Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/283

NORDEN AND CAREW. 255 the toun waul and gate [north gate], and so passid thorough the toun, conscending the hill ontylle I cam to the very top of it, wher the market-place and the paroche chirch of S. Stephane [error, St. Mary Magdalene], lately re-edified, be. Elsewhere he says : Launston, otherwys cawlled Lostephan, yn old tyme cawlled Dunevet, stondith ii. myles beyownd Povvlston Bridge on Tamar westward. ... On the north side of the towne a castel stonding on a hye hille withyn the sayd towne, hath iii. rownde wardes. . . . Ther be withyn this town iii. gates and a postern; also a gate to go owt of the castel ynto the old parke. Sum gentelmen of Cornewal hold ther landes by castel-gard, that ys to say, for reparation of this castel and towne ; And withyn this castel ys a chapel, and a hawle for syses and sessions ; for a commune gayle for al Corn- wayle is yn this castel. Withyn this towne is a market, a mayre and burgesses, with a chapel of Mary Magdalen to theyr uses. . . . The wall of Dunevet ys hy, larg, and strong, and defensably set. John Norden, in his Survey of Cornwall, about the year 1584, calls "Dunhevet the Prince's Castle, and Launceston a towne adiacent." He says : Dunhevet is an auntient Castle seated upon a verie steepe mounte nere unto the towne and Borow of Launceston, and hath bene, in former times, of greater importance and regarde : In whiche Castle, in the beginning of the Norman's gouermente, William, Earle of Cornwall made his abode, and diuers Earles, and Dukes of Cornwall before him. [This is a rather reckless statement. The only William Earl of Cornwall to whom it could refer was the son of Robert (Moriton, or Mortaigne, p. 70), and there was no Duke of Cornwall until 1337.] It belongeth now unto the Prince, as parcell of his Highnes' Dukedom of Cornwall, and it is now, in steede of the prince's Courte, and honorable resorte, become the common prison and gayle of the prouince. It standeth, as it were, in the towne of Lauiiecston, but sequestred in jurisdiction. The base [keep] courte compriseth a decay'd chappell, a verie spatious hall wherein the assizes for the whole Shyre ar helde, and in the same Courte the