Booth’s diaries

“In the Road and about midway to the Advance is a quarry of durable stone, very near resembling that of Portland, exceedingly good for making platforms for cannon or mortars and very proper in buildings that may require some ornament made to them, as it is free working stone. At the foot of this quarry the Sea by its continual force wash’d away great part of the Rock underneath and formed an inlet large enough to receive 2 or 3 boats at a time , into which the stone ready dredged is let down by a wheel through a natural cavity in the Rock from the top which is between 70 and 80 feet high, this is a great conveniency for the transporting it to the town by water, which otherwise must be very expensive, as the road from hence is rocky & Sandy besides too miles distance.

Europa Advance is at present a Sergeant’s Guard with a circular wall towards the Sea. Several Rock which assisted the getting up, have been blown in front of it and new Guard Houses built for Officers and men, with two Guns mounted, the whole made in the Year 1733, it had formerly been a part where fishermen used to Resort and had made a custom of going down there, but at present ‘tis extreme difficult to undertake being above 100 feet high from the Sea almost a precipice and no possibility of troops landing there.

From the Sergeant’s advance, is a very steep Road that leads to Upper Europa thro’ a broken passage called the Hole in the Wall, ‘tis the remains of a Moorish line built then to prevent any incursions into the Town, from those who might land in this part. This wall is in the best condition of any of those built by the Moors, there are some pieces of the building still remaining. This Upper Europa is tolerably level but exceeding rocky; on the S W of it is seen the remains of a circular building with several arche’d collars round it, two of them are almost entire the rest can only be traced by the foundations. It has had a superstructure above it but no remains left, the English have given it the name of the Inquisition, but for what reason ‘tis not known. There are also the walls designed for two Corn Mills, but the Easterly winds are so violent in this part that it is supposed the event not answer.”