Plymouth.

[1791, Part II., p. 1098.]
I send you from St, Andrew's Church, Plymouth (PI. III., fig. 5), a sketch of the upper lid of a stone coffin, which lies near the south entrance of St. Andrew's Church. From the figure on the stone it may be conjectured to have been the lid of a coffin of some of the priors of Plympton Priory, to whom St. Andrew's was impropriate, and who, before the incorporation of Plymouth, 18 Henry VI., were sole lords of the manor of Sutton Parva, now called Plymouth, and were frequently buried in St. Andrew's Church.

Powderham.

[1799, Part II., p. 1113.]

I send you a slight view (Plate II.) of Powderham Castle in Devonshire, the seat of Lord Courtenay ; and a pile of the greatest antiquity and consequence in that county. For its ancient history, I refer your readers to Leland and Camden ; and for its modern state, to Mr. Polwhele's " History," vol. ii., p. 170 ; who tells us that, in 1717. a neat chapel in the north wing was re-built and beautified ; over which was a well-furnished library ; that, in 1752 (when Chapple drew up some account of this castle for Brice's " Topographical Dictionary ", the building (or the most part retained the castellated form; and that the present noble owner has " greatly improved and ornamented the house ; having, amongst other alterations, converted the chapel into a very elegant drawing room." ...

Mr. Polwhele, p. 169. says :

" Camden's assertion, that Powderham Castle was built by Isabella de Fortibus, is doubtless erroneous for, neither Isabella, nor any of the earls of Devon of the family of Rivers were possessed of Powderham."

Yet, p. 179:

" In a window in the North aisle lies a stone image of a female figure, said to be Isabella de Fortibus."

There is no other doubt expressed of this being her monument than is implied in the words " said to be."

A TRAVELLER.    

[1800, Part II., pp. 617, 618.]
In vol. lxix., p.1113, a print is given of what an ingenious Traveller is pleased to call " a light view " of Powderham Castle, in Devon, the seat of Lord Courtenay. ... What the intention of the Traveller may have been, in sending you a sketch of a place which bears not the faintest resemblance to it, I cannot conjecture. .... Though by no means accurate, yet I perceive somewhat of a likeness with the edifice at Hartland, which is a structure of Gothic architecture, and uniform in a consistency of style and elegance. This, however, is not the case at Powderham Castle. On an approach towards it in front (of which I enclose you also a slight but accurate sketch), the eye is at once arrested by the vastness of the pile, and by the multiplicity of parts which, at different periods, have been added to the original mass, and now form one whole. . . . An excrescence of late has grown out of the northern angle from the designs of Mr. Wyatt (the Cynosure of Gothic architecture), the plan of which has also been conceived by many (haply also of the hypercritic tribe !) to be not less injudicious than the situation. In this opinion, however, I cannot bring myself to coincide. The drawing-room (what was the chapel) presented to the north a blank wall and a recess ; of course, on this side there was wanting somewhat to arrest and satisfy the eye. The building which has been erected does both. The vacant space is filled up, and that with an object decidedly beautiful. ...

Of this castle there are aspects more picturesque; that from the north and west in particular. Here were towers of truly castellated magnificence ! I say were, for one (in consequence of decay) has been taken down and re-erected, and, I regret to say, not with the discriminative and appropriate taste which (had he been consulted) Mr. Wyatt would have planned.

[1800, Part II., pp. 617,618.]
In vol. lxix., p. 1 t 13. a print is given of what an ingenious Traveller is pleased to call " a light view " of Powderham Castle, in Devon, the seat of Lord Courtenay. ... What the intention of the Traveller may have been, in sending you a sketch of a place which bears not the faintest resemblance to it, I cannot conjecture. .... Though by no means accurate, yet I perceive somewhat of a likeness with the edifice at Hartland, which is a structure of Gothic architecture, and uniform in a consistency of style and elegance. This, however, is not the case at Powderham Castle. On an approach towards it in front (of which I enclose you also a slight but accurate sketch), the eye is at once arrested by the vastness of the pile, and by the multiplicity of parts which, at different periods, have been added to the original mass, and now form one whole. . . . An excrescence of late has grown out of the northern angle from the designs of Mr. Wyatt (the Cynosure of Gothic architecture), the plan of which has also been conceived by many (haply also of the hypercritic tribe !) to be not less injudicious than the situation. In this opinion, however, I cannot bring myself to coincide. The drawing-room (what was the chapel) presented to the north a blank wall and a recess ; of course, on this side there was wanting somewhat to arrest and satisfy the eye. The building which has been erected does both. The vacant space is filled up, and that with an object decidedly beautiful. ...

