expenses, gifts received, &c., of anything that can be construed into support of this tradition. One can imagine the outburst of joy and thankfulness if the Earl, to whom he had prayed "repentance might be given," had made such a grant.

The earliest date of a lease by the Duke of Bedford to Nonconformists in Tavistock, of part of the Abbey buildings, is 3rd November, 1701, when "all that great Hall" was let for 99 years to Jacob Saundercock, Richard Cudlip, and Walter Shellebeare Junior if they should so long live." This was, of course, after the Act of Indulgence of 1672, when licences had been taken out in Tavistock by Daniel Condy and others.

on.

Larkham often received money from the deacons. "August 1664 the Deacons brought me at severall times £2"; and so This may mean that Larkham's Church still existed, or the Deacons referred to may be the last officers before its dissolution. This entry, among others, seems to support the latter view:"September 16th. 1662. Mrs. Brownsdon in acknowledgment of her duty, though I could not do the office of a Pastor, gave me 10s.; the first present I received since August 18th, last past."

Larkham went on living in Tavistock, though he, and presumably his wife, moved "4 July 1664 to the house some time of Mr. Grills because of the straitness of the Roome at my son Condies," who had now six children growing up, and naturally required more house room. In 1664 Larkham began business as an apothecary, at first with Mr. County, but, buying him out before April 25th, 1665, continued it by himself, apparently with profit. In May, 1665, he notes that "this day it was told me that yesterday the 28th. of May, yong Preston of Maritavy, officiating at Tavistock pronounced me excom by authoritie from yong Fullwood, now A' Deacon of Totnes." (Francis Fullwood, D.D., installed Archdeacon of Totnes 31 Aug. 1660.) "Consider O Lord these fooles and pitty them, for they know not what they doe. Suffer not thy great name to be so taken in vaine."

His excommunication did not apparently interfere with Larkham's enjoyment of "things temporall." " August the 18th, 1665 beginneth being friday the first weeke and ending August 24th, I delivered for this weeke's expenses 10s. 7d. whereof 17d. was spent by myself in wine beere and about recreations." I omitted to mention the following strange

4"A flourishing Church under the present ministry of worthy Mr. Saundercock."-Icones Sacrae, by Rev. John Quicke, d. 1706.

5 Bedford Office.

drinks at different times indulged in, "white wine, claret, wormwood beere," "for March beere," "to a maid who brought metheglin," "strong beere," "a quart of Brandy 1s.," "for strong waters," "halfe a pint of Canary given to Mr. T. Pointer," "a barrell for beere 12 Feb. 1667-8.

There are not many more entries of importance in Larkham's Diary save one or two journeys, some into Cornwall, on one of which he was absent for some months returning September 30th, 1667. This seems to have been his last journey; he remained in Tavistock until his death which occurred in November 1669. The last entries in his Diary are "whereas I laid out about freeing of Tobacco for T. M." (Thomas Miller his grandson who had a shop in Okehampton and afterwards in Tavistock) "and for charges about bringing it to Tavistocke 13. 17. 04. I have received for Tobacco and the caske in which it was brought from Virginia 14li. 01. 03. November 17 beginneth the 2d. quarter of the 68th yeare of mine age. Laid out to the Barber 6d."

On the "23 December 1669 Mr. Thomas Larkham was buried," (Tav. Par. Register.) "Tradition" according to Mr. Lewis again comes forward and declares in the Parish Church. The earliest foundation for this is found in the 2nd edition or "continuation" of Calamy's Account of Ministers, etc. Ejected or Silenced after the Restoration, etc., 1727. His account of Larkham in his first book, 1713, is correct though brief. But the second or additional account is full of errors, the day, month, and year, of his birth are all wrong. He says he was of Jesus Coll., Camb., instead of Trinity Hall. He then quotes from the prefaces to the Wedding Supper and The Attributes, romances as to his conduct in New England, relates the episode of Mr. Wilcox of Linkinhorne in Cornwall, speaks of Nicholas Watts having expressed sorrow for the pamphlets he had written (see his will dated 16 February, 1674.) He says also that Larkham died confined in the House of his son-in-law not daring to stir abroad for fear of a jail. His own diary contradicts this statement. Calamy further says some "would have prevented his old emaciated Body (that was in a manner dead before it was quitted by the soul) from being interred in the Church." It must be remembered that he had been excommunicated. "But the steward of the Earl of Bedford interposed, and he was buried in that part of the Chancel which belonged to that noble Family" etc. It should be noticed that the Earl being Rector the whole of the Chancel belonged to him not merely a part. Calamy says that he gleaned much of his material for the West of

England from the Revd. John Quicke, M.A., and particularly mentions his Icones Sacrae, then and now in MS. But therein is no allusion to Larkham unless "the vaine janglings about unprofitable questions in ye days of Liberty," which he says occurred in Tavistock after the departure of Rev. George Hughes, are to be referred to Larkham. Quicke died 1706, before the date of the second volume (1727), which contains the matter quoted. He gives no other authorities, so it is impossible now to trace the truth of this story as to Larkham's burial. If it is true that he was buried in the Church, then even after death he was the cause of discord among the people of Tavistock.

