This parish, forming the western boundary of Plymouth harbour, and
extending between Hamoaze and the sea, occupies a situation more
beautiful than any other on the whole coast.
The church stands on the summit of the ridge, and its lofty tower was
long an object of curiosity on account of the signals displayed on it
to indicate the arrival of ships or fleets. From ten to twenty
arbitrary signals were made, by means of differently shaped and
coloured flags, displayed from a perpendicular staff, and by balls
suspended on two others, rising at an inclined angle from the opposite
parapets.
The tardy adoption of a method, so simple and universal as that of
conveying intelligence through the combination of signals, and of
alphabetic writing, may be reckoned among the most curious anomalies
of the human mind; when the common mode of what is called talking with
the fingers actually does the thing itself, and Polybius, the friend
of P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus, and his companion, at the
destruction of Carthage, 145 years before our æra, gives a detailed
description of a method by which this object may be attained, and
dwells on its immense advantages. He admits indeed that difficulties
must be expected in the execution; but adds, “In the present age the
sciences are advanced to so great a perfection that almost every thing
is capable of being taught by method.” See the General History of
Polybius, book 10, extract 7, chapter 2. It was, however, reserved for
the French, in their Revolutionary War, to practise this art, and for
the first time in the spring of 1794, more than nineteen hundred years
after the suggestion by Polybius, and notwithstanding repeated
recurrences to nearly the same effect by various writers in modern
times.
Mr. Hals states, that in the valuation of Pope Nicholas this parish
was assessed, the Rectory at 100_s._ the Vicarage at 53_s._ 4_d._
In the folio edition of the Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliæ et Walliæ,
auctoritate Papæ Nicholai IV. printed by command of King George III.
1802, the entries stand thus:
£. _s._ _d._ £. _s._ _d._
Taxatio. Decima.
Eccl’a de Sacre 5 0 0 0 10 0
Non ex’ { Vicar ejusdem 2 13 4 ――――――
{ Eccl’ia de Rame 2 6 8 ――――――
The bracket may perhaps be wrongly placed, and Maker may be a
corruption of the name here used.
Inceworth appears to have been the principal manor in this parish, and
belongs to the family of Trefusis; it includes Milbrook, formerly a
town of some consequence. Here were till very lately the brewhouses
attached to the great naval establishment of this port; they are now
removed to The Point on the Devonshire side, where one of the most
extensive and most useful works ever constructed for such purposes has
been recently completed. Walls have been laid in deep water, by the
use of diving bells, so as to allow of the largest ships coming quite
in contact with the wharfs, and there receiving, in the course of a
few hours, all the supplies of meat, bread, beer, water, &c. that are
requisite for their going to sea.
The object however which attracts the attention of strangers from all
others in this parish, is the place formerly called Vaultershome, and
afterwards West Stonehouse, but which Mr. Edgcumbe, who acquired it by
a marriage with the heiress of the family of Durneford, its former
possessors, chose to name Mount Edgcumbe, a proceeding now sanctioned
by time, as are those of the change from Port Prior to Port Eliot, and
some others. It would be useless to describe this most beautiful and
superb place, considered by many as altogether the finest gentleman’s
seat in the West of England. Nor can it be the least necessary to say
any thing here of the distinguished family after whom it is called;
who have possessed an hereditary seat in Parliament since the year
1741, and for two descents have been Lord Lieutenants of Cornwall.
By a strange absurdity this south-eastern extremity has been,
notwithstanding that the whole river is attached to Cornwall,
artificially considered as a part of Devonshire; but this and other
similar anomalies are in some degree corrected by modern acts of the
legislature, the authority of magistrates for any county having been
extended over these insulated portions of another, and the right of
voting for Members of Parliament is brought back to its natural state
by the enactments of 1832.
A small town or village, partly in Maker, but extending into Rame, is
distinguished by the double appellation of Kingston and Cawsand; the
latter name is applied to the bay formed by a recess of the land at
this place, a bay capable of containing the largest ships, and
esteemed the least dangerous part of Plymouth Sound.
The Harbour of Plymouth consists of three distinct parts, the Sound,
entirely exposed to the violence of south and south-western winds, and
two inner harbours, Catwater and Hamoaze; the former adapted only for
small vessels; and Hamoaze rendered utterly inaccessible in bad
weather by a ridge of rocks extending from Drake’s Island to the
western shore, thus restricting the only passage to a narrow and
winding channel round that Island under the Hoe, and between Mount
Edgcumbe and the Point.
To remedy this most essential defect, by making a safe anchorage in
the outer harbour, an immense work was commenced in August 1812, which
should be called the Artificial Reef, from its close resemblance to a
natural reef, and from its having been avowedly planned in imitation
of the coral reefs, abounding near all the Islands in the Pacific
Ocean.
The Plymouth reef consists of a middle part a thousand yards long, and
lying directly across the entrance of the Sound, and of two wings
bending inwards at a small angle, each 350 yards long, making in all
1700 yards, or very nearly a mile. Advantage having been taken of a
shoal, the depth under low water averages about 36 feet, and the
height above low water is just 20 feet. The slope towards the sea
forms an angle of 22° with the horizon, giving an increase of breadth
of nearly two feet and a half for each foot of descent; the slope
towards the land forms an angle of 33° with the horizon, and increases
one foot and a half for each foot of descent: consequently the
increase of breadth on the whole is four feet for one of descent. The
whole mass is composed of stones blown by the force of gunpowder from
limestone rocks on the river side, from whence they are rolled at once
on board barges, which sail to the spot and drop them into sea.
The whole weight of the reef is estimated at 2,500,000 tons. It may be
curious to compare it with the largest building in the world. The
Great Pyramid of Egypt measures 687 feet on each of its four sides,
and the perpendicular height is 480 feet; these dimensions, supposing
the Pyramid to be solid, give a content of 76,500,000 cubic feet, and
a weight exceeding 5,500,000 tons, more than double the weight of the
reef, and the materials are large blocks hewn into regular forms,
transported from a considerable distance by land carriage, then raised
into the air, and finally laid with cement in their exact places.
The artificial reef has cost a million of money; the Pyramid must have
required an amount of labour represented at present by perhaps twenty
times that sum, a building without use or beauty, while the reef has
made Plymouth one of the best harbours in the whole world.
Maker measures 1867 statute acres. If the artificial arrangement
were attended to, 967 acres must be deducted.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815, including
the part returned as in Devonshire
under the name of Vaultershome 3465 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 821 16 0
Population, in 1801, in 1811, in 1821, in 1831,
Cornwall 1691 3678 1796 1545
Devon 1614 1569 1222 1092
―――― ―――― ―――― ――――
3305 5247 3018 2637
The fluctuations in the number of people are evidently caused by the
difference of war and peace, in a parish so much blended with the
great naval and military establishments of Plymouth.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Daniel Stephens, presented by the Lord
Chancellor in 1796.