The yearly rent of this borough, payable to the Duke of Cornwall, is in Doddridge’s History of that Duchy, p. 108, set down at £11. 19s. 10½d.
The town is situated between hills. Boats of ten and twenty tons come up hither. Here are about 70 houses; and the manor is in the duchy.
THE EDITOR.
Lestwithiel evidently owes its locality to that which determined in early times the site of all towns placed on the banks of navigable rivers. They were universally built on the highest point to which vessels or boats frequenting the estuary were capable of being carried by the tide.
Richard Plantagenet might well have been captivated by the beauties of this place and of the surrounding country, by its central situation, and by the commanding eminence of Restormal. Here the last of our real feudal princes, whether he originally built or only enlarged the castle, fixed his court, and collected those revenues with which he is said to have bought from the venal electors of Germany, the titular office of King of the Romans; conveying, however, the legal right of succession to the throne of his grandfather the Emperor Henry the Fifth.
Nummus ait pro me, nubit Cornubia Romæ.
Carew, 204, Lord Dunstanville’s edit.
To Richard King of the Romans Lestwithiel is indebted for the remains of the palace or stannary buildings, and for its privileges.
The palace, if it was ever the residence of a Prince, has long since been converted into a prison, with apartments for occasionally holding the Stannary Courts.
Various charters have been granted to this town. The last was given in the reign of King George the Second, by which seven permanent Aldermen annually chose, for one