I feel that in spite of its length, my paper is a collection of materials, rather than a finished life of Thomas Larkham. But at least I have collected fresh and original matter, and the future historian will find it easier to paint a life-like portrait of the man, than if he had only the previous collected accounts to rely upon. For these, like the later portraits of Queen Elizabeth, paint him "without shadows" and present but a lifeless semblance of the man in his habit as he lived.

ADDITIONAL DISCOVERIES AT THE CASTLE,

EXETER.

BY SIR J. B. PHEAR, M.A., F.G.S.

(Read at Plymouth, July, 1892.)

In a note to the paper on "Recent Discoveries at the Castle, Exeter," which was printed in last year's Transactions of the Association, it was stated that while the sheets were passing through the press, namely, on the 9th October, 1891, about 2 p.m., a good deal of the new work of repair which had been done to the Castle wall, and which was described in the paper, together with the whole of the old inner face of the wall which had been left remaining up to the gateway, suddenly fell without the slightest warning. It is the object of the present paper to continue from this point the narrative of the measures taken to preserve, so far as practicable, this venerable relic of Devonshire feudalism.

It should, however, be mentioned, that before this catastrophe occurred, and while the inner face of the Castle wall was being rebuilt (as explained in the paper), it had been determined, in consequence of the discovery of the human skeletons close under the floors of the Castle-keeper's lodge, coupled with the offensiveness of the soil, and the fact that the house was by reason of its situation incurably damp and well-nigh sunless, that it should be taken down, and a new lodge built on a site somewhat higher up the Castle yard.

The old building was accordingly demolished, and with it doubtless was lost a certain amount of support, which must have been afforded to the inner face of the Castle wall under repair by the walls and roof of a portion of the lodge that abutted against it.

This removal of the lodge disclosed a somewhat worse. condition of the wall thus exposed to view than had been anticipated; but at the same time an old buttress was brought to light, on the east side of the Castle gateway, built of

conglomerate, with a weathering, and having on its west face, at some distance from the ground, a portion of a niche, or walled-up arch; and no doubt arose as to the stability of the wall, because the actual character of its internal structure, as afterwards discovered, was not suspected.

About midday, however, on the 9th October, 1891, as mentioned above, a large portion of the old inner face of the wall against which the lodge had stood, reaching in length as far as the Castle gateway, suddenly fell into the Castle yard, carrying with it, of course, such new repairs as had been done to its upper part. The old buttress did not actually fall to the ground with the rest, but slid bodily in towards the Castle yard, and assumed so dangerous a position of inclination that it had to be removed.

By this fall of the inner face of the Castle wall a longitudinal vertical section of the wall was in effect made, which for the first time disclosed the nature of its construction; and it was at once apparent that from the gateway to at least the middle point of the south front of the Castle the wall was built on the top of an earthen mound or rampart, which had probably been formed of the material thrown up in making the ditch. For a certain distance from the gateway this earthen rampart had been cut down vertically on the inner side to the level of the ground of the Castle yard (a depth of some 14 feet) in order to make room for the site of the keeper's lodge, and had been faced with a retaining wall, which thus constituted the foundation at this point of the inner face of the Castle wall. It was this that gave way after the lodge abutting upon it had been removed, and so brought down all the inner face affected by it. A few weeks afterwards (in November) a portion of the corresponding outer face of the wall also fell, notwithstanding the utmost endeavours made to keep it up by a complete system of shoring. The loose earth on which the standing wall rested slipped away from under it, on the inside, like sand, with the result that this portion of the wall settled downwards, and fell over outwards.

The photographs laid on the table depict the appearance of the wall after the inner casing had fallen, and while the outer portion left standing was shored up; and also show the later state of the case, when the outer portion too had given The cross-section of the wall exposed at this stage is way. very instructive as to its internal structure.

Mr. Harbottle, the County Surveyor, under whose care and superintendence the repairs and alterations rendered necessary by the disaster have been effected, in a memorandum