DARTMOUTH: THE “BRITANNIA” AND “HINDOSTAN,” AND THE NEW NAVAL COLLEGE.
FOSS STREET AND ST. SAVIOUR’S.
The parish church of Dartmouth, oddly enough, is neither St. Saviour’s in the town, nor St. Petrox at the castle, but St. Clement’s at Townstal, on the hilltop, quite a mile distant. Many of the very old and very fine fifteenth and sixteenth century overhanging and gabled houses have in modern times been destroyed, some by fire and some in wanton “improvements”; but Foss Street, looking along to St. Saviour’s, shows what old Dartmouth was like. There are found ancient houses with windows bracketed out upon strikingly artistic Renaissance carvings of lions and unicorns; but the houses in that street are decrepit, and the Butter Walk undoubtedly shows the best preserved old architecture. When we consider that Dartmouth was once, as a whole, like this, it will sadly be realised how grievous the change.
THE BUTTER WALK, DARTMOUTH.
Dartmouth to-day is still a very busy place, and full of slummy little alleys, and extraordinarily swarming with children. Amid all this crowding and bustle of business there are always plenty of loafers to lean over breast-high walls, contemplating the picturesque scene, where houses crowd and cling to the very water’s edge, and old, half-forgotten waterside towers stand, silent reminders of a bygone need for watchfulness. At Bayard’s Cove in especial, the coal-lumpers, the boatmen, and the generally idle sit on the quay walls in the sun, or lean against them, keeping them up. The coal-lumpers work perhaps sixteen or twenty hours at a stretch, coaling the steamers that come into port, and then want no more work for a month. They laze away the days, run up a score at the nearest pub, and groan if by chance they see another job coming round the corner.