Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/264

238 THE CASTLE. about 38 feet above the ground. Near the middle of the sixteenth century the existing chambers displaced those which had been constructed for purposes solely of forti- fication. In the year 1381 the old gateway was in charge of William Bodyer and Thomas Bylker. It appears to have been always watched by two keepers. In 1446 the town expended 68s. o|d. in "cleansing" and repairing it. In 1450, during Jack Cade's insurrection, a man was paid for making pits at South Gate. We think that the present- ment by the town sergeants in 1567 — "the Sowthyeate, wch Robrte Crowghte & Harie Crowghte doth occupye, ofte notte to be sette, butt to be kepte for the comon vse of the Towne " — referred to the present rooms. These rooms were, in and long prior to the year 1882, used as the town prison. We trust they will soon be applied to the uses of a local museum. Cfje jaortlj ©ate protected the town at its only approach from Stratton, Holsworthy, and the North Coast. It stood midway across the slope of the steep hill ascending from Laun- ceston Priory and Newport Burgh, through Bast Street, now St. Thomas Hill, and (within the gate) through the Northgate Street and old Castle Street (now Fore Street) to the tower of St. Mary Magdalene, and, by diverging to the right, near the point where the present Congregational Chapel stands, passing up Wester French Castle Street (Castle Street) to the Keep Court. In connection with Bast Street [Baste Street, Beaste Street, bas or basse, low or below], we may mention that the inclosure anciently known as Basthaye ran along behind that street, on its east side, from Mr. W. T. Parsons's garden to the eastern portion of the Priory meadows, and the land called Boughthay, from the