Since writing the above, it has occurred to me that Tawstock, the very beautiful seat of Sir Bourchier Wrey, in the north of Devon, has a more extended front than Hartland Abbey, with a projection at each end, as is given in the print, for which it possibly may have been designed.

I. SWETE.    

St. Pancras.

[1823, Part II. pp. 577, 578.]
The following account of the Chapel of St. Pancras. near Plymouth in Devonshire, which has lately been repaired and much enlarged, may not be uninteresting to some of your readers. ..

The accompanying views of the chapel in its former and present state, will serve to elucidate the following description. (See the plate.)

St. Pancras, or (as vulgarly called) Penny Cross,* in the tything of Weston Peverel, is a chapel of ease to St. Andrew's Plymouth, from which town it is distant about two miles and a half, and is situated on the western side of a knoll or hill, commanding a very beautiful view in that direction, terminating in the river Tamar, and the hills of Cornwall in the distance.

The date of the chapel is not known, but there is reason to believe its present site is not the one on which it originally stood; and in pulling down a part of it, the materials appeared to have been previously used in some more ancient building; but the oldest sepulchral inscription does not go beyond the latter end of the sixteenth century. It consisted of one aisle, 57 feet by 13, including the chancel at the east end, and was without ceiling. the rudely-framed timbers of the roof, and unplastered slating, carrying the imagination back to times of primitive simplicity, and even barbarism. In the east gable was, however, a handsome Gothic window of moorstone, and the west rose into a small belfry, mantled over with ivy, in which hung a single bell, of no very musical or potent sound, but which just served to call together the inhabitants of the tithing dwelling in its immediate vicinity, once a fortnight, to an afternoon service, and four times a year to a morning service, with the holy sacrament; which services were given by the minister of the adjoining parish of St. Budeaux (himself considered as a curate to the Vicar of St. Andrew's), leaving his own church at those times unserved, and which appears to have been the whole of the service ever received by St. Pancras. Being embosomed in trees, and so pleasantly situated, it altogether formed a very agreeable object to the lovers of the picturesque, and to such became every year more attractive, as it gradually approached the state of absolute ruin to which it had nearly arrived in 1820. But as another feeling might be supposed to operate upon those who attended its periodical worship (and which it is only surprising had not been sooner excited), it was at length resolved to sacrifice the " picturesque " to the safety and accommodation of the congregation; and in that year the western

half of the old building was taken down, and two aisles added, extending north and south, so as to form, with the remaining part, the figure of a cross, 53 feet by 66, east and west, each of the aisles being lighted. at their north and south ends, by a handsome Gothic window, similar to that in the east end, the three windows being composed of stained glass.

A gallery fronted with panelling of a Gothic pattern, and supported on clustered pillars of cast iron, is raised at the west end. The whole of the ceilings are arched, and just below their springing a cornice is carried round the chapel, in accordance with the style of the other parts.

The chancel, as improved, has a very striking effect: it is now separated from the aisle by a pointed arch, supported on clustered pillars, from which spring the mouldings of the arch, as also the groins of the ceiling within, and from quarter columns in the north-east and south-east angles ; on each side are tablets with the Commandments, etc., within frames, whose mouldings terminate in pointed arches of contrary flexion. The altar is enclosed by iron rails.

The pulpit is now placed on the angle formed by the junction of the north aisle with the old building, so as to command the whole area. An ancient moorstone font of octangular form, stands in the centre of the aisles, and becomes a striking object, being seen from every part of the chapel.

