RECENT DREDGING IN CATTEWATER. 
397 
Plympton Castle, and we know that as late as two hundred -years 
since barges reached the quay by Plympton St. Mary Church. 
The Black Prince, when here in 1348, proceeded by boat from 
Plymouth, or Sutton, as it was then called, to Plympton, for the 
purpose of dining with the prior. 
The capabilities of the port were fully recognised by this prince, 
for here were his headquarters, when over three hundred ships 
were fitted out for his operations against France. In his person 
the first Duke of Cornwall was created, and to him were given 
those rights of foreshore and fundus which have so hampered and 
delayed modern enterprise. 
The former connection between Plympton and maritime affairs 
is demonstrated by the fact that two hundred and fifty years since 
it furnished one letter of marque to the total of sixty-five Plymouth 
ships fitted out during the wars between this country, France, 
and Spain. 
Lipson Mills stood at the head of a tidal creek, and Chelson 
Meadows were mud -flats covered with each tide. Plymstock, 
Oreston, and Hooe were anciently places of some importance, 
Turnchapel being more modern ; Cattedown was undeveloped, 
and appeared to be a sort of Tom Tiddler's ground, mostly known 
as a place of execution for criminals, and a convenient spot for 
burning old women with the evil eye. 
Captain James Grant, r.n., writing in 1814, states that he had 
discovered traces of a connection between Sutton Pool and the 
Laira. Burt says the connection was nearly a direct one east to 
west, and plainly discernible in most places even by a common 
observer. That the waters of the Laira, he says, made a consider- 
able advance towards the lane leading from the turnpike-gate in 
the new road to Cattedown, previous to the formation of the 
Embankment, must be fresh in the memory of almost every 
inhabitant of Plymouth. 
In like manner the tide, which fills Sutton Pool at this time, 
makes an approach towards the above-mentioned lane as far at 
least as the Pottery, by an arm proceeding from the square of the 
Pool. From the Pottery to where the waters of the Laira did 
flow, prior to the Embankment, lies the line or bed of junction 
which, with but very trivial obstruction, is nearly straight, and a 
hollow level the whole of the way from the Pool to the Laira. 
The re-opening of this line of communication was seriously dis- 
