San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-11-13
OLD PLYMOUTH.
A Quaint English Town Sketched
by an American Visitor.
The Port from Which Sailed Some of
the Earlier Navigators - Some of
the Odd Features Of the
Anticipated Burg.

remind one of the streets in some OF
the old italian cities. The architecture
of the whole town is peculiar, inasmuch
as it includes all the styles known to
Europe. On the top of the hill are the,
handsomest buildings, and there the
streets are broad. As 1 turned into
Union street on my first visit to the
town, found myself amid throng so
busy as to remind me of Broadway.
But there was this difference, the move
ment of the stream of people was not
so swift as on Broadway. Nor is it on
any English thoroughfare that have
visited. In Plymouth New Yorker or
Bostonian must slaclken his new-world
pace in order to study the Plymouth
ians. He will then find that these slow
and sturdy walkers are healthy, big and
rosy, and that they give the impression
of people well fed, prosperous and
self-satisfied. Their foreheads look less
anxious than those he recalls on his
own streets. They seemed to me quaint
and not at all American. felt that 1
was in a foreign land. The language
that / heard about me was our own, but
still it seemed to my ears to be spoken
in a cultural and peculiar way. The
women that / saw bore little resemb-
lance to my own country-women, eX-
cept in the brilliancy of their complex
ions. The beauties of Devon are ia
miliar in England, and on the streets
and in the lanes about Plymouth one
sees handsome, strapping women, gem
orally with dark hair and eyes, and with
the Du Maurier profile. They are gen.
orally dressed rather oddly, and they
move with less grace than strength.
The men on the street are decidedly
good looking. 1t seemed to me that u
cheerful disregard of taste in dress pre-
vailed among them. Gaudy plaids of a
huge pattern, curry-colored homespuns
and yellow cloths made blotches in the
scene. Staid old gentlemen who ought
to have known better wore hairy little
cricket caps of bright colors. But, in
spite of their dress, the men had in gen.
eral personality that was impressive.
They looked like proud men-a product
of the keen air and commanding
heights of their native city. From these
heights they look out over the sea
which their fathers became masters of.
From this port Hawkins and Gilbert
sailed; Drake started from here on the
first voyage ever made around the
earth, and it was here that the English
feet lay in wait for the Spanish Arma-
Il Tho Iacnan1onfc ~ CtIrb ha w
right to be proud.
The shops of Plymouth are small and
poor, as all the people who are able to
buy what they need in London. The
shop keepers are very polite, even OPP
pressively so. There are many old
shops in the odd hooks and quaint old
courts of Plymouth. To an American
these time-worn corners in this old
world town possess a novelty in their
very age, a charm in their tradition.
The people in them seem so ancient in
their modes of speech and their ideas,
and yet so attractive by their SIM
plicity. l ran across a quaint tavern,
an enticing place, called the Rose and
Crown. sid TO be three hundred years
old A glass of musty ale has a greater
flavor in such place than elsewhere,
and it was pleasant to sit and hear the
ale-wife vaunt the quality of her brew.
The quantity of ale that is drunk in
Plymouth is prodigious. 1t seemed to
me that everybody drank ale at all
hours of the day. The place is also fa-
nous for the manufacture of gin, much
of which is exported, particularly to
America. The barmaids of Plymouth
are respectable and polite, and their
tidy and attractive presence imparts
decency to drinking place which is
sadly missed in our American bar
rooms.
Fogs and winds and rains have their
home here, but everybody wears a
macintosh and carries an umbrella
and goes about Just the same. The
air is evidently healthy, and it breeds
a good appetite for the delicious NUT
ton chops that are to be had in the coy
grill rooms of the town. The Ply
mouthians are fond of good things to
eat and drink, and plenty of both are
necessary to withstand the damp and
cold of their climate. They are also
fond of their leisure, and on Wednes-
day and Saturday afternoons all the
shops are closed and the town adjourns
to the fields or to the water for enjoy
ment.
The large number of tap rooms is
noticeable in Plymouth, and in the
slums of the town it is not uncommon
to see men, and sometimes women.
under the influence of the gin which is
so cheaply produced there. The poor
quarters OF the town seem to me to oc-
cupy larger area than in one of our
New England small cities The aver