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the town. The prisoners were sent by the steamer Zephyr to Topsham, and thence to Exeter, instead of by road, a plot having been discovered to stop the coach and rescue the men as they passed along the Newton road.

The total number of prisoners committed was twentyeight. At the June Quarter Sessions, Hart and Dunn, the ringleaders, were sentenced to fourteen days' imprisonment, Spiller and Bates, for inciting the men to riot, six weeks', six of the men were sentenced to a month's imprisonment, one to six weeks', one was acquitted, and the remainder were discharged.

CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.

The first Contention about Cary Green.-Abolishing the Regatta Fair in 1847.-Disputed Right of Way to the Sands.-An Appeal to the Quarter Sessions.-An Old Roman Causeway.-Human Remains. The Cemetery at Goodrington.-Inadequate Governing Powers.-Visitation of Cholera.-Temporary Refuges at Boston Fields.-The Old Town Hall or Watch-House.-The Last Days of the Old Commissioners. -Objection to Newspaper Reporting.Adoption of the Public Health Act.-The Russian Princes.-A French Squadron in Torbay.-The New Town Hall.-Ordnance Survey. Her Majesty and the Prince Consort in Torbay.-The Prince at St. Mary-Church.-Address of the Local Board to Her Majesty.-The Reply.

PENING up new roads was one of the principal aims of the Town Commissioners; they desired to make a new approach to the coal cellars on the North Quay, but were opposed by the Trustees of Torre Abbey. The road, however, was partly made when legal proceedings were taken. The Commissioners endeavoured to disarm this opposition by resolving, on the 8th of July, 1847, "That an answer be sent to Mr. Cary's notice, to the following effect: That the Commissioners felt they were acting within the powers vested in them in making a considerable public improvement; but in doing so regret that they have taken any steps offensive or disagreeable to Mr. Cary, and accordingly hope that he will take a different view of the matter, lending his aid to the Commissioners in this and all other matters for the advantage of the public interest." This reply had not the desired effect, for the

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road was not made, and the Green was permitted to be used as a resting place for caravans, shows, and wild beast exhibitions; as a timber yard, saw-pit, and a general receptacle for all kinds of rubbish.

The first time the authorities attempted to abolish the fair held on the quay during the regatta (about which there has been much contention of late years) was in 1847, when it was determined "That the surveyor be instructed to keep the streets adjoining the harbour clear of obstructions on the regatta day, and not to allow caravans to stand in any other place but Daddy Hole Plain, and prevent any noise or disturbance in the town after half-past eight in the evening." Subsequent Boards have endeavoured, but not always successfully, to enforce this rule, with the exception of limiting the "fun of the fair" to half-past eight.

During this year a serious rupture occurred between the trustees of Torre Abbey and the Commissioners. It appears that from the time the monastery was founded, if not before, there was a thoroughfare (now Belgrave Road), from the village of Tor to the sands, which was known as Sand Lane. It was used by the farmers for bringing up sand and sea-weed in their crooks, and on their pack horses. In 1825, for the convenience of the owner of the Abbey, the lane was closed, Mr. Cary, by way of equivalent, conceding to his tenants and those of the Torwood Manor who lived at Torre, the right of using the Long Avenue Road. When the turnpike road was made from Torre to Livermead, Mr. Cary considered that it was sufficient for all the purposes of the tenants, and accordingly sought to close the Long Avenue Road against the public, one of the grounds of his objection being that it passed through his farmyard. The subject was discussed at a public meeting, when a resolution was passed in favour of closing it against carts, but sanctioning its use as a bridle path. It was averred that the meeting was packed

with Mr. Cary's tenants, hence the adoption of the resolution. A poll was demanded, and refused on technical grounds. This was followed by an order from the local magistrates to close the road, but on an appeal to the Quarter Sessions at Exeter, the order was quashed, and the road has remained open to the public ever since.

It may here be added that although Sand Lane was closed against vehicles and horses, it was ever afterwards used as a path-field until the meadows were taken up for building purposes, when it was re-opened as the present Belgrave Road.

Old Sand Lane commenced in the Tor Church Road, passed at the back of the lodge (now the site of No. 1 Sandridge Terrace), and thence between high hedges, with orchards on each side, on to the sands at a point near the steps which now lead to the beach, in front of Atkinson's Hotel, where was discovered a Roman causeway, evidently that referred to in the original grant of William Brewer conveying the lands to the Abbey, and described as the causeway which goeth down to the sea.* It was accidentally brought to light when the Torbay Road was constructed. The workmen, throwing up a trench for the wall, came upon a substantial and compact piece of masonry, from fifteen to twenty feet wide, formed of pitched stone, that is, large stones set together on their edges, and so securely fastened that gunpowder had to be used in order to dislodge them. The stone was a hard brown kind, brought apparently from Cockington, that being the nearest locality whence that particular kind of stone can be procured. Not far from this causeway the workmen brought to light an elm coffin, substantially made, and in a perfect state of preservation. The shields and handles were almost as sound as when they were first deposited in the sands. On opening the coffin, it was found to contain nothing more than a mass of crumbling dust. The coffin is supposed to have contained the remains of one of the

In the grant it is termed the calcetum causeway; calcetum is an old Latin word for a causeway made with stones.

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officers of the fleet. In excavating sites for the houses. along the shores of the Bay, numerous human remains, presumedly of men belonging to the Royal Navy, have frequently been dug up. Several bodies are known to have been buried in Torre Abbey Park, and in the Ilsam valley some scores have been interred. This seems to have been a common practice before the Government acquired a burying ground at Goodrington, adjoining the hospital. During the last century the Government purchased about three acres of land at Goodrington, on which was erected a hospital, the remainder being appropriated to burial purposes. Independently of the hospital, there was sufficient accommodation for a guard of soldiers. In this burying ground a considerable number of officers and men have been interred, as may be seen by the memorial stones which still remain. One of these stones bears date the same year in which Napoleon was brought into Torbay. After the conclusion of peace, the hospital was purchased by Colonel Drake, of Ipplepen, who converted it into a pleasant marine residence, but the burying ground was sadly neglected. As years rolled on, the existence of the property appears to have been overlooked by the Government. It became a sort of No-Man's-Land; the silent memorials of the dead alone seemed to keep watch and ward over it The sea, however, is no respecter of persons or lands; here, in South Devon, in its constant battling with the shore, it always comes off the victor; and so, in course of years, the steadily-advancing surges crept up, undermined the boundary walls of the sailors' cemetery, and at times flooded the adjacent lands. Seeing that the destruction of the property was imminent, Mr. James Mountstephen wrote to the Admiralty, and was authorised to restore the sea fences.

The Torquay Commissioners, finding that their powers under the Act adopted in 1835 were still inadequate for the proper governance of the town, took into their considera