THE SIEGE OF PLYMOUTH. 299 
were killed—one at least, when more than 300 fell—I do not 
believe we shall exaggerate if we assume that the deaths due to 
the Siege reached nearly 8,000 ; in other words, that in three years 
or so a number greater than that of the entire population of the 
town was swept away. The whole history of the civil war fails to 
supply a parallel to this. 
Nor did the evil effects of the Siege end here. I pass over the 
patent fact that the trade of the town was, for the time at least, 
ruined, a point made certain by the act of the Corporation of 
London, who, in May 1646, petitioned the House of Commons that 
the Plymouth duties might be taken off* Scores of families, by 
the deaths in the field of husbands and fathers, were deprived of 
their means of support and reduced to the greatest misery. After 
a while provision was made for their needs. 
The Siege was thus a very real thing to the townsfolk for many 
a year after the last sally had been made and the last shot fired. 
But little by little its memory failed : as the old earthworks which 
had been attacked and defended so bravely crumbled into decay ; 
as, creeping slowly onward, the growing town burst the cincture of 
the once well-guarded wall ; as one by one the ancient gates passed 
away. A hundred years ago there were still living men whose 
fathers had taken part in the great struggle. Fifty years since 
tradition was almost dead ; but there yet remained many relics of 
the old defences. Coxside Gate, Friary Gate, Gasking Gate, Old 
Town Gate, Frankfort Gate and Martyn’s Gate had disappeared ; 
but Barbican Gate and Hoe Gate were left, with several portions 
of the wall and of the great outworks.. Now we can trace few 
vestiges of either. The last of the gates has gone. The only 
fragments of the wall are by Tothill Lane, at the head of Gasking 
Street and behind Ham Street. And so with the outworks. There 
is just discernible the forward angle of the redoubt at Lipson 
to the east of Freedom Fields, and thence stretching away to the 
mounds in front of Longfield Terrace, all that is left of the work at 
Holiwell, the line taken by the connecting ditch and rampart. The 
bank which yet obscurely marks the site of Maudlyn ist disappear- 
ing to give place to the Blind Institution. F ort Stamford occupies 
the side of Mount Stamford. The hill above Laira Bridge, whereon 
the work at Prince Rock stood, seems to retain traces of artificial 
scarping. On the sites of the other defences we have little but a 
* WHITELOCK, p. 212, ¢ April, 1875. 