The whole of the wood-work is painted in imitation of dark wainscot, and the pulpit covering, altar-cloth, etc., are of crimson velvet, the whole being finished with a due regard to uniformity and simplicity of style, preserving the original Gothic character, however faintly exhibited in the old building.

It remains only to add to this description, that the western end, in which is the entrance door, projects a few feet, and rises in a small square tower, whose roof is surmounted by a cross. ...

Yours, etc.,    WESTONIENSIS.    

Sidbury.

[1814, Part I., pp. 265. 266.) The present farm of Sand or Sonde in the parish of Sidbury, Devon, formerly made two distinct properties : Higher or Over Sand), and Lower or Nether Sand; each of which appears to have given name to its possessor. The first alone is noticed by the old county historians.

Florence (Tremayle), the widow of Nicholas Ashley, grand-daughter and heiress of the judge, Sir Thomas Tremayle, possessed Higher Sand in the first part of the sixteenth century, being heir general (through different heiresses of Farway, Trivet, Waltherm) of a family designated De Sande. Sir William Pole, in his " Collections

for the History of Devon," p. 165, says that it was " granted about Kinge Henry III. tyme unto William (and) Deodatus de Sand his sonne," Sir William Pole's authority is not to be questioned lightly ; a grant, however, now in existence, from Roger Wynkelegh, Dean of Exeter, to William de Sand, and Deodatus his son and heir, only remits part of a rent charge. Florence, and her son, Robert Ashley, sold Over Sand in the year 1561, to Henry Huyshe, who was descended from a younger branch of the family of Huyshe, of Lud Huyshe and Doniford in the county of Somerset; of which see Mr. Protheroe's account, Gentleman's Magazine, November, 1831 vol. ci., p. 305, and December, 1831, p, 487.

Nether or Lower Sand, in the middle of the sixteenth century, was the property of Richard Rowe and Osmond Garrett, the representatives of two co-heiresses of John Walrond, of Parke, in the parish of Willand, who inherited it through heiresses of Holbein and Pyle, probably from Ælanus de Sand. It is certain that Ælanus possessed land here in 1284, for he sold a field to Deodatus de Sand in that year. Henry Huyshe purchased this part the ear before his acquisition of the other. He appears to have left this to his eldest son Thomas, and Higher Sand to his son Anthony. The two brothers sold the whole to their cousin, James Huyshe, of London, third son of John Huyshe, of Doniford. James had twenty-nine children born to him by his two wives (see Stow's " London "). His eldest surviving son, Rowland, built the present house (see Plate I.), which, by the date of painted glass in the windows, must have been completed before the year 1594. It has been occupied by the farmers of the estate since the death of James Huyshe In 1724, but the property still remains in the representative of Rowland Huyshe, the writer of this. There are no memorials whatsoever of any members of the family in the church or the churchyard of Sidbury, except a mural tablet in the chancel, which bears the following inscription :

" Beneath this stone in the burial place of their ancestors of Sand, in this parish, are deposited the bodies of the four daughters of Francis Huysh formerly rector of Clithydon, and his wife Sarah, daughter of Richard Newte, of Duvah, in the parish of Bampton, who themselves closed the eyes of Elizabeth. Nov. 12, 1731, in her 21st year. Sarah, the eldest, and widow of John Thomson, rector of Mesey Hampton, in the county of Gloucester, died Jan. 2 1794, having completed 86 years. Frances followed her sister, April 22, 1797, at the age of 82. Jane, the youngest, ended that line of the family, with her own blameless life, Oct. 23, 1803, in her 83d year. Where now is the boast, that they and their forefathers of Sand were a branch of the family of Huyshe, of Lud-Huyshe and Doniford, in the county of Somerset; and that the blood of the Plantagenets flowed in their veins, through Joan, daughter of the 1st Edward? ... "

The drawing which I send you is from the elegant and accurate pencil of Mr. G. Holmes, formerly of Bristol, now of Plymouth.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,    
FRANCIS HUYSHE.