NOTES ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF STONEHOUSE. 355 
direction. Still it is pleasant to find that the discharge of moral 
rubbish did not altogether sever friendly ties. There are subse- 
quent entries of not only drink but wine being given to the 
" Stonehousemen " on May-day. The town was also made the 
scene of occasional feasting. Thus when, in 1602, a dispute 
between Plymouth and Saltash was brought to a close, the mayors 
of the two boroughs dined together at Stonehouse, as neutral 
ground, at a cost of 26s. It was at Stonehouse that the com- 
misioners of Devon and Cornwall sat in 1643, when they tried to 
patch up a peace between the two counties, while the rest of the 
kingdom fought it out. Stonehouse is said to have followed its 
owner in its Koyalist proclivities during the civil war ; but it was 
included within the defence and authority of Plymouth, and if the 
Churchwardens' accounts are any guide, Puritan feeling must have 
been predominant there also. 
Valuable information on the extent and character of Stonehouse 
in the early part of the sixteenth century is afforded by the 
sketch bird's-eye map of the Cornish and Devon coasts in the 
British Museum, reproduced in sections by the Lysonses, and a 
facsimile of the local portion of which is appended. Stonehouse 
is there shown as a small town, somewhat bigger than Saltash, 
but barely a fifth the size of Plymouth. The quay is indicated 
near the present bridge, practically on the site of the present 
quay, with houses fronting on the water. High or Fore Street can 
be made out, and what is now Chapel Street. The most distinctive 
features of the town are, however, two large embattled buildings 
— one on the north of High Street, and the other next the 
water on the site occupied by Whitehall and Stonehall, and 
stretching some distance inland. The latter building has a high 
tower next the water, is fortified, and has a gatehouse. This 
is the old residence of the Durnfords, occupied as such by the 
Edgcumbes until the erection of Mount Edgcumbe. It was a 
structure of much pretensions, the most important in the locality, 
and in part of considerable age, dating no doubt originally to the 
occupation of the Stonehouses, though unquestionably improved 
by the Durnfords, and mainly their work. The embattled outer 
wall of the enclosure of this manor-house still in part remains on 
the south of St. George Churchyard. 
The other building seems of later character, and less distinctly 
