252 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
Pendennis and St. Michael’s Mount, where they served as welcome 
supplies. * 
The Plymothians of these times were a bold, determined sort of 
folk, who formed their own opinions, and knew how to maintain 
them. The Elizabethan era had left its mark upon the community. 
The atmosphere of daring and adventure which then surrounded 
the old tuwn influenced those who came within its reach. And 
although these great days were gone, their memory was fresh. 
‘‘ When civil dudgeon first grew high” 
there were still among the elders of the borough many who had 
known Drake, and Hawkins, and Raleigh, and Frobisher, and 
Grenville, and Gilbert—some perchance who had sailed with 
them; many who had watched with kindling eye and eager heart 
the haughty Spanish fleet sail by to its destruction. The half 
century that had passed had not tamed the spirit nor weakened 
the energies which made. Plymouth the first port in the land in the 
days of Elizabethan glory. These only slumbered; and I for one 
feel no surprise that the town was one of the first to declare on the 
Parliamentary side. Clarendon shall tell us how. He says that 
Plymouth 
“Was a rich and populous corporation, being, in time of peace, the 
greatest port for trade in the West; and, except Bristol, then more consider- 
able than all the rest. There was in it a castle very strong towards the sea, 
with good platforms and ordnance; and little more than musquet-shot from 
the town was an island with a fort in it much stronger than the castle, both 
of which were, before the troubles, under the command of a captain with a 
garrison of about fifty men at the most, and were only intended for a- 
security and defence of the town against a foreign invasion, the castle and 
* T find the following references to Trelawny’s vessels among the Domestic 
State-papers in the Public Record Office: “These are to certify that there is 
landed at Falmouth to his Maties use out of ye Richmond of Plymouth, 
belonging to Mr. Robert Trelawny,’ 33 barrels of powder, 8 musquets, 6 
swords, 7 skeynes of match, and 1032 bushells of salt; out of the Little 
Richmond, 147 bushels of French wheat, 13 sides and 1 hogshead of pork; 
and out of the Tyger of Plymouth, 22 chests of sugar (“sucar’’), belonging 
to Trelawny.—4th March, 1642-3, John Arundell. 14th Jan., 1642, “Saved 
for his Majesties use on board the Richmond of Plymouth 681 ounces of 
plate, one gold hatband 99 links 3 ounces weight, being goods of R. Trelawny.” 
—WNicholas Slanning. 16th Feb., 1642. Received at St. Michael’s Mount, 
out of the Richmond, 150 bushels of wheat, the goods of R. Trelawny.— 
Francis Basset. I have slightly condensed this document; only the quoted 
parts are verbatim. 
