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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
defensive. Here too a massive square block forms the leading 
feature ; but the impression given is rather that of an ecclesiastical 
edifice. It continued in existence up to about the middle of the 
last century, when it was known as the "abbey." It was removed 
when the Eoyal Naval Hospital was built, as it stood upon part of 
the western site of that establishment. The main building formed 
three sides of a quadrangle, and a gateway crossed the road on the 
south at its centre. 1 A large and well-planted garden adjoined, 
and what appears to be a remnant of the garden wall bounds the 
garden now occupied by Dr. Payne on the north. 
There seems no trace of any ownership by the Priory of 
Plympton of lands in East Stonehouse, nor of the presence of any 
conventual establishment there, save the existence of this 
so-called "abbey." Plympton Priory had lands at Cremill, for in 
1522 (14 Henry VIII.) there was a demise by John Ryle, Prior, and 
the Convent of Plympton to Sir Peter Eggecombe and his wife, of 
premises in Cremell within the parish of Maker; and in 1545 
John Pope was licensed to alien lands in Cremil parish of Maker, 
late parcel of lands of Plympton Priory, to Peter Edgcumbe. 
Sundry lands which had been ecclesiastical at Plymouth — "the 
hermitage of our Lady at Quarry well" — once belonging to Plympton 
Priory ; lands part of Jaybean's Chantry, lands of the Grey Friars, 
and other lands " dedicated to superstitious uses " in Plymouth, 
granted to Edmund Grimston, father and son, were eventually 
acquired by Sir Peter Edgcumbe ; but none of these can be con- 
nected with Stonehouse. It does not seem unlikely, however, that 
the "abbey" belonged to the Cistercians of Buckland, whom tradition 
reports to have had an establishment in Plymouth or its vicinity. 
There is no church visible in the map in the town itself, but one 
is shown on the high land of Devil's Point, on ground since cut 
away for the Victualling Office. It is a little structure of distinctive 
character, quite unlike the other churches drawn — simply a nave 
and chancel, with a spired bell-turret at the west end, and standing 
in an enclosure. With the exception that the latter has a transept 
of Perpendicular date, this fabric corresponds very closely to the 
drawing of the church of St. Lawrence by Payne, reproduced by 
Mr. Brooking Eowe in his Ecclesiastical History of Old Plymouth. 
1 This gateway, and that of the manor-house, at the head of Chapel Street, 
were, I take it, the ' 'barrier gates" recorded as removed in 1770 ; for Stone- 
house was never walled. 
