‘ 
THE SIEGH OF PLYMOUTH, 959 
night. We can hardly have a doubt that this was the Friary Gate. 
The order that it was to be shut clearly shows that there must 
have then been some sort of a wall. Martyn’s Gate is a difficulty. 
My only suggestion is that it at first formed part of the defences 
erected in the fifteenth century after the descent of the Bretons. 
The wall in its complete state ran from Coxside round Friary 
Gardens, across Whitefriars (now Tothill) Lane, thence to the 
head of Gasking Street; nearly east and west through the gardens 
behind Hewer’s Row, by the north side of Ham Street, through 
the gardens on the south of Park Street, to the head of Old Town 
Street just below Drake Street; across what is now the Market, 
to the Globe Hotel; thence through Westwell Street churchyard 
and across Princess acct to the head of Hoe Gate Street, and so 
round the Castle to Sutton Pool at the Barbican. 
Clarendon, in the passage cited, speaks of the strength of the 
town seaward. . This could hardly have arisen from the number of 
cannon. In 1624 the fort only contained fifteen serviceable guns, 
and Drake’s Island 20; and as the expenditure required to make 
the works efficient was put at £444 4s. 8d., it is not likely that 
much had been done in the interim. Here, therefore, the defenders 
of Plymouth had little to. rely upon; the wall they had in 
part to build, and what saved them was ‘‘the weak and irregular 
line of earth,’? with its subsidiary works. The garrison seized 
with great skill the natural advantages of the place. The defence 
from sea attack was easy; the wall sufficed to guard against a 
sudden assault, but by itself could never have sustained a siege. 
Plymouth owed its safety to the fact that it stood upon a peninsula. 
Stonehouse Creek then reached nearly to the Cemetery. The unem- 
banked Laira extended up to Lipson. Thus the waters of the sea 
formed a natural moat on all sides, save where the low-lying 
isthmus of Mutley gave access to the main land. Here was the 
centre of the outer works of defence. A strong redoubt was 
erected on Maudlyn,* now North Hill; and from it to the right 
and the left there stretched along the ridge a breastwork termi- 
nated by redoubts above Lipson and at Eldad, and having inter- 
mediate works at Holiwell (near the Prison) and Pennycomequick. 
(the end of Cobourg Street). This line may seem rather extended, 
but the upper parts of Stonehouse and Lipson Creeks were easily 
* Mutley is a corruption of Mandlyn, in its turn derived from the 
Magdalen or Leper House, which centuries since stood at North Hill. 
