idian, and his words are clear and concise: 'The
Castelle of _Totnes_ standith on the hille North West of the Towne. The
Castell waulis and the stronge Dungeon be maintained. The Loggingis of
the Castelle be clene in Ruine.'

The early chroniclers go back gloriously into the dim mists of antiquity
for the origin of Totnes, and when no carping critics insisted on
analyzing popular history and distilling all the romance out of it, the
story of the town was very fine indeed. The founder of Totnes, then, was
Brutus of Troy, who after long wanderings arrived in this charming bit
of country, and on this hill made the great announcement:

'Here I stand, and here I rest,
And this place shall be called Totnes.'

Moreover, the stone that he stepped ashore upon is still here, and the
Mayor stands on it whenever it is his duty to proclaim a new Sovereign.

The claims of Totnes have been set forth with no undue modesty. 'It hath
flourished, and felt also the storms of affliction, under Britons,
Romans, Saxons, and Normans. To speak somewhat of the antiquity thereof,
I hope I shall take no great pains to prove it (and that without
opposition) the prime town of Great Britain.' Its history is taken in
grand strides. Having explained that the coming of Brutus was held by
some to be contemporary with the rule of Eli as high-priest in Israel,
the writer continues: 'The first conqueror Brutus gave this town and the
two provinces, Devon and Cornwall, then but one, to his cousin and great
assistant, Corinoeus, as is well known; whereof the western part is
(as they say) called Cornwall; who peopled it with his own regiment; and
being an excellent wrestler, as you have heard, trained his following in
the same exercises; whereof it comes that the western men in that sport
win the mastery and game wheresoever they come.... The second conqueror,
William of Normandy, bestowed this town, together with Dartmouth and
Barnstaple, on a worthy man named Judaeel.'

The space of time between the first and second 'conquerors' does not
seem to strike the historian as a rather wide gap, and the doings of the
one and the other are related with almost equal confidence and with the
same air of authority.

Judhael de Totnes is supposed to have built the castle, and although
only the walls of the round keep now remain, the trouble of the long
climb up to it is well repaid by the lovely view that is gained from the
ruin. Fertility and abundance seem