I hope some day evidence will be 
forthcoming to confirm this opinion. The distillery of Messrs. 
Coates and Company is the building I refer to. On the top of the 
front of this house a large stone cross was suffered to remain up 
to the year 1808. If the site of the distillery did not belong to 
the Dominicans, it is somewhat difficult to say to whom it did be- 
long ; for an ecclesiastical building of some kind it certainly was. 
It is not likely that the Black Friars would have passed over a 
town like Plymouth.* But at present all is conjecture with 
reference to any settlement of the Black Friars in this town. 
It was in the month of September, in the year 1226, two years 
* Harris says there was a chapel here which was used by the two last 
Stuarts ; and if so, it may be the chapel in which the last masses were said 
in England by Roman Catholic priests, there being a tradition of this kind 
floating about the town. There are many interesting remains in the neigh- 
bourhood both of ecclesiastical and domestic architecture. 
