THE SIEGE OF PLYMOUTH. 257 
Down to hinder the passage from Cornwall by Saltash, where Sir 
Nicholas Slanning had 1,000 men. And so a petty border warfare 
was carried on, the Cornish generally having the advantage, daily 
stealing horses, sheep, and oxen. 
In April the Earl of Stamford made another attempt to subdue 
Cornwall, marching thereinto all the forces at his disposal. They 
were utterly defeated and dispersed on the 6th of May at Stratton ; 
-and Chudleigh, who had won a partial success at Bodmin, beat a 
hasty retreat to Exeter. 
By the expedition of the Cornish forces eastward, which termi- 
nated so fatally for their leaders—Sir Bevill Grenville being killed 
at the battle of Lansdowne, Col. Trevanion and Sir Nicholas 
Slanning at the siege of Bristol, and Sidney Godolphin, the other 
wheel of the wain,* at Chagford—Plymouth was left awhile to 
itself. The inhabitants made the best use of their time. The 
Black-book of the Corporation contains ‘‘An order made the fifth 
day of Julye in the xixth yeare of the raigne of our Sovereigne 
Lord Charles, annoque dni 1643, for the erection of a wall rounde 
the towne of Plymouth for the better defence and safetie of this 
towne agst the Enemyes nowe in armes agst the Parliament.”’ 
The order was made by the mayor, magistrates, and commonalty, 
and ran—‘‘ There shall be a wall with all expedition erected and 
Lenged [lengthened] for the better defence and safetie of this 
Towne agst those Enemyes that dayly threaten our s¢ burrow, and 
that every Inhabitant of the same shall be reasonably rated and 
assessed for and towards the Charges and Costes of lengthening 
and erecting the same according to their respective estates and 
substance.” 
I take it that at the date of this order there were no Royalist 
forces of any strength in the neighbourhood, but that it was 
thought wise to be prepared for what was seen to be inevitable. 
There is a tradition that women and children aided in the work of 
fortification. The word lengthening affords us some clue to the 
character of what was done. 
The fortifications of Plymouth date from the fourteenth century. 
Edward III. in 1374 made an order that the town should be 
fortified ; but the consequent works could not have been of much 
importance, or were only of a partial character, since they did not 
* “The four wheels of Charles’s wain— 
Grenville, Godolphin, Trevanion, Slanning—slain.” 
