Plympton in the Olden Time, by James Hine, F.R.I. B.A. lO'S 
This was only a few months before a dark and impenetrable 
cloud shrouded the clear intellect of this gifted man, and his life — 
so useful, but so ill-requited — closed in saddest gloom. 
The key-stone of the doorway under the cloister gives the date 
of the building as 1664. Strange to say it is a Gothic structure 
of the most picturesque design and arrangement. At the time it 
was built, architecture had been given over almost entirely to the 
Renaissance and Italian Schools. It is singular, therefore, to find 
here at Plympton an unconventional style adopted at such a time, 
but it has been suggested that the same eccentric architect who 
designed the fine Gothic church of Charles in Plymouth in the 
middle of the 1 7th century, built also the Grammar School in the 
neighbouring town, and the points of resemblance are certainly 
very great. We have the same evidence of the desire to do some- 
thing good and true in both, the same good outline and arrange- 
ment of parts, and the same superadded faults in little details, as 
though the designer himself knew what he was about, but could 
not bring his workmen up to the mark. No wonder little Reynolds 
saw something to admire in the outline and shadows of the 
cloister, for nothing can be better than the proportions of the 
pillars and arches, and the banding of the masonry over in 
alternate courses about six inches high, of granite and dark 
limestone. In fact, the lower portion of the building is the most 
pleasing piece of masonry in this neighbourhood ; and though the 
large square-headed windows over are not so good, yet the angle of 
the roof is excellent, and the large perpendicular windows at the 
ends not without merit. The school-room is about sixty-three feet 
long by twenty-six feet in width, the master's desk at one end, and 
on each side of the window (over) a rudely painted shield with the 
armorial bearings of Hele and Maynard. Overhanging the entrance 
on one side is a small gallery, approached from a chamber pro- 
bably once used as a class or flogging room, but now too dilapidated 
for either practical purpose, and much in keeping with the rest of 
