where one is accustomed to look for doorposts--is
highly satisfactory and pleasing from the artist's point of view.

Steep hills and zigzag roads, at every alarming angle of declivity,
intercept the labyrinth of houses, which stand on each other's heads, or
peep over each other's shoulders, and settle down on the ledges of the
river bank.

[Illustration: POLRUAN]

As the principal Cornish seaport, the town sent Edward III no less than
forty-seven ships and 770 mariners for the Calais expedition--a quota
exceeded only by the eastern port of Yarmouth. Leland tells us that the
place rose rapidly into importance "partely by feates of warre, partely
by pyracie; and so waxing riche felle all to marchaundize, so that the
towne was hauntid with shippes of diverse nations, and their shippes
went to all nations". When the Cinque Ports of Rye and Winchelsea
threatened to oust Fowey from its position as the premier Channel port,
the Cornishmen defeated the mariners of Kent in a desperate sea fight,
when they quartered the arms of the Cinque Ports on their own scutcheon,
and assumed the title of "Fowey Gallaunts". They then made war on their
own account against the French, and became little better than pirates
ready to attack the ships of their own and every country, in port or on
the high seas. They became such a thorn in the side of the king, Edward
IV, by reason of their continuing to capture French ships after peace
had been concluded, that the angry monarch caused them to be enticed to
Lostwithiel, where their ringleaders were taken and hanged. From this
period Fowey's maritime position began to decline. The inhabitants were
compelled to pay a heavy fine, and the whole of their shipping was
handed over to the port of Dartmouth.

Carew tells us that sixty ships belonged to Fowey at that period. The
twin forts of Fowey were erected in the reign of Edward IV to protect
the roadstead from the ravages of the French. Standing something like
those below Dartmouth, on each side of the water, a thick boom or chain
stretched across the mouth of the river would be sufficient protection
against vessels propelled by sails. The last gallant action performed
by these forts was in 1666, when they were assisted by the then almost
new fort of St. Catherine. A Dutch fleet of eighty sail of the line was
off the town in the hope of capturing an English fleet bound for
Virginia, which had put into Fowey for shelter. A Dutch frigate of 74
guns at