96 
JOURNAL OP THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
had been converted by judicial decision into lands, holden nom- 
inally at the will of the lord still, but, if I may be allowed to 
mention it without transgressing the laws of our Institution, with 
fixity of tenure, free sale, and far under fair rent. Still those 
times had been passed by 150 years, and the tenantry were on the 
whole prosperous and contented, and bent on developing their 
resources, and in no way loth to join in the sports and pastimes 
of merrie England : the maypole was an institution of the land 
countenanced by the rich and enjoyed by the poor ; and the grand 
old game of bowls was everywhere popular. In this sport, re- 
quiring as it does so much skill and practice, Plymouth was not 
behind — witness Drake's historic game when the Armada was dis- 
covered ! The exact locality of that bowling-green has never, I 
think, been distinctly traced. It was probably somewhere on the 
site of our present citadel, or, as Mr. Jacobson thinks, where 
the Eoyal Hotel now stands, and its successor was probably on the 
land behind Sherwell House, which in its turn was succeeded by 
a bowling-green on a meadow to the north side of Union Street 
and west of Queen Street, one of the Union marshes. 
In matters of religion, after the breach of Henry VIII. with the 
Pope, the most unswerving obedience was required to the Eeformed 
National Church • but now and again rise to the surface some sect 
with enthusiastic followers claiming the right to follow the dictates 
of their own consciences. The great lesson of toleration had not 
then, however, begun to be learned ; all such disorders and irregu- 
larities were sternly repressed, and it was only in New England 
that freedom to worship God could be secured. In 1607, during 
the mayoralty of Eobert Trelawny, the father of the Eobert 
Trelawny to whom I shall presently more particularly refer, sailed 
from Plymouth the first Puritan band; but in 1620 the famous 
Mayflower band started, the first successful start ; and the sight of 
that devoted band, leaving home and friends and kindred for con- 
science' sake, was enough to make thoughtful men — men lovers of 
their country and their country's weal — pause. Could not some- 
thing be done, some plan be devised, to retain such good, sober, 
honest citizens in their own land 1 ? Perhaps in the absence of 
a more direct motive it may not be far wrong to suggest that, 
directly or indirectly, the movement out of which Charles Church 
sprung may be attributed to that cause. 
In the brief sketch of the period of the beginning of the 
