258 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
prevent the burning of Briton Side by an invasion of Bretons in 
1404. Immediately after this steps were taken to place the town 
in a more defensible position; a wall was built, and the old castle 
on the Hoe, from which Castle Street takes its name, erected, 
Bishop Stafford of Exeter interesting himself in the undertaking. 
From time to time other fortifications were provided, indulgences 
being granted by Bishops Lacy and Vesey, following Stafford’s 
example, to those who assisted; and a battery was raised on 
Drake’s, then called St. Nicholas, Island. The alarm created by 
the Spaniards in the closing years of the sixteenth century led the 
townsfolk, headed by Drake, in 1590 to ask help from the Crown. 
Their letter states: ‘‘The towne is open to the enemy, and not 
defended by any fort or rampier.” There certainly, however, was 
a wall before this, for we find prior allusions to gates; moreover, 
the Castle had been kept in repair. As one result of the letter, 
certain batteries on the Hoe were methodised into a regular fort, 
and plans were drawn by one Richard Adams for carrying a wall 
round the town from the old castle to a quay on Sutton Pool 
belonging to Mr. Sparke, the whole circuit being 380 perches. 
This left out the eastern side of Sutton Pool. Dues on pilchards, 
and other grants, were made by Elizabeth for the purpose. The 
fort was built; but in the building of the wall there was great 
delay, and it is doubtful whether it was ever completed. If 
so, this would explain the phrase of the order, ‘erecting and 
lengthening.”’? It is probable, however, that the last word has 
reference to work done near Sutton Pool. Adams would naturally 
commence to build from the Castle; so that the eastern part of 
the wall would be the last undertaken. Moreover, we have to 
account for the facts that there stood between Bilbury Street and 
what was formerly known as Briton Side, exactly on a line with 
the western shore of Sutton Pool, and having no connection with 
the general line of circumvallation, what was called Martyn’s 
Gate; and that Friary Gate, which crossed Exeter Street at Friary 
Street, could not have formed part of the completed defences. My 
suggestion is that the Friary Gate was included in Adams’s original 
design, since we know from his own words that he left the Friary 
outside his wall; and that when the Corporation in 1643 set 
about lengthening the wall, they did so by extending it to Coxside 
proper, including the Friary. There is a corporate record that a 
gate at Coxside was set up in 1589, and ordered to be closed every